Professor Lydia Bleasdale

Profile

I have been teaching at the School of Law (primarily in the areas of criminal law and criminal justice), since 2005. I am a graduate of the LLB Law programme at the University of Leeds, and of the University of Oxford’s MSC Criminology and Criminal Justice programme.

When I am not at work, I enjoy spending time with my husband, three children (age 11, 3 and 1) and boisterous border collie. I have held a season ticket for longer than is sensible at Everton’s Goodison Park, but don’t get to visit as much as I used to because of family commitments. 

Responsibilities

• Director of Community Engagement (study leave cover, semester two 2022-23)

Research interests

My primary research interests are student wellbeing, belonging, and clinical legal education. In 2021 I was promoted to Professor along the Student Education pathway: I am always keen to support colleagues at Leeds and elsewhere who are considering (or already on) the same career pathway. 

I co-convene two networks – Connecting Legal Education, and Advancing Wellness in Law – and am currently editing a book concerning student support within Law Schools (Edward Elgar, 2023). I have written extensively about student resilience, belonging and identity and most recently conducted a research project which examined the career experiences of those on student education-focused contracts within Higher Education through the prism of a leading theory of wellbeing (self-determination theory).

In 2016-17 I was awarded (alongside former colleague Sarah Humphreys) a year-long fellowship to the Leeds Institute for Teaching Excellence (LITE), examining undergraduate student resilience across six different disciplines at the University of Leeds. The findings resulted in a revised template for academic personal tutoring within the University of Leeds and influenced future LITE projects, as well as practice at other institutions. Following on from the project, I was invited to be a member of numerous University and LUU strategy groups and to be a member of the LITE Board. 

In April 2017 my paper ‘‘Contextualising Resilience Amongst Law Students,’ which drew upon the LITE research, was awarded the Stan Marsh Best Paper prize at the Association of Law Teachers Conference.

Qualifications

• LLB Law
• MSc Criminology and Criminal Justice

Professional memberships

• Association of Law Teachers
• Society of Legal Scholars

Student education

I primarily teach criminal law, including supervision of postgraduate and undergraduate dissertations in that area. 

In addition to my teaching and research commitments, I was the School of Law’s Director of Community Engagement for 11 years until 2021. I oversaw a range of opportunities through which the School engages with the local communities in and around Leeds, including the award-winning Welfare Rights project; a scheme assisting litigants in person; and public legal education projects (StreetLaw). All these projects provide students with the opportunity to work with clients, community partners and/or lawyers, at the same time as developing skills of use within a wide range of careers. I am covering this role in semester two of the 2022-23 academic year, while Dr Bradshaw is on study leave.

In 2018 I won the national Oxford University Press Law Teacher of the Year Award and between 2019-21 I was a judge of the Award. 

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Innovation and Research in Legal Education