Dr Craig Hammond

  • A group of around 50 people stood on a staircase wearing formal black tie and ballgowns at an awards ceremony, Craig is stood on the back row far left
  • Craig is stood under the British Royal Coat of Arms in the Moot Room holding a book that he has written

Dr Craig Hammond is a Reader in Pedagogies and Critical Theory with our School of Education, and in 2022 was recognised for his outstanding impact on student outcomes and the teaching profession in higher education, with a National Teaching Fellowship.

As a self-described non-traditional entrant to higher education, Dr Hammond left school aged 16 with very few qualifications and embarked upon a short career in the Army before returning to his hometown of Blackburn where he started work as a weaver.

“The work was arduous, physical, and isolating, and after several years in this role, I started to experience a deepening sense that something was missing; that I maybe had the potential to achieve more than I had been led to believe,” explained Dr Hammond.

In 1994 he enrolled in an Open University foundation course before studying at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) where a chance conversation introduced him to the work of German philosopher Ernst Bloch. After studying his work, The Principle of Hope, Dr Hammond felt that his history and disappointments began to align with his culture-infused hopes and daydreams, eventually leading him to become a further education and then higher education lecturer, before developing his own unique teaching practice in the form of utopian pedagogy. He joined LJMU’s School of Education in February 2017.

Alongside his role as at LJMU, Dr Hammond is a managing editor for the education journal PRISM, and Co-Director of LJMU’s Centre for Educational Research (CERES).

“It is even more meaningful being recognised in this way against the backdrop of my working-class childhood and youth. For me, the award is very much a celebration of the distance that I have travelled from a very different and challenging start in life. The award is also testament to the amazing students that I have had the privilege of working with – and continue to work with – at LJMU.”

– Dr Craig Hammond on receiving a National Teaching Fellowship Award

Advance HE’s National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) celebrates and recognises individual excellence that enhances and transforms both student outcomes and the wider teaching profession. It also acknowledges how the individual supports colleagues and champions student learning beyond their immediate academic or professional role.

Dr Hammond was nominated for his creative approach to student engagement, using pedagogic practices to make his learning experiences anything but mundane. At the time he became the 14th National Teaching Fellow from LJMU (eight currently serving and six now retired) and one of only 54 people to be given a fellowship in the 2022 awards.

Speaking at the time Dr Hammond was given the award, Professor Phil Vickerman, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Student Experience, commented: “This is an outstanding achievement and a significant personal recognition for Craig. The challenging start in life Craig describes will resonate with many of the experiences of our own students, and I am sure will act as an inspiration for their own journeys through education.”