{"id":194,"date":"2020-11-26T21:17:20","date_gmt":"2020-11-26T21:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/acf\/?page_id=194"},"modified":"2020-11-26T21:20:30","modified_gmt":"2020-11-26T21:20:30","slug":"alice-bell","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/acf\/career-profiles\/ssg\/alice-bell\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor Alice Bell"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Photo<\/a>Tell us a bit about your career story so far.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I joined in 2007 as a lecturer after I\u2019d finished my doctorate at the University of Sheffield. I knew that coming in as a new lecturer I\u2019d be doing lots of teaching, but I always knew I wanted to combine that with research. I was given some time from my department for being an early career academic, which really helped me maintain some research early on.<\/p>\n

I published my first book in 2010, based on my doctoral work. I also got some research funding around this time from the Leverhulme Trust<\/a> and also from the British Academy, which really helped my career. Then, in 2014, I got a really big grant of \u00a3234,000 from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) which I think helped me get promoted to reader that same year.<\/p>\n

So, from 2014 I was Principal Investigator on this really big project. That was an exciting time for me but it\u2019s safe to say things didn\u2019t go completely smoothly. The research itself went well but I had to contend with lots of unexpected circumstances and it did take me out of my comfort zone. But it also made my career in many ways as it developed my research leadership and project management skills, allowed me to work with lots of great people and organisations, and led to some good publications, as well as an Impact Case Study for my department for REF 2021.<\/p>\n

Towards the end of the project, around 2017, I got a place on the ASPIRE mentoring scheme. That was another significant step for me because it was my mentor, Professor Peter Wells alongside my colleague Professor Chris Hopkins, who encouraged me to apply for professorship when I didn\u2019t realise I was at that level. I put my application in a few weeks before I went on maternity leave, but wasn\u2019t 100% confident I\u2019d be successful. I was actually on maternity leave when I found out I\u2019d been awarded my professorship.<\/p>\n

When I came back from maternity leave in 2018 I started working part-time, four days a week, so that I could change the balance of my work and family life. At first it was hard to adjust my own expectations about how much I could take on. But I can say, hand on heart, I\u2019ve always been strict about my life\/work balance, protecting my time and not working when it\u2019s meant to be non-work time. That\u2019s not to say I don\u2019t work hard or that it\u2019s easy to maintain the division, but you have to try to keep that balance.<\/p>\n

What does it mean personally to you to be a professor at Sheffield Hallam? What do you value about it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I always had in my mind that one day I\u2019d be a professor, although I didn\u2019t imagine I\u2019d achieve professorship at this stage. I thought it might happen much further on in my career.<\/p>\n

Being a professor has allowed me to work on more research collaborations, and to do more research leadership and project management, all of which I enjoy. I\u2019ve always done some form of collaborative research and think it makes my work stronger.<\/p>\n

If you could go back in time and give yourself some career advice, what would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n