Bethany Rose Lamont
Education | Academic Positions | Editorial Work | Media Projects |
Curatorial Work | Charity Sector | Exhibitions |
Panels, Public Speaking and Outreach | Papers Presented |
Selected Essays and Articles | Selected Interviews and Roundtables |
Published Artwork | Book Reviews |
June 2020-present
Working under Teach First’s programme, I first completed a five week teacher training course from June to July in partnership with Bath Spa University, before spending the autumn term (September-October) teaching English full time at a Wiltshire secondary school, to students in Key Stages Three and Four in years 7, 8, 9 and 11. Here I was particularly proud of my work creating differentiated creative writing teaching resources which were used throughout the English department, and raising the achievement level for underperforming year 11 boys in my set 3 GCSE English class from an ‘Emerging’ (lowest grade), to a ‘Secure’ (second highest grade). My next placement commences in the new year, working as an Academic Mentor for English in a North Bristol Academy.
March 2020-present
Providing one on one tutorials, ranging from one to three hours in length, from Key Stage three up to undergraduate level. Tutorial subjects include GCSE English Literature revision, critical theory teaching and academic writing and study skills.
January 2020-present
Providing detailed feedback and editorial support on academic article submissions within the field of youth studies, visual culture and feminist media.
September 2019-March 2020 [activities suspended due to Covid]
Supervising and supporting creative activities and events at Creative Youth Network’s South Gloucestershire youth clubs, with a keen focus on pastoral care and child and young person safe guarding.
November 2015 – March 2019
Guest Lecturer, Central Saint Martins, London
I have served as a guest lecturer on three undergraduate interdisciplinary modules: ‘Censorship’ (first year students), ‘Curation’ (first year students) and ‘Pop Culture and the Fantastic’ (second and third year students) and one Mst. module, ‘Digital Humanities’ over the course of my three years as a PhD student, a position I have continued since completing my thesis.
Here I have developed custom one to two hour lectures, class discussions and accompanying reading lists, this was all achieved in close partnership with Central Saint Martin’s course leaders. Key experiences included supporting students via email and in person, assisting with recommended reading and class assignments to ensure they were confident and comfortable in their studies. Managing our, often lively, class discussions was an especially important skill set. Here I navigated potentially controversial and distressing themes such as trauma theory, mental illness, censorship and free speech to create an accessible space for intellectual engagement.
Lectures Given-
November 2015, ‘Open sourcing horror: Understanding Internet monsters, gross out videos and traumatic images’, Pop Culture and the Fantastic undergraduate module, Central Saint Martins
April 2016, ‘Moral Panic and Mental Health: Unsympathetic survivors and unwilling viewers’, Censorship undergraduate module, Central Saint Martins
November 2016, ‘Transferring Trauma: Collective Engagements in Digital Horror’, Pop Culture and the Fantastic undergraduate module, Central Saint Martins
November 2016, ‘Never ending libraries: Literature as Image in Digital Culture’, Digital Humanities Mst. Module, Central Saint Martins
April 2017, ‘The Campus in Crisis? Free Speech and the Far Right’, Censorship undergraduate module, Central Saint Martins
May 2017, ‘Mental Health in the Margins: A Celebration of Self Advocacy’, Curation undergraduate module, Central Saint Martins
November 2017, ‘The Otherworldly Online: Magic, Myths and Monsters in Digital Spaces’, Pop Culture and the Fantastic undergraduate module, Central Saint Martins
November 2017, ‘Never Ending Libraries: Literature-as-Image in Digital Culture’ (expanded and updated), Digital Humanities Mst. Module, Central Saint Martins
October 2016 – January 2017
Tutor, The Brilliant Club
As a tutor for the education access charity, The Brilliant Club, I created a custom university style course, comprised of five tutorials, homework assignments and a final essay assessment, given to two classes of six secondary school students in years eight and nine from a non-selective comprehensive school in an underperforming area. The course served as an introduction to media and screen studies, introducing subjects such as psychoanalysis and postcolonial theory which the students would not have been previously familiar with. Final projects by students included a reading of Tom Clancey’s Rainbow Six Siege through the lens of Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection and an analysis of the Harry Potter series through the Freudian notion of the Uncanny. The unique course was developed in partnership with the course teacher of Broadoak school and the Brilliant Club’s regional manager.
I was responsible for managing student behaviour, ensuring disability access was provided and encouraging shy and disengaged students to participate in class discussions. I was also in charge of setting and marking homework and the students’ final 1,500 word essay assignment. I provided one on one feedback for each student to develop their work and moderated essay submissions from another class to ensure grade consistency across the board. Managing the classes ‘Virtual Learning Environment’ was another key responsibility, here attendance was marked, homework was received and student’s questions were answered. Prior to beginning my placement, I attended a training weekend on pedagogy and university access, where I was introduced to marking criteria, the Virtual Learning Environment, teaching skills and barriers to higher education access.
October 2012 – July 2013
Junior Fellow of Visual Culture, University of the West of England, Bristol
As a Junior Fellow I was responsible for the day to day administration of the cross-disciplinary undergraduate course of Visual Culture. Here I managed student attendance, course hand ins, online resources and UWE’s virtual learning environment Blackboard. This was all undertaken under the close supervision of the course leaders, and frequent discussions were held in order to tailor the management of the course to student’s own specific needs, focussing particularly on students with low self-esteem.
I also supported the students in person via first year group tutorials, one to one drop in sessions and class presentations, providing course feedback, dissertation support and reading and research recommendations. This was undertaken with a particular awareness towards learning difficulty support for students with dyslexia and dyspraxia.
Teaching Qualifications-
2016, Developing Academic Practice, Central Saint Martins (module in Academic Practice Mst.)
May 2014 – present
Editor in Chief, Doll Hospital Journal
I serve as the editor in chief of Doll Hospital Journal, an art and literature print journal on the topic of mental health that I founded in 2014 as a student at Oxford University. Responsibilities have included appointing an editorial team, accountant, proof readers, social media team and a staff of writers and illustrators, reviewing and editing submissions, organising and managing deadlines for editorial content, raising income via crowdfunding, conducting interviews and roundtables, writing essays and each issue’s editor’s letter.
For each issue I collaborate with Doll Hospital’s graphic designer Maggie Webster to art direct the journal, creating custom spreads for each and every article. I am also responsible for undertaking interviews with internationally recognised publication such as Vice, Dazed and i-d, travelling across the country to give talks to promote and amplify the work of Doll Hospital, connecting with associated mental health charities and centres, both locally and internationally, to encourage cross-collaboration, and connecting with museums and galleries, both locally and internationally, in order to exhibit and archive the journal anthologies. I also co-run Doll Hospital’s Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram, promoting mental health education and community engagement.
Copies of Doll Hospital Journal are held in the Interference Archives, NYC, The Wellcome Collection, London, UK and Glenside Hospital Museum, Bristol, UK.
July 2015 – present
Co-creator, Sad Girl Cinema
As co-producer of Sad Girl Cinema, a feature length documentary on mental health representations in screen culture, set for release in 2021, I work in collaboration with the artist Claire Biddles, the film editor Jen Sykes and the designer Maggie Webster. I have co-written and co-edited the script, which evaluates and investigates reoccurring mental health tropes in screen culture, closely researching hundreds of popular television and films in the American popular culture canon in the process. To expand outreach and embrace the multiplicity of audience engagement I commissioned three first person perspective chapters on mental health screen representation, editing and developing each script in collaboration with the author in question. Other responsibilities include managing the documentary’s social media presence on Twitter and Tumblr and undertaking interviews, screenings and events to promote the project.
February 2015 – July 2015
Archivist and Social Media Assistant, Glenside Hospital Museum
Within Glenside Hospital Museum my responsibilities included: conducting and transcribing interviews, editing publications and writing blog posts, developing, organising and maintaining the library, assisting with the September 2015 Open Doors shows, creating and maintaining an online digital image archive of the mental health resources and historical sources available at the library, curating online content via tumblr and Pinterest and fostering connections with neighbouring museums.
November 2010- May 2012
Archivist, Oral History Department, The British Library, London
As an archivist I managed the long form meta data archives of the British Library’s vast oral history collection. I independently worked on an archival project on Monica Pidgeon, the first woman editor of ‘Architectural Design’, providing a key contribution to the women’s history of architecture in oral history. Another important achievement was undertaking a six-month project cataloguing and summarising the complete works of BBC radio producer Judith Bumpus, featuring exclusive recordings of writers and artists such as Lucian Freud and Aldous Huxley.
I was also responsible for maintaining the accuracy of archival resources via independent research and writing blog posts and articles to encourage visitors to access the British Library’s Oral History archives.
July 2014 – August 2014
Events Assistant, Unchosen, Eastville Bristol
Working as an events assistant at Unchosen, a British charity that seeks to educate the British public on modern slavery through short film, I designed and developed promotional material, story boards, infographics and information packs for the charity. I was also responsible for liaising with press, media companies, film festivals and associated charities and assisting with funding grant applications and film festival submissions.
- June 2012, ‘Don’t Take Me Too Lightly!’ Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London, U.K (artist and co-curator)
- July 2012, ‘Rookie, Urban Outfitters and The Ardorous Presents: Strange Magic’ Space 15 Twenty, Los Angeles, U.S.A. (artist)
- September 2012, solo show, ‘Ancient Child: Bethany Lamont’, Philadelphia Street Gallery, Bristol
- February 2013, ‘Girls Get Busy: In Colour!’, @rt b@aby g@llery, 16th Feb-16th March, 2013 (artist)
- April 2015, ‘Hidden Visions’, Chelsea Gallery, London (artist)
- September 2015, ‘Glenside Hospital Museum: Open Doors Show’ (artist)
- September 2016, ‘We Are What We Archive’, Interference Archive, Brooklyn, NYC (artist)
- October 2016, ‘Visual Activism’, NEFELE festival, Bouzianis Museum, Athens, Greece (artist)
- August 2017, ‘Sick! Living with Invisible Illness’ Sun Pier House, Kent, UK
Invited Presentations-
November 2014, ‘Women and Mental Health Panel’, Feminism in Theory and Action, Wadham College, Oxford University
August 2016, ‘Beyond the Bell Jar: A Mental Health Writing Workshop’, Bombay Literary Review World Tour, Waterstones, Cheltenham
December 2016, ‘Doll Hospital Journal: An Introduction’, Mentality, Off the Record, Bristol
January 2017, ‘Is Mental Health Political? A Panel Discussion’, London College of Fashion
April 2017, ‘Typography and Trauma: Conversations on Doll Hospital Journal’, Writefest 2017, Texas, USA (via Skype)
September 2017, ‘Sad Girl Cinema: Screening, panel discussion and q +a’, Scottish Queer International Film Festival, Glasgow
July 2019, ‘Sad Girl Cinema: Screening, panel discussion and q +a’, Matchbox Cineclub, BFI Film Feels Season, Glasgow
February 2020, ‘Arab Blues: Screening and Introduction’, Dardishi Festival, Glasgow
November 2015, ‘Transferring Trauma: Understanding Internet Monsters in American Culture’, Cine-Excess Conference, Brighton University
June 2016, ‘How has the digital landscape shifted our attitudes towards childhood sexual abuse survivors?’ Writing, Gender and Self Conference, Bath Spa University
November 2016, ‘Misogyny and Memory: How has the figure of the survivor become ‘gendered’ in digital spaces?’ Cardiff University