About

My research interests include: writer development; widening access to the arts; writing for wellbeing; information access and inclusion; community engagement; radical and community histories; public libraries; spatial justice; city farms; counter-mapping; psychogeography; participatory research; and autoethnography. I studied Creative Writing at Bachelors level, and Library Science with Distinction at Masters level.

Professionally, I am Co-Founder, Project Manager & Editor at CityLife: Stories for Change – an intergenerational community engagement life writing research project that uncovers unheard stories of urban elders and young writers; Operations Manager at Poetry Translation Centre, and Writing Mentor at Arkbound Foundation. I am also a freelance editor, and a Trustee at Spread the Word writer development agency.

Previously Executive Assistant, Personal Assistant, Office Manager and Programming at various London-based literature organisations.

My full professional profile can be found on LinkedIn.

Education

I have an MSc with Distinction in Library Science from City, University of London. Recipient of the Catherine Hamilton Prize for Outstanding LIS Dissertation.

Prior to this, 2:1 graduate of UEL’s Creative & Professional Writing BA Hons degree 2011-2014; undertaking two internships and founding UEL PEN, a student-led subgroup of writers charity English PEN. I was the recipient of the Dean’s Prize for Outstanding Contribution to UEL and wider East London communities.



Other Publications

Dodd, S., and Bawden, D. (2023) ‘A Qualitative Narrative Exploration of the Value of Public Libraries in the United Kingdom,’ The Library Quarterly [upcoming]

Dodd, S., Maddison, S., Masserano, E., and McWatt, T. (2023) (eds.) Lockdown Stories. London: University of East Anglia and University of Brighton.

Masserano, E., Dodd, S., Maddison, S. & McWatt, T. (2021) ‘Stories of COVID-19: Social Pasts & Futures in the CityLife Project,’ The Sociological Observer, 3(1). Available at: https://www.sociology.ie/publications.html (Issue 3)

McWatt, T., Dodd, S. and Maddison, S. (2015) (eds.) EastLife: An Anthology of Life Writing. London: University of East London (PDF format, .epub format, .mobi format)



Blog Posts

    Upcoming Talks and Conferences

    ‘Stories Not Statistics: An Autoethnographical & Narrative Exploration of the Value of Public Libraries’ (abstract) at ASIS&T Untold Stories in Information Science #IST22 conference. Speaker, June 2022. (Download presentation)

    Stories, Communities, and Public Libraries to OLIve, University of East London. Guest Lecturer, April 2022. (Download presentation)

    Reimagining Voices and Identities in Uncertain Times: Social Transformation, Fragmentation and Post-Pandemic Futures conference, Sociological Association of Ireland. Co-contributor, March 2022. As part of CityLife.

    Futures of Creative Writing conference, ‘Community Voices’ roundtable, University of East Anglia. Speaker and co-contributor, May 2021. As part of CityLife.

    Sam Dodd

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