Mindy Ptolomey is an award winning researcher and teacher. She is currently an ESRC Postdoctoral Reseach Fellow in the School of Education, a resident of the Advanced Research Centre, and a member of the Glasgow Centre for Disability Research. 

Mindy is an expert in researching and teaching with marginalised learners in formal and non-formal educational contexts through devising creative, inclusive, and interdisciplinary approaches. Her work focuses on three intersecting areas:

- gender, disability, neurodivergence, and youth
- the experiences of marginalised learners in formal and non-formal educational contexts
- co-designing and facilitating creative arts-based and inclusive research practices and methods, research cultures, and knowledge exchange and impact activities


Mindy's research focuses on personal, insitutional and cultural transformation by facilitating the reimagining, remaking, and (re)theorising of experiences of educational exclusion. 

Mindy holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Glasgow, and previously worked as a Lecturer in Sociology at Glasgow Caledonian University. Prior to entering academia, Mindy worked as a community learning and development leader devising and leading non-formal educational projects to address social injustice in Scotland and internationally for over a decade. 

Get in touch with Mindy to discuss:

• Research and impact collaborations
• PGR co-supervision
• Workshops, events, and invited talks  

Disabled Girlhoods

• (Re)theoring disabled girlhoods through participatory, creative, and inclusive research with specific expertise in learning disabilities and neurodivergence (including ADHD and autism).
• The role of powerful institutions in shaping experiences of exclusion, identity formation, and relationships
• Co-designing creative resources for knowledge exchange and research impact with disabled girls and young women, policy makers, researchers, and activists.

The experiences of marginalised learners in educational contexts

• Experiences of exclusion.
• Devising and facilitating culturally responsive methods to explore experiences.
• (Re)imagining, (re)making, and (re)theorising educational pasts, presents, and futures.

Co-designing creative and inclusive research practices, research cultures, and research impact

• Innovating research practices and cultures that centre creativity, inclusion, and care.
• Developing resources for excellence in the inclusion of lived experience in research.
• Wayfinding autotheoretical approaches in interdisciplinary research.

Research groups:

• Glasgow Centre for Disability Research

List by: Type | Date

2024                ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship £117,646

[PI] Transforming Disabled Girlhoods: Addressing Educational Inequalities Through Creative and Inclusive Practice, Policy, and Research.

2024                British Academy Early Career Seed Fund £3430

[PI] Establishing a research agenda with neurodivergent girls and young women in Scotland through partnership development and arts-based approaches. With Dr Anna Bochorishvili (Co-I) Dr Lisa Bradley (mentor) and community partners

2023                AHRC Network Grant £44,894

[Named network member] Crafting a pathway towards situated, relational and reparative literacies practices. With Dr Lisa Bradley (PI), Professor Lisa Grocott (Co-I) with academic and community partners from UK, Australia, New Zealand, North America, Colombia and Malawi.

2022               University of Glasgow School of Education Publications Fund £5000

[Co-I] The Social World of the University: Student belongings and becomings in (post)pandemic times. With Professor Barbara Read (Co-PI) and Dr Lisa Bradley (Co-PI).

2022                University of Glasgow School of Education Small Projects Fund £4904

[Co-I] Quilting: For making anticolonial futures With Dr Lisa Bradley, Dr Srabani Maitra, and Dr Julie McAdam.

2021                 University of Glasgow Sociology Small Grants and SCCJR Development Fund £2342

[Co-PI] Researchers Don’t Cry?! With Dr Lisa Bradley Dr Nughmana Mirza. 

2021                 UK Literacies Association Small Grant £2697

[Co-I] Exploring Print Picturebooks In Online Spaces with Dr Soumi Dey [PI] Dr Elizabeth Nelson [Co-I]

2020                 University of Glasgow Postgraduate Experience Fund £100

[Co-I] Funding for seminar and workshop with Professor Angela McRobbie, Goldsmiths, University of London. With Donna MacLellan.

2019                 University of Glasgow Sociology small grants scheme £650

[Co-I] Pilot study Working with Girls and Young Women in Community Settings. With Dr Susan Batchelor and Dr Hannah Walters.

2019                 BSA Postgraduate forum £1000

[PI] Funding for ‘Towards a Feminist Theory of Girlhood’ conference. With Dr Hannah Walters.

2018                 ESRC Festival of Social Sciences Grant £830 

[PI] Funding for zine-making workshop with young women. With Dr Hannah Walters.

2018                 University of Glasgow MacFie bequest and Sociology Small Grants £500

[PI] ‘Young Women and Girls in Contemporary Scotland and Beyond’ conference. With Donna MacLellan and Dr Hannah Walters.

2018                 Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research £700

[PI] Funding for ‘Young Women and Girls in Contemporary Scotland and Beyond’ conference. With Donna MacLellan and Dr Hannah Walters.

2018                 University of Glasgow School of Education, Centre for Research and Development in Adult and Lifelong Learning £700

[PI] Funding for ‘Young Women and Girls in Contemporary Scotland and Beyond’ conference with Donna MacLellan and Dr Hannah Walters.

2015-2018        Fryshuset (NGO) £122,577

[Co-I] IC Sverige Phases 1 and 2 with Dr Eolene Boyd- MacMillan [PI], University of Cambridge.

2018                 People’s Postcode Trust £15,000 

CREATE Project.

2017                 Inverclyde Health and Social Care Partnership. Circa £40,000 per annum. 

Ongoing contract for New Scots befriending and social support project.

2015                 Scottish Government Self-Management fund, administrated by ALLIANCE Scotland. £13,000

Autism Self-Management project. 

2012-2017        Scottish Government Community Safety Unit £194,370

Gie’s Peace project. 

Teaching Awards

- 2024 Winner Super Support (Teaching). Glasgow Caledonian University Student Teaching Awards
- 2024 Finalist Inspirational Individual. Glasgow Caledonian University Student Teaching Awards
- 2024 Finalist Terrific Teaching Glasgow Caledonian University Student Teaching Awards

 Teaching Experience

Mindy has extensive experience in all aspects of designing and delivering teaching across formal and non-formal educational contexts including module leadership and administration, programme and curriculum design, and enhancing assessment.

Mindy has specific expertise in inclusive and creative and care-centred pedagogies and anticolonial practice.

Prizes, awards & distinctions

• 2024: Illinois Qualitative Dissertation Award for Excellence in Qualitative Research (The International Institute for Qualitative Inquiry)

Research fellowships

• 2024: ESRC Post-doctoral Fellowship

Editorial boards

• 2024: Journal of Creative Methods

Professional & learned societies

• 2021: Executive Member, Gender and Education Association