Dr Rosalchen Whitecross

Personal statement

Dr Rosa Whitecross is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Bath Spa University and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). 

She is a narrative researcher and critical interdisciplinary scholar with a focus on women’s prison narratives. Her research critically examines incarceration through the lens of lived experience and creative practices, grounded in participatory arts-based methods and narrative inquiry.

From the perspective of art as social practice in working towards social justice, she situates narratives of lived experience as expertise and alternative ways of knowing. Her aim is to amplify marginalised voices, and contribute to debates on prison reform and alternatives to imprisonment.

Her monograph, Creative writing with women in prison: Narratives of haunting (2026) is published by Bristol University Press. 

Academic qualifications

• PhD – University of Sussex
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) – Higher Education Academy
• Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCHE)
• MSc Social Research Methods (Distinction) – University of Sussex
• MA Creative Writing (Novels) – City, University of London
• Admitted as Advocate of the High Court of South Africa
• LLB – University of Cape Town, South Africa
• B Juris – North-West University, South Africa

Professional memberships

• British Sociological Association (BSA)
• Lapidus International

Teaching subjects and areas of expertise

• Narrative research
• Participatory arts-based/creative research methods
• Create writing pedagogy
• Prison writing
• Punishment and pedagogy
• Critical criminology
• Cultural criminology
• Narrative criminology.

 Research supervision

• Narrative research
• Autoethnography
• Participatory arts-based/creative research methods
• Art and creative writing as a social practice
• Social justice and marginalised voices
• Critical criminology
• Cultural criminology
• Narrative criminology.