Dr
Rosalchen Whitecross
- Senior Lecturer in Criminology
- Email: r.whitecross@bathspa.ac.uk
- Telephone: +44 (0)1225 875492
- School: School of Sciences
- Campus: Newton Park
Personal statement
Dr Rosa Whitecross is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Bath Spa University. Rosa’s interdisciplinary research draws on the fields of cultural criminology, narrative and literary theory, and cultural studies to creatively explore and critically engage with women’s prison writing as narratives of lived experience. Particularly what it means for incarcerated women to write in prison on a personal level, but also in the wider social context, how their prison writing can provide a counter-narrative or understanding to the master narratives and cultural constructions of punishment.
Rosa uses creative writing workshops as research method to open up writing spaces for the women in prison to develop their own sustained writing practices. This flows from her research interests in creative writing pedagogy in the context of marginalised communities, alongside explorations of prison writing as cultural resources. Following her PhD research, she compiled and edited How Bleak is the Crow’s Nest – an anthology of women’s prison writing. Her doctoral research was funded by CHASE (the Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts South-East England).
She is also interested in how theories and processes of creativity together with reflection, reflexivity, collaboration and inclusivity, could be applied to teaching and supervising academic writing in disciplines such as Criminology. Rosa has been recognised as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). She is also a member of the international research network Women, Family, Crime and Justice (WFCJ), as well as the Narrative Criminology Research Network (University of Oslo).
Prior to commencing her PhD research, Rosa was part of a research team working on youth justice programmes in Cape Town, South Africa. Following the completion of this project, she worked as an Editor in legal publishing and the charity sector, both in South Africa and the UK.
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
- Punishment and penology
- Gender and punishment
- Prison writing
- Cultural criminology, critical and narrative criminology
- Creative writing pedagogy
- Narrative research
- Qualitative research
Research supervision
- Imprisonment
- Gender and punishment
- Participatory arts-based research methods
- Art and writing as a social practice
Research and academic outputs
How bleak is the crow’s nest
book
Whitecross, R, ed. (2021) How bleak is the crow’s nest. Muscaliet Press, Colchester. ISBN 9781912616107
“I am surprised they have allowed you in here to do this”: women’s prison writing as heterotopic space of narrative inclusion
article
Whitecross, R (2024) '“I am surprised they have allowed you in here to do this”: women’s prison writing as heterotopic space of narrative inclusion.' Applied Linguistics Review. ISSN 1868-6311
Reflections on 'A criminology of narrative fiction' by Rafe McGregor
article
Whitecross, R (2021) 'Reflections on 'A criminology of narrative fiction' by Rafe McGregor.' Journal of Theoretical & Philosophical Criminology, 13. pp. 136-147. ISSN 2166-8094
Thinking back through their mothers – when women in prison write, weaving a narrative shape to the disrupted self
conference_item
Whitecross, R (2023) Thinking back through their mothers – when women in prison write, weaving a narrative shape to the disrupted self. In: Women Families Crime and Justice Network (WFCJ) Seminar Series, 19 July 2023, online.
Of narrative neglect and the most forgotten of writers – towards publishing an anthology of women’s prison writing
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Whitecross, R (2023) Of narrative neglect and the most forgotten of writers – towards publishing an anthology of women’s prison writing. In: Narrative Matters 2023 - Instrumental Narratives: Narrative Studies and the Storytelling Boom, 15 - 17 June 2023, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland.
In conversation with the empty shelves of time: on publishing an anthology of women’s prison writing
conference_item
Whitecross, R (2022) In conversation with the empty shelves of time: on publishing an anthology of women’s prison writing. In: British Sociological Association Virtual Annual Conference: Building Equality and Justice Now, 20 - 22 April 2022, [online].