Dr Kate Maguire

Biography

I have the pleasure of being Professor of Transdisciplinary Practice and Futures in the Faculty of Business and Law at Middlesex University London where, alongside my colleagues, I am engaged in working closely with experienced professional practitioner candidates on two transdisciplinary doctoral research degree programmes. We all work together, professionals and academics in dialogue, co creating and designing research that will widen the horizon of possibilities in rapidly changing complex environments. The benefits of this approach enhance individual practice and agency for all of us and ensures that what we do together is far more than what we can do if we are separated by sector classifications and hierarchies of knowledge. I am not a career academic but have visited academia many times.  I came into full time academia twelve years ago and found myself championing closer relationships between academia and professional practitioners.  We all bring variety to our encounters and mine include Middle East anthropology,  advising government and NGOs on conflict and refugees; trauma psychology working with MSF ( Doctors without Borders) setting up the first unit for the treatment of survivors of torture in the NHS and founder and director of a large counselling and psychotherapy not for profit in West London.  I also write on a range of issues from transdisciplinarity aligned to anthropology, to challenges in higher education, to psychological fiction. I am motivated in my writings by our striving for more equitable futures through imagination, openness to each other and to the infinite nature of possibilities.  

Teaching

We have two practitioner doctoral programmes: a 4/5 year one for primary research and a 2 year programme for high achieving professionals with significant and influential outputs in their portfolios looking to enhance their leadership  through engagement with academia. I participate in facilitating workshops on TD and Complexity topics for different cohorts on both our research programmes. I also supervise a wonderful range of professional practitioners including 2 Global CEOs,  2 Executive Coaches, 2 professionals in arts and creative industries, 1 international organisational development  consultant, 1 psychologist who is an organisational  complexity consultant, 2 founders of important social bodies . I work with colleagues to design and deliver supervision training programmes at university and programme level