Myfanwy Davies is interested in the interaction of language, gender and power in the accounts of women and minorities as users of welfare services and in illness and disability narratives. She read English Language and Literature at Oriel College, Oxford and went on to read Social Anthropology at Girton College, Cambridge. She pursued an interest in information exchange by studying for a further MSc in Information Management, in the course of which she produced her first papers on Somali women’s accounts of using maternity services in Sheffield. Her PhD (London) focuses on the accounts of Arab Muslim women as users of maternity services in London in the period immediately following 9/11.

Myfanwy returned to Wales in 2005 as a researcher in health policy and joined Bangor in 2011 as a lecturer with the Coleg Cenedlaethol. Having successfully introduced a range of teaching and learning improvements and QA processes as Moderator for Bangor’s provision in Tashkent and served as Deputy dean (Teaching and learning) for the College of Business, Law, Education and Social Sciences, she was appointed Head of Quality Assurance and Validation at Bangor in late 2018. She is currently involved in introducing a risk-based approach to programme approval. She remains research active. Her current, personal research focuses on mothers’ experiences of being the subject of social policy interventions.

 

School of History, Philosophy and Social Sciences/QAV Unit.

01248 382140

@DrMyfanwyDavies

My teaching traces processes and practices of policy formation within a devolved UK with a particular emphasis of health in Wales. It also draws on multi-disciplinary perspectives to understand the experience of addiction (to substances or behaviours) for individuals and to enable students to critically engage with what it means to recover from addiction.

Llywodraethiant: Iechyd a Lles

My innovative module on Governance in Health and Welfare was introduced in 2016. It examines policy and practice by focusing on key concepts such as responsibility, civil society, the “hollowing out of the state”, partnership, public participation, the valorization of ‘active citizenship’ and the use of targets and incentives to drive practitioner behaviour.

The Addicted Body/Y Corff Caeth – co-authored with Dr. Paul Carre

Using contemporary theories of the Body including phenomenology and governmentality, this module examines a range of addictions. It considers both the experience of embodiment and the symbolic role of the body in society as a means to discuss the emergence and experience of conditions as diverse as drug and alcohol addiction, anorexia, web addiction and sex addiction. It also introduces the biomedical and biopsychosocial understandings of addiction and recovery and uses Boudieusian theory and ethnographic methods to understand to cultural and social context of addictive behaviour and the living conditions that are, in part, created by the drug business and the policy interventions it attracts it within specific localities.

 

Dissertation (3rd year)Module Coordinator

 

All undergraduates within the School of Social Science currently prepare a dissertation during years 2 and 3. While all students are matched with a supervisor who will meet with them regularly to offer advice and feedback, the choice of subject is open and students are expected to develop their work largely independently. As module coordinator for the Welsh medium dissertation module I prepare a series of workshops that seek to teach students to carry out independent research. These include teaching on forming and developing a research question, collecting and analysing data together with advice on preparing the final draft.

PhD Supervisions

My current supervisions include an ethnographic study of disability and work within a family network (Williams), a biographical study of carers’ identity and concepts of person-centredness, the experiences of Welsh-speaking stroke patients in terms of treatment and support (ap Gruffydd) and the cultural context of popular music choices in two generations in Gwynedd (ap Rhisiart).  

I have a long-term interest in the cultural and social context of decision making in Health and Social care that dates back to my Masters’ dissertation on Somali women and maternity services (see publication list). More recently I have used a Bourdieusian framework to understand choices such as vaccination and sexual health decision making (see also supervisions).  I am currently interested in the experience of ‘living policy’ among those who are subject to such as welfare recipients, young mothers and mothers as healthcare and childcare decision makers (see current research projects). I also contribute to collaborative work that assesses how Governments position themselves in relation to concepts such individual and collective responsibility, equality, rights and ‘value for money’ through the discourse analysis of key policy documents. 

I am interested in developing PhD proposals in a range of fields relating to the Sociology of Health and Illness and Health and Social Care policy. I have a particular interest in using a Bourdieusian framework to understand these choices for example in relation to childcare choices, vaccination or sexual health decision making across the social spectrum. I am increasingly interested in examining the experience of living 'with policy' in terms of experiences of participation in interventions (obligatory or otherwise) among participants and in relation to welfare receipt and 'entitlement' and changing attitudes to work, disability and parenting.

2025

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2022

  • Swings, Roundabouts and Slides: TNE in the 21st Century

    International partnerships and particularly transnational education offer enormous opportunities for HE. This online seminar will identify the main strategic risks and opportunities of expansion into new markets and will illustrate successful strategies for extracting added value from existing partnerships.

    PROGRAMMME

    10.00 Welcome and introduction on behalf of CVU

    Dr. Myfanwy Davies, Bangor University

    10.05 What works? Global experience of successful partnerships

    Dr. Nishat Riaz: Global Head of Higher Education Systems and Internationalization, British Council

    10.30 Bringing added value to the partnership – research, pedagogy and learning from your partners.

    Prof Martin Snowden: Educational Consultant Formerly Pro Vice-Chancellor, Faculty of Engineering and Science, University of Greenwich

    11.00 BREAK

    11-15 Creating an international culture and a sense of community across the University

    Prof Liz Warren Head of International, Faculty of Business and Law, Manchester Metropolitan University

    11-35 Reputational risk, the challenge of student outcomes and cultural-institutional difference

    Dr. Helen Driscoll, Academic Director for Educational Partnerships, University of Sunderland

    12.05 Opportunities and challenges in TNE: reviewer perspectives from the QAA scheme and the EFMD (European Foundation for Management Development) scheme.

    Prof. Janice Allan, Dean of Salford Business School &

    Prof. Vish Maheshwari: Associate Dean Academic, Salford Business School

    12.25 Q&A Panel Session.

    12.45 – 1.00 Close

    9 Jun 2022

    Activity: Participation in Academic workshop, seminar, course (Speaker)
  • The future of enhancement in partnerships: ways forward from across the UK.

    Expectations on Higher Education providers to monitor their enhancement and compliance activities are diverging across the UK with major implications for the management of partnerships. The Office for Students has consulted on minimum standards and proposes new quality definitions to replace the UK Quality Code. No such changes will be mandatory in Scotland and Wales where it is likely that institutions will continue to work to a more wide-ranging enhancement approach.

    Speakers from across the UK will outline models for monitoring enhancement within and across partnerships and provide expect perspectives on the future of enhancement. They will also consider implications for a single UK-HE brand in transnational education.

    2pm Chair’s Welcome and Overview Dr. Myfanwy Davies, Bangor University

    2.05 pm

    Prof Michael Young, DVC University of Sunderland

    Academic quality enhancement in TNE – present and future

    The University of Sunderland has for many years successfully used adaptable franchise models for TNE, involving close cooperation between on-campus and partner-based academics and an overall approach closely aligned to the QAA Quality Code. This talk will explore how these existing approaches to quality monitoring, support and partner engagement are being rethought in response to radical changes proposed by the English regulator, the Office for Students.

    2.30 pm

    Prof Oliver Turnbull, DVC Bangor University

    Learning from our mistakes: an enhancement approach from Wales

    Setting up and maintaining partnerships is a complex and challenging exercise. This talk offers five pieces of hard-won advice, with particular reference to the Welsh sector and TNE. We’ve made the mistakes, so you don’t have to! The suggestions reflect some advice about: setting up good systems at the initial phases; assigning manageable tasks to responsible people; building in good governance; taking advantage of what might be described as ‘Celtic’ approaches to regulation; and finally, the advantages of Celtic approaches to quality enhancement. Partnerships can be a difficult to set up and maintain, but can also be rewarding, and the talk ends with a brief list of the positives, for both staff and students.

    2.55 pm

    Dr. Margaret King, Head of Academic Quality, Herriot-Watt University

    Multi-Mode Partnerships in a Multi-Location, Multi-Mode Institution: The Challenges of Enhancement”.

    3.20 Break

    3.25 pm

    Dr. Elizabeth Gormley-Fleming, Associate Director Academic Quality Assurance and

    Dr. Jo Cahill, Deputy Associate Dean - Quality Assurance and Enhancement, e, University of Hertfordshire.

    “Transnational Education in Egypt: a case study examining how quality is ensured at institutional and programme level in a new and rapidly expanding partner during the Covid 19 Pandemic”

    3.45-4pm

    Q&A

    4 Mar 2022

    Activity: Participation in Academic workshop, seminar, course (Speaker)