Dr Caroline Keenan

OVERVIEW 

I am an Associate Professor of Law and Legal Education. I absolutely love teaching law and working with students in an active way where we all contribute to the experience. This means that the work that I do tries to recognise that there is no one typical student and I try and design learning that allows every learner to make the choices that work for them.   I specialise in ensuring that Criminal and Environmental Law are taught as living interdisciplinary subjects through role play and project work. I have worked in several law schools in Russell Group universities over the last twenty years and have won awards for my teaching, including Academic Fellowship of the Inner Temple. I have convened a range of modules, at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, from large core subjects to small specialist group teaching. I lead the LAB-C (Law and Business Cornwall) Education projects including school Taskmaster. I am part of Exeter Centre of Environmental Law  ExCEL, where I am involved in research on environmental education.  I am Academic Conduct Officer HaSS Cornwall (Law).

My research has always been inter-disciplinary, examining how people use and understand law in action. I have conducted research for the Home Office which contributed to major reform of the law on sexual offences and in procedures relating to the prosecution of offences against children. I wrote (with Laura Hoyano) Child Abuse: Law and Policy Across Boundaries, which won the first Inner Temple Book Prize for Outstanding Legal Research. Most recently (2014-2017) I have been a Senior Research Fellow in the Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Cornwall, researching human conflict relating to the environment. I have also practiced as a mediator, (from 2014-2018) specialising in family disputes. My research and practice now centres upon the supporting student learning at degree level, blending face-to-face and online environments. My current research projects include inclusive classrooms, supporting attendance, trauma informed higher education and legal education including public understanding of law.