Peripatetic pedagogical practices: Interdisciplinary walking and mobile methods in Higher Education

An interdisciplinary event exploring peripatetic practices in teaching in Higher Education through on-the-ground experiences. 

The day will include seven parallel walks or outings around Central London designed and facilitated by academics and teaching staff who use walking or other mobile methods as a form of pedagogy. Event participants will experience these walks or outings as students might, using them to spark conversations about the uses (and challenges) of using walking and other mobile methods in teaching.*

Places are limited, please sign up. The event organisers will contact you via email to select which walks or outings you would like to participate in.

Walk details are available here.

Walk facilitators:

Dr Emma Jackson, LSE

Dr Emily Falconer, Sociology, University of Westminster

Dr Emma McClusky, Criminology, University of Westminster

Shukri Sultan and Dr Amy MacLatchy, Centre for Education and Teaching Innovation, University of Westminster

Dr Magali Peyrefitte, Sociology and Criminology, Brunel University of London

Dr Xiao Ma, Humanities, University of Westminster Graduate

Professor Andrew Smith, Destinations and Experiences Research Centre, University of Westminster

Keynote:

Connected walking: Teaching on the move

Emma Jackson

This keynote sets out an approach to walking in teaching as a collective practice with the potential to shake up traditional classroom dynamics. Drawing on 20 years of using walking in teaching and research, and the recent edited collection Walking: A Sociological Field Guide (Bates and Jackson, 2026), it argues that moving through the streets together in dialogue makes a feminist intervention, challenging the figure of the lone male walker who still looms large in the walking literature. Walking necessarily connects us with other people and their ideas, and can be used as a live, engaged teaching method that brings concepts to life. Drawing on three walks in London (Catford, Kilburn and Westminster), the lecture traces different modes of connection: the sociological imagination linking everyday life to wider social questions (C. Wright Mills, 1959); the connection between us and other walker-thinkers; and the connection between teacher and students. The talk also gives examples of how these ideas can be used in practice and discusses the possibilities and challenges that walking as a teaching method presents.

The talk draws on ideas from the following publications:

Bates, C and Jackson, E. (2026) Walking: A Sociological Field Guide Manchester, Manchester University Press.

Jackson, E. (2026) ‘Walking Sociologically, Teaching on the Move: Thinking with London’s streets’, Sociology https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385251408

Jackson, E and Lisiak, A. (2025) ‘You’ll never walk alone: Theorizing engaged walking with Doreen Massey’ The Sociological Review 74, 1. pp. 216–232

Programme:

9.30am: Introduction and tea and coffee C.103

10am-12noon: Morning walks/outings

12noon-1pm: Lunch C.103 (vegetarian and vegan)

1pm-3pm: Keynote (Dr Emma Jackson) and panel discussion C.103

3pm-5pm: Afternoon walks/outings

The event will be followed by the launch of the Food and Taste Studies Special Interest Group at Westminster (5pm-7pm). For more details please see here.

For more information please contact the event organisers: Louise Rondel l.rondel@westminster.ac.uk and Emily Falconer e.falconer@westminster.ac.uk

To register for the keynote and panel discussion only, please go here.

This event is supported by the Centre for Social Justice Research, University of Westminster and the Destinations and Experiences Research Centre, University of Westminster.

Image credit: Louise Rondel

* walking is understood as walking or wheeling or any kind of moving through space that can be done by any body at any speed (Morag Rose, 2025, The Feminist Art of Walking).