Lou Tondeur

Dr Louise Tondeur is a writer, academic leader and lecturer with extensive experience of teaching and curriculum development in Higher Education. With a special interest in publishing, creative practice, mindfulness and pedagogy, she combines a track record of excellence as a programme lead with a high level of creative problem-solving skills. She has experience across the education sector, having worked in community, compulsory and tertiary settings and puts learner empowerment and inclusivity at the heart of her teaching and leadership practice. 

As a Principal Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Roehampton she was twice the undergraduate programme convener, leading a team of ten academic staff as well as visiting tutors. She has a successful track record of module convening and curriculum development across all levels, and as a member of the Learning and Teaching Quality Committee affected policy and change across the University of Roehampton as a whole, for example by sitting on programme revalidation panels. Louise took time out from developing her career to raise a young child and manage a household, working as a part-time lecturer and consultant to maintain her experience. She has worked freelance for writing and community organisations such as The Literary Consultancy, New Writing South, Creative Future, Jericho Writers, the HERA Project and the Arvon Foundation. She has also been a part-time Creative Writing lecturer for the University of Brighton (from 2022-2025) and for the Open University (from 2017). Louise has a book forthcoming called Creative Writing and Mindfulness: Enhancing Wellbeing Through Practice in the Seminar Room with Bloomsbury Academic. 

From a research perspective, Louise’s PhD was in Literature and Cultural Theory from the University of Reading, on cultural interpretations of hair. Louise is interested in intersectional feminism and queer theory, and the interplay between the critical and the creative. She has published peer-reviewed essays on creative practice as well as hair (from her PhD) and disability. In terms of her own creative practice, Louise is interested in writing place/writing on location as well as queer and neurodivergent love stories, 'apparently personal poetry' (Sharon Olds) and mindful writing practices.

Louise Tondeur is also a novelist and short story writer. She studied Drama at the University of East Anglia as an undergraduate and did a PGCE, ran a community theatre company and taught Drama in a range of settings. She then returned to UEA to do the MA in Creative Writing. She published two novels with Headline Review as a result. Her first short story collection, Unusual Places, was the culmination of a long project to write live in various locations. Her second short story collection, Invisible, on the theme of different kinds of sociocultural invisibility, is due in 2026. Poetry credits include Finished Creatures, Perverse, Rialto, Under the Radar and Shearsman. In 2023, a revised edition of The Small Steps Guide to Goal Setting and Time Management was published, a book she originally wrote to support her students. She has also created her own books and courses and undertakes editing and mentoring work for writers. She has written guest blog posts for various writing websites and maintains her own blog at: www.louisetondeur.co.uk

My research interests include writing and mindfulness, writing practice, writing about practice, disability and hair. These are connected by an abiding interest in intersectional feminism, queer theory, neurodivergence, and writing the weird, after Joanne Limburg's work on weirdness. What does it mean to read, write and think from a position of queerness, neurodivergence, disability, hairiness or of so-called strangeness or weirdness? Does the weird create a 'reading effect' (Felman 1977) or a creative '[writing] effect'? And what does the weird do to / how does it act on culture?

Over the last few years, I have trained in digital and independent publishing, and have self-published four guides to the writing process as a result, and keep a blog on my author website.

I am interested in supervising work on writing and wellbeing, writing practice, particularly writing place, writing about practice, or on hair and its cultural manifestations. I am also interested in supervising work on weirdness or reading / writing the weird. I recently examined a PhD on 'reading otherwise' and my own PhD looked at the idea of 'reading queer'.

I have been teaching in various guises for thirty years. I regard creativity, wellbeing and inclusion as central to my teaching practice. I use structured and unstructured group work, person-centred learning, mindfulness, and 'flipping' in my classes, as well some of the latest research on wellbeing and mindset. I was a member of the Centre for Arts and Wellbeing at the University of Brighton, and I am enthusiastic about sharing writing and wellbeing practices with students and colleagues.

I have published on Creative Writing and Drama pedagogy in Writing in Education, Writing in Practice, TEXT, Journal of Writing and Writing Courses, Creative Learning and Teaching Magazine, and National Drama Magazine, and spoken regularly about creative teaching and reflective practice at conferences. I am a Senior Fellow of the HEA and have been nominated for a National Teaching Fellowship twice.