Stella Coyle

Biography

Stella studied Law as a mature student and was awarded her LLB from University College London in 1995. Following a varied career and further training in education and counselling, Stella returned to Law: she obtained her LLM in Law and Society in 2012 and was awarded her PhD in 2017.

Her thesis, The Queer, the Cross and the Closet, examined the conflict between religion and sexual orientation in equality law and considered the limitations of both traditional rights discourse and subsequent Queer theoretical approaches.

Stella combines her expertise in Law, education, and psychology in her teaching and scholarship and in her role as Director of Education for the Law School. She is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Research and scholarship

Stella is the lead for the Legal Education, Innovation and Practice research cluster and is currently involved in a number of scholarship projects focusing on legal education. She is currently working with partners in Nottingham and Birmingham Law Schools on research into students’ experience of reading. Her research into ‘Shame and the Law School: Observation, Relationship, and the Developing Self’ draws on her training as a psychotherapist and her work in a University counselling service. Stella is also interested in how students can use reflection to support their holistic learning and personal development.

Stella supervises a PhD candidate, Aysha Mazhar, who is researching compassion in legal education.

Teaching

• Level 4: Legal Essentials (module lead)
• Level 5: Criminal Law
• Level 6: Dissertation (supervisor)

Presentations and conferences

Convenor

• June 2022: 'Feeling Law: Emotion and Relationship in Legal Education – Theory, Practice, and Design’.
• December 2021: ‘Assessment and Feedback: A Symposium’.

Invited speaker

• June 2021 Advancing Wellbeing in Law Digital Conversation: ‘Shame and the Law School: Observation, Relationship, and the Developing Self’
• July 2020 Connecting Legal Education Series: ‘”It’s OK Not to be OK”: Using Mentimeter to Engage First Year Law Students in Wellbeing Awareness’
• January 2020 Legal Education Research Network (with Hannah Gibbons-Jones): ‘Creating trust at the beginning of the HE journey’.

Conferences and other events

• July 2023: Advance HE Education Conference, Keele University: ‘No-one Likes Looking at Themselves, Do They? Using Reflection in Legal Education’.
• April 2022: Association of Law Teachers Conference, Manchester University: ‘Assessing the (Legal) Essentials: A Reflection through the Lens of Self-Determination Theory’.
• April 2022: Socio-Legal Studies Association Conference, York University: ‘Shame in the Law School: Observation, Relationship, and the Developing Self’.
• January 2022: Keele Education Conference: ‘Assessing the (Legal) Essentials: A Reflection’.
• March 2021 Association of Law Teachers Conference, Aston University: ‘“Make Glorious Mistakes!”: Legal Essentials and HE Transition’
• March 2018 SLSA conference, Bristol University: ‘Religion and sexual orientation: conscience, class and citizenship’
• June 2017 A moment in time? Gender, Sexuality & Law Symposium, Keele University: ‘Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners’
• July 2015 Thinking Gender and Sexuality in the 21st Century, Durham University: ‘Equality Law: Hierarchy of Rights or Hierarchy of Sexuality?’
• May 2014 Postgraduate Symposium, Keele University: ‘God and My Right: Religion, Sexual Orientation and Equality Law’
• July 2012: Guest lecturer at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, teaching students of British Society & Culture about the English legal system.