Dr Geoff Bunn
Senior Lecturer
My profile
Biography
I am an inventive and creative teacher who regularly achieves high levels of student satisfaction for the courses I lead and teach on, as evidenced by student survey data and annual attendance at the MMU Student Union Teaching and Learning Awards. I have extensive experience of developing innovative teaching and learning materials at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Having taught every subject on the BPS undergraduate Psychology syllabus, I have an in-depth understanding, and a specialist knowledge, of Psychology.
I am an internationally recognized researcher in the field of history and theory of psychology, as evidenced by my publication record. I have a successful record of engagement in academic enterprise. I have been committed to knowledge exchange throughout my career, first as a museum professional and then as a university lecturer. Between 1998 and 2002, I was Curator of Psychology at the Science Museum, London, responsible for managing a development and design team commissioned with producing an exhibition marking the history of British psychology. Over 1m visitors to the Science Museum saw our resulting exhibition, Mind your Head: A Century of British Psychology. Working in the museum sector enabled me to develop strong communication and interpersonal skills and an ability to translate a clear educational vision for a wide range of audiences.
I have experience of engaging in high visibility regional, national and international enterprises. In 2010, the BBC invited me to write and present a 10 part series A History of the Brain for Radio 4 (broadcast November 2011; 200k listeners), now published as A Short History of the Brain (Ingleton Press, 2023). I have subsequently written and presented another psychology-themed documentary, The Truth and Nothing but the Truth for BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service (May, 2013).
Words of wisdom
I have developed technology-enhanced learning resources at both unit and programme level. I know that when used appropriately, a philosophy of progressive teaching and learning can improve inclusivity, promote critical thinking, and increase student satisfaction. Because of my enthusiasm for teaching and learning, in 2013 my Head of Department asked me to lead a group of colleagues in the development of a fully online MSc Psychology Conversion Award.
Academic and professional qualifications
1998 PhD (Psychology), York University, Toronto, Canada.
1992 MA (History of Scientific Thought), University of Leeds.
1991 BSc (Psychology, Hons.) University of Leeds.
Other academic service (administration and management)
MSc/PgDip Psychology Conversion Award
I established this distance-learning programme, the largest completely online course at MMU, in 2013 and I have been the Co-Programme Leader ever since. In this role have benefitted enormously from working with brilliant colleagues Dr Jenny Cole and Dr Carly Jim. I steered the Conversion Programme through internal MMU re-validation and external BPS re-accreditation processes in 2018-19 as Dr Jim took over the co-Programme Lead role from Dr. Cole.
External examiner roles
Psychology and Management BSc route. University of Bradford (2010-2013)
Expert reviewer
Academic journal peer reviews for: Bulletin of Science, Technology & Medicine; Community, Work & Family; Isis: The Journal of the History of Science Society; History of the Human Sciences; History of Psychology; Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences; Social and Personality Psychology Compass; Social Studies of Science; Theory & Psychology.
Psychology textbook manuscripts reviewer for Pearson Education Ltd; Wiley; Open University Press; Routledge; Sage.
Book Reviews
[with Susanne Langer] Matthew Clarke (2019) Lacan and Education Policy: The Other Side of Education. Pedagogy, Culture & Society. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2021.1996956
John Philipp Baesler (2018) Clearer than Truth: The Polygraph and the American Cold War.
Journal of American History.
Elizabeth Green Musselman (2006) Nervous Conditions: Science and the Body Politic in Early Industrial Britain. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences.
Dai Jones and Jonathan Elcock (2001) History and Theories of Psychology: A Critical Perspective.
Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences.
Consultancy and advisory roles
Medicine Man: The Life and Work of Sir Henry Wellcome. The British Museum, London. Consultant (2002).
Head On: Art with the Brain in Mind. Science Museum, London. Consultant (2002).
Prizes and awards
MMU Students’ Union Teaching Awards
2021 Best Department - Psychology
2020 Best Supervisor
2019 Best Teaching Team
2019 Outstanding Innovation in Teaching
2014 Outstanding Innovation in Teaching
2011 ‘You’re Brilliant’
Other distinctions
MMU Students’ Union Teaching Awards Nominations
2020 Best Supervisor
2019 Best Teaching Team
2018 Outstanding Innovation in Teaching
2016 Outstanding Innovation in Teaching
2015 Best Overall Teacher
2014 Best Supervisor
2014 Outstanding Innovation in Teaching
2013 Best Lecturer
2011 Best Supervisor
Expert reviewer for external funding bodies
National Science Foundation, U.S. Government. Science, Technology and Society.
Wellcome Trust, London. History of Medicine.
Visiting and honorary positions
Honorary Research Fellow, Science Museum, London (2002-2003).
Honorary Research Fellow, University College London (1998-2001).
Visiting Junior Research Fellow, University of Toronto Centre for Criminology (1995-1997).
Editorial Board membership
History & Philosophy of Psychology, BPS journal, Editor (2012-2016).
Theory & Psychology, SAGE Publications, Editorial Board Member (2012-2016).
Membership of professional associations
British Psychological Society (1993-present)
Chair of the British Psychological Society’s History & Philosophy of Psychology Section (2009-2015).
Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2022).
Teaching
Why do I teach?
I teach because I enjoy it, I believe in it, and I’m passionate about my subject. With the support of an MMU CELT Scholarship of Teaching and Learning grant, Dr Susanne Langer and I are developing a project combining education, psychology and critical theory. We are taking a psychosocial approach to pedagogy, investigating the development of student agency and the student journey. We have presented preliminary results of the project at a number of national and international higher education conferences and have produced several research publications. The aim of the project is to advance knowledge and practice and stimulate excellent higher education teaching and learning.
Why study…
The units I teach on are informed by the insights of critical psychology. Critical psychologists are not averse to the proposal to create a science of human nature, a systematic inquiry into what it means to be human. They have, after all, been instrumental in clarifying the distinction between the sorts of entities studied by the natural sciences (‘natural kinds’, e.g. atoms, chemicals, cells and electricity) and the sorts of things explored by the human sciences (‘human kinds’; e.g. intelligence, character, obedience to authority, and unemployment). Psychology is not a natural science like physics or chemistry, it’s a human science like sociology or economics. Because critical psychologists are sceptical that a quantitative science of human nature can do little more than assess the strength of the correlation between what is natural and what is social, they prefer to engage with qualitative methods informed by the long traditions of historical inquiry, phenomenology, psychoanalysis and discourse analysis.
Postgraduate teaching
Unit Leader for Conceptual and Historical Issues in Counselling and Psychotherapy (2F7V0009)
Subject areas
Research Methods, Qualitative Psychology, Conceptual and Historical Issues in Psychology, Psychosocial Education.
Supervision
M.Sc. Sophie Miller (2012), Samm Vallance (2013), Emma Columbine (2016), Radwah Horrerah (2017), Nina Fellows (2018).
Ph.D. Thomas D’Arcy (2010), Debbie Thackray (2010), Sue Makevit (2011), Anne-Marie Micalef (2012), Jemma Tosh (2013), Amanda Hynan (2014), Andrew Stevenson (2014, DoS). Lee Shannon (2015, DoS), Matthew Connolly (DoS); Khadijah Diskin.
Research outputs
My current research is focussed on student agency and the student experience in higher education. Using a Lacanian discourse analysis methodology, my colleague Dr Susanne Langer, Research Assistant Nina Fellows and I sketched out our agenda in ‘Towards a Psychosocial Pedagogy: The ‘student journey’, intersubjectivity, and the development of agency.’ for the MMU journal Teaching and Learning in Action.
My historical research examines the relationships between psychology and society. I have used historical analysis and discursive psychology to understand interactions between psychology and the culture. My academic monograph The Truth Machine: A Social History of the Lie Detector has been reviewed by: British Journal for the History of Science, History of the Human Sciences, Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society, The Journal of American History, The American Historical Review, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences.
I have presented academic papers at the meetings of numerous learned societies, e.g. British Psychological Society; American Psychological Association; European Society for the History of the Human Sciences; Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science; History of Science Society; the British Association for the Advancement of Science; Discourse-Communication-Conversation Conference (DARG), Loughborough. I have given research seminar presentations at the Universities of Bath, Derby, Edge Hill, Edinburgh, Exeter, Huddersfield, Leeds, Lancaster, Liverpool, Manchester, Oxford Brookes, Queen Mary London, Staffordshire, Surrey, Plymouth, the Open University, and University College London.
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Books (authored/edited/special issues)
Bunn, G. (2023) A Short History of the Brain. Manchester: Ingleton Press.
Bunn, G.C. (2012) The Truth Machine: A Social History of the Lie Detector. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Bunn, G.C. (2001) Psychology in Britain: Historical Essays and Personal Reflections. Blackwell.
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Chapters in books
Bunn, G.C., Collins, A.F. (2016) 'The Shackles of Practice: History of psychology, research assessment and the curriculum.' In Klempe, S.H., Smith, R. (ed.) Centrality of History for Theory Construction in Psychology. Springer, pp. 91-109.
Bunn, G.C. (2011) 'HIstorical analyses.' In Banister, P., Bunn, G., Burman, E., Daniels, J. (ed.) Qualitative Methods In Psychology: A Research Guide. McGraw-Hill International,
Bunn, G.C. (2000) 'Introduction.' In Bunn, G.C., Lovie, A.D., Richards, G. (ed.) Psychology in Britain: Historical Essays and Personal Reflections. Leicester: BPS Books.,
Bunn, G.C. (2000) 'Euphoric Security: The Lie Detector and Popular Culture..' In Kinsman, G., Buse, D., Steedman, M. (ed.) Whose National Security? Canadian State Surveillance and the Creation of Enemies.. Toronto: Between the Lines.,
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Media
Bunn, G.C. A History of the Brain: A 10 part BBC Radio 4 series.
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Reports
Bunn, G., Langer, S. (2021) The sublime object of education Lacan and education policy: the other side of education, by Matthew Clarke.
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Internet publications
Bunn, G.C. Diagnosing Character. In Ingenious: Seeing Things Differently.. http://www.ingenious.org.uk/Read/Work/Diagnosingcharacter/.
Bunn, G.C. (2004) Studying Work. In Making the Modern World: Stories about the Lives We’ve Made. http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/the_age_of_the_mass/05.ST.06/.
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Journal articles
Adano, C., Bunn, G. (2024) 'Taking the plunge, juggling acts, and friendly fire: Metaphors that distance learning students use to describe their experiences of online learning.' Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice, 12(1)
Bunn, G., Livingstone, P. (2023) 'The Reflexive Relay: Using Reflexive Journals to Promote Student Agency and Staff-Student Syllabus Co-Creation.' Journal of Educational Innovation, Partnership and Change, 9(1)
Bunn, G., Langer, S., Fellows, N.K. (2022) 'Student Subjectivity in the Marketised University.' Frontiers in Psychology, 12
Bunn, G. (2019) '“Supposing that truth is a woman, what then?” The Lie Detector, The Love Machine and the Logic of Fantasy.' History of the Human Sciences, 32(5)
Langer, S., Bunn, G., Fellows, N. (2018) 'Towards a Psychosocial Pedagogy: The 'student journey', intersubjectivity, and the development of agency.' Learning and Teaching in Action, 13(1)
Bunn, G.C. (2017) 'Wilhelm Wundt and the emergence of scientific psychology.' Psychology Review, 22(3) pp. 10-12.
Dillon-Hooper, P., Bunn, G. (2011) 'Broadcasting brain stories.' Psychologist, 24(11) pp. 832-833.
Bunn, G. (2010) 'The experimental psychologist's fallacy.' Psychologist, 23(12) pp. 964-967.
Bunn, G.C. (2010) 'The experimental psychologist’s fallacy: Gustav Fechner..' The Psychologist, 23(12) pp. 964-967.
Bunn, G.C. (2007) 'Spectacular science: the lie detector's ambivalent powers..' Hist Psychol, 10(2) pp. 156-178.
Bunn, G. (2002) 'That old black magic.' New Scientist, 174(2345) pp. 50-51.
Bunn, G. (2001) 'Eysenck at the Science Museum.' Personality and Individual Differences, 31(1) pp. 41-44.
Bunn, G.C. (2001) '‘A flair for organization’: Charles Myers and the Establishment of Psychology in Britain..' HIstory & Philosophy of Psychology, 3pp. 1-9.
Bunn, G.C. (2001) 'De Geslepen Doctor Psycho [The Devious Doctor Psycho]..' Feit & Fictie, 3(.) pp. 13-28.
Bunn, G.C. (2001) 'Charlie and the chocolate factory: C.S. Myers and Industrial Psychology in Britain.' The Psychologist, 14(11) pp. 576-579.
Bunn, G.C. (1997) 'The lie detector, wonder woman and liberty: The life and work of William Moulton Marston.' History of the Human Sciences, 10(1) pp. 91-119.
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Non-peer reviewed articles / reviews
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Other
Bunn, G.C. (1997) William Moulton Marston.
Press and media
Media appearances or involvement
The Truth and Nothing but the Truth: A History of the Lie Detector. Writer and presenter. Produced by Marya Burgess, broadcast on Radio 4, 23rd May 2013 and on the BBC World Service, 16-23rd July 2013. (2013) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01sj1sy
A History of the Brain, A 10-part series for BBC Radio 4. Writer and presenter. Produced by Marya Burgess, broadcast 7-18th November 2011, subsequently on the BBC World Service and BBC R4 Extra. (2011-present) (Current Bunn Productions) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016w808