Sarah Speight

Sarah Speight is an academic and Deputy Vice Chancellor at Nottingham Trent University. Previously, she was Professor of Higher Education and Pro Vice Chancellor for Education and Student Experience at the University of Nottingham prior to which she was head of the School of Education.

Speight studied at the University of Manchester and went on to complete a PhD at the University of Nottingham. Her research spans the fields of higher education, archaeology and history.

Education Speight studied at the University of Manchester where she completed a Bachelor of Arts in history. She went on to study at the University of Nottingham, completing a Master of Arts in 1989 and a PhD at the same institution in 1993, titled Family, faith and fortification: Yorkshire 1066–1250, the latter under the supervision of Philip Dixon.

Career Speight works at Nottingham Trent University, joining as Deputy Vice Chancellor in August 2024. Prior to this she was Pro Vice Chancellor for Education and Student Experience at the University of Nottingham where she also taught for the Schools of Continuing Education, Education, and History. She was also head of the university's School of Education for five years. In 2006, she received the university's Lord Dearing Award, In 2013, Speight was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship.

Speight was Honorary Treasurer of the Castle Studies Group between 1998 and 2001. Between 2001 and 2006, Speight was the Archaeology Editor for the Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire. Her specialism in castles led to her appearing in episodes of Time Team about Beaudesert Castle (2002) and Codnor Castle (2008). Speight was part of a movement examining the impact of castles on settlements and the landscape; Speight contributed a study of castle chapels to this area.

In July 2024, Speight took up the position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Nottingham Trent University.

Selected publications

Speight has published articles in venues such as Journal of Educational Administration and History, Château Gaillard: Études de castellologie médiévale, History Compass, and the Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire.

Castle studies and archaeology

Education