Work

Across institutions.
Between disciplines.

I work on questions that do not sit neatly within one institution or sector: building the relationships, programmes and public conversations that help shared work move forward.

Selected work

Evidence in practice

Higher education · programmes · collaboration

External engagement and partnerships

Leading external engagement in The Open University’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences: developing partnerships, shaping programmes and connecting academic expertise with organisations and communities.

View my LinkedIn profile

Creative industries · skills · collaboration

CreaTech: Skills Pulse

Helped convene a forum on how creative technologies are reshaping skills, career pathways and access. It brought questions of education, industry and public policy into the same conversation.

OU CreaTech contribution

Writing · public engagement

AI, learning and working life

A series of reflections on what artificial intelligence changes in organisations: judgement, trust, collaboration and the place of new tools in everyday work.

Read the article series

Research · public engagement

Chairing public discussion

Chaired a discussion with Professor James Nazroo and Dr Halima Begum on later-life health inequalities, racism and evidence.

Read the discussion reflection

Chairing · creative education · future skills

Big Creative UK Summit at BAFTA

Chaired ‘From Critical Thinking to ChatGPT’ at the Big Creative UK Summit at BAFTA in 2024, with Jacqui O’Hanlan, Professor Carl Gombrich, Nishy Lall, Gary Briggs and Christina Matteotti.

View the programme

Public events

Creating space for public conversation.

These are a few examples of public work that includes chairing, convening, introducing and spotlighting people and ideas.

Introducing playwright James Graham at an Open University event, setting the scene for his subsequent address.

Chairing a virtual panel for the Open University’s Centre for Ageing and Biographical Studies and the British Society of Gerontology’s Emerging Researchers in Ageing. The session marked the centre’s 30th anniversary and the UN International Day of Older Persons.

Co-chaired CreaTech: Skills Pulse with Dr Lisa Bowers, an online event hosted by The Open University’s Faculty of STEM and supported by The Royal Anniversary Trust. Keynote speakers were Sir Peter Bazalgette of the Creative Industries Council and Hilary Hall of DCMS.

Sam Toolan introducing James Graham, 42:57–47:56. Watch James Graham’s subsequent speech
Sam Toolan chairing Growing Older in a Changing World, from 0:38.

Recording

CreaTech Skills Pulse co-chaired by Sam Toolan

Watch the recording on Vimeo
Sam Toolan co-chairing CreaTech: Skills Pulse.

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