Biography

Roberto is Associate Dean Learning and Teaching in FAHS and a Reader in Higher Education.

Roberto started work at the University of Surrey in October 2010, in CEAD, as Deputy Director, Policy and Research.

Before joining the University of Surrey, Roberto worked in many other institutions, more recently at Imperial College London and Goldsmiths (University of London) where he was head of the learning enhancement unit. He has worked in teacher education for over twenty years, originally in the field of language teaching and, subsequently, in that of teaching and learning in higher education.

Roberto studied both in Italy (for his first degree in Modern Languages) and in the UK, namely at the Institute of Education (University of London) where he obtained both is MA in Applied Linguistics and his PhD in Higher Education Studies, with a thesis on academic identities.

He was one of the co-founders of MA in University Learning and Teaching at Imperial College London and he still works, in a consultancy role, for the MEd in Surgical Education, in that institution. He has also acted, in a consultative role, in a number of institutions, including the University of Tashkent (Uzbekistan), the University of Barcelona, the University of Zaragoza and the University of Alicante (Spain), in addition to the UNESCO (Paris, France).

Roberto teaches and supervises both at Surrey and Imperial.

Research Interests

Roberto is interested in a host of topics including the changing nature and philosophies of higher education, disciplinarily/interdisciplinarity and curriculum design,  academic identities and notions of compliance and resistance in academic life (for more info see under the Research and Scholarship part of the CEAD website).

Publications

Roberto is co-editor of two books: Fuzzy Boundaries? Modern Languages and the Humanities (CILT, 2001) and Changing Identities in Higher Education: Voicing Perspectives (Routledge, 2008). 

He was also project co-ordinator for Foundations Italian 1 (Palgrave, 2001/2008).

He is currently working, as co-editor, on a special issue of IJAD (International Journal of Academic Development) on the notions and practice of compliance and resistance in academic development.

Recent Publications

• Clement,, M., Di Napoli,, R., Gillis, A., Buelens,, H. & Frenay,, M. (upcoming). ‘Counselling for a dialogic university'. Recherche et Formation (INRP- Institut National de Recherches Pédagogiques, France)
• Di Napoli, R. (2010). ‘Identidades académicas y gestion: ¿una mision imposible? ’. Rué, J. and Lodeiro, L (eds), Equipos docentes and nuevas identitades academicas. Narcea: Madrid.
• Di Napoli, R., Fry, H., Frenay, M., Verhesschen, P. and Verburgh, A. ‘Academic development and educational developers: voices from different European higher education contexts’. IJAD (International Journal of Academic Development), Vol. 15, No. 1, March 2010, 7–18.
• Jiang, X., Di Napoli, R., Borg, M., Maunder, R., Fry, H. and Walsh, E. ‘Becoming and being an academic: The perspectives of Chinese staff in two research-intensive UK universities’. Studies in Higher Education, Vol. 35, No. 2, March 2010, 155-170.
• Borg, M., Maunder, R., Jiang, X., Walsh, E. and Fry, H. and Di Napoli, R. (2009) ‘International students and academic acculturation: the role of relationships in the doctoral process’. Jones, E. (ed) Internationalisation: The student voice. London: Routledge.
• Kingsbury, M. and Di Napoli, R. (2008) ‘Academic Conferences’. Hall, G. and Longman, J.(eds). The Research Postgraduate's Companion: A handbook for all potential and current postgraduate research students. London: Sage.

Affiliations

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.