Professor Abigail Woods is the university's Pro Vice Chancellor (Academic). She
leads on academic strategy and has responsibility for the learning and teaching
portfolio, including delivery of the university’s Learning, Teaching and Assessment
Plan. She also acts as co-chair of the university's Athena Swan initiative.
Abigail holds a degree in veterinary medicine from Cambridge University, and an
MSc and PhD in History of Science, Technology and Medicine from Manchester
University. She began her career as Lecturer in History of Medicine at Imperial
College London, where she gained a Diploma in University Learning and Teaching.
Her previous leadership roles include: Head of Department of History at Kings
College London, and Pro Vice Chancellor and Head of College of Arts, Social
Sciences and Humanities at the University of Lincoln.
Abigail has extensive experience of leading and delivering learning and teaching
across diverse disciplines and student demographics. Her drive to improve student
experiences and outcomes, and to advance data-informed future-focussed
curriculum design, played a pivotal role in the University of Lincoln’s achievement
of a TEF gold award. She has driven institutional initiatives to strengthen equity
and inclusion, and to support, engage and empower academic staff. She led in co-
creating the University of Lincoln's first strategy for arts, culture and heritage,
which underpinned the transformation of the Lincoln Arts Centre, creation of the
Barbican Creative Hub, and the university's inclusion in the Arts Council England
National Portfolio of Organisations.
Abigail is a Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and a Fellow of
the Royal Historical Society. Reflecting her earlier career as a veterinary surgeon,
her research focusses on the history of animal health in relation to human health
and livestock agriculture. She has led major Welcome-trust funded programmes
of research on the history of One Health, and on interdisciplinary approaches to
endemic livestock disease. She is past President of the World Association for the
History of Animal Health.
