Ms Fiona Dowling

• Qualifications:BA (Hons), MA
• Position:Technical Team Leader - Fabrication
• Department:ACE - Art and Design
• Telephone:+441173282054
• Email:Fiona4.Dowling@uwe.ac.uk
• Social media:

About me

Fiona is Technical Team Leader for the Physical Fabrication area at Bower Ashton City Campus, leading a team of technical instructors supporting students with making skills across a number of areas, including metal, wood, ceramics, casting and enamel. Fiona’s role includes elements of Teaching & Learning, developing workshop content and creative resources, overseeing Health & Safety, people management, and the day to day running of a technical area.

Fiona is a materials researcher and PhD student, and her research explores how materials, objects and digital tools can be utilised to uncover and re(tell) material sustainability narratives to build collective material knowledge.

Together with Morwenna Peters Fiona co-leads Bristol Materials Network, which aims to build connections and share knowledge and resources around materials and sustainability, enabling the development of materials literacy for UWE students, staff and the wider community in Bristol.

In March 2025, Fiona and fellow researcher and technical colleague Rachel Davis travelled to the ETHO Technical Community Conference Crafting the Future at RISEBA University of Applied Sciences in Riga, Latvia to deliver a collaborative workshop. The workshop ‘Materials & Making Mindsets: Playful approaches to technical teaching and developing materials literacy’ was facilitated with a group of around 40 delegates from Arts Universities across Europe and the UK, and received glowing feedback.

Fiona completed the CHEAD Technical Leadership Programme in 2024.

Fiona is also an advocate for wellbeing, and in 2023 co-delivered a series of creative wellbeing sessions for UWE staff alongside Rachel Davis, as part of the Creative Collective, funded through the Health & Wellbeing Innovation Scheme. 

Fiona’s role at UWE is her first position within the higher education sector, and prior to this she played a pivotal role in the development of the community maker space KWMC The Factory. She is passionate about prioritising accessibility and inclusivity across technical areas and workshop spaces.

As Skills Development Manager at KWMC The Factory, Fiona managed the planning, design, facilitation and evaluation of The Factory’s wider skills development programme, including volunteering opportunities and Kickstart placements, with a focus on digital design skills, product design and prototyping, and sustainability.

Fiona played a key part in designing and delivering the MADE in South Bristol enterprise programme (2020-2022), working with Pre-start individuals to explore ideas and test feasibility of potential businesses, along with providing tailored business support and 1-2-1 prototyping surgeries for existing creative businesses. 

In 2019, Fiona co-designed a 3 month intensive digital design training course called Making It, which incorporated specialist workshops in VR & AR, AI, wearable technology and animatronics, weekly open access sessions and initial taster workshops to aid marketing and recruitment. This programme laid the groundwork for a similar programme focused on routes to employment called Future Makers.

In 2015, Fiona travelled to Shenzhen and Shanghai to research the Chinese maker movement, as part of the British Council and AHRC Living Research programme.

Area of expertise

Publications

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