Meet the IFP Teaching Staff

Anya has been teaching for more than 25 years and has worked with the IFP since the programme began in 2011. 

She received her PhD from the University of Birmingham in 1996 before teaching in the School of English at the University of St Andrews and joining the University of Edinburgh in 2007. 

Anya is an expert on the journalism of Oscar Wilde and published an edition of Wilde’s journalism with Oxford University Press.

She was nominated for Best Personal Tutor, Best Support Staff and Best Assessment Feedback awards in the University of Edinburgh's Teaching Awards. 

Dr Reena Sastri is a Teaching Fellow who teaches Introducing Cultural Studies. 

Reena holds a PhD in English Literature from Boston University and a PGDE from the University of Edinburgh. She lectured at the University of Oxford and the University of York before coming to the Centre for Open Learning at Edinburgh, where she has taught Cultural Studies on the IFP since 2017.

She is also a literature tutor and has published a book and many articles and chapters on American poets. Reena has been nominated for Best Implementer of Student Feedback award in the University of Edinburgh’s Teaching Awards. 

Jill is a Lecturer in English for Academic Purposes at the University of Edinburgh.

She has been teaching English language and academic skills to our IFP students since 2013 and is the Course Organiser for the programme’s ‘Foundation English for Academic Purposes Plus (FEAP Plus)’ course.

Jill also teaches at the University’s School of Social and Political Science as well as Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.

She is currently working on her PhD focused on identity and language within underrepresented students at the University.

Jill has been nominated for ‘Teacher of the Year' in the University's 2023 Teaching Awards as well as being nominated for the 'Contribution to Student Experience' team category in this year's CAHSS Recognition Awards.

Dr Morna Finnegan is a Teaching Fellow who teaches Social Anthropology.

Dr Morna Finnegan is a social anthropologist and mother who received her PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 2010 and joined the IFP programme in 2019. She has published several articles and a co-edited Berghahn Series book on human origins. 

Her doctoral research focused on ritual politics and gender egalitarianism among the Mbendjele Yaka and other Central African hunter-gatherers. Morna received her Msc in Social Anthropology from University College London, where she has also taught on African cosmology.

Dr Gisli Vogler is the Course Organiser for Social, Political and Legal Studies at the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Open Learning.

He teaches 'Introduction to Politics' on the IFP and helps organise the 'Introduction to Social Science' and 'Introduction to International Relations' courses.  

Gisli holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Edinburgh and prior to joining our team in 2020, he taught classes in sociology and political science at the University's School of Social and Political Science.

Alongside his teaching, Gisli has also published articles on responses to injustice and violence and has a book coming out on complicity in injustice with Edinburgh University Press.