My Journey with Creative Reactions: Where Science Meets Art
Recently, I had the incredible opportunity of participating in the Pint of Science Festival here in Lincoln. Pint of Science is a global phenomenon, founded by two visionary scientists; Michael Motskin and Praveen Paul. Their mission is to make groundbreaking science accessible to the public by hosting talks in a relaxed and informal setting – the pub! These talks take place over three nights in May, across the UK and internationally.
I was thrilled to be invited to present my research on young fathers in compulsory education: The Forgotten Fathers? Mapping the Educational Trajectories of Working-Class Young Fathers in England at this year’s event. I teamed up with two talented local artists to curate artwork based on my research for the Creative Reactions exhibition. The exhibition brought together a group of scientists and artists to create and feature works inspired by the research presented at Pint of Science. These were displayed as a beautiful blend of art and science in the south transept of Lincoln Cathedral between 13 and 23 May 2025.
I was paired with Pearl Hudson and Robbie Lumsden, who chose to work with me after reading the blurb I submitted about my work. We met several times to discuss my research and to explore how they might interpret it through their art. The whole experience was incredibly rewarding. Both Pearl and Robbie were patient and thoughtful, ensuring they captured my words in their pictures. They also described their art in 100 words, which added a personal touch to the co-creations. Their words and the co-created art works are featured at the end of this blog.
My research explores the experiences of marginalised young fathers and their education trajectories. The image that often comes to mind is a negative one: the irresponsible, absent and disengaged young man. The artworks Pearl and Robbie have co-created challenge these deficit views. Instead of focusing on what young fathers lack, they highlight what they offer to their children, their communities, and society at large. The artwork depicts young fathers’ resilience as they seek to balance their education and parenting. The art-pieces are a celebration of young fatherhood, that render visible their experiences while also validating their role and amplifying their potential.
Meeting again at the exhibition in Lincoln Cathedral was a highlight. Seeing the artworks displayed and having their support at the Pint of Science event was truly special. They listened to me talk about my research and have kindly gifted me their work, which I will display with pride
Featured Artworks
Pearl Hudson
Title: Dilemmas
Medium: Acrylic on canvas board, 30cm x 30cm
Pearl's artwork captures a poignant moment in the life of a young teenage boy facing the prospect of becoming a parent while still in school. Most young boys don't have to make such life-changing decisions at such a tender age. Those who do have two options: walk away or become involved in their child's upbringing. If they choose the latter, they need support to cope with the unexpected responsibilities. Pearl's painting beautifully illustrates the emotional and practical challenges that a young father faces as he navigates this new chapter in his life.
Robbie Lumsden
Title: Young Fathers - Parenthood is an education and a journey
Medium: Acrylic/Watercolour, A2 Landscape on paper
Style: Cryptic Graphic Art
Robbie's artwork tells the story of a young father still in full-time education, balancing life with a young child while juggling finances, study, and adolescence. The image features a Venn Diagram comparing the young father's life with that of his peers, highlighting shared dilemmas, money, and exams. Despite following a different path, Robbie's piece reminds us that life can be equally rewarding, with opportunities for further education and employment goals later in life. His artwork is a testament to the resilience and determination of young fathers, showing that with support, they can thrive and achieve their dreams.
From our partners and young dads
“[daughter]'s almost two-year-old. She came up the house and she actually really liked it. Preferably my house is the best place for her to, for the contact to be, if I’m honest, 'cause we just buy toys for her all the time. We’ve got a lovely garden that she can play in, lovely, big, and we’ve got a sandpit in there. We’ve been buying loads of things for her to play with to keep her occupied.”
“[Speaking about support of young fathers] We’ve done a lot of kind of advocation and representing them, a lot of the time there’s involvement with statutory services. They don’t have the care of the young person, the care’s provided by the state or the mother, so we’ve attended lots of meetings with the young person to offer additional support and facilitated contact where necessary and offered just general emotional wellbeing, support, improving robustness and resilience, encouraging them to have as amicable relationship as possible.”
“And I suppose it goes back to what we were saying before about behaviours, maybe the education side of stuff and the fact that men aren’t involved in those early conversations, you know, whether it is, I know they’re invited to come along to bumps to babies but I don’t know whether we go into the detail around some of that brain development side of stuff and things like that. Maybe that is the thing that really would change things. You know, if you were given all of that information about what happens to a child as they grow, in a scientific way, as easy to understand as possible, could be the thing that impacted on behaviour in the home.”
“If your child’s with the mother, like your relationship with her depends on your relationship with the child, innit. That’s what I realised a lot, like you can try and be bitter, you can try and be this, be that, but it’s just gonna push you further away from your child, innit.”
“I wanna fight for more stuff for dads. Like I do wanna have that extra support for new dads or even existing dads that we don’t get now 'cause we’re still important too although obviously the mum does need the majority a’ the care because obviously of the after care and the birth. But like the dads take it extremely hard as well. And obviously with having no support I think it increases the rise of mental health.”
“I think both a mother and father combined, it’s communicating and both being on the same page of what’s best for your child or children, and for both, it’s just being there 100% for them and not, like, putting yourself first, it’s, you know, putting the child’s interests first... ”
“We need to be including, we need to not [just] be focusing on mum and child […] That’s a great focus but dad … dad’s not invisible, dad needs to be in the picture as well because there’s research that shows you the effect it has on children and families as a whole when dad isn’t in the picture, so services need to be changing the way in which they work so it’s more inclusive.”
“Cause I think a lot of the time, some of young people who end up having children have been through the care system or support systems and they can feel quite judged or labelled by organisations and it’s breaking the cycle and breaking them out of that to feel empowered to be able to take stuff back, that’s the real interest to me. So, it’s about getting support right, as in being there and giving advice and guidance and all them things that we can do, but also making sure that we are doing with people as opposed to people.”
“One of the most successful projects we ever did was an informal dads’ group, and it used to be on Saturdays […] they did what they wanted, they used to do things like breakfast, and they would have breakfast together and talk about dad stuff and where they were taking their kids. And that group was always really well attended because there was never an agenda. They were never judged. They were just there together.”
“...the whole stay at home dad thing is not something to be ashamed of, you know, if you’re a dad and you wanna take your daughter out for the day, or you wanna take your kid out for the day on your own, well why is that frowned upon, why can’t you take your child out for the day ”
“Oh…patience…compassion…tolerance, a whole boatload a’ that! Honestly, I like a whole lot of life. Sacrifice…compromise, yeah I think, yeah I think they, they would be the, the big, the five, I feel, I think that was five, they would be the main. ”
“We’re currently in touch with social services for two [dads] because they don’t understand why they can’t see their children because they haven’t been informed by social services, their partner. So there’s a massive communication breakdown with those young men, so that’s the main focus of what we’re dealing with at the minute.”
“it’s still…the…sense of judgement I get from other people when they find out that I have a child.And they say, ‘oh how old is she’.I say, ‘oh she’s ten’. And they say, ‘oh how old are you?’. Like you don’t need to know that....I know exactly where that thought process is going, you know. It’s like, ‘oh you look really young and you’ve had a kid’. It’s like, ‘yeah I know, I was there!’”
Partners
