My friend and colleague Jan Ainsley, who has died aged 76 of complications associated with Parkinson’s disease, was a college and university lecturer whose teaching extended across sociology, politics, education and the arts.
Jan taught at Evesham College of Higher Education, Worcestershire, in the 1970s and later that decade joined the education department at West Sussex Institute of Higher Education (now the University of Chichester), where she remained until her retirement in 2001, progressing to be a senior lecturer. There she championed access to education at any age, encouraging students from a wide range of backgrounds.
She was a captivating lecturer and could not accept the idea that education should be an induction into a narrow, elite world. With colleagues she set about transforming the English curriculum. During a period as head of English at Chichester, she used her skills, diplomacy and determination to ensure courses featured the study of literature by women and African and Black American writers, and cinema.
Janice – always known as Jan – was born in Birmingham, to Ed Whitehouse, a transport foreman at GKN in Smethwick, and Evelyn (nee Harris), who cooked for a local school. The family were surprised when Jan passed the 11-plus exam and progressed to Oldbury grammar school. An older boy, returning from university, alerted her to the idea that higher education could lead to a life of intellectual inquiry. She went on to study economics, politics and sociology at Birmingham University, then undertook postgraduate studies at York – later, in the 90s, she gained a master’s in English at Sussex University.
Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001, Jan collaborated with a nurse educator, Jenny Buckley, producing a course for women living with cancer, and developing teaching materials that dramatised patients’ experiences. Jan used these in seminars for nurses and medical students at Southampton University.
After taking early retirement from teaching, she developed her passion for cinema and became the chair of trustees of the independent New Park cinema in Chichester, where her abilities allowed it to overcome financial difficulties and expand its range of film-related activities.
In 2007 Jan moved with her husband, Geoff Seale, to Norwich to be near her extended family. There she continued her love for cinema, organising film discussion groups. She established a branch of the Keep Our NHS Public group, campaigned for a fully-funded NHS, organised demonstrations and spoke at public rallies and meetings.
Jan is survived by Geoff, whom she married in 2002, their son, Jack, and Geoff’s daughter, Maria, five grandchildren, Josie, Javi, Albie, Clara and Edwin, and her sister, Kate. Two earlier marriages ended in divorce, and Jan kept the surname of her first husband, Trevor Ainsley.
