Key details
Professor Natasha T Vall
Pro Vice-Chancellor
Natasha Vall is Pro Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean, Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences. She has leadership responsibility for core delivery of the University’s Student Success sub-strategy as well as for leading and managing a Faculty encompassing all aspects of financial, student experience, global partnerships, research and knowledge exchange activity. Previously Natasha was the Dean at the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Law, Teesside University where she also held numerous leadership positions including Associate Dean, Research and Innovation, Head of Department and Director. Natasha is a graduate of the University of Sheffield, holds a PhD from Northumbria University and completed a four-year UKRI postdoctoral fellowship. Natasha’s research as an urban historian has generated significant impact for stakeholders engaged in placemaking, economic and culture led regeneration. She is an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and has led numerous externally funded grant projects and collaborations (see below). Natasha has supervised several PhDs to completion and welcomes enquiries in the field of modern urban history, cultural policy, and post-industrial heritage.
Responsibilities within the university
Pro Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences
Recognition
Elected Fellow
Royal Historical Society Fellow
Royal society of the Arts Trustee
Tees Valley Arts Non Executive Director
Redhills Community Interest Company Non Executive Director
Blind Tiger Trustee
Power of Women, ( 2022- 2024)
Research / Scholarly interests
Natasha has a longstanding interest in the history of cultural policy, culture-led regeneration and heritage, with a special focus on post-industrial cities. She has published widely in this field, including her 2011 critically acclaimed monograph, ‘Cultural Region’. She has supervised a number of PhD students working on the history of arts policy, cultural policy and urban regeneration. Natasha has led a number of grant funded initiatives and impact generating activities recently including the UKRI Impact Acceleration Account at Teesside University and a REF impact case study in 2021 on the reinterpretation of industrial heritage for the benefit of community stakeholders. Natasha's recent work has focussed on place-making through the lens of creative approaches with an emphasis on community co-production.
Key funded projects
Teesside University AHRC IAA (2022-2027) £720,000
NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) for the South Tees area (with South Tees Public Health) (2022-2027) £5,000,000
Co-Investigator AHRC infrastructure fund MIMA (2021-2022) £608,969
Co-Investigator Towards a Greener Tees Valley, UK Government Community Renewal Fund (2021-2022) £722,137
Principal Investigator Tees Valley Lab. UKRI, Enhancing Place Based Engagement (2019-2020) £28,000
Principal Investigator Great Place- Greater Tees. HLF/ACE, (2018-2020) £40,000 (evaluation)
Co-Investigator Steel Stories: Curating Industrial Heritage in a Landscape of Rapid Change, HLF (2017-2019) £70,000
Principal Investigator AHRC Northern Bridge DTP2 (2017-present) Co-Investigator
Media activity
Contributor, 'How to cure Small Town Blues', BBC Radio 4, Analysis, February 2024
Recent publications
Paul Van Schaik, Heather Clements, Yordanka Karayaneva, Elena Imani, Michael Knowles, Natasha Vall, Matthew Cotton, ‘Using Machine Learning to Model the Acceptance of Domestic Low-Carbon Technologies,’ Sustainability, 17, 2025
Cotton, M., Van Schaik, P., Vall, Lorrimer, S., Mountain, A., Stubbs, R., Leighton, C., Segovia Leon, E., Imani, E. ‘Just transitions and sociotechnical innovation in the social housing sector: An assemblage analysis of residents’ perspectives,’ Technology and Society, 77, 2024
Susan Lorrimer, Rosemary Stubbs, Andrea Mountain, Charlotte Leighton, Edgar Segovia, Paul Van Schaik, Matthew Cotton, Natasha Vall ‘A qualitative evaluation of Thirteen resident perspectives on low-carbon technologies in the home,’ Report Commissioned by Thirteen Group, 2023
Vall, N. ‘Great Place Tees Valley. Teesside University Evaluation of Great Place Tees Valley. Evaluation Final Report’ Commissioning Body, Tees Valley Combined Authority/HLF, 2022
Vall, N. ‘Re-interpreting the North East’s Industrial Past’, Impact Case Study-REF 2020
Vall, N. A view from the wharf: historical perspectives on the transformation of urban waterfront space in Stockholm during the twentieth century, Aug 2018, Urban History. 45, 3, p. 524-548
Vall, N. Coal is our strife: representing mining heritage in North East England, Dec 2017: Contemporary British History. 32, 1, p. 101-120
Vall. N, Two Swedish modernisms on English housing estates: cultural transfer and visions of urban living 1945-1969, 2015: Contemporary European History.
Vall. N, Engaging with British Urban and Regional Culture, Impact Case Study-REF 2014,
Vall, N. Social engineering and participation in Anglo-Swedish housing 1945–1976: Ralph Erskine's vernacular plan, Apr 2013: Planning Perspectives. 28, 2, p. 223-245 t
Vall, N. Cultural Region: North East England, 1945-2000 Vall, (Manchester University Press, 2011).