The proceedings of the 2024 Third Space Symposium have now been published on the Zenodo Open Research Repository. All contributors to the 3SS 2024 were invited to have their work included in the proceedings, and we are very pleased to have 42 entries. We are also very pleased that Celia Whitchurch wrote a foreword to the proceedings celebrating this contribution to the field of researching the higher education third space.
You can view and download the entire proceedings at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17677327
Simpson, C., Altena, S., Black, E., & Wheeler, P. (2025). Navigating the third space: Proceedings of the 2024 Third Space Symposium. Third Space Symposium 2024 (3SS), Online and Melbourne, Australia.
You can also access, download and cite individual papers from the event.
Abblitt, S. (2025). Theorising the third space.
The author invited participants in the 2024 Third Space Symposium to consider whether a critical–philosophical genealogy of the “third space” concept can inform their understanding of their third space roles and identities.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17844932
Addanki, K., Cook, H., Cosgrove, K., Ngo, L., & Tyrell, S. (2025). Building connections: Enhancing LinkedIn presence for third space women.
The authors outline how the workshop which they ran in the 2024 Third Space Symposium, “LinkedIn as a tool for career advancement in the third space”, addressed challenges faced by women in leadership. Discussions with workshop attendees highlighted limited career guidance for women in third space professions, provoking the authors to develop the Leadership Identity Framework for Transformation (LIFT) framework.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17844331
Allman, Z. (2025). I’m in higher education’s third space: who is here with me?
After initially wondering whether, as an academic leader in middle-senior management, she was excluded from the third space, the author posed a series of questions to attendees at the 2024 Third Space Symposium to spark discussions of their experiences on entering and on being welcomed into the third space. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17844946
Altena, S., Hinze, M., & Ng, L. E. (2025). Establishing your credibility.
The authors reflect on the workshop they offered to participants at the 2024 Third Space Symposium which explored the concept of professional credibility and which shared strategies for building this multifaceted and context-specific aspect of human connection.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845215
Arumugam, P. P., & Jayawardena, M. (2025). Collaborative autoethnography on third space identity.
Themes from a collaborative autoethnographic study – where three third space practitioners reflected on their professional identities, their roles in supporting academics, the assumptions they bring to their work, and their interactions with others – resonated with participants at the 2024 Third Space Symposium.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17844956
Bartlett, C., & Derrington, K. (2025). Sharing the oxygen mask.
In this contribution to the 2024 Third Space Symposium the authors shared vignettes of practice and showed how to build recognition of the value of the third space.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845223
Bui, D. (2025). Reclaiming the resources we make.
The author explained the motivations and methods she used to create a professional platform for her ideas and voice via her blog, and invited attendees at the 2024 Third Space Symposium to reimagine their experience, skills, and identity as distinctly individual and valuable.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845098
Butters-Stabb, H. (2025). On the (in)visibility of librarians in third space literature.
When Senior Learning Librarian Heidi Butters-Stabb was introduced to the concept of “third space” work in universities, she thought “That’s me!”: but she found very little discussion in the literature of the librarian’s role in relation to the third space. (This reflection was originally a blog post from the 2024 Third Space Symposium.)
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17844973
Caldwell, J. (2025). Uncontracted: Reimagining work and identity in higher education’s third space.
The author reflects on her provocation to attendees at the 2024 Third Space Symposium, emerging from her research, to re-examine the traditional bifurcation between academic and professional services roles
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845373
Cosmos, A., & Reynoldson, M., (2025). Beyond the binary: Third space allyship and equity in the academy.
The authors defined and shared practical strategies for attendees at the 2024 Third Space Symposium on everyday allyship and on organising a self-sustaining allyship network.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845271
Freund, K., Dickens, K., & Li, F. (2025). Navigating the ebbs and flows of change.
The authors outline the topics canvassed during their fishbowl discussion at the 2024 Third Space Symposium on strategies to manage the stressors of uncertainty and change in higher education
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845387
Greenaway, R., McGrath, D., & Slade, C. (2025). The seven-year itch: Are directors’ and learning designers’ perceptions of the role of learning designers a marriage made in heaven?
The authors used the occasion of the 2024 Third Space Symposium to revisit their earlier research on defining the work of learning designers and their institutional status, particularly considering the complexity of the learning designer role and the post-COVID surge in digital and hybrid learning.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17844983
Heggart, K., Mitchell, K., & Simpson, C. (2025). Capturing third space skills and competencies.
The authors reflect on a ground-up mapping activity during the 2024 Third Space Symposium where attendees were invited to articulate the practices and expertise they considered central to their roles in their own terms.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845187
Hinze, M., Altena, S. & Ng, L. E. (2025). What’s Beyond Twitter / X?
The authors, following up on their 2023 work on Twitter as a part of a learning designer’s professional learning network, asked participants in the 2024 Third Space Symposium what their professional platform(s) are now.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17844894
Hodgins, C., & Millgate, N. (2025). To trial or not to trial?
The authors consider the interactive session they facilitated at the 2024 Third Space Symposium on trialling technologies in education as third space practitioners.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845348
Hook, J., Luu, J., Perry, P., Broomhead, F., Cosmos, A., Ahuja, Y., Boniface, B., Sell, C., Sapsed, C., & Junor, A. (2025). Reflecting on educational design practice.
The authors, a group of educational designers, shared reflections on their practice and experience, focussing on professional development, and invited attendees at the 2024 Third Space Symposium to gather evidence of their impact and make third space work more visible.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845108
Hosseini, D. (2025). Pernicious ignorance and the marginalisation of third space professionals.
The author shared a recent article to equip attendees at the 2024 Third Space Symposium to counter negative workplace behaviours and strengthen their positions as third space professionals.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845233
Huynh, M., Van Den Berg, F., Lilje, O., Pozza, L., & Van Ogtrop, F. (2025). Uniting expertise.
The authors present the challenges and opportunities they encountered in integrating AI into education. They report on sharing innovations that they created in Cogniti with participants in the 2024 Third Space Symposium.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845357
Inwood, C. (2025). Research for all in the future university.
The author recounts the vision she shared at the 2024 Third Space Symposium of a university where everyone can conduct research and how having a “blurred” work identity fosters collaborations
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845331
Kan, R., & Hui, E. Y. (2025). Hard-pressed, but not crushed: A disposition of the heart in the space in-between.
The two authors undertook a collaborative autoethnographic study during the 2024 Third Space Symposium to examine agency and identity in the space in-between, taking what they see as the first steps towards developing a critical reflexive dialogue that could probe deep into dispositions of the heart.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845000
Kiddell, J., & Quirk, S. (2025). Co-creating in the third space with friends.
The authors reflect on the events they facilitated in the 2024 Third Space Symposium which invited participants to consider how friendships and work alliances impact identity, collaboration, and success in the third space
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845287
Kirberg, S. (2025). The advantages of networks and alliances for the third space.
The author, who leads or is active in German networks for eLearning/instructional design and LMS platforms, invited participants in the 2024 Third Space Symposium to identify their own formal and informal networks and discuss the benefits they offer.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17844911
Laurence, D., & Hinze, M. (2025). Learning Designers: To define or not to define.
The authors reflect on the issues surfaced in a structured debate on professional competency standards for learning designers that they facilitated with attendees at the 2024 Third Space Symposium.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845238
McIntosh, E., & Nutt, D. (2025). Third space careers visualised.
The authors present some of the findings from their interviews with third space professionals in the UK, Australia and New Zealand on how they visualise their career pathways in the academy
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845397
Mihai, A., & Simpson, C. (2025). (Re)imagining the future of faculty PD.
The authors reflect on their workshop at the 2024 Third Space Symposium where participants looked at patterns of relationships between learning and teaching centres and educational technology teams, and considered strategies for faculty professional development in different contexts.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845413
Molloy, K. (2025). (De)constructing the professional identities of third space practitioners through zine making.
This workshop in the 2024 Third Space Symposium provided participants with a microlesson on exploring counterculture movements and the zine-making process, with provocations for utilising zine-making to construct and reflect on professional identity in the third space.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845014
Murray, D. (2025). Standing out in the third space.
Reflecting on the themes of identity and visibility, the author outlines her request to attendees at the 2024 Third Space Symposium to describe their third space roles and the impact of these roles via quotes, short texts, images, sounds, or metaphors.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845026
Nguyen, T., & Soviero, L. (2025). How sense-making drives successful partnerships.
The authors share two case studies of third space professional experiences where sensemaking and relationship building were crucial to successful educational partnerships. (From the 2024 Third Space Symposium.)
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845298
Parry, M. (2025). I am not a chicken farmer.
The author’s account of the positive experiences and obstacles in his learning design career, so far, shared with participants in the 2024 Third Space Symposium, highlighted the value of trust, collaboration, and co-design
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845306
Reynoldson, M. (2025). From third space to shared space.
The author suggests a speculative “renovation” of the architecture of work roles in the university. (From a facilitated activity and a presentation in the 2024 Third Space Symposium.)
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845419
Sharpe, S., Boreland, J., & Henry, T. (2025). Knowing, doing and showing.
The authors presented this framework for third space professionals to participants at the 2024 Third Space Symposium so that they could apply it in their own contexts, demonstrate value and evidence expertise, and plan future actions.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845035
Simpson, C. (2025). Cover to cover: A thesis radio journey.
The author describes the development and key findings of his thesis on third space professionals and their contributions to learning and teaching in Australian higher education, but on air, interspersed with cover versions
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845343
Simpson, C. (2025). Make your pitch: let’s solve the question of third space titles.
The author encouraged participants in the 2024 Third Space Symposium to address the confusion arising from multiple terms for third space roles by making a pitch for their preferred title and justifying their choice. The term “EdAdvisor” is introduced and explained.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845053
Stothers, J., (2025). What can learning design do?
The author makes the case for learning designers to apply theory to lesson content before applying technology, for better student learning experiences. (A contribution to the 2024 Third Space Symposium.)
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845193
Taleo, W. (2025). What does the third space look like?
The author visualises the third space in tertiary education using art, technology, poetry from GenAI and the sound of a scratching pen
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845059
Toogood, C., & Hale, K. (2025). Empowering professional identity … through third space collaboration.
The authors enjoyed the opportunity to share and discuss with attendees at the 2024 Third Space Symposium a pre-publication copy of their paper “Empowering professional identity and positive outcomes through third space collaboration: A subject lecturer and EAP practitioner case study”.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845065
Tregloan, K., & Iftikhar, N. (2025). Framework for academic developers.
The authors invited participants in the 2024 Third Space Symposium to explore a framework describing academic development activities across different third space spectra, namely: modes of operation; values and goals; and outcomes and Impact.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845078
Turnip, D. S., Cai, J. X., & Khan, Z. (2025). Partners in crime.
The authors wanted to demonstrate to participants at the 2024 Third Space Symposium the value of educational developers as co-leads, and provide strategies for them to foster innovation in their own contexts.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845199
Turnip, D. S., Macaulay, M., McDougall, E., Harris, M., Danish, N., Thite, S., Cai, J. X., Khan, Z., Amarnath, A., Moray, C., & Lawrence, N., (2025). “Inside the third space” podcast series.
The authors share details of a podcast series highlighting the different roles within education design, development, and program teams, and the transformative potential of third space professionals. (From the 2024 Third Space Symposium.)
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845249
Vallis, C., & Taleo, W. (2025). Speculative future university 2050.
The authors invited participants in the 2024 Third Space Symposium to explore speculative future scenarios in higher education.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845430
Veles, N., & Simpson, C. (2025). Explore a new framework to evolve third space relationships.
The authors share the session they facilitated at the 2024 Third Space Symposium where they presented a four-phase framework for the evolution of professional interaction within changing boundary practices and identities
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845319
Verney, C., Vere, K., & Webster-Deakin, T. (2025). Journeys into third space working.
Through three case studies and discussion with participants at the 2024 Third Space Symposium, the authors examined the challenges and opportunities of third space working.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17845209