Pharmacist 'unleashes inner artist' with languages, film and philosophy studies at Chester

Sue Gettins, a qualified and practising pharmacist, first joined the University in 2005 on a Graduate Diploma evening programme for French, where she found a love of cinema and of the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze.

A few years later, she started a Master's in European Languages and Cultures but realised she had more to say than an MA dissertation could accommodate, and moved on to the Masters by Research, having been awarded the 2017 Postgraduate Essay Prize for her essay ‘Mud, Blood and Mutilated Bodies: Towards a Deleuzian reframing of the past in Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles’ by the internationally renowned Studies in French Cinema. She then continued to develop her theory of a possible third space in traumatic response, focusing on forgiveness and revenge in films by the Belgian Dardenne brothers.

A return to the pharmacy was required during the Covid-19 pandemic, before Sue was able to resume her studies, focusing on the fight or flight impulse in films around the Algerian civil war.

Now Sue, who lives in Liverpool, will be graduating at Chester Cathedral in March with a PhD in Modern Languages.

Sue said: “My first degree was a BSc (Hons) in Pharmacy in 1982 from the University of Manchester, where I arrived fresh from my Salford Catholic Convent School, armed with a bunch of nun jokes, a healthy disregard for authority and a working knowledge of the Synoptic Gospels.

“I had always enjoyed languages, studying French and German to O-level at school. When my partner and I bought a house in a sleepy Provençal village in 2000, where nobody spoke English, it became clear that I needed to improve my French if I wanted to be fully immersed in Gallic culture.

“I subsequently did an A-level at night school in Liverpool, followed by a graduate diploma at the University of Chester, topped off with a MRes and finally a PhD. After years of being surrounded by medical and pharmaceutical tomes, it was refreshing to extricate myself from the shackles of scientific dogma and unleash my inner artist, along with a hitherto stifled imagination!”

Sue added her time as a pharmacist has been a “rewarding, challenging and exhilarating career” from her time as a student, when pharmacists compounded many medicines from scratch, to being honoured at Buckingham Palace in recognition of her work in drug misuse. However, she added: “The low point has got to be the time myself and staff were held up at gunpoint, not once, but twice in a week – and by the same guy! First the controlled drugs, then the cash and perfumes; we actually laughed at his sheer audacity!”

During her time at the University of Chester, Sue has taught French language, film and Algerian history on undergraduate programmes and gained a teaching qualification. She has presented her work at local, national and international conferences and contributed to the growing postgraduate community in Languages and Cultures.

According to her examiners, her thesis – titled ‘A history of violence, a decade of silence: Towards a Deleuzian third space between fight and flight in the nomadic texts of post-millennial décennie noire cinema’ – brilliantly observes the traumatic events of the Algerian civil war and its aftermath and the “linkages between Deleuzian theory and precise, closely-observed filmic elements are outstanding throughout.”

Sue added, for her future plans: “My examiner has suggested I turn my thesis into a book, which is certainly an option. I have already done some teaching within the department and would love to do more."

Dr Brenda Garvey, Programme Leader for French at the University of Chester, said: “It has been an absolute pleasure and a whole lot of fun to accompany Sue on her nomadic adventures through film and philosophy. Congratulations on this fantastic achievement.”