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CRCC doctoral researcher contributes to national exhibition on 100 years of broadcasting

From 23 July until 2022 until 31 January 2023, the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford is hosting “Switched on: 100 years of broadcast innovation“. This is he largest exhibition in a series of events organized throughout 2022 by Science Museum Group across Manchester, London and Bradford in collaboration with the BBC to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of broadcasting.

One of Loughborough University’s doctoral students in Communication and Media, Natasha Kitcher, has contributed to the exhibition during a placement and as a freelance curator. Natasha’s doctoral research provides a comparative approach to the history of the Electrophone.

The exhibition looks at different broadcasters, the move from television to streaming, and celebrates some of the key pioneers involved in the development of the medium. Natasha Kitcher has also authored various digital posts around the exhibition, including on Tuning into Childhood, Television and Radio in the Second World War and International Women’s Day.

The exhibition opened in July 2022 and will remain open until January 2023. Tickets are available to book online via the Science Media Museum website.

This Week At Loughborough | 3 October

Black History Month: Keynote from Charlotte Croffie, PVC-EDI

6 October 2022, 5:30pm, CC011 James France and online

This event opens Loughborough University’s celebration of Black History Month, where newly appointed, Pro-Vice Chancellor for EDI, Charlotte Croffie, will talk about her role and her plans for Loughborough.

The talk will begin 6.15pm with light refreshments in the James France Exhibition area from 5.30pm.

A Teams link to watch the talk online will be available closer to the date.

Find out more on the events page

Campus Conservation Walk

3 October 2022, 11am – 12pm, Burleigh Wood

Explore the University woods with Loughborough Greens and University arborist Rich Fenn-Griffin.

As part of LU Arts’ Climate Action campaign, student environmental society Loughborough Greens and Loughborough University’s arborist (tree expert) Rich Fenn-Griffin will lead a pleasant stroll through Burleigh Wood on the edge of campus. Discover the history and ecology of this ancient wood and learn about the local biodiversity of trees and other wildlife.

If you’re new to Loughborough or have never ventured into Burleigh Wood before then this is a great way to familiarise yourself with the nature on your doorstep and get some fresh air and exercise.

Everyone is welcome and no prior knowledge is necessary to join in. Please wear suitable outdoor clothing and footwear.

Find out more on the events page

Happy Mondays: Create your own cyanotype prints (workshop)

3 October 2022, 7pm, Michael Pearson Boardroom, LSU

The Cyanotype, also known as a sun-print, is one of the earliest methods of photography famous for its Prussian blue colour. It is a photographic printing process using iron compounds that produces a dark (cyan) blue print.  Artist Kim Evans will guide you through this magical process. No experience is necessary and all materials will be provided – apart from the leaves and other natural items.

This is a process that embraces simplicity, requires no previous experience and is a great opportunity to spend time working with nature. It is also the perfect chance to unwind during your busy Freshers schedule, get to know our campus and chat to other students while making something to take away and keep.

Find out more on the events page

Globe Café

3 October 2022, 7:30pm-9pm, Edward Herbert Building

The Globe Café happens every Monday in the Edward Herbert Building. It is a chance for international students to meet one another and make friends. Usually there is a different theme each week. Everyone is welcome.

Find out more on the events page

National Theatre Live: Jack Absolute Flies Again

6 October 2022, 7pm-10pm, Cope Auditorium

A rollicking new comedy by Richard Bean (One Man, Two Guvnors) and Oliver Chris (Twelfth Night). National Theatre Live presents Jack Absolute Flies Again, based on Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s ‘The Rivals. After an aerial dog fight, Pilot Officer Jack Absolute flies home to win the heart of his old flame, Lydia Languish. Back on British soil, Jack’s advances soon turn to anarchy when the young heiress demands to be loved on her own, very particular, terms.

Directed by Emily Burns, featuring a cast including Caroline Quentin, Laurie Davidson, Natalie Simpson and Kelvin Fletcher.

Find out more on the events page

LSU EVENTS

LSU SING! KARAOKE NIGHT

3 October 2022, 6:00pm, The Lounge

Grab your mic and cough drops and head to the Lounge to find out who’s the Aretha in your flat and who is just flat….

Find out more on the events page

Bingo Bonanza

3 October 2022, 9:00pm, The Treehouse

Does what it says on the tin. People shout out numbers, and if those numbers are on your piece of paper, you can win some prizes. This isn’t your average bingo night, things can get a bit rowdy. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Find out more on the events page

OUT! FT. Cheryl Hole

3 October 2022, 10:00pm, The Basement

Calling all LGBT+ students and allies: are you coming OUT? Celebrate all things queer at Loughborough’s only LGBT+ club night, right here at LSU!

Find out more on the events page

The Ultimate Uni Survival Guide

4 October 2022, 2:00pm, The Treehouse

We’ve been lucky enough to work with some incredible experts and thought leaders in their field on of these events, but we wanted this one to be a bit different.

The Ultimate Uni Survival guide is hosted entirely by current students or recent grads. It’s a warts and all, no nonsense conversation and Q&A about what being a student right now is really like.

We’ll be diving in on topics around social life, studying and the highs and lows of student life. We’ll be exploring the top tips, tricks and hacks from people that are living the Loughborough Life!

Find out more on the events page

Sing Off

4 October 2022, 6:00pm, The Basement

One of Loughborough’s weirdest and most prestigious traditions. It’s time to represent your Hall by chanting your way to success. Loudest wins. Bring Strepsils.

Find out more on the events page

Outdoor Cinema

6 October 2022, 6:00pm, Union Lawn

Grab your popcorn and head out to the lawn to watch a movie with us… Reveal coming soon!

Find out more on the events page

Quiz Night

6 October 2022, 6:00pm, JCs

You may be smart but are you brainy enough to compete against the whole of Loughborough? Find out in our big Quiz Night and show off your niche knowledge of horoscopes and world flags to impress your new flat mates.

Find out more on the events page

Freshers’ Ball 2022

8 October 2022, 8pm, The Lounge

Freshers has come to an end, but there’s still time for one more party! We’re putting on the biggest night of music, dancing and pure vibes to welcome you into the Loughborough family for good.

There will also be a casino, funfair rides, a photo booth and MORE – you won’t want to miss this one.

Find out more on the events page

7 Simple Steps to Being a Sustainable Student

Whether you are a fresher starting a new chapter, or a student coming back to Loughborough, deciding how you live your life is crucial. It is not yet clear what our sustainable future will look like, but with emerging technologies and the movement to cleaner fuel sources, many people now look to a post fossil fuel world – including businesses. So why is it important for you and how can you get involved?

In short, sustainability looks to protect our natural environment, human and ecological health, while driving innovation and not compromising our way of life. Sustainability skills and environmental awareness is becoming a priority in many corporate jobs as businesses seek to adhere to new legislation and reduce their environmental impacts.

To help you settle in and support the sustainable Loughborough community, we have created 7 Steps to being sustainable at Loughborough.  These 7 quick, easy, and everyday steps, and the further information they link to, will help you and us manage our everyday climate and environmental impact.

STEP 1: Stay in the Loop

This one is super easy and will help you stay up to date on everything we are doing on campus.

• Simply give us a follow on our social media. Instagram, Facebook & Twitter
• Check out our blog ‘Sustainably Speaking’
• Keep informed through our Website
• Join us at our monthly Sustainability Coffee and Chat Drop-In Sessions. Check our social media for when and where!

STEP 2: Reduce, Reuse, Donate, Recycle

The University works tirelessly with both staff and students to reduce what we bring onto campus and how we dispose of what we have. We have several different campaigns and plenty of information available to help our staff and Students make informed choices whilst here on campus and out in the community.

1. Carry a re-usable – Support the Ditch the Disposables campaign by carrying a reusable cup, water bottle, and even lunch box.
2. Donate – Your unwanted clothes in the British Heart Foundation Banks across campus, most halls have one so there are plenty of opportunity to give back. Support the Give ‘n’ Go campaign in halls during move-out period, or the Choose to Reuse campaign for those who live in town.
3. Know your bins – The university works hard, with both staff and students, to manage our waste, seeking opportunities to reduce waste, maximise reuse, increase recycling, and divert waste from landfill at every opportunity.  To help you dispose of waste and recycling correctly, we have plenty of signage around the campus and in halls as part of our ‘waste… let’s get it sorted’ campaign which encourages ‘right stuff, right bin…’ as this helps reduce contamination and improves recycling rates.  We also have our A-Z of recycling which provides further guidance on specific waste items, and if you need further advice you can contact us through waste@lboro.ac.uk

STEP 3: Reduce your Energy

We all know saving energy is pretty straight forward, if it’s off its not using energy – simple! So here are a few simple things you can do in halls to do your bit to reduce your hall’s carbon footprint. 

1. Don’t Standby… It’s Better OFF to Switch off before you leave your room, help us reduce our energy use as we strive to make the campus achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
2. Dress suitably. If it’s a little cooler than you like, close windows and pop a jumper on before you hit the heating dial! (and the reverse if it’s too hot!)
3. If you’re in halls, ask your Campus and Sustainability rep if you can host an energy black-out to earn points for your hall in the Student Green League!

STEP 4: Choose How You Move

The University is committed to creating a healthy, sustainable environment that is accessible for everyone. We aim to make travelling to, from and around campus better for everyone and ease pressure on the environment at the same time. The potential implications for congestion and air pollution from traffic are significant.

• Try walking – we have a lovely green campus
• Try Cycling – it’s the easiest way to get around campus and not only does it help reduce our carbon impact, but it helps you keep fit and healthy and there are plenty of bike racks.
• Try Public Transport – the campus shuttle is free whilst on site and, for a small fee, a good way to get in and out of town

STEP 5: Shop Sustainably

Consumerism drives a lot of the environmental issues we face today, making some small changes can have a big impact.

1. Shop at the Green Pea – the Students Union pop up sustainability shop promoting sustainable products and reuse
2. Find local businesses and community initiatives that help promote a circular economy.
3. Consider the materials used in clothes you buy. Fast fashion is a huge polluter.
4. Take your bag for life when you hit the shops.

STEP 6: Try a student society

LSU have loads of societies for you to get involved in. Check out our top 3 Sustainable societies:

1. Landscape and Gardening Society – You will learn planting skills from master gardeners and most importantly spend time socialising with open/like minded students every Friday afternoon!
2. Veg Society – Aims to provide a safe space for people to chat, relax, and have fun. Welfare of the environment and animals around the world, as well as the happiness of the vegetarians and vegans at Loughborough University.
3. Loughborough Greens – A space for students who empathise with the current climate catastrophes, seek climate justice and are eager to prevent further loss of biodiversity and ecological destruction.

STEP 7: Get involved

There are plenty of ways to get involved in an activity that benefits the environment around you, there are several opportunities and ways to do this…

1. Come to one of our events –– which we will promote via our social media
2. Support your Hall Campus and Sustainability rep’s activities if living in halls and get involved in the Student Green League!
3. Sign up as a Sustainability Ambassador – email enviroassist@lboro.ac.uk to find out more
4. Volunteer with Action within the local community

The 7 steps above helps support the University’s Environmental Policy

This article is in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities & Communities. To read more click here.

CRCC to host the 8th conference of the International Journal of Press/Politics

The Centre for Research in Communication and Culture is delighted to host the eighth conference of The International Journal of Press/Politics, an interdisciplinary journal for the analysis and discussion of the role of the press and politics in a globalized world. After two years in which the conference was successfully run online, this year the conference returns to Loughborough University’s Holywell Park Conference Centre. Seventy scholars from many different countries and disciplines will be present.

The conference will open on the 21st of September with a public keynote speech by Professor Maria Repnikova (Georgia State University), titled “Advancing Research on Communication under Authoritarianism”. It will then continue on Thursday and Friday with an intense program of panels spanning across various key contemporary topics around the relationship between media and politics in an international context.

The full program of the conference is available here.

A different kind of diversity

By Lara Skelly, Open Research Manager for Data and Methods

A few years ago, I submitted a methodological paper to a discipline-specific journal. The reviewers were not kind, one of them saying “There is no narrative of the findings.” Well naturally not, as the findings were the methodology I was describing. While entirely likely that I presented the purpose of the paper poorly, being a freshly minted PhD with limited publication experience, I remember the confusion I felt around the limited expectation of the reviewers.

Methodological papers are still a rarity, despite the slightly increased popularity that I saw during the COVID lockdowns. Most researchers that I encounter still see the typical paper of introduction-literature review-methods-results-discussion as the only format worth putting out into the world. And as is the case in any one-size-fits-all approach, much is lost by this homogeneity.

Research and the people who work in research are anything but homogenous. I have seen all manner of opinions of what counts for science, what data are, and ways of engaging with their craft. I’ve known researchers who are interested in the broad and the narrow, the individual and the collective, the future and the past. Boxing this variety into a homogenous communication is in this day-and-age, down-right daft.

We are in a wonderful age that strives to see diversity as a celebration. The time has come to celebrate the diversity in our research as well. To recognise that the typical paper format is perfectly fine, but researchers are not restricted to it. Sharing code, protocols, data, any of the ingredients of our research is one way that we can live our diversity, upholding a value that has become global.

Thanks to Katie Appleton and Gareth Cole for insightful comments on early drafts.

Professor Maria Repnikova to give keynote speech on "Advancing Research on Communication under Authoritarianism"

On the 21st of September 2022, the Centre for Research in Communication and Culture will host Professor Maria Repnikova (Georgia State University) for a talk on “Advancing Research on Communication under Authoritarianism”. Professor Repnikova’s talk will be open to the public and will also serve as the keynote speech for the eighth annual conference of The International Journal of Press/Politics, a leading interdisciplinary journal for the analysis and discussion of the role of the media and politics in a globalized world.

Date: 21 September 2022
Time: 5:00pm
Location: Brockington Building, room U0.20

An abstract of Professor Repnikova’s talk and a short biography follow.

In the current moment of resurgent authoritarianism and democratic fragility, it is timely to reflect on creative approaches to researching political communication in non-democratic contexts. Drawing on past research on media politics in China and Russia, as well as on the current project on China’s diplomatic footprint in Africa, and on other studies in the field, this talk calls for de-essentializing our treatment of political communication under autocracy. Complicating labels like “digital authoritarianism” and “digital iron curtain,” this talk attempts to showcase the dynamism and complexity of political communication practices carried out in and by non-democratic regimes. Specifically, the analysis will interrogate the binary of democracy and autocracy by delving into the evolving repertoire of creative mediatized expression in China and Russia, as well as by exploring some surprising areas of convergence and divergence in how China and the West practice public diplomacy. As part of this reflection, the talk will also address some analytical and methodological tools for expanding our study of political communication to non-democratic contexts, including the importance of comparative case studies and grounded ethnographic fieldwork, as well as the challenges of doing such work in the current political climate.

Professor Maria Repnikova is an expert on Chinese political communication, and an Associate Professor in Global Communication at Georgia State University. She has written widely on China’s media politics, including propaganda, critical journalism, digital nationalism and soft power. Dr. Repnikova is the author of the award-winning book, Media Politics in China: Improvising Power Under Authoritarianism (Cambridge 2017), as well as the recent, Chinese Soft Power (Cambridge Global China Element Series). Her public writings have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and the Atlantic, amongst other publications. Other than working on China, Repnikova does comparative work on information politics in China and Russia. Most recently, she has been researching and completing a monograph on Chinese soft power in Africa, with a focus on Ethiopia. Dr. Repnikova holds a doctorate in politics from Oxford University where she was a Rhodes Scholar. In the past, she was a Wilson Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center (2020-2021), a visiting fellow at the African Studies Center at Beijing University (2019), and a post-doctoral fellow at the Annenberg School for Communication (2014-2016), amongst other positions.

South Asian Heritage Month: Sri Lanka

Loughborough University PhD Awards 2022

Written by Jaydeep Bhadra & Alex Christiansen

Hello everyone!

We celebrated the Loughborough University PhD Awards 2022 on 29^th of July 2022 to recognize the achievements and contributions of Doctoral Researchers (DRs) and staff to the University’s DR community. Following a bit of restitution, it is long due for us to reflect on the event.

First off, congratulations are in order to all the winners and nominees, whether you were able to join us on the night or not. Also, a big thank you is owed to all the wonderful individuals and teams who nominated them! We received a total of 142 nominations, a number which reflects both the amazing work done by doctoral researchers and the appreciation felt by those who benefit.

If we had one goal with this year’s event, it was to make it a proper celebration of you, our colleagues and friends. With help from the doctoral college and the LU events team, what started as a small-scale event quickly became drinks, food, banners, fancy trophies and live jazz music in the company of 120 colleagues from both London and the Midlands. We leave it up to our attendees to measure the success here, but we trust that no less will be required in the future! If you have been enjoying the pictures we have included here and would like to see more from the evening, the full album is available here.

During the event, we presented eight PhD awards to Doctoral Researchers and three to staff who contributed to the doctoral community. We also had the honour of hosting three awards celebrating Open Research Excellence on behalf of the Open Research Committee, a partnership we hope will continue going forward.

Professor Steve Christie, APVC (Doctoral College) said “These awards show the fantastic range of activities and depth of the abilities of our Doctoral Researchers. After a few years of curtailed events, this was a great celebration for our Doctoral Community. With the new University strategy having research and innovation and student experience as two of its aims, the Doctoral College is at the core of helping to deliver the strategy.” 

Finally, thank you dearly to all our presenters, both for being part of the event and for recognising the importance of doctoral research to Loughborough University. Special thanks to the Vice Chancellor, Professor Nick Jennings, and the APVC of the Doctoral College, Professor Steve Christie, for opening the show and for helping with our secret extra-awards at the end.

And speaking of awards, it is high time we give people what they most likely came here to see: nominees and winners.

If you were nominated for a PhD Award and were not able to join us on the 29^th, you are still owed a certificate of nomination. As volunteers, we don’t have the capacity to send all of these out, but you can get your certificate at the Graduate House. We also know that a lot of people would like to thank the people who nominated them, but as a rule of thumb we consider that information confidential and likely to skew people’s motivations for nominating. If you nominated someone, you are of course more than welcome to let them know.

What follows is now finally the list of winners and short-listed nominees for the PhD Awards 2022. Thank you for your patience and for your continued support, and congratulations once again to everyone we are about to mention.

The event consisted of a drink’s reception, followed by a three-course dining experience and the prize giving. Professor Steve Christie gave the opening remarks followed by a welcome address by Professor Nick Jennings, Vice-Chancellor. The event was attended by 120 guests comprising of DRs and staffs. Special guests include Professor Nick Jennings, Professor Steve Rothberg, Professor Steve Christie, Professor Rachel Thompson, Dr Duncan Stanley, Dr Katryna Kalawsky, Dr Manuel Alonso, and Dr Rebecca Ginger. Alex Christiansen and Jaydeep Bhadra hosted the evening and the award ceremony.

The criteria of each award with the shortlisted nominees and winners are below. Well done and a huge congratulations to all! We look forward for your continued contribution the DR community. All the best for your futures,

Awards for Doctoral Researchers

1. Contribution to Knowledge – Presented by Professor Steve Rothberg (Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research)

This award is given to someone who has made significant contributions to their field of study, whether through articles, conference papers, artistic presentations, or any other field-appropriate format. 

The winner is Zhi Hu! Zhi has contributed important knowledge in his field of work, the tunnel construction industry and the carbon reduction agenda. Due to the results of his research into low carbon sprayed concrete, HS2 stands to lower their carbon footprint by tens of thousands of tons of CO₂ which is a significant achievement of which he should be immensely proud.

The shortlisted nominees were Anna Tholen/ Aravind Kanna Kundumani Janarthanan/ James Tinkler/ Lei Ye/ Maria Goodwin/ Priyanka Ghosh/ Renee Karunungan

• DR Teaching Excellence – Presented by Professor Rachel Thomson

This award is given to a doctoral researcher who has demonstrated innovative and impactful teaching capability in any capacity. From labs to lectures, seminars to supervision, this person has gone above and beyond in their role as an educator.

The winner is Theodoros Marinopoulos! The nominations highlighted his “energetic approach”, his “deep theoretical knowledge of his field” and his “dedication and efficiency” in both online and hybrid teaching.

The shortlisted nominees were Carla Cannone/ Daniel Miramontes-Subillaga/ Ghazaleh Mazaheri-Tehrani/ Kuldeep Singh Sodha/ Samantha Rowland/ Theresa Wege/ Ximing Fan

• Contribution to Doctoral Researcher Community – Presented by Professor Steve Christie

This award is given to a doctoral researcher who is particularly active outside of their research-centered activities. Their contribution will have substantially impacted the doctoral researcher community at Loughborough University across either of the campuses. 

The winner is Artemi Tonikidou! Artemi runs the SSN book club, and it is through her dedication to this project that she wins this award. Her nominations speak of her outstanding work creating this monthly community and how it offers a “healthy distraction to the, sometimes stressful, research work”.

The shortlisted nominees were Alizee Cambier/ Evelina Palkanoglou/ Felicity Slocombe/ Izabela Lackowska/ Josh Thompson/ Richlove Frimpong/ Will Chartier

• Contribution to the Wider Community – Presented by Dr Duncan Stanley

This award is given to a doctoral researcher who is particularly active outside of their research-centric activities. Their contribution will have been outside of Loughborough or to the wider Loughborough family, including Loughborough Students Union activities, volunteering, or any other contribution to the wider community.

The winner is Ruby Appiah-Campbell! Ruby founded the charity Life Beacon with the goal of “educating and mentoring young people”. Her nominations describe her work as “remarkable” and highlight the positive feedback already received from schools.

The shortlisted nominees were Angharad Evans/ David Whitfield/ Felicity Slocombe/ Festus Adeyemi/ Iman Khan/ Ishan Nadkarni/ Viktoriia Startseva

• Sub-Warden of the Year – Presented by Dr Manuel Alonso

The Sub-warden of the year award is given to a doctoral researcher who has gone above and beyond in the role of Sub-Warden, and who has used this role to enhance the quality of life for students in their respective hall.

The winner is Wole Adaramoye! His nominations highlighted the degree to which his work has made a difference to the students in his hall and described him as “hard-working” and “incredibly supportive” with a “friendly and charismatic personality” and note that “he serves as an example” to all his contemporaries.

The shortlisted nominees were Huyen Le/ Nicolette Formosa/ Omeiza Haruna/ Priyanka Ghosh/ Sam Faulkner/ Tunmike Olowe

• Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Champion of the Year – Presented by Dr Katryna Kalawsky

This award is given to a doctoral researcher who has dedicated time to champion equity, diversity, and inclusion in the community through their work and activities. This wide-ranging award recognizes work done to increase awareness of or access for groups such as LGBTQ+, BAME, International doctoral researchers, parents & caretaker, or any other group of doctoral researchers. 

The winner is Rhianna Garrett! Rhianna recently joined the University, but has already made invaluable contributions as an EDI advocate and leader. Her nominations highlight her awareness and attention to structural issues as well as her tireless efforts to affect change both inside and outside of Loughborough University.

The shortlisted nominee was Roman Lukianchuk.

• Team of the Year – Presented by Dr Rebecca Ginger

This award is given to doctoral researchers (and staff) who have collaborated to plan a successful event, series of events, research group or other endeavor. This will have had a positive impact on the doctoral researcher experience and/or wellbeing. Their work is to the benefit of the entire community at Loughborough University.

The winner is Midlands Graduate School (MGS) Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) Conference Team! They received nominations from both our doctoral researchers and staff members who wanted to celebrate this teams’ hard work and dedication to produce an excellent conference.

The shortlisted nominee were Digital Concrete 2022 Organising Committee and delivery team/ Open Research Collective/ PhD SSN/ Research team from the Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering/ AACME DR Rep Team/ The Covid testing centre team/ Water-WISER CDT

• Open Research Excellence – Presented by Theresa Wege

This award looks to celebrate Doctoral Researchers who excelled in learning about, conducting and promoting open research. Open research means to strive for transparency and reproducibility, but also to advocate for new and innovative ways to conduct and communicate research, to engage with non-traditional sources of knowledge and to seek collaboration with relevant communities or societal actors in your research.

The winners are

• Petra Salaric for “creating interactive content on social media and in a temporary exhibition that bridges the gap between academia and the public” 
• Beth Woollacott for “authoring a practitioner-facing guidebook on textbook and multimedia design which was in part informed by her own research”
• Lars Claussen for “promoting open access publishing and transparent and reproducible methodology with industry partners

The shortlisted nominees were Jiayin Guan/ Serena Rossi/ Aakash Bansal​/ Carla Cannone​/ Alessio Norrito​

• Doctoral Researchers Presidents’ Award of the Year – Presented by Professor Nick Jennings (Vice-Chancellor and President of Loughborough University)

The Doctoral Researchers President’s award is awarded to a doctoral researcher who has been a central figure in the community and has made a significant impact through their research and community engagement. To be nominated for this award a doctoral researcher will have made a sizable contribution to the research culture in their academic school, not only proving themselves to be a great researcher, but also leaving their mark at the institution.

The winner is Aakash Bansal! His nomination said “his PhD was outstanding. Beyond this his all-round exceptional performance includes supporting undergraduate, masters, and other PhD students; investigating faulty laboratory equipment; being a sub-warden; supporting postgraduate taught admissions; Volunteering with STEM outreach and so much more (I would prefer to write 1500 words rather than 50!)”.

The shortlisted nominees were Carla Cannone/ Mark Hutson/ Megan Constable/ Petra Salaric/ Tasha Kitcher/ Xin Yee Tai

Awards for Staff members

1. Contribution to DR Development – Presented by Alex Christiansen

This award is given to a member of staff who has enhanced doctoral researchers’ personal and professional growth, whether through organising events, lending a hand, or just being an overall ally to the doctoral community throughout the year.

The winner is Dr Matt Vidal! His nomination credits him with transforming the DR experience at Loughborough University London, bringing about a marked increase in PRES results and general DR satisfaction. His contributions are described as “extensive”, spanning from creating a stronger sense of community to providing more opportunities for DR development.

The shortlisted nominees were Dr Hemaka Bandulasena​/ Holly Collison-Randall​/ Lennie Foster/ Professor Liz Peel​/ Peter Godfrey​/ Professor B. Vaidhyanathan​/ Professor Jeremy Coupland​/ Professor Sabina Mihelj/ Berkeley Young​/ Dr Cristian Tileaga​/ Dr Diwei Zhou​/ Dr Jie Meng​/ Dr Kirti Ruikar​/ Dr Duncan Stanley​/ Professor Hilary Robinson

• Supervisory Team of the Year – Presented by Alex Christiansen

This award celebrates the people who support doctoral researchers on their often-challenging journeys and is given to a team that has gone above and beyond in that capacity. Without teams like these, a PhD would be impossible.

The winner is Dr Dong Li, Professor Jiyin Liu & Dr Wendy Jiao. Their nominations highlight the remarkable level of support, both in terms of research and pastoral care that they give to their students. They are commended for creating a safe and encouraging space to conduct research even in difficult times.

The shortlisted nominees were Silvia Costa, Emily Petherick, Will Johnson​/ Professor Will Whittow, Dr Chinthana Panagamuwa​/ Jin Xuan​/ Dr Mhairi Morris, Dr Liz Akam​/ Professor Lee Bosher, Dr. Ksenia Chmutina/ Professor Hilary Robinson, Professor Marsha Meskimmon​/ Kemefasu Ifie, Nina Michaelidou, John Cadogan/ Julie Stirrup, Rachel Sandford

• Pete Beaman Unsung Hero Award – Presented by Jaydeep Bhadra

This award is given to a staff member who has positively contributed to the social and/or research experiences of doctoral researchers. This person deserves more credit than they currently get, and we wish to thank them for all their efforts behind the scenes. The award is dedicated to Pete Beaman who won the award in 2018 and is the paragon of an unsung hero

The winner is Berkeley Young! His nominations described him as quite simply “the glue that holds the department together”, highlighting his “positive, kind, and caring” personality and showing appreciation for his many contributions. As one nomination puts it, and I quote, “we are incredibly fortunate to have him in our corner”.

The shortlisted nominees were Dawn Spencer​/ Jessica Noske-Turner​/ Phil Sadler/ Tim Coles/ Tom Carslake/ Tracey Preston

During the event, Special Recognition for services rendered to the Doctoral Community was given to Dr Duncan Stanley and Professor Steve Rothberg.

Duncan spent close to seven years in the Doctoral College and was a well-known figure among the DRs. Throughout some incredibly tumultuous years, he has been a rare constant at the Doctoral College and has contributed immensely to the development opportunities and training that are available to DRs at the university. Duncan helped to build the ladder and to anchor it solidly to the ground for many DRs. Dr Duncan Stanley was felicitated with the special recognition award to recognize his commitment and services to our Doctoral Research community.

Professor Steve Rothberg will be stepping down from his role as Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University in September 2022. Steve is many things to many people; a peerless professional, an irreplaceable asset, a survivor, but above all he is endlessly kind and supportive of those around him. In his role as Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research, he has been instrumental in leading the University’s research strategy to new heights, culminating in an outstanding REF result we should all be exceptionally proud of. In addition, he has always been a staunch ally of Doctoral Researchers, listening to and amplifying their voices. It is for these, and many other reasons, that Steve deserves our recognition and appreciation this evening. On behalf of the President’s Team and the Doctoral College community, the VC presented Professor Steve Rothberg with a special award for his service and thanked him. The Doctoral College also made a donation in Steve’s name to the Anthony Nolan Trust.

The event was organised by the DR Presidential team, Alex Christiansen (DR President 2021/22) and Jaydeep Bhadra (DR vice-President 2021/22) with support from Professor Steve Christie and Professor Rebecca Ginger in the Doctoral College, the events team led by Claire Fletcher, the catering team led by Debbie Price. The event was hosted at the West Park Teaching Hub, Loughborough University on 29^th of July 2022 and was made possible by the Research Culture Fund provided by the Doctoral College. We are immensely grateful for all the dignitaries and guests who attended the evening!

Happy Anniversary Fruit Routes: 10 years on

Guest blog from artist and Fruit Routes founder, Anne-Marie Culhane.

In May 2022, we celebrated 10 years of the Fruit Routes- with the first fruit trees having been planted early in Winter 2012. The day to mark the 10 year anniversary successfully coincided with the Transitions Festival, programmed by the Institute of Advanced studies. This felt like an ideal moment to mark and celebrate the Fruit Routes, as well as direct it from being led by myself alongside the sustainability and gardens team, into the hands of a steering group consisting of university and academic staff, students and the local community.  

This mini-festival of the Fruit Routes was titled ‘In Your Hands’, and included many of the elements that have shaped the Fruit Routes’ identity : walks, talks, performances, participation, foraged food and interdisciplinary, ecological and experimental events. Visitors ranged in age, with students and staff among school children and community elders. Both newcomers and those who have been visiting events for many years joined to celebrate the anniversary.  

“For me, the most exciting part was the moth trapping with Graham and Anona Finch.  On this cool May evening, the moth traps created a pocket of light that lit up the tree canopies and allowed us to have a glimpse at the active invertebrate life that calls this time their day. It’s amazing how beautiful some of the species are considering they spend their lives flying around in the dark!“

Rich Fenn Griffin- Campus Arborist

Tuesday began by teaching the students an eco-activism module from a range of disciplines, with some interesting discussions. Tutor, Fred Dalmasso, led on the intersection of art and activism, covering the opportunities (or lack of them) for collaborative and interdisciplinary working on their courses. The students then walked across campus and took part in the afternoon’s activities on Fruit Routes.

After lunch we hosted the Branching Out UK Treescapes project. This is a project which looks at the social and cultural value of city trees alongside biophysical data . Patrick Ryan, a storyteller, used this event to trial a tree story walk which he will use in different UK cities as part of the Branching Out project. After the walk, students stayed on with Elizabeth Lovely, from the University’s Storytelling Academy, to listen and share their own stories of trees.

Martha Worshing from LAGS (Landscaping and Gardening Society) has been the steady force behind this remarkable and inspirational food growing and biodiversity project.  We spent some time foraging and gathering: nettles, marigold, lavender, lemon balm, ox-eye daisies, clover, chives, garlic mustard, wild garlic, elder flower, rose petals, and jars of campus honey. 

On Wednesday, the foraged goods were delivered to chef Rose Bunce, who made wild cheese from yoghurt, and used the different plants to coat the cheese balls so that people can get a better taste of their flavour! We cooked together with Jo Jennings, a member of the Fruit Routes Steering Group. 

“One of the highlights for me was prepping the afternoon tea treats with Rose and Anne-Marie, using nettles, marigold, wild garlic, and other foraged ingredients to coat cheese balls and decorate cakes.”

Jo Jennings- Member of the Fruit Routes Steering Group

Thursday morning started with talks from Marsha Meskimmon (Director of the Institute of Advanced Studies), Chris Fremantle (Grays School of Art, Aberdeen) myself, David Bell (RADAR at Loughborough University), and Jo Shields (ex-Sustainability Manager), talking about the context of the Fruit Routes within the wider art world, feminist eco-art, the university, and Loughborough town. You can read more about Chris’ talk and experience at the Fruit Routes here.

After this, a panel of Rich Fen-Griffin (campus arborist/tree expert), Paul Conneally (local resident and Fruit Routes poet), Gillian Whiteley (ex-professor of Fine Art), and Alena Pfoser (lecturer) took centre stage.   

I talked about the interdisciplinary nature of Fruit Routes and the importance of levels of care and inclusivity in the project.  I also talked about my surprise at how little progress has been made nationally to shift to more localised and sustainable food systems in ten years. When carbon footprint of food production is so key to reducing carbon emissions, its deeply disappointing that our food systems aren’t being radically reconfigured – in terms of reducing wasted fruit (thousands of tonnes in the UK go unharvested) and maximising the diversity of what we can grow locally in shared spaces, commercial, and private space.   

After this, we took a walk through the Fruit Routes whilst engaging in discussions about the planting, permaculture, project design, and the future of the project. We then arrived back at the Barefoot Orchard with tables set for our Wild Tea. Rose’s food, elderflower cordial, and campus foraged tea (UniT) were laid out. There was a chance to imagine our futures in a cup of campus foraged tea using the art of reading tea leaves. The activity referencing this ancient art was curated by myself and Paul Conneally. People happily shared stories and chose songs to reflect their visions.

“We met some local schoolgirls who walked through the campus and came across the Fruit Routes outdoor tea event at the Barefoot Orchard. They stayed chatting and eating as we welcomed them and showed them the art of reading tea leaves!”

Jo Jennings- Member of the Fruit Routes Steering Group

Later on, a yurt (a large circular tent originally from Central Asia) was prepared for Gillian Whiteley’s performance, ‘Spelling the green knowledge”. An audience gathered for an intense improvisation of words, sound, image making and movement. This was followed by a procession out into the orchard, leading to a ceremonial handing over of the Fruit Routes project to Marsha and David as custodians. Gifts of tiny origami seeds made by artist, and Fruit Routes collaborator, Jo Daccombe were thrown like confetti and gifted to everyone.

The project itself is situated in part on the ‘fertile edges’ of the campus grounds, in close physical proximity to the local community. In ecology, ‘edges’ are the dynamic place where two different ecosystems meet, which brings greater diversity of species. These edges are also the ones that hold the least economic value for the University, but offer an easy to access meeting point for people. It is this sense of community and feeling of being ‘at home’ within the Fruit Routes that makes this project remain so incredibly special 10 years on.

Keep an eye out for future Fruit Routes events!

This project is in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 15: Life on Land. Read more here.

New DARG site on its way!

We are currently designing a new site for DARG. More soon!

Tips and tricks to acing your GCSE Options

Hi, my name is Georgia and I am just about to start my final year of studying a Psychology with Criminology degree at Loughborough. I understand that choosing what you want to study at GCSE can be a tricky thing to do. There are so many confusing thoughts about your future and how best to make your decision. With that in mind, I would like to give you my tips on a few of the popular questions you are asking!  

How do I choose my GCSEs? 

Every school has their own individual process when it comes to students choosing your GCSE options. It can be a daunting time with such a big decision, but your teachers and advisers are there to help you make the best choice for you! 

The general process involves narrowing down the subjects you currently study, to around 8-11 subjects (depending on the school). It is worth checking with your school how many subjects they expect you to choose and if they have any conditions. For example, all schools will require you to take GCSE Maths, English and  Science. Some schools also ask that you take at least one Modern Foreign Language, so check with your school before you decide!  

What GCSEs should I choose?  

Over the course of your school years, you will have studied a tonne of different subjects! This can make it really difficult to narrow down as you might enjoy more than 11.  

Pick what you enjoy 

The most important thing to think about when making this choice is to pick the subjects you like the most. GCSEs are all about expanding your knowledge and learning about your favourite subjects in more depth, it’s therefore really important that you enjoy these subjects. You will be studying for your GCSEs for 2 years, so you don’t want to get bored.  

Don’t just pick the same subjects as your friends  

Don’t make your choices based on what your friends want to do. As fun as it is to be in lessons with your friends, you don’t want to be stuck studying subjects you don’t like, just because your friend wanted you to. You will see your friends outside of lessons, so you won’t miss out on anything if you pick different GCSE subjects!  

This is your choice and your choice only!  

This is your decision, and the choices of others shouldn’t play a part in the process. Don’t let your friends decide your GCSEs and equally, don’t let your parents decide for you either. Only you know what you truly enjoy, and therefore what GCSE options would be best for you. By all means check in with parents, guardians and teachers and see what ideas they have, but do not feel pressured or obliged to take their advice if you really don’t agree.  

Do my GCSE choices and results affect my future studies?  

In short, YES!  

Your GCSE choices often affect which subjects you can study at post-16 level (A Levels, BTECs etc.). Often schools require a certain baseline level of knowledge for students to be able to study particular subjects in sixth form/college, so you might need to have taken that subject or a similar one at GCSE. Keep this in mind when choosing your GCSE subjects – are there any subjects that you could see yourself studying as an A Level or BTEC.  

Adding to this, sixth forms and colleges sometimes require that you attain certain grades to progress to the next years after GCSEs. It is therefore really important to focus during your GCSE years and work hard to get good grades!  

Despite what some people believe, Universities DO look at your GCSE grades. They also often have minimum GCSE grade requirements much like they do with A Levels. These minimum requirements are often in English, Maths and Science. For example, Loughborough currently requires a minimum of Grade 6 in GCSE English Language and Maths for some of its courses and a minimum Grade 4 for some other courses.  

So, my final thoughts…  

I hope this has given you some things to think about and I wish you the best of luck with whatever you decide. Just remember it is ok to not have things all figured just yet just take your time and do what is best for you. 

Loughborough successfully pilots ‘Freedom School’ across both campuses to enhance anti-racist and decolonial knowledge and increase inclusion for BAME Doctoral Researchers

Plasma Drawing Chamber and Bosun’s Mate of the Inbuilt from GreenBox in the Rough

Edwin VanGoder

Cyber drawing as laser light touches on plasma, that state of equilibrium very hot or cold by which the photon originally “humankinds’ measure of light” seems in a measure quoted in Duchamp’s Why Not Sneeze… where a thermometer in vicinity of marble cubes facing a wire grid as their time space metaphor is esconced with honey comb or virgin honey ie the perhaps sugar cubes in their marble weight surprise like light magnetic fields wrapped around each other in quantum leaps from light to heavy: an ensconced link here to Ars Technicia article on such magnetic field is preserved here … my meaning is to compare the Greenbox as though the flash of light to green shift on Horizon at equator is implicate to the wholeness of new world orders in drawing research in the dawning cosmology. Similarly one might think of this as a kind of daughter field as when Ingres references works in which so much time is invested in a portrait a child grows to age and is removed from picture… or Again: The early Szeeman -Hopps curatorial venture of artistic igloos places creative limbo in the temperatures becoming. Seeking the best one does not want the Rube Cubed to be too useful!.. time melts away our narcissism and we become narcissists assistants in the kaleidoscope of evolving dimensions of world orders on a collective vision. In the drawing the idea of an implicate whole is fielded to single diagonal facets at a grid face which are the subject dimension each to the facet extended in length by polygon representing dimension ie a five sided figure via base representing 4 dimensions similar to the way a century number is a digit removed from its description as in year 1340 of fourteenth century … Heraclitus perhaps playing with this in his Great Year which seemingly found its way into “light year”… In a way the drawing references the way I learned mathematics of a sort in an architects office via simple act of ripping a piece of paper by rolling a cone about the paper crease which takes in the slack of an initial field in to the lengthening gesture…
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/06/behold-the-magnetar-natures-ultimate-superweapon/

Dimensioning Experience

Edwin VanGorder

The New Dimensions of Drawing Experience
Waking City Minute Drawing to Cosmic Second Walking through Minutia of the Magnetar as Minotaur upon Space Time

The Magnetar has all the elements for understanding a new order of physics by considering mathematical dimensions: we can begin by considering the Webb Scope currently cooling down to coldest temperature as part of its focusing prelude.
Cosmologically the initial orders of the Big Bangs first seconds created gravitational fields, magnetic and radiation phenomena which interacted with slight cooling so that the quantum turn of event defining motion itself met via cooling at slight discrepancies and so small differences bonded offset in their reading or chain mathematics by which the elements of a plasma or continuous rhythm are fielded to these interference’s as a preliminary time space eventua.
The magnetars or comic ticking neutron stars meeting a weakly generated magnetic field which folds on itself to quantum like leap from magnetic amplification as virtual dimensions make this evident to speed and spin replacing heat… backtracking, if the flash events in which fields collapse the crust to new gamma ray outburst the image of the big bang is reviewed to speed and spin ie mathematical origins behind our familiar heat wave view of big bang. The equal energy distribution of space itself behind space time then can be see in relation to the offset of space time as harboring similar effects as the magnetar eventua in the ontology of our transitive vision by which the stretching out of atoms like the weak single atom cloud around a black hole and its weak copies of information are in that stretching out to a vibrating state a realization towards string mathematics as always re-conceiving dimension according to it’s lights…..

Drawing Research of the Webb Age Scope

Edwin Van Gorder

Emerging ideas that remain to find focus withing the cosmological drawing research of the Webb age now – dawning pertain greatly to finding within that Bose Einstein concentrate implicated in the cooling of the the Webb-scope instruments that existing tension between plasma and dark radiation as embedded mathematical dimensions by which; to begin with :the conditions of experience simultaneous to phenomenon of physics and mind find resource. This resource being brought to mind span in quick succession the recent solution of the three bodies problem by which the velocity of two find the third as their implicate whole, correspondingly the erratic forms of circulating three body black holes, the tertiary structure enabling the recent invention of quantum fluids, the closer study of magnetars as generating weak magnetic fields which quantum leap in strength as thereby mathematical dimensions and the single atom cloud around special black holes which contain a “weak “ copy of information implicating within the emergent analysis of gravity waves the kink of pulsar information the magnetars suggest is forthcoming…

Personal pronouns: Why do they matter?

The LGBT+ Staff Network has been working with colleagues from across the University to raise awareness about the use of personal pronouns. It can be easy to assume what someone’s personal pronouns are, but your assumption might be wrong.

This piece looks at pronouns in more detail, explaining what they are, when to use them, and why it’s important to respect other people’s personal pronouns.

Learning about personal pronouns is one of the many ways we can make Loughborough University a more inclusive institution which respects and celebrates diversity.

What are pronouns?

Pronouns are words we use to refer to each other in the third person. When we know someone’s gender, we often use gendered pronouns to refer to them. For example:

“Geoff is my partner. He works in the NHS.”
“Have you met Priya. It’s her first day.”

What are ‘personal’ pronouns?

Your personal pronouns are the ones you have decided people should use to refer to you. It’s important that when someone has made you aware of their personal pronouns you always use those, whether or not the person you’re referring to is there.

Gender-neutral pronouns

In everyday speech when we don’t know the gender of the person we’re talking about, we naturally use gender-neutral pronouns such as they/them/their. For example:

“Someone has left their phone behind. I hope they come back for it.”

However, some people use they/them/their as their personal pronouns (rather than he/him or she/her, for example). This may be because their gender identity is not encompassed within the man/woman gender binary. They may call their gender identity ‘non-binary’, ‘genderqueer’ or another similar term. In these instances, he/him or she/her is replaced by they/them. For example:

“David likes coffee. They often buy it from the café.”

“Were you in a meeting with Alex earlier? Their MS Teams background was excellent.”

When should we share our personal pronouns?

It’s helpful to make your personal pronouns known so people understand which ones to use in a given context – you could let people know when introducing yourself in a meeting, or by stating them on any online profiles you have.

Some people may feel uncomfortable sharing their personal pronouns, particularly if they’re unsure about their own gender identity or do not feel ready to share it with others. Therefore, nobody should feel compelled to state or share their personal pronouns. However, it is worth bearing in mind that not expressing a preference will not stop people from assuming your pronouns, so it may be worth expressing what your current preference is, on the understanding that it’s okay to change this later.

How are sharing personal pronouns helpful?

Most of us have learned to assume someone’s gender identity based on cues such as their appearance, voice, or name. We judge whether they are a man or a woman and use gendered personal pronouns “he” or “she” based on this. This can go wrong when someone has a gender-neutral name such as “Sam”, or because they do not conform to our expectations of gendered characteristics. 

You may feel that your gender, and therefore your pronouns, are obvious to the people around you.  However, people whose gender expression does not match the expectations of others often need to explicitly tell people what pronouns they use. Normalising sharing our pronouns is an act of solidarity with these people so that they do not stand out as different. This makes the environment more inclusive.

What if I get someone’s pronouns wrong?

If you make an honest mistake (and naturally, mistakes happen!), simply correct yourself and move on. There’s no need to make a big deal about it; doing so just draws attention to the mistake and makes the situation more uncomfortable.

However, deliberately misgendering someone, including using the wrong pronouns, is offensive and may be considered harassment. It is upsetting for the individual because you are choosing to undermine their identity.

For more information on personal pronouns and how to use them, take a look at the following resources:

• What are pronouns?
• Why Gender Pronouns Matter (VIDEO) – Trans students share their experiences and why pronouns are so important

Living with Type 1 Diabetes 

What is Type 1 Diabetes? 

Type 1 diabetes is very different to type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes can often be controlled by tablets, a well-managed diet, and an active lifestyle.  

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition – which is when an illness or disorder occurs when healthy tissue (cells) are destroyed by the body’s own immune system. 

In the case of type 1 diabetes, the disease-fighting system mistakes healthy cells in the pancreas for foreign, harmful invaders and attacks them, leaving the body unable to produce its own insulin and keep levels of blood glucose under control. 

For people with diabetes, the cells in their body which are mistakenly targeted are the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. People living with the condition control this by injecting insulin into the body various times each day. 

It is a daily planning task with everything you eat, any form of exercise undertaken, and pretty much everything else that is done from the moment you wake up in the morning right through to – and especially – before you go to sleep at night. 

Diabetes is one of the unseen disabilities and it’s important to remember that each individual living with it has very different experiences, just like many other conditions.  

My story 

I was first diagnosed as a type 1 diabetic in the late 1970s, and at that time the condition was not widely known or understood by the public. 

I was the first person in my family to have diabetes, even though the condition is thought to be hereditary.   

My parents and teachers had noticed that I was drinking water and going to the toilet frequently, much more so than anyone else. I was getting up during the night many times, I never had an appetite, and I was losing weight. Despite undergoing various blood tests and attending check-ups with a GP, it was only when I fell unconscious on a family trip one Sunday afternoon that I was then rushed to hospital. 

If type 1 diabetes is left untreated, blood sugar levels can rise to a dangerous level and can cause people to slip into a coma – this is what caused me to become unconscious. 

I spent two weeks in hospital, which is when my parents and I were informed of my condition and a treatment plan was devised. 

To suddenly be diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at eight years old was an enormous shock, my life totally changed forever. No longer could I eat things the rest of my family enjoyed like sweets. My diet had to be changed and I had to start injecting myself with insulin multiple times a day.   

Just imagine, an eight-year-old having to measure insulin into a syringe and inject themselves, as well as pricking their fingers multiple times a day to test their blood sugar levels. 

Did I rebel to the changes in my life? Of course I did. I did not appreciate the health implications that continuing to eat sugary foods would cause, especially in later life. I regret that now I’m in my fifties. 

School life changed; I was the only person at primary school with the condition and was looked at and talked about as the odd one out. It continued like that throughout high school and secondary school too… but the one good thing that came from being diabetic was that I didn’t have to do cross-country! 

Living with the condition has had a big impact on my life. It affected my early career choices, as I wanted to be a police officer when I was younger. Growing up there were so many careers that a type 1 diabetic would not be considered for – the armed forces, emergency services, and being a pilot to name a few. Luckily, I was able to become a Special Constable in my early twenties, but that was as far as I would be accepted in the police force.  

It’s a daily struggle to maintain a good blood sugar level. I generally prick my fingers to test my blood at least eight times a day and have at least four injections a day. If blood sugar levels are too high, I need to take additional injections and blood tests. 

During the daytime, I inject a rapid-acting insulin that covers the food I am about to eat.  Injections must be taken 10–20 minutes before meals, which is why lunchtime meetings are difficult for someone like me due to the risk of suffering a hypoglycaemia (hypo) attack which could lead to unconsciousness. 

Before bed, I take a longer-lasting insulin injection which attempts to stabilise blood sugar levels throughout the night. The concern with this is that if too much insulin is injected, it could lower the blood sugar so much that it can cause me to go into a diabetic hypo, which could lead to a coma. This does happen, probably on average a couple of times a year. When a hypo in the night is serious, and family members cannot bring me around from it, they have to call for a paramedic. Neighbours have frequently seen an ambulance appear outside my house over the years. 

Because of this, every night the same thought goes through my mind: “Will I wake up in the morning, will I be found in a hypo, or worse, unconscious?” – just imagine having that daily thought. 

If my blood sugar levels begin to drop (which they do leading up to mealtimes) that can affect my concentration as well as causing blurred vision and slurred speech. 

The term for when blood sugar levels drop is hypoglycaemia, and when a type 1 diabetic goes into a hypo, they are unable to think or act rationally and if they do not get a sugar intake quickly enough they will go unconscious. 

My first hypo happened in a French lesson at high school. I was rushed to hospital and the first moment I became aware of my surroundings was several hours later in a hospital bed. A similar incident happened while at work; I had been working and hadn’t realised anything was wrong, and later I was told that I had appeared to just slip off my chair onto the floor. Once again, I was rushed to hospital because I was unconscious and paramedics were unable to bring me around. 

Most type 1 diabetics are aware when their blood sugar is dropping, but if it has dropped too much they are not physically able to help themselves recover. 

There are many side effects to having type 1 diabetes and you are more susceptible to other illnesses because the immune system is low. Every six months I have a full set of blood tests taken and have a diabetic review with my GP. Annually, I must have my eyes photographed at the hospital for retinal screening because diabetics are very prone to haemorrhaging and other eye-related conditions. I also have to renew my driving licence every three years, with a completed medical questionnaire and authorisation from my GP. 

Hypoglycaemia 

Here’s a list of the symptoms typically associated with hypoglycaemia.  

Most people around me would not be aware when my blood sugar levels are low, but there’s rarely a day that goes by without it doing so and many of these symptoms occurring as a result. 

All sorts of things can cause my blood sugar levels to go low: types of food eaten, exercise, having the common cold, stress, too much insulin, alcohol… even certain types of flowers and fragrances can due to some smells making my heart race more, which uses up sugar in the blood. 

How can you help a diabetic experiencing a hypo? 

1) Talk calmly to them, that is essential.   

2) Ensure they have something sugary to drink or eat, even if they cannot administer it themselves.   

3) Call 999 if they do not come around within 30 minutes. 

When a diabetic does come round from a hypo, they are likely to feel very ill for the rest of the day, and it can then cause their blood sugar levels to be very high for several hours due to the sudden increase of sugary food or drink. 

High blood sugar (hyperglycaemia) 

High blood sugar levels can happen by not injecting enough insulin or by consuming a certain type of food. 

There are times that I have forgotten to take my bedtime injection. When that happens, hyperglycaemia sets in as opposed to a hypo. The result of this is a very uncomfortable day the next day, bringing on a different set of complications.   

Alcohol, sweet drinks, sweet foods, and high carbohydrate meals are examples of what can cause blood sugar levels to become too high. In addition, not taking enough insulin or being ill can also cause my blood sugar levels to spike. When this happens, I can experience severe headaches, lose my appetite, feel weak and tired, as well as blurred vision, nausea, and extreme itching.  

Luckily, I don’t forget my bedtime injection very often, but it has happened. If there is a long meeting to attend or a training course, I always ensure I’ve eaten enough to prevent my blood sugar from going too low, but that can have the opposite effect by becoming too high. 

It’s certainly not easy being a type 1 diabetic, and everything I do I’m always thinking about how it might affect my sugar levels. However, with careful monitoring through regular finger prick blood tests, maintaining a healthy balanced diet, keeping my insulin with me, and making sure I always have close access to food or glucose tablets, I get by. 

Andy Tatler 
Software Engineer/Dev-Ops Manager 
IT Services 

How stable are (numerical) cognition effects?

Written by Krzysztof Cipora. Krzysztof is a lecturer at Loughborough University. Please see here for more information about Krzysztof and his work. This work is based on an international collaboration with Lilly Roth (University of Tuebingen, Germany), Verena Knoedler (University of Tuebingen, Germany), Stefania Schwarz (University of Tuebingen, Germany), Klaus Willmes (RWTH Aachen, Germany), Jean-Philippe van Dijck (Thomas More University of Applied Sciences and Ghent University, Belgium) and Hans-Christoph Nuerk (University of Tuebingen, Germany).

Generalisation in research

Psychologists make many generalisations when investigating the basic processes underlying numerical cognition. They test a group of participants (a sample) and see whether they observe an effect of interest. If they find an effect, they assume these results generalise to a wider population. The natural question that follows is what constitutes the population and how broadly can we generalise? To people of the same age? People from the same culture? Individuals with a similar level of education? This sample-to-population generalisation is a general principle of cognitive research, but this post will examine it further in relation to the SNARC effect.

SNARC effect

The SNARC effect is the phenomenon whereby people both respond faster to smaller numbers with their left hand and larger numbers with their right hand. This happens even if they are simply pressing one button when the number is odd and the other button when the number is even – i.e., if the task does not explicitly ask about number magnitude. This is thought to relate to a ‘mental number line’ where numbers are ordered from left to right in order of increasing magnitude. This effect may tell us a little about how the brain represents numbers.

Ecological fallacy and other generalisation problems

Typically, experiments analyse group effects. That is, the results of one group or condition are compared to the results of another group or condition. Within a group/condition results are averaged together, and researchers do not look at a particular individual’s performance across groups/conditions. If researchers confirm the presence of an effect at the group level, by means of inferential statistics, they make a first generalisation: the effect is likely present in the population. This issue has been the subject of tons of papers, and we will not focus on it. Rather, we will focus on two other generalisations that are very important for theory building – even if they are not always expressed explicitly.

Firstly, theories aimed at explaining general principles of cognition often assume that the group-level effect is present in each individual. This does not necessarily need to be the case, and these unjustified generalisations are called ecological fallacy. Quite often, we find that what is present at the group level, may not adequately represent all the participants. For instance, in SNARC experiments, at the group level we can observe a so-called ‘size effect’ – where it takes longer to respond to large-magnitude numbers than to small-magnitude ones (e.g., to tell whether the number is smaller or larger than ‘5’). Such group differences, in order of milliseconds, can be detected in lab experiments and tell us quite a lot about how humans process information. However, this pattern of responses is reliably present in only 30% of participants, and a reliable reverse pattern (i.e., slower reaction times to smaller numbers) is found in about 10% of individuals (see here). Since the majority of participants do not demonstrate a reliable response pattern, this has serious consequences for how we build a theory of humans’ number representation in general.

The individual prevalence of cognitive phenomena has been intensely investigated in past years. However, even when establishing the individual prevalence of the effect, we still make another generalisation! Namely, we assume that the effect we observed in a given participant is stable. Studies aimed at checking whether this is the case are very scarce, and usually limited to testing the same participants twice. In this project, we decided to go a bit further, and conducted an experiment called Ironman SNARC (named after an exhausting ironman triathlon). Having recruited ten volunteers, we asked them to perform the same task 30 times within 35 consecutive days. This allowed us to check how stable the effect was within the participants and see whether SNARC reflects a stable individual characteristic. The results were really instructive: (1) as expected we observed a robust group-level SNARC effect: the average response times were faster to small / large magnitude numbers when participants responded with their left / right hand respectively, (2) as expected, this pattern of results was not present in all participants, but only 8 out of the 10, (3) there was massive variation in the effects observed in different sessions, (4) when we used our methods, based on bootstrapping approaches to check whether a given participant reveals a reliable effect in a given session, we saw that only one of our 10 participants revealed a reliable effect in more than half of the sessions.

Conclusion

What can we take from this? This study shows that before we generalise, it might be worth checking whether our generalisations are justified. In particular, before we even start thinking about which populations our effects may generalise to (people of a certain education level, culture etc.) it might be worth checking whether our conclusions, based on group-level effects, actually generalise to our sample: to all the tested participants, and to which extent they are stable within our participants. Additionally, each time we wish to consider a cognitive effect as a potential indicator of something (e.g., whether we can use the SNARC effect to predict someone’s level of maths skills), it is worth checking whether the effect we observe is stable across time – it may well be that if we tested the same person on another day, their score would differ dramatically. The Ironman SNARC is still a work in progress, you can see the conference presentation of the preliminary results here. 

Glossary

Ecological fallacy – assuming that a group-level effect is present within a single person, which may be the case, but doesn’t have to be. For instance, a result of a survey showing that British people on average prefer tea (rating it 9 out of 10) over coffee (rating it 7 out of 10) does not imply that every British person prefers tea over coffee. It may well be that there are some individuals, who love coffee and dislike tea, as well as those, who like them equally. We can also imagine a scenario where the majority of participants likes tea and coffee equally strongly (around 8 out of 10), but there is a minority of tea-lovers who rate it 10 out of 10 while strongly disliking coffee (1 out of 10). When averaging across individuals who are indifferent, and the minority of tea-lovers, we would also observe that on average tea is preferred over coffee.

Inferential statistics – infer an effect from a sample to a population, as opposed to descriptive statistics which merely describe the sample you have.

SNARC – Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes – a phenomenon whereby participants respond faster to small / large magnitude numbers on the left / right hand side respectively, even if the task does not require them to react to the magnitude (e.g., they are judging whether the number is odd or even).

Do I have to be sporty to study at Loughborough?

Sports impact

Ah – the age-old question: Do I have to be sporty to study at Loughborough? The short answer is, No! I certainly wouldn’t describe myself as sporty. Of course, there is no denying that sport has a significant presence here at Loughborough, but as someone who isn’t that sporty, I found that its less of the actual sports and more the attitude towards sport that rubs off on you. It is hard not to get inspired by the myriad of Olympic athletes that train here, or your flatmate who gets up on Wednesdays at the crack of dawn because they love what they do. People’s passion for their craft and eagerness to get involved can be infectious, I simply decided to take this attitude and apply it to other aspects of my life.

What else is there to do?

So, you don’t want to play a sport –what else are you going to do with your time? Firstly, I’d recommend checking out the Students’ Union website and have a scroll through everything they have on offer! The Union is split up into seven sections: Enterprise, Sport, RAG (Raising and Giving), Action (Volunteering), Welfare & Diversity, Media, and Societies. Each with its own unique identity and community. Beyond LSU, your department also has a committee that will put on social events, welfare events, and anything else they see fit. This is student run and like most things at the Students’ Union, there’s opportunity for both skills building and leadership. The amount of things to get involved in may seem intimidating at first, but we will introduce you to everything during freshers week!

My experience

When I walked into the fresher’s bazaar in October, I think it would be fair to say that I was slightly overwhelmed by the number of organisations I was met with. The room was filled with societies and eager students trying to convince me to join. They had everything from Cook ‘n’ Bake society, to medieval re-enactment society. Whatever you’re interested in, there’s more than likely to be a society for you. Take a look at the societies list here. In my first year I joined LSU SING! – our choir group, Musoc – holding weekly jam sessions and gigs and set up debate society with some friends (if there’s not a club for you, grab 5 mates and you can start it yourself with the help of LSU!) It was amazing to have a place to explore my passion for music in my spare time, and with other like-minded people. In my second year, I was chair of Feminist society, which meant holding a position of leadership that not only looks good on your CV but is such a great learning experience . We held educational events about the different strands of feminism, encouraged activism on campus and created a community of people who would hang out, talk about politics and also just enjoy each other’s company. My second half of second year has to be the most memorable however, as on a whim, I decided to audition for the drama societies (LSU STAGE) adaptation of ‘A Picture of Dorian Grey’ by Oscar Wilde. Surprising myself, I was cast as one of the leads, Basil the painter, and spent the next three months learning lines and bonding with my fellow cast members. I really pushed myself out of my comfort zone by joining stage, but I’ll be forever grateful that I did. I truly believe I have met life-long friends in that group, and we are planning to visit each other after graduation.

So, as you can see, there is an enormous amount of stuff to get involved with outside of sport here at Loughborough, all you have to do is go and seek them out and have the courage to put yourself out there! It is daunting at first, but take a mate with you or reach out to the committee members of the society/organisation that you’re interested beforehand and have a chat before going to an event to make yourself more comfortable. There is life beyond sport at Loughborough! We hope to see you soon. 😊

My Italian Exchange

Ciao a tutti! 

Although it has been a year since I left Italy, Italy has not left me, for it will always be my second home now. Since my Study Exchange semester (I did the second semester at home virtually in England!), visiting a different part of Italy annually is now on my bucket list! I can only thank Loughborough for this life-changing opportunity and myself, for choosing to study abroad during a pandemic!

Why did I choose to study abroad?

I decided to study abroad because the thought of a traditional placement year did not excite me!  I remember spending a whole day researching the available Erasmus Universities to choose from with my Mum’s help. In fact, it was my Mum, who pushed me towards choosing Salerno! I remember her distinctly saying, “Shannon, go to a country that you haven’t been to before!” Therefore, jointly inspired by my mum and my desire to break out of my comfort zone, I chose Salerno and emailed my Study Exchange form immediately!

After countless hours of Duolingo and finally condensing my wardrobe in one suitcase (this was a challenge!), I was ready for my adventure. From hugging my parents tightly before my 6 am departure to the roaring of my plane’s engines on the runway, this was it; I knew my life was about to change for the better. And it did…after a rocky start!

Truthfully, the beginning of my Exchange was not easy, I suffered from homesickness, the uncertainties of the pandemic, and the stress of adjusting to remote learning. Also, what a time to have a birthday, I turned 21 in the same week! Luckily, I managed to celebrate it with my Study Exchange buddy at a Burger restaurant! She is also from Loughborough and is now one of my closest friends. Fun fact, we both study English but we never knew each other before Italy!

Support from Loughborough

With Loughborough’s pastoral support and sharing my problems with my Study Exchange buddy, my transition to Salerno became easier as I overcame my troubles of living internationally. 

My pastoral support from Loughborough involved frequent video calls on Teams with my Study Exchange Coordinator. She checked to see if I was settling in well and adjusting to my new modules. The Study Exchange Team were also great because I was stressed about not being enrolled in any modules, and they intervened! Within a couple of days, I met my Italian Exchange tutor, and my modules were sorted because of Loughborough. At that point, I was honestly reminded of how great Loughborough’s care for their students is, which stopped me from returning home in the end! 

My semester abroad opened up my eyes to a brand-new country that I had never visited before, all of this within exceptional circumstances! Now, I am comfortable in facing any ambiguous situations, whether they are abroad or in England because conquering Italy has reminded me of my hidden resilience!

What was my course like?

Unfortunately, I did not see my University, nor did I meet any native Italian students because the teaching was virtual. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my modules. I chose a combination of Undergraduate and Postgraduate modules taught in Italian and English, which was very challenging at times! My favourite modules were Circus in Victorian Literature, Global Gender Studies, and Intermediate Italian. With virtual learning, I found that I had more freedom to do what I loved best and that was being a tourist!! During my study breaks, I used to walk along Salerno’s lungomare (Seafront), visit fashion boutiques, and eat Tiramisu-flavoured gelato! Despite my region’s covid restrictions, I managed to visit a few beautiful places close to Salerno which include Pompeii, Napoli, Amalfi, and Vietri Sul Mare (A little ceramic town on the Amalfi Coast!). 

Final thoughts

I can honestly say that my experience has transformed my confidence and my awareness of the Italian culture and its music, (currently, I am a crazy fan of the Eurovision 2021 winners Måneskin!).  Yes, my Study Exchange was not a “normal” one, however, I would not change it for the world! It is true, your experience abroad truly does enhance your life in all aspects. A few examples are, I am amazed at my personal growth, and I am open to interacting with people from all walks of life. Since Italy, I returned to Loughborough with a passion to complete my English degree and I even joined the Italian society! My mornings before lectures now involve learning Italian with a mug of coffee to remind me of Salerno.

My decision to study abroad was no doubt the best decision I have ever made. Not only did it inspire my current dissertation topic, but I learned how to appreciate the littlest things in life! On a final note, how many people can say that they studied abroad during a pandemic? I can and I have no regrets! 

L’Italia, on vedo l’ora di rivederti e anche grazie Loughborough!

Cricket as metaphor for empire

by Tom Mather

My dissertation focused on the relationship between cricket and empire, focusing specifically on visual representations of two cricketers – the famous WG Grace, about whom a lot is known, and less-well known but nonetheless also very important Prince Ranjitsinhji. The seed for my undergraduate dissertation blossomed quickly from new ideas gained at the start of the final year of my degree. I studied Pete Yeandle’s module, ‘Empire, War and Popular Culture in Britain’. Learning about the British Empire and its effects on popular culture and ideology at home was a new area of learning for myself and I found the module thought provoking. I am a cricket enthusiast, so a dissertation on cricket history and popular imperialism perfectly fitted my personal as well as my academic interests.

I read general histories of cricket at the same time as I learnt more about the debates about imperialism and popular culture from the module. It quickly became apparent that cricket was entwined with the notions of popular imperialism. I decided that it would be fascinating to contrast the celebrity of W.G. Grace and K.S. Ranjitsinhji in the context of the popular imperialism debate. In my dissertation, I analysed media representations of W.G. Grace and K.S. Ranjitsinhji to address the maximalist and minimalist debate – that is, does close attention to how these two cricketers were depicted in the press enable insight into whether imperialism had a distinct influence on British domestic culture? Although there is ample reading material on Grace and Ranjitsinhji and their ties with notions of empire, my focus was a comparative analysis of how they were represented in visual culture. Such an area of exploration allowed the project to be adequately original. In order to undertake this research, I found evidence from digitised newspapers and other online sources from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Non-textual sources included cartoons, portraits, photographs and advertising and these were studied alongside written accounts.

As a keen cricketer and cricket fan, of course I think more should be known about cricket history. Many key themes in English history can be understood in relation to the great game. The growth of the cricket exemplifies the modernisation of the country but also appeals of tradition. We can explore use Grace and Ranjitsinhji as exemplars to study the cultural phenomena of celebrity and heroic culture. Cricket was understood as an imperial game, and these players were considered imperial celebrities – each signifying different imperial values and allowing comparative analysis of race, masculinity, and national identity. Cricket symbolises a distinctive type of Englishness and, thus, research into values attached to cricket and cricketers can reveal how values and attitudes evolve over time. Cricket was much more than just a game. It was deployed as evidence of the superiority of Anglo-Saxon culture and ways of life; it was used to represent core values such as respect, character building, physical health, teamwork, and much more. Furthermore, my study found that between the late nineteenth century and the First World War, the national game was saturated in cricketing language – and that cricket could be used to promote imperial values. Cricket was exported across the empire as one perceived mode of “civilising mission”, and it is no coincidence the majority of nations which play cricket in the modern day were formerly part of the British Empire. Cricket was perceived to be the perfect means by which to build a harmonious relationship between the mother country and its ‘sons across the world’. Ironically, cricket later provided opportunity for colonies to find distinctive national identities in the face of the ruling empire.

Working on this dissertation throughout my final year was one of the highlights of my university experience. I feel honoured to have been involved in such a venture at the University. Looking back on the project, I really appreciated the first-rate guidance from the department’s lecturers accompanied with freedom to explore my own research interests. It should fill everyone with great pride to know they have contributed to an area of scholarship or research in their own way.

Bibliography:

Holt, Richard. Sport and the British: A Modern History, U.S.A: Oxford University Press. 1990.

Huggins, Mike. Victorians and Sport. Bloomsbury Continuum; Illustrated edition, 2004.

MacKenzie, John M. Propaganda and empire: the manipulation of British public opinion. Manchester University Press, 1984.

Porter, Bernard. The Absent-minded imperialists: Empire, Society, and Culture in Britain.  Oxford University Press, 2005.

Sen, Satadru. “Enduring colonialism in cricket: From Ranjitsinhji to the Cronje affair.” Contemporary South Asia, 10, no. 2 (2001): 237-249. DOI: 10.1080/09584930120083837

Stoddart, Brian. “Sport, Cultural Imperialism, and Colonial Response in the British Empire” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 30, no. 4 (1988): 649-673. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417500015474

Washbourne, Neil. “W.G. Grace: Sporting Superstar, Cultural Celebrity, and Hero (to Oscar Wilde’s Villain) of the Great Public Drama of 1895.” Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung. Supplement, no. 32 (2019): 186-208. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26836217?seq=1

Biography:

I studied at Loughborough between 2018-2022, including an industrial placement year. I’m a sport and cricket enthusiast. After graduation, I will be traveling to Asia and Australia before starting a job in recruitment.

Photo by Alessandro Bogliari on unsplash

Starting something new

Hi, my name is Ash – I’m a part-time finalist studying Sport and Exercise Science, due to graduate this summer. There’s an amazing number of clubs and societies to join during your time as a student at Loughborough – or start!

The studies that brought me to Loughborough – Sport and Exercise Science – tie close to a wider interest in cooking, baking, and bringing people together. During secondary school, I had been running a food blog, where I would challenge myself to create thrifty and/or more nutritious twists on classic recipes. I am lucky to not have any dietary requirements or allergies, but my family and friends do (and have different restrictions!) so I had lots of different angles to experiment from.

I didn’t immediately realise I could start a society. Like many other students, my first introduction to the Societies Section was via the Activities Bazaar. In my first year, a cooking and baking society didn’t yet exist – however, my hobbies naturally lead me to meet others with similar interests within my hall. In our Freshers group chat, I asked if anyone had some nutmeg I could use in a pumpkin pie. One of my now closest friends, Teiba, offered for me to use hers. To say thank you, I brought her some pumpkin pie that I had made, and she invited me inside for a coffee and to have a chat!

That meeting – and my cheeky request for an ingredient – got the snowball (doughball?) rolling to begin Cook ‘n’ Bake. Teiba had been hosting groups of friends for themed food nights at her flat already, so it was a concept we expanded upon from Falkner Eggington. With some guidance from the third years living with me, we planned a visit to the LSU Societies Office to ask them how we go about establishing a society, and what the requirements were.

After spreading the word via our hall and courses, we had our founding meeting (in a kitchen, no less) where we brainstormed ideas for the society, how we would aim to run our core activities (cooking and baking) and discussed who was interested in a committee role. Naturally, many of us brought homemade snacks to share…!

Becoming a society

We officially established as a Society after the Refreshers Bazaar in 2018, with 26 members in our first year. As a first year Co-Chair, I had a lot to learn about room bookings, risk assessments and leading a team. It was fantastic experience and all members and committee involved in handling or cooking food had the opportunity to obtain a Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene certificate used in industry at no cost.

One of the funniest – and most challenging to plan – events of that inaugural year was an event where we took over a room in the Union (now the Lounge) where groups and couples were fed a three-course meal (with a menu of choices!) by the Cook ‘n’ Bake committee, accounting for allergies and other food preferences.

Other stand-out events in the first year included a pizza workshop (feeding 40+ students for just £16!), microwave baking and a trip to the BBC GoodFood show.

What was an official membership of 26 grew to over 120 members in our second year. Economies of scale are real with food – and so we were able to keep our membership affordable while offering an increasing range of opportunities to our members, and we always kept dietary inclusion in mind, offering gluten free, vegetarian, vegan, and other options. Events were also designed to try and help students living in catered halls to still have opportunities to get stuck in, and any competitions were light-hearted and engaging (we collaborated with the Design Society once for a cake-construction challenge – Sprint Bus made from cake, anyone?!).

Our Society was established around a simple set of ideas – learning basic (and advanced) culinary skills, expressing creativity, and embracing curiosity. Committee members had skill sets they took an interest in, but it was our members that amazed us with what they could make in even the smallest of kitchens. My go-to marketing message catchphrase was “whether you want to learn to boil an egg or are an aspiring Michelin star chef, we want you!”. Subsequent committees have run with this ethos and run amazing events of their own and overcame the difficulties of isolation and COVID by running online “cook-alongs”.

Becoming award winning

Cook ‘n’ Bake won Society of the Year 2018/2019, following our previous year’s Best New Society Award in 2017/2018. The pride and smile on my face in the photos from that night are yet to be matched. Years later, I’m so proud of what we had achieved. Cook ‘n’ Bake has a firm place on my CV and has led to many interesting discussions since!

I’m grateful to all the committee members I worked alongside – and we all developed so much confidence from running events and workshops for so many people. Cook ‘n’ Bake events saw workshop attendances regularly between 40-60 students. We balanced each other out well, and each helped one another through the peaks and troughs of our academic and personal lives as well alongside the logistical challenges of planning events, purchasing ingredients, testing recipes, advertising, creating content, instructing, and entertaining – and then washing up – for so many people.

Alongside my degree, a bit of part-time work and the Society, I was experimenting with a protein brownie recipe that would become the cornerstone of my business idea, Bake Balance. The encouragement, ideas and input from the Cook ‘n’ Bake committee, members, and the wider student community I was involved with helped me take this from a delicious idea to a piloted start-up in my second year. The LSU Enterprise Section helped me refine my ideas and action the launch of my protein brownie (and blondie!) by post service, as the LSU Societies Section helped with the development of Cook ‘n’ Bake.

Essentially – I’ve been working on carving out my own niche in the overlapping worlds of sport, nutrition and food, and University has been the perfect playground to experiment. As I draw towards my graduation this July, I have a lot to look back on and be thankful for – and the opportunities Loughborough presented to me have me feeling prepared for life as a graduate and my ambitions as an entrepreneur.

Now is the time to start something new, without placing too much pressure on yourself. The business I started in my second year drives so much of what I do, but I am not actively selling right now as I was in 2018/2019 – starting something might mean launching and re-iterating, or beginning, stopping, reflecting, and later being inspired to start something entirely different. Effort is never wasted, as it will set something else in motion.

I will be the first to say I had absolutely no idea how to start a Society, and I set foot in my first Activities Bazaar with a view to join something already established. Never be afraid to ask for help – your passion will shine through and we’re lucky to be part of a university that develops you academically and more generally.

Starting your own society

If you’re interested in creating your own Society, look at what current societies are available and make sure you’ve got your own niche. In terms of membership, a food-based society clearly benefits from the everyday requirement of nutrition, but any interest, activity, or hobby you are passionate about could open an amazing chapter for you and other students. 

Being business-minded can be a serious strength for any committee member, as it helps you to think about your society (or club) in a holistic way. It’ll help you establish (or grow) your current membership, and help you focus on the value you aim to provide members and wider stakeholders. If it’s your own business you’re looking to start, the LSU Enterprise section runs a variety of networking, up-skilling and showcase events and can provide 1:1 guidance.

Trying a new activity could introduce you to lifelong relationships, career opportunities and hobbies. Have fun and enjoy your time at Loughborough. It will fly by faster than you might imagine – now’s the time to make an impact!

Find out more about LSU Societies.

Find out more about LSU Enterprise.

Maia celebrates: International Non-Binary People’s Day

Giving back as a Community First Responder

In the maelstrom of working life, it can often feel like we become stuck in a routine, with half an eye always on the weekend. Three and a half years ago, whilst still a student at Loughborough, I signed up to become a volunteer Community First Responder (CFR) and it opened my eyes to an entirely different side of life.  

The concept of CFRs is simple – we are all volunteers, trained by East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) and dispatched to 999 calls by their control centre to attend local medical emergencies, usually quicker than an ambulance, to provide initial, sometimes life-saving treatment. We attend patients from day-old babies to centurions, from cardiac arrests to allergic reactions – very little is off limits! 

One of the joys of volunteering is that you can give back as little or as much as you like. It’s great that one University policy in particular supports staff volunteering: Loughborough’s Employer Supported Volunteering (ESV) Policy. It aims to “enable and support members of staff to be proactive in voluntary activities that mutually benefit the individual, the University and the community”. All substantively employed members of staff are eligible for up to one day’s paid absence each year. 

Living in Loughborough, I joined the local CFR scheme: Shepshed Lions Community First Responders. We cover a radius of six miles from our tracked response car, meaning we frequently attend 999 calls in Loughborough, Shepshed, Quorn, Mountsorrel, Barrow upon Soar, and other surrounding villages. This includes medical emergencies that take place within the University community. It’s not uncommon for me to find myself in a Halls of Residence or the Students’ Union in the early hours of a Saturday morning (I thought I had left my clubbing days far behind me!). 

Whilst the prospect of voluntarily attending 999 calls is understandably not for everyone, I find it incredibly rewarding. I feel privileged to be that person walking into a room when someone has called in a moment of need. Of course, there are challenging moments and incidents that will stay with me forever, but they are in a minority when I reflect on the 99% of calls I have attended where I have been fortunate to have spent such precious time with a patient. 

I’m not the first member of University staff to have volunteered as a CFR. Andy Stephens (former Director of Finance) volunteers for a Nottingham-based scheme, and Liam Ross (former Digital Engagement Officer, Marketing & Advancement) now runs my local scheme. Whilst they may be former colleagues, our friendship has endured beyond the day job thanks to ‘CFR-ing’, and I’m fortunate to call them fellow CFRs. 

“Volunteering as a CFR is like no other role. Every shift is totally different and you’re never sure where you’ll end up or what you’ll see. You meet wonderful people and work as part of a fantastic team alongside ambulance crew colleagues.” – Andy Stephens 

“Becoming a CFR is one of the best things I’ve ever done. It’s exciting, fulfilling and you take away both basic life-saving practical skills and transferable skills you’ll use in your day job. I would recommend it to anyone who isn’t squeamish!” – Liam Ross 

Now that life is starting to return to normal, recruitment has reopened for new CFRs, so if you’d like to do something totally different to the day job, support the NHS and give back to the local community, why not drop us a line and find out more about us.  

You can look on EMAS’ dedicated webpage. Alternatively, if you live locally, feel free to get in contact with Liam or myself for an informal chat.  We’re also on Facebook. 

Irrespective of whether first responding is for you or not, do take a moment to look at local volunteering opportunities that you could take advantage of using the University’s ESV Policy. It is a great way to engage with the local community, take some time out (guilt-free!) from the day job, and meet some truly amazing people at the same time. 

Matt Youngs  
Graduate Management Trainee (Organisational Development) 

DRN Ecologies of Drawing: A More Than Human World Recording

Thank you to Penny Davis for chairing the final event in the series of DRN2022 Ecologies of Drawing events, to the presenters Jan Hogan, Lucia Cunnigham and Anka Makrzanowska for their thought provoking presentations and approach to the theme, and to everyone who attended.

Video also accessible at: https://vimeo.com/729236968

[Student Post] Professor Adrian Hyde-Price: "Reshaping security and geopolitics in the Baltic Sea Region"

By Rachel Littlewood

In May, we were joined by Adrian Hyde-Price, Professor of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. Professor Hyde-Price is an expert on European security, particularly in terms of the Baltic Sea region. During his talk, he argued that Russia’s brutal and unprovoked war on Ukraine has illuminated important weaknesses across the European security system. He addressed three key issues: (1) the clash that has occurred between those that advocate a rules-based system rooted in the dynamics of globalisation, and those that believe in great power realpolitik, (2) the significance of the Baltic Sea region to European security, and (3) the implications of Sweden and Finland’s applications for NATO membership. He pointed out that throughout the 1990s, some scholars argued that the end of the Cold War signified globalisation was eradicating traditional geopolitical dynamics and dissolving state borders. Yet, past, and current events demonstrate otherwise. As Professor Hyde-Price observed, the first Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014 illustrated that geopolitics had not disappeared but had and was, in fact, “returning with a vengeance”.

Europe: still whole and free?

Professor Hyde-Price began by arguing that “we are witnessing a clash between two conceptions of European security”. On the one hand, liberal democracies believe in a Europe ‘whole and free’, with ever-increasing co-operation and economic interdependence. This, he explained, is rooted in a belief that globalisation is reshaping the international system, requiring states to contemplate new strategies of defence to combat transnational and emerging threats, such as terrorism and cyber-attacks.

The Putin regime, however, believes in a very different vision of Europe based on spheres of interest, in which Russia, fuelled by nostalgia for the Soviet Union, is once again treated as a great power. However, this is not to say that that a new Cold War has begun. Rather, it is the dynamics of the 1930s that offer the closest parallel. Therefore, the task for European democracies is to reconstitute credible deterrence based on intensified security and defence co-operation. Drawing on the metaphor of Chiron the Centaur, famous for his wisdom and teachings in Greek mythology, Professor Hyde-Price argued that Europe needs to draw on both soft and hard power in the face of Russian aggression and its attempt to create a new world order. This is an interesting perspective, providing an alternative understanding of how to synthesise a complex and diverse system of conflicting beliefs and construct a response that includes both means of power, and how to use human qualities as well as utilise military and economic strength.

Security in the Baltic

The talk argued that the Baltic Sea region offers an ideal case study for examining the recent shift from globalisation to geopolitics as the main determinant of East-West relations in Europe. According to this interpretation, in the early 1990s, many scholars believed the Baltic was a region where “a divided Europe could be stitched back together” through institutional and personalised co-operation with Russia. The Council of Baltic Sea States, for example, was established in 1992 to stabilise the region and foster international co-operation. This cooperative vision has now clearly ended. Rising tensions due to increased Russian assertiveness abroad has changed the atmosphere in the Baltic Sea. The annexation of Crimea, in 2014, established the region as NATO’s new frontline with Russia. In June 2015, for instance, seventeen member states of the Alliance participated in Baltic Sea naval drills to demonstrate their resolve to defend the region.

Neutral no more?

Given the growing tensions in the Baltic, Professor Hyde-Price argued that Sweden and Finland’s decisions to apply for NATO membership will prove to be momentous. His analysis is that the decision was ultimately driven by Finland, where there was a greater shift in public opinion and a greater desire by the Finnish political and security elite to join the alliance in order to ensure military support. At the start of the Ukraine crisis, Sweden has repeatedly stated that it would not change its security policy, arguing that military non-alignment had always served it well. Yet, within a few weeks Stockholm had decided to follow Finland.

However, Professor Hyde-Price also argued that although neutrality appears to be deeply embedded in Swedish national identity, the decision to apply for NATO membership was the logical next-step for a country that has been undergoing a quiet revolution in security thinking since the early 1990s. Already in 1992, Sweden had formally dropped its ‘neutrality’ policy in favour of military non-alignment in preparation for joining the European Union. Most significantly, in 2014, Stockholm signed a far-reaching defence co-operation agreement with Helsinki, effectively rendering both countries officially ‘un-neutral’ and no longer militarily non-aligned. In Professor Hyde-Price’s view the decision to apply for NATO membership resolves the many ambiguities and contradictions surrounding security and defence thinking in Sweden. Notably, a Nordic enlargement of NATO would also strengthen the protection of key strategic islands in the Baltic Sea. Finland, meanwhile, adds impressive defence capabilities, which would significantly strengthen NATO’s defences on Russia’s borders.

***

Following the presentation, many questions were raised. The most pertinent concerned the contemporary significance of state neutrality. One key question is, with Europe once again divided, can anyone still afford to remain neutral? Perhaps Austria and the Republic of Ireland can, given that they are surrounded by EU and NATO countries or sufficiently distant geographically from the threat of Russian aggression. Sweden and Finland, however, do not enjoy either of these luxuries and have had had to acknowledge that neutrality – or even ‘military non-alignment’ – is no longer their best guarantee of security.

So, what have I learnt from the latest webinar? Crucially, it is evident that the war in Ukraine has caused a fundamental shift in the world order. Not only can we see this in the changing security structures, but also in economic networks worldwide. Secondly, it is necessary to consider the role of geopolitics in foreign policy decision making. Lastly, Russian aggression against Ukraine is driving important changes in European security networks, especially in the Baltic. But I wonder if Putin feels threatened by the efforts that have been made to enhance security in Europe since 24 February, or whether it has simply further strengthened his position at home?

Rachel Littlewood will soon be entering into her third year as a Politics and International Relations student at Loughborough University, after which she plans to apply to study for a Master’s degree in International Security, also at Loughborough University. She is mainly interested in climate change, contemporary security threats and Middle East foreign policy.

Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution

by Chloé Marie Bemba.

My final year of study for a degree in Politics and International Relations at Loughborough University coincided with the 10th anniversary of the Arab Spring. This blog is a reflection on study undertaken between October and December 2021.

I remember vividly seeing all the revolutionary movements making the headlines in the early 2010s and the fact that everyone was worried of potential wars across the region, which sadly happened later in Yemen and Syria. As I wanted to learn more about the Middle East and its rich history and politics, I enrolled in the “International Politics of the Middle East” module. The module was led by Dr Ali Bilgic.

One of the main aims of the module was to demystify the Middle East, to help students understand the complexities of the region’s politics, recent history, and relationship to the wider world. From the Ottoman Empire to the Syrian Civil War, lectures covered different eras, topics, and geographies, and taught us several theories that we used in a simulation as well as our research essay. The lecture featuring the content that most fascinated me was on the revolutions that started in 2011 in Tunisia, the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring has had tremendous effects on democracy and rights. However, I was wondering if it was still the case, ten years after? Was the Tunisian revolution still considered a success? Or, had the ambitions of the revolutionaries slowly fallen apart?

After deciding the topic and choosing a question, the lecturer recommended me to use a more focused approached and think of a way to measure what might constitute success. In this case, the success was measured by various factors: the democratic transition and its aftermaths, if violence was overly present throughout the revolution, and finally if the situation had improved a decade after.

I chose Tunisia as a case study for various reasons: first of all, the contestation started in Tunisia for economic and socio-political reasons and the movement was well-organised – especially compared to other uprisings that followed. Moreover, it is the place where it all started in 2011. After the Jasmine Revolution, Tunisia was considered a tremendous accomplishment especially when compared to other nations that underwent similar political upheavals, as it was the only country to successfully experience a democratic transition. Nonetheless, the economy remains an issue, social issues remain unresolved, and political contestation is rising.

I came to the conclusion that the case of Tunisia can be described as an achievement compared to its neighbours Algeria or Libya as they have a democratically elected government. Despite being imperfect, some progress has been made in other areas. I also argued that the Jasmine revolution could be deemed successful because there had a fairly peaceful transition compared to what happened and is happening in Yemen or Syria. However, despite improvements, the situation is not ideal – especially after the pandemic – as Tunisia was greatly affected from the lack of tourism. There is an upcoming election this summer to elect a new president.

Biography: I am going to graduate from Loughborough university this summer 2021 with a degree in Politics and International Relations. I really enjoy studying International Politics and International Relations especially those between the African continent and China. I will pursue my studies and deepen my knowledge further. I am French and Congolese and used to live in Congo-Brazzaville until moving to university.

To find out more about the topic here is a selection of readings:

Cammett, M. and Diwan, I. (2018) The Political Economy of the Arab Uprisings. London: Routledge, pp. 1-44.

Cammett, M., Diwan, I., Richards, A. and Waterbury, J. (2015). A Political Economy of the Middle East. 4th ed. New York: Routledge, pp.1-32

AFP, “Tunisia to vote on ‘new republic’ on July 25”, France 24 online, 26 May 2022. URL: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220526-tunisia-to-vote-on-new-republic-on-july-25 (accessed 29 May 2022)

Korany, Bahgat. (2011) The Changing Middle East: A New Look at Regional Dynamic. American University in Cairo Press: https://cairo.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.5743/cairo/9789774163531.001.0001/upso-9789774163531  

Wiśniewski, A. (2018). Arab Spring and its Aftermath on the Example of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Securitologia, (2), pp.81-92. https://doi.org/10.4467/24497436SCU.18.016.11490

Photo by Juan Ordonez on Unsplash

This Week at Loughborough | 20 June

Postgraduate Week 2022

20 – 24 June 2022

This in-depth series of online events explores everything you need to know about postgraduate study at Loughborough University London. It covers topics on who a master’s degree and PhD is for, understanding how an advanced qualification can help you further your career and what we offer. Browse our schedule below and book the sessions you want to attend today.

Find out more on the events page.

IAS Spotlight Series: Pacifism and Nonviolence – Seminar 3

20 June 2022, 11am – 1pm, Online

As part of the IAS Spotlight Series, ‘Pacifism and Nonviolence’, this seminar will bring together a group of scholars to examine more closely a range of concrete examples of responses to violence, including in civilian protection initiatives, with military defectors, and in responses to ‘killer robots’ and to counterinsurgency.

Find out more on the events page.

IAS Spotlight Series: Pacifism and Nonviolence – Seminar 4

20 June 2022, 3pm – 5pm, Online

As part of the IAS Spotlight Series ‘Pacifism and Nonviolence’, this seminar will bring together a group of scholars to discuss various facets of militarism, including faith in the institutions of violence, how political philosophers overlook militarism, wargaming in the US military, and militarisation in Palestine.

Find out more on the events page.

IDIG – “Gezi Park a decade later: how Turkish civil society has changed?”

21 June 2022, 3pm, LDN 3.23 (London Campus) & Online

The Roundtable is organised by Dr. Cristian Nitoiu and Massimo D’Angelo within their research on the way civil society enhances its resilience in fragile and vulnerable democracies. In this first event, the focus will be on Turkey and how its civil society has changed in the last ten years.

Find out more on the events page.

IDIG – “Gezi Park a decade later: how Turkish civil society has changed?”

21 June 2022, 3pm, LDN 3.23 (London Campus) & Online

The Roundtable is organised by Dr. Cristian Nitoiu and Massimo D’Angelo within their research on the way civil society enhances its resilience in fragile and vulnerable democracies. In this first event, the focus will be on Turkey and how its civil society has changed in the last ten years.

Find out more on the events page.

A life course approach to menopause: what it is and why it is important

22 June 2022, 12.30pm – 1.30pm, Online

This talk will be delivered by Professor Rebecca Hardy, Professor of Epidemiology and Medical Statistics at Loughborough University. The talk will discuss a life course approach to menopause, what it is and why it is important.

Find out more on the events page.

You Cannot Step in the Same River Twice (discussion)

22 June 2022, 6.30pm – 8pm, Online

An online discussion bringing together the arts and sciences to explore measures of time, environmental change, policy and politics.

Find out more on the events page.

LGBT+ Campus Pride March 2022

23 June 2022, 1.30pm, LSU Lawn

Join the University’s LGBT+ Staff Network and Students’ Union’s LGBT+ Association as we celebrate Pride Month with a march across campus.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Events

Hey Ewe (LDOT)

22 June 2022, 10.30pm, LSU

Whether you’re celebrating a win or reeling from a loss, Hey Ewe is the place to go after a game!

Later entry means there’s plenty of time to shower and get yourself ready for a night of chart hits, pop anthems and student singalongs. We have DJs in The Basement and The Treehouse serving up bangers and cheese until 4am! 

Find out more on the events page.

Incognito

23 June 2022, 10.30pm, The Basement

Welcome to INCOGNITO, Loughborough’s biggest and best night for all things hip-hop, rap, trap, R&B, reggaeton, dancehall and bashment! We’ve taken everything we knew and loved about Cogs and moved it into The Basement for a full night of the biggest beats and best bars around.

Find out more on the events page.

Loughborough Experience Awards

24 June 2022, 6pm, The Basement

The Loughborough Experience Awards are a celebration of our fantastic student and staff successes, rewarding them for their outstanding contribution to the Loughborough Experience.

Find out more on the events page.

FND

24 June 2022, 10.30pm, LSU

Welcome to the biggest Friday night in Loughborough! Our resident DJs will be dropping the best of disco, house, drum and bass, hip hop and R&B in The Basement throughout the night, while The Treehouse is taken over by cheese anthems and retro-pop singalongs until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

Video recordings of CRCC Seminar Series 2021-22

We have now completed our 2021-22 Seminar Series, which was mainly held online. We are delighted to share the video recordings of most of our events.

“Urban Cultural Institutions in Post-Pandemic Perspective” by Dr Fabian Holt (Roskilde University)

“Networked power and arbitrariness in the U.S. asylum system” by Professor Caroline Nagel (University of South Carolina)

“Globalized memorial museums: Traveling memories and musealization trends” by Dr Ljiljana Radonić (Austrian Academy of Sciences)

“Miscommunication and repair in Dutch task-oriented human-robot interaction” by Dr Wyke Stommel (Radboud University)

“Islamist and nativist reactionary radicalisation in Europe” by Professor Ayhan Kaya (Istanbul Bilgi University)

“The politics and ethics of representing ‘the trolls‘” by Dr Jonathan Corpus Ong (University of Massachusetts – Amherst)

My Degree Show Experience

My three years as a Fine Art student were coming to an end. The Design and Creative Arts Degree Show 2021 was just around the corner, and I believe I selected the most challenging room for my exhibition space. The walls were uneven and bumpy, and I made it a goal to paint every inch of them vibrant shades of red, blue, purple, and green. The race to hand in my final submission had passed and mindlessly painting came as a welcomed change of pace. Everyone in the Fine Art building worked together to curate their exhibition because everyone had the same aim – to celebrate their work and what they had achieved during their years at Loughborough University.

True to our cohort’s nature, the scramble to set up our degree show meant many were still painting in the final hour. Due to COVID-19, I had only seen a select few artists developing their practice. It was exciting to see everyone’s work. From sculptures to immersive installations, the pieces displayed passion and resilience.

I created a home-cinema experience, with posters on the wall, merchandise, and a rotoscope animation playing on repeat. The animation had taken months to make and refine. I used myself as the model, recording, sketching over each frame, editing the audio, and then repeating the process from the beginning. I used my final year to refine my style. I discovered how much I enjoyed animating and digital illustration after years of painting portraits. Critical thinking surrounding which fonts to use, colour theory, cut scenes, sound editing and utilising stylistic choices to convey emotions motivated me further.

The art pieces worked together to create a campaign surrounding the gaze and its impact on young women online. COVID-19 meant that the ever-popular social media platforms were relied on more for ‘human contact’. Wanting to feel close to others whilst being unable to see them meant that many turned to social media. Although this pseudo intimacy helped some, it also highlighted the way people view others online. Internet trolls and conflicting standards inflicted on young people can be damaging to their mental and physical wellbeing. My practice focused primarily on young women as I can identify and empathise with them. The campaign aimed to highlight how harmful the way we view others can be and what we could achieve without being constantly criticised online.

I invited my friends and family to the Design and Creative Arts Degree Show. I was proud of myself for creating something I had proactively learned and refined during COVID-19. The degree show was a chance to celebrate myself and those graduating in 2021.

What happened next?

A lot has changed since this time last year. My degree show came and went. I was ordering my graduation gown and feeling like there were 100 and 1 different paths I could take – but which one would I choose?

When the degree show ended, I had moved back home. It was time to think about what I wanted to do next. Do I pursue graphic design and animation, or do I continue to look towards campaigns and management? I had the privilege of time. I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do next. I now have a creative role in social media. I use my skills to produce engaging content shared with a diverse audience on multiple platforms.

A creative degree doesn’t just give you the time to explore your art practice. It allows you to gain skills in multiple areas. One of my favourite phrases to say when someone asks, “what makes Fine Art ‘fine’?” is that it is the research and intention behind it. When you study a creative degree, you research everything from socio-political issues to biology. The tutors here at Loughborough University support the topics you are interested in. They put you in contact with the right schools and lecturers that can help you enhance your learning in that area.

I am really looking forward to walking around the Design and Creative Arts Degree Show this year!

Indonesian Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission Delivered Talk in IDIG Negotiation Module

On the 9th of December 2021, IDIG module on International Negotiation, led by Dr. Nicola Chelotti, invited a diplomat from the Indonesian Embassy in London to give talk about the life of a diplomat and negotiator. Professor Helen Drake as the director of IDIG welcomed Mr. Khasan Ashari, the Deputy Chief of Mission of Indonesian Embassy in London and delivered her opening speech and short introduction of Mr. Ashari to the class.

Prior to his assignment in London, Mr. Ashari served as Director of Junior Diplomatic Training Unit at the Centre of Education and Training, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and has served as Vice-Consul at the Indonesian Consulate General in San Francisco, USA; Head of Section at the Directorate General of Multilateral Cooperation; and First Secretary (then promoted to Counsellor) at the Indonesian Embassy/Permanent Mission to the United Nations and other Organizations in Vienna, Austria.

Mr. Ashari is an alumni of Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia and the Australian National University.

Mr. Khasan Ashari delivered his presentation to around 35 IDIG’s masters students from many different countries. He started the talk by illustrating his journey into diplomacy and updating the class about current issues in Indonesia’s foreign policy. He then explained more in detail the functions of a diplomat according to the 1961 Vienna Convention, and gave a vivid demonstration of how these functions translate into the daily working of an embassy. Further, Mr. Ashari elaborated on the necessary skills to become a diplomat – one of the most important one being the capacity to negotiate skillfully, that is, to present and debate issues in an effective, way, as well as to understand various point of views to reach consensus.

Mr. Ashari highlighted that international negotiations often consist of many layers, because before the diplomats can negotiate in the international level, they first need to negotiate with domestic stakeholders such as the different ministries to reach an agreed national position. He also explained that multilateral negotiations are generally more complex than the bilateral ones, where less parties are involved, and issues are more specific and focused.

Based on his experience, he also shared the real-life challenges of international negotiations, such as the cultural differences among different delegates from various countries. He highlighted the need to adopt and adjust to these different styles, to maximize success in the negotiation process. One practical challenge of multilateral diplomacy (that many commentators hardly consider) is that negotiations often occur in distant parts of the world – far away from your own capital. For example, during the COP 26 in Glasgow, the Indonesian delegation faced 6 to 7 hours-time differences between the UK, where the embassy is stationed, and Indonesia, where the Indonesian government agencies are located. This time difference sometimes complicates the coordination process embedded in every international negotiation and gave agency to individual negotiators participating in the international conference.

The presentation was followed by Q&A session where students asked many interesting questions, from the different negotiation style adopted by diplomats from different countries, to the biggest challenge faced by ASEAN today. From this talk and Q&A session student were able to learn from the analysis of diplomacy and international negotiations and from the interesting examples shared by the speaker.

The talk and Q&A were followed by an informal reception where everyone enjoyed drinks, light lunches and continued the discussions with the speaker in a more informal and interactive setting.

This Week at Loughborough | 13 June

Collaborative Project Show 2022

13 June 2022, 5pm, Plexal, Here East, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

This year 484 students from all academic Institute disciplines at Loughborough University London embarked on a 10-week collaborative innovation journey.

Working in 85 teams, students selected one of 24 briefs, specifically co-created with our highly valued Partner Organisations and set about creating innovative and unique solutions using their vast array of skills and experiences from around the world, while overseen and facilitated by our academic Project Leads.

Find out more on the events page.

Fellowship Inaugural Lecture: Dr Petre Breazu

14 June 2022, 12.30pm – 1.30pm, LDN 1.04 & Online

In this lecture, Dr Petre Breazu will introduce their MSCA project carried out at the Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance under the mentorship of Professor Aidan McGarry. This project investigates contemporary expressions of racism and xenophobia toward the Roma in the context of the growing populism in Europe.

Find out more on the events page.

Barnes, Bots, and Bears: Chatting with AI in Museums with Dr Kathryn Brown

14 June 2022, 3pm – 4pm, International House

As a follow on from the IAS event on AI and Cultural Heritage, please join us in person for ‘Barnes, Bots, and Bears: Chatting with AI in Museums’ with Dr Kathryn Brown (School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Loughborough University).

Find out more on the events page.

Public lecture: Omega-3s and cardiometabolic disease

14 June 2022, 6pm – 7pm, Online

The talk will discuss the use of Omega-3s for the management or prevention of cardiometabolic disease. Cardiometabolic disease is a term used to describe largely preventable lifestyle-related conditions like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and non-alcoholic fatty liver.

Find out more on the events page.

Menopause and the brain

15 June 2022, 12.30pm – 1.30pm, Online

In this talk Professor Eef Hogervorst will discusss what we know about the brain and menopause. Should we take hormones for the complaints of brain fog, problems with memory and concentration, the mood swings and irritability and loss of libido? Can hormones protect against dementia? If that is so when should we take these and for how long?

Find out more on the events page.

Meet the Author: Christina Sweeney-Baird

15 June 2022, 12.30pm – 1.30pm, Stanley Evernden Studio, Martin Hall

Join author Christina Sweeney-Baird for a Q&A and a reading from her novel The End of Men.

Find out more on the events page.

Disability Support Network Event

15 June 2022, 6pm – 7pm, Future Space London

Join the Disability Support Network team to learn more about the types of support available to students at the London Campus.

Find out more on the events page.

The End of Men

15 – 17 June 2022, Various Timings, Martin Hall Theatre

‘The End Of Men’ explores what the world would look like without men. In the book, there is a pandemic that quickly kills 90% of the male population. The performance follows a range of characters as they try to keep their friends, sons, husbands, and fathers safe and they explore how to reconfigure and survive in a world that has changed enormously. This production was adadpted by Jake Truman and Jess Magson, and directed by Iona Gray.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Events

Keep Calm: Study Lounge

13 – 17 June 2022, 9am, The Lounge

The Lounge is open with free refreshments to keep you going through the day, and board games to help take your mind off things for a while!

Find out more on the events page.

Keep Calm: Silent Study

13 – 17 June 2022, 9am, The Lounge

The Lounge is open with free refreshments to keep you going through the day, and board games to help take your mind off things for a while!

Find out more on the events page.

Keep Calm: Bricking It

13, 15, 17 June 2022, 11am, The Lounge

If you have questions about exams, mitigating circumstances or anything else relating to your education, come and see our Advice team in the Michael Pearson Board Room! We’ll have the Lego out too, so even if you just want to build something and have a chat, come and say hi!

Find out more on the events page.

Robogals – Lego Session

13, 16 June 2022, 11am, Student Hub Meeting Room

Robogals have their Lego in the Student Hub Board Room.

Find out more on the events page.

Keep Calm: Puppy Petting

14 June 2022, Various Timings, The Treehouse

Join us for puppy petting as part of our Keep Calm Week events. There are various timeslots available and limited spaces, so don’t forget to book your slot!

Find out more on the events page.

Open Mic Night: The Best of

14 June 2022, 6pm, The Lounge

This evening sees the ultimate in performers come together for one final night of Open Mic’s best and most memorable. Crowd inspiration, innovation and untapped potential all combine to embody tonight’s line up of alluring uniqueness and verified talent.

Find out more on the events page.

Hey Ewe

15 June 2022, 10.30pm, LSU

Whether you’re celebrating a win or reeling from a loss, Hey Ewe is the place to go after a game!

Later entry means there’s plenty of time to shower and get yourself ready for a night of chart hits, pop anthems and student singalongs. We have DJs in The Basement and The Treehouse serving up bangers and cheese until 4am! 

Find out more on the events page.

FND

17 June 2022, 10.30pm, LSU

Welcome to the biggest Friday night in Loughborough! Our resident DJs will be dropping the best of disco, house, drum and bass, hip hop and R&B in The Basement throughout the night, while The Treehouse is taken over by cheese anthems and retro-pop singalongs until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

OUT!

18 June 2022, 10pm, The Treehouse

Find out more on the events page.

Funky Bunch Trivia Quiz

19 June 2022, 8pm, The Lounge

Join us every Sunday from 8pm for a night of tricky trivia in The Lounge. Vote on the theme over on our Instagram every Thursday, and see if your specialist subject shows up – then put together the perfect team and maybe you’ll be taking home the cash prize!

Find out more on the events page.

This Week at Loughborough | 6 June

Featured

School of Design and Creative Arts Degree Show 2022

10 – 19 June 2022, 10am – 5pm, The Design School and Creative Arts Building

The annual School of Design and Creative Arts Degree Show is an opportunity for graduating students to showcase their work to industry, friends, family, potential students, and the public.

The Degree Show is such an exciting and valuable event for students, staff, and visitors; it is a culmination of so much hard work, and a chance for students to celebrate, share and exhibit their final year projects.

Find out more on the events page.

Diverse Voices In Textiles (exhibition)

6 June – 29 July 2022, 12pm – 2pm, Martin Hall Exhibition Space

Diverse Voices in Textiles is a pioneering teaching initiative by an academic team at Loughborough University based in the School of Design and Creative Arts who were awarded an Inclusivity Teaching Innovation Award (2021). The project aims to build a considered, inclusive and diverse agenda to advance the conversation in textiles and amplify the voices of those it serves. This exhibition sets out to celebrate distinguished textile designers, artists and practitioners who have otherwise been under-represented within curriculums and the history of textiles by bringing critical stories to the forefront, to enrich and enhance our students’ knowledge and understanding of the discipline.

Find out more on the events page.

IDIG Online Student Experience Summit

7 June 2022, 11am – 12pm, Online

Have you ever wondered what studying in our Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance is really like?

Would you like to hear from researchers, students and alumni about how our courses could boost your career?

The event will see the Institute’s Director, Professor Helen Drake, joined by members of her Institute to discuss the critical components of the Institutes courses. They will introduce the key concepts and drivers of the Institutes programmes of study. Members of faculty will be joined by current students to share their experience and discuss their views on the programmes.

Find out more on the events page.

Menopause and your heart

8 June 2022, 12.30pm – 1.30pm, Online

The subject of menopause, its symptoms and treatments has become a more prevalent topic in recent years. In this NCSEM online lecture series we will myth bust and outline what the evidence says around aspects of menopause.

Find out more on the events page.

Menopause and your heart

8 June 2022, 12.30pm – 1.30pm, Online

The subject of menopause, its symptoms and treatments has become a more prevalent topic in recent years. In this NCSEM online lecture series we will myth bust and outline what the evidence says around aspects of menopause.

Find out more on the events page.

Negotiating the Political in the Indian Community Radio Sphere

8 June 2022, 4pm – 5pm, Brockington U1.22

This talk will critically examine the complex ways in which the community radio sector in India has been negotiating the ‘political’ in their programming as well as through their engagement with the state. It considers some key challenges of the community radio sector in India—content restrictions, state funding, monitoring and surveillance, and the NGOization of community radio— in order to analyse how this complex web of patronage and surveillance results in keeping CR stations, from the state’s perspective, at a safe distance from the potential ravages of the political. In the end, Professor Pavarala discusses the possibilities for rebooting the community radio sector in India based on discourses of communication rights and freedom of expression.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Events

Keep Calm Week Puppy Petting

7 June 2022, The Treehouse

Join us for puppy petting as part of our Keep Calm Week events. There are various timeslots available and limited spaces, so don’t forget to book your slot!

Find out more on the events page.

Hey Ewe

8 June 2022, 10.30pm, LSU

Whether you’re celebrating a win or reeling from a loss, Hey Ewe is the place to go after a game!

Later entry means there’s plenty of time to shower and get yourself ready for a night of chart hits, pop anthems and student singalongs. We have DJs in The Basement and The Treehouse serving up bangers and cheese until 4am! 

Find out more on the events page.

Keep Calm Week – Stretch Class

9 June 2022, 1pm, The Treehouse

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Media’s Masquerade Awards

9 June 2022, 5.30pm, The Lounge

The Media Masquerade Awards are happening on Thursday 9th May 2022, beginning with a Prosecco Reception at 5:30 pm, followed by a two-course meal in The Basement at LSU and an After-Party at The Indie Club.

The LSU Media Awards are a celebration of our fantastic student volunteer successes, rewarding them for their outstanding contribution to the section this year.

Find out more on the events page.

Indie Club

9 June 2022, 10.30pm, The Basement

Get on your dancing shoes and dust off your bucket hat for The Indie Club! Our resident DJs will be playing your favourite indie and alt-rock anthems throughout the night.

Find out more on the events page.

Keep Calm Week Yoga Session

10 June 2022, 11am, The Treehouse

Find out more on the events page.

Enterprise Awards

10 June 2022, 6pm, The Basement

Thank you for being involved with Enterprise – you are invited to join us to celebrate student Enterprise at our annual Awards on Friday, 10th June, 6:00 – 9:30 PM at LSU! It’s the time when we’ll be showcasing YOUR hard work and the best of Enterprise across the Union and University, so we would love to see you on the night!

Find out more on the events page.

FND

10 June 2022, 10.30pm, LSU

Welcome to the biggest Friday night in Loughborough! Our resident DJs will be dropping the best of disco, house, drum and bass, hip hop and R&B in The Basement throughout the night, while The Treehouse is taken over by cheese anthems and retro-pop singalongs until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

Funky Bunch Trivia Quiz

12 June 2022, 8pm, The Lounge

Join us every Sunday from 8pm for a night of tricky trivia in The Lounge. Vote on the theme over on our Instagram every Thursday, and see if your specialist subject shows up – then put together the perfect team and maybe you’ll be taking home the cash prize!

Find out more on the events page.

Institute for International Management Alumni Event

Every term, the Institute for International Management (IIM) organises at least one alumni event that allows our current students to meet former students who have successfully navigated the transition from the classroom into the world of business. This term, we had the great pleasure to welcome back four of our graduates from last year. Abhishek Ray (Lloyds Banking Group), Hadiza Adetunmbi (TransPerfect), Victoria Sedlak (DeltaCapita), and Rhianna Leslie (Aldi), shared tips and tricks about how to go about finding your ideal job after graduation.

What was most impressive was to see just how innovative, persistent, and creative our students are when it comes to entering job market. It was particularly fascinating to see the diversity of approaches to identifying potential employers, securing an interview, and preparing for interviews that Abhishek, Hadiza, Rhianna, and Vicky adopted. There clearly is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach! What works and what does not seems to depend on the norms in any given sector, the organisation’s culture, as well as the personality of the people involved in the recruitment process. In some cases, starting a conversation with your interviewer about ‘Family Guy’ may allow you to create a connection with the people who may employ you…in other sectors or companies, such a relaxed approach may not be the right way to go.

What it all shows us though, is that looking for a job is a very personal processes where every student tries to develop a strategy that fits their own personality as well as the norms and standards in their preferred industry and organisation.

Needless to say, the best way to get started on developing your own job-hunting strategy is to talk to people who have been there themselves. The wealth of experience, tips and tricks that our alumni can share are a tremendous resource for our current students. As IIM gets ready to welcome our 5^th cohort of students, our alumni network has grown and each year we get to hear more diverse and interesting stories about our IIM graduates’ exciting journey in the ‘real world.’

We are looking forward to welcoming more of our dear alumni back to Loughborough University London in the autumn!

DRN Ecologies of Drawing: Mapping Environments Recording

Thank you to Kiera O’Toole for chairing the third event in the series of DRN2022 Ecologies of Drawing events, to the presenters Daniel Coombes, Uri Wegman and Ann McDonald for their interesting insights and approaches to the theme and to everyone who attended the event.

Video also accessible at: https://vimeo.com/715575795

Master’s Students on Peace-building Course Discuss Partner-driven Engagement 

Master’s students on the course Peace-building, taken by students on the MSc Security, Peace-buidling and Diplomacy, as well as other programmes at the Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance, hosted guest speaker, The Baroness Caroline Cox, to discuss practitioner experiences and views on working in complex (post)conflict environments. The session was part of the “NGOs and Peace-building” lecture theme of the course. Lady Cox is a life peer at the House of Lords, and the former Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords. She is the founder of the UK-based NGO Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART), and is  a staunch humanitarian with some 40 years of practitioner experience in (post)conflict communities, with humanitarian, peace-building and conflict advocacy initiatives. She has often spoken out for communities and issues least discussed and visible in the House of Lords and the mainstream media coverage, and has worked to practice a local partnership-based approach with communities around the world.  

Her insights into combining of humanitarian aid with advocacy in conflict (HART’s approach), and particularly the issue of local partnership (the theme of one of the major debates we explore in the Peace-building course) were to complement students’ academic study on these and related themes. 

At the session, Lady Cox presented HART’s approach and methods, its work to date in various regions, followed by a discussion and debate with the students. Below, Victoria Migliora, one of the students on the course, is sharing her thoughts on the event.  

Understanding humanitarian Efforts in (Post-)Conflict Communities through the Lens of HART: A Seminar with The Baroness Caroline Cox 

By Victoria Migliora 

We were very fortunate to be joined in our seminar by The Baroness Cox, a Member of the House of Lords and founder of Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART), to shine a light on the on-the-ground work that humanitarian and advocacy organisations carry out in conflict and post-conflict communities. 

After weeks of lectures and theoretical readings on peace-building, having explored various models of peace-building, critical currents and some cases and examples, it was truly fruitful to hear the first-hand practitioner experience of HART. 

Lady Cox briefly introduced to us HART’s work in six conflict zones – Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), Burma (Myanmar), Sudan, South Sudan, Nigeria and Syria. Each of these cases, with its particular needs, allowed us to relate more closely to, and further think through, some of the most-studied theories in the peace-building literature. 

It is worth noting that HART’s goal, as stated on its website, is to “alleviate poverty, empower communities and promote human rights” through aid and advocacy operations on the ground and not to become politically involved in the local context. Notwithstanding, they take advantage of their position to raise some of the issues related to these communities in the UK Parliament when they see fit, and most often when these communities’ plight is left out of attention or action.  

This brings me to the first debate in the peace-building literature: attention to the locals. 

Lady Cox highlighted that in all of their operations, they turn to the local people and ask them for their priorities. For example, she said, the people of Artsakh “emphasised the need for rehabilitation for people with disabilities” after the bombings in the first Nagorno-Karabakh war in the 1990s, as there was “no treatment available” within their capabilities.  

According to some liberal peace critics¹, the liberal peace-building approach (especially of 1990s-early 2000) had little success in significantly improving the lives of those affected by the conflict because it overlooked the grassroots dynamics and the “everyday” lives of the local people. Local actors are often the foundation of a humanitarian response and are on the front lines of it in conflict situations, so partnering with them is critical. 

A similar situation occurred in Burma, Lady Cox continued, where their dialogue with the locals led them to partner with Sasa, a local man who, with their help, created an organisation to provide vital medical care by training community health workers (CHWs) for villages “deep inside Chin State where there was no health care at all”. As a result, 317 students arrived from 153 villages (some walked 5-7 days to attend) and with their newly-acquired knowledge, started saving the lives of 8 out of 10 people in their villages who would previously have died from preventable infections such as malaria or diarrhea. 

This leads me to another question within the liberal peace studies and its critiques: the type of association between international organisations (Western, in this case) and the local people. 

According to scholarship², the interaction between local peacebuilders and external organisations is determined by how the partnership is structured. Is it top-down, hierarchical, or more giving agency to the local organisations and community groups? 

In the case of Syria, for example, HART partnered with a local organisation, St. Ephrem Patriarchal Development Committee (EPDC), to create 20 jobs to combat food security. Currently, they are raising funds to assist EPDC and its projects to provide clothing and food to more than 2,000 Internally displaced people (IDPs). This type of partnership could be classified as partner-driven partnership, where local agencies maintain their independence, rely on external aid and have regular meetings with the donor’s organisation. More on HART’s work, meetings and testimonials on Syria can be found here: https://www.hart-uk.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Syria_Visit-Report_2018.pdf  

After the presentation by Lady Cox, students engaged in a very interesting discussions around many puzzles, challenges and debates in peace-building such as: 

• The importance of the integration with the local people, which includes understanding the different levels and networks in their society. 
• The (in)effectiveness of sanctions in conflict countries and their impact  on societies. 
• The media (mis)coverage of conflicts and the trauma that these may bring to the local and displaced people. 
• The challenge of understanding how complex and asymmetrical conflict is within different levels in the local structure. 
• The need for more NGOs or operations run by charities rather than by governments who have national interests. 

Lady Cox was open to challenges and constructive probing of ideas by the students, and nurtured an atmosphere of trust where we could test and further our thinking on these complex issues.  

Overall, Lady Cox’s presentation and further discussion were a great way to end our lectures on peace-building studies as it allowed us to engage with an experienced practitioner in the field. Some of the theories that we had studied during the Peace-building course gained another dimension when listening to the stories that the Baroness shared, and these will stay with me to shape my understanding on peace-building. 

To know more about HART’s work, please visit their website at https://www.hart-uk.org/  

Drawing Research Group: UNSW Sydney

Emma Robertson

The Drawing Research Group at UNSW Sydney was founded in 2012 and is affiliated with DRN. As it is 10 years since our inception and in light of the retirement / redundancies of several members we are seeking to rebuild and strengthen our group in the wake of a challenging two years and a workplace change process. The Faculty of Art & Design at UNSW recently merged with two others, and our new Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture gives us an opportunity to also extend our reach and connect with like minded colleagues who work in architecture, psychology, media and other disciplines where drawing plays an important role.

Please contact Assoc Prof Emma Robertson if you are based in New South Wales and wish to be involved: e.robertson@unsw.edu.au

Thank you, and kind regards, Emma

This Week at Loughborough | 26 May

Behind The Mask

30 May – 4 June 2022, Various Locations

Free literary festival including open mic, poetry workshops, online crime panel, graduate panel, and a full day of performances.

‘Behind the Mask’ is a student-run literary festival of identity and diversity at a time when everyone has experienced the effects of living behind a mask. This series of events aims to unveil stories and experiences, bringing awareness to the literal and figurative masks that occupy the space between creative writers and their writing.

Find out more on the events page.

Sir Nevill Mott Lecture: Professor Leon Chua

30 May 2022, 4.20pm – 6pm, DAV031 Sir David Davies & Online

This year’s Sir Nevill Mott Lecture will be given by Professor Chua from the University of California, Berkeley who theoretically proposed memristors in 1971.

The title of the Mott lecture is ‘Memristors are the elan vital of Brain-like Machines’. There will be an introduction before the lecture given by Professor Stanley Williams.

Find out more on the events page.

Loughborough University London Family Fun Day

1 June 2022, 10am – 4pm, Loughborough University London

Organised by LUL EDI Committee and LUL Parents and Carers Group, the aim for the day is to bring LUL families and their children together in a social and relaxed environment.

Find out more on the events page.

Loughborough Cycling Festival

4 June 2022, 8.30am – 6pm, Loughborough Campus

Loughborough University’s famous campus is being turned into a racetrack. The fast, technical circuit makes this the perfect type of course for spectating some of the UK’s best cyclists including our Loughborough Lightning team, the UK’s leading University female race team.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Events

Inclusive Elections Forum

30 May 2022, 6.30pm, Online

On Monday evening, we will be hosting an on open forum for students to give feedback on Loughborough Students’ Union’s elections processes and how we can make them as inclusive as possible.

Find out more on the events page.

Hey Ewe

1 June 2022, 10.30pm, LSU

Whether you’re celebrating a win or reeling from a loss, Hey Ewe is the place to go after a game!

Later entry means there’s plenty of time to shower and get yourself ready for a night of chart hits, pop anthems and student singalongs. We have DJs in The Basement and The Treehouse serving up bangers and cheese until 4am! 

Find out more on the events page.

FND

3 June 2022, 10.30pm, LSU

Welcome to the biggest Friday night in Loughborough! Our resident DJs will be dropping the best of disco, house, drum and bass, hip hop and R&B in The Basement throughout the night, while The Treehouse is taken over by cheese anthems and retro-pop singalongs until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

Funky Bunch Trivia Quiz

5 June 2022, 8pm, The Lounge

Join us every Sunday from 8pm for a night of tricky trivia in The Lounge. Vote on the theme over on our Instagram every Thursday, and see if your specialist subject shows up – then put together the perfect team and maybe you’ll be taking home the cash prize!

Find out more on the events page.

Big events in STEM

March seems to be a massive time for all sorts of events relating to diversity, including British Science Week, International Women’s Day and Neurodiversity Celebration Week.

British Science Week (6–15 March 2020) is a fun engaging way to remind us of just how important science is and why it is a fundamental part of compulsory education. As part of their missions, British Science Association (BSA) has included the Smashing Stereotypes campaign in which they want to change how we see a ‘typical’ scientist. They’ve created a number of profiles which can be viewed on their website, and mirror some of the profiles we’ve been putting out as a university. We’re hoping that these stories, and our own stories, will provide some inspiration and guidance as to what modern science really reflects. Such campaigns have obviously also been a success, as more female students than male students took science A levels last year which is a great improvement that has really taken off in the last few years.

This all ties in really well to International Women’s Day (8 March 2020) which was also in the same week. This brings further opportunities to understand and respect the stories and hardships of women not only in STEM, but in all aspects of life. Whether that be as a mother, teacher, businesswoman, scientist, researcher and so on, there’s still a lot of pressure to get these things right. On a day like this, we can look back on how far we’ve come but also on how far we have yet to go. There are still many areas of the world where women aren’t given the freedom they deserve, and as an influential nation like the UK, we should continue to be role models in diversity and inclusivity.

An aspect of diversity not talked about as often as it should, is neurodiversity. Neurodiveristy Celebration Week runs from 16–20 March 2020, and is used to raise awareness of the struggles faced by those with neurological conditions such as ADHD and dyslexia. While these conditions are incredibly common (about 15%), they still aren’t talked about openly enough without some form of discrimination. While not as obvious as physical disabilities/difficulties, learning difficulties should be looked out for just as much as any other condition. This awareness is what Neurodiversity Celebration Week is about, and also giving the voice to those with these learning difficulties to be proud of what they have and speak openly about it.

Even though I don’t come under this minority category, I can still promote and talk about what it means to be inclusive of those with neurological differences. This reflects strongly on the Diversity Allies campaign that we’ve been promoting throughout the School of Science in recent weeks, and that Simona has recently discussed in her blog post. We can all be allies to everyone and encompasses diversity into one great big bubble of anything that isn’t something we identify with. I believe this is a much better and more holistic way to tackle challenges in diversity, especially in such a big diverse environment such as our whole School of Science.

The University put together a website solely for International Women’s Day 2020. Please take some time to go through the website!

Placement: Work or Life? Or both? 

Being an international student in the UK means there is a pool of opportunities that one can tap into. I, Tayeb Giani, came to the UK in October 2018 for the first time from Pakistan for my MEng Civil Engineering course which has a length of 5 years including a Placement year.

It won’t be wrong if I say I have had the best time of my life at Loughborough and have lived it to the fullest.  

In my 2^nd year of university, I started applying for placements. The university’s Careers Department conducted mock interviews and helped me in writing my CV and cover letter. There are also multiple careers fairs run by the University which gave me the chance to introduce myself to employers and companies.  

Due to covid breakout in March 2020, I could not go on my placement after 2nd year. But thanks to the MEng program I was eligible to apply in my 3rd year too. I started applying again took help from the University and landed a job offer from two of the biggest civil engineering companies in the world, AECOM and Balfour Beatty. 

I decided to go with Balfour Beatty as they are currently working on HS2, which is a 100-billion-pound project in itself.  

My time and Experience on my Placement….. 

Work-life teaches you a lot. You discover yourself. And that’s what this journey has been for me. Waking up at 6AM and returning home at 6PM really teaches you endurance! 

But let’s talk about the fun part first😊 

The company provided quite a few interesting opportunities for training and growth. From Fire Marshall training to Mental Health First Aider, doors were open for all. Plus, all the engineering practical and knowledge is provided too by on-site experience. 

I started my placement in the Technical & Design Team. Here I was designing and calculating the loads for the foundations of the HS2 train tracks. Later I moved to the site team where I did setting out using the total station and managing and operating the site.  

Construction can be a very boring industry but luckily, I found a fun-loving team; we’ve had multiple team brunches, dinners, and even BBQs!

This made my placement experience very diverse and fruitful I got the chance to experience various aspects of engineering and its applications too. 

Lessons learned from Placement and why is it important? 

Student life is very relaxed and fun! You are the master of your time. You can sleep, study, and work whenever you want! What a placement does is teaches you self-discipline. It trains you to manage your time and tasks in an efficient manner. And this helps one throughout their life.  

Another important lesson I’ve learned is how to deal and work with those who you do not get along. You won’t always be working with people who are like-minded or your friends. You have to learn the art of public dealing and improve your team working skills, and placement is a perfect opportunity to master this skill. It teaches you to keep your differences aside and focus on achieving the target or goal. 

A third valuable lesson I learned was how to network and build contacts. This is very important as it helps you in broadening your horizon and opens the door to more opportunities and helps you grow. 

How to find one? 

So the million-dollar question is; how to land a placement? To be honest, applying for jobs or placements is a tedious task. It can be repetitive and at the same time challenging too.  

The first tip is to start applying early. A lot of big companies close their applications around December time meaning you have to start applying in October right after you start your 2nd Year!  

What worked for me was I would maintain a spreadsheet where I would record which companies I have applied in, what stage I have cleared, and what is the deadline.  

It is imperative that your CV and cover letter are solid. This is the first impression you have on the employer. My strong recommendation is to get it checked by the careers department. Listen to feedback and keep improving your CV and cover letter. 

Most employers are looking for people who have some kind of work/societies/sports experience. This shows you have something more than your academics. Therefore, it is vital that students engage in different activities during their university time and build up their experience and personality too! 

And lastly, applying for placements is a number game. You have to apply to a lot of companies as it increases the probability of you being selected.  

Going on placement has changed my life. It has helped me polish my personality and increased my endurance level. And I’m sure whoever goes on placement comes back as a new and improved version of themselves.

CRCC Researchers to Feature Prominently at Major International Conference

This week, the 72^nd annual meeting of the International Communication Association (ICA) will be held in Paris in hybrid format from 26-30 May. ICA is the largest global organization that advances the scholarly study of communication, with more than 5,000 members in over 80 countries. As is the case every year, colleagues from CRCC will feature prominently in the conference. Below is a summary of their most relevant activities.

On the 26^th of May, Ana Cristina Suzina from our London campus will be involved in a preconference on “Communicative Dynamics of the Pandemic and Identities on the Margins”. Dr Suzina will present a paper titled “Popular and Community Communication in the Face of the Pandemic and Climate Change”. The preconference will also include Professor Vinod Pavarala (University of Hyderabad), who will visit our Midlands campus and is scheduled to give a talk as part of the CRCC Seminar Series shortly after the ICA conference.

On the 27^th of May, Sabina Mihelj and Vaclav Stetka will present a paper titled “The COVID-19 Pandemic as A Media Event” as part of a panel on “News Experiences Before, During and After Crises: Theory Development on Fluctuating Temporalities of News Use”. Simone Natale, a Visiting Fellow in Communication and Media Studies, will discuss a study titled “Banal Deception: Theorizing the Relationship Between Deception and Media in the Age of Fake News and Disinformation” in a panel on “Media Cultures of Populism”.

On the 28^th of May, CRCC researchers are involved in five different panels. Our Theme Lead for Political Communication, James Stanyer, and Vaclav Stetka are among the authors of a paper led by Laia Castro and titled “How Healthy Political Discussions Invigorate Online Participation: Evidence From 17 European Countries”, which will be part of a panel on “Political Incivility and Participation”. Vaclav Stetka, Sabina Mihelj, and Fanni Toth will present a paper on “Social Media Use, Support for Democracy and Liberal Attitudes in Eastern Europe” within a panel titled “Comparing Media Systems and National Audiences”. Simone Natale is one of the authors of a study titled “From Big Events to Silence: The Shift in the Discursive Construction of Communication Infrastructures”, to be presented in a panel on “Infrastructures for the Historical Mediation of Events”. Our Theme Lead for Language and Social Interaction, Jessica Robles, will be part of a panel on “Racism, Black(ness), Whiteness, and Migration”, where she will present her work on “The Production of Racism Denials as Instances of Possible Racism in Political Arguments“, as well as being one of the authors of a separate paper titled “Interrogating Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis (EMCA) for Racial Justice: Preliminary Insights From a Meta-Synthesis of EMCA Articles Addressing Race, Racism, and Ethnicity Published Between 2001-2020”, led by Christopher Koenig.

The programme for the 29^th of May features three contributions by CRCC members. James Stanyer and Vaclav Stetka are among the coauthors of a paper led by Alon Zoizner and titled “The Effects of the COVID-19 Outbreak on Selective Exposure: Evidence From 17 Countries”, which will be included in a panel on “Selective and Cross-Cutting Exposure in Times of COVID-19”. Professor Stanyer has also contributed to a paper titled “Do People Ever Learn From Social Media? A Cross-National and Cross-Temporal Analysis of Social Media Use on Political Knowledge”, led by Peter Van Aelst and part of the panel “Social Media Use and Political Knowledge: New Insights”. Finally, Online Civic Culture Centre (O3C) Director Andrew Chadwick, CRCC Director Cristian Vaccari, and Natalie-Anne Hall will present a paper titled “What People Talk About When They Talk About Misinformation on Private Social Media”, featured as part of an interdivisional panel on “Everyday Misinformation and Correction on Private Social Media: Relationality, Affordances, and Emergent Norms”. The panel was organized by Andrew Chadwick and is co-sponsored by the ICA Political Communication, Journalism Studies, Communication and Technology, and Mobile Communication divisions.

On the 30^th of May, the last day of the conference, O3C PhD student Andrew Ross will present a paper titled “Meta-Perceptions: How News Coverage of Russian Disinformation Attempts Shapes Citizens’ Confidence in Electoral Integrity and Satisfaction With Democracy”, coauthored with Cristian Vaccari and Andrew Chadwick. This study will be included in a panel titled “Russian Political Communication Influence on Western Democracies”, chaired by Vaclav Stetka.

Our colleagues will also be involved in many other activities related to our international research and leadership. For instance, James Stanyer and Vaclav Stetka will be attending a research meeting of the Network of European Political Communication Scholars. Cristian Vaccari will chair the Editorial Board meeting of The International Journal of Press/Politics, for which he serves as Editor-in-Chief, and will participate, together with Andrew Chadwick, in the Editorial Board meeting of Political Communication, the official journal of the Political Communication Divisions of the ICA and the American Political Science Association.

Detailed information on the logistics of these events, some of which will be simultaneously livestreamed online for those who enrolled to participate in the conference virtually, is available on the ICA conference website. We wish all our colleagues a very productive conference!

Introducing Rupo

As we’ve just had International’s Women’s Day, I thought it was time I introduce myself as a Women in Science Ambassador. Hello, I am Rupo, a second-year chemistry student.

As many people know there is a typical ‘perception’ that a scientist should be male. However, this needs to change, and science needs to be diversified. The problem is it’s hard to make people feel welcome in an area that they can’t imagine themselves due to these perceptions. As a result, myself, and my fellow women in science ambassadors are aiming to be role models to show you that science benefits everyone and should be studied by anyone who has a passion for it. 

A question you may have, is why science should be diversified, could argue that the old system worked, scientists have discovered a lot of phenomena of the years. However, science and research pose questions that can’t be solved singularly, we need perspectives and minds from all walks of lives to get a holistic solution that can work for everyone. Take the discovery of the structure of DNA for example; many remember James Watson and Francis Crick’s work, but if it weren’t for Rosalind Franklin’s early contributions who’s to say how long it would have taken or if we would still be looking. Let’s not extend the timeline for the next discovery, just because the old system ‘worked.’ 

Why did I choose chemistry, well why not chemistry? It answers that questions that you haven’t even thought of it is everywhere, the world is made of atoms. Chemistry comes in all different forms, it can be colourful, computational, methodical, or solely theoretical. It has something for everybody and illuminates the world around us.

As I said earlier, I am in my second year, my first year was a very remote experience in all senses of the word, so being able to go to lectures, meet different people and take part in activities has been a welcome change. A little about myself, I am from up north in Leeds. I choose chemistry for all the reasons above but also because of a wonderful chemistry teacher in high school who exuded this passion for the subject that was infectious. I enjoy reading, my preferred genres range from everyday life stories to the whimsical, outlandish stories; it just needs to be fiction. If I am going to enter the realm of non-fiction it will have to be ‘science-ish’. I have been fortunate to take piano lessons at the university which I adore.

To end this little blog, I hope you get the point that I was trying to put across, if you want to do science, don’t let your gender, race, etc make you think you can’t do it. Science isn’t bias and we need more scientists who look exactly like you. I think Katherine Johnson (American mathematician) puts it perfectly: ‘Girls can do everything men can do. Sometimes they have more imagination than men”.

This Week at Loughborough | 23 May

People and Places, Beyond Design

23 May 2022, 1pm – 3pm, International House

There are changes we introduce in spaces and people own them instantly – they fight for the spaces because of the ‘new’ change. There are also designs we make, which aren’t people-friendly and they disown them. There are also interventions we introduce without any physical design changes, that have a lasting impact. Change is the future of spaces, especially public spaces.

This workshop, led by IAS Visiting Fellow Amanda Ngabirano, will enable participants to envisage practical strategies for sustainable transition on campus and beyond.

Find out more on the events page.

Digital Inequality – Experiences and challenges from Brazil, India and Kenya

23 May 2022, 2.30pm – 4.30pm, Online

Digital recovery’ and ‘digital revolution’ are increasingly common expressions used in both government discourses and within international development organisations when discussing key development pathways to overcome the pandemic crisis in all its manifold dimensions. By drawing on empirically grounded insights from India, Kenya and Brazil, this panel debate offers critical perspectives on this techno-optimist discourse, exploring how citizens in these countries are overcoming the challenges to everyday life imposed by the pandemic, and how they negotiate digital solutions to these challenges. This panel/seminar is part of a series of seminars Loughborough University is organising this semester in anticipation of the launch of two new postgraduate programmes in International Development and International Sustainable Development, both of which begin in September 2022. The objective of this series of seminars is to spark some debates around topics we will deal with on the new postgraduate programmes.

Find out more on the events page.

Inaugural Lecture: Professor Nira Chamberlain

23 May 2022, 4pm – 6pm, EHB.1.10 & Online

The Black Heroes of Mathematics

The 2017 film, ‘Hidden Figures’, is based on the true story of a group of Black female mathematicians that served as the brains behind calculating the momentous launch of the NASA astronaut John Glenn into orbit. However, these mathematicians of colour are not the only ‘Hidden Figures’.

In this multi-media talk, Nira discusses other inspirational men and women of colour who overcame obstacles to prove that ‘mathematics is truly for everybody!’

Find out more on the events page.

University Choir: A Royal Garden

23 May 2022, 7.30pm, Cope Auditorium

Join our University Choir for a musical walk through the landscape of the last 70 years in their annual Spring Concert. There will be songs about flowers and, with a nod to the forthcoming Platinum Jubilee, music used for Royal occasions.

Enjoy familiar choral repertoire by Handel, Parry and Brahms, old favourites by Ivor Novello and Ronald Binge, contemporary classics by Howard Goodall, Gary Barlow and Ola Gjielo and some less well-known pieces by Royalty!

Find out more on the events page.

Book Club: Tears of Amber by Sofía Segovia

24 May 2022, 12.30pm – 1.30pm, Online

Join our regular Book Club for a discussion of Sofía Segovia’s family saga ‘Tears of Amber’.

‘Tears of Amber’ is the latest novel from the bestselling author of ‘The Murmur of Bees’. Inspired by real events and set in Prussia before, during and after WWI, it’s a transportive novel of two families uprooted by war and united by the bonds of love and courage.

Find out more on the events page.

Digital Marketing Alumni Networking Event

24 May 2022, 5pm – 7pm, Future Space, London Campus

Are you looking for a career in Digital Marketing? We are hosting a panel event with recently graduated students from our Institute for Digital Marketing course.

Find out more on the events page.

Palm to Palm

25 May 2022, 10.30am – 12pm, International House

Aliansyah Caniago presents a newly developed performance, Palm to Palm, which considers relationships to the land in the artist’s home country of Sumatra, Indonesia. Reflecting on the widespread deforestation initiated by colonial occupiers that cleared the way for the Palm Oil plantations which now dominate the landscape, Aliansyah will offer hand massages to audience members using a traditional healing balm derived from the Camphor tree. Weaving together storytelling, personal and collective memory, Aliansyah will reveal connections between migration, colonisation and ecology as he delivers each massage.

Find out more on the events page.

DRN Ecologies of Drawing: Mapping Environments

25 May 2022, 11am – 12.30pm, Online

This event will be chaired by Kiera O’Toole, a practice-led PhD student at Loughborough University who is investigating the research question: ‘Can the process of Drawing in-Space record the ‘emotional vibrations’ of atmospheres to the extent the atmosphere is co-present in the drawing?’

Find out more on the events page.

Transitions: Maternity and Bodily Autonomy

26 May 2022, 10.30am – 12pm, International House

Join us for a workshop exploring historical perspectives on childbirth, natality and bodily autonomy, still critical issues in the present.

Find out more on the events page.

LGBT+ Network Event – Afternoon Tea

26 May 2022, 12pm – 2pm, LDN.102, London Campus

Join us for a workshop exploring historical perspectives on childbirth, natality and bodily autonomy, still critical issues in the present.

Find out more on the events page.

Workshop: Sensory Stitch

26 May 2022, 2pm – 4pm, International House

Sensory Stitch workshop with Augusta Phillipou

During the workshop Augusta will run through some basic stitches using a range of tactile materials, to explore the sensory potential of stitch. The session intends to encourage the use of embroidery practice to connect the participant to the senses, specifically sight and touch. The workshop is aimed at any ability and explores the potential benefit of sensory stitch processes on well-being.

Find out more on the events page.

Tote Bag Painting

26 May 2022, 2pm – 4pm, The Treehouse

A cute creative activity where you leave with a hand painted bag.

Intellectual Property Appointments with Swindell & Pearson

26 May 2022, 2pm – 5pm, Online

Meet with an Intellectual Property expert to discuss your business or design!

Exclusive appointments via MS Teams.

Find out more on the events page.

NT Live: Straight Line Crazy

26 May 2022, 7pm, Cope Auditorium

A new play by David Hare, directed by Nicholas Hytner

Ralph Fiennes (Antony & Cleopatra) leads the cast in David Hare’s (Skylight) blazing account of the most powerful man in New York, a master manipulator whose legacy changed the city forever.

For forty uninterrupted years, Robert Moses exploited those in office through a mix of charm and intimidation. Motivated at first by a determination to improve the lives of New York City’s workers, he created parks, bridges and 627 miles of expressway to connect the people to the great outdoors.

Faced with resistance by protest groups campaigning for a very different idea of what the city should become, will the weakness of democracy be exposed in the face of his charismatic conviction?

Find out more on the events page.

Transitions: Campus Culture

27 May 2022, 2pm – 4pm, EHB002

The final event of the Transitions Festival asks three questions: what might we change about campus culture here at Loughborough? How might we affect this change? And, how might this transition serve as a template for other spaces?

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Events

Open Mic Night: Musical Icons

24 May 2022, 6pm, The Lounge

Delicate egos, prima donna attitudes and outlandish requests, tonight’s Musical Icons celebrates influence and legacy.

From demanding divas to titans of industry, let the world know who’s iconic to you. Nothing can match music’s power to provoke change and inspire, and tonight we pay homage to those trailblazers and way pavers, that have led many down a musical track.

Find out more on the events page.

Society Training Workshops

25 May 2022, 1pm, The Basement

An afternoon of sessions to help you grow and improve as a society committee member! Being hosted in the Basement, sessions will be going from 1pm onwards.

Find out more on the events page.

Hey Ewe

25 May 2022, 10.30pm, LSU

Whether you’re celebrating a win or reeling from a loss, Hey Ewe is the place to go after a game!

Later entry means there’s plenty of time to shower and get yourself ready for a night of chart hits, pop anthems and student singalongs. We have DJs in The Basement and The Treehouse serving up bangers and cheese until 4am! 

Find out more on the events page.

FND

27 May 2022, 10.30pm, LSU

Welcome to the biggest Friday night in Loughborough! Our resident DJs will be dropping the best of disco, house, drum and bass, hip hop and R&B in The Basement throughout the night, while The Treehouse is taken over by cheese anthems and retro-pop singalongs until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

Action Awards!

28 May 2022, 6.30pm, The Basement

Lights, Camera, ACTION! (Awards ;))

Come celebrate all that our amazing Action volunteers have achieved this year at our Awards Ceremony! This night promises to be filled with lots of wine, fun and laughter!

Find out more on the events page.

Funky Bunch Trivia Quiz

29 May 2022, 8pm, The Lounge

Join us every Sunday from 8pm for a night of tricky trivia in The Lounge. Vote on the theme over on our Instagram every Thursday, and see if your specialist subject shows up – then put together the perfect team and maybe you’ll be taking home the cash prize!

Find out more on the events page.

A Day in the Life of an Alumni Engagement Intern

One of the many benefits of studying at Loughborough is the opportunities that come with it. A prime example is the ability to take a placement year and receive an extra qualification as a result (Diploma in Professional Studies). 

Hi! My name is Gemma, and I’m the current Alumni Engagement Intern at Loughborough University. As I write this, I am celebrating my 8-month anniversary of being on my placement, with just 4 months left to go before going back to my BSc. Retailing, Marketing and Management degree.  

Today, I will take you through a typical day in my life as an intern at Loughborough University. 

Rise and shine ☀️ 

After my alarm goes off in the morning, I take a little bit of time to scroll through social media, and the Gen-Z in me can’t help but scroll through TikTok for more time than I’d like to admit before getting up and ready for the day ahead.  

After a quick walk along Ashby Road in the sunshine, I arrive at the Hazlerigg building, ready for another day at work.  

The first time that I saw these huge buildings back in 2019 at my offer day, I never would have imagined that I would be working in one of these amazing historical buildings. Did you know that they used to be student accommodation? 

The first thing I do as I walk through the huge doors of Hazlerigg is to wish a good morning to Dipti and Jayne, our lovely receptionists and the first people you’ll see as you walk in. I then head through the halls to the Marketing and Advancement Office (after grabbing the first of many cups of coffee, of course 😎) and sit with my team. 

Headphones in 🎧 

After my daily morning tasks of checking the email inbox, answering queries from alumni, and scanning our social media for comments and messages, I pop in my headphones; today’s choices: the Heathers and SIX soundtracks, and get stuck into planning my tasks for today. 

My role revolves around the Loughborough University Alumni Association, the collective name for our 190,000k+ amazing alumni from every walk of life that you can imagine. From the University Chancellor Seb Coe, Olympian Paula Radcliffe, to our most recent graduates, my team handle everything surrounding the alumni of Loughborough University. 

There is no typical day with my role, one day I could be writing news stories and answering enquiries from alumni, the next I could be attending a huge event with some of our most prestigious alumni. While I am super excited for the Alumni Reunion Weekend taking place soon, my favourite event so far has been a guest talk from Sky Sports News presenter and alumnus Mike Wedderburn for the Universities’ Voices of Diversity Series. 

Today, I have a few news stories to write, mainly looking at the various successes of the Universities’ alumni. In my role, I have had the opportunity to speak to and write news stories about some amazing people and their achievements including Olympians, Eco-adventurers, award-winning entrepreneurs, and my personal fangirl moment just a week into my placement, speaking with the director of RuPaul’s Drag Race who had just won his second Emmy award. 

Database and dissertation 💻 

After a bubble tea from LSU for lunch, I head back into Hazlerigg to check the email inbox and get onto my next task for today, database work following the alumni newsletter. Each month, I plan, write, and code the alumni newsletter which gets sent to approximately 80k Loughborough alumni. After this gets sent out, we usually receive quite a lot of correspondence from alumni which need to be responded to and logged, along with detail changes and unsubscribes.  

Today, I have some time left over, so it is time to do a little dissertation research. As part of the Diploma in Professional Studies (DPS) qualification, I am currently in the process of writing my placement dissertation. With my team being heavily focussed on volunteering and events for alumni, I am analysing the impact of COVID-19 on Alumni Engagement for my dissertation. I take out a few hours each week to do additional research for this project, whether this be analysing reports from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) or looking through historical data from my team (KPI’s etc.). So, as I am wrapping up and preparing to go home, I am re-watching and taking notes from an Alumni Engagement summit that I attended online a few months ago. 

Heading home 🎮 

By undertaking my placement in Loughborough, I have been fortunate enough to continue being a part of the Welfare and Diversity section at LSU, definitely a massive perk of working at the University. So, after finishing work today, I will head home to have tea then head back out to my committee meeting, and finally back home to chill out, enjoy a bit of gaming or dissertation work, then hit the hay ready for another day. 

If you love working with data, helping with events, and getting to meet many extraordinary and interesting alumni, why not look into applying to become next year’s Alumni Engagement Intern? I have such an amazing experience and learned so much in this role that I can take into my final year and beyond. 

A Day in the Life of a Student Recruitment Intern

One of the many benefits of studying at Loughborough is the opportunities that come with it. A prime example is the ability to take a placement year and receive an extra qualification as a result (Diploma in Professional Studies).

My name is Emily Rigden and back in June 2021, I was lucky enough to secure an internship within the Schools College Liaison team, under Marketing and Advancement (M&A), at Loughborough University. The placement has taught me so much about the industry, the university and myself. Throughout this blog post, I hope to share a good sense of understanding what it is like to work for the University and what a typical day in the life of a marketing intern looks like.

What does a typical day look like?

To be honest there is no such thing as a ‘typical’ day in the life. I can start work as early as 6am until late in the afternoon and go on to finish late in the evening. It completely depends on what my day consists of. At least 2 or 3 times a week I will have an event either on campus that I am supporting or an event anywhere in the UK at a school Higher Education (HE) fair (HEF). I can also be attending National events across the country such as UCAS Fairs or What Uni Search fairs. The main premise of my job is to implement and support recruitment marketing campaigns across all levels of study to prospective students. I do this through small, scaled school or college HE fairs, social media, or specific VIP outreach events.

Because of this ‘every day is a different schedule’ kinda life, I plan everything meticulously on my Outlook calendar.

Today’s to-do’s

To give an idea, I’ll run through a day where I will be working in the office in the morning and then travelling to a HEF in the evening. As a Student Recruitment Intern, I get the pleasure of working in Hazlerigg. So around 8:30am I will head into the office, normally meet Georgia (the other SRO intern) en route and discuss the morning coffee run. Once we have sat down in the office, the first job of the day is to finalise the plan for the day, re-allocate any time that was reserved for completed tasks and schedule in lunch.

If I have an event in the afternoon, I will usually confirm the event/my travel plans and make sure my hire car is on track to arrive on time. My morning activities can also include anything from posting and regulating the new Lboro_SCL Instagram and LboroSCL twitter account, producing presentations or doing research tasks for the wider M&A department.

Why chose an M&A internship at Loughborough?

I have absolutely loved my time as an SRO intern and especially working in the SCL team. It sounds so cliché, however, every single person I have met in the team has been so incredibly supportive, welcoming and made me feel like a valued member of the team. I have heard horror stories of my friends who have done placements where they have been treated horrendously, isolated from the team, and treated just as ‘measly interns’, I can hand on heart say, that is not how Loughborough treat their interns.  We are given independence and autonomy to work on things I like and things that can develop me.

I can’t wait to see what else this job has to offer me. I hope this gives you a better idea of things that a marketing intern could get involved in and what a typical ‘day in the life’ looks like.

Marketing and Advancement Internships: Advice from our current Interns

We’re looking for motivated and talented Loughborough University graduates, final-year students or placement students to join our award-winning Marketing and Advancement team at a top 10 UK university.

Does this sound like you? Well, before submitting your application, we asked our current interns to give you their top tips for applying for a role, a brief overview of their current internship, and what they’ll take away from this incredible experience.

Becca Ayres

Graphic and Digital Intern

My role as Graphic and Digital intern with Creative and Print Services has included a range of different responsibilities and tasks. I have been involved in branding for Staff Networks, illustration for Christmas cards and maps, social media assets, art direction of photoshoots, print materials, animation and so much more. I am thoroughly enjoying my internship and the variety of opportunities and skills it provides, no two weeks are the same and I continue to grow and learn throughout the year.

Top tips for applying
(for the Graphic and Digital intern position)

Applying for placement can be a stressful and disheartening experience, but rest assured that the right role will show up for you if you keep looking. My top tips would be to cater your cover letter and CV for each application and be selective with your portfolio. Rather than including any and every project you have ever worked on, choose a select few highlights that show a range of skills and reflect the type of work you want to be hired for.

How will your internship benefit you in the future?

My placement within CPS has equipped me with a huge range of new skills, both technical and social. I have gained so much confidence in myself and no longer feel anxious to put forward my ideas, I have a better understanding of working in a professional studio and communicating with clients. I have also hugely broadened my skillset in design, which will not only allow me to produce the best possible project outcomes in my final year at University, but will also greatly improve my employability once I graduate.

A lesson you will take away from this year

Some key lessons that I will take away from this year are to not be scared to voice my ideas and to value myself as a key member of a team, to grab hold of every opportunity available to me, and to put 100% into every project I work on.

Gemma Stewart

Alumni Engagement Intern

My role as the Alumni Engagement Intern is an experience that will benefit me throughout both my return to study as well as my future employment. There is no typical day with my role, one day I can be writing news stories and answering enquiries from alumni, the next I could be attending a huge event with some of our most prestigious alumni.

Most memorable moment

In the office, we currently have a teddy bear that we were given by an alumnus of Loughborough College (now Loughborough University) who had come onto campus on a trip from France, as the only person from my team in the office that day (due to dynamic working), I met with him, and we shared a fascinating discussion about his experience as a student in the 50s versus my experience as a student who had started in 2019, and how COVID had cut my first year at University short. He had graduated in the 50s, and wanted to give us the teddy bear, who was the mascot of the Water Polo team at the time, and that he had kept it safe all these years along with photos of his teammates. While it was a quick moment, it was certainly a lovely experience. 

What have you gained from your internship?

Where to start? As a total data geek, this internship has allowed me to gain experience in many different areas that I am passionate about, most notably the data entry and management of the University’s database with 190,000+ alumni records.  

During my studies at Loughborough, I had learned about database management, however mostly in theory. Having the ability to work closely with such a huge database has taught me so much about how data is handled in a professional setting, in accordance with GDPR and data security.  

Similarly, with a lot of my responsibilities such as social media management, article writing, and administration, I had had some experience through societies, my course, or previous employment, but learning about how to apply my prior knowledge and experience in this professional setting has made me realise the difference between theoretical and practical experience. 

How will your internship benefit you in the future?

The sheer quantity of experience in different areas will definitely benefit me in the long run as I go on to my final year and begin to apply for graduate roles. Many other internships may focus on one specific area, such as social media or finance, but my internship has provided me with a balance of data-orientated and creative experience. 

As someone who has come from a retail and hospitality environment, adjusting to an office environment heavily reliant on independent working was certainly a strange experience. Going back into my final year studies, the ability to plan my time and actions will be crucial, so with this internship, learning how to do this efficiently will definitely benefit me in the near future. 

Probably the element that will benefit me the most is my personal growth throughout the internship. As someone with Generalised Anxiety Disorder, my self-confidence and self-doubt are probably the areas that I struggled with most going into this role, even now I still find myself second-guessing myself, but something that will forever remember is my manager telling me that I need to “be proud of my achievements and not to brush them off” in a review meeting. This definitely set something off in my mind, and from then I’ve seen such a change in my confidence and willingness to speak up in situations that I had previously approached with caution. 

Saagar Sutaria

Web and Digital Intern

Working as the Web & Digital Intern offers a whole range of exciting opportunities. The nature of the role means that you can be involved in anything from social media and web development to photography and videography. Having this flexibility and scope has allowed me to develop a wide array of skills, improving my abilities holistically, rather than in one specific area.

Top tips for applying

I am a firm believer in things happening for a reason. If you put in the utmost effort into all your applications, you will eventually secure the best suitable internship for you.

Applying for the Marketing and Advancement internships is slightly different. You will not need to upload your CV like you may have for other applications. Instead, there will be a form that you will need to fill in. I would advise that you carefully fill this in, checking your responses as you go along. For the more open-ended or long-form answers, it can be beneficial to come back to them on a different day and analyse them with a fresh pair of eyes. This will help to refine and improve your answers. Be concise, whilst still endeavouring to explain why you would be ideal for the role. A major factor in doing this is to read the job description and criteria thoroughly. Attempt to meet as many of these criteria in your explanations and answers.

Most memorable moment

The internship, as a whole, has been a great experience. When you’re involved in a variety of projects and areas, it is hard to pick one that is most notable. However, I would say that my involvement with the Photography & Videography team has stood out particularly. This is because it is an area that was of great interest to me, but I had never explored in much detail, partly due to barriers of entry and lack of opportunities. Having worked with the team, I have become increasingly comfortable in my abilities to shoot and do things like colour correcting and grading raw footage. This is a direct result of what I was taught by the team.

Another area that has significantly stood out is the web development work I have done. This includes building websites, analysing and improving existing pages, and more. My strong eye for detail, in my opinion, has aided in my success in this area. I have very much enjoyed learning the content management system used build the Loughborough University website(s). Prior to this internship, I only had some basic knowledge on HTML coding. Due to my involvement with the Web Development Team, I have been able to learn more about both HTML and CSS, which has been an interesting aspect.

A lesson you will take away from this year:

A key takeaway would be that you should always take up an opportunity, even more so if it lies outside your comfort zone. I believe that it is under pressure where you can thrive the most. Sticking to just what you are good at doesn’t lead to much development. Your internship should be all about trying to diversify your skillset and become a well-rounded individual.

Emily Rigden

Student Recruitment Intern

The student recruitment interns supports a wide range of outreach and recruitment initiatives to help raise awareness of Higher Education and Loughborough University. I have been able to represent Loughborough at UCAS and Higher Education fairs, had the opportunity to talk to prospective students about applying and studying at university, and give presentations.

I really enjoyed the role as you get to work on various projects across the team with autonomy, which means that every week is different. You develop a wide array of skills that will not only benefit you in the role itself but in your future career.

Top tips for applying:

Show your passion for Loughborough and the higher education system. You could use examples from when you were on a committee at Loughborough or from any paid employment you may have, these will also show how you can meet the job requirements listed in the job description.

Most memorable moment:

Working my first ever solo event… and it was a success! This was 3-4 weeks into my placement and I was still using my Loughborough prospectus as a bible, but it went really well. I had so many inspiring conversations with prospective students and parents. Which made the 5 hour round trip worth it.

A lesson you will take away from this year:

If you want to try something, then you have to be open to new opportunities. It is important to have the confidence in sharing your ideas and opinions, and don’t be scared to ask for help or advice – especially when you have the benefit of very supportive colleagues around you!

Georgia Duthie

Student Recruitment Intern

Despite the role being title student ‘recruitment’ intern, I actually work on projects relating to a wide range of areas. Recent projects that I have undertaken are: the creation of subject-specific presentations, resources and lesson plans to increase interest in certain subject areas; completing market research tasks covering everything from scholarships and bursaries at Russell group universities to STEM subjects and their modules at over 20 different institutes.; attending Higher Education Fairs, UCAS events and community days to promote Loughborough; presenting talks about a plethora of topics relating to HE such as Student Finance, the UCAS Process and the benefits of university; starting and managing the social media platforms for the team, and mentoring Yr12 students throughout their further education and journey into higher education.

Top tips for applying:

1. Be passionate about Loughborough – understand what makes this university stand out from others
2. Get involved – Make sure you get involved in different aspects of the university, the broader your understanding is of the opportunities available, the better your advice and guidance to others will be.
3. Be understanding – university is not for everyone and although we are employed by the university, our main job is to help students make the best decisions for them. Be well versed in other forms of Higher education, and alternatives.
4. Be confident – you will be giving presentations on a range of topics, from student finance and the UCAS application process to specific courses offered at Loughborough. You obviously don’t need to know about these things when you’re applying but make sure you give off the same confidence in your interview, that you would need to present.
5. Know some facts – when I was applying for this placement it actually began as a general application to Marketing and Advancement, which meant that I had an interview with multiple departments such as Alumni, School of Business, Web and Digital and Student Recruitment. Take a look at what these departments do and how you would be able to help!
6. Don’t be afraid to try something out of the box! – After the interview stage there is often another stage of the application that requires you to get somewhat creative – don’t be afraid to show your skills!

Most memorable moment:

This team is extremely social which is absolutely amazing! I would say that my highlight was a trip down to Brighton for Sussex UCAS with one of my colleagues. We had travelled down the night before the event to get set up and ended up going out for dinner and drinks before heading to our hotel. Not only did we have great food, but we had a really nice conversation about my plans for the future and what I wanted to do after graduation. At the start of that conversation my answer was ‘I have no idea!’ and by the end I was looking up masters programmes and graduate schemes! I never thought a trip to UCAS would help me sort out my own future!

A lesson you will take away from this year

The environment that you work in and the people you work with are really the make-or-break factor as to whether you will enjoy an internship. Any opportunities or job prospects I have in the future will have to live up to the experience I have had in this team, and I know I shouldn’t settle for anything less.

I am very meticulous when it comes to planning and I always told myself that this was a bad thing, as people always aspire to be spontaneous and ‘go with the flow’. Since doing this job I have come to realise that this is not a downfall at all, in fact, I have been praised multiple times for this quality! Being organised and writing plans and to-do lists is a great skill that many professionals aspire to have, so my team have really taught me to embrace it!

If you would like more information about the Internships within Marketing and Advancement, click here.
To apply, click here.

The application deadline is the 12th June.

Good luck!

Digital Storytelling in the EDI space

As we approach the two-year mark of what might be considered one of the most critical wake-up calls in the diversity and inclusion space; I want to reflect on an EDI centred research project I conducted during my master’s programme at Loughborough.  

The research was influenced by the events in 2020, following the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in the US. “Black Lives Matter” were the chants heard in protests across the world. A catalyst that led to an amass of content with pledges from companies supporting Black lives and a recognition of the need to represent individuals from all walks of life within working environments.

I began to think about how marginalised groups can share their real-life experiences and what is currently being done within organisations to help shape EDI strategies. From my initial research, I found that inclusion measurements are collected using surveys, interviews and focus groups. Therefore, this opened up an opportunity to explore a developing method of data collection known as digital storytelling.

My primary aim was to try and establish how organisations can use digital storytelling to inform equality, diversity and inclusion strategy.

Digital storytelling (DST) was initially developed in the late 1990s by Jo Lambert and their team in Berkley, California. It comprises a 2–5-minute visual narrative that combines media forms such as images, voice-over narration and audio. Digital storytelling established a way to democratise culture through empowering and giving voice to groups traditionally marginalised or ignored by mainstream culture. 

I chose to use Loughborough University as the primary case study for the research. In doing so, I had the opportunity to speak directly with some of the University EDI strategists. The interviews conducted involved screenings of real-life digital stories created by Gen-Z students from ethnic minority backgrounds through a series of workshops. 

The conversations were open and candid, and subsequently, I was able to derive some interesting findings. The research found that digital storytelling provides a unique insight into experiences of racial inequality and social inclusion. In addition, digital stories bring individual narratives to life that might otherwise be difficult to capture using alternative data collection methods. Overall, findings from the research indicated the benefits of the digital story methodology in raising awareness and securing buy-in, highlighting its potential, especially when combined with other data forms.  

For EDI strategies to be effective, organisations must assess their culture and establish an environment for initiatives to thrive. We are in an age whereby social apps such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok allow users to document their lives. Universities and organisations alike should consider exploring data collection methods such as digital storytelling moving forward in the EDI space:

1) to better engage with individuals on a human level

2) to ensure all voices are heard in the current digital landscape

The power of digital storytelling is being used in initiatives to amplify the experiences of individuals. The Making of Black Britain (MOBB) campaign partnership with Google Arts and Culture is an oral history project dedicated to telling stories. MOBB is a fresh example of how digital stories can capture the everyday of everyone, every colour, class and creed from generation to generation.

Annabeth Owusu

MSc Data Science

Graduated in 2021

This Week at Loughborough | 16 May

Gender Diversity and Sport: Interdisciplinary perspectives on increasing inclusivity

16 May 2022, 12pm – 5pm, International House

Join members of the Loughborough University Gender and Sport mini-CDT for the launch of their new book showcasing their work and that of other national and international scholars. With commentary from the Editors, contributors, scholarly reviewers, and trans inclusion advocates this event will discuss the complexities of barriers to inclusive access to sport and physical activity and discusses how sport, and society, can move forward beyond the gender binary, in both theory and practice.

Find out more on the events page.

Transitional Experiences: Understanding Embodied Stigma, Stress and Trans Resilience in the U.S.

17 May 2022, 10am – 12pm, International House

Although trans, gender diverse and gender non-binary people are increasingly visible in popular culture in the US, political backlash and entrenchment in a strict gender binary continue to contribute to enacted stigma and violence. This talk examines trans experience through a biocultural anthropological lens focusing on how stress and stigma become embodied and explores ways to understand trans lives, transitional experiences and ‘biologies of resilience.’ Discussion moderated by Ines Varela-Silva

Find out more on the events page.

Plant Pot Painting

17 May 2022, 2pm – 4pm, The Treehouse

An opportunity to get creative painting some cute plant pots.

Festival: In your hands: 10 years of Fruit Routes – Storying/Walking, Parts I and II

17 May 2022, 2pm – 5pm, Barefoot Orchard

2pm Part I: Branching Out Storywalk: Traditional Stories of Our Treescapes

Guided Storywalk, led by Mike Wilson (LU) and Patrick Ryan

Branching Out, part of the NERC-funded UK Future Treescapes Programme, aims to capture the social and cultural values attached to our urban treescapes, by mapping the biophysical data of trees alongside the stories that we tell about them. Join professional storyteller Patrick Ryan as he brings the Fruit Routes collection to life.

3.30pm-5pm Part II: Stories of the Heart Wood

Led by Fred Dalmasso and Liz Lovely from the Storytelling Academy, Loughborough University

Join us as we gather and share stories of the trees, both personal and universal while listening to the wisdom of the orchards. Bring your good cheer and the tales that live about you.

Find out more on the events page.

Transitions and Trans Lives

18 May 2022, 9.30am – 12pm, LDS017, Design School

A unique opportunity to join scholars, filmmakers and activists for a screening and discussion panel centred on the filmic representation of trans lives.

Find out more on the events page.

IDIG Speaker Series: Professor Stephen Brown

18 May 2022, 11am, Online

Visibility or impact? International efforts to defend LGBTQI+ rights in the Sub-Saharan Africa

The Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance has organised a Speaker Series to bring together a mix of academics and practitioners to discuss issues relating to diplomacy, foreign policy and international governance.

Find out more on the events page.

IDIG Speaker Series: Professor Stephen Brown

18 May 2022, 11am, Online

Visibility or impact? International efforts to defend LGBTQI+ rights in the Sub-Saharan Africa

The Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance has organised a Speaker Series to bring together a mix of academics and practitioners to discuss issues relating to diplomacy, foreign policy and international governance.

Find out more on the events page.

Beeswax Wrap Workshop

18 May 2022, 2pm – 4pm, MHL007, Martin Hall

Make your very own beeswax wrap to keep food fresh for days!

In this workshop you’ll be able to make your very own beeswax wrap which you can use repeatedly to keep that half-eaten fruit, or leftover takeaway fresh for days. This helps avoid both food waste and the use of landfill-bound, plastic-based cling film.

Find out more on the events page.

Professor Heike Jöns Inaugural Lecture

18 May 2022, 4.30pm – 6pm, EHB.1.10B & Online

Understanding the uneven global geographies of science and scholarship through triadic thought: an intellectual journey from mobilities via practices to geopolitics.

Science and scholarship are significant but contested fields of human praxis. Through the production of diverse cultural, scientific, and technological knowledge and innovation, science and scholarship have driven economic prosperity, cultural exchange, and considerable improvement in human health and wellbeing, yet they have also been identified as practices inextricably linked to warfare and powerful economic accumulation processes that have relied upon imperial dominance and exploitation in the development of an originally profoundly Eurocentric modern capitalist world economy. Understanding how science and scholarship have contributed to politically and culturally diverse yet geographically and socioeconomically highly uneven global knowledge economies has motivated much of my research over the past 25 years.

Find out more on the events page.

EDI Film Night – Paris is Burning

18 May 2022, 5pm – 7pm, LDN 1.04

The Loughborough London EDI Committee invites all staff and students to join us for an EDI Film Night to watch ‘Paris is Burning’.

This award-winning documentary chronicles New York’s drag scene in the 1980s and explores issues of race, class, gender and sexuality.

Find out more on the events page.

In your hands: 10 years of Fruit Routes

19 May 2022, 10am – 5pm, International House

An opportunity to participate in a number of events to celebrate the launch of the Fruit Routes Charter and 10 years of Fruit Routes.

After welcome refreshments and an introduction from Professor Marsha Meskimmon, Director of IAS, there will be various presentations.

Find out more on the events page.

CASHxMental Health Ambassadors: Calm Colouring

19 May 2022, 12pm – 4pm, The Lounge

 A chance to unwind and do some creative colouring.

University Choir: Outdoor lunchtime performance

19 May 2022, 12.30pm – 1.15pm, Outside Martin Hall

Join our University Choir for some outdoor singing and jubilee joy!

Following some freezing fun in December, our University Choir is delighted to present another lunchtime al fresco performance outside Martin Hall (Shirley Pearce Square).

As they will be outside, they’ll be singing songs about flowers, so please join them to feel the sunshine (hopefully), smell the roses and ‘hear’ the lilacs in spring.

Find out more on the events page.

Digital Marketing Talk with Tom Hostler

19 May 2022, 5pm – 7pm, LDN 1.04

Are you looking for a career in Digital Marketing? Join us for a chat with one of POKE’s (a Publicis Groupe company) co-founders Tom Hostler. For nearly 30 years Tom has worked across digital design and media creating trail-blazing campaigns for some of Britain’s biggest brands.

Find out more on the events page.

Spell-ing the Green Knowledge

19 May 2022, 6pm – 7pm, Barefoot Orchard

To mark and celebrate a decade of Fruit Routes and the passing on of the project, Topologies-of-Between, will be bringing together sound, image, mark-making, objects and voice in an improvised performance. All are welcome.

Find out more on the events page.

Henna-inspired Wooden Disc Workshop

19 May 2022, 6.15pm, The Treehouse

Design and embellish your own bespoke wooden discs with henna-inspired designs!

This one and a half hour workshop includes a chance to look through pattern inspiration and practice the acrylic cone technique. You’ll then design and embellish your own wooden disc to take home using this technique as well as an array of rhinestones.

Find out more on the events page.

Moth Trapping Walk

19 May 2022, 9pm – 10pm, Barefoot Orchard

Find out more about these wonderful night-time creatures with Graham and Nona Finch from Leicestershire Entomological Society. Graham and Nona have been monitoring moths at Loughborough University for a number of years.

Find out more on the events page.

Resistant Transition? Debating the Future of Legal Gender

20 May 2022, 2pm – 4pm, International House & Online

Join Professor Elizabeth Peel (Loughborough), Professor Davina Cooper (King’s College London) and Dr Flora Renz (University of Kent) in-person to discuss the ESRC Future of Legal Gender project findings, and explore the challenges and consequences if legal sex were abolished.

Find out more on the events page.

DRN Ecologies of Drawing: A More Than Human World

22 May 2022, 11am – 12.30pm, Online

The final event of the DRN series 2022 ‘Drawing Ecologies’ presents the work of three artists including two PhD researchers from Loughborough University – Lucia Cunningham and Anka Makrzanowska – along with Australian artist and academic Jan Hogan. Each of the artists will discuss the possibilities for exploring a more-than-human trace through a practice of drawing.

Find out more on the events page.

DRN Ecologies of Drawing: A More Than Human World

22 May 2022, 11am – 12.30pm, Online

The final event of the DRN series 2022 ‘Drawing Ecologies’ presents the work of three artists including two PhD researchers from Loughborough University – Lucia Cunningham and Anka Makrzanowska – along with Australian artist and academic Jan Hogan. Each of the artists will discuss the possibilities for exploring a more-than-human trace through a practice of drawing.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Events

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion – Student Session

16 May 2022, 12pm, Council Chamber

LSU’s Welfare and Diversity officer, Alex Marlowe will be running a session about how you can consider your volunteer role and make sure that you are creating a welcoming and inclusive space.

Find out more on the events page.

Karaoke Night

16 May 2022, 7.30pm, The Lounge

Find out more on the events page.

Hey Ewe

18 May 2022, 10.30pm, LSU

Whether you’re celebrating a win or reeling from a loss, Hey Ewe is the place to go after a game!

Later entry means there’s plenty of time to shower and get yourself ready for a night of chart hits, pop anthems and student singalongs. We have DJs in The Basement and The Treehouse serving up bangers and cheese until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

Jam @ Jam Garden

19 May 2022, 7.30pm, Off-Campus

Tuxedo Swing brings their signature sound to The Jam Garden, a glorious hangout with the tastiest of beers and most delicious of cocktails. The event is ticketed, get yours as soon as possible!

This is Tuxedo Swing’s last pub outing before the end of term, so if you haven’t had the chance to see them yet, this is your opportunity! It’s going to be a fantastic night!

Find out more on the events page.

FND

20 May 2022, 10.30pm, LSU

Welcome to the biggest Friday night in Loughborough! Our resident DJs will be dropping the best of disco, house, drum and bass, hip hop and R&B in The Basement throughout the night, while The Treehouse is taken over by cheese anthems and retro-pop singalongs until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

Societies Awards 2022

21 May 2022, 6.30pm, The Basement

La Familia Societies is coming together to celebrate on the 21st May!

Come join us for a celebration of the achievements of our students this year.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Rag Colour Dash

22 May 2022, 1pm, Union Lawn

Find out more on the events page.

Funky Bunch Trivia Quiz

22 May 2022, 8pm, The Lounge

Join us every Sunday from 8pm for a night of tricky trivia in The Lounge. Vote on the theme over on our Instagram every Thursday, and see if your specialist subject shows up – then put together the perfect team and maybe you’ll be taking home the cash prize!

Find out more on the events page.

Careers Network Events

Aston Martin F1 Car outside STEMLab

16 May, 10am – 4pm, Outside STEMLab

After more than 60 years away from Formula One, Aston Martin is back on the grid. Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One™ Team racing car will be on display throughout the day. They have Graduate, Placement and Internship opportunities for a range of STEM disciplines. Drop by and grab a selfie!

Find out more on the events page.

Finalist Futures: Widen career options with further study

16 May, 12pm – 1pm, MS Teams

Learn about the range of further study options you could pursue, where to find opportunities and how to apply.  You will find out about the benefits further study can bring, including a career change, so that you can explore whether further study is for you.

Find out more on the events page.

Come and ask us about postgrad courses to pursue a Career in Law

17 May, 10am – 4pm, Outside Careers Hub East, Stewart Mason

Find out about our Law Conversion courses, how they allow you to proceed on to the SQE, and how they are taught. Meet student recruitment team, current students and employability team. Suitable for all students and courses – please come along and collect some freebies at our stand.

Find out more on the events page.

Finalist Futures: Ace that interview!

17 May , 1pm – 2pm, Wavy Top WAV.0.36

This session will be a fun, informal and supportive in-person session led by Career Coaches Sally Western and Deborah Till and is suitable for all final year students – whether you have had plenty of interviews in the past or none at all!

Find out more on the events page.

Finalist Futures: Drive your job search

18 May, 1.30pm – 3pm, Wavy Top WAV.0.36

This workshop will equip you with the skills to identify your strengths and interests to inform your graduate job search, explore ways of researching different jobs that match your preferences, and create a plan, to help you take manageable steps towards securing a graduate role.

Find out more on the events page.

CRCC Celebrates Loughborough’s Success in National Research Evaluation

We are delighted that the Research Excellence Framework (REF), whose results were published last Thursday, recognised the outstanding quality of research in Communication and Media at Loughborough University.

Most of our research was assessed by the D34 sub-panel (Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management), which included internationally recognised experts in these disciplines. The CRCC Research Themes of Language and Social Interaction, Media, Memory and History, and Political Communication were central to our D34 submission. Overall, the panel judged two-thirds of our research activity as “world-leading” and about nine out of ten of the publications we submitted as world-leading or internationally excellent. This is an exceptional result and confirms our position as one of the UK’s leading centres for interdisciplinary research in Communication and Media.

CRCC aims to support research that makes a difference in the world. For this reason, we are proud that the REF’s sub-panel evaluated 100% of our Research Impact as world-leading, an accomplishment achieved by only one other UK department. The four Impact Case Studies we submitted demonstrated how our research helped transform communication training in public, private, and third sector organizations, enhance public understanding of media and everyday life under communism during the Cold War, increase the accuracy and impartiality of the BBC’s coverage of rural issues, and improve the quality of media coverage and public debate during elections and referenda. Our research has achieved these meaningful changes thanks to our partnerships with broadcasters, campaigners, journalists, law enforcement agencies, medical professionals, museums, policymakers, public service media, technology companies, and television production companies in the UK and around the world. We are proud that CRCC is fulfilling its mission to support research that helps make the world a better place.

Finally, we are delighted that the REF’s sub-panel assessed 100% of our Research Environment as world-leading. This is the strongest possible endorsement of the vitality and sustainability of our research culture. Only two other UK departments achieved a perfect score in this category. We are delighted that our peers have recognised CRCC’s role in supporting and promoting excellent interdisciplinary and international research, particularly among early-career members of staff.

The results of the REF 2021 show that research in Communication and Media at Loughborough University has a world-leading record of excellence, vitality, and impact, and a bright future ahead. This result is first and foremost due to the competence, creativity, and dedication of our researchers at all career stages, as well as the professional staff who supported their work. The Centre for Research in Communication and Culture is proud to have played a part in this success. We look forward to working with our colleagues to ensure our research continues to grow and responds to the challenges of the future.

How to be alone, but not lonely

Hi, my name is Megan. I graduated with a degree in International Business from Loughborough University in 2018 and subsequently founded Hashtag Me (#Me). #Me aims to equip and empower students to better handle life’s ups and downs and maximise their university experience. We offer a 12-week, student-led course connecting like-minded peers to help students become more self-aware and resilient as they share experiences, learn healthy coping strategies and overcome challenges together. Subomi, one of our Social media and Engagement Leads, and I thought what better time than Mental Health Awareness Week 2022 where the theme is ‘loneliness’ to talk about the negative presumptions around being alone.

Choosing yourself

Often people can think there is something wrong if you’re alone or choose to do something alone. And they subsequently come up with conclusions that the only probable reason is that you don’t have friends, you’re boring or a ‘loner’. But why does this have to be the case? Being and choosing to be alone should not be perceived as unappealing. Rather it should be about choosing yourself, over anything or anyone else. It’s an opportunity to carve out space or time to find peace and solitude — to reflect, unwind, and maybe even to be creative.

Being alone versus being lonely

In our opinion, being alone isn’t the same as being lonely. Being alone is a physical state where you are by yourself while being lonely is an emotional state of sadness attributed to not having a connection with yourself or others. So, what this means is that you can be alone but not lonely and that you can be lonely even when you’re surrounded by people. They are not the same concepts; one is physical, and the other is emotional.

How to be alone

Before getting into the specifics of how to be alone, it’s crucial to note that being alone doesn’t have to imply loneliness. Yes, there can be instances where you’re alone and feel lonely, but the two don’t always have to go together. So, how does one achieve being alone without feeling lonely?

1. Go on a solo date

Although this may seem daunting, taking yourself on a date is a powerful and bold first step in learning how to be alone. Dates are strongly associated with two or more people, so this is your chance to challenge this assumption and practice independence and self-sufficiency.

If dating yourself still sounds scary, then start small. Study alone at a coffee shop, then try grabbing brunch with your favourite book or whilst listening to a podcast. And before you know it, you might even fancy a solo date day out to an art exhibition or to the cinema! The options are endless.

Start with what most appeals to you and seems doable, and once you become comfortable with that, we almost guarantee that being alone won’t seem so daunting.

Still not convinced? Remember that you’ll be able to improve self-awareness and reconnect with yourself as you practise entertaining, nurturing, and dating yourself.

• Take a break from social media

Social media is an easily accessible medium to a world of connections. Online platforms have changed the whole concept of being alone because we are just an Instagram story or tweet away from feeling connected to another person and their experiences. In situations where we’re waiting in line for something or going from A to B, a lot of us almost instantly pick up our phone to pass the time. Relying on social media can easily become a way to avoid being alone with our thoughts or engaging in the moment. It also presents a distraction from facing our own reality.

So, when you’re next tempted to pass the time, we challenge you to avoid going onto social media (and your phone altogether) and instead, take in your surroundings. Another suggestion is to stay offline for a particular time in the day (during your morning or evening routine for example) and if you’re comfortable going further, you could try setting daily limits or avoid social media altogether for a full 24 hours once a week to check in with yourself and be more present. Perhaps even use this time to practice self-care or to focus on a project you’ve started but haven’t gotten around to finishing.

• Find a creative outlet

Being in a creative space or doing something artistic can inspire and motivate, often leading to becoming so engrossed with our work that we lose all sense of time, and space. Finding a creative outlet helps to keep our minds busy and avoids letting the fear that often comes with being alone creep in. The distraction can encourage a state of joy or peace rather than feelings of loneliness.

There are the typical creative activities which first come to mind such as dancing, writing or arts and crafts, but your creative outlet can be anything that has meaning to you and that brings you satisfaction and a sense of achievement – even if it’s cleaning or doing maths!

To tap into your creative side, it’s worth considering what you’re passionate about and which environments you’re naturally drawn to. If you love being surrounded by nature, then perhaps you can spend some time foraging to bring the outdoors in? Or maybe there’s something outside of the box that you’ve always wanted to try? This is your encouragement to give it a go! It’s all about finding something that you can do alone which helps you to focus and express your energy, emotions, and thoughts. Just remember that it’s more about the experience and having the time alone than creating something perfect!

These ideas might not make a drastic difference in your life; however, we hope they will provide a stepping stone to getting comfortable with being alone. The more you incorporate some of these things into your routine, the easier it will get! So, try to see them as starting points in your journey to practising solitude and becoming more independent.

If you are experiencing feelings of loneliness, we have written an article on tackling it which we encourage you to read or share with someone you feel it could help.

Subomi Lawal, Social Media and Engagement Lead, #ME

Megan Gamble, Alumna and Founder of #ME

Global Communication and Social Change Podcast Playlist

Hot on the heels of our Open Access reading list on Global Communication and Social Change from last year, this year we are pleased to share a Global Communication and Social Change Podcast Playlist. This playlist picks out the top 5 from a longer playlist created for a module on the MA Global Communication and Social Change programme.

Global Yaadie: Global Yaadie Gets Climate Conscious

Our playlist must begin with Global Yaadie, a podcast by our alumna, Dainalyn Swaby, who is passionate about the role of communication for development and social change for climate justice and youth activism, based in Jamaica. I recommend the full series, but if pushed to choose just one, my top pick is Episode 1 of Season 2, ‘Global Yaadie Gets Climate Conscious’, in which Dainalyn talks with a fellow climate-focused podcaster. Participatory communication and other communication approaches emerge several times throughout. Dainalyn even mentions her MA dissertation at around 23:50, which you can read in full in our IMCI Graduate Papers.

Rethinking Development: Strategic Communication

This episode on Strategic Communication from the Rethinking Development Podcast series hears from an experienced professional in the field of development communication and advocacy. We cover communication approaches within the international development sector in quite a lot of detail in the MA Global Communication and Social Change programme, including how thinking and practice has changed over time. This podcast with Dr. Deepak Gupta gives an insider’s perspective on current practice, drawing on his vast experience in various UN agencies. He also discusses how communication is seen, and sometimes misunderstood, by other professionals in the international development sector.

SCA Podcast: Digital Solutions for communities and campaigners with Brian Young

As well as communication within international development, our MA programme also looks at the role of communication and media in social movements. The Social Change Agency (SCA) is a London-based organisation that supports a wide range of activists, social movements and development organisations with their strategies, systems and infrastructures. All their podcasts are fascinating insights into the world of activism and community organising, intersecting with media and communication strategies in many varied and indirect ways. We were very lucky to have two guest lectures from SCA for our MA Global Communication and Social Change students this year. I’ve chosen this particular podcast because it thoughtfully considers digital communication and technology in social movements. Brian Young brings a balanced view of both the potential and the challenges of a range of digital tools. There is also a Part 2 to this episode.

No White Saviours: Ethical Storytelling w/ Tom Saater

We change gears a bit in this podcast. No White Saviours is an exciting podcast team based in Kampala, Uganda, and their critical discussions on a wide range of topics always bring an important decolonising perspective. Postcolonial theories are an important aspect of our MA programme, helping us to understand the historical and structural basis of contemporary power dynamics and representation. In this very thought provoking, at times raw, episode, the No White Saviours podcast team hears from a photographer reflecting powerfully on his own role in taking stereotypical photographs of African people, especially children, for Western NGOs and audiences, and what led him to change his practice and perspective. There is also a slightly tangential but interesting reflection in the middle of the episode on the deliberately provocative title, ‘No White Saviours’ (which you can hear more about in their introductory episode). See also the follow up podcast where the NWS team reflects on ethical storytelling and photography.

Why Change: Responsive, Creative Social Change with Jacki Kauli and Verena Thomas

My final pick is an episode that features Associate Professors Jacki Kauli and Verena Thomas – both of whom are doing fascinating research on communication and social change practice in Papua New Guinea. Verena’s work focuses on visual storytelling and filmmaking, and Jacki uses theatre and drama. In this podcast they talk about their own work and projects, and reflect on some challenges of doing creative, participatory social change work within international development. I have visited the Centre for Social and Creative Media (CSCM), mentioned in the podcast, and they do truly innovative work around themes like gender-based violence, sorcery and violence, and women’s leadership. It is well worth checking out some of the films produced out of CSCM, and probably the best place to find them is on the CSCM Facebook page.

What do you think about these podcasts? Do you have a podcast recommendation? Are you a podcaster with an interest in communication and social change? Add your reflections and recommendations to the comments below or get in touch with the Programme Director of the MA Global Communication and Social Change at j.noske-turner@lboro.ac.uk with your tips!
See more details on the MA Global Communication and Social Change programme.

Living with Fibromyalgia

It is important to remember that writing about any condition is always specific to each individual. My experience of having and living with an illness may be completely different from another person being diagnosed with the same condition. That is why it’s important not to treat us all in the same way and offer us the same advice.

I grew up in a house where my Mum had Fibromyalgia. I thought I understood it a little and knew what pain she was in. I had no idea until I started to suffer with it myself.

Fibromyalgia is often called the invisible illness and can take many years to diagnose. It is an umbrella term for many different symptoms grouped together, so it can often get overlooked or misdiagnosed.

What is it?

Fibromyalgia is a long-term chronic condition that can cause widespread pain all over the body. A medical professional can try to diagnose fibromyalgia by pressing on 18 points located throughout the body to identify any tenderness or pain. As not all people react the same way to this test, years can be spent trying different medications to stop additional symptoms from occurring.

It took me over 10 years to get diagnosed. Over the years my symptoms have intensified and have covered the following:

• Memory issues
• Confusion and Brain Fog
• Chronic Pain
• Migraines
• IBS
• Restless Leg Syndrome
• Fatigue
• Vertigo
• Excessive temperature fluctuations
• Extreme itching or Eczema
• Depression and Anxiety
• Suffering from constant urine infections or feeling you have them
• Vision issues

Because of the array of symptoms, I was sent to different specialists over the years who dealt with each symptom separately. This resulted in more tests, more time at the hospital and lots of medications. There were times I felt like a zombie because of the number of medications I was on.

It is the impact it has had on my life rather than dealing with each symptom that’s the most difficult part for me to deal with. When my symptoms were at their worst, I started to feel very down and depressed. The impact on your mental health can be just as debilitating. I didn’t want to go out and I couldn’t spend time with my family and friends. Eventually, many of my friends disappeared as they were fed up with the constant cancellations and couldn’t empathise with my condition. Losing friends in conjunction with the illness made me feel very isolated, alone, and angry.

One of the biggest contributors to poor mental health is not just the condition itself but what happens after the diagnosis. There is an ‘off you go’ attitude I’ve experienced by many specialists. There is no cure for Fibromyalgia; you are just expected to deal with it by yourself.

There was a huge impact on my family and work when my Fibromyalgia got worse. I was having more time off work and stressing about that which made me even worse. I then got into a cycle of stressing about having time off work which made me absent for long periods of time. I have two young children and my wife had to look after them and me. There is no guidance or support for them either. My wife and I would get frustrated with each other due to the situation we were in. I couldn’t do certain things for myself or was in bed for days which can be very frustrating for your partner when you have a young family.

The biggest ongoing symptom for me is fatigue. There is a huge misunderstanding about fatigue and tiredness. Tiredness is when you have had a long day or little sleep and you need to go to bed. Fatigue means that no matter how much sleep you have, you never feel refreshed. You can sit down and not know how you will get up to have a shower, get out of a chair or brush your teeth. It’s like your body is made from lead. Some days, daily tasks such as making the bed, walking up the stairs or changing the bins can seem like a huge challenge.

Then comes the medication. I have been put on dozens of medications over the years, some are successful and others have awful side effects. I have spent more time off work trying to wean off medications than dealing with the condition itself.

Each day is a challenge with Fibromyalgia. One day you will feel fine and want to do more. The next day you can’t get out of bed. I can start the day feeling great and then feel awful in a matter of minutes.

The final factor of having Fibromyalgia is its interaction with other illnesses. I suffer from a neurological illness where I have a permanent migraine and vertigo. Having Fibromyalgia interacts with this and causes the pain to intensify. Other people I have spoken to have mentioned how Fibromyalgia makes other illnesses worse.

There are however positive sides to dealing with this illness. I have had huge support from my managers and colleagues in IT Services at the University over the years and without that, I would no longer be at work.

My family constantly support me and because my children have grown up with me having the illness, they know how to deal with it on a bad day.

I have had mental health support both outside and within the University which allows me to deal with this condition on a daily basis. It is a condition with no respite, so strong mental health is key to dealing with it. I was told that being diagnosed with a chronic illness can illicit the same mental health symptoms as a bereavement. We long for the life we once had, and it is fine to ask for help to cope with that.

If you do not work on your mental health, then dealing with this disease is impossible. I know people who have this disease who no longer go to work and spend most of their time in bed suffering from depression.

I would say that my relationship with this illness now is better than it has ever been. I still have my low days, but I know with the right support and attitude, I can deal with it.

Gary Hale
Senior IT Services Specialist

Today (12 May) is World Fibromyalgia Awareness Day. More information about the condition can be found here.

Any staff member with a physical or hidden disability is welcome to join the Staff Inclusivity Group, which advocates for equality in the workplace for colleagues with physical or invisible disabilities. The group is also a place to seek support from one another and challenge University policies and practices. 

CRCC Hosts "Media and the Illiberal Turn" Conference

Over two dozen scholars from more than ten countries gathered at Loughborough University on 28-29 April for one of the first in-person conferences in two years, focusing on the relationship between news media and the rise of illiberalism around the world, as well as on the interactions between illiberalism, the media, and the Covid-19 pandemic. Many others participated online, taking advantage of the conference’s hybrid format.

Marking the upcoming finish of the ESRC-funded project “The Illiberal Turn: News Consumption, Polarization and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe” (2019-2022), and co-sponsored by the CRCC, the conference encompassed five panels, two special roundtables and two keynote speeches, delivered by Marlene Laruelle (Director of the Illiberal Studies Program, George Washington University) and Afonso de Abuquerque (Fluminense Federal University, Brazil).

While the panels discussed mostly the consequences of illiberalism for media and journalism (as well as the strategic use of communication channels – including social media – by illiberal political actors), the final roundtable brought a discussion on the possibilities for countering these trends, featuring Maria Donde (OFCOM/EPRA), Ricardo Gutierrez (European Federation of Journalists), and Sasha Scott (European Broadcasting Union) as representatives of media regulators and professional associations.

The conference’s full programme, including the abstracts of all papers, is available for download here. 

A Day in the Life of a Marketing Intern

One of the many benefits of studying at Loughborough is the opportunities that come with it. A prime example is the ability to take a placement year and receive an extra qualification as a result (Diploma in Professional Studies).

My name is Saagar, and I was fortunate enough to secure a placement within the Web & Digital Team, under Marketing and Advancement, at Loughborough University. Through this blog post, I hope to give you a sense of how great it is to work for the Uni and what a typical day looks like for me!

Wake up and smell the coffee

Today is a Thursday, and so, I will be working from home. I typically wake up around 6.00am, shower, get ready, and then pray. Unfortunately, I’m at the age where I kind of need coffee in the mornings now. So, that is my next step. I’m an espresso guy; there’s something special about that strong shot of bitterness that gets me ready for the day.

I then go to my desk and start working. I have OCD* and one of the things it affects for me is organisation. I like to plan my tasks so that I know what I will be doing throughout the day. I normally do this first thing in the morning, or, I will have already done this the night before. I quite literally put everything on my calendar.

*Mental health and wellbeing can affect many students and can come in a range of different forms. If you would like to speak to someone for support, please do not hesitate to use the University services.

Hey Siri, play ‘Im Working’ by Giggs ft. Jorja Smith

Once I know what I’m doing, I can start working properly. One of the greatest things about my job is the variety of tasks and projects I can be involved in. Web & Digital covers a broad range of activities, from social media, content creation, and building websites all the way to working with the Video and Photo Team, tracking analytics and writing blogs, just like this one!

Any leftover or unfinished tasks from the previous day are my top priority. I then like to move onto any creative or learning tasks. I believe my imagination, attention to detail, and ability to retain information are at their peak before noon. Getting these done first will allow me to complete them to the highest of standards.

On this particular day, I started off by working on some WordPress sites for the Web Development Team. They build sites for many clients, including researchers and businesses. My task involved solving a couple of nuances and problems with a few of these sites. I come from a mathematics and design background, but my knowledge of coding is limited. Hence, I really enjoy tasks where I can genuinely learn something new and develop my skills. Using HTML and CSS, I managed to solve and improve the websites as required. I could use the browser developer tools to test my changes before implementing them on the live site. Luckily, there is always members of the team that can support and assist me if I’m ever stuck with something.

One of the things I enjoy doing is checking content and proofreading. There is something satisfying about going through things and finding small errors or areas of improvement. This may seem tedious and boring to some people (understandably), but I like it. If there were any tasks that I didn’t enjoy, my manager is extremely open to me suggesting other tasks I would prefer working on. It’s nice knowing that your colleagues are happy to accommodate and make your experience working for the University as pleasurable as possible.

Working on social media is another large part of my role. I have a good amount of experience in using the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite. Therefore, I’m also able to undertake advanced design or editing tasks. These are usually designing Instagram posts and stories (using Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign), creating animations (using After Effects) or video editing (using Premiere Pro). Though such skills were not prerequisites of the role, I knew that they would definitely come in handy and allow me to get involved in a greater range of projects. As a result, I have been able to immerse myself in content creation for our different channels. Making animations for Instagram has been a highlight of this. After Effects was probably the program I had the least amount of experience using. So, everytime I do play around with the software, I learn something new.

Finally, another area I am able to get involved with is Videography and Photography. Though I have only worked on a couple projects with them as of yet, it’s great to see how they plan and execute shoots, and then turn that raw footage into the final product. I will be working with them more in the near future and have already been asked as to what I want to learn so that they can get me involved accordingly. More specifically, my protanopia colour defect means that an area I would like to work on is colour correction and colour grading photo and video.

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work

It has now become cliché to call yourself a perfectionist. But, as the above quote by Aristotle says, perfection is a derivative of enjoying your job. I agree with this. No matter what you are doing, it is going to be extremely difficult to produce the best result if you’re not enjoying it. I have now been working as an intern for nearly 3 months. So far, my experience has been amazing.

I unequivocally believe that my team is supportive and wants to see me progress. Everyone I have worked with has been friendly and inclusive, further amplifying the feeling of there being a ‘Lboro Family’. You’re treated just like any other full time employee, and not someone who is there to just perform menial tasks. I’m given independence and autonomy to work on things that I like, how I like. I am very much looking forward to the rest of my year with the team, and what the future, after graduating, has in store.

I hope this gave you a better idea of the things that a Marketing Intern could get involved in. No two days are the same here and there is always plenty to work on, in whichever area I am interested in. Now, time to log off, I’ve finished for the day. 🙂

This Week at Loughborough | 9 May

Mental Health Awareness Week Events

Meditation for Mental Health with Aura Organics

9 May 2022, 7:15pm, Aura Organics, Canal Side Studio

Mental Health Awareness Week is an annual event where we’ll focus on improving mental health through supporting, learning and connecting with one another.

Aura Organics have invited you to attend their free session on Meditation for Mental Health. This session encourages you to pay more attention to your thoughts, sounds, the sensations of breathing and parts of the body.

Find out more on the events page.

Breakfast Wellbeing Check-In

10 May 2022, 8.30am – 9.30am, EHB Foyer

As part of Mental Health Awareness Week, join us in EHB and start your day with coffee, pastries and breakfast treats! Start your day with a casual meet up and wellbeing check-in. We will meet in the foyer (next to the shop) in EHB – no need to book, just turn up on the day.

Find out more on the events page.

5 Simple Ways to Manage your Wellbeing

10 May 2022, 10am – 11.30am and 12pm 1.30pm, Online

The Student Wellbeing and Inclusivity Team will be running these wellbeing group sessions which will focus on five simple ways to add wellbeing into your routine.

Any of us can benefit from this approach.  During the session, we will be talking about each of these simple actions that we can follow, regardless of whether you have mental health problems or just looking to improve your general wellbeing. 

Find out more on the events page.

Newham Talking Therapies: Managing Low Moods

10 May 2022, 3pm-4pm, Future Space, Loughborough University London

Join us and Newham Talking Therapies as they deliver a workshop on Managing Low Moods. It will cover the meaning of a low mood, the causes behind it and techniques to help manage low mood in terms of our thoughts and behaviours.

Find out more on the events page.

Wellbeing Walk – Mental Health Awareness Week

11 May 2022, 1.45pm – 3.30pm, Meet outside Pilkington Library

The Student Wellbeing and Inclusivity are offering a guided Wellbeing Walk with the option to talk through anything on your mind. 

So if you need to pause and take a break from work, join us for a breath of fresh air, a chance to rebalance and enjoy a wellbeing walk (and hopefully see the bluebells!). Wellbeing Adviser Vicky Bailey will lead the walk. We will meet outside Pilkington Library and aim to be back at about 3.30pm. Just turn on the day with comfortable shoes so you can enjoy the woodland.  

Find out more on the events page.

LAGS Mental Health Awareness Week workshop

11 May 2022, 2.30pm – 4.30pm, LAGS Shed (Behind EHB)

Learn flower and herb planting techniques in a relaxing mindful session at the LAGS Shed (behind the Edward Herbert Building). Find out more about the propagation of flowers and herbs and take home your own plant at the end. 

Find out more on the events page.

Virtual Module Choice Event

9 to 20 May 2022, Online

The Module Choice Website gives current students the opportunity to take part in a live web chats and find out more information about your module options.

Find out more on the events page.

IDIG Speaker Series: Professor Costas Constantinou

9 May 2022, 11am, Online

Diplomacy and Inequality: Understanding Processes of Delegation and Exclusion at the United Nations

The Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance has organised a Speaker Series to bring together a mix of academics and practitioners to discuss issues relating to diplomacy, foreign policy and international governance.

Find out more on the events page.

Competing Socialisms: A Media History of the Sino-Soviet Rivalry in Africa during the Cold War

10 May 2022, 3pm – 5pm, Online

This seminar considers the interactions and interdependencies of the decolonising countries in one particular world region, Africa, with two competing models of socialism –  Soviet and Chinese.

Moving beyond the conventional framing of the Cold War as a conflict between the communist bloc on the one hand and the liberal-capitalist ‘western’ bloc on the other, this seminar explores how the Sino-Soviet split that began towards the end of 1950s had turned the rivalry of competing blocs into (at least) a tri-polar contest, while, simultaneously, the decolonisation of the Global South made the so-called Third World a crucial arena of Cold War rivalry.

Find out more on the events page.

Public Lecture: Tackling Health Inequalities

10 May 2022, 7pm, EHB 1.10B, EHB

After two years, we finally brought back our Public Lecture in partnership with Loughborough University. This year will be about health inequalities with our guest speaker Toby Lewis Senior Fellow, at the King’s Fund.

Toby undertakes research at The King’s Fund, focused on health inequalities and poverty. He contributes to their ground-breaking work on integrated care and health system reform. He has a particular interest in how the NHS can contribute to local regeneration and changing disparities of the outcome.

Find out more on the events page.

Tips on an International Career in Finance – Andrea Fletcher

11 May 2022, 12pm – 1pm, Online

Andrea Fletcher is the Chief Operating Officer for Citigroup in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. The APAC region encompasses 70,000+ employees, across 14 countries, with 7 businesses generating revenues over US$10bn annually. Her role is to help drive Citi’s efforts to grow the regional Asia ‘franchise’ as well as overseeing organization-wide strategic and governance initiatives for Asia.

Find out more on the events page.

Wellbeing for Doctoral Researchers

11 May 2022, 12pm – 1.30pm, Online

This Doctoral Researcher five-week support group facilitated by the Counselling Service will offer support, a chance to explore the issues, peer problem solving (and survival strategies!) and a chance to break down some of the isolation that researchers often experience. 

Each week will have a theme or themes which may include isolation, motivation, supervision, the emotional pressures which can come from the length of time it takes to complete, fear of finishing or other topics chosen as relevant by the group. Participants are welcome to bring their lunch. 

Find out more on the events page.

Arts Scholars Showcase

11 May 2022, 12.30 – 1.30pm, Martin Hall Theatre

Join us to celebrate our 2021/22 music & arts scholarship students with a showcase of creative writing, music, photography, prop making & dance.

In this special lunchtime event, we’ll be showcasing the work of all nine scholars and celebrating their talents and progress.

Find out more on the events page.

Running out of Time: How Climate Change Games Represent Urgency and the Consequences of Inaction

11 May 2022, 1pm – 2pm, Online

IAS Residential Fellow Dr Jason Hawreliak delivers a seminar on his research.

The consequences of continued inaction on climate change are well documented in the scientific literature and a common theme in popular media. Yet, in spite of the dire reports and well-intentioned messaging campaigns, far too many policymakers and individuals fail to treat the matter with sufficient urgency. One key contributor to this disconnect is a perceived lack of immediacy.

Find out more on the events page.

Running out of Time: How Climate Change Games Represent Urgency and the Consequences of Inaction

11 May 2022, 1pm – 2pm, Online

IAS Residential Fellow Dr Jason Hawreliak delivers a seminar on his research.

The consequences of continued inaction on climate change are well documented in the scientific literature and a common theme in popular media. Yet, in spite of the dire reports and well-intentioned messaging campaigns, far too many policymakers and individuals fail to treat the matter with sufficient urgency. One key contributor to this disconnect is a perceived lack of immediacy.

Find out more on the events page.

Re-igniting your spark!

12 May 2022, 3pm – 4.30pm, Online

When we feel down, we can often experience low motivation. This can lead to us doing less and getting stuck in a vicious cycle of the less we do, the worse we feel. Session one looks at this cycle and a technique to break out of it by planning in and increasing activity levels to create a balance and a routine.

Find out more on the events page.

UX Design drop-in session

12 May 2022, 5pm-7pm, Loughborough Design School Foyer

Fancy a career designing exciting digital products and services?

Are you interested in designing better futures using digital technology and advanced services? Come along to this informal drop-in session and find out more about our UX Design Master’s programmes – any academic background is welcome, no coding or tech experience is needed.

Find out more on the events page.

See What’s There (Movement Workshop)

13 May 2022, 3pm-5:30pm, 0.17 & 0.18, Loughborough University London

Join artist Janine Harrington for a movement-based workshop.

Spend your Friday afternoon exploring movement and dance in this one-off workshop. You will move separately, together, and in different kinds of relationships as you explore a range of possibilities for connection with our bodies, others, imaginative space, play, decision making and habit.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Events

Mental Health Conference

10 & 11 May 2022, 10am – 3pm, The Treehouse

The Mental Health Conference compromises 2 days’ worth of sessions surrounding therapy, counselling, systems of support, borderline personality disorder and more. It is free entry and goodie bags are also provided. We welcome anyone to come along to any of the sessions and get involved in some important discussions about mental health.

Find out more on the events page.

Networking event + Personal Branding workshop

10 May 2022, 6pm, The Lounge

As one of the last LSU Enterprise events of the year, we are doing a networking event with the International Network to help students develop key skills in networking with others, both in-person and Online through LinkedIn. We have spoken to successful founders and professionals to share their tips on networking, as well as offer their own experiences. The Creative Exchange will run a Personal Branding Workshop to teach you how to have a LinkedIn and social media profile that stands out, this is important for students looking for a new job, to form new connections or a founder looking for Investment. 

Find out more on the events page.

Train the Trainer

12 May 2022, 10am, Council Chamber

The Training Academy is running a Train the Trainer session to help you feel confident and prepared to share your knowledge and information with other students in an effective and engaging way.

Find out more on the events page.

CASH x Head’s Up: Figure Sculpting

12 May 2022, 2pm – 4pm, The Treehouse

What to expect: A chance to get messy, sculpting your figure using air dry clay, for body positivity week!

Romeo and Juliet

13 May 2022, 6.30pm, Off-campus
15 May 2022, 7.30pm, Off-campus

Shakespeare Society is proud to present its second semester play, Romeo and Juliet at The Swan in the Rushes. 100% of the ticket proceeds will be going towards our chosen charity, Schoolreaders, to help raise funds to raise childrens literacy.

See our beautiful cast bring a 70s twist on the classic love story of two duelling families as young love is put to the test.

Find out more on the events page.

Jazz Night – The Organ Grinder

13 May 2022, 7.30pm, Off-campus

Tuxedo Swing are playing in Organ Grinders’ function room on Friday the 13th of May. There’ll be gin tasting, a charity raffle and big band music all night long. Only 40 tickets for this one, so get your tickets while you can! Tickets include a gin/tonic or soft drink. They go live this week, so watch this space!

Find out more on the events page.

Out!

14 May 2022, 10.30pm, The Treehouse

Find out more on the events page.

Community Fun Day

15 May 2022, 12pm, LSU

Loughborough Students’ Union will be holding its annual Community Fun Day on Sunday 15th May – and everyone is invited to come along and enjoy animals, crafts, games and more!

Find out more on the events page.

Careers Network Events

Orama Solutions – Employer Drop-In on campus

10 May, 10am – 4pm, James France Exhibition area

We’re an executive consultancy partnered with high growth tech start-ups globally. Come to James France Exhibition area for free merch and to talk about exciting opportunities on offer.

Find out more on the events page.

Impress with your CVs, covering letters and application forms

12 May, 1pm – 2pm, Online

Book onto this session for great tips on CVs, covering letters and application forms. Learn how to tailor them to make you stand out to employers and show you have what they are looking for!

Find out more on the events page.

Business and Enterprise Group Coaching

13 May, 12pm – 12.30pm, Online

Book onto this session for great tips on CVs, covering letters and application forms. Learn how to tailor them to make you stand out to employers and show you have what they are looking for!

Find out more on the events page.

Hack the Normal 2022: Sustainability with Beko

Friday 13th May – Sunday 15th May, All day, Online

Become part of a community driving the positive change, take advantage of the curated content, connect with leading brands and take your idea to the next level.

The hackathon will provide human-centered design training on problem discovery, research, solution development, prototyping, and investment pitch preparation. It will feature seminars and speeches by experts from business, technology, and design ecosystems.

Find out more on the events page.

Net zero – thinking differently about working with others 

The University’s new strategy, Creating Better Futures. Together, sets out a renewed ambition for Loughborough including how the University can play a part in tackling climate change and reaching net zero.    

You would be forgiven if the University’s Legal Services team is not at the top of your list of key teams to help achieve this goal.  After all, we are property and contracts lawyers, not environmental specialists.  Our potential, however, as in-house lawyers and business advisors, to support the University to act on climate change, has never been stronger. 

We are all familiar with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report in which the UN issued a ‘code red for humanity’.  We as a team absolutely include ourselves – both personally and professionally – in responding to this call to arms.   

Our day-to-day work for the University touches many different aspects of University life through advising on and negotiating contracts and agreements.  Climate change will affect (and in many respects, already is affecting) all areas of our lives and every contractual relationship we create can either have a positive impact on our journey to net zero or a negative impact.  Each contract is an opportunity to do something different, something better. 

Climate-aligned contracting is a ‘win-win’.  It can help all parties to any contract work towards achieving their net-zero ambitions.  There is a wide range of tools and clauses that we have available to help achieve this.  We believe that as time goes on, climate-aligned contracting can (and should) become the default position.  The sooner that the potential for climate-aligned obligations is raised in the negotiations, the more likely it is that the deal will have net zero as part of the commercial discussion and ultimate delivery. 

If climate-aligned contracting isn’t something you have considered to date then don’t worry!  That’s where we come in.  In taking this route we can influence the journey to net zero in a way that supports the University’s objectives and future prosperity and has a positive impact on global environmental outcomes. 

If you would like to discuss this further with us, then please do get in touch by emailing us here.  There are opportunities to start the conversation on this topic all around us and we’d love to explore how we can help you make changes for the good of the planet through the contracts you create.     

The more we talk about what can be done, the more actually doing it becomes achievable and the sooner it will become our ‘new normal’. 

5 things I wish I’d known before starting my Art Foundation

Hi, I’m Emma a final year Graphic Communication and Illustration (basically Graphic Design) student here at Loughborough University. I started my journey back in 2017 with an Art Foundation year at Loughborough. It’s my 5^th year in the bubble now, as I did a placement year at the Met Office.

I think whether or not to do an Art Foundation is still very much a difficult decision for students, post creative A-Levels or college courses. Do you shoot your shot and apply straight for a degree, or do you go for an Art Foundation? Will a foundation be a waste of a year? Do you even know what degree you would want to do? All of these questions were swirling around in my head and at the time, it felt like the most important decision of my life. I want to reassure you that everyone goes down a different path and often what is right for your best mate, won’t be the best option for you.

My advice would be to weigh up your options, speak to people who have done Art Foundations, and search the internet for degree specifications, to figure out what route will suit YOU.

5 Things I Wish I Had Known:

1. Everyone is there for a different reason and your reason is valid

Prior to researching Art Foundation years, I assumed that it was a route to a degree for the people who perhaps couldn’t achieve the necessary A-Level grades, to go straight onto a degree. How wrong was I?!

There are lots of reasons people choose to do an Art Foundation and it’s important to be accepting of all these different paths. I had friends who went into Art Foundation thinking they would go onto to do Fine Art degrees that ended up doing Architecture! For some, it might be that extra year to figure out what degree path will suit them best. However, my reason was different and that’s okay. I went into my foundation year knowing that I wanted to do Graphic Design, but I did it to gain confidence and have that extra year of freedom to learn whilst experimenting.

You have to remember people come from all sorts of different schools and backgrounds. I felt my portfolio and skill set wasn’t quite ready for a degree and that was partly because my school didn’t offer Graphic Design A-Level.

2. It won’t set you behind

A year in your life in the grand scheme of things is nothing. I was worried about graduating later than my school friends, but I don’t think I’d be where I am today if it wasn’t for my foundation year. As far as my career goes, I don’t think I would have had the confidence to go out into industry on placement, without having had that extra year prior to starting my degree.

There is often that fear of entering a different cohort to your school peers and being behind by “wasting” a year, but I can reassure you; a year is nothing. If anything, it has made me make more friends throughout my University experience, as I have met many interesting and different people during my 5 years here at Loughborough.

I feel the reason my career will be accelerated post-graduation is partly due to having had a full-rounded education experience at Loughborough, which all started with that Art Foundation.

3. Get the idea of being a perfectionist out of your head

An Art Foundation really gives you the freedom to experiment and I don’t think I realised that many of my bad habits from school, would begin to be fixed during my foundation year.

I got taught how to use a sketchbook, had a go at life drawing, and quickly learnt how to “let myself go” through drawing. As someone who has never been confident at drawing and who actually felt quite anxious about going onto a course where I knew people would be better at drawing than me, I wish from the get-go that I knew an Art Foundation was meant to be a year to experiment. You will realise you are good at things you didn’t even know you were good at!

I got quite into photography and also did a bit of stop-frame animation on Art Foundation, which I loved. Once I no longer stressed about perfect outcomes, my work actually ended up being way more unique and interesting.

4. You are part of the Loughborough University family, and it is your first year

An Art Foundation is a great stepping stone to University life. Upon first starting mine, I didn’t really see it as my first year of University, when in fact it was! I wish I had seen it as my first year of University from the get-go, as it would’ve helped me feel less different to my friends from back home and made me jump into all of Loughborough’s activities sooner.

Whilst on the Art Foundation at Loughborough, you are totally immersed in the University and can join the array of sports clubs and societies. Art Foundation even gets its own section of the degree show, which provided an exciting opportunity to exhibit my final major project, alongside the final year degree students. You can read more about the degree show in my previous blog here. I also found that having two first years in effect (foundation and first year of my degree) allowed me to settle into Loughborough and make the most of my uni experience. I just fell in love with the community and campus feel of Loughborough, which is why I stayed here for my degree.

5. Be proud to be doing an Art Foundation, everyone is on different paths and that’s okay, own it!

Before starting my foundation and in the first few weeks of making friends, I would be embarrassed whenever I got asked “what course do you study?”. I always felt like I had failed as if I wasn’t worthy enough of being a technically first year of a degree like everyone else. I cannot express enough how valuable my Art Foundation truly was for my creative skillset, as well as on a personal level of confidence to taking that leap of independence to move away from home. You should be proud of the path you are on and know that everyone will be going at a different pace. An Art Foundation is only a year and that year may be everything to get you to your next step and the step after that. Even many of my tutors say they wouldn’t be where they are today without their foundation years!

If you are embarking on an Art Foundation this Autumn, enjoy it! Make the most of that time to try something new, experiment and be free. Good luck with wherever your journey takes you.

Walking with the Wind

Geraldine van Heemstra

In my practice I raise questions about my position and that of other artists as the human subject or anchor of the work. It challenges my ongoing dialogue with the natural world and recognizing the agency of the nonhuman. I like to explore the role of randomness and manipulation and why chance plays a crucial role in my artistic development. In my work I aim to let go of the keystone position, the agent in control, and have always valued collaborative and collective work in some form or other. 

By embracing and immersing myself in the environment through walking and engaging with the land, I want to open a conversation about the surrounding landscape and our position as humans within the natural world. Filling sketchbooks, collecting found objects of the land, I make drawing and etching devices that I take out on my walks, like extensions of my body recording the intangibility of the wind. Creating wind drawings and wind etchings, my aim is to convey that energy I feel in and through my work and I would invite the viewer to rekindle a conversation with the elements. I mean to describe how as humans our makeup is elemental. The flow is therefore seamless. 

A WALK WITH THE WIND (1 MINUTE) https://player.vimeo.com/video/430342736?h=62f35280ff&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479 

A WALK WITH THE WIND (2MIN 20SEC) https://player.vimeo.com/video/424033565?h=0f0801e678&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479

http://www.geraldinevanheemstra.com @geraldinehvh

Facing a blank sheet of paper

Garry Barker

Being faced with the empty vacuum of a clean sheet of paper is something all drawers have to face. The following proposition is a drawer’s response to George Spencer-Brown’s ‘Laws of Form’, written in 1969.

Let the blank page ☐ denote True or False, because it is a space for possibilities to happen and let a ≠ symbol be read as Not or not as things were. I.e. if the blank page is a sort of truth, then once ≠ is added to it, things will have changed, this difference would mean that what was a truth is now something else, it is not true. Conversely if the blank page is in some way false, by adding ≠ to it, it is now something different and if it is not false it can now be true.
Then the primary arithmetic would have the following sentential reading:
If ☐ = false, then ☐ ≠ = not false = true
If ☐ = true, then ☐ ≠ = not true = false

Read in this way the moment before a mark is put on a blank piece of paper is either true or false, however once a mark is put down some sort of truth or falsehood is established and then when a second mark is put down, that first truth or falsehood is questioned, so we now have an untruth or a new truth. 

The ≠ sign symbolises the essence of how we think about ideas, it indicates the capability of differentiating a “this” from “everything else but this.” It represents the drawing of a “distinction”, and can be thought of as signifying the act of drawing a boundary around something, thus separating it from everything else; it also represents that which becomes distinct from everything by drawing a distinction or boundary as well as the crossing from one side of this boundary to the other.

So in effect the first mark we make changes things, we have made a distinction between one thing and another, we have created a difference, and in creating this difference a new possibility is born.

This is reminiscent of another area of theoretical conjecture as to how to visualise the moment of creation itself, that moment of the Big Bang; which as Stephen Hawking has stated, was ‘a quantum fluctuation out of nothing’. In the 1960s John Wheeler and Bryce DeWitt combined quantum mechanics and general relativity into a mathematical framework now known as the Wheeler-DeWitt equation. By integrating Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle into the Wheeler-DeWitt equation He, Gao and Cai have argued that a small empty space can come into existence probabilistically due to fluctuations in what physicists call the metastable false vacuum.
‘When this happens, there are two possibilities. If this bubble of space does not expand rapidly, it disappears again almost instantly, but if the bubble can expand to a large enough size, then a universe is created in a way that is irreversible’. (He, Gao and Cai, 2014)
Perhaps there are very close parallels between the moment of a drawing’s inception and how we think about the coming into being of the universe.

Spencer-Brown takes us into some interesting areas. This is a thought experiment taken from the beginning of the first chapter of ‘Laws of Form’.

Draw a distinction.
Call it the first distinction.
Call the space in which it is drawn the space severed or cloven by the distinction.
Call the parts of the space shaped by the severance or cleft the sides of the distinction or, alternatively, the spaces, states, or contents distinguished by the distinction.
Let any mark, token, or sign be taken in any way with or with regard to the distinction as a signal.
Call the use of any signal its intent. (Spencer-Brown in Farrell, 2010, p. 47) 

Going back to Hawking’s ‘quantum fluctuation out of nothing’, we would have to think about ‘nothing’ as existing infinitely and extended everywhere in every direction. However just to be able to think about this is impossible unless you use a metaphor and in our case it is the empty sheet of paper.

This rectangle represents a blank sheet of paper that itself represents an empty box with no sides that exists infinitely and extends everywhere in every direction. The broken line used to make the rectangle representing an idea that is not solid, or to some extent invisible. This infinitely extended ‘no-thing’ can be mathematically expressed as an empty hyper-set like so: Ø. Within this space we can now make a simple distinction by drawing a line that encircles an area to become a shape.

We now have two spaces, one inside and one outside the shape. The shape in effect is a circumscription of a space. It is though important to remember that what is now inside the shape is actually also the same as but now defined as different from what was circumscribed. Because the original space was infinite the selection would also be infinite.
So a crude mathematical expression of this would be:

If Ø1 represents the original empty hyper-set, then Ø2 could be used to represent the simple distinction or selection and ≠Ø1,2 the boundary that is in effect the common surface between the two spaces that have now been distinguished. We now have three distinguished nothings. A primordial trinity that always includes Ø within it because everything is always composed of what was the original infinitely extended no-thing. This abstract topological construction can now be used as a metaphor for a moment of becoming, of making something from nothing.

This is where mathematics, drawing and religion begin to fuse together. 

Dongshan He, Dongfeng Gao, Qing-yu Cai (2014) Spontaneous creation of the universe from nothing Cornell University Library arXiv:1404.1207v1
http://arxiv.org/abs/1404.1207v1 accessed on 7. 1. 22

Joseph Farrell (2010) Financial Vipers of Venice Port Townsend: Feral House

Welcome to the Geopolitics & International Affairs Blog

Geopolitics & International Affairs (GIA) is a series of webinars examining contemporary inter-state competition, conflict, and geo-strategic rivalry around the world from the perspectives of International Relations scholars, Geographers, Historians and Practitioners.

The webinars are open to all staff and students at Loughborough University.
GIA is organised and chaired by Dr Duncan Depledge, Lecturer in Geopolitics & Security (IRPH)

Vows of the Marhajjha Particle Drawing on Difficult Visualization

Edwin Van Gorder

Chaos :Strife and Drawing on Imagining a pred-dimensional medium such as that spatial extension of space itself prior space time in which the energy involved has no reason to be ordered and no reason to be disordered therefore we have to consider our preconceptions…brings us back rather shoulder to shoulder with the Presocratics as usual and necessary as even a fashion line named Everything Everywhere at Once prompts the cultural dimensions of Long Live Fashion to cosmogeny alite cosmology fashioning the yet difficult Heraclitan synthesis upon his sources extending strife and chaos within the imagination of the speaker to share that chaos presupposes order and order chaos… we have gradually adapted to the realization that explosion is an intuitive fallacy better described as expansion… the interest in finding to some extent the “shape” of the Higgs field similarly must meet a kind of moment of questioning whether visualization is always possible the answer being hinted at in for example an instruction towards learning a speech pattern (Chinese ) Stars? Stars!… the question and answer shows in our visual field like harmony and melody as we “open scan” then settle into a series of connectives which then open out again: similarly the unruly primal universe is a medium where densities in some wise both separate and come together, nearness is the force of gravity in coalescence patterns redistricted then as its own common denominator and suggestive of that order of particles which are their own antiparticles…

This Week at Loughborough | 2 May

Featured

Student Success Academy Launch

4 May – 5 May, 1pm – 5pm, Various Locations

We are delighted to invite students and staff to the official launch of the brand new Student Success Academy.

There will be introductions from senior Loughborough University staff, testimonials from students who have used our services so far this year, and stalls showcasing the range of support services the Academy offers and others we collaborate with from across the University.

Find out more on the events page.

PGR Session: Climate Change Games

3 May, 2pm – 4pm, Graduate House

Games can be an effective way to explore systemic issues and causal processes.

In this workshop, participants will learn how game mechanics (rules and systems) can be built and used to communicate persuasive messages. The session will include a brief overview of how to create a classical form of board game, and how to embed values within the game. Participants will then have the opportunity to create their own simple board game built around the theme of climate change. Materials and a template will be provided. No prior experience in game design is required.

Find out more on the events page.

RAeS Lecture on Engine Power – Where will it come from in the future?

3 May, 2pm – 4pm, Graduate House

For over six decades the gas turbine has dominated aircraft propulsion, delivering unrivalled levels of power density. But what about the future? Is the gas turbine nearing the end of its evolutionary journey and are there any game-changing technologies set to emerge in aircraft power and propulsion? This presentation will explore both of these questions, with particular focus on the transformational technologies and capabilities offered by more electric and hybrid solutions.

Find out more on the events page.

IDIG Speaker Series: Professor Karin M. Fierke

4 May, 11am, Online

Based on her recent Leverhulme Trust-funded project: Agency & Strategy in Non-Western Political Thought

The Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance has organised a Speaker Series to bring together a mix of academics and practitioners to discuss issues relating to diplomacy, foreign policy and international governance.

Find out more on the events page.

Screening of ‘My life at the moment’ and performance of ‘For how to be alive’

4 May, 3pm – 6pm, Stanley Evernden Studio, Martin Hall

Screening and Performance: Chris Ivey and Vanessa German, followed by Q&A with the artists.

The Institute is delighted to host two IAS Visiting Fellows, filmmaker Chris Ivey and artist Vanessa German, for an in-person afternoon of film, performance and discussion.

Find out more on the events page.

Public lecture: Improving physical activity in older adults with hearing loss

5 May, 5.30pm, Online

This public lecture will be delivered by Dr David Maidment, Lecturer in Psychology at Loughborough University. Taking place during hearing loss awareness week, the talk will discuss improving physical activity in older adults with hearing loss.

Find out more on the events page.

NT Live: Henry V (screening)

5 May, 7pm, Cope Auditorium

Kit Harington (Game of Thrones) plays the title role in Shakespeare’s thrilling study of nationalism, war and the psychology of power.

Fresh to the throne, King Henry V launches England into a bloody war with France. When his campaign encounters resistance, this inexperienced new ruler must prove he is fit to guide a country into war.

Find out more on the events page.

Study in Pink

6 May, 10am – 12pm, Martin Hall Exhibition Space

A performance and exhibition by Petra Salaric using paintings to convey the emotions experienced through interactions with other people.

Find out more on the events page.

Fellowship Inaugural Lecture: Dr Sola Afolabi

6 May, 12.30pm – 1.30pm, Online

Sustainable biogenic waste valorisation – a call to low carbon economy

Dr Afolabi will describe the beneficial exploitation of standalone, and novel integrated synergic waste conversion processes that render pathogenic/hazardous biogenic waste safe whilst producing clean carbon-neutral energy/soil-ameliorants that irreversibly bind carbon. He will also share his pathway to securing a Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) Engineering for Development Research Fellowship.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Events

Mental Health First Aid course

3 May, 5pm, Michael Pearson Boardroom

Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is an internationally recognised training course which teaches people how to spot the signs and symptoms of mental ill health and provide help on a first aid basis.  The course has been spread out weekly (3rd, 10th, 17th & 24th May, 17:00- 20:30). In order to gain the qualification participants MUST be free to attend the whole course in person each week.

Find out more on the events page.

Open Mic Night: At The Movies

3 May, 6pm, The Lounge

The only thing greater than the power of song – the magic of movies. From famous films to films made famous, ground-breaking soundtracks and zeitgeist albums are equally celebrated in tonight’s homage to cinema’s greatest.

Find out more on the events page.

Comp Sci Match Launch – connecting those with ideas with those who can design and code

3 May, 6pm, The Treehouse

We are running a networking event between the Computer Science department and LSU Enterprise. Do you have a business idea that needs an app, website or software and you don’t have a clue on how to build it? Sign up to the event and give an elevator pitch to prospective developers and software engineers who may be interested in working further on your idea. 

Find out more on the events page.

Hey Ewe

4 May, 10.30pm, LSU

Whether you’re celebrating a win or reeling from a loss, Hey Ewe is the place to go after a game!

Later entry means there’s plenty of time to shower and get yourself ready for a night of chart hits, pop anthems and student singalongs. We have DJs in The Basement and The Treehouse serving up bangers and cheese until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

FND

6 May, 10.30pm, LSU

Welcome to the biggest Friday night in Loughborough! Our resident DJs will be dropping the best of disco, house, drum and bass, hip hop and R&B in The Basement throughout the night, while The Treehouse is taken over by cheese anthems and retro-pop singalongs until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Leadership Conference

8 May, 10am, West Park Teaching Hub

The LSU Leadership Conference is open to all our members.  The theme of the conference this year is “Becoming an Agent of Change” and we want to empower you to develop skills, consider new ideas and recognise yourself as a leader of the future.  Throughout the day there will be keynote speakers, talks, interactive workshops, networking opportunities and panel discussions.

Find out more on the events page.

Careers Network

City Year UK – Employer Drop-In on campus

3 May, 10am – 4pm, Outside ‘The Place’, Stewart Mason

City Year is a full-time, year-long voluntary mentoring and leadership programme allowing 18 – 25 year olds to engage in a year of social action within a school. We’re currently recruiting graduate and placement students for our August 2022 – July 2023 programme based in London, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. Stop by for a chat with one of the team!

Find out more on the events page.

Academic Success Group Coaching: Writing up your Research (Engineering)

4 May, 6pm – 7pm, The Start Up Lab, STEM Building

Group coaching involves working with your peers and your academic success coach to identify your strengths, overcome any barriers to success, and develop your know-how so that you don’t just survive undertaking a dissertation/research project, but thrive at it!

Find out more on the events page.

Vows of the Marhajjha Particle Drawing on Difficult Visualization

Edwin Van Gorder

Chaos :Strife and Drawing on Imagining a pred-dimensional medium such as that spatial extension of space itself prior space time in which the energy involved has no reason to be ordered and no reason to be disordered therefore we have to consider our preconceptions…brings us back rather shoulder to shoulder with the Presocratics as usual and necessary as even a fashion line named Everything Everywhere at Once prompts the cultural dimensions of Long Live Fashion to cosmogeny alite cosmology fashioning the yet difficult Heraclitan synthesis upon his sources extending strife and chaos within the imagination of the speaker to share that chaos presupposes order and order chaos… we have gradually adapted to the realization that explosion is an intuitive fallacy better described as expansion… the interest in finding to some extent the “shape” of the Higgs field similarly must meet a kind of moment of questioning whether visualization is always possible the answer being hinted at in for example an instruction towards learning a speech pattern (Chinese ) Stars? Stars!… the question and answer shows in our visual field like harmony and melody as we “open scan” then settle into a series of connectives which then open out again: similarly the unruly primal universe is a medium where densities in some wise both separate and come together, nearness is the force of gravity in coalescence patterns redistricted then as its own common denominator and suggestive of that order of particles which are their own antiparticles…

When Sarayaku smiles

Ana Cristina Suzina, Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship

The rain was falling so much that my poncho was soaked, and I kept my head down, so as to avoid feeling the drops on my face, accelerated by the wind and the speed of the boat, going down the Bobonaza River¹. The young woman next to me, without poncho or hat, was draining the water that had accumulated in the bottom of the boat with a plastic pot. It all seemed a little chaotic, improvised, maybe dangerous, but I would look at Nelson² , standing at the bow of the boat, probing the riverbed with a long wooden stick, and he was smiling. And all it took was the rain to subside a little for the conversation to liven up among the Kichwa on the boat. And from the smile, they went to laughing and even to laughing out loud. It was clear that the mood there had another nature, that the disposition to deal with life was different, lighter, happier, I dare say.

It doesn’t stop being weird. A people violently attacked, in a territory seriously threatened, and they smile. I don’t understand a bit of Kichwa, but the tone of the conversations suggested good humour, an uplifting, confident presence of mind.

They laugh a lot during their confraternizations around the chicha³, they laugh easily at each other’s stories, an almost innocent laugh, from someone who has not yet lost the ability to be seduced by simple things – like the noises made up by Rosa imitating the animals of the forest, one night, at the guest house.

And before this report sounds like a self-help text about the power of laughter, it is important to make it clear that this vestige of innocence is not alienating at all. On the contrary, it comes from somewhere else, which could be the political horizon of the idea of poverty or the shared sense of struggle, or probably both.

In an interview, the Kuraka⁴ Mario Yaucen Renache talked to me about the invention of poverty as a project to keep people dissatisfied and, therefore, consuming things they don’t need as if this could save them from that said poverty. It is true that, in Sarayaku, most houses do not have electricity, running water or sanitation. But the conversation with Mario suggests a clear distinction between access to rights and a decent life, on the one hand, and an idea of poverty to motivate consumption, on the other.

Living with the Kichwa people of Sarayaku made me think that they laugh because they genuinely find joy in the simple things in life: being with the family, sharing chicha, having good land to plant and harvest bananas and manioc, getting to know the plants that keep them healthy, owning the time that allows them to share their existence with nature and all visible and invisible beings. And they also laugh as a kind of alliance that keeps them united in the struggle for the rights they do want to access: mainly, respect for their territory and their culture, access to public goods and services like all citizens.

Sarayaku’s smile reminded me of many other communities wounded in their dignity that I’ve come to know in my work as a journalist and later a researcher over the past 20 years. I remembered their songs, the small gestures of kindness, their awareness, faith and strength.

This smile is not, however, any palliative for pain and absences, because these are properly mourned and problematised. It is not neither the very expression of intellectually fabricated resilience as a remedy that explains the ability to bear and resist of impoverished populations. Nor it is the smile of the “good Indian”, as the idealized profile of the docile indigenous who accepts to submit to the colonialism of body and mind.

Sarayaku’s smile is revolutionary, because it recognizes the value of what is considered poor or outdated; it recognizes the value of what really makes sense for these communities. And it is also revolutionary because it humanizes the struggle, making it bearable in the reciprocity of indignation and hope, and forging the amalgam that permanently recalls the meaning of these efforts.

Sarayaku’s smile is a symbol of resistance in a world lacking meaning. It is not there to be appreciated as the exclusively aesthetic expression of the way of being of a people – despite being a defining part of who these people are as subjects of their history. It can only be understood with the keys given by their reality. And, being so, it is a letter, an invitation to each person for a kind of purification, of distillation, that allows recognizing and valuing what really matters to live a dignified life and to allow the dignity of the diversity of life forms.

Footnotes

1. Extract from personal diaries from the field research “Agency and appropriation of digital media by young people in riverside communities in the Amazon region”, carried out in April 2022, in the community of Sarayaku, province of Pastaza, Ecuador. This research is funded by the Leverhulme Trust (ECF-2020-194). For more information about Sarayaku, visit https://sarayaku.org/ .
2. People who were not formally interviewed for the research are mentioned only by first names, so as to avoid individual identification.
3. Artisanal beverage made of manioc, that is commonly shared in collective meetings.
4. Kuraka is a political and organizational position held by someone chosen by the community for a period of one year; the Kuraka is responsible for calling collective efforts and meetings, for sharing important information with the families of their community, and represents it in the Tayjasaruta, that is the main decision-making instance of government in Sarayaku. There is one Kuraka for each of the six communities that constitute Sarayaku.

Loughborough's Hidden Gems

Hey, I am Lucy and I am a Psychology student currently on my placement year. Having spent three years in Loughborough, I feel that I know the ins-and-outs of the town and I can give you a little insight into the hidden gems if you choose to study at Loughborough!

Places to eat

As students, we love our coffee shops! They are the perfect place to relax and get some work done.

My personal favourite in the town is Public and Plants who do the most amazing homemade rocky road – in a shop surrounded by…plants (which is very good for the mind and relaxing).

Another thing that is good for the mind is healthy eating. If you’re into your health but still love a delicious treat, you should definitely head down to The Green Bowl where you can grab a salad, smoothie bowl or a toasted bagel filled with goodness! But in the evenings, Peter Pizzeria is definitely one of the student-favourite restaurants; they do the best homemade pizzas in an authentic pizza oven.

Walks and parks

Besides the delicious food and cute coffee shops, Loughborough is filled with beautiful views and calming walks and hidden gems; one thing that Loughborough students really appreciate. You’ve just got to know where to find them!

Many students love to go for a morning run down by the canal, or a walk around Charnwood Waters where you can see a lot of local wildlife. You can also find some parrots in Queens Park, which always surprises people! If you fancy a bit more of a journey, then why not cycle to Beacon Hill or Bradgate Park and go for a picnic? I’d recommend going on a Sunday evening when the sun is setting. There is an amazing view overlooking Loughborough, with Nottingham in the distance.

Other entertainment and activities

Sometimes at the weekend when I have some extra time and fancy a fun activity, I like to go to the golf range which is only down the road.

But if you fancy something a bit more challenging then the escape rooms are definitely for you! These are especially popular during freshers time, as they are a fun way to bond with your flat! As well as this, there is a local skatepark, Loughborough Town Hall that holds regular shows such as comedy nights and musicals, as well as a rock-climbing centre, and a leisure centre with a pool and a sports hall. All these things certainly give you a good excuse to try something new and step outside your comfort zone alongside meeting new people. Plus, there is no excuse – everything is within the town so is in walking distance!

Drawing on Euler's and Universal C 911 Drawing Research Slipstream of Contemporary Neo Space Eventua

Edwin Van Gorder

Drawing on Euler’s and Universal C 911
Since crossing mid-line a rotational vector finds to right angles the mirroring motif of crossing mid-line and thereby finding as well the diagonal as a quantum growth root rectangle those bare beginning as primordial pose a center one may build alternately towards as a kind of point object or then again as a space or equilibrium zone as in architects placing studs centered or off center…mathematically then the fraction multiplied by five as the mirror of its reciprocal divided by two implicates the ratios of decimal places each to each as containing in equilibrium those differences which as a standing energy explains Zeno’s paradox then as an expansion principle in the centers over riding distinctions only made to the point object and this transitive. In the drawing I have placed in tension the number 911 as the square root o f three times three which coincides with the degree the complement of the square root of five crosses mid-line with the ramification that the third generation o the the golden section arm of the square root of five receive the 911 complement as completing a division in thirds…coexisting in the drawing space with the number exactly double the Universal Constant .0074 as .56generated by the 8th generation in a spiral (ie the seventh dimension so to speak per brane or portal sil) o 1.382 or the complement o f .618 paired to unity (one or square. The difference between the one and its half relating to creating forms from the edges or dividing from center … The final point of interest is relating Euler’s constant to analysis : 2.718281284590

Means: .618 with inverse o f 1 as .1 to .718 mirrors the doubling of the base of 1.618 thus now 2.718 and the next term (overlapping) of .1828 is the complement of .8172 congruent to 1.2236 or unity plus 1half of square root of 5 in reciprocal form of .4472 thus the first term has placed one arm of the golden section to a stepping up in the fraction to meet the rate of expansion or if you will the complete spin in relation to complete rotation as an imaging of center to edge…while the second term contracts from the two wing form in an inverse momentum… the third term also overlapping show 28 mirroring towards mid-line as repletion while finally .4472 rounded off by the lensing of decimal places as .45 is simply doubled with no indication of mid line as in the 1 shared by the 28 pair indicating the status of equilibrium belonging to states contributing to standing energy while remaining undefined to phenomenon.

Drawing Through the Inflatron

Edwin Van Gorder

A recently published study which proposes an “ Inflatron “or primordial field of dark matter form separated in time by the quick closure of that field in a destruction due to cessation of inflation poses for me the dimensional comport of fields themselves since any particle being a view upon a field if then remaining must find that fielding as “virtual “ or quasi particles do in the electromagnetic spectrum and gravity remaining as that critical transpose of collective differences sometimes to an equilibrium familiar to the testing of momentum and standing energy by which overflow we get the quantum zeno surplus and yet again if viewing “ space itself” underlying space time as a notion to critique as expansion does explosion a form my drawing here goes into in which the idea of an active field is in the Bob and Alice tradition in being constructed upon perception in such a way that berms and wales brought to the surface cancel space time in a sense and yet in so doing are also the field of differences in which the cancelling is a position now maintained to the very synthesis of absence and presence as spectators upon the structural veracity of chaos and randomness.

Drawing on the Higgs

Edwin Van Gorder

Drawing on the Higgs
Given that momentum upon velocity are the dimension of spin the ontological mathematics of roots as quantum offer a specific fractal length of .0074 as the universal constant from it’s preliminary double of .1056 ; which is the region the square root of five complement overlaps and in so doing stages a recurring structure added or subtracted like up an down quarks thus to my mind the moral equivalent of the Higgs…at .5528 via crossing mid-line such as becomes the critical ontological factor.
The drawing here stages that Higg’s like entry level upon scales that lens it…

Interestingly then: .o156 , a number a number generated as eighth generation thus seventh dimension of the complement of golden section .618 per .382 added to unity as 1.383 in reciprocal form .7236 stepping those denominations

All In-All All is One

Edwin Van Gorder

All In-All All is One
Einstein’s space elevator metaphor of phenomenon in an enclosure or field dependent vs the outer or rotational field is similar to the universal big bang flattenng to disc form in which that structural rotation is preserve to Hamilton’s mathematics of rotations in dimensions and the reference to Maxwell’s demon or separation of differences (like the Greek “genoskein or splitting differences to the setting of keel on breakers.. this splitting of Maxwell

in which entropies cancel show as well in the Sterne experiment of quantum vectoring : an essential note is that in the “turns” or bends of the welling and berms and wales of space time a Poincare horizon or surface staging prepares a diversion from “counting columns twice when going around a square so to speak meaning that concerning gravity the “pull of gravity” is an oxymoron just as black holes don’t pull matter in but rather are the point of their inference well of gravity we can turn to the white hole as similar to the fourth dimensional basketball returning inside out as metaphors together for the difficulty of envisioning space itself as a matrix which arrives to it’s surface having no parts but point like in that infinity has no parts but is already everywhere at once … The Dirac equation describing the spin of particles compares to the unanswered question as to why particles come each of 4 kinds in 3 weights… ( ie like a clock hand at 12 to 3 travelling left to right, 3 to six right to left and six to nine left to right while final mine to to 12 right to left joins identity to leave those three vectors with the cancelation and these as fields skein like informing dimensions of transference are dimensioning by which stars appearing like holes in a fabric of darkness have then that dark force altogether in the idea…the crossing of midline in a dimension such as the particles yield visualization from their fields should as well I think in the recombinative poetics of beta decay invite the consideration of skeins of planted dimensions in the space time continuum and along with particle and anti-particle consideration the Lebesgue tonic identifying the inverse nature essentially that the larger numbers at one side of a decimal are the inverted scale which Carol described per the sublative clause of two pills or two chessboards in reverse dimension based on the Greek Gnomon of applied square in relation to its complement by which the remainder to rectangle and that complement codefined two different sized squares each of their unity.
In particular I see the strong force tubules as a sign of skein like fields striking notes of incidence towards a surface and this collective note is the weak gravity force as a whole made strong as condensed to a surface. Falconer who built on spin towards the Quantum feeds invented a digital sundial and this nomenclature again highlights the Greek Gnomon and the noema or subtly of engages scales to phenomena built on that noumenic character of codefinition upon the hypokoemonon or strata find.

Note that in Greek Gnomon means “that by which things are known” and thus also “sundial” and “carpenter’s edge.. hence the appropriateness of Falconer’s digital sundial…. As a kind of visual theremin…

My Italian Study Exchange Experience

Ciao a tutti!  

Although it has been a year since I left Italy, Italy has not left me. Since my Study Exchange semester, visiting a different part of Italy annually is now on my bucket list! I can only thank Loughborough for this life-changing opportunity and myself, for choosing to study abroad during a pandemic.

Why did I choose to study abroad?

I decided to study abroad because the thought of a traditional placement year did not excite me.  I remember spending a whole day researching the available Erasmus Universities to choose from with my Mum’s help. In fact, it was my Mum, who pushed me towards choosing Salerno. I remember her distinctly saying, “Shannon, go to a country that you haven’t been to before!”. Therefore, jointly inspired by my mum and my desire to break out of my comfort zone, I chose Salerno and emailed my Study Exchange form immediately!  

Let the journey begin!

After countless hours of Duolingo to finally condensing my wardrobe in one suitcase, I was ready for my adventure. From hugging my parents tightly before my 6am departure to the roaring of my plane’s engine on the runway, this was it. I knew my life was about to change for the better. And it did…after a rocky start! Truthfully, the beginning of my Exchange was not easy, I suffered from homesickness, the uncertainties of the pandemic, and the stress of adjusting to remote learning. Also, what a time to have a birthday, I turned 21 in the same week! Luckily, I managed to celebrate it with my Study Exchange buddy at a Burger restaurant! She is also from Loughborough and now one of my closest friends 😊

Support from Loughborough

With Loughborough’s pastoral support and sharing my problems with my Study Exchange buddy, my transition to Salerno became easier as I overcame my troubles of living internationally. My pastoral support from Loughborough involved frequent video calls on Teams with my Study Exchange Coordinator, who checked to see if I was settling in well and adjusting to my new modules. Within a couple of days, I met my Italian Exchange tutor and my modules were sorted because of Loughborough. At that point, I was reminded of how great Loughborough’s care for their students is, which stopped me from returning home in the end!

My semester abroad opened up my eyes to a brand-new country that I had never visited before, all of this within exceptional circumstances. Now, I am comfortable facing any ambiguous situation because conquering Italy has reminded me of my hidden resilience.

What was my course like?

Unfortunately, I did not see my University, nor did I meet any native Italian students because the teaching was virtual. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my modules. I chose a combination of Undergraduate and Postgraduate modules taught in Italian and English, which was very challenging at times! My favourite modules were Circus in Victorian Literature, Global Gender Studies, and Intermediate Italian. With virtual learning, I found that I had more freedom to do what I loved best and that was being a tourist! During my study breaks, I used to walk along Salerno’s lungomare (Seafront), visit fashion boutiques, and eat Tiramisu-flavoured gelato! Despite my region’s Covid restrictions, I managed to visit a few beautiful places close to Salerno which include Pompeii, Napoli, Amalfi, and Vietri Sul Mare.

What did the experience teach me?

I can honestly say that my experience has transformed my confidence and my awareness of the Italian culture and its music. Yes, my Study Exchange was not a “normal” one, however, I would not change it for the world! It is true, your experience abroad truly does enhance your life in all aspects. A few examples are, that I am amazed at my personal growth, and I am open to interacting with people from all walks of life. Since Italy, I returned to Loughborough with a passion to complete my English degree and I even joined the Italian society! My mornings before lectures now involve learning Italian with a mug of coffee to remind me of Salerno.

My decision to study abroad was no doubt the best decision I have ever made. Not only did it inspire my current dissertation topic, but I learned how to appreciate the littlest things in life. On a final note, how many people can say that they studied abroad during a pandemic? I can and I have no regrets!  

L’Italia, on vedo l’ora di rivederti e anche grazie Loughborough! 

N Dimensional Quantum Print Drawing Upon Reciprocal Process

Edwin Van Gorder

N Dimensional Quantum Print Drawing upon Reciprocal Process.
A heritage within cubism of recognizing reciprocal forms as process within my own appreciation of drawing to print form frames for me the Duchamp roto relief image to sound bow and lyre bolero by which the mathematics occasioned strongly reached black hole research is now as well a welling up within the coming Webb Scope Age“non photography” i.e. transcendent clauses of spectrum to sense as an n-dimensional quantum in the making… the imprint upon the horizon by which the complexity of information is sensed by the black hole as it’s formative mass has to do with the eventua come to crisis not exactly at the horizon but crossing bridges burned at fulcrum points so to speak further “downstream” as theoretical physicist Paul Sutter notes and where divided at the difference of two horizons emerge there to phenomenon the submerged elements of parity within equilibrium… like the spotting of a dancer or the gymnast “sticking” a landing the point of equilibrium at the landing is apparently motionless but actually the turn of events visible to the spotting and invisible in the landing like a rotation out of view because within a reciprocal moment of space time quantum a print form evolves…

In the drawing enclosed I play with the structural placement of the ratio of the universal constant implicit with the grid generated and generating (and in a way symbolizing “space itself” (as the heuristic rose noumenon and hypokomeinon enigmatic and underlying as it were..)

: Towards which fulcrum nodes place generated ratios as comparing the idea of different sources to a same ratio in relation to the simpler in place built logarithmic spiral of the angular projection motivating the quantum eventua. A term from rhetoric “interlacing” or “simplicio/complexio” carries for me much of “soft form “ puns on cubism in which a sense of the reciprocal as process compares what arrives to our senses as sometimes complex, sometimes simple in that very interplay arrive to form in mind just as the Webb Scope Age now prepares for those Conceptual Art to come considerations of process where phenomena of physics will be out of reach due to universal expansion and thus considered ultimately to thought experiment informed by prior bridges…or as the sage seemed about to say” you can see a lot by more than observing…”…)…

DRN Ecologies of Drawing: Living Environments & Human Culture

Thank you to Serena Smith for chairing the first event in the series of DRN 2022 Ecologies of Drawing events, to the presenters Rachel Bacon, Sarah Casey & Ivana Wingham for their varied and interesting papers and to everyone who attended the event.

Video also accessible at: https://vimeo.com/703314887

This Fortnight at Loughborough | 18 April

IIE research seminar series – Professor Ian McCarthy

21 April, 12pm – 2pm, In-person & Online

Professor Ian McCarthy from Simon Fraser University (Canada) and LUISS University (Italy) will present his paper entitled “User Innovation during the Covid-19 Pandemic”. Ian’s research and teaching interests include operations management, change and innovation management, and social media.

Find out more on the events page.

Midlands Innovation Flow Cytometry Meeting 2022

25 April, 9am – 4.30pm, Holywell Park Conference Centre

Want to learn about Flow Cytometry? Want to see what’s new in the field? Want to find out about research and facilities within the MI Universities? Then come along to the Free MI Flow Cytometry Meeting 2022!

This will be an in-person one day conference bringing together academics, local biotech and instrument manufacturers to discuss all things flow cytometry, imaging flow cytometry, mass cytometry and full spectrum flow cytometry. Come along to learn about the technology, hear something new in the field or attend one of the educational workshops.

Find out more on the events page.

Unlocking the Power of Artificial Intelligence for Real World Challenges

26 April, 10.15am – 4.30pm, Online

AI is widely used in many different real-world application areas. However, this creates its own challenges with a number of research questions for the AI community to develop more advanced AI algorithms. In this event, six world-leading researchers will share their project research experience on both the fundamentals of AI and its applications.

It covers psychologically and biologically inspired cognition development for robots; neuromorphic sensors and computing; combining AI, model based control and embodied intelligence; crossmodal learning, integration of knowledge and learning; cooperative AI for integration into society; and explainable deep learning.

Find out more on the events page.

Academic Success Group Coaching: Writing up your Research (Arts and Humanities)

26 April, 2.30pm – 3.30pm, BRI.2.08

Group coaching involves working with your peers and your academic success coach to identify your strengths, overcome any barriers to success, and develop your know-how so that you don’t just survive undertaking a dissertation/research project, but thrive at it!

Find out more on the events page.

Academic Success Group Coaching: Writing up your Research (Social Sciences and Sciences)

27 April, 3pm – 4pm, SCH.1.05

Group coaching involves working with your peers and your academic success coach to identify your strengths, overcome any barriers to success, and develop your know-how so that you don’t just survive undertaking a dissertation/research project, but thrive at it!

Find out more on the events page.

Catalysers’ Congress: New Leaders in Social Change and Development

28 April, 9.30am – 4.30pm, London Campus

Do you want to be at the centre of social change? Are you interested in a career in international development?

Loughborough University in London invites applications to attend a one-day Catalysers’ Congress exploring future thinking, practice and career opportunities for the next generation of international development and social change leaders.

Find out more on the events page.

IAS Spotlight Series : Pacifism and Nonviolence – Seminar One

28 April, 3pm – 5pm, Online

As part of the IAS Spotlight Series, ‘Pacifism and Nonviolence’, this seminar will bring together a group of scholars to reflect on the way violence is remembered and commemorated from the World Wars to the climate crisis.

Find out more on the events page.

IAS Spotlight Series: Pacifism and Nonviolence – Seminar Two

29 April, 11am – 1pm, Online

As part of the IAS Spotlight Series, ‘Pacifism and Nonviolence’, this seminar will bring together a group of scholars to consider a variety of critiques of common rationalisations for violence and pacifist responses to it.

Find out more on the events page.

Business and Enterprise Group Coaching

29 April, 12apm – 12.30pm, Online

Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey, but it doesn’t have to be. All businesses experience challenges and business owners can support each other through these challenges together.

Join us, join the Loughborough Enterprise Network (LEN) community to develop your business together.

Find out more on the events page.

This Week at Loughborough | 11 April

NEUSCHLOSS Sculpture Writing Workshop

12 April, 11am – 1pm, Martin Hall

Over the past year, NEUSCHLOSS has been visiting, and thinking about, the sited sculptures of Loughborough University campus. The project grew out of an initial proposal, which considered games and game-play as a potentially interesting device to activate the sculptures in new and surprising ways. Since then, NEUSCHLOSS has been developing collaborative texts that take role-play and games as a form, or that have been produced by group game-play and improvisation. This event is an opportunity to experience some of these texts in progress at the sculptures and to participate in generating new texts for the project.

Find out more on the events page.

Mathematics: Enabling Innovation in Sport: Public lecture and panel discussion

12 April, 1.30pm – 2.30pm, Edward Herbert Building, EHB.1.04

Join this public lecture and panel discussion taking place as part of the British Applied Mathematics Colloquium 2022 conference, this year being held at Loughborough University.

Find out more on the events page.

CAREERS NETWORK EVENTS

URBN webinar – internship and entry level role opportunities

13 April, 12pm – 1pm, Online

URBN is a group of constantly evolving brands which includes Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free People, all of which have experienced incredible growth over the last few years.

This webinar is a chance to learn more about our business and opportunities we have across our stores, head office and distribution centre. We will be covering internships and entry level roles, what we look for in applications and our recruitment process.

Find out more on the events page.

Business and Enterprise Group Coaching

15 April, 12pm – 12.30pm, Online

Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey, but it doesn’t have to be. All businesses experience challenges and business owners can support each other through these challenges together.

Join us, join the Loughborough Enterprise Network (LEN) community to develop your business together.

Find out more on the events page.

Citations count

All academic researchers know they are never far away from a citation count. And while citations undoubtedly do count, there is much debate about what a count of citations actually counts for.

At Loughborough, we’ve been working hard to increase the influence of our research on other researchers and the field more generally, and citation is an important indicator of this influence. Many factors make a difference. The quality – significance, originality and rigour – of the research itself and our ability to craft the message matter, of course. So does the visibility of our research to the right audiences, through choices about with whom and where to publish. Open access is a game-changer in this respect; our Institutional Repository delivers a citation benefit from enhanced visibility which is why our Open Research Position Statement commits to depositing the full text of all our primary research outputs from 2020.

However, improving citation performance is like turning a supertanker round. For example, the QS 2022 rankings, to which international stakeholders like students and funders pay keen attention, recognise the citation of research published all the way back to 2015 (up to 2019). However, the supertanker is most definitely turning; our hard work has seen Loughborough’s citation count and citations per faculty score almost double since QS 2018.

A number of universities have recently highlighted the Stanford University list of the world’s “top 2% of scientists”. Amongst the many excellent researchers on the list are over 120 Loughborough colleagues, past and present. We congratulate them.

Media coverage has served up multiple cuts through the Stanford data. For example, would you like to know who is in the top 10 of European researchers? Meet Georg, Karl, Peter, Douglas, Charles, Avelino, Guido, Stefan, George and Michael. Spot anything? (To save you the trouble, Avelino is male too). While the ranking metric is carefully crafted, ultimately the list is based on total citation counts and so it’s no surprise to see it perpetuate a view that the world’s “top scientists” are all older white men. We’re in no doubt that these guys all are (or have been) fabulous scientists, but total citation counts (including variations on the theme like h-index) favour certain research fields, long service and output quantity. Consequently, they particularly diminish the profiles of those whose research careers have been interrupted by career breaks and disrupted by balancing a research career with significant caring responsibilities.

This is why, guided by our sector-leading Responsible Use of Research Metrics statement, we make use of field-weighted citation metrics, to accommodate significant differences between disciplines, that are also normalised to avoid emphasis on quantity. We have consistently emphasised output quality (which can only be judged via expert peer review, not citation) and visibility, guided by outlet metrics such as Source-Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) and the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR). Output quality and outlet visibility are much more under our direct control, and they have proved to be the essential ingredients that have nearly doubled our citations in 4 years.

That’s why our PDR process (outside of the Arts) uses SNIP, SJR and Field-Weighted Outputs in Top Citation Percentiles to promote reflection on citation levels. Field-weighted metrics also support comparison of ‘topic clusters’ at the whole-institution level, adding weight from a research perspective to our choice of strategy themes – net zero and climate change, sport and health, and vibrant and inclusive societies.

In case you are wondering, the Stanford list top 10 for Loughborough is also all-male, while a ranking we produced by Field-Weighted Citation Index (FWCI, solely for the purpose of this blog) has 4 women in the top 10 (in a University where just over 30% of academics are women). Nobody features in the top 10 of both rankings … or the top 20 and then we stopped checking.

But this is not a quest for a better ranking metric; of the myriad of citation indicators to choose from, each with different meanings and merits, none is a plausible basis to rank individual research performance, nor have we ever felt the urge to do so. At the same time, citations do count. Well-cited work should be celebrated and best practice lessons learned, while less well-cited work should prompt frank reflection. Citations tell us about the academic impact of our research but that’s difficult to influence directly, hence why we concentrate our efforts to increase citation on output quality and visibility.

As we look now to take our research and innovation to the next level, quality, visibility, and impact will all be front of mind. Our new University strategy also foregrounds equity at a time when the need for fair and responsible assessment of research performance has never been greater. Our ‘Same storm, different boats’ study was one of the first to highlight how the pandemic had amplified gendered differences in caring responsibilities with clear consequences for career progression. The more recent study by the ‘500 Women Scientists’ organisation. shows nothing has changed, suggesting that “women in science have experienced career disruptions that will take years, or even decades, to undo”. We commit here that our assessments of research performance will repay the commitment of colleagues through the pandemic with the nuance required to acknowledge these extraordinary lived experiences.

Professor Steve Rothberg
Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research)

TRACEY Call for Papers: Drawing Anthropocene

Guest editors: Sarah Casey & Gerry Davis

Call for Journal Articles: Drawing Anthropocene
TRACEY Drawing and Visualisation Research
Guest editors – Sarah Casey & Gerry Davis
Deadline – Friday 8th July 2022

This edition proposes an examination of the relationship between drawing – a practice of traces – and the concept of Anthropocene. This is a timely lens through which to examine research engaging drawing in relation to current debates on environmental crisis and invite reflection on the value of drawing in the context of deep time.
The term Anthropocene, coined at the start of the new millennium by geochemist Paul Crutzen, denotes a new period of geological time, reflecting the extent to which human activity is making its mark on geologic stratigraphy. Essentially, for geologists, the legacy of the Anthropocene will be the traces that our existence will leave in the geologic record in times to come. We might even see this as a collaborative durational drawing spanning the development and demise of human existence!
While there remains debate about the precise starting point of the Anthropocene (and it has yet to be formally acknowledged by the International Committee on Stratigraphy), the concept is now widespread and in common usage as a byword for human impact on the environment. This tension provides a useful provocation, one that prompts questions about how drawing might function in relation to climate crisis and what knowledge it might produce. For example, drawing may examine areas of contention: petrochemicals and carbon release, resource extraction, more than human agency, migrations, or post-human and planetary futures.

Drawing is an activity of tracing, layering, erasure, the drawn mark often belies the process of its making. It has been called a “trace fossil” (Halperin, 2013). Over the course of the twentieth century tenets of drawing – arguably the trace of an action made over a surface – have been tested, stretched and exploded as artists embraced performance, land art, soundscapes as forms of drawing. Drawing now has many identities, from lines in sand, footprints in the snow, or vapor trails in the sky (Dexter, 2005: 6). Acknowledging, as many do, that environmental traces – foot prints, tidelines – are a form of drawing, what might this offer for using drawing as a lens through which to enter critical debates on environment? Conversely, how might new thinking emerging from earth sciences and geo humanities reveal new insights into what it means to make a drawing be it conventional or expanded?

Particular areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the following questions:
• How might drawing help us position ourselves in relation to changing ecologies?
• What contemporary or historic strategies does drawing offer for bearing witness to environmental change?
• The Anthropocene reflects changes in global cultures. How can drawing alert us to such changes?
• What does thinking through the lens of deep time offer for understanding drawing and vice versa? Equally, what does this lens of time and change offer to our speculations of futures?
• How might drawing bring us closer to activity in the deep past or timescapes remote from our own lifetimes?
• What geopolitical questions does the concept of Anthropocene raise for ethical practices of drawing? Of how drawing is conducted, who draws, where and for whom?
• How might thinking through the concept of Anthropocene revitalize the traditional field of landscape drawing?

Responses are sought from outside and on the fringes of the arts – all rigorous research related to drawing or the ideas mentioned above, whatever your field, will be warmly welcomed.

TRACEY would like to invite the following submissions in response to the theme:
Full academic papers between 4500 –6000 words to be submitted through TRACEY’s online submission portal: https://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/TRACEY/about/submissions

Please ensure that you use the template for your submission, which can be downloaded from the submissions link above.
Deadline for all submissions: Friday 8th July 2022

Please include the following information for papers:
Author(s)
Institutional Affiliation (if appropriate)
50word biography

This Week at Loughborough | 4 April

Book Club: Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power by Lola Olufemi

5 April, 12.30pm – 1.30pm, Online

Join our regular Book Club for an online discussion of Lola Olufemi’s 2020 book which aims to ‘reclaim feminism from consumerism’. Plastered over t-shirts and tote bags, the word ‘feminist’ has entered the mainstream and is fast becoming a popular slogan for our generation. But feminism isn’t a commodity up for purchase; it’s a weapon for fighting against injustice.

Find out more on the events page.

Inspiring Minds STEM: Year 12 taster day

5 April, 9am – 3pm, West Park Teaching Hub

Inspiring Minds is Loughborough University’s series of taster days for Year 12 students. It’s an excellent opportunity to learn more about the options available at university and how to get there. The events allow you to not only experience studying your chosen subject area at university level, but also to meet our current students and academics and discover university life.

Find out more on the events page.

As Sensors Unfold – Research Seminar by IAS Residential Fellow Dr Berit Greinke

6 April, 1pm – 2pm, Online

For electronic textile crafters, an apparent lack of control and elements of surprise when working with fibres and threads are a familiar occurrence. Often, the process of making is undetermined firstly, and characterised by a dynamic process of negotiation between the textile and the crafter through multi-sensory engaging with material properties and tools.

Find out more on the events page.

Public lecture: Trying to outrun cancer

6 April, 5.30pm – 6.30pm, Online

This public lecture will be delivered by Dr Mhairi Morris, Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry at Loughborough University.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that physical activity and exercise play a key role in reducing cancer risk and helping to improve patient outcomes, but we don’t fully understand what’s going on at the cellular and molecular level.

Find out more on the events page.

ReLondon Sustainability Hackathon

7 April, 10am – 5pm, Dual delivery

Join a team of likeminded students and look to create solutions to a real-life problem, this hackathon we will be working with our friends at ReLondon on ‘creating sustainable solutions’.

Find out more on the events page.

Confidence in the digital age: Do you trust your news? Do you trust your phone?

7 April, 4.30pm – 6.30pm, U0.05, Brockington Extension

Neil Stansfield, Head of Strategy, Digital Sector, Resilience and Security, National Physical Laboratory

The first duty of any government is the security of its citizens. Such a simple phrase in such a complex world. Because now our security is not just about having confidence in our physical safety, it’s also about confidence in the way we go about our lives.

Find out more on the events page.

Petre Breazu: Fellowship Inaugural Lecture

8 April, 12.30pm – 1.30pm, LDN.1.04 & Online

In this lecture, Petre will introduce his MSCA project carried out at the Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance under the mentorship of Professor Aidan McGarry. This project investigates contemporary expressions of racism and xenophobia toward the Roma in the context of the growing populism in Europe.

Find out more on the events page.

Headlight Child Between Manchester and Leeds..

Edwin VanGorder

A soft edged abstract work has the potential to share an odd binary star with the Baroque operatic Cumana Bosso or the expected improvisations made on melody line from numbers in the score thus also as a architecture of sight and sound here comparable to the strong axis in Art Deco finding Jazz it’s musical counterpoint… Sight and sound as coefficients on cosmic radiation bring our star as well to a pulsar identity within our particular Renaissance of cosmology which I indicate in the enclosed article from Manchester College which has the pulsar stars coded into sound and sight by which I mean to focus all this spin in the narrative above and the spin of the quasars in which mass millions that of earth completely rotate clock like perhaps 600 times a second and introducing us to cosmic scale on the one hand generally but also a very specific coefficient which helps introduce via the mathematics by which a rounding off of numerical extension places a kind of fractal entity in high variety where spin places to dimension the tensions on time space by which magnetic fields and gravity mark local tone to the spin through variance in the interference pattern… the term quantum hair , like our Rothko has been invented as a variation on “fuzzy mathematics “ as yet again a link on Chain mathematics or the states introduced in the variances I mentioned as “rounding off” of which the Manchester visual graphs in a sense pose as that density of the oscillation to influence what will be velocity contribution to gravity…The black hole Rothko or hair or fuzziness is considered a form of quantum entanglement print made upon the field of entry or processional…

web to Webb Drawn

Edwin VanGorder

Given the web to Webb scope orientation of my work currently as a projection of the work in progress history of known unknowns stemming from preliminary illustrations to Duchamp’s Green box orientation to n dimensional scaling I am reminded of Deleuze on “rhizome” ( “unusual architecture”) “not exactly a Point of inflection but lines of variance” or words to that effect… posing shall we say something like the realization Duchamp had that “ the conditions of experience simultaneously (expansive term! -those of the objects of experience”(per Kant ) reflected on the Cezanne portal to nature which brought artist and model, still life etc to a cultural rapture of the deep dispelled not by photography per se but rather the broad technological identification which for example with the roto relief give us what we see yet again with cloud chamber images as within the specter of nature a kind of narrowing of the distinction between art and nature which Duchamp temporized to his culturized technical advency and moment in time to a degree but also in for example in his puns on “electrical stripping” indicates the metaphor as we have noticed stripping itself away … Returning to the Web scope on the advent of it’s firs overwhelming image one notes the rays and the mirror structure may be retraced as structured to string theories moment of success in predicting the scattering velocity of photons and this model of successive dimensions as a critique or mode of thinking shows a simultaneous structure between the machina of the idea and that of the apprehended status of nature in the art of the event…

Crossing Midline

Edwin VanGorder

Black hole horizons as evidencing quantum entanglement sense incoming energy and adapt behind the horizons which respond structurally to interference patterns as the measure of entropy as evident states. AS high mass is high entropy the matter of field invariant and field dependent are the structural clause of imaginary ie negative numbers to physics as a signature of states and transformation “absence” positing a null state alternative meaning to the intuitive “zero”. This equilibrium field belongs to the low energy constants as they contribute to the reading or signatures of otherwise “ states “ in their conditional freedom of extension as “dimension” the strength of which prompts at this point a kind of comparison to our own physiology in the sense of our developmental reflexes which hinge upon a variety of arrangements and responses to the phenomenon of “crossing midline”….and as our own physiology contributes to our language adaptation witness the Sanskrit drawing verbs as our language foundation these semiotic clauses have had the profound Leibnitz/Bergson oscillation and monad introduction for example as a representative ontology.
Because imaginary numbers relate inverse ratios the matter of loss of Associative function figures in cosmic parity The theory recently proposed which adapts Supersymmetry or a world o f to be found anti particles as demonstrating a parity restoration of otherwise missing links such as only left handed spin to some particles and cosmic drift and Higgs hyper mass has hit upon multiverse mirror opposition as feeds of these symmetries… the idea itself however may have an Ockham edge in that before we arrive at the probably necessary Multiverse :is the Inverse so to speak at a simpler foundation in that the famous “hiding in plain sight” may in this case yield the observational insight that centers become edges and edges become centers as expansion of dimension replaces the naïve “explosion” which falters on the Zeno critique of that consciousness which launches it.
In my drawings I like to consider a space as possibly a condition between meeting edges that has an alternative reading in that it may just as well represent an overlap and our cat like physiology for example translates to hearing the ideas of pitch and resonance to visual counterpoints…

Neo Space Drawing Web to Webb

Edwin VanGorder

Counter point of Post Intuitive Cyber Drawing in NeoSpace
It has interested me to realize that the interplay of physics in a cosmological view of the Presocratics with the poetics that are the dynamics of Sanskrit drawing verbs adjusted to Greek knowledge kinds arrived to visual verbal Esperanto of new found poetry and poetics with Joyce and Duchamp. There is for me then this juncture I mark to the advent of the Webb Scope from which my sense of the window at the door I made of Illustrating the Green Box must now from that that apostrophe
Match the dimensions of scaling down and rolling out with the Neo Space sense of post intuitive orders in the Dark regions of our Post Heraclitan Dark Energy/Dark matter inquiry into the Cosmological quantum and unity…Therefore as the Webb scope adjusts it’s mirrors I will adjust mine to preface this: within a golden to relate what I will give here generally as the number 1.2236 as sufficient to represent in that ratio the Higgs Field and the number .0156 places the Higgs bosun as essentially a brane upon cosmological constants sequencing from there to .0074 denominations….

Nor Over Drawing on Wit and Wisdom

Edwin VanGorder

At the always and ever risk of over thinking (over thinking being a world word itself rather self fraught) It occurs to me at the last minute to compare the beautiful house Wittgenstein built ( I pored over this as exactly what I liked, a kind of Indian Sanskrit processional) and it’s fate as being currently burned down, the shell of it as though a prescient monument to the ghost towns of the current war… his object language and questions such as how does one locate a pain contrast with the over thinking of his declared interest in a per situation grammar which while succeeding in arranging a post philosophy ie anti Constructionist mood only too open to Deconstructionist questioning with for example the very root of the word Pain in Pei the transformative taken into Greek from the Sanskrit (i.e; words like paen, phenomenon, experience, paint psychology, pawn, philosophy etc… the meaning for me being these Sanskrit drawing verbs which inform our variety of means of drawing on the nature of nature as the relate over time a tension between the intuitive and necessarily non intuitive modes are a naturalness beyond what he may deny ( some claim he is being ironic..)

Clockwork Blue on Fire

Edwin VanGorder

Guandara Guanyin clockwork blue and eristic rose alike Durer’s perspective box or spiritual metronome the Tres Riche Heures , headlong “headlight child” cork lined room, chimera in camera and river god Guuandara anchors on Ankara
And Kairos to Hypsos Kairos to eristic as Ankara to angst river god fulcrum of the breath and displacement of breadth at centers… the Struttgarte box o f silver points and the “Valise” intuitions since the Flemish world of looms the illumination cathedral books upon dimensions point to axis in the shadow box silver point to a cloud of silver atoms halos on the Sterne experiment we have seen the box from stoppages case and cork lined room, loom and shadow box, book as box cathedral the clock work Cythera proto computer and Anti Cythera pilgrimage of foam (“aphro” dit Aphrodite or with Proust Circes Ingle to the English… Surcingle the source or “horse the country” =( ‘fills up to the same amount” ie Great Year to Light Year).. “ skhar” musical score of the music of the spheres if you will…
Just so a pair a puns from my intellectual childhood that heuristic rose should anagram Tres Riche Heures on the one hand and chimera in camera on the other look for the freedom of movement forming each idea of dimension first in an intuitive world and then the flood waters of all deeper than…

In Advance of the Fugue State

Edwin VanGorder

: numerically ; the rounding off of a number which may have the life of an extended decimal results in a different cadence or skhar/score so to speak depending on the derived equilibrium entropy point of adjustment (Duchamp ironically proposes the “point of sex”) but this being said one sees a theme developing in his projects in which the fugue or mathematical spiral in the conditions of experience are retrieved from the societal implications ( and limitations) of Abott’s Flatland towards his own concerns. In so far as the Salon show mirrored the glass fronts of the new idea of commercial boutiques and mal like presentation the malic mold adjusting previous ideas of a Salon or group of friends shifting from the Proust model is note as Chaux de Saline or the portal in Ledoux Salt works become Duchamp’s chocolate grinder per the neo classic nine muses or nine chaux ,shadows , cats etc and cat-o-ninetails a reference to Nazis using Ledoux oculus as a death camp presaging the continuing dichotomy of Modernism used both by liberals and illiberal as their projected imaging.
The variance of the fugue state figures actually in the mathematics of blackhole horizons which Penrose understood via Duchamp’s rotoreliefs and likewise then quantum entropy entanglement follows suit. Duchamp’s imagery appreciated the Degas tilted square base for his dancers as a mathematical quasi quantum release and indeed arabesque… the projects of is own intertwine the profile view seen from above and pasted indicating the view one has one closing one eye and then the other of the alternate sides of ones nose which then in an equilibrium stated disappears and this linked to “with my tongue in my cheek and later a view of his tonsiled head suggest the lounge following the trajectory of the eye…
Seemingly influenced by Gorky who taught a course at the New School on camouflage on the strengths of his own flight during the Armenian catastrophe a corresponding sympathetic emerges in for example the painted stoppages which mask the collected apostrophes or art witnesses of the Glasses projects as planted mirrors so to speak and indeed the original stencil stoppages placed in a carefully (soundly) constructed box are a kind of camouflaged violin as shared between Ingres and Einstein…
Structurally the claims of a diagonal on a quantum expansion will state the terms which implicate its underlying equilibrium bias towards other polarities which like the Stern experiments will bifurcate but then again in space time the receptive berms and wales will constantly shift in the moods of the kind of “rounding off” mentioned at outset… Cat0’s nine…tales…

Drawing on the There-Being of the Print

Edwin VanGorder

The Roto- Reliefs of Duchamp as printing light within a singularity escaping visually from its structure on a sound disc (record) can be traced to a testing between the senses of which Heraclitus give primacy to vision as a better witness than sound perhaps but linked to “currency” or a relation of the aural and oral, the bow and the lyre via anwa or critique which like what has come to be termed non photography on the heels of non- philosophy has enabled the substitutions by which black holes for example were photographically constructed on a different spectrum. To take Einstein’s confederate Bohm on relevant as word to relate to re levate, or raise to view again The Greek Artemis who for a moment inhabits a Platonic dialogue on “art” is of the Upanishads and uphara of ahara as breathe and uphara origin taken to anwa or critique and puranha the net, apuranha drawn bow the meaning of which places center to edge placement and displacement such as informs the idea of a mathematical reciprocal and in advancing from Duchamp’s horizon of contributing to early black hole mathematics from his roto relief expression of his art n dimensional chess we can view as it were levate per currency as to re-curate or find in recurrence as in Artemis manifest of two centers of the world, Delphi and Ephesus, the Artemis of one a nursing type of goddess an in another the hunter musician twin of Apollo whose name is of uphara as pei the con-figurative combined with olo or osmotic… the new manifest that we can review per Relativity wherein simultaneous events cannot be proven but with the exception of perpendicular placement and this mathematics of the quantum extension then of square roots as informing relativity as maintaining objectivity over distortions is at the horizon we inhabit in our brane o f time as informing that extreme expansion of radio galaxies which built on perpendicular expansion then suggest that non-bound objects creates within the spaces of the cosmic web where dark energy pushes from center to edge while maintaining local gravity or center motion are spreading the web as the universal expansion of which dramatic or cosmological energies relate the low key universal constant to that infinity of space itself which looking back so to speak has infinite low key extension which beyond our intuitive concept is a kind of printing of that energy in a quantum-post quantum
Duchamps projects relating glass to this new threshold of printing seem to quote the origins of photography as silver coated glass plates which are yet implicated in the Stern experiment on quantum splitting in which silver atoms imprinted on screen.
In the enclosed drawing I am relating the histories of printing which the digital medium contains in it’s own collective subconscious so to speak….

Drawing on the Heels of Quantum Zeno

Edwin VanGorder

In art the apple and orange co-define: one sees the other in their “space” in which such space is defined by that relation which can be broadly compared to the idea of ratio which might be advanced as with Ethan Siegal in the article on Zeno’s paradox as itself a matter of an embedding between time and distance… in terms of time/space where objects move in a straight vector but meet a curved space that space has as conditional to Newtons definition of objects at rest unless moved or moving unless stopped which raises a question about “space itself” ie is it at rest or in motion or is it a matter of perception as in the “quantum Zeno” concept the article introduces.
Be that as it may an interesting tension emerges in the kinetic diagram given in the Zeno article in which the time clock diagram bounces between limits from which it must rebound while the motion up and over a slope meets that change of traction… thus the material, or spectrum of interference introduces gravity as the energy which borrowed and returned even in the symbolic representation where ones vision provides a kind of “material witness”… comparing this with the diagram of a harmonic progression one is left to consider the actual turn in space of spirals and this is the idea Duchamp made very present to the thought of Roger Penrose as the mapping to perception of recession and progression give an n dimensional plane of approach. (one might think of the runners space as divided between the Roman concept of events as “forced” and the Greek sense of “coming upon”- a kind of visitation version of phenomenon…
The “taxonomy” of this idea of rate is for some the solution to Zeno’s paradox on the level of physics but the problem Zeno posed was about the apriori human critique of parsing by segments which can be returned as a critique of mind creating a scale to measure ratio, the attempt to create the scale for determining the ratio meets the same riddle. The Quantum Zeno idea in which an equilibrium is arbitrary and dependent on observation as limiting in which this limit itself touches on infinite possibilities to extricate potential out of possibilities becomes the common thread: in some way the center is codefined to the edge at the same time which makes things happen or be their happenstance and handles their “friction”.

Referencing:
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/zenos-paradox/

Drawing on The Story of H and Three Apostrophes of the Glass

Edwin VanGorder

Cezanne in speaking of his “little sensation” evokes something in another age I would describe as quantum- like : i.e. his transposed table view shifts are now in another take like drawing a straight line for example this time purely architectural and one feels one gathering up a succession of spotting like a dancer which follow through by passing midline and a the new distance traversed echoes the rhythm in the variety of crossing midline and chooses a flourish side.
Similarly: The Famous Sterne experiment of Copenhagen controversy fame establishing quantum mechanics as splitting light through an aperture rather than regaining the single beam then in space time recovered opened up the question as to whether the quantum interval was established in the act of measure or whether in it’s implicate nature it, like the flourish I describe found its’ own way. Embedded in the question is a difference between the Roman view of events as forced to phenomena or whether the Greek sense of Noema or events coming upon their way are question faces to a riddle and this question at the time of Duchamp informed his interests as a view into the new world something like our experience of the potential of the Webb scope where in our case the difference between quantum scales may read to a new development in realizing dark energy and dark matter scaling…: has a physics in relation to Matisse’s notes on clarity in art like steam clearing from a mirror which in another apostrophe or witness Duchamp visits on the one hand and on the other the vial of French air suspended to a hook particular to the sigla of the Glass (Duchamp seems to have arranged his auxiliary “witness” projects to glass as sigla an idea he may be responding to as in Joyce’s Finnegans Wake : the hook is his take on the Greek sense of emphasizing with the letter H, the word hook being “Ouk” or not given the H emphasis now hook is also as much as to say like La Fayette” Why Not? Why not sneeze follows up on this as relating the rectified readymade (witness the rectified honey to faux sugar cube marbles in the apparatus while the sneeze references atmospheric pressure which forces us to breath by one measure and by another measure we alter to our breathing response..). To Be looked at for Nearly an Hour although ironically given as optical charts are a review of the dust raising to the Sterne experiment in which then the oculus or witness (measure) is one eye and the persons eye yet another…. Taken together these all seem in cadence with Bohm’s “Implicate Whole” by which the address to the question is very much in the nature of the question itself as a kind of Bob and Alice . the ontology of looking through the aperture it should be noted is also a reference to the Greek idea of vision as a kind of fire streaming through the eyes generated by the person and in a sense the quantum spin turns the person inside out….as an artist then Duchamp is interested in this n dimensional chess…he forms on the total interest value of a new physics… as is very much our estate…

Cosmic Web of Drawing and Space/ Time Refounded

Edwin VanGorder

Cosmic Web of Drawing and Space Time Refounded
Natures “ mysterious fluide” as the obligations to live and die manifest in an artistict apparition as the “bow and lyre” of Heraclitus on the one hand as is then again recovered on the other per time recaptured and recaptured as well to space . ( Here we meet Einstein as the sad young man on a train which by current lights finds universal expansion will provide a “cosmic censorship” on the availability of all light upon all space in the event of perception of one kind) By this I mean to add as as further example of This bolero an extension in the lens of Lucas Van Leyden’s David Before Saul print in which an imagery of the bow and lyre are staged to the printing process as his gambit.
Fast Forward to Duchamp’s intro to the Green box notes as his intro to the Glass and he mysteriously provides a “ headlight child” as sigla to a journey towards a cubist exhibition in Auvers , that location serving linguistically to identify the home of the troubadours ( who spread news in a code the occupying Normans could not understand) In the Glass this malic mold as it were is staged to representation of a salt grinder symbolizing the context placed on nine shots ,, or nine cats , nine shadows,, nine muses matrix in which the evolution of Versailles places the Vers of Auvers and the Vers of Versailles as the “glass” or lens provided yet again by Ledoux Chaux du Saline and the ironic “chocolate grinder” signifying that Neo Classical Oculus structure which was a transport of salt dissolve to river to fine a processing plant under heavy surveillance per Oculus in a vast Neo Classic Architecture indicating a conflux of Aletheia the breaking water and Tethys the Muses underground which serve as Dyonesian Mysery context for Duchamp to place the Phaedrus to a lens of the formative “pei” or formative link in Greek root Words ranging from Apeiron to philosophy to experience to paint and palette, apparition and so forth all as well rooted in the Sanskrit Uphara or Origin Mystery born of UruAna- the goddess which came to be split in the Greek world to a pair of Artemis gnomons one of Delphi as center and the other Ephesus as center of the world towards which the dimension of Duchamp’s n dimensional chess studied the challenges to dimension within it’s innate nature. Correspondingly today we ask, furthering his research which prompted much of early Blackhole mathematics what is the relation of space itself to space time? The cosmic Webb of our current Renaissance is currently suspended to the particular location of the Webb telescope and so here as well as then our headlight child upon the advance of our n dimensional chess to understand for one thing the coming language and troubadour of gravity waves….
Drawing as the language of drawing inferences is rooted in Sanskrit drawing verbs taken up by Greek knowledge kinds and vestiges of this I picked up on many years ago in the BIMP or British Isles Minority Languages Language Engineering Project of Lancashire College In which the dialects of English spanning in Manx, Guinea, Scotts. Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish, were I believe then matched in the Drawing Research Network ( auxiliary of Tracy at Leeds college which you may not remember as site of the WHO’s Live At Leeds Concert as a link to drawing as language which we have seen is linguistically appropriate to the hundreds of words for drawing by which Sanskrit has ordered the structure of our ontology in language semiotics and semantics as well as art itself of itself linked as “dassein” to the being of being as being… as a nod to Duchamp I made a book on the names for glass in different languages and in so doing realized how languages all extensions of human dimension are dying each day. It is then a universal language of freedom within the freedom of extension by which language finds humanity that we strive.
Duchamp as a dialectician exemplified the kind of “teacher” of sorts who operated necessarily outside the system… the necessity of this… is a thought we can all piece together as we encounter contemporary events… Similarly: When Duchamp said Chess is me he meant I am therefore I think… recognizing ontology to higher roots than the merely accessible thought and this link is mysteriously the flight learning arc of art.
In the enclosed drawing I am broadly referencing a punning gambit of Duchamp in which he relates the Wright Brothers to Joseph Wright of Derby the first per flight and Phaedrus and the latter author of a painting Philosophy and Alchemy the Nude Descending was “modeled “ on which I relate as an exquisite corpus to the recent solution in math to the “3 bodies problem” by which two are linked to each other and the third entirely to velocity as their recombinate poetic managed to a perturbation of sorts…

Drawing In Language Space After the Incident a Austerlitz

Edwin VanGorder

The Duchamp Glider in Neighboring Metals is a volatile protectory linking his most obscure fragments to their revelation in an idea of scale and compression. Those fragments are : The Glider itself, Parva Domus Magne Quies. The brawl at Austerlitz, Precision Optics, and With My Tounge in My Cheek… for example the last might lure the observer into thinking it a linguistic game with the words “my lounge” which taken up by the observer substitute their own lounge in the reading… likewise the others sprout rhizomes of association yet their common root is in a Davinci drawing for a press which mills metal , ie flattens the depth which has been abstracted from a prior drawing elaborately staging the Platonic solids…generating also a very strong stand or base which one sees very directly quoted in the Brawl and in the Precision Optics Rotorelief… The Brawl stages the metal to glass through a rebus construct of “glass Block” which is a material formed of milch glass or heated thin strips which bind to each other seamlessly thus enabling a host of dimensions in a small place, or as the Parva Domus Magne Quies has it much peace (piece work) in a small space… the meaning partly being a reference to that small City State which is basically a neighborhood as staging house as city and city as house. Davinci drawings of a sawn skull may well have suggested a way to create the famous glass skull forgeries by likewise placing and controlling the milch to that mold…
The Magne Quies drawing rephrases the elements of the Glass into a different image following DaVincis overture to translating Michelangelo’s Sistine Genes similarly in a same form yet different image in the “five Grotesques drawing… The Sistine Genesis being on it’s own also modelled on the structure of the brain stem field possibly inspired by the same Davinci sawed skulls and the lounge in cheek drawing similarly is a reconstitution of the female fig leaf…which is essentially a female urinal as counterpart to the famous fountain gambit.
In the enclosed drawing I have tried to up the ante by considering the lounge formation of cutting vowels by consonants formed in different physical locations of which for example a Hawaiian scape with names formed on a link between that language and Sanskrit via traders from Meluria reaching SouthSeas from African trading posts are then Mauna Kea , Mauna Loa and Honana… M,N,K,L form in the three mountains a mantra like structure which edits “T”… (apparently a “tisk” sound was just not for them))… and to trace the history from Meluria to Malic molds…

Brane and Membrane of Drawing Through the Cosmic Web N Dimensional Speidos and Speed of the Weave Cosmological Constancy…

Edwin VanGorder

Brane and Membrane of Drawing Through the Cosmic Web N Dimensional Speidos and Speed of the Weave Cosmological Constancy…

Cabanne on Duchamp Mirroring models in his introduction a gambit of the Glass wherein he references Duchamp’s own marking a “derby” of Wrights ie Joseph Wright of Derby and his “brothers” stripping bare as it were the cloak of painting “Philosophy and Alchemy” with some Frank Loyd Apostrophe of inside and outside … altogether then perhaps to the vestiges of arena of wholeness composed to all apposite visual and n dimensional transitive environment modelled very likely in the malic molds to Brancusi’s studios which he Brancusi insisted kept intact as his museum similar to his exclusive “rights” to photography.(the studios maintained as well the “presence” of works sold via plaster casts… this presence of the work finds it’s way into Duchamp’s otherwise n-dimensional chess…an insistence on the ranks from gambit or opening as mathentos or Brane…to membrane as it were to coin a meme.
The Cabanne Intro compares to physicist Bohm’s “Rhea Mode” which reflective of his confederate Einstein considers raising to view a second time to review towards “relevance” or re levanting (levate to lift to view ie implicative of the broad Sanskrit sense of drawing to view)
“speidos” Greek for branching of “eidos” or idea thus a branch of the branch is “spider”
Thus Cabanne give three introductions, one by the Mawkish Marquee Dali who assiduously illustrated the green box throughout his paintings to a degree he was almost the Gozoli of Duchamp’s Monastic heir of Tres Riche Heures now anagrammatic shall we say to “heuristic rose”… and also in the NY genesis Motherwell as reflective on conversational time and Johns towards language space.
I would add to this a right Duchamp has earned to be compared with Heraclitus both in their hermitic yet dialectical outlook and their wedding of Physics and Art of which Duchamp pointedly returns Davinci as an example of a reverse of the expectations that art Is influenced by technology….

This Week at Loughborough | 28 March

Spring Clear Out

The University and Loughborough Students’ Union are working with local partners to initiate a community donation drive later this month for a number of causes.

Find out more on the events page.

Student Live Lounge

28 March, 7.30pm, Grow Hackney

An open mic night showcasing the best student talent from our London campus.

If you enjoy live music and discovering new artists then join us for a special, laid back evening as we present the best talent from Loughborough University London.

Find out more on the events page.

AI and Cultural Heritage

28 March, 11am – 4pm, Online

As part of the IAS Annual Theme ‘AI:Facts, Fictions, Futures’, this virtual event will bring together a range of academics to discuss AI and Cultural Heritage.

The role and impact of AI is not limited to the scientific area; it also has enormous significance for society and culture. In the course of this event, our Fellows and invited speakers consider applications of AI and digital technology in the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) sector, examining the collection, analysis, and dissemination of cultural heritage data, how this information might be experienced, and the ethical issues raised by these processes.

Find out more on the events page.

The three conundrums of being an entrepreneur

28 March, 5pm – 6pm, Online

Stuart started his first company, Octopus Information, at the age of 26. It was a call centre-based concierge service that lurched from one financial disaster to another until he sold it six years later. This enabled Stuart to launch his second venture, ByBox, in Silicon Valley during January 2000. ByBox is the UK’s leading business-to-business overnight parts delivery service. The business owns and operates a network of unmanned, technology-enabled lockers.

Find out more on the events page.

Happy Mondays: Making Easter cards

28 March, 7pm, John Cooper

As the Easter holidays approach, why not spend your evening learning how to create your own Easter cards using Adobe Illustrator.

We will look together at what Adobe Illustrator is and learn how to use some basic shapes and functions to create eggs-cellent Easter cards! Following the workshop, LU Arts will arrange to print a set of your cards for you to send to family and friends.

Find out more on the events page.

Personal Best My Story event with Oliver Sidwell

30 March, 1pm – 2pm, In person & Online

Personal Best: My Story talks give students a valuable insight into career paths lived by Loughborough alumni. The sessions are interactive and inspirational with a live Q&A, representing a fantastic opportunity for students to understand how some of our successful alumni have achieved so much since leaving university.

Find out more on the events page.

Personal Best My Story event with Oliver Sidwell

30 March, 1pm – 2pm, In person & Online

Personal Best: My Story talks give students a valuable insight into career paths lived by Loughborough alumni. The sessions are interactive and inspirational with a live Q&A, representing a fantastic opportunity for students to understand how some of our successful alumni have achieved so much since leaving university.

Find out more on the events page.

Stations of the Cross service

30 March, 1.15pm, Chapel, EHB

The Stations of the Cross (also called the Way of the Cross) is a traditional liturgical devotion commemorating the last day of Jesus’ life. The devotion originated with pilgrims in Jerusalem retracing the traditional steps Jesus is believed to have followed on Good Friday.

Find out more on the events page.

Anarchist Entrepreneurs?: Anarchism Research Group Seminar

30 March, 4pm – 5pm, Online & Herbert Manzoni

For decades, anarchists have been starting or taking over businesses. Although a widespread occurrence, academic studies regarding these anarchists implementing entrepreneurial practices are quite limited.

Through their thesis, Adeline’s aim is to find out more about how these organisations are structured and how their anarchist ideas influence the way they are run.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Events

Karaoke Night

28 March, 7.45pm, The Lounge

Join us in The Lounge for a fun filled evening of Karaoke. All welcome!

Find out more on the events page.

Alzheimer’s Research Fundraiser – Live Music night

29 March, 6.30pm, The Lounge

This year, a group of Loughborough students have been raising money in support of Alzheimer’s Research and in July 2022, they will be embarking on their greatest challenge yet, they will be traversing the Laugavegur trail in Iceland.

Find out more on the events page.

Emergency First Aid Training

30 March, 12.30pm, Council Chamber

The course covers primary care and the recovery position, resuscitation, defibrillation, bleeding control, shock and seizures as well as minor first aid protocol.

Find out more on the events page.

Train the Trainer

30 March, 2pm, Michael Pearson Boardroom

The train the trainer course will help you develop the skills and confidence to plan and deliver training.

Find out more on the events page.

Hey Ewe

30 March, 2pm, LSU

Whether you’re celebrating a win or reeling from a loss, Hey Ewe is the place to go after a game!

Later entry means there’s plenty of time to shower and get yourself ready for a night of chart hits, pop anthems and student singalongs. We have DJs in The Basement and The Treehouse serving up bangers and cheese until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

Cirque du soul

31 March, 10pm, LSU

WELCOME TO OUTTA SPACE!

Cirque Du Soul’s FINAL SHOW of the academic year in Loughborough with their brand new theme – OUTTA SPACE!

Find out more on the events page.

London – HIIT – Soc in a box launch

1 April, 2pm, Off-campus

High Intensity Interval Training – A fun, impactful cardio workout mixing intense exercise with slower recovery periods.

Find out more on the events page.

London – Yoga – Soc in a box launch

1 April, 3pm, Off-campus

A calming practice bringing together mind and body, with breathing exercises, balance, strength, toning and relaxation – a great way to destress

Find out more on the events page.

London – Table Top Games – Soc in a box launch

1 April, 4pm, Off-campus

Come and play a variety of board and card games, chat to other students in a relaxed environment whilst putting your skills and knowledge to the test!

Find out more on the events page.

FND

1 April, 10.30pm, LSU

Welcome to the biggest Friday night in Loughborough! Our resident DJs will be dropping the best of disco, house, drum and bass, hip hop and R&B in The Basement throughout the night, while The Treehouse is taken over by cheese anthems and retro-pop singalongs until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

Union Jazz

2 April, 6.30pm, The Basement

Tuxedo Swing’s event of the year returns! We’ve got a whole evening of big band music for you to enjoy, this is not one to miss!

Union Jazz is the unmissable annual event hosted by Tuxedo Swing, showcasing only the best of their signature massive sound. Featuring everything from jazz standards to adaptations of modern hits (and the return of the mighty ‘Rhythm Mix’), Union Jazz is the perfect highlight for any weekend.

Find out more on the events page.

Careers Network

How to Manage your Money at University

28 March, 6pm, Online

This event, which is part of a varied programme looking, holistically, at Money Management, will look at how to create an effective budget to live by, share hints and tips for saving money, and further increase your confidence when it comes to taking control of your finances.

Find out more on the events page.

Academic Success Group Coaching: Writing up your Research (Engineering)

30 March, 2pm, The Start-Up Lab

Group coaching involves working with your peers and your academic success coach to identify your strengths, overcome any barriers to success, and develop your know-how so that you don’t just survive undertaking a dissertation/research project, but thrive at it!

Find out more on the events page.

Business and Enterprise Group Coaching

1 April, 12pm, The Start-Up Lab

Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey, but it doesn’t have to be. All businesses experience challenges and business owners can support each other through these challenges together.

Join us, join the Loughborough Enterprise Network (LEN) community to develop your business together.

Find out more on the events page.

Inclusive design and EIAs: Everyone’s opportunity to build a more equitable, diverse and inclusive culture

I talk to numerous people through my work who are keen to understand what role they can play in helping to make Loughborough a more equitable, diverse and inclusive place for all staff and students.

There are so many ways in which people can do this, but one easy way is through embedding equality considerations in all that you do and utilising Equality Impact Assessments (EIA) for large scale policies or functions.

No matter the position you are within the organisation or what job family you are part of, Equality Impact Assessments are something you should know about. Awareness of this process is a simple tool through which you can ensure you are diversifying your thinking, raising your awareness of when decisions are being made without the inclusion of people from different groups, or consideration of the views of people from these groups.

Any large change, new policy or review means an Equality Impact Assessment is required to be undertaken, however, by embedding equality considerations into smaller changes, we can ensure we realise our EDI aspirations across the organisation.

We have created a short flow chart to assist everyone across campus to assess whether something requires an Equality Impact Assessment, or if taking account of equality considerations is the right course of action.

If you need to do an EIA, we have produced guidance and a process to ensure the work you undertake is both proportionate to the scale of the task, thorough and ultimately helpful. EIA’s ensure what is implemented is inclusive for all and also capitalises on opportunities to progress equality of opportunity.

I believe that embedding equality considerations and EIA’s into our practices will allow all we do as a University to become more inclusive. Considering these matters from the outset ultimately allows for a more inclusive policy or initiative to be implemented.

Case studies

1. The University was preparing to launch a campaign to encourage blood donations and to be a venue for this activity. As this was a small scale activity it was decided that this did not require an EIA but still required equality considerations to be taken into account. Resultingly, conversations regarding the event included a diverse group of individuals. Taking measures to take account of equality considerations at this point resulted in plans and measures around this campaign being mindful of the exclusion of some groups of individuals that was in place at the time of the event.

“A campaign for blood donations is a wonderful, positive thing. By actively considering equality issues and diverse voices, we were able to run the drive in a way that acknowledged that regulations in place prevented some (gay and bisexual men) from participating. The campaign still proceeded but we made sure we avoided making a thoughtless assumption that all could support and avoiding any impact that could have on others.”
– Richard Taylor, Chief Operating Officer

2. It quickly became apparent that due to the scale and scope of the move to Dynamic Working, an EIA was required. Those working within the Change Team brought together a small team to begin work and planning on an EIA with several early adaptations coming out of this work.

Through the EIA, early consultations identified that Dynamic Working could negatively impact colleagues on lower pay grades due to the IT and equipment available for home working. It was also identified that colleagues on lower pay grades are less likely to have a suitable chair and/or desk to work from home effectively. Therefore, to mitigate this impact, a scheme has been introduced allowing staff on grades 1-5 to purchase a chair and/or desk up to the value of £200 and claim the cost back through expenses.

“I personally found undertaking an EIA for Dynamic Working an enlightening experience as the process caused me to consider the initiative from perspectives outside of mine. Simply asking the question – how might Dynamic Working positively or negatively impact individuals from different groups? – really challenged my outlook and helped me to consider the experiences of others and identify hidden impacts.  Ultimately, it allowed us to maximise the positives and mitigate the negatives of the Dynamic Working initiative and prevent unintended negative consequences.

This undertaken on a regular basis across the institution and different policies and processes will help to create a more inclusive and equitable working environment and experience for all.”
– Renae Huggan-Broughton, Graduate Management Trainee, Organisational Development and Change Team

“The development of an EIA provides a fantastic opportunity to think deeply about all the possible benefits and issues that might arise in a project, which is clearly helpful towards ensuring success. In addition, the systematic consideration of the potential impacts in relation to different protected characteristics gives the chance to assess whether issues might interact in an intersectional manner, allowing mitigations to be devised that are likely to be effective for a greater proportion of people. Ultimately everyone wants their project to be successful and the more people that benefit the more successful you have been. The EIA helps to make that happen.”
– Dr Steve Harris, Change Portfolio Manager and Process Improvement Lead

More information on the Equality Impact Assessment is available here.

Living Environments and Human Culture

Ecologies of Drawing Online Talks

6^th April 22 – 11.00 BST  

From an open call for papers, the Drawing Research Network at Loughborough University present a series of online talks under the theme Ecologies of Drawing. Speakers for each of the events have been selected to offer differing perspectives of themes emerging in response to the call for papers around the notion of Ecologies of Drawing .  

Tickets are available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/drawing-research-group-loughborough-university-42682731203 

This panel invites Rachel Bacon, Sarah Casey, and Ivana Wingham to present papers on the interrelationships between living environments and human culture. This event will be chaired by Serena Smith, a practice-led PhD student at Loughborough University whose research explores the generative intersection between language and stone lithography.

Rachel Bacon is a visual artist and teaches at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague. Rachel’s work considers the role of drawing within the wider contexts of landscape, extraction industries and the aesthetics of climate emergency. Her interest in patterns of damage as psychological, historical, and geological conditions, have led her to approach drawing as a form of excavation and to explore the metaphors associated with that activity. In her presentation she will share the methods, processes and outcomes of her recent practice. Sarah Casey is a visual artist and researcher and Senior Lecturer in Drawing and Installation at Lancaster University UK. With reference to ‘Emergency’, a drawing research project provoked by glacial archaeology based on fieldwork with a Swiss museum collection, Sarah will consider the material intelligence of drawing in relation to the precarious ecologies of the global climate emergency. Ivana Wingham is an architect and academic, she began her studies in Serbia, attended the Architectural Association as post-graduate student and completed her PhD at the Bartlett School of Architecture. Exploring the ‘Intersecting Ecologies of Air in Architectural Drawing’, Ivana’s paper will look at three drawn ecologies that co-exist and intersect: an architecture of the macro world of insects, a drawing of architecture while in flight, and a panel of evolutionary breath drawings.

The Drawing Research Network Ecology of Drawing Events have been organised by staff and PhD researchers from the Drawing Research Group at Loughborough University, chaired by Deborah Harty. This series aims to explore Ecologies of Drawing and how they might act as agents of change. Scientifically concerned with the interrelationships of organisms and environments in the context of drawing the term ecology might be understood generously to include: environments of dynamic exchange and metastable equilibrium; inter-relational sites of spatial and temporal encounter; the complex systems and patterns of material and virtual worlds; social, political, and economic ecologies; self-sustaining microcosms within spheres of containment; and fragile interdependencies. In the light of the analogous and entwined conditions of drawing and ecology, we are curious to learn how the agency of drawing operates as an ecological practice – be it in graphite trails, sonic traces, and waves of light, or events and encounters that activate diverse thought and conversation.

Other talks in the series are:

‘Intersecting Ecologies’ 27th April 2022

‘Mapping Environments’ 25th May 2022

‘A More Than Human World’ 22nd June 2022

A More Than Human World

Ecologies of Drawing Online Talks

22nd June 11 – 12.30 BST

From an open call for papers, the Drawing Research Network at Loughborough University present a series of online talks under the theme Ecologies of Drawing. Speakers for each of the events have been selected to offer differing perspectives of themes emerging in response to the call for papers around the notion of Ecologies of Drawing .  

Tickets are available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/drawing-research-group-loughborough-university-42682731203 

The final event of the DRN series 2022 ‘Drawing Ecologies’ presents the work of three artists including two PhD researchers from Loughborough University- Lucia Cunningham and Anka Makrzanowska along with Australian artist and academic Jan Hogan. Each of the artists will discuss the possibilities for exploring a more-than-human trace through a practice of drawing. This event will be chaired by Penny Davis, a practice-led PhD student at Loughborough University who is exploring autoethnography as an approach to drawing maternal embodiment.

How can drawing facilitate an ethical relationship with the land and its inhabitants? Dr Jan Hogan is an artist and academic exploring the interweaving of nature and culture in material traces of artistic practice. Her practice-led research explores the traces left in the land of past events intertwining deep geological time with historical events and the present moment. In this presentation she will be discussing her most recent work where her notion of drawing becomes a dialogue with the intertidal ecology of a bay in Tasmania.

How can the more than human shape our understanding of drawing? Artist, researcher and lecturer Lucia Cunningham explores how more than human traces define drawing through movement. Through field observations of snails, slugs, spiders, vegetation Cunningham considers the artfulness of the traces left by their drawing.

How can digital drawing trace the interdisciplinary and intersecting ecologies of a more-than-human world? Anka Makrzanowska is a Polish-British academic, artist and researcher. She introduces her concept of the ‘virtuallage’ – a process through which the artist employs transdisciplinary drawing techniques to explore the maternal relationships between trees and the human body.

The intersections between each artist’s approach presents a varied response to the concept of a more than human concept of drawing, but also promises a fascinating discussion afterwards on how dialogues between new materialism and post-humanism are being explored to extend our knowledge of expanded practices of drawing.

The Drawing Research Network Ecology of Drawing Events have been organised by staff and PhD researchers from the Drawing Research Group at Loughborough University, chaired by Deborah Harty. This series aims to explore Ecologies of Drawing and how they might act as agents of change. Scientifically concerned with the interrelationships of organisms and environments in the context of drawing the term ecology might be understood generously to include: environments of dynamic exchange and metastable equilibrium; inter-relational sites of spatial and temporal encounter; the complex systems and patterns of material and virtual worlds; social, political, and economic ecologies; self-sustaining microcosms within spheres of containment; and fragile interdependencies. In the light of the analogous and entwined conditions of drawing and ecology, we are curious to learn how the agency of drawing operates as an ecological practice – be it in graphite trails, sonic traces, and waves of light, or events and encounters that activate diverse thought and conversation.

Other talks in the series are:

‘Living Environments and Human Culture’ 6th April 2022

‘Intersecting Ecologies’ 27th April 2022

‘Mapping Environments’ 25th May 2022 ‘

Mapping Environments

Ecologies of Drawing Online Talks

25^th May 11 – 12.30 BST

From an open call for papers, the Drawing Research Network at Loughborough University present a series of online talks under the theme Ecologies of Drawing. Speakers for each of the events have been selected to offer differing perspectives of themes emerging in response to the call for papers around the notion of Ecologies of Drawing .  

Tickets are available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/drawing-research-group-loughborough-university-42682731203 

This panel invites Daniel Coombes, Ann McDonald and Uri Wegman to present papers on the role of drawing in mapping environments. This event will be chaired by Kiera O’Toole, a practice-led PhD student at Loughborough University who is investigating the research question, “Can the process of Drawing in-Space record the ‘emotional vibrations’ of atmospheres to the extent the atmosphere is co-present in the drawing? “

Daniel Coombes is a PhD candidate in landscape architecture at Te Herenga Waka at Victoria University of Wellington. His research focuses on the aesthetics of more-than-human designing in the Anthropocene. Ann McDonald is an Associate Professor of Design at Northeastern University in Boston, where she teaches design research methods and Notational Systems for Experience. Her current work investigates how close observation of the built environment, traces of human activity, and physical communications created by inhabitants of various environments offer clues about changing conditions and cultures. The Truant School initiative is led by architects, artists and educators including architect, Uri Wegman. It wishes to generate multidirectional formats of knowledge, teaching and action. Founded in 2020, its first act, ‘Visions of Clouds’, was performed at the Bermuda ateliers near Geneva and exhibited in the virtual Italian pavilion of the 17th Venice Biennale. Using A.I. vision tools and software, Wegman’s presents a new approach for observing and drawing clouds.

The Drawing Research Network Ecology of Drawing Events have been organised by staff and PhD researchers from the Drawing Research Group at Loughborough University, chaired by Deborah Harty. This series aims to explore Ecologies of Drawing and how they might act as agents of change. Scientifically concerned with the interrelationships of organisms and environments in the context of drawing the term ecology might be understood generously to include: environments of dynamic exchange and metastable equilibrium; inter-relational sites of spatial and temporal encounter; the complex systems and patterns of material and virtual worlds; social, political, and economic ecologies; self-sustaining microcosms within spheres of containment; and fragile interdependencies. In the light of the analogous and entwined conditions of drawing and ecology, we are curious to learn how the agency of drawing operates as an ecological practice – be it in graphite trails, sonic traces, and waves of light, or events and encounters that activate diverse thought and conversation.

Speakers for each of the events have been selected to offer differing perspectives of themes emerging in response to the call for papers around the notion of Ecologies of Drawing .

Other talks in the series are:

‘Living Environments and Human Culture’ 6th April 2022

‘Intersecting Ecologies’ 27th April

‘A More Than Human World’ 22nd June 2022

Intersecting Ecologies

Ecologies of Drawing Online Talks

27^th April 11 – 12.30 BST

From an open call for papers, the Drawing Research Network at Loughborough University present a series of online talks under the theme Ecologies of Drawing. Speakers for each of the events have been selected to offer differing perspectives of themes emerging in response to the call for papers around the notion of Ecologies of Drawing .  

Tickets are available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/drawing-research-group-loughborough-university-42682731203 

This panel invites Eric Le Coguiec, Vu Thi Phuong Linh, and Fiona Lim Tung & Julia Nakanishi to present papers on the role of drawing in the intersections of architecture, ecology, and politics. This event will be chaired by James Bowen, a practice-led PhD student at Loughborough University who is investigating the research question ‘How can voice be explored as a tool for drawing?’ and the role of surface, trace, and technology in the production of voice.

Eric Le Coguiec is currently a professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Liege and whose research focusses on drawings as a mode of knowledge in architecture. Vu Thi Phuong Linh is conducting a PhD research project Living with Water in the Mekong Delta at K.U. Leuven and whose research seeks to unravel landscape transformations through traditional practices and responses to imposed hard-engineering infrastructure development. Fiona Lim Tung is Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto researching drawing as a form of resistance. Fiona will be presenting collaborative research with Julia Nakanishi who is currently a designer at PUBLIC WORK in Toronto and whose work explores architectures of degrowth and community-informed design.

The Drawing Research Network Ecology of Drawing Events have been organised by staff and PhD researchers from the Drawing Research Group at Loughborough University, chaired by Deborah Harty. This series aims to explore Ecologies of Drawing and how they might act as agents of change. Scientifically concerned with the interrelationships of organisms and environments in the context of drawing the term ecology might be understood generously to include: environments of dynamic exchange and metastable equilibrium; inter-relational sites of spatial and temporal encounter; the complex systems and patterns of material and virtual worlds; social, political, and economic ecologies; self-sustaining microcosms within spheres of containment; and fragile interdependencies. In the light of the analogous and entwined conditions of drawing and ecology, we are curious to learn how the agency of drawing operates as an ecological practice – be it in graphite trails, sonic traces, and waves of light, or events and encounters that activate diverse thought and conversation.

Speakers for each of the events have been selected to offer differing perspectives of themes emerging in response to the call for papers around the notion of Ecologies of Drawing.

Other talks in the series are:

‘Living Environments and Human Culture’ 6th April 2022

‘Mapping Environments’ 25th May 2022 ‘

‘A More Than Human World’ 22nd June 2022

Life as an Autistic Professor

When you read the words ‘autistic Professor’, I’m guessing some people may be surprised to find out that I’m a woman. When I was a child in the 1960s and 1970s, there were very few autistic children, and it was generally believed that only boys were autistic.

I was always a bit ‘odd’. I found social interaction difficult, and had my obsessions with Greek mythology, as well as cataloguing my books, records, and photographs. I think my ‘oddness’ was noticed at junior school, as I was taken out of class for fast stream maths and always treated as a bit weird and geeky. 

I’m lucky to have an older sister and copied a lot of her social behaviours; this is called ‘masking’, and sometimes I feel that I lose myself by doing this. Masking is one of the reasons that fewer girls and women are assessed for autism, as we are encouraged to learn (mimic) acceptable social behaviour and hide our ‘weirdness’. I’ve been doing this for decades, so when Emma Nadin suggested that I should join the Inclusivity Group, my first response was, ‘you don’t want me there – I’m too weird!’.

As an adult, I moved around a lot and hid my differences by only staying in a job for 1-2 years at a time and living in different parts of the world. Eventually one of my obsessions led to a part-time PhD, and this opened the door to academia. My ability to focus on a single issue is useful for research but creates problems in other parts of my life. I can find attending meetings and conferences overwhelming. I will periodically ‘crash’ – the same as when I was a small child, only as an adult I don’t lie down in the corridor and have a blanket put over me – I instead retreat by leaving the room and/or putting up a ‘do not disturb’ sign.

In my 50s, there was more information about autistic women, and I did online tests which showed that I was probably autistic. As retirement approached, I became very anxious about this major life change and decided that it was time to know more about myself. So, when I was 59 years I was assessed and diagnosed as autistic with difficulties in:

1. Social communication: I find it hard to follow jokes and can be very direct/blunt.
2. Social interactions: I struggle with timing in conversations and often interrupt – I know this is very annoying for others. I also obsess about interactions: did I get it right/wrong, have I upset someone? I also know that others can find it hard to ‘read’ my face and misunderstand me.
3. Flexibility of thought: this is a very common autistic problem, with dichotomised (polarised) thinking. I ‘know’ when I’m right, which can be useful for academic defence but not great for social interactions.
4. Unusual sensory experience: I’m very sensitive to noise, lighting, and smells, so being at a networking meeting or dinner party can be like standing in a sandstorm with my senses on overload. It’s really exhausting to concentrate, talk and generally interact in these situations whilst trying to act ‘normally’ (masking).

I disclosed the diagnosis to the University and had a supportive meeting with the Occupational Health team. I’m now in my 60s and my diagnosis has helped me to be kinder to myself and more accepting of my ‘weirdness’. It’s ok to say ‘no, thanks’ to meetings, conference dinners, university social events, etc. It does mean that I miss out on opportunities, and I guess that colleagues will continue to think that I’m weird and not very sociable, but at least I’m not as exhausted by ‘masking’.

If you want to know more about autism in women and girls, ‘A Kind of Spark’ by Elle McNicoll includes three neurodivergent female characters at different life stages. It tells the story of an 11-year-old girl campaigning for a memorial for Scottish women (witches) who were persecuted and burned for being ‘different’.

…I’m glad that I was born in the 20th Century!

Professor Sue Hignett
Professor of Healthcare Ergonomics and Patient Safety

This piece was written to mark Neurodiversity Celebration Week (21-27 March). Any staff member with a physical or hidden disability is welcome to join the Staff Inclusivity Group, which advocates for equality in the workplace for colleagues with physical or invisible disabilities. The group is also a place to seek support from one another and challenge University policies and practices. 

This Week at Loughborough | 21 March

The Institute for Sport Business Careers Symposium

21 March, 1pm – 5.30pm, London Campus LDN001 and Future Space

The Institute for Sport Business is proud to offer current students and alumni the opportunity to hear from industry experts on the latest careers and developments in sport business at the annual Institute for Sport Business Careers Symposium.

Find out more on the events page.

Speech Bubble

21 March, 7.30pm, The Lounge

Join us for a relaxed and friendly evening of performance poetry showcasing the best-spoken word talent on campus. As well as the open mic slots, Speech Bubble will feature professional poets Matt Abbott and Esther Koch.

Find out more on the events page.

Public lecture: Treatment of obesity – present and future

22 March, 5.30pm, Online

The public lecture will discuss obesity as a disease and obesity stigma. It will consider lifestyle interventions, currently available pharmacotherapies and bariatric surgery for weight loss and weight management. The talk will also cover the physiology of weight regain as well as the mechanisms of weight loss after bariatric surgery. Newly approved and possible future pharmacotherapies for weight loss will be considered.

Find out more on the events page.

James Joyce and Us: Anne Enright and Eimear McBride in Conversation

24 March, 7pm – 8.30pm, British Library London & Online

Two of Ireland’s finest writers, Anne Enright and Eimear McBride come together to share thoughts and feelings on the great modernist masterpiece of literature, James Joyce’s Ulysses, now celebrating its 100th anniversary. Chaired by Dr Clare Hutton, Loughborough University.

Find out more on the events page.

Trip to National Holocaust Centre

25 March, 9am – 4.15pm, The National Holocaust Centre and Museum

The National Holocaust Centre and Museum promotes an understanding of the roots of discrimination and prejudice, and the development of ethical values, leading to a greater understanding within society.

Find out more on the events page.

Careers Network Events

Your Skills: Support Networks using LinkedIn

21 March, 1pm – 2pm, Online

LinkedIn is a great resource for helping you find a job and network effectively, but you can also utilise it to help build your resilience and develop your own support networks. This session led by Frances Trought, founder of Everything D&I will help shine a light on how you can do this. More details to follow.

Find out more on the events page.

Becoming Resilient: How? And what does this mean?

21 March, 6pm – 7pm, Online

In this interactive session, we will look at what it means to become resilient, uncover ways to build and develop it, identify the support network on-hand to help you with this, as well as how to manage and deal with both rejection and change.

Find out more on the events page.

Ultimate Activity Camps on campus drop in

22 March, 10am – 4pm, James France Exhibition Area

Drop by to chat to Ultimate Activity Camps, a leading provider of holiday childcare in the UK. Our activity camps operate at venues across the south of the UK & we are looking for holiday staff who are not only passionate about childcare, but also make camp an exciting & fun place to be! We offer Activity, Survival, Tech & Sports Camps, come & chat to us to find out more.

Find out more on the events page.

Finalist Futures: Starting a Business

22 March, 1pm – 2pm, Online

Discover how the Loughborough Enterprise Network can support you to start your own business and/or learn entrepreneurial skills. Including information on our dedicated graduate accelerator ‘The Studio’.

Find out more on the events page.

Quick tips from Microsoft: Getting the most out of MS Office

23 March, 1pm – 1.30pm, Online

Microsoft Office is probably the widest-used suite of applications globally for tasks, productivity and collaboration at home, at work or while studying. In two short sessions we’ll look at top tips from Microsoft staff for this range of programs.

Find out more on the events page.

Academic Success Group Coaching: How to find and keep your focus

23 March, 6pm – 7pm, The StartUp Lab, STEMLab

Group coaching involves working with your peers and your academic success coach to identify your strengths, overcome any barriers to success, and develop your know-how so that you don’t just survive undertaking a dissertation/research project, but thrive at it!

Find out more on the events page.

Working in the UK as an international student: Visa Options

24 March, 6pm – 6.55pm, Online

This talk will be delivered by experienced trainer in higher education, Andrew Humphrey. The session will be delivering information on working during studies, the Graduate route, a brief overview of Skilled worker (formerly Tier 2) for sponsored skilled work and Q&A at the end.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Events

Open Mic Night: Folk & Country

22 March, 6pm, The Lounge

Bring down some Tex-mex, unpack your denim, boots and plaid, and prepare to grace the stage, or lean back and take refuge in tonight’s love letter to Folk & Country.

Find out more on the events page.

Post Grad Get Together

22 March, 7pm, The Treehouse

Dear Postgrads, get ready for one of the biggest postgraduates social gathering of the year hosted by Welfare & Diversity.

Expect an evening of networking, entertainment, music, opportunities to be involved with the Welfare & Diversity associations, as well as many surprises throughout the night!

Find out more on the events page.

Hey Ewe

22 March, 10.30pm, LSU

Whether you’re celebrating a win or reeling from a loss, Hey Ewe is the place to go after a game!

Later entry means there’s plenty of time to shower and get yourself ready for a night of chart hits, pop anthems and student singalongs. We have DJs in The Basement and The Treehouse serving up bangers and cheese until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

Indie Club

24 March, 10.30pm, The Treehouse

Get on your dancing shoes and dust off your bucket hat for The Indie Club! Our resident DJs will be playing your favourite indie and alt-rock anthems throughout the night.

Find out more on the events page.

FND

25 March, 10.30pm, LSU

Welcome to the biggest Friday night in Loughborough! Our resident DJs will be dropping the best of disco, house, drum and bass, hip hop and R&B in The Basement throughout the night, while The Treehouse is taken over by cheese anthems and retro-pop singalongs until 4am!

Find out more on the events page.

Open Heaven

27 March, 4.30pm, The Basememt

We’ll be gathering together in the Students’ Union every week at 4:30pm to dig deeper into scriptures, worship, share food and have some fun! Join us onsite in the building, or online from wherever you are at live.openheaven.org.

Find out more on the events page.

LSU Classical in Concert: New Beginnings

27 March, 6pm, Union Lawn

Join LSU Classical’s Orchestra and Concert Band for our yearly Spring Concert! With everything from Danse Macabre to Beach Boys you’re bound to have a great time!

Find out more on the events page.

Funky Bunch Trivia Quiz

27 March, 8pm, The Lounge

Join us every Sunday from 8pm for a night of tricky trivia in The Lounge. Vote on the theme over on our Instagram every Thursday, and see if your specialist subject shows up – then put together the perfect team and maybe you’ll be taking home the cash prize!

Find out more on the events page.

Ecologies of Drawing Online Exhibition 2022

Continuing the annual Drawing Research Network events, the Drawing Research Group at Loughborough University are pleased to invite submissions for an online exhibition of drawing curated by artist Sara Sneckcloth  which aims to explore the notion of ‘Ecologies of Drawing’. We invite responses to the theme from anyone practicing drawing in a traditional or expanded way.

Images selected for exhibition will explore Ecologies of Drawing and how they might act as agents of change. Scientifically concerned with the interrelationship of organisms and environments, in the context of drawing, the term ecology might be understood generously to include: environments of dynamic exchange and metastable equilibrium; inter-relational sites of spatial and temporal encounter; the complex systems and patterns of material and virtual worlds; social, political, and economic ecologies; self-sustaining microcosms within spheres of containment; and fragile interdependencies. In the light of the analogous and entwined conditions of drawing and ecology, we are curious to learn how the agency of drawing operates as an ecological practice – be it in graphite trails, sonic traces, and waves of light, or events and encounters that activate diverse thought and conversation.

Sara Schneckloth’s expanded drawing practice centers on intersections of biology, geology, and architecture as understood through body, material, and mark. An Associate Professor in the School of Visual Art and Design at the University of South Carolina (US) and co-curator of the Seed Cultures Archive, a project in conversation with the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Schneckloth holds degrees from Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin, and has exhibited, taught, and published throughout the US, UK, Canada, South Africa, Norway, and France.

www.saraschneckloth.com, www.seedcultures.com, www.canyonsagesky.com

Please submit up to 3 drawings or a single audio/video file using this link:

Submission Form

Full information and details including acceptable file types are clearly shown on the submission form.

The pitfalls of scaling up educational interventions.

Written by Jacob Strauss and edited by Dr Jayne Pickering. Jacob is a PhD student at Loughborough University. Please see here for more information about Jacob and his work.

How does education research transition to practice? The usual approach is something like this:

Phase 1: start with a small-scale study

Phase 2: repeat phase 1 using a much larger sample

Phase 3: communicate research findings to schools, policymakers, and other educational professionals.

Phase 1 is riddled with problems. Many interventions fail. Sometimes the theory is not strong. Sometimes the methodological design is not sound. That may feel obvious; if we already knew the best possible ways to do everything, then we wouldn’t need research at all. What is perhaps less obvious, is that much promising research also collapses at phase 2.

There are many examples of interventions which failed to scale up. The Parent Academy, a programme designed to equip toddler’s parents with skills to support their children’s learning, initially showed outstanding promise. The Educational Endowment Fund (EEF) spent nearly a million pounds on implementing Parent Academy, but the initiative failed miserably. The Collaborative Reading Strategy, a programme designed to increase reading comprehension, failed to reproduce the same benefits at a large-scale that were observed in initial trials. Project CRISS, a professional development programme for teachers, showed promising results in the initial research stages that were later overturned in a larger study. The infamous class-reduction-size study, Project STAR, failed to replicate the benefits of reduced classroom sizes in the large-scale and expensive Program Challenge and Basic Education Programme. 

In principle, scaling up seems like an easy, almost trivial, task. Simply take an existing intervention with proven success on a small scale and apply it to a larger scale. The reality is starkly different.

Each of the above examples illustrate some manifestation of the “scaling effect”. The scaling effect is the net change in a treatment effect as a result of scaling, encompassing both positive and negative changes. Many people have attempted to generate models and theoretical frameworks that encapsulate the key factors contributing to the decline in efficacy of programmes at scale. For this post, I have combined these models into a single summary (below), which provides an overview of how a programme’s scalability is under threat at each stage of the knowledge-creation process. 

Al-Ubaydli et al. (2019) offer advice to scholars, policymakers, and practitioners on the actions they can each do to prevent things going wrong at scale. Everyone has their part to play in the transition of research to practice. I will give a brief overview of one important issue: the representativeness of the situation. 

Representativeness can refer to the sample. I.e., an intervention may work for a particular demographic but not another. Representativeness may also refer to the research context. Characteristics of research, such as having a high level of control and providing participants with a high level of support, vanish as a programme is scaled up. Contextual idiosyncrasies such as the efficacy of the teacher, the classroom culture or the in-class support from teaching assistants are often overlooked or unaccounted for when scaling up interventions. A potential solution is for researchers to use technology to standardise as much as possible and to conduct educational research as naturalistically as possible by setting up ecologically valid conditions. 

Clarke and Dene (2009) describe 37 contextual variables that could influence the efficacy of a technology-based intervention. These variables were spread across five categories: (i) student variables, such as their access to technology or absentee record; (ii) teacher variables, such as their pedagogical beliefs or their prior professional development related to technology in classrooms; (iii) technology infrastructure conditions, such as the reliability of the equipment or its location in the school; (iv) school/class variables, such as the type of class schedule or the length of lessons; and finally, (v) the administrative variables, such as the level of support from the school’s administrators.

Clarke and Dene developed a ‘scalability index’ identifying which variables statistically interacted with the treatment, and thus were conditions for success. By identifying key features of the intervention’s context, Clarke and Dene were able to give policymakers a detailed depiction of the types of schools the computer game would be suitable for and what additional requirements were needed for the programme to scale up.

Scaling up educational interventions is extremely complicated, and this post barely scratches the surface of everything that could cause a scaling effect. The representativeness of the situation in which a study is conducted is one of the many ways the scaling effect could manifest, but it is often overlooked by researchers, policymakers and school leaders. The context in which research is conducted is sometimes counterproductively the most conducive for positive results. Research programmes are carefully checked that they are being implemented properly, participants might change their normal behaviours as a result of being observed and the organisational culture of schools and classrooms might be instrumental to the programme’s success. Before deciding whether to adopt an evidence-based practice, it is important to not only ask whether the sample is representative of the individuals who will be affected by these practices, but also whether the context is representative of the organization adopting these practices. And if in doubt, contact the researchers of the original study and ask them for advice on how to implement their research programme.