Category / Research themes

BU medical science in top immunology journal, ‘Immunity’.

 

Colleagues at Cornell University and I have used the fruit fly, Drosophila to tease apart the relationship between immunity and the gut microbiome. The work (which took six years to complete) is to be published in Immunity (impact factor 20 for the ‘metricists’ out there) and has major significance because it starts to explain how the human immune response ‘tolerates’ the billions of ‘good’ bacteria in our body.

Many animals carry billions of bacteria in their intestines which are critical for the digestion of ingested foods. This poses a problem for immune cells because signs of the bacteria regularly end up outside the gut and in circulation. Normally, bacterial signals would elicit a powerful immune system but it would be bad news if the gut microbiome was targeted for destruction by immune cells. How this cordial relationship is maintained is therefore of major interest to immunologists and medical science because it has implications for how we understand inflammatory diseases.

We show for the first time that cells called nephrocytes remove bacterial signals (proteoglycans that make bacterial cell walls) from circulation and that this dampens immune responses. Disruption of this removal system causes immune cells to be over-active – a state not unlike chronic inflammation.

I’m duty bound as a basic scientist to make the point that this work also impacts our understanding of insect ecology. Having an over-active immune system shortened the lifespan of Drosophila – an effect likely to be seen in ecologically and medically important species such as honeybees and mosquitoes. How immune responses are affected by the environment in these species is also a very hot topic of research – one that can also be modeled in Drosophila.

Best wishes,

Paul Hartley (Dept of Life and Environmental Sciences)

Wellcome Trust funding available for Humanities and Social Sciences

Two Wellcome Trust funds have issued calls.

Investigator awards in humanities and social sciences – funding available to enable humanities and social science researchers with a compelling research vision to tackle the most significant questions in human health. Researchers at all career stages are eligible.

Collaborative Awards in Humanities and Social Science – supporting teams to tackle major health-related questions in the humanities and social sciences that require a collaborative approach. Research must have the potential to make a significant, measurable difference to health research in the humanities and social sciences.

For both of these the next preliminary application deadline is 2nd July 2019. Contact Alex or Lisa for support.

Living on a low-income during pregnancy – women’s experiences, in high income countries”: scoping review protocol

In conjunction with her supervisory team, led by Professor Ann Hemingway – Prof of Public Health & Wellbeing, Charlotte Clayton, PGR in HSS, has published her literature review protocol, ‘A scoping review exploring the pregnancy, postnatal and maternity care experiences of women from low-income backgrounds, living in high-income countries’, on the Open Science Framework (OSF) website. The OSF is an online, open access platform which gives researchers the opportunity to share their research activities, and provides a platform for the publication of reviews, like scoping reviews, in order to generate open discussion about research and establish wider networking possibilities.

The review protocol is available at: https://osf.io/yb3zq/

The completed review will be submitted to a peer-reviewed midwifery journal, in the spring of 2019 & forms part of her PhD research – which is looking at the pregnancy and postnatal experiences of women from low-income backgrounds and the role of midwifery-led continuity of care in the reduction of maternal health inequalities.

For further information, email: claytonc@bournemouth.ac.uk or @femmidwife on Twitter

(Clayton, C., Hemingway, A., Rawnson, S., and Hughes, M., 2019. A scoping review exploring the pregnancy, postnatal and maternity care experiences of women from low-income backgrounds, living in high-income countries. [online]. Available from: osf.io/yb3zq).

 

 

First CQR “Go Create!” Seminar of the New Year Wed 9 Jan 1 pm RLH 409

Pleased to let you know that the year is kicking off for CQR with an intriguing seminar led by

Kathleen Vandenberghe

“Expressing research findings with an artist”

RLH 409 Wed 9 Jan at 1pm.

All are welcome!

Kathleen’s work involves:

  1. the experience of expressing research findings with an artist who is not a co-researcher

  2. the experience of aiming for an expressing of research findings while holding the view that understanding is relational and positioned and consequently not static

  3. exploration whether the artistic input generates new understandings of the research findings

We are sure that her work will inspire an interesting discussion on Wednesday.
Come along, bring you lunch in you’d like …

even better, bring a friend!

There’s a Place Left for You at Creative Writing for Academics…if you hurry!

There are a very few places left for the two-day workshop in Creative Writing for Academics.

11 & 12 January at EBC.

Further info

It is FREE but you need to commit to the two days.

Email Kip Jones NOW if you would like to reserve one of last places.

Reminder: A Few Places Left for Creative Writing Workshop

The Creative Writing for Academics Workshop on 11 & 12 January is filling up very quickly!

There are only a few places left. If you can commit to attending both days, email Kip Jones now to hold your place.

Read all about a previous Creative Writing for Academics workshop here: https://goo.gl/3fz2Yu

…then get ready for the next one coming in January! https://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2018/12/05/two-day-workshop-in-creative-writing-for-academics-now-open/

Two-day Workshop in Creative Writing for Academics now open!

Creative Writing for Academics

Workshop with Kip Jones

11 & 12 January 2019

Friday (10- 3) and Saturday (10-2),

11th and 12th January in EBC.

FREE! But you must register 

(email: kipworld@gmail.com)

and commit to participating for the two full days.

All are very welcome: students, staff & academics.

Places are limited and will fill up quickly.

  • By engaging in creative writing, it becomes possible for all to write more clearly, more simply, even more creatively, when writing for academic publication.

  • The workshop will present opportunities to work with new and creative levels through interfaces with techniques from the arts and humanities—fiction, poetry, auto-ethnography and biography, scriptwriting, techniques from filmmaking, including tags and loglines.

  • These intellectual exchanges encourage joint exploration of how authors can engage with principles and tools from the arts in order to expand and extend the possibilities of reaching wider audiences.

Read all about an earlier experience with the Creative Writing Workshop

Reminder: CQR Taster Seminar on Creative Writing Wed 1pm R409

Please make a note to join us this Wednesday at 1 pm in RLH 409

Creative Writing for Academics Taster Session with Kip Jones

All are most welcome!  It will be a lot of fun and chance to try your hand at some creative writing!

… and first chance to sign up for the full two-day workshop on Creative Writing for Academics coming 11 and 12 January!

CQR Seminar: Creative Writing Taster Session

Wednesday, 5 Dec 1pm for an hour in RLH 409, experiment with the delights of

Creative Writing for Academics, a taster session, with Kip Jones.

“We passionately believe that as narrative researchers & storytellers we must promote narrative in the content & styles of our publications.

Publication or presentation that is counter to this does a disservice to our commitments as narrativists”.

…and if  you enjoy the session and want more, there will be a two-day workshop 11 & 12 January.

You will be able to sign up for the workshop at the  CQR seminar taster session!

The two-day workshop will be FREE! But you must commit to participating for the two full days. Places are limited and will fill up quickly.

Come along to the Taster Session on Wed 5 Dec at 1 pm, RLH 409, and have a go! It’s fun and you won’t be disappointed!

 

CQR Lunchtime Go Create! Seminar this Wed at 1pm RLH 409

Always engaging, the Centre for Qualitative Research’s Lunchtime Seminar Go Create! Series continues with:

Jen Leamon presenting

“Creating and sharing stories:

Students’ creation of digital stories in undergrad midwifery education”

Wednesday, 7 Nov

1-2 pm

Royal London House 409

(note change in location)

The seminars are always informal, interactive and afford lots of time for audience discussion!

Icons and Inspirations: Alan, Tamsin and Alex

Left to right: Alan Sinfield, Tamsin Wilton and Alexander Doty

Whilst researching a new Level 5 ‘Media Perspective’ unit (Life Stores and the Media) for the Department of Media Production, I decided to discuss the concept of ‘dissident reading’ within the lectures, relating the work of Alan Sinfield in this area.  In doing this, I not only checked out if our library had the relevant book Cultural Politics – Queer Reading, which we did, but also I thought that I would just check out (online) what Alan is working on now.

Alan Sinfield had been a catalyst in my research journey, as way back in 2004 when I was in the final stages of my PhD, Alan had invited me to speak at a research seminar workshop at the University of Sussex.  I remember that Alan was a little critical of my interest in the ‘carnivalesque’, but largely supportive. That seminar offered me a great experience in developing my ideas for the eventual PhD at Bournemouth, and it provided me with a much-needed psychological boost, as the PhD submission date loomed. I remember at the time I had asked Alan some probing questions regarding his new research interests. Alan’s work was fundamental in developing gay and lesbian studies in theatre and popular culture. He replied that he was working on something new, concerning ageing.  It was remiss of me to not follow up on this, despite having more contact with the University of Sussex in other areas later on, such as working with Sharif Molabocus who contributed to two of my edited collection books, and also working there as an external PhD examiner.  On searching for Alan’s latest work, I discovered that he had passed away last year, aged 75.

In thinking through my meeting with Alan in 2004, I had not realized that soon after this he would retire, as Parkinson’s disease would effect his speech.  Now I maybe understand Alan’s interest in writing about ageing, at a time when his life must have been changing.  The loss of Alan also made me think about others in the LGBT and queer studies media research community who I have met that are no longer with us.

Before I was accepted to study my PhD at Bournemouth, I had applied to the University of the West of England.  When the panel interviewed me, I met Tamsin Wilton, whose ground-breaking book was entitled Immortal, Invisible: Lesbians and the Moving Image. While I did not get the doctoral scholarship at UWE, Tamsin confided in me that her research was mostly done within her own time, suggesting that at that time the department thought her work was ‘too radical’. Tamsin passed away in 2006, only a few years after we met, and I remember thinking how much we have lost in her passing, her work was revolutionary, and she genuinely encouraged me to press on with my research, in times when LGBT studies were less popular.

Besides the loss of Alan Sinfield and Tamsin Wilton, I cannot forget the sudden loss of Alexander Doty. Similar to meeting Alan and Tamsin early in my research journey, I briefly met Alex when he was presenting at the feminist Console-ing Passions Conference in Bristol in 2001, a conference that I would eventually co-organise this year at Bournemouth. In 2001, I was studying for an MA at Bristol, and I had never been to an academic conference before, but we were required as students to help out. I remember attending Alex’s paper on the TV series Will and Grace, and I had a brief conversation with him over coffee. Somehow, I made some links between his ideas, and those that I was studying, and I am forever grateful to Alex for his work, and his non-pretentious demeanour. Although if I am honest, I was a little in awe of him, and at the time I could have never imagined that I could have published my academic work.

So I think, often we encounter inspirational researchers along the way, at conferences, seminars, symposiums, and even in interviews. For me, the loss of Alan Sinfield, Tamsin Wilton and Alex Doty, almost seems too much to bear, as clearly they had far more to offer, despite their remaining stellar work. In the manner where I discussed the legacy of Pedro Zamora (the HIV/AIDS activist) and the meaning of a life cut short, theoretical and political ideals potentially live on. Our task is not only to remember all that potential, but also to continue it in any way we can.