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Energy Management for existing buildings. Competition now open

Funding opportunities

The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) and the Research Councils’ UK Energy Programme are to invest up to £4m in collaborative R&D to stimulate innovation in the field of energy management for existing buildings.

The aim of this competition is to advance significantly the capabilities of UK businesses so that they can capture a greater share of growing UK and global markets.

Consortia must be collaborative and led by a business. They should include at least one business that provides solutions for energy management, such as technology providers, building/facility/energy managers or engineers. The TSB are also encouraging consortia to include a potential customer for their energy management innovation and, where appropriate, researchers from relevant academic or research organisations.

This is a two-stage competition that opened for applicants on 14 October 2013. Applicants must register by noon on 20 November 2013. The deadline for expressions of interest is at noon on 27 November 2013.

A briefing event for potential applicants will be held in London on 23 October 2013. For more information and to register please click here.

Staff Profile Pages to be updated

Guidance

The staff profile pages are being updated to tweak a few things such as changes to research themes, viewing and scrolling on mobile devices, ensuring photos don’t overlap with index, adding a few icons, to name but a few. 

This will take place from 4pm on Tuesday (22nd) until 8.15am on Wednesday.  It will mean that any content put into BRIAN will not update overnight.  The ‘refresh now’ button on the profile pages will also be disabled at this time.  The profile pages will be refreshed after 8am on Wednesday with any content that you’ve added to BRIAN.

There is still an outstanding issue with some links to BURO not working but this will be resolved in due course.

Thanks for your patience.

AXA post-doc funding call

Funding opportunities

AXA Research Fund have funding available for two year post-doctoral posts for basic research, specifically in the fields of: *Biology & biochemistry *Biology and genetics *Economics and business *Environment/ecology *Geosciences *Immunology *Mathematics *Microbiology *Neuroscience and behaviour *Plant and animal science *Psychiatry/psychology *Social sciences, general

Applications are submitted according to a three-stage process.
Stage 1 involves BU naming the fields in which we plan to submit an application. AXA recommend that we make a strategic choice of those fields we feel we are particularly strong in.
They then inform us how many applications we can submit at stage 2. This stage involves an outline application being submitted by the candidates. Following review by AXA Research Fund, some of these will be invited to submit a full proposal at stage 3.

If you are interested in submitting an application for a 2-year post-doc in one of the above fields, or know someone who may be, please contact the Deputy Dean for Research and Enterprise in your School before the deadline of 30 October to ensure your field is included in the Stage 1 submission.

As we will only be allowed to submit a limited number of applications at Stage 2, we will be holding an internal RPRS competition. Please contact Jennifer Roddis for further information about this. The deadline for this will be 11 November 2013.

The 5 things you didn’t know about Innovation Vouchers….

Funding opportunities

1.      Small to Medium size businesses can apply for funded support to buy in consultancy expertise from university academics

2.     There are currently 2 different Innovation Voucher schemes which are run separately by the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) and Universities South West (USW)

3.      With the USW Innovation Voucher you can receive up to 40% funded support for projects ranging from £3,000 – £10,000. (**Only organisations located in the South West can apply, excluding Cornwall)

4.      TSB Innovation Voucher offers £5000 to businesses who are looking for support in the following sector areas:

Built Environment, Energy, Water & Waste and Agrifood

Also available to all industry sectors who specifically require expertise on ‘Open Data’ or ‘Cyber Security’

5.      Applying for a voucher is easy! Both schemes require on-line applications where you will need to answer a few short questions about your idea, the impact it could have on your business and why you specifically need help from university academics.

For further information on Innovation Vouchers  please visit the TSB and University South West websites:

Technology Strategy  Board

University South West 

 

If you have any questions or would like to apply for a voucher, please contact the University’s Knowledge Exchange Officer –  Lucy Rossiter on 01202 961215.

What can a University community contribute to a Dementia Friendly Society? Being a friend is a start!

In what proved to be a very busy few months of engaging with the public to try and raise awareness of dementia, BUDI held its first Dementia Friends Training session in September. People with dementia sometimes need a helping hand to go about their daily lives and feel included in their local community. The Prime Ministers Challenge and the Alzheimer Society national initiative – Dementia Friends – is giving the general public an understanding of dementia and the small things they can do that can make a difference to people living with dementia – from raising dementia awareness in customer-facing staff to spreading the word about dementia. http://www.dementiafriends.org.uk/

20 BU staff and students responded to the invitation to take part and the training was delivered by one of BUDIs research collaborators Ian Sherriff at Plymouth University, who is also a Trustee of the Alzheimer Society, and a member of one of the Prime Minister’s national Dementia Working Groups. Friends’ information sessions are run by Dementia Friends Champions, who are volunteers who have taken the Dementia Friends Champions’ training. The Friends’ information session lasted around one hour and we learnt more about dementia and how we can help to create dementia friendly communities in our working environment and in our local community. The session was good fun and made everyone realise how they can contribute to making the lives of those living with dementia easier.

Professor Anthea Innes and BUDI PhD student Ben Hicks were so inspired by the friends training they have agreed to become Dementia Champions to help train more BU staff and students to become dementia friends. The one-hour training session is free and will be offered at different points in the year to any BU staff or students who want to become a Dementia Friend. If you are interested in becoming a dementia friend and want to make a positive difference to people living with dementia in your community please contact Michelle O’Brien to book your place (Email: mobrien@bournemouth.ac.uk Telephone: 01202 962771)

Twenty years after the publication of Changing Childbirth, where are we now?

Twenty years after the publication of Changing Childbirth, an eminent panel of clinicians, politicians and consumer representatives assembled to review the legacy of this key Changing CHildbirthmaternity report. The session, funded by the Wellcome Trust, was held at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in London – an appropriate place given the balance of power at the time of the report.  BU Professors Vanora Hundley and Edwin van Teijlingen were invited to attend as part of the selected audience at the session.

The session started with the panel reminding the audience that maternity services prior to the publication of Changing Childbirth in the early 1990s were anything but women focused. Several speakers noted that this report was the first to put women at the centre of maternity care, and many of the recommendations regarding patient-centred care across the NHS followed on from it. As the president of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) Lesley Page commented: “It was common sense, but hugely radical.”

Changing Childbirth was the government’s response to Sir Nicholas Winterton’s ground-breaking review of the maternity services (Health Select Committee report 1992). The review was unique in seeking views from women – as Nicholas Winterton noted, his Parliamentary committee also made history by letting women who came to give evidence breastfeed during the hearing.

Baroness Julia Cumberlege reflected on how she had been determined that the Health Select Committee report would not simply be another filed document but would have an impact. Twenty years on has the report had an impact? 

The discussions covered a wide-ranging number of maternity care issues at the time of Changing Childbirth’s conception, many of which are still issues today in the UK.  We’d like to highlight two of these issues where BU has made an academic contribution.  First, the observation that we need to be cautious in making assumptions about choices that women perceive they have in childbirth. Profs van Teijlingen and Hundley’s research has demonstrated that women often cannot envisage or value potential choices if these options don’t exist in their current environment.1,2   

The second BU contribution to the debate is around the closure of small maternity units. One of the panel members compared the centralisation of maternity services to that of banks and supermarkets.  A comparative study was published in 2010 by Prof. van Teijlingen and BU Visiting Fellow Dr. Emma Pitchforth under the title ‘Rural maternity care: Can we learn from Wal-Mart?’.

Overall the panel was positive about the legacy of Changing Childbirth – that is, a more humanised maternity services. However, all present expressed disappointment at the failure of the NHS to introduce continuity of carer, something that women who gave evidence stated they valued highly. As Nicholas Winterton said: “We have made progress but we should be making further progress – It is unfinished business.”

Vanora Hundley is Professor of Midwifery

Edwin van Teijlingen is Professor of Reproductive Health Research

 References:

  1. Hundley V, Ryan M and Graham W (2001) Assessing women’s preferences for intrapartum care. Birth 28 (4): 254-263.
  2. van Teijlingen E, Hundley V, Rennie AM, Graham W, Fitzmaurice A. (2003) Maternity satisfaction studies and their limitations: “What is, must still be best”, Birth 30: 75-82.  
  3. van Teijlingen ER and Pitchforth E. (2010) Rural maternity care: Can we learn from Wal-Mart? Health & Place 16: 359-364.

 

 

 

Book Now! A Few Spaces left on the 24th of OCT for your 1-2-1 appointment with Martin Pickard – a great opportunity to improve your bid proposals

Grants Academy, Training

If you feel you would benefit from a ‘face to face’ meeting with Martin  in relation to any bid/proposal you are currently working on please contact me Dianne Goodman ASAP with your time preferences.

Martin currently has some availablity on these dates between the following times:

  • 24th September 2013, 9:15am- 5pm (Lansdowne Campus )

Appointments are approx 45 minutes long. You will also have unlimited telephone and email support to progress your application after meeting with Martin.

Martin Pickard

With a career background in both Academia and Industry Dr. Martin Pickard of Grantcraft is a specialist in writing and supporting research grant applications and tenders as well as providing administrative and management support services for ongoing projects. During the last 20 years Martin has worked extensively across Europe with a large number of universities, and research institutes as well as industrial firms, ranging from small SME’s to major international companies.

Martin is providing individual 1-2-1 surgeries with any BU academic staff member and works individually and confidentiality with each Principal Investigator as the project is structured and prepared in order to optimize the application documentation from every aspect of the Funders perspective; guiding, steering and showing how to optimize the application throughout the bid process.

Academics at BU who have undertaken his guidance have stated:

 ‘his support and direction was invaluable – Martin gave me some pragmatic suggestions which really helped to shape the bid. His eye for detail made the document much easier to read and the message much clearer. I was very grateful for his input’  Assoc. Prof Heather Hartwell School of Tourism.

The process, although labour intensive, works; with a proven historical average success rates of close to 1 in 2 against norms of (1 in 8 to 1 in 10)

Book Now through me Dianne Goodman – Martin’s appointments are always popular.

 

DEC PGR receives excellence award

Ahmed M. Romouzy Ali, a Postgraduate Researcher PhD in the School of Design, Engineering and Computing, has achieved more success with the journal article which was voted one of the ten highest-ranked papers emerging from the 2012 Organization Collection’s peer review process.

Ahmed was recently invited to present the journal article “The Barriers that Hinder Rapid Prototyping Deployment within Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Which Should Come First?” at the annual conference of the Egyptian Student Union in the UK and Northern Ireland which was held at the Egyptian Culture and Educational bureau in London.  The fantastic  news is that Ahmed’s contribution to the journal article was honoured by the Union, and was awarded an excellence award!

Congratulations Ahmed!

 

 

Argyro Karanasiou awarded an ISOC Ambassadorship for IGF 2013

We are delighted to announce that Argyro Karanasiou, a member of CIPPM and Lecturer in Law at BU has been awarded a prestigious ISOC Ambassadorship to represent the Internet Society at the Internet Governance Forum in Bali, Indonesia. 

The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is a forum under the auspices of the United Nations, to provide “a transparent, democratic, and multilateral process, with the participation of governments, private sector, civil society and itnernational organisations, in their respective roles”  for dialogue on Internet Governance Policy. This year’s IGF there is “Building Bridges: Enhancing Multistakeholder Cooperation for Growth and Sustainable Development”.

“We are proud of these 20 Ambassadors who will represent the Internet Society at IGF,” said Toral Cowieson, Senior Director of Internet Leadership for the Internet Society. “Identified from an applicant pool of more than 200 highly qualified individuals, the 2013 Ambassadors will provide important regional perspectives to the dialogue on advancing the open and multistakeholder governance process.  In addition, they will gain new insights and connections to enhance their work at other local, regional, and international meetings.”

Argyro will be blogging on behalf of ISOC for their official blog and will give a presentation on IGF and Internet Governance Models on 26th Nov (EB 306, 2pm) as part of the research seminar series organised by the Business School, BU.

Latest Major Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities

The following opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

  • The AHRC has a call for Expressions of Interest to present virtual exhibitions of images on their website. Maximum funding: £4,000. Closing date: 29/11/13
  • The AHRC Creative Economy Showcase 2014 requires Expressions of Interest. Award maximum not specificed> Closing date 27/11/13
  • AHRC has announced the Cultural Value Project Targeted Call for Critical Reviews and Research Development Awards and Expressions of Interest to deliver Expert workshops. Maximum grant £100,000 and £10,000 respectively. Closing date 7/11/13
  • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) / Royal Society of Edinburgh Enterprise Fellowships aim to increase exploitation of ideas with commercial potential from BBSRC supported research. Maximum award not specified. Closing date: 28/11/13
  • The BBSRC is offering FAPESP Pump-Priming Awards (FAPPA). Maximum grant £35,000. No closing date but applications must be made at least 12 weeks before the proposed start of the project
  • Supporting international collaboration, BBSRC-Brazil (FAPESP) are joint funding research. Maximum grant not specified. Closing date: 8/01/14
  • Similarly the BBSRC’s Other Countries Partnering Awards supports long-term collaborations. Maximum grant not specified. Closing date: 27/11/13
  • The BBSRC call for Resolving Technological and Methodological Gaps in Metagenomics is open. Maximum award not specified. Closing date: 8/01/14
  • British Academy is offering postdoctoral fellowships to foreign researchers. Maximum award not specified. Closing date: 5/12/13
  • The EPSRC is inviting applications for access to ARCHER through its resource allocation panel. Top-up applications are also accepted. Maximum award not specified. Closing date: 18/12/13
  • EPSRC, as part of the RCUK Energy Programme, invites proposals for collaborative research projects to undertake fundamental research to tackle challenges in carbon capture for carbon capture and storage (CCS). Maximum award not specified. Closing date: 29/11/13
  • Healthcare Technology Cooperatives partnership awards are beign supported by the EPSRC/NIHR. Maximum award £150,000. Closing date: 7/01/14
  • ESRC is launching the second round of the ESRC Transformative Research Call. Maximum grant £200,000. Closing date: 15/01/14
  • The ESRC Europe – China call for collaborative research on The Green Economy and Understanding Population Change has opened. Maximum grant not specified. Closing date: 3/12/13
  • The ESRC Celebrating Impact Prize is an annual opportunity to recognise and reward the successes of ESRC-funded researchers. Maximum ward £20,000. Closing date: 22/11/13
  • ERA-NET Plus on Climate Smart Agriculture – under the ERA-NET Plus action “Climate Smart Agriculture: Adaptation of agricultural systems in Europe” co-funded by the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) of the European Commission, there is a call for pre-proposals relating to the adaptation of European agriculture to climate change in its broad sense. Maximum grant not specified. Closing date: 2/12/13
  • The Leverhulme Trust is supporting Major Research Fellowships in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Maximum award not specified. Closing date: 8/05/14
  • The Leverhulme-Royal Society Africa Award for scientists who want to develop a collaborative research project between the UK and research institutions in either Ghana or Tanzania has been announced. Maximum award £210,000. Closing date: 15/01/14
  • The MRC has opened the Health systems research initiative call 1: Providing evidence to strengthen health systems and improve health outcomes. Grant maximum not specified. Closing date:  14/01/14
  • NERC have announced their ESPA Fellowships. Maximum award £200,000. Closing date: 20/11/13 
  • The Royal Academy of Engineering has announced The Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowships Scheme. Maximum award not specificed. Closing date: 18/11/13
  • Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award provides universities with additional support to enable them to recruit or retain respected scientists of outstanding achievement and potential to the UK. Maximum grant not specified. Closing date: 12/11/13
  • Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship reimburses the employing institution with the full salary cost of a teaching replacement. The scheme covers all areas of the life and physical sciences, including engineering, but excluding clinical medicine. Award not specified. Closing date 8/01/14
  • The Agri-Tech Catalyst, run by the Technology Strategy Board and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, offers funding to innovative businesses and researchers to develop solutions to global agricultural challenges. see detials on the Early Stage and Late Stage awards. Grant not specified. Registration by 4/12/13 and submit by 11/12/13
  • Also via the TSB’s Agri-Tech Catalyst, there are Industrial research awards. Maximum grant £3,000,000. Registration by 4/12/13. Submission by 11/12/13
  • The TSB has announced their Innovative Research Call – IRC 2013 – Detection of explosives and weapons. Maximum grant £950,000. Registration by  27/11/13. Submission  by 4/12/13
  • The TSB and Medical Research Council programme is offering funding to innovative small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) and researchers to develop solutions to healthcare challenges via their Biomedical Catalyst – Feasibility studies call. Maximum funding £200,000. Registration by 5/02/14. Submission by 12/02/14
  • Also through the TSB’s Biomedical Catalyst, funding is available via the Early and late stage awards. Maximum award not specified. Register by 5/2/14 and submit by 12/2/14
  • The TSB is making an investment of up to £2.5m in collaborative R&D projects that lead to the creation of  ‘frictionless’ digital transactional environments. Register by 13/11/13 and submit by 20/11/13 
  • The Toshiba Fellowship Programme is a unique opportunity for recently qualified PhD level scientists, mainly from science, computing and mathematics disciplines. Maximum award not specified. Closing date: 6/12/13
  • The Wellcome Trust is offering Senior Investigator Awards in Medical Humanities, New Investigator Awards in Medical Humanities, Senior Investigator Awards in Society and Ethics, New Investigator Awards in Society and Ethics.  Maximum award £1,000,000. Closing date: 21/03/14
  • Pathfinder Awards are being offered by The Wellcome Trust. These provide pilot funding for Academic-Industry partnerships to develop early-stage applied research and development projects in orphan and neglected disease areas. Maximum grant £100,000. Closing date: 9/01/14
  •  The Wellcome Trust’s Translational Medicine and Therapeutics Programmes – this flagship scheme has established four high-quality integrated research training programmes for clinicians in translational medicine and therapeutics. Maximum award not specified. No closing date.
  • Arts Awards, from The Wellcome Trust, support imaginative and experimental arts projects that explore biomedical science. Awards are available for large and small projects, above and below £30,000. Closing date 24/01/14

Please note that some funders specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKE Support Officer.

You can set up your own personalised alerts on ResearchProfessional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s RKE Officer in RKE Operations or see the recent post on this topic

Who are BUCRU? Introducing members of the team and our expertise

In last week’s post we gave you a brief introduction to BUCRU and how we can help you.  This week we introduce you to the members of the team.

Front row (L-R): Lisa Gale, Louise Ward, Helen Allen, Sarah Thomas, Zoe Sheppard. Back row: Peter Thomas, Annabel Kenny-Jones, Paul Thompson, Audrey Dixon.

Professor Paul Thompson

Paul is Consultant Rheumatologist at Poole Hospital and Visiting Professor at BU.  He was appointed Director of the Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education (CoPMRE) in 2007, where he has been leading developments between research and education active doctors in NHS Trusts and the academic community at the University.  He is Co-Director of BUCRU, Lead for the musculoskeletal local priority group for the Western Comprehensive Local Research Network (CLRN) and Fellow of the NHS Improvement Faculty.  He is interested in clinical research and service development in the rheumatic diseases.  He supervises PhD students and is an External Examiner at other Universities.

Professor Peter Thomas

Peter is Co-Director and leads on research methodology.  He has a background in epidemiology and statistics, and has been with Bournemouth University since 1996.  He has a special research interest in psychosocial aspects of chronic disease and much of his recent work has focused on multiple sclerosis.

Dr Sarah Thomas

Sarah is Deputy Director (methodology). She has a background in psychology and since 2000 has worked in the NHS in Dorset.  As well as supporting other researchers in a Research Design Service capacity, she also conducts research.  Her main research interests are in the field of multiple sclerosis (MS) and she is currently Chief Investigator for a pilot study funded by the UK MS Society exploring the use of the Nintendo Wii™ in people with MS.

Helen Allen

Helen is a health psychologist with a nursing and midwifery background.  She has a qualitative background with a particular interest in the mind:body interface and chronic disease, including patient empowerment.  She is the Unit lead on Public Patient Involvement.

Professor Roger Baker

Roger is Professor of Clinical Psychology and runs the MSc course Foundations in Clinical Psychology at BU.  He is also a Consultant Clinical Psychologist at Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust.  He has expertise in the design of assessments and questionnaires, research design and clinical evaluation of services and has worked in a dual role as researcher and clinical psychologist at Leeds, Aberdeen & Bournemouth Universities and in NHS Trusts specialising in Mental Health.

Audrey Dixon

Audrey is the Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education (CoPMRE) co-ordinator and co-administrator for BUCRU.  She has worked for the NHS since 1988.  She first joined Professor Paul Thompson in 2001 to assist him with his academic work, following his secondment to the University.  Audrey was seconded to BU in 2003.  She now looks after a growing Visiting Faculty and the education arm of CoPMRE.  She is very proud to see the little acorn grow into a Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education and BUCRU.

Louise Fazakarley

Louise is a Physiotherapy lecturer with experience in neurological rehabilitation, the management of chronic disability and rehabilitation research.  She joined Bournemouth University in 2006 to establish and teach on the BSc (Hons) Physiotherapy course.  Louise is currently working on the MS Society funded pilot study to look at the Nintendo Wii™ as a method of helping people with MS increase their physical activity.

Lisa Gale

Lisa joined the team in May 2013 as Clinical Research Co-ordinator.  She has a background in psychology and previously worked in the research department of a local NHS Trust.  The main focus of Lisa’s role is to create a seamless link between academics at BU and clinicians in the NHS who are interested in interprofessional, high quality research to construct bids for funding, develop project plans, and conduct research.

Annabel Kenny-Jones

Annabel is a Clinical Research Administrator who joined Bournemouth University in October 2009.  She provides support to Professor Tamas Hickish, Consultant Medical Oncologist, Royal Bournemouth Hospital/Poole Hospital and the rest of the research team on various ongoing research projects within the Unit.

Dr Zoe Sheppard

Zoe is a demographer with particular experience investigating socio-economic status.  She joined Bournemouth University in October 2009 as a Research Fellow in Research Methods.  She provides research methods support for people doing health research and support writing grant applications in her National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research Design Service (RDS) capacity.

Louise Ward

Louise is one of the administrators for the unit and has been with the team since 2008.  She has worked in various NHS settings and has an interest in marketing.  Both her undergraduate and Master’s degrees were studied here at Bournemouth University.

Contact us:

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Or pop and see us on the 5th floor of Royal London House!

Energy related funding in Horizon 2020 – webinars to tell you all!

EU Energy Focus are hosting some free webinars to provide further info on energy related calls in Horizon 2020. As its only 8 weeks til the calls are released, these are a fantastic opportunity to learn more about what’s coming up: The webinar programme is as follows:

 

1. Energy in Horizon 2020 Introduction to Horizon 2020 and the Energy funding priorities www.eventsforce.net/h2020-1 Wednesday 23rd October 1pm
2. Energy Efficiency Buildings and Consumers, Heating and Cooling www.eventsforce.net/h2020-2 Tuesday 5th November 12.30pm
3. Energy Efficiency Heating and Cooling, Industry and Products www.eventsforce.net/h2020-3 Friday 8th November 12.30pm
4. Energy Efficiency Finance for Sustainable Energy www.eventsforce.net/h2020-4 Tuesday 12th November 12.30pm
5. Low Carbon Energy Research and demonstration for renewables plus market uptake, innovation and Coordination and Support Actions www.eventsforce.net/h2020-5 Thursday 14th November 12.30pm
6. Low Carbon Energy Research and demonstration for grids, storage, biofuels, CCS plus market uptake, innovation and Coordination and Support Actions www.eventsforce.net/h2020-6 Wednesday 20th November 12.30pm
7. Smart Cities and Communities www.eventsforce.net/h2020-7 Friday 22nd November 12.30pm

Narrative Research Group Seminar Series

In the first NRG talk for this academic year, Hywel Dix, Senior Lecturer in English and Communication, will present a paper on “Marking and Re-marking: Tracing the Tattoo in Crime and Detective Narratives”. The abstract for Hywel’s paper follows. All are welcome to come along to the talk on Wednesday 30 October at 2p.m in TAG01.

 

 

Implicit in its straddling of two different sets of social relationship, one bourgeois and the other at least potentially subversive, the portrayal of the tattoo in recent fiction points to a radical instability in the perceived status of tattooing as social practice, and implies a contemporary shift in the status of that practice in society. Drawing on Howard Becker’s classic sociological analysis of different art worlds, this paper will analyse the portrayal of tattooing as cultural practice in Sarah Hall’s The Electric Michelangelo and Alan Kent’s Voodoo Pilchard. It will explore how much the social practice of tattooing was a subversive one in the early twentieth century; and to what extent that practice has recently become incorporated into the mainstream of fashion and consumer society. It will ask to what extent tattoos could be considered legitimate serious art in the early twentieth century and today; and to what extent the recognition of tattooing as legitimate art comes at the cost of compromising the politically transgressive potential of the practice.

 

Kicking off! Sociology + International Placements

 

In May 2013 four students from HSC’s BA Sociology & Social Policy programme undertook a 25-day placement in Malaysia, hosted by the Faculty of Social Sciences at Universiti Sains Malaysia located on the beautiful, historical island of Penang under the conscientious supervision of HSC’s Visiting Professor, Dr Azlinda Azman, Chair of Social Work, USM. The aim of the placement was to enable students to apply a sociological analysis to the constructions of welfare and care-giving in a very different socio-cultural context.

The four students, Heidi Crew, Samineh Hall, Dannielle Connolly and Roxanne Boydell successfully applied for BU Global Horizon funding. This valuable financial assistance enabled the students to help to spearhead the first set of planned steps towards the internationalisation of the Sociology+ programmes in delivering a FUSION focus.

Placements were divided into those for elderly citizens or children and young people with disabilities. The students were able to choose from a placement that related to their Level I study options, and go on to experience a number of different settings. The following extracts from their detailed narratives offer a glimpse into how the students negotiated unfamiliar constructions of need and care in an unfamiliar, post-colonial cultural setting.

Elderly care residential Homes (Sami, Roxanne and Danni):

The donations that the Home receives are very impressive. Even though families are unable to look after their elders due to the change in family structures and work, the elderly still hold a very important place within the community. People of Penang speak very fondly of the Home.

All in all, we learnt a lot from our weeks at placement and were very grateful to have been able to witness first-hand how the elderly were looked after in a different culture.  From this experience we have drawn that there are many similarities in the way the Homes are run in Malaysia.  

Unlike in the UK, the most popular Homes are charities and run on public donations.  They receive many of these as Asia still regards their elderly population very highly.  However, with the growing elderly population, we were able to witness the impact of the gap between young and old and the change in the family structures.  All the Homes were struggling to find enough volunteers to help look after their residents as most of the young generation now (in particular young women who usually had the role of carer) have careers and may opt to put their relatives in a Home rather than adopt the old traditions of caring for the elderly at home. 

Working with children with disabilities (Heidi):

World Play Day was another of my most memorable days. This was based at my second placement in Balik Pulau, where I would be based for the last 3 weeks I was in Malaysia. It is literally in the middle of nowhere: no shops near by and a 2-hour bus journey from Penang.

World Play Day was run by the older residents (18 and above) with varying disabilities, physical and mental. All the children from First Steps and any other children with disabilities within the area or outside, such as the mainland  were invited to join in. ‘We are special’ was their motto, and every helper was given a T-Shirt saying this.

I was personally in charge of the ‘starch pool’. This was where the children could get used to texture, and some of them loved it. It was a swimming pool of rice flour and water, so that it made a thick gloopy mixture and was dyed pink with food colouring to appeal to the younger children.

Maddie, one of the other helpers, was in charge of the water slide. This was a tarpaulin sheet covered in water and washing up liquid, whilst there were other activities going on too. Everyone had a different station that they manned. I was just as covered in the starch at the end as the children were. The key to success on days like this was to get involved. 

The day was and is sponsored annually by Starbuck Coffee. I never used to put money in their charity boxes that said ‘to help Asian communities’. Now that I’ve seen exactly what that money does and the amount of smiles that are produced from it I will never walk away from that charity box without putting something in.