BU Research Blog

15 October 2015

Sparking Political Debate with Sixth Formers: BU Research at the #PSASchools Conference

Panelists at #PSASchools 2015

On Tuesday 13 october 2015, Dr. Darren Lilleker, Dr. Dan Jackson and Dr. Anna Feigenbaum from the Faculty of Media and Communication travelled up to London to lead sessions at the Political Studies Association’s first annual PSA Schools Conference. The event brought together 150 Sixth Form students from schools around London and the South East for an afternoon of exploring Pressure Groups, Anti-politics and Representation. In packed out workshop room, Dr. Lilleker and Dr. Jackson sparked debate over the rise of digital politics, asking in their session on Social Media and Political Communication, “Does social media offer a new way to develop a more dialogical relationship between citizens and their elected representatives?” Reflecting on the workshop, Dr. Lilleker said, ““It was interesting to hear the views of young people on digital media use and get them thinking about how their behaviour links to broader social trends in political engagement.”

Dr. Anna Feigenbaum’s session drew from her research into protest camping. She engaged students in a hands-on activity, designing blueprints and political strategies for their own hypothetical protest camps. Choosing Women’s Equality as their campaign issue, following a compelling keynote by Sophie Walker, Leader of the Women’s Equality Party, the students choose their protest sites, including Parliament and the Playboy Mansion. From clever hashtags to lodging people on houseboats in the Thames to politically subversive games of pin-the-tail-on-the-bunny, students showed their creativity and tactical savvy.

Taking part in the Question and Answer Panel Session that rounded out the day, Dr. Anna Feigenbaum joined Campbell Robb, CEO of Shelter; David Bowles, Director of Public Affairs of RSPCA; Graham Smith, CEO of Republic and Maddy Ryle of the Democracy Centre in a lively discussion facilitated by Dr Andy Mycock (University of Huddersfield) that ranged from the purpose of direct action to strategic uses of the law in political campaigning. Covering questions of Britishness and the Monarchy and the ethics of lobbying, sixth formers in the audience showed they were far more than an apathetic generation of youth. Politically reflective and insightful, they spoke of media misrepresentations of the working class, the need to scrutinise profiteering bankers, growing inequality in representative politics and when engaging in civil disobedience might be justified.

Speaking of his participation in the event, Dr. Jackson – who also convenes the PSA Media and Politics Specialist Group – said, “It is great to engage young people with some of the big political challenges of our day. Plus, this is a great way to put Bournemouth on the map, in terms of politics education at BU, as we develop our curriculum around politics, political communication and social movements.” Based on the success and positive feedback from this first event, the Political Science Association has plans to make the conference an annual affair. An exciting opportunity to share our BU Research in an interactive way with young people, we would encourage colleagues to join in future events!

With thanks to James Ludley and Helena Djurkovic of the PSA for organising this innovative event.

1 October 2015

Positive Active Ageing Photo Exhibition

Public engagement cfarrance

I’m wondering if anyone would be interested in collaborating with me on a ‘Positive Active Ageing Photographic Exhibition’. The idea has come about through my PhD research where I have been fortunate enough to have met many older people who are really positive role models and are staying active by going to local community based group exercise programmes. I wanted to do something to showcase how important these programmes are and challenge some of the more negative views of ageing which can sometimes be portrayed.

I have had overwhelming enthusiasm about the idea from the exercise groups I’ve been working with and just wondered whether there are people in BU from other faculties who have also been working with active older people and would like to be involved in this event. Would love to hear from you if that’s the case. Please feel free to email me (Clare) on: cfarrance@bournemouth.ac.uk

(Image used with permission, Bromford Group. http://bit.ly/1Id23UH)

1 October 2015

Bournemouth University listed in top 800 global universities

REF Subjects, Research assessment Edwin van Teijlingen

Bournemouth University ranked just over the half way line in the top 800 universities in the world. Bournemouth University is in good company in the bracket (401-500) with other well-known universities such as the University of Cagliari (Italy), Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic), Curtin University (Australia), University of Waikato (New Zealand), Louisiana State University (USA) or the University of Tampere (Finland) to name but a few.

The full list of 800 universities is available here!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

16 September 2015

Where Numbers met Narratives: A Final Review of the BU Datalabs Fusion Project

Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, Knowledge Exchange, Post-award afeigenbaum

Carried out between January 2015 and July 2015, our Fusion CCCP and RKEO Small Grant funded BU Datalabs project explored the possibilities and challenges associated with the communicative power of visualizations, maps and related interactive digital media for telling data stories on sensitive subjects of societal importance.

We use the term Data Storytelling to refer to the process of creating data-driven stories, from data collection all the way through to crafting the visual and contextual narratives that give data meaning(Greshon and Ward 2001).

Through a series innovative Datalabs events and workshops, we used a hands-on, participatory approach to teaching that combined principles of scaffolded technology learning and hacklabs (Hmelo-Silver et al., 2007). Activities included:

Data Scraping & Cleaning – Monday March 16 and Tuesday March 17, 2015
Data Visualisation with Mapping – Monday April 27 and Tuesday April 28, 2015
Digital Storytelling with Data – Thursday May 14 and Friday May 15, 2015
Mapping for Justice – 2 June 2015, w/ Richmond, American University in London
Interdisciplinary Research Week: Turning Numbers into Narratives: An introduction to digital storytelling with data –14 May 2015, Talbot Campus, Bournemouth University
Festival of Learning: Datastorytelling: How to Give Narrative to Numbers –13 July 2015, Talbot Campus, Bournemouth University
Civic Forensics Design Workshop – 20 July 2015, Friends House, London

Prioritising collaborative exchange, we brought together researchers, students, journalists and NGOs to generate key insights and co-create tangible outputs. Partners included the Omega Research Foundation, who co-author reports with Amnesty International, and Minute Works, whose sustainable design roster includes Greenpeace. Together with our partners we co-created visualisation outputs including the Data Distortion Layer Cake, the Reclaim Brixton map, and the #RiotID civic forensics project. Partners also went on to put their new visualisation skills into action. Our partner IRIN, a humanitarian news agency, created infographics and maps, including this interactive map of migrant deaths.

Feedback from our survey of Datalabs participants showed that most people’s familiarity with the tools and concepts taught during the workshops increased substantially, with most participants leaving the workshops feeling ‘familiar’ or ‘experienced’ with the basic tools and techniques of Data Storytelling.

Challenges and Opportunities

The emergent area of data storytelling provides both opportunities and challenges. Like any new digital skill, visualising data requires time and resources. This puts NGOs and small organisations at a disadvantage in terms of their ability to tell compelling data stories with visualisation. This disadvantage does not only manifest itself in the lack of resources to afford certain technologies, but also to afford know-how in the form of data visualization designers that are being “snatched up” by the corporate sector to work under Non-Disclosure Agreements (Wilson 2015).

In addition, while the rise of digital tools and techniques certainly diversifies the kinds of narratives we can tell with numbers, not all data stories are easy to capture. Sensitive subjects often have no straightforward data source, documents are scattered across agencies and organisations.

Our BU Datalabs project contributed to broader initiatives to bridge the emerging ‘big data divide’ that stands to leave the third sector and SMEs behind. Here at BU, we can help to narrow this divide by bringing together our skills and resources with stakeholder partners, to co-create visual resources and data stories for public engagement.

What’s Next?

Our BU Datalabs Report reflects on the key insights that arose out of this co-creation project. The aim of the final report is to show how other universities and organisations can use our model as a template, enabling their organisations to co-create data stories with public stakeholders. A preliminary version of the report was presented at the Data Power conference in Sheffield in June 2015. A further presentation is scheduled for November 2015 at the Media Education Summit in Boston, USA.

This year we are working to institute Datalabs activities and Data Storytelling education at BU through continuing collaborations between the Faculty of Media and Communication, the Data Science Institute, and the GIS Lab. We also continue to work with our partners as we prepare for larger bids.

Our next public Datalabs event is scheduled during the ESRC Festival of Social Science. This day long workshop on Datastorytelling will take you through the full process of creating a data story, from scraping and cleaning to crafting the narrative.

To find out more about the Datalabs project you can visit civicmedia.io or email: afeigenbaum@bournemouth.ac.uk or ethorsen@bournemouth.ac.uk

References

Gershon, N. and Ward P., 2001. ‘What Storytelling Can Do For Information Visualization’. Commun. ACM, 44 (8),pp.31-37.

Hmelo-Silver, C.E., Duncan, R.G. and Chinn, C.A., 2007. Scaffolding and Achievement in Problem-Based and Inquiry Learning: A Response to Kirschner, Sweller, and Clark (2006). Educational Psychologist, 42(2), pp.99-107.

Wilson, M., 2015. What Killed The Infographic? Fast Company, [blog] 6 May, Available at: <http://www.fastcodesign.com/3045291/what-killed-the-infographic> [Accessed 27 July 2015].

7 September 2015

American Sociological Association Annual Conference in Chicago, Puts Romance, Internet Dating and Relationships Center-Stage

Fusion, Women's Academic Network Lisa Andrews

By Professor Ann Brooks

The American Sociological Association (ASA) Annual Conference in August, set against the stunning backdrop of the city of Chicago and Lake Ontario, and the socio-cultural earthquakes of Ashley Madison and the political challenges of Donald Trump proved to be even more dynamic than usual. The theme this year was Sexualities in the Social World and attracted hundreds of iconic figures from the sociological world and global sociologists more generally. Iconic figures such as Sasskia Sassen, Sylvia Walby, Anne Swidler, Eva Illouz, Judy Wajcman, Eric Kleinenberg, Robert Sampson, Lynne Jamieson and many many more ….. a veritable whos who in the contemporary world of sociology, presented and contributed enormously to this major conference in sociology.

Plenary sessions included: The Politics of Same-Sex Marriage: Public Opinion and the Courts; Modern Romance: Dating, Mating and Marriage; The Rise of Nonmarital Births; Internet Dating; Abortion in America; and in addition a huge range of Presidental (ASA) Panels included : Birth Control in America; Women on the Battlefield: Integrating Women into the U.S. Military; Aging and Sexuality; Cohabitation; and many many more.

I chose sessions to reinforce the new undergraduate course I am offering in Sem 2, 2015-6 entitled Love and Intimacy in Contemporary Society and these major Plenary sessions did not disappoint. In fact they turned out to be real highpoints of the conference. A packed Saturday evening Plenary Panel entitled Romance Matters included Eric Kleinenberg (NYU), Azis Ansari (Comedian, Author, and TV Presenter), Helen Fisher (Rutgers, psychotherapist and Consultant to match.com), Christain Rudder (Ok Cupid) and Eli Finkel (Northwestern) enthralled the audience with serious and amusing presentations. This was followed by the signing of the Anzari and Kleinenberg new book …Romance Matters. I have to say the students will really enjoy this bringing together of research and teaching.

I convened a session on Gender, Sexuality and Work with 5 excellent papers, many of which are being published within books or journals.

The Presidential address by Paula England looked at the Changing Nature of Sexuality and and a further Presidential Panel looked at the advantages and disadvantages of Internet Dating also as an evening Keynote panel.

A truly inspiring conference with significant relevance for my new BU course. Thank you BU and HSS for supporting this.

Professor Ann Brooks September 7, 2015

3 September 2015

Fusion co-creation project involving BU students and partners in Kosovo: rethinking post-war reconciliation via ‘gaming’ technology

Awarded & submitted bids, Festival of Learning, Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer, Research themes sssievers

In post-war societies such as in the Western Balkans, war monuments may serve to preserve a single narrative of the past. Sometime the intention is to shape future generations’ understanding of conflict, thereby perpetuating militant potentials and societal divisions. But how do young visitors really experience such war monuments? Our fusion-funded project aims to foster conflict transformation (reconciliation) by facilitating young people’s engagement with a plurality of narratives while simultaneously nurturing empathy and recognition of the cultural heritage of war via contemporary gaming technology.

BU’s fusion approach encouraged me, a Balkan specialist and social anthropologist, to seek collaboration across faculties with Dr Avital Biran (‘dark tourism’/FM); Dr Melanie Klinkner (‘transitional justice’/ FMC); and Assoc. Prof. Feng Tian (‘gaming’/ FST). The new fusion-funded project is directly related to our Conflict Transformation Studies Team’s contribution to a major European Union Horizon 2020 bid: a working package on enhancing visitors’ perception and consumption of memorials via gamification, submitted in May 2015 (Reflective Societies, RED 8756).

The team presented its overarching research concept at BU’s Interdisciplinary Week on 12 May with our interactive session on Transforming conflict after war: memory, heritage and digital media. With support of two consecutive Undergraduate Research Assistants, a social anthropological spin-off exercise entitled Reconciliation-in-Practice was then conducted at the Festival of Learning. During the sessions, to which also Wendy Cutts (FHSS) contributed, we challenged participants’ assumptions about the ease with which reconciliation expectations can be exported to countries of Western geo-political interest after war and conflict.

This fusion-funded sequel aims to co-opt interested student from different disciplines into the process of story line development and game design based on post-war memory at selected sites in Kosovo. As part of FiF strand Co-creation and Co-production, collaborations will not just include students and staff from BU’s four faculties but also external stakeholders in post-war Kosovo. We hope to include local students and colleagues of University of Prishtina, Human Rights activists, the British Council, site managers and artists.

Pending ethics approval and faculty support, our aim is – with help of the creative abilities of all involved students and partners – to explore the potentials of ‘gaming’ for education and enhancing visitors’ experience at heritage sites. We plan to, firstly, research the challenges associated with contested memorials in Kosovo; secondly, develop ideas for a story-line for gaming to promote tolerance and understanding; thirdly, explore the possibilities of designing a ‘serious game’; and, finally, under the leadership of Feng Tian, devise a Game Development Document (GDD) which may serve as a blue print for the application of gaming at post-conflict sites.

Dr Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers
Faculty of Health & Social Sciences
sssievers@bournemouth.ac.uk

10 August 2015

GeoNet cultural heritage landscapes and deathscapes

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, Knowledge Exchange, REF Subjects, Research themes pgillingham

In our last GeoNet seminar Craig Young and Tim Darville discussed cultural heritage landscapes and deathscapes, followed by Anne Luce who examined the presentation of suicide in the media.

Craig Young introduced the seminar discussing the evolving patterns of death and the changing social attitudes towards death. The physical absence of the dead body is becoming significantly apparent when illustrating the changes in the memorialisation of the dead. For example, new ways of scattering ashes such as sending in to space, converting it in to diamonds as a permanent keepsake and using social media to contact others to help spread ashes to different continents. An increase in the memorialisation at the site of death in the form of roadside shrines indicates a shift away from official ceremonies to more informal and open displays of grief.

Tim Darville, who has recently published on life, death, ritual and regional identity in Britain c. 1600 BC, discussed the relationship and practices between the living and dead. He used Stonehenge as an example. I found it interesting to discover that Stonehenge originated as a burial ground, and as a monument to the dead. Darville went on to explain links between the spatial orientations of the stone structures with the celestial calendar. The landscape changes from contained to dispersed, each holding its own celestial meaning as a burial site.

Anne Luce carried on the discussion talking about suicide in the media. Changes in attitude towards suicides have resulted in more high profile suicides reported in the media. For example, the Bridgend suicides in Wales 2008 were presented by the media as a suicide cult, therefore being picked up by the international press. The growth in social media sites, such as Facebook, has led to personal and public displays of remembrance in the form of memorial pages, which in some instances has led to an increased awareness of online bullying as a main cause of suicide.

Charlotte Unwin, GeoNet Intern

20 July 2015

Festival of Learning event demonstrates pilot Seen But Seldom heard e learning tool

Festival of Learning, Fusion, Knowledge Exchange, Public engagement, Research Ethics swincewicz

Dr Lee-Ann Fenge

During last week’s Bournemouth University Festival of Learning, the team (Dr. Carrie Hodges, Faculty of Media and Communication; Wendy Cutts and Dr Lee-Ann Fenge, Faculty of Health and Social Science) held a pilot session for a new e-learning tool which they have developed in collaboration with young people from the Seen but Seldom Heard project.

This e-learning tool has been developed with funding from the Big Lottery Fund, and builds on previous work which has used participatory performative research methodologies, including performance poetry to enable young people with disabilities (aged 14-20 years) to explore the nature of disability within society and their own experiences of being disabled. The previous outputs from this project have included live performances as part of the Cultural Olympiad 2012, local literary festivals, a performance at the House of Commons in December 2014, as well as a documentary film (CLICK HERE for a ‘taster’).

The e-learning tool aims to develop understanding of the needs and experiences of young people with disabilities, in particular, amongst their peers, schools and communities. It includes information and engaging activities, and has been made in collaboration with young people from the Seen but Seldom Heard project. Media representations of disability are largely negative due to the limited number of stereotypes used and these stereotypes contribute to the ‘invisibility’ of disabled people within society. This tool hopes to challenge this ‘invisibility’ by encouraging people to think differently about aspects of discrimination linked to disability. It is hoped that this will be used widely in educational settings, as well as in the wider community to change hearts and minds. It will facilitate learning either as a stand-alone tool, or as part of a wider approach towards diversity and inclusivity.

The pilot session for the tool was helpful in terms of gaining feedback on how it could be further refined, before it is officially launched during the Autumn 2015. CLICK HERE for more details on the Seen But Seldo m Heard project

16 July 2015

Prof. Judy Wajcman LSE speaking this evening in FoL

Festival of Learning Edwin van Teijlingen

Prof Judy Wajcman will be the second speaker in the Distinguished Social Scientists Public Lectures Series tonight in Festival of Learning. The lecture is based on her new book Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism.

Those who attended Prof. John Holmwood’s presentation on last Monday on ‘The University, Democracy and the Public Interest’ will agree that the Distinguished Social Scientists Public Lectures Series started with a great and challenging presentation.

Tonight’s session is free and will be in the Barnes Lecture theatre at Talbot Campus starting at 18.00.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

16 June 2015

FIF Erasmus – Teaching and archive research at Leipzig University

Fusion Investment Fund, Research themes Tom Watson

Professor Tom Watson of the Faculty of Media & Communication visited the University of Leipzig in Germany from June 7 to 12 on a FIF Erasmus visit.

In addition to a seminar on the history of public relations to students on the university’s highly-rated Master of Communication Management programme and workshops on academic writing and Delphi method to doctoral research students, he spent time in the university’s archive.

There he investigated the files of the German PR pioneer Dr Albert Oeckl, looking especially at Oeckl’s involvement with the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) whose archive is held at BU.

He was presented with a trolley containing 14 box files of material ranging from the late 1950s to the early 1990s (see Photo). In these, he found numerous papers and references to IPRA’s early work on the development of international curricula for university-level PR education.

“The Archive’s staff was very welcoming and so helpful in identifying relevant material. Selected documents will used in future research on the formation of public relations studies around the world,” Professor Watson said.

“Material from our IPRA archive has already shaped research papers from authors in Australia, Canada, Germany, Greece and the UK. This link with the Leipzig Archive adds more detail to IPRA initiatives and policy statements that were already known about.”

Professor Watson said that archive research was already influencing a major revision of the history of public relations that will become evident in the teaching of courses. In his Masters seminar, he presented outcomes of recent multi-nation research that challenges many existing texts about PR’s historical evolution.

“I hope that BU can develop an archive similar to Leipzig University’s, although it has a head-start from its beginnings in 1409”, he said. “It’s a resource that aids the Fusion concept.”

Trolley of PR archives

2 June 2015

Joint GeoNet/Datalabs seminar on digital storytelling

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, Knowledge Exchange, Public engagement pgillingham

On the 14^th May we were joined by Malachy Browne from the social media news service Reported.ly. Their role is to encourage social media users to report on humanitarian crises and disasters to get a fuller picture of events and involve people on the ground in journalism. This means that stories from ordinary citizens are represented, rather than the educated elite who tend to be over-represented in traditional journalism. Malachy and his team make good use of geocoded photos from the web taken by citizens on the ground at these crises. I was particularly impressed to learn about googles reverse image search, which allows the team to verify whether a photograph they want to use as a source is likely to be genuine or whether it has been used elsewhere on the web as evidence in other situations – sort of like a turnitin for images.

They also do some really interesting work matching up topographical references in videos (tops of buildings, stand out features) with geocoded photos on google earth to check that the videos are genuine. One very practical use of geographic information was for citizens on the ground to use a compass app on their phone to determine the direction that rockets were coming from during an attack. This was then used externally to work out where the rockets came from and work out a route to get people to safety. He also mentioned a field called forensic architecture, where the viewsheds of soldiers (the parts of a landscape each soldier can see from a set position) were mapped to determine which soldier shot a protester during a rally. Finally, and on to political corruption, he has tied instagram photos posted by politicians during their holidays to flight ownership by political donors, showing an inappropriate use of expenses. In this way he can develop new stories, given context to events as they are happening and provide real time support to those on the ground.

This was a really interesting talk which highlighted the extent to which social media and the internet can contribute geographic information at the short time scales needed to deal with such crises. You can follow @reportedly and @MalachyBrowne on twitter for more information.

Our next GeoNet event is from 12-2 in CG21 this Thursday the 4^th June.

A GEONET & BU DATALABS EVENT

Lunchtime Chat and Skill-share: Mapping for Social Change with Dr. Stephen McFarland

June 4th 2015 – 12:00-14:00

Talbot Campus, CG21

Dr. Stephen McFarland joins us from the University of Tampa to share insights and techniques for using QGIS and CartoDB in mapping projects. Drawing from his extensive work mapping labour and housing struggles, Dr. McFarland will explain how maps can tell stories for social change, make issues more visible, and be used to engage policy-makers and the public.

Lunch will be provided to those participating in the full session, places are strictly limited so please email pgillingham@bournemouth.ac.uk if you wish to attend.

20 May 2015

Working creatively to explore abuse in young people’s relationships – the CATCAM project

Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, student research swincewicz

There is increasing awareness of the risks that young people face in terms of abusive personal relationships and intimate partner violence (IPV), and the Home Office has recently widened the definition the government uses to include abuse against those aged 16-17 as well as adults

Intimate partner violence concerns physical violence directed against a partner and often includes sexual violence and psychological abuse (Jewkes, 2002). This is a global issue and increasing concern is now being expressed about IPV in teenage and young people’s relationships (Keenan-Miller et al. 2007). US research suggests that 66 % of college-aged dating students experience at least one incident of IVP (Smith et al. 2003).

The project which has received Fusion Funding from BU aims to:

Develop creative methodologies/animation to explore the nature of abuse in young people’s relationships;
Explore how such methods might be used in domestic abuse prevention education

To date we have had two creative workshops which have used a range of materials and motion capture to produce a short piece of animation visualising mood and emotion. Those involved have enjoyed trying newapproaches to express and visualise meaning associated with relationships and abuse. It is great to be a co-learner in this process and to be taken out of my comfort zone as we are encouraged to use ‘visualisation’ techniques in a co-produced piece of work. Here are some examples of some of our visualisation work to date.

For more information on the CATCAM project please contact:

Dr. Lee-Ann Fenge lfenge@bournemouth.ac.uk

19 May 2015

GeoNet Seminar on Citizen Science

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, Knowledge Exchange, Public engagement pgillingham

In this GeoNet seminar we were joined by Gitte Kragh (BU Life Sciences), Hayley Roberts (BU AAFS), Rick Stafford (BU Life Sciences) and Paola Palma (BU AAFS), to discuss their different experiences with volunteers and the challenges they faced during the process. Outsourcing of data collection to volunteers is becoming increasingly popular, allowing the time consuming task to become much more efficient. It also provides a beneficial experience for the volunteers, making unique topics and discoveries accessible to the public. For example, Hayley Roberts expressed the importance of sharing archaeological finds, which would usually be off limits to the public, in order to enrich learning and understanding of Britain’s past.

Similarly, Paola Palma discussed her maritime archaeology projects, including the M.A.D. About The Wreck project, which encouraged the wider community to get involved and learn about maritime heritage in Poole. She has made projects accessible to the entire community, providing opportunities for disabled people and even prisoners to get involved and learn.

Gitte Kragh continued the discussion delving deeper into the sociological aspect of citizen science. She has investigated the relationship between volunteer happiness, work ethic and the outcomes for conservation. It seems that the happier the volunteers the greater the efficiency of work. However, the social aspect of volunteering, making friends and socialising with other volunteers may also inhibit work output. This therefore suggests that management of the projects is highly important and should be specialised depending on the age, skill level and type of project, in order to balance volunteer experience and success of the project.

Public participation plays a key role in data collection as Rick Stafford went on to discuss. Rick has explored the use of social media to help with citizen science such as the collection of bee biodiversity data. Using smartphones and apps is a useful and easy way to collect data on a large scale. Engaging the public is a great way to simultaneously collect data whilst educating and encouraging the community to become actively involved in the conservation of our environment and ecosystems. There are challenges however, as the precision and accuracy of the data collected may be limited due to volunteers’ skill level.

All agreed that management of volunteers was crucial to provide successful outcomes for both the volunteers and the project. The extent of engagement from volunteers is dependent on both social and environmental factors. Hayley Roberts agreed that there are many challenges to overcome, particularly in the Archaeology field, where legislation is usually there to restrict access out of fear that unskilled volunteers will cause destruction to these finite resources. Overall though, it seems that citizen science has a fundamental role in collecting important data, whilst providing an invaluable learning experience for volunteers allowing them to actively participate in environmental conservation, raising public awareness in the process.

Charlotte Unwin, GeoNet Intern

Our next seminar is this Thursday the 21st May from 1-2 in PG19. We have a visit from Craig Young (Reader in Human Geography at Manchester Met University), joined by Tim Darville (BU SciTech AAFS) and Anne Luce (BU M & C)

Craig is currently organising a seminar series which will include the politics of (re)burial, trade in body parts, dark tourism, body donation, diaspora and bodily disposal, the ethics of excavation, ‘green’ burial and theological perspectives on the dead body. In this seminar he will give us a perspective on corpse geographies and deathscapes (places for death, dying, mourning and remembrance). He will be joined by Tim Darvill (BU SciTech AAFS) who has recently published on life, death, ritual and regional identity in Britain c. 1600 BC and by Ann Luce (BU M & C) who will bring a perspective from her research into suicide rates across the US and UK, discourses on suicide and suicide in the media.

14 May 2015

Fusion Fund – Study Leave – Manuscript submitted

Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, Post-award, Publishing Christopher Pullen

A little while back (August 2014-Jan 2015) I had Fusion Investment study leave to work on my manuscript ‘Straight Girls and Queer Guys: the Hetero Media Gaze in Film and Television’. Just wanted to follow up from this, to advise that the manuscript has now been submitted to Edinburgh University Press, and its on its way for production. I expect it will be a few months before its eventually published, but its such a relief to actually finish it. The research process was most engaging, and as with all concepts it changes and modifies, as a ‘work in progress’.

Here is a taster of the agreed back cover:

“Exploring the archetypal representation of the straight girl with the queer guy in film and television culture from 1948 to the present day, Straight Girls and Queer Guys considers the process of the ‘hetero media gaze’ and the way it contextualizes sexual diversity and gender identity. Offering both an historical foundation and a rigorous conceptual framework, Christopher Pullen draws on a range of case studies, including the films of Doris Day and Rock Hudson, the performances of Kenneth Williams, televisions shows such as Glee, Sex and the City and Will and Grace, the work of Derek Jarman, and the role of the gay best friend in Hollywood film. Critiquing the representation of the straight girl and the queer guy for its relation to both power and otherness, this is a provocative study that frames a theoretical model which can be applied across diverse media forms.”

Now I am on to my next book project, the educational biography of Pedro Zamora.

13 May 2015

What’s Happening at the Consumer Research Group?

Research themes jmemery

The Consumer Research Group (CRG) has a number of activities planned over the coming months, which it would like to inform colleagues about.

Forthcoming Events

1. Interdisciplinary Research Week – May 13^th, 12-2pm, Barnes LT, Talbot Campus

As part of this week of events, Juliet & Jeff (Management School), Janice (Media) and Siné (Science & Technology) will be presenting on interdisciplinary research in Consumer Behaviour. The event will start with lunch at 12 followed by our presentation at 12.30. All are welcome to attend.

Contact: Juliet Memery is hosting this event so please contact her if you have any queries or just come along!

2. Ideas Camp – 11^th June, Russell-Coates Museum
Most of you will have seen Janice’s email about this. The idea is to have a day away from Campus when we can meet together as a group and start to think about working on research together. We hope that each of us will emerge with the beginnings of a research project that we can take forward.
Contact: Janice Dengri-Knott is hosting this event so please contact if you have yet to book a place on this event. We already have 20 bookings so please hurry as we may soon reach capacity for this event.

3. Making Contact with Business Event – 23rd June, Venue: TBA, Talbot Campus

As we work out our research we may wish to make contact with business in order to seek funding or work with industrial partners. Jayne Codling, Liam Toms and Rachel Clarke have kindly agreed to give a short workshop introducing you to how you might go about this. Many of you will have been involved with business previously but this will provide an up-to-date picture of how this is working at BU currently.

4. Writing effective research grants and getting research grant support – TBA, September

5. Speaker Series
Speakers are now being booked for September, November and January. We hope to be able to hold these in the early evening to allow both academics and business contacts to come along. Our aim is to provide high profile speakers talking on interesting/controversial subjects. More news will follow shortly.

Best wishes

Siné, Juliet, Janice & Jeff

11 May 2015

Seminar on political violence today

brichards

The Politics and Media Research Group in FMC has a very stimulating guest speaker lined up for this afternoon (Monday). Dr. Jeffrey Murer is Lecturer on Collective Violence at the University of St. Andrews, in the School of International Relations. He is unusual for an IR specialist in that he draws deeply on ideas from psychoanalysis in his studies of violent political conflict. The title of his talk is “The Politics of Splitting: Anxiety, Loss and the Anti-Semitic, Anti-Roma Violence of Contemporary Hungary”. While focussing on the situation in Hungary, his talk will illustrate how an interdisciplinary, psycho-social approach can be applied to generate insights into violence in many other contexts.

The talk will be in P406. It will start at 5.00 and be followed, until 6.30, by questions and discussion.

All staff and students are welcome.

7 May 2015

Reverse Mentoring, Fusion and Threshold Concepts

Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer, Public engagement, REF Subjects, student research gretad

Writing a blog post about our experience at the ABS (Association of Business Schools’) annual conference on Learning, Teaching and Student Experience, 27-29 April 2015, has proven to be a great way to fill in the time waiting for a plane back from York, UK!

Louise (Preget), Deborah (Taylor) and I (Milena Bobeva) had been to York to present the work from the first stage of the Fusion project on Reverse Mentoring (RvM) in Higher Education. This student:staff co-creation/co-production project examines RvM, a strategy where younger, less experienced employees share their knowledge and expertise with a more senior person. Our team has studied industry practices as viewed and experienced by our placement and post-placement students.

The conference was a brilliant opportunity for academics within UK Business Schools to share and showcase best practice in a number of key streams including internationalisation, blended learning, the changing student and employability. Bournemouth University had a strong lobby there with five academics and three publications, including two by Dr Sukanya Ayatakshi, who presented some assessment and engagement practices on the fully online International Business and Management undergraduate programme.

There was unanimous agreement amongst the BU team that the most interesting session at the conference was the talk on ‘Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge’ delivered by Prof. Ray Land from Durham University. It stressed the importance of challenging our habitual practices as both learners and educators and made us recognise RvM as a threshold concept. Further detail of this seminal work is available here and on this website.
For those interested in finding out more about reverse mentoring and the findings of the Fusion project, we will be running a session at the Festival of Learning: 3-5pm on the 14^th July 2015 in PG142-144.

30 April 2015

GeoNet Human/Wildlife Conflict

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, Knowledge Exchange, PG research, Public engagement, student research pgillingham

For our most recent GeoNet event we were lucky enough to have a visit from Gaius Wilson all the way from Southern India. Gaius told us about his PhD research into elephant behaviour. Apparently there are 12-15,000 elephants in Southern India, and they commonly come into conflict with humans. Farmers try to protect their crops with deep ditches (elephants can’t jump!) and electric fences. However, elephants are clever, and have realised that their tusks don’t conduct electricity, so the males (females don’t have tusks) push over fences or use trees to break them. An emerging problem is the spread of a weed called Lantana, which was introduced from South America as an ornamental hedge plant. Lantana forms very high, dense stands which elephants can’t cross. It takes up space and so there is a loss of fodder, since elephants don’t eat Lantana, and the plant contains oils and can lead to more intense forest fires. This pushes elephants closer to villages to find food, and means that locals with captive working elephants have to travel further to find food. One thing the forest department can do to stop elephants being forced to use farmer’s resources is to remove Lantana where it appears. Employing villagers to do this could create work opportunities, with associated economic benefits.

After Gaius’ talk we had an interesting discussion (joined by Susanna Curtin and Mandy Korstjens) about the potential for wildlife tourism to mitigate human/wildlife conflict. The idea is that if farmers have another income stream provided by tourists, it becomes in their interest to protect the animals that the tourists pay to see. However, most wildlife tourism in India is domestic, so not much cash is generated. There are pitfalls with this type of tourism, in that guides and others employed are often not local people, hotels are usually some distance from wildlife sites and locals often don’t receive any benefit from tourist visits, which can lead to resentment. There are some success stories – in Peru all guides are local by law and receive training to fulfil the role. Small-scale tourism in Peru involving locals has spread as nearby villages see the benefits and follow the example of those who set up schemes. However, in India legislation prevents people from setting up such schemes in protected areas, and until this is allowed nature tourism won’t have a role in persuading locals to protect elephants.

Our next three events are;

7^th May 13.00-14.00 Lawrence LT (Talbot Campus)

Participatory Research – Gitte Kragh (BU Life Sciences) Hayley Roberts (BU AAFS) Rick Stafford (BU Life Sciences) Paola Palmer (BU AAFS)

14^th May 13.00-14.00 KG01 (Talbot Campus)

Storymaps and place-based storytelling – Anna Feigenbaum (BU M & C)

21^st May 13.00-14.00, PG19 (Talbot Campus)

Cultural heritage landscapes and deathscapes – Craig Young (Reader in Human Geography at Manchester Met University), Tim Darville (BU SciTech AAFS), Anne Luce (BU M & C)

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Reverse Mentoring, Fusion and Threshold Concepts

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