BU Research Blog

March 19, 2024

BU Social Work in the news!

BU research, conferences, Featured academics, humanities, Knowledge Exchange, Uncategorized, Women's Academic Network Edwin van Teijlingen

Earlier this month the BBC website reported on a summit hosted by Bournemouth University which brought leaders in the field to bring an end to gender-based violence. The BBC report was under the heading ‘Dorset violence against women and girls summit to be held‘. This success event was organised by BU lecturers Drs. Orlanda Harvey and Louise Oliver, who were subsequently interviewed by BBC Dorset and BBC Radio Solent. You can listen to the interviews on https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0hct37f?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile (about eight minutes into the programme) and https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0hct465?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile (just over eight-and-a-half minutes into the programme).

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)

March 12, 2024

Appreciative Inquiry Resource

BU research, COVID-19, Featured academics, humanities, innovation, NHS, Public engagement, Publishing, research methods, Training, Uncategorized, Women's Academic Network, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Today we received a copy of the book Appreciating Health and Care in the post. This book has a sub-title ‘A practical appreciative inquiry resource for the health and social care sector’ and refers to the work led by Bournemouth University’s Dr. Rachel Arnold. Appreciative Inquiry values people’s expertise and vision and can motivate people to see the world differently and instigate positive change. Rachel been the lead author on several publications around Appreciative Inquiry [1-3].

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)

References:

Arnold, R. (2024) Learning to use Appreciative Inquiry, i2Insights, 16th January.
Arnold, R., Way, S., Mahato, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2024) “I might have cried in the changing room, but I still went to work”. Maternity staff managing roles, responsibilities, and emotions of work and home during COVID-19: an Appreciative Inquiry, Women & Birth 37: 128-136.
Arnold, R., Gordon, C., Way, S., Mahato, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2022) Why use Appreciative Inquiry? Lessons learned during COVID-19 in a UK maternity service, European Journal of Midwifery 6 (May): 1-7.

March 6, 2024

BU is a University Gateway Partner for AHRC-funded StoryArcs Programme

BU research, humanities, Industry collaboration, Knowledge Exchange, Research news lskains

Across the UK, 11 Story Associates are on a mission…

The StoryArcs Pilot Programme sees skilled individuals take on a presented challenge as they deepen their understanding of the value and potential of Story. Each of the 11 Story experts brings with them a range of skills in telling, analysing, and/or researching stories, and experience across multiple sectors, including creative writing, virtual reality, and community engagement.

We’re delighted to be a University Gateway Partner on the StoryArcs Programme, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The programme is led by Bambo Soyinka, the world’s first (and only) Professor of Story, at The Story Society, Bath Spa University.

Locally, Dr Kayla Jones is working with Local Trust to collect and preserve the community experiences generated by their “Big Local” funding project. She is based at Bournemouth University, and mentored by Lyle Skains.

With the help of the Story Associates, the StoryArcs Programme is conducting a deep exploration into the nature of Story Skills. They’re seeking to find out what Story Skills are, to define and categorise them, and to examine how they work to enable diverse and innovative benefits.

Discover more about StoryArcs and the Story Associates at: https://storyarcs.com/blog/meet-the-story-associates/

February 8, 2024

Call for applications for Being Human Festival 2024 is live!

BU research, humanities, Public engagement Amanda Edwards

Being Human takes place 7-16 November this year and is marking its 10th anniversary with the theme of ‘Landmarks’. The organisers say: ‘We will be looking back on landmark events in our history, while imagining landmarks we might yet create. We invite researchers to join us in thinking about physical or metaphorical landmarks and how they shape our world.’

If you would like the chance to take part in the UK’s national festival of the humanities, there are different ways to get involved:

Funded pathway

Festival Event grants: up to £4,000 to organise a single event or multiple events (Deadline: Friday 12 April)

Unfunded pathway

Festival Event: organise a festival event that does not require funding from Being Human (Deadline: Friday 7 June)

If you are interested, you can find guidance for applicants, further details and some frequently asked questions on the Being Human Festival website.

There will also be an online information session ‘Applying to Being Human 2024’ on Tuesday 20th February, 11:00-12:00. Find out more and sign up: https://www.beinghumanfestival.org/get-involved/webinar-2024

If you would like to discuss your application with a member of BU’s public engagement team, please email publicengagement@bournemouth.ac.uk.

January 24, 2024

Call for Participants: British Academy SHAPE Research Careers workshop for Early Career Researchers

ECR Network, humanities jfallows

The British Academy is running a project on the SHAPE of research careers, specifically looking at the identity, activity, and mobility of SHAPE postdoctoral researchers, from early career to mid- and late career. We would like to invite anyone who identifies as an early-career social sciences, humanities, or arts researcher to participate in the final workshop, which will be taking place on 1 February 10am to 1pm on Zoom. As a participant in our online workshops, you would also be invited to attend the March conference, with an opportunity to help develop policy options to better support researchers and research, and to network with SHAPE researchers from across UK higher education and other sectors.

If you would be interested in sharing your experiences as an early-career SHAPE researcher in our online workshop or would like more information, please do get in touch with Eleanor Hopkins (e.hopkins@thebritishacademy.ac.uk) and Sharaiz Asin (s.asin@thebritishacademy.ac.uk).

January 10, 2024

Communication in the aftermath of an NHS staff suicide: New research published today!

ECR Network, Fusion themes, humanities, Impact, nhs, NHS, open accecss, open access, parliament, PG research, Postgraduate Research, Public engagement, Publishing, Research Centres, Research communication, Research Ethics, Research news, research staff, student research aluce

Prof. Ann Luce (FMC), Ms. Georgia Turner (PhD candidate FST), Ms. Lauren Kennedy (MSc student FST) and Dr. Reece D. Bush-Evans (Lecturer in FST) are pleased to announce the publication of their most recent work in British Medical Journal: Medical Humanities titled, “Quite simply they don’t communicate: a case study of a National Health Service response to staff suicide”. You can access the article here for free.

Workplace suicide can have significant knock-on effects within an organisation, yet research has shown within the healthcare profession, not all staff receive suicide prevention training, and few employers take the time to reflect on the need to change workplace policies or practices following the death of a staff member to suicide. How staff suicide is communicated across an organisation and to family members is important. Effective crisis communication is critical for effective management for a timely and sensitive response to a staff suicide within an organisation. By doing so, workplaces can help to reduce the significant emotional trauma suicide can have on an employee, and support good mental health across its workforce.

This groundbreaking work in the field of suicide prevention is already having an impact. The work was cited by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee recent report on “Improving Mental Health Services”. Furthermore, the research has served as the underpinning evidence for NHS England’s National Suicide Prevention Toolkit for England, which will be implemented across all NHS Trusts in England. And, with a renewed focus on healthcare suicide, with a specific focus on female nurses, the research served as underpinning evidence for England’s National Suicide Prevention Strategy that was released in September 2023.

The team would like to thank all research participants as this was a difficult project to complete. Further, thanks must also be extended to NHS England for funding, the BU Open Access Fund, and the colleagues across BU who read drafts of the work prior to publication.

January 2, 2024

ECR and Interdisciplinarity in the Medical Humanities

BU research, ECR Network, Events, humanities, RKE development framework Katerina Kakaounaki

This ECR-focused event brings together researchers in Medical and Health Humanities at Bournemouth from across the faculties of Health & Social Science, Media & Communication and Science & Technology, inviting them to highlight and address the main challenges of working within this varied and interdisciplinary field.

It will feature an expert roundtable and open discussion, followed by breakout groups and opportunity for networking activity for ECRs.

Roundtable participants will be invited to speak for 5 minutes, drawing on their experience of research partnerships across disciplines. Suggested topics for speakers to address include, but are not limited to:

Research and knowledge exchange in MH
Publishing (choosing the right journal for MH research, collaborative writing)
Bidding (where to bid, what for and how to construct productive teams and partnerships)
How to work effectively together but also maintain a sense of disciplinary identity
What experiences have participants had and how has this affected your research career to date?
Imposter syndrome
Work/life balance

ECR and Interdisciplinarity in the Medical Humanities

Wed `21` Feb `2024` `11:30 AM` – `3:30 PM at Talbot Campus`

This event is for BA ECR Network members only. You can join the network here and book your place through the following link Tickettailor

ECR attendees will be invited to write and submit their questions for the panel in advance of the session, sending them by email to: RKEDF@bournemouth.ac.uk

In the second phase of the event, ECR attendees will be put into breakout rooms to discuss how their own practice might address these challenges, identify areas of future support they require and reflect on their professional identity as an interdisciplinary researcher in this field.

For any further information please contact RKEDF@bournemouth.ac.uk

December 14, 2023

MaGPIE has taken flight!

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, humanities, Impact, international, policy, REF Subjects, Research news, UKRI efisher

“There is not one region in the world, not one historical period, that has not seen mass graves”.

(UN Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial summary or arbitrary executions, 2020)

Wednesday 13^th December marked the launch of MaGPIE, the pioneering £1.6 million ERC selected UKRI funded research project, run out of the Humanities & Law department in the Faculty of Media and Communication.

MaGPIE stands for Mass Grave Protection, Investigation and Engagement and asks: how can a comprehensive and universally applicable human rights framework for mass graves can be developed and achieved?

To answer such a magnitudinous question, MaGPIE has strategically organised its research into three interconnected pillars:

Pillar 1 asserts that comprehending the scale of global mass graves is paramount to understanding the nature of the problem. Consequently, pillar 1 will result in an open-source map of mass grave sites and ancillary outputs that have the potential to strengthen protection, forensic investigation, justice efforts, commemoration and remembrance for the benefits of survivors.

Pillar 2 identifies and seeks to remedy human rights blindspots that persist within present practices surrounding mass graves. These blindspots will be addressed through researching: cultural and Indigenous rights; issues of access, consent and data protection; participatory rights and vulnerabilities due to climate change.

Bournemouth Protocol on Mass Grave Protection and Investigation land and sea migratory routes and to what extent they might contain mass graves and hence warrant protection through a concerted human rights framework and policy.

The launch of MaGPIE was a momentous occasion for Professor Melanie Klinkner and her growing team. Professor Scott Wright, Deputy Dean for Research and Professional Practice, kindly introduced the MaGPIE team members: Dr David Biggins, project management and data specialist in BUBS; Emily Fisher the Research Assistant and HSS prize winning graduate; Dr Ellie Smith and Dr Ian Hanson Senior Research Fellows, and newly appointed data researchers Diego Nunez and Ellen Donovan. Internal stakeholders were invited to raise a toast—of non-alcoholic mulled wine—not only to celebrate the project’s launch but also to acknowledge the collaborative efforts that brought MaGPIE to the starting line.

If you are interested in following the work of MaGPIE stay updated by following our LinkedIn and Twitter profiles for the latest developments over the coming years.

December 7, 2023

Promoting interdisciplinary research

conferences, ECR Network, Featured academics, Global engagement, humanities, international, Publishing, REF Subjects, research integrity, research methods, research staff, Research Training, Training, Uncategorized, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

This week’s Bournemouth University (BU) advertised a forthcoming event in February 2024 ‘Early Career Researchers and Interdisciplinarity in the Medical Humanities – South West‘. To promote this event I would like to highlight some papers published recently by BU academics on interdisciplinarity.

First, Dr. Shanti Shanker in the Department of Psychology and Dr. Pramod Regmi in the Department of Nursing Science and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the Department of Midwifery & Health Sciences published the paper ‘The Interdisciplinary Team Not the Interdisciplinarist: Reflections on Interdisciplinary Research’ [1]. This interesting paper is co-authored with two BU Visiting Faculty, Ms. Jillian Ireland, Professional Midwifery Advocate in Poole Maternity Hospital (University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust) and Prof. Padam Simkhada based at the University of Huddersfield. This paper argues that interdisciplinary working is within the team, not the person being interdisciplinary . Multidisciplinary teams provide unique opportunities for researchers from different disciplines (and hence different ways of working and thinking) to collaborate with one another. We need to be careful not to try to create interdisciplinarists, or at least, not too many. The worlds needs people who are strong in their discipline and open-minded/flexible/reflective enough to see the value of other people’s disciplines.

Secondly, the Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences published our editorial ‘Public Health is truly interdisciplinary’ [2]. This editorial was largely written to counteract some of the jurisdictional claims made in Nepal by certain people in Public Health. These claims express themselves in arguments around the question whether Public Health is a single academic discipline or a broad interdisciplinary profession comprising many different individual academic disciplines. There are two quite distinct and opposing views. Some argue that Public Health is a broad-ranging single discipline covering sub-disciplines such as Epidemiology, Management, Medicine, Nursing, Health Psychology, Medical Statistics, Sociology of Health & Illness and Public Health Medicine. Those who support this argument, typically see: (a) Public Health is the overarching dominant discipline, which brings these sub-disciplines together; and (b) that a true Public Health practitioner amalgamates all these individual elements. Others argue that Public Health is more an overarching world view or interdisciplinary approach for wide-ranging group of professionals and academics [2]. In this view some Public Health professionals are first trained as clinicians, others as psychologists, health economists, health management, statisticians, or demographers, and so on and have later specialised in Public Health.

Thirdly, doing multidisciplinary research is not without its problems, hence we reflect on some of these in the paper ‘Interdisciplinary Research in Public Health: Not quite straightforward’ [3]. The authors are BU’s Dr. Pramod Regmi, Dr. Nirmal Ayral in the Department of Nursing Science and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, and BU Visiting Professor Padam Simkhada and BU graduate Dr. Pratik Adhikary (currently at the University of the West of England). We all are Public Health researchers, with very different educational backgrounds and training, reflecting the diversity of and interdisciplinarity in the field. Several of us have a first degree in Education or Health Education, but one has a first degree in Sociology. Whilst four of the five authors have Master degree in Public Health and/or Health Promotion, two have a Master in Education. Most of the authors have a Ph.D. in Public Health, but again the Ph.D. of one of us is in Sociology. The key point is that we are all working in Public Health.

Unfortunately the ‘Early Career Researchers and Interdisciplinarity in the Medical Humanities – South West’is for ECRs from the South West Hub only.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMWH

References:

Shanker, S., Wasti, S.P., Ireland, J., Regmi, P., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2021) The Interdisciplinary Team Not the Interdisciplinarist: Reflections on Interdisciplinary Research, Europasian Journal of Medical Sciences 3(2):1-5.
Wasti, S.P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P. (2020) Public Health is truly interdisciplinary. Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences 6(1): 21-22.
van Teijlingen, E., Regmi, P., Adhikary, P., Aryal, N., Simkhada, P. (2019). Interdisciplinary Research in Public Health: Not quite straightforward. Health Prospect, 18(1), 4-7.

November 15, 2023

2023-24 Missing Persons Indicator Cohort begins work

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, humanities, research integrity, research methods, Student Engagement, student research mklinkner

A team of 10 LLB Law students from across all levels is collating data on a pro bono basis on international, knowledge exchange project.

The Missing Persons Indicator Project is a collaboration between the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) and Bournemouth University, with students at the heart of the project. Through students’ voluntary extra-curricular engagement, they are gathering data for sustained, high quality indicators and analysis. At the same time, participation equips students with a plethora of transferable skills and valuable research experience while contributing to a real-life societal problem with the overarching aim of alleviating missing persons cases.

So here’s a massive thank you to our student researcher cohort of 2023-24:

Angel Beaumont
Arman Ali
Maisie Lee
Lola Jones
Suzie Moore
Jazz White
Poppy Holland
Jasmin Sidhu-Bansal
Lydia Gee
Siobhan McClatchey

The data collated will help better understand the way states engage with, and seek to solve, missing persons cases, thereby assisting those involved in missing persons efforts. The collation and analysis of data will have a dual purpose: (1) to highlight missing persons protection and investigation mechanisms for improved implementation but also to (2) assist in prevention efforts. The development of indicators offers a way to capture the necessary data whilst facilitating analysis and comparison.

Findings to date will form part of the forthcoming ICMP Global Report and we will present the project rationale, methodology, data analysis and visualisation at the online Social Data School in December as part of the University of Cambridge Digital Humanities initiatives. Over the past two academic years and through the help of dedicated students on staff (Dr David Biggins from BUBS; Melissa Bowden from the Library and Dr Jonathan Whittle in H&L), on structural indicator 1 alone, some 12,288 data entry points have been populated.

The missing persons indicator project team has developed a robust platform and methodology for continued data collation. We are really pleased and grateful to continue on this path to complete the data set for structural and context indicators.

October 12, 2023

Dr Alina Dolea thanked by UK Modern Slavery and Organised Immigration Crime Unit

BU research, BU2025, COVID-19, Fusion, humanities, Impact, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, policy, Public engagement, Research Centres, Uncategorized edolea

Dr. Alina Dolea, Associate Professor in Strategic Communication and Public Diplomacy and Deputy Head of Department in Humanities and Law, received a letter of thanks from the UK Modern Slavery and Organised Immigration Crime Unit (MSOICU).

Dr. Dolea contributed with expertise and insights from her research on Romanian diaspora community in the UK to the Romanian and Roma Cultural Resource, a deliverable that MSOICU developed for the Home Office. In addition, on September 13, 2023 she delivered the webinar for the launch of the resource together with a Romanian NGO representative and a Romanian police officer in the UK, a format that was considered very successful.

There were over 80 police officers in the pilot webinar – the handout and the recording of the webinar have been since shared with all police force modern slavery leads and related stakeholders.

For the handout and the webinar, Dr. Dolea provided a historical background on the formation of the Romanian nation and the Romanian Roma community (including their discrimination and Holocaust during WW2), key aspects of Romanian and Roma cultures (language, religion, family life).

She explained the main reasons for emigration and the emotional costs of migration, the issue of lack of trust in authorities, but also trust in each other (fractured during Communism).

She also provided recommendations for communicating and engaging with Romanian and Roma victims or potential victims of modern slavery and organized immigration crime, as well as a list of further readings that were incorporated in the final documents.

June 19, 2023

British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship- Scheme to open 5th July

ECR Network, Funding opportunities, humanities Eva Papadopoulou

The British Academy is inviting proposals from early career researchers in the humanities and social sciences wishing to pursue an independent research project, towards the completion of a significant piece of publishable research. Applicants must be of Early Career Status, meaning they must apply within three years from the date of their successful viva voce examination.
The applicant must already be of postdoctoral status at the time when the Research Awards Committee meets. Scheme to open 5th July 2023 with an expected deadline of 4 October 2023.

The British Academy runs a two stage application process each year, with the deadline for outline applications falling in early October and for the second stage in February or early March the following year, for Fellowships to be taken up at the beginning of the following academic year.

If interested to apply for this call, please get in touch with Eva Papadopoulou.

June 5, 2023

June 1, 2023 (Post-)war memory & media politics, Kosovo – international guest lecture, Wed 7th June

BU research, Fusion themes, Global engagement, humanities, international, Research Centres sssievers

Colleagues and their students might be interested in an international guest lecture offered by a political sociologist, Dr Gezim Selaci, and a ECR-media studies scholar/historian, Artan Krasniqi, from Kosovo (University of Prishtina, Department of Sociology). The talk is organised by the Centre for Seldom Heard Voices: marginalisation and societal integration (FHSS).

Gezim and Artan will be talking about “Kosovo Dark Heritage”: unheard voices of the Kosovo war and its aftermath. The talk will cover questions of conflict/ post-conflict memory, media representation and politics, and silenced voices and experiences in Kosovo (details in this Flyer (Gezim & Artan).

Gezim and Artan are the (nearly) last visitors we are hosting in our soon-expiring BU-Kosovo Erasmus mobility projects, which have been running since 2018.

The extended lunch time talk will take place next Wednesday in EB-708 (Lansdowne campus), from 12:00 to 14:00.

All staff & students welcome!

Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers

(Associate Professor in Applied Anthropology)

sssievers@bournemouth.ac.uk

May 16, 2023

British Academy Funding for public engagement for humanities and social sciences

BU research, Events, Funding opportunities, humanities, Impact, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, pre-award, Public engagement, Research communication, research opportunities Adam Morris

The British Academy has launched a pilot funding scheme to support ambitious projects to engage the public with the humanities and social sciences. It is called SHAPE Involve and Engage.

Key Information

Level of award – up to £8,000

Scheme opened date – 10 May 2023

Deadline date – 28 Jun 2023 – 17:00 BST (ITB must be submitted 4 weeks prior)

Duration of award – Any length, provided activity is delivered between October 2023 and October 2024

How to apply – see below

About the scheme

These awards, up to £8,000, offer an exciting opportunity for humanities and social sciences researchers to push boundaries and seek imaginative new ways to engage with the public. They are looking for researchers from across the UK to deliver innovative public engagement projects working in partnership with a gallery, archive, library or museum (GLAM organisation).

This pilot programme offers the opportunity to think outside the box, test a new approach and be ambitious in your approach to engaging a public audience with your research.

As part of the programme, a ‘community of practice’ workshop will be hosted for successful applicants in early September. Alongside sessions on evaluation and working with your audiences, award holders will have the opportunity to share their plans with other workshop attendees. You will act as critical friends and sounding boards, sharing ideas, giving feedback and troubleshooting possible challenges, and forming a network of support through the duration of the project development and delivery.

Why should you apply?

The programme will:

Act as a catalyst to get a project or idea up and running.
Be an opportunity to try a new approach or work with a new audience to gain new perspectives on your research.
Offer the chance to build a new partnership with the cultural sector or try a new idea with an existing collaborator. The chance to work with a partner who truly adds value and makes a meaningful contribution to your project through their expertise, connections, skills or collections.
Allow you to make contacts and find networking opportunities with others in the research community who are interested in exploring new and innovative approaches to public engagement.

About you

The British Academy are searching for creative academics who want to experiment with their engagement work and find new ways to share their research with a public audience.

The call is open to any researcher based in the UK who meets the conditions of the call. You do not have to have received funding from the British Academy previously. Successful award recipients are expected to have some prior public engagement experience, but we welcome applicants from a diverse range of backgrounds, experiences, expertise and career stages.

Please note that if you will hold a Mid-Career Fellowship or Wolfson Fellowship which will be active between October 2023 and October 2024 you are not eligible to apply, because these awards include support for public engagement and your engagement activities should be delivered using the funding from your existing award.

Level of award

Up to £8,000.

This is a pilot programme with funding from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and is funded for 2023-24 only.

Funding provided through this scheme cannot be used to cover the cost of replacement teaching, payment in lieu of salary or computer equipment or hardware. The scheme is not covered within the FEC regime – the £8,000 awards are available to the award holder only for direct expenses to deliver the public engagement project. For full details of eligible costs, please see the scheme guidance notes, Flexi-Grant application instructions and terms and conditions.

Duration of award

The duration of the award is flexible. Proposed activities could range from a one-off event, to an ongoing series of engagement activities taking place over a number of months. However, all activities should take place between October 2023 and October 2024.

Application process

Please refer to the scheme guidance for more information about the awards scheme. You can also find detailed instructions for completing the application form in the Flexi-Grant application instructions. Further details about the terms of scheme, including eligible costs, can be found in the scheme terms and conditions.

This funding is subject to the same internal processes as external research funding. Before applying, interested PIs (Principle Investigators) should submit a completed e-ITB form (Intention to Bid) by 4 weeks before the deadline.

Application deadline: Wednesday 28 June 2023, 17:00 GMT

April 19, 2023

Being Human Festival 2023: Applications now open!

BU research, Events, humanities, Impact, Knowledge Exchange, Public engagement ballen

Being Human Festival returns 9⁠–⁠18 November 2023 with the theme Rhyme or Reason.

Being Human is the UK’s national festival of the humanities, a celebration of humanities research through public engagement. Led by the School of Advanced Study at the University of London, the UK’s national centre for the pursuit, support and promotion of research in the humanities. The festival works in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy to support humanities public engagement across the UK.

About the festival

Each November, Being Human Festival presents hundreds of free events across the UK and beyond. Festival events aim to celebrate and demonstrate the ways in which the humanities inspire and enrich our everyday lives, help us to understand ourselves, our relationships with others, and the challenges we face in a changing world

The festival aims to:

demonstrate the value and relevance of humanities research to society in the UK and globally;
encourage, support and create opportunities for researchers to engage with non-specialist audiences;
embed and join together public engagement activities in the humanities across the higher education sector.

Every year, humanities researchers and other staff from universities and research organisations are invited to apply to take part in the festival by organising a public engagement event, activity or project.

If you’re interested in taking part, please read through the Being Human 2023 – Application Guidelines

Pathways

The Open Call – organise an activity that does not require funding from us. Submit your Open Call application online by 5pm, Friday 23 June 2023.

A Being Human Café is a simple, off-the-shelf activity that does not require funding from us. Submit your Being Human Café application online by 5pm, Friday 25 August 2023.

Applying to Being Human 2023

Find out more about applying to the festival by watching the recording of ‘Applying to Being Human 2023’ webinar that took place on Wednesday 29 March. Before putting together your application, please ensure you refer to the relevant further information document, case studies, planning toolkits and FAQs.

This funding is subject to the same internal processes as external research funding. Before applying, interested PIs (Principle Investigators) should submit a completed e-ITB form (Intention to Bid) by 4 weeks before each deadline.

New online application process

All applications must now be submitted via the online system Survey Monkey Apply. Please follow the step-by-step instructions on how to set up your account and submit an application. Application form templates have been provided to assist with preparing answers for submitting online.

Contact

If you have any questions about applying to the festival that are not answered in the FAQs, please contact apply.beinghuman@sas.ac.uk.

If you would like advice on developing ideas or submitting your application, please contact Adam Morris (Engagement Officer) publicengagement@bournemouth.ac.uk

March 23, 2023

Online public lecture from BU academics this evening: Pioneering women at the BBC

BU research, Events, Featured, humanities, Impact, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, Public engagement, Research communication, Women's Academic Network Adam Morris

For more than a century, the BBC has been a fixture of British cultural life. However, few people are aware of the key role played by women in its earliest days.

The next event in our online public lecture series will showcase the pioneering women of the BBC – from female producers through to the engineers, broadcasters and managers who carried the BBC through the Second World War and beyond.

The free event will take place online from 7pm – 8.30pm on Thursday 23 March.

Dr Kate Terkanian and Dr Kate Murphy – from the Faculty of Media and Communication – will share stories uncovered by their research into women in the BBC, from the 1920s up to the 1950s.

There will also be the opportunity for audience questions.

The event takes place during Women’s History Month, which this year is celebrating ‘The Women Who Tell Our Stories’, encouraging recognition of women, past and present, who have been active in all forms of media and storytelling.

It is the third event in BU’s 2022/23 online public lecture series, which showcases our research and expertise across key areas. The first lecture series attracted more than 1,000 attendees from across the world.

Find out more and book your place

March 9, 2023

BU HL team wins award at the BISA Model NATO at FCDO in London

BU2025, Events, Fusion, Fusion themes, Global engagement, humanities, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, Knowledge Transfer, Knowledge Transfer Partnership, RKE development framework, Strategic Investment Areas, Student Engagement edolea

BU students in the Humanities and Law Department, Shahidah Miah (3rd year Law student), Alex Carey (2nd year History student) and Josh Pitt (3rd year Politics student) won the Distinguished Delegation Award at the BISA Model NATO. The event took place at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office on Friday, March 3rd, and was organized by the British International Studies Association in partnership with FCDO.

Over 100 students from 30 UK universities participated at the 2023 edition. It is the first time BU takes part in this simulation and wins a team award, against some powerful teams from universities with long tradition of politics and international studies.

What is BISA Model NATO – This is a simulation type of event. Students are randomly allocated a country and each student is part of a specialised NATO body – the Military Committee and the Civil Emergency Planning Committee. The students then have to agree a detailed set of actions to be endorsed in a final declaration by a simulated North Atlantic Council, NATO’s highest authority. BU team successfully represented Canada.

In BISA’s press release summing up the event, Mark Webber (BISA President) said: “The simulation is designed to provide students with experience of crisis decision-making; to get them into the heads of people having to make tough choices in very testing circumstances. The students rose to this challenge very well. The Model concluded with a declaration agreed by all the student delegates on how NATO should respond to a major natural disaster. The students performed just like seasoned diplomats.”

Employability skills demonstrated. Simulation events are a recognised model of learning and allow participants access to insights unobtainable in a traditional classroom setting. Our BU students had very good & concise interventions, demonstrated excellent negotiating skills, proposed great initiatives and worked brilliantly as a team representing Canada, thus contributed to reaching overall consensus at the end of the day. They were true diplomats for a day. And they also networked with fellow students, staff from other universities and diplomats from FCDO. They received glowing praises for their interventions during the day.

Why this is so timely – Students participating in the model are working on the aftermath of a natural disaster – multiple earthquakes across the eastern Mediterranean and South-East Europe resulting in significant loss of life and mass displacement of populations. Given the current context, both geopolitical with the War in Ukraine and the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, but also more broadly the climate change and the likely increase of natural disasters in the near future, working on such scenarios helps prepare students for real life situations. In addition, such events are inspiring students to embark upon careers and projects in diplomacy, government, non-governmental organisations and the military.

BU delegation at BISA Model NATO was advised and supported by Associate Professor Alina Dolea and Senior Lecturer Scott Keefer.

The full press release featuring our students is available here – BISA/FCDO Model NATO 2023 – Over 100 students from 30 universities | BISA

February 23, 2023

War in Ukraine anniversary: Webinar on March 1st & Academic Forum co-edited by Dr Alina Dolea

BU research, Events, Featured academics, Global engagement, humanities, international, Research Centres, Women's Academic Network edolea

On February 24, 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine, the “What can we do?” question was obsessively emerging in our private talks, in our professional conversations, in social media interactions. Russia’s invasion was literally hitting very close to home for Dr. Alina Dolea, as an Eastern European scholar with personal experiences of life under Soviet domination and of the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc in the early 1990s, as well as parents and family living in North Romania, close to the border with Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova.

She initiated conversations with colleagues in the field which resulted in an academic Forum co-edited with Nadia Kaneva (University of Denver, US) and Ilan Manor (Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel) for Place Branding & Public Diploma cy. The Forum Public diplomacy and nation branding in the wake of the Russia–Ukraine War | SpringerLink aims to identify academic concepts, theories, and assumptions from the field which have been cast in doubt—or need to be re-examined—in light of the Russia-Ukraine war. In order to encourage continued engagement, each of the eleven essays in the Forum, as well as the editorial Introduction, conclude with a section that outlines specific gaps in public diplomacy scholarship and directions for future research.

To mark the publication of the Forum, the co-editors are organizing a webinar on March 1, starting with 4pm. Together with Nadia Kaneva, Nicholas Cull, Maria Repnikova, Roman Horbyk, Ilan Manor (PhD), Alina will reflect on nations’ reputational security, the need to reconceptualize soft power, the use of transmedia storytelling and memes in war, the consequences of displacement for Ukrainian refugees and the relevance of emotions and trauma in diaspora and public diplomacy.

Please join the webinar and RSVP here: Public Diplomacy & Nation Branding in the Wake of the Russia-Ukraine War Tickets, Wed, Mar 1, 2023 at 4:00 PM | Eventbrite

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