Category / Public engagement
Surrogacy, legislation & exploitation
A few months ago Jillian Ireland (BU Visiting Faculty) and I wrote a short Bournemouth University Research Blog on the case widely reported in the media about the Thai baby abandoned by the Australian parents who had ‘placed the order’ for the surrogate child. Following this Blog, Dr. Vijay Sharma, Consultant Physician in Chelmsford, sent me a very interesting paper that appeared in last week’s BMJ.
The paper ‘Taming the international commercial surrogacy industry’ is written by health journalist Sally Howard. She highlights the different laws (or absence thereof) governing surrogacy. She cites an Australian lawyer as saying: “there are no international conventions and agreements …. Legal issues relating to parentage and immigration vary so widely that the process can result in dramatic outcomes, such as a child born via surrogacy who is both legally orphaned and stateless.”
Howard makes a very good point that legislation in low-income countries such as Thailand, India or Nepal is important to help protect surrogate mothers and their off-spring, but equally important is the role of high-income countries to legalise the commercial surrogacy market within their own borders. High-income countries such as the UK, Australia, the USA and the Netherlands have a moral duty to legislate for (restrict) our citizens to help protect poor and vulnerable people in low-income countries from engaging in unethical and/or exploitative commercial surrogacy transactions.
Visit vizecounselor.com if you’re looking for a Thai lawyer for class action lawsuit.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health, Bournemouth University.
Sascha Dov Bachmann: BU academic to visit Swedish National Defence College
The Swedish National Defence College (SNDC) invited Sascha Dov Bachmann for a two day visit to the Swedish capita as part of his ongoing affiliation with the SNDC.
Sascha, who works as an Associate Professor in International Law for the Law Department of BU also runs jointly with Dr. Melanie Klinkner the Cluster Centre for Conflict, Rule of Law and Society which has in the past organized a variety of security related activities.
During his visit from 5th to 7th November 2014 Sascha will give a presentation on Eco-warfare and discuss an upcoming publication on Hybrid War.
He will also discuss potential PhD projects and research collaborations as part of BU’s commitment to internationalization.
FOL 2015- Event idea of the day
A University Challenge style event between BU and another local university
University Challenge has been a TV hit and a favourite for many generations over the years, but have you thought of running a University Challenge styled event as part of the Festival of Learning?
Why run this style of event?
This events catchy theme will be recognisable to many and you really could attract a large audience. If you can create an entertaining session, which encourages audience members to come together to back BU against a local university, you could generate a real interest in your event.
Perhaps you may consider having a studio audience format which tests our brightest BU sparks against a local opposition? This would generate a great atmosphere and has proven to be a hit in previous years.
If you are looking to enagage a widespread audience demographic this may be the event idea for you. In addition, this will provide a fantastic networking opportunity for yourselves, as you interact with the general public.
This style of event has the potential to leave audience members with a new found passion for learning and the opportunity to pass on the experience they had to their friends and family. This will hopefully result in BU being recognised as leading experts in Research and Knowledge Exchange.
Next steps
If you wish to find out more about the proposal process and the Festival of Learning as a whole, please click here.
If you have an further questions please email me at gibsonh@bournemouth.ac.uk
If you would like help on developing your idea please email Naomi Kay at nkay@bournemouth.ac.uk
AHRC funded Engaging Readers Event
On 29 October in The Octagon, an AHRC funded workshop brought together international scholars researching digital reading with teachers and students from the locality to discuss what use might be made of digital reading and social media tools in the classroom.
In the opening paper, Joachim Vlieghe and Geert Vandermeersche from the University of Ghent outlined the ways in which the emergence of new platforms and digital tools is offering new opportunities for readers to engage with texts, other readers and authors. They reported on a study they conducted with trainee teachers using Goodreads, a popular book recommendation site with over 30 million members. This research has recently been published in the journal New Media and Society, and offers valuable insights into the potential pedagogical uses of such sites, while also recognising the strong misgivings teachers have about the kind of discussions and interactions that take place in such seemingly free environments.
In the discussion that followed, teachers from local schools and colleges commented that while they found such resources interesting and potentially valuable, the demands of delivering targets and rigidly teaching to the curriculum meant that in reality they had little time to explore or incorporate them into their classes. The discussion also focused on how sites such as Goodreads come and go, or are bought out and commercialised by large corporations (Goodreads is now owned by Amazon), and how they might in fact mimic rather than offer an alternative to the ways in which literature is taught in the classroom.
BU colleagues Julian McDougall and Richard Berger then presented the findings of their AHRC funded project exploring videogames as ‘authorless literature’. The study, which involved lecturers and students on BA English at BU, set out to explore whether the skills typically developed by students of literature could be applied to videogames, with students turning the tables on their lecturers by teaching them how to play L.A. Noire. A study guide based on the project has been produced and is available to download at http://cedare-reports.co.uk/digitaltransformations/
Also receiving support from the AHRC through the Digital Transformations call, Bronwen Thomas and Julia Round reported on the first of their projects to be funded, Researching Readers Online. This project involved an online survey of users of book-related online forums, and focus groups with students, local writers, librarians and members of local reading groups. The project was in part motivated by the desire to explore how teachers of literature might learn from the kinds of discussion and engagement taking place online, but the findings in fact challenged many existing preconceptions about ‘digital natives’ and their reading habits and preferences.
This was the penultimate event organised by Julia and Bronwen as part of their latest AHRC award, supporting the establishment of an international Digital Reading Network. Previous events included a symposium held at BU in June 2014. The final event will take place in early 2015 in London, bringing together publishers, writers, charities and public sector organisations to discuss the issues raised by research in this area.
Event – 3D Printing: A Selection of Stakeholder Perspectives
Friday 7th November 2014, Executive Business Centre
There has been much written on the latest developments relating to additive manufacturing or 3D printing as it is more commonly known. The recent rise of low-cost consumer 3D printers have also made the headlines and raised interesting and complex questions.
However, there is limited literature and debate on the implications of 3D printing surrounding intellectual property law, economics, policy, society and technology.
To understand these various implications, this event, co-sponsored by the ESRC and UKIPO and hosted by Dr. Dinusha Mendis Co-Director CIPPM, will bring together industry experts, social scientists, policy makers, lawyers, economists and manufacturers of 3D printing and as such will go beyond the developments in 3D printing in order to understand the implications for various stakeholders.
It will take place on Friday 7th November, 2014 at Bournemouth University’s Executive Business Centre, 89 Holdenhurst Road, BH8 8EB (close to the main railway station).
The event will also provide the platform for a discussion and peer-review of the UKIPO Commissioned Report on the Intellectual Property Implications of 3D printing carried out by researchers at Bournemouth University and Econolyst.
This multi-disciplinary event will be complemented by an exhibition of 3D printing facilities provided by Bournemouth University together with one of the world’s largest 3D printing open-source companies, Ultimaker (Winner of Best Consumer Product and Best Consumer Software at the 2014 3D Print Show Global Awards).
The event is free to attend, although spaces are limited and registration is required. Those with a research interest in 3D printing are welcome to engage in debate on the challenges and opportunities facing this latest emerging technology.
For further information about the event and programme, please visit the CIPPM website. For queries, please contact BU Events (buevents[at]bournemouth.ac.uk) or Dr. Dinusha Mendis (dmendis[at]bournemouth.ac.uk)
Participation in regional and national conferences provides challenging learning opportunities for BU social work students
In October, Michelle Lillywhite and Karen Sampson, final year students on the BA Social Work programme at Bournemouth University attended two conferences, one organised by a local charity working with adult survivors of childhood abuse Dorset Action on Abuse (DAA) and the second organised by British Association of Social Workers (BASW) in conjunction with the Northern School of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy.
DAA, who offer support groups and one to one counselling for adult survivors, held their annual conference in Boscombe, Dorset. The theme of the conference was supporting people who have been sexually abused though the criminal justice system and how this can effect the working relationship between practitioners and survivors, alongside the personal impact of this work on practitioners. Speaking on the day were representatives from both the local Dorset police’s Child Protection Unit Senior Investigating Officer, John Merrick and Julia Woodward, Senior Crown Chief Prosecutor, from the Crown Prosecution Service Wessex.
The questions from the floor about when the police ‘believe’ a victim were answered with a refreshingly honest account of a police investigator who explained their role isn’t to believe but to build a case with evidence that has a ‘high chance of conviction’. We felt, however, that it is the role for the social worker/counsellor to offer this trust, belief and acceptance of the victim and that the police had a very different, more process-led role within the journey of criminal proceedings. This provided us with significant insights into the differences between professions engaged in the same kind of work with people.
The support that DAA offer people within the local community through these difficult and challenging processes was a continual theme in the personal account shared offered of a survivor’s journey through the criminal justice system which for them resulted in a conviction and ‘validation’ that the horrific abuse they endured was wrong.
It showed us though that while the triumph of a conviction is a positive thing the essence of the entrenched abuse and the victims’ mind-set resulting from their experiences is not so easily eradicated. An important lesson for us as trainee practitioners was that even though we see that justice has been done it does not mean that ‘closure’ can ever really be attained; something we will remember.
The national BASW conference, held in Leeds, was entitled ‘Unsticking the stuck’ and based on a live supervision session with a willing volunteer. The facilitator demonstrated to us how we, as practitioners, can get ‘stuck’ within a case by not concentrating on the most important aspect: understanding and working towards the needs of the client.
In this scenario, the delegates comprised a good mix of students, like us, and more experienced and qualified practitioners who dealt with complex cases – something we aspire to do once qualified!
The initial expectation of the day was that we would come away with some therapeutic interventions to add to our ‘toolkit’ before undertaking our practice placement. However, this was not the case, rather the day prompted an exploration into the meaning and importance of supervision for us as practitioners. I think as well being able to understand and get to grips with a real case and not just a case study the conference gave our discussions on the day more credence and depth as this was a real situation, laced with complexity. It introduced us to something, unfortunately, ever prevalent within our society.
Attending external conferences gives us, as trainee practitioners, the ability to step outside of our comfort zone – the classroom – and explore our knowledge, experiences and natural instincts of working with an increased understanding of complexity. Crucially, this gives us the opportunity to gain insight into the remit and responsibilities of other practitioners which can only strengthen our awareness of the importance of today’s multi-agency working. It creates an understanding of working strategies and thinking outside the box plus the opportunity to network, share ideas and in these cases add something to our ‘personal toolkit’ as future practitioners.
Michelle Lillywhite & Karen Sampson
Social work students
A ‘how to’ guide on setting up the BUbble Dome
On Monday 20th October you may have seen the unveiling of the BUbble dome on Talbot campus for Open access week.This proved to be a major success and talking point of the campus attracting alot of positive attention. For those of you who may wish to get involved in using the BUbble Dome, here is a step by step guide on setting it up.
- Slide the rolled up dome out of your vehicle using the blue bag provided. Once you have the dome out of the van, move the dome into the centre of the place you wish to pitch it.
- Out of the van you will need to get the Power cables, extension lead, 6X gold weights (see photo), 1X Orange Air pump, 4 Queue Barriers and the Seating pads. Firstly, plug the power cable into the electrics.
- The next step is to lay out the dome so that the entrance is at the end you wish it to face; It may be wise to put up queue barriers around the area before rolling it out.
- One person out of your group must go into the deflated dome through the front door and thread the Power lead through the vent in which the air blows through. One person is then required to assist from the outside in pushing the cable through the tube (As seen in the pictures). The tube can then be tied to the Air pump as shown. This step is crucial!
- Make sure that the inside door is zipped up and turn on the Air pump, As the Dome inflates make sure that the outside Air flaps are sealed.
- Once the Dome is half inflated begin to tie down the weights as shown, with three weights for each hook.
- The Bubble is almost ready to use! Once the dome has reached the level of inflation you are looking for unseal the outside flaps. Then asyou begin to load cusions, tables, TV’s and more, make sure you always enter the Bubble in this order:Un-zip outside door, enter the deflated space and wait as a member of your team zips this up.Once this is zipped you can open the inside door and re-zip when inside.Follow this routine as and when people are required to come in/out.
- Once you have your Dome in operation it is important to have a team member inside and outside at all times. They will maintain numbers coming in and out to make sure the doors are correctly used. This is vital as if both doors are open, the dome will deflate extremely quickly.
- Success! Enjoy as the dome engages with and attracts great attention at your event.
If you wish to make any enquiries about the Bubble Dome please email Barry Squires on bsquires@bourenmouth.ac.uk
Alternatively, contact Harry Gibson on gibsonh@bourenmouth.ac.uk
Attention! Cafe Scientifique is almost here
How does light intensity and our ability to recognise patterns affect what we “see”? How you can produce 3D images using a low cost digital camera? Come along to find out more about the tricks our minds play on us and find out how to …make your own optical illusions.
We will look forward to seeing you all on the evening at the usual time between 7:30-9:00pm (Doors at 6:30pm) at Cafe Boscanova. This talk will be run by the excellent speaker Professor Jeff Bagust who is returning to Café Scientifque for the second time!
As we bring out our cold winter clothes, be sure to put the date in your diary and get your friends along for what will be an evening not to miss!!
CMMPH Baby Friendly
Congratulations to all in the midwifery team for achieving re-accreditation as Baby Friendly. The UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative’s Designation Committee recently re-assessed Bournemouth University’s Midwifery programme. This committee reported earlier this week that “Bournemouth University (Midwifery) should be re-accredited as Baby Friendly.
The UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative University Standards programme is an accreditation programme aimed at university departments responsible for midwifery and health visitor/public health nurse education. It was developed to ensure that newly qualified midwives and health visitors are equipped with the basic knowledge and skills they need to support breastfeeding effectively.
Baby Friendly Initiative accreditation is awarded to an individual course, not to the university itself. Universities are welcome to apply for accreditation for each of the courses they provide for the training of midwives or health visitors/public health nurses.
Well done!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
The talk of the town – the Open Access Bubble
If you haven’t noticed by now, there is a giant bubble outside of Kimmeridge House this week in celebration of the International Open Access week. The Open Access Bubble will be set up outside of Kimmeridge House (weather permits) and you can visit us between 10am to 3pm, until this Friday.If you think that the Open Access Bubble looks cool from the outside, check out the insideThere is a Bubble talk every day from 10am to 11am, covering important topics like ‘The Benefits of Open Access’, ‘Open Access and the Philosophy of Openness’ and ‘Public Engagement Opportunities for Academics and Open Access’. Not only that, we also offer free doughnuts to visitors of the dome. You also get to laze on the bean bags while you watch some interesting video abstracts featuring some of our open access publications; and videos on the importance of open access.So please take this opportunity, visit the Open Access Bubble and get involved! For information on other events that are taking place, please visit www.bournemouth.ac.uk/open-access
NB: If the weather does not permit the setting up of the Open Access Bubble, the Open Access Room will be set up at CG02, Christchurch House.
Bournemouth University researchers contribute to international workshop on Public Service Motivation
Dr. Fabian Homberg and two of BU’s HR&OB PhD students presented their latest research findings at the workshop on “Behavioural Foundations of Public Service Motivation – Exchanging and Aligning Human Resource, Organizational Behaviour and Public Administration Perspectives” at Friedrichshafen, Germany. Organized by Dr. Homberg and Prof. Rick Vogel, Zeppelin University (ZU), and co-funded by Zeppelin University and German Research Foundation (DFG), the workshop attracted top researchers in the field of public service motivation (PSM) from Europe, Asia and the Americas (details here: https://www.zu.de/lehrstuehle/pmpp/psm-workshop-2014.php).
“We enjoyed one and a half days of inspiring, high quality research and in-depth discussions on various aspects of public service motivation,” Homberg said. “Events like this one are crucial for bridging disciplines, advancing theory and help all participants to develop networks and research projects in a friendly, international and collegiate environment.”
Workshop presentations highlighted the different manners in which PSM can be utilised across sectors and in various contexts. Bournemouth PhD student, Jordan Vincent, presented the finding of her experimental research which involves public service motivation, rewards and incentives.
“Having an opportunity to discuss my research with the top researchers in my field and receiving such targeted feedback has proved invaluable in helping me further develop my work,” said Vincent. “Such workshops are a fantastic place to network with real giants in the field and the informal discussions over dinner have been as interesting and important in helping shape my work and my future direction as formal feedback has been.”
Some presentations highlighted how corruption in public administration could be predicted by PSM levels. Other researchers explored the impact PSM could have on the workforces’ job performance or job satisfaction.
“The workshop was the first of its kind to bring together scholars in the fields of HRM, OB and PSM,” explained Dr. Julian Gould-Williams, Keynote speaker from Cardiff University. “It provided a forum to discuss theoretical issues and challenges facing researchers wishing to advance academic scholarship. Of particular note was the supportive environment in which young and more established researchers interacted with each other, thereby optimising collaborative responses to emerging issues.”
Homberg added “We are grateful for the support we received from ZU and DFG, but I also need to thank BU for funding a similar, but much smaller event at the EBC in 2013 which triggered the efforts for the 2014 workshop on “Behavioural Foundations of Public Service Motivation – Exchanging and Aligning Human Resource, Organizational Behaviour and Public Administration Perspectives.”
Some of the research presented at the workshop will – if surviving the peer-review process – be published in a special issue in the International Journal of Manpower. The call for papers can be found here and is open to everyone working on HRM and PSM: (https://www.zu.de/lehrstuehle/pmpp/assets/pdf/CfP_IJM_HRM_PSM.pdf).
RUFUS STONE goes LIVE and FREE on the Internet
Bournemouth University is pleased to announce that the research-based, award-winning short film, RUFUS STONE, goes live and can be viewed for FREE on the Internet from 25th October.
The University has championed the film as ‘an outstanding example of public engagement at BU’ and as ‘inspirational’ in the University’s Annual Report.
RUFUS STONE is based on three years of a Research Council UK funded study of the lives of older lesbians and gay men in south west England and Wales, a part of the national New Dynamics of Ageing Programme of research.
Winner of two awards at the prestigious Rhode Island International Film Festival in 2012, the film has gone on to be screened at film festivals, other universities in the UK, USA and Canada and by organisations such as Alzheimer’s Society UK, LGBT groups, and health, social and ageing support networks.
The film has been reported in the press widely, including in the New York Times, Times Higher Education, The Independent, BBC Radio 4 and local media.
RUFUS STONE was directed by Josh Appignanesi (The Infidel) and produced by Parkville Pictures, London. The film stars William Gaunt and Harry Kershaw, sharing the title role of “Rufus”. Niall Buggy and Tom Kane take on the part of Rufus’ love interest, “Flip”. Tattletale “Abigail”, a role shared by Lin Blakley and Martha Myers-Lowe, completes the triangle. The film cleverly interweaves each of the three main characters’ younger selves with their older selves. Gaunt commented: “It’s a sad and touching story, but also one about age and what it’s like to fall in love when you’re very young, and how that remains with you.”
Award-winning author and educator, Patricia Leavy, describes the plot in her review of the film for The Qualitative Report:
The film tells the story of a young man in rural England who, while developing an attraction to another young man, is viciously outed by small-minded village people. He flees to London and returns home 50 years later and is forced confront the people from his past and larger issues of identity and time.
Leavy sums up: “This film is as good as most Oscar-nominated shorts, and vastly superior to many. In my opinion, it is just about as good as a short film gets.”
Author and Executive Producer of RUFUS STONE, Dr, Kip Jones, has written widely in the academic press and elsewhere on the process of collecting the biographic material and subsequently his writing the story for the film. He has presented the film with follow-up Question and Answer sessions at prestigious institutions such as Cambridge, Birkbeck, Durham and Keele Universities in the UK.
Jones explains the process of creating composite characters based in the research and, indeed, in his own experience:
The naïveté of same-sex attraction and young love, too often forbidden and misunderstood love, was a story reported over and over again in our study and. therefore, became central to the plot of the film. By compositing these stories in RUFUS STONE, at last we remember them together, finally gaining strength in each other for something misunderstood and condemned from our isolated youthful experiences.
Jones is available by arrangement for Q&A discussions by Skype following screenings for larger audiences. Contact: Kip Jones mailto:kipworld@gmail.com
Trailer for the film: https://vimeo.com/43395306
Background on the research and making of the film: http://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/rufus-stone/
Screenings of the film would be appropriate for a wide variety of audiences, including in undergraduate and graduate teaching, community groups, and LGBT and ageing support organisations. Length: 30 minutes.
Book the Bubble Dome for your team meeting next week!
As part of International Open Access Week, events will be taking place in ‘BU’s Bubble Dome’ on Talbot Campus in the Courtyard. The dome can also be booked for team meetings and if you’d like to book this alternative space for your meeting please email Barry Squires.
The dome is available on the following dates and times:
- Monday 20 October, noon – 4pm
- Tuesday 21 October, 9am – 10am and 3pm – 5pm
- Wednesday 22 October, 9am – 10am and 3pm – 5pm
- Thursday 23 October, 9am – 10am and 3pm – 5pm
- Friday 24 October, 9am – 10am and 3pm – 5pm
Fitting a maximum of 15 people, the Bubble Dome accommodates soft bean bag seating only and a laptop and flat screen TV is available for use. It is a fully enclosed weather proof installation, but will be unavailable in severe wind or rain.
Congratulations to Malala Yousafzai !
The Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health would like to take the opportunity to congratulate 17-year old Malala Yousafzai on winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Her call for education for every child, especially every girl, is praiseworthy. But her work is more than a local activism; she put her life at risk. Two years ago she was shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating the education of girls and women!
We know from our research in Nepal that educating girls has all sorts of positive effects. For example, it means they are likely to marry later, with is associated with having the first child later and having fewer children in total. This in turn means they have a greater chance of survival in childbirth. In Nepal the overall literacy rate (aged 5 years and above) rose from 54.1% in 2001 to 65.9% in 2011, but women (57.4%) still lag behind men (75.1%). We have seen a reduction in maternal mortality over the past two decades, which is in part driven the increase in education levels of girls.
As educators we feel strongly affiliated with her calling, but we must acknowledge that Malala was one of two winners this year. We would also like to congratulate Indian Human Rights Activist Kailash Satyarthi. Mr Satyarthi fights the grave exploitation of children for financial gain.
Malala is not only part of the minority of women who have ever won the Nobel Peace Prize, she is also the youngest ever to win the award!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Why talk about sustainable food production is largely hokum
Talk BU Live in Dylan’s Bar with Sean Beer
The second Talk BU Live event will feature Sean Beer questioning whether we really want sustainable food or if it’s all just hokum.
Join us in Dylan’s Bar at 5:30pm on Tuesday 21 October
There is much talk about sustainability, but really it is just talk.
We don’t even agree on what the word means. In the meantime, middle class consumers assuage their consciences at the farmers markets buying luxury products, whilst our children eat mass produced rubbish for their school lunches.
We don’t want sustainability; it would affect our standard of living too much. It’s all just hokum.
About Sean
Sean is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Tourism who has spent 30 years campaigning for the environment and the rural community with a specific focus on local food.
He is about to publish a book chapter entitled, ‘Does the pursuit of local food destroy our environment: questions of authenticity and sustainability?’
Sean is also a Winston Churchill Fellow, a Nuffield Scholar and contributes regularly to the media.
About Talk BU Live
Talk BU Live is a once monthly on-campus event designed to get people talking, thinking and shouting. Talks are no more than 20 minutes long and open to all students and staff at BU. Get involved by tweeting us using #TalkBU.
Don’t miss the next Talk BU Live events on Tuesday 11 November and Tuesday 9 December. To find out more contact the team at newsdesk@bournemouth.ac.uk or check out the Talk BU page.
Please note that these events will be video recorded and made available online.
Calling all science and sports enthusiasts: Are you interested in running a stand at a popular science event?
The 2015 Royal Holloway Science Festival is looking for partners who are interested in running an interactive stall, particularly related to the theme of the Science of Games. This event will be held on the 7th March and will run between 10am until 4pm.
About the festival
Royal Holloway Science Festival has been running since 1986 and is one of the longest-running science festivals in the country (and perhaps the world!). It is an extremely popular event with local people also from visitors further afield, with over 6,000 people attending in 2014. Exhibition areas are curated by the academic departments within the science faculty, which includes Computer Science, Geography, Maths and Psychology as well Physics and Biological Sciences.
The festival is free to attend so we would welcome anyone as visitors, but if you would like to be involved in the delivery please contact rhsf@rhul.ac.uk or lucy.yeomans@rhul.ac.uk with an outline of what you are thinking of doing and whether you would like to be hosted by one department in particular or in the main building (or outside).
Do not hesitate to contact if you have any questions.
‘It’s Only Banter!’ – ‘Lad Culture’ in University settings
On the evening of the 30th September, the Women’s Academic Network hosted a well attended debate on ‘lad culture’ in the wake of the published NUS research report on women’s experiences of this phenomenon in Higher Education Institutions in the UK. The report entitled That’s what she said was based on commissioned research undertaken by the Centre for Gender Studies at Sussex University.
Crucially for our institution, two of our speakers that night were undergraduate students at BU. They were supported on the debating panel by Blogger and journalist, Reni Eddo Lodge and ‘No More Page 3’ campaign founder Lucy Ann Holmes.
The prevalence of so-called ‘lad culture’, constitutes an important debate to be had at any contemporary UK HEI; and where none are likely to be insulated from this widespread social phenomenon, which appears to be becoming more entrenched in university life, for reasons that are unclear. We were thus particularly pleased that BU took a lead in further illuminating this worrying social issue in this manner. However, the seriousness of lad culture was greatly underestimated by the organisers until this was more fully illuminated by the visceral personal accounts of the speakers.
Consequently, due to the deeply personal nature of these accounts verbatim details of the speakers’ experiences were requested to be withheld from public dissemination; permission for photographs was not given; and the names of student panellists are anonymised. Nonetheless we are able to offer the following issues and insights that we believe are crucial for all HEIs. These seek to address the student experience in relation to the personal safety of students, both female and male, as well as seeking to implement a zero tolerance approach towards intimidation, harassment and the assault of students by students, many of whom have their first encounters of such in Freshers’ Week. During the Week, as we have learned, too often a mixture of a heady sense of freedom from authoritarian constraints, and fuelled by heavy levels of alcohol consumption, create a lack of inhibition for group dynamics that can be experienced as highly confrontational and indeed menacing.
The audience, composed of a mixture of primarily academics and students of both sexes, engaged enthusiastically with the debate – articulating their own sense of unease and even distress at the manifestations of ‘lad culture’ they or their relatives had been exposed at various UK HEIs, including sadly, at BU. These experiences ranged from students (in this case, male students) feeling put off joining sporting activities at university because of the perceived, overtly alpha male, über-macho environment. Worse still were stories of aggressive verbal attacks on other students, often strangers, and often with overtly sexist and racist overtones attached. Additional examples ranged from public belittling and bullying behaviour to the revolting public rating of unwitting, student, sexual partners on an open Facebook site. Furthermore, we heard about alarming sexual molestation towards primarily female, but also male students, escalating to examples of serious assault, including rape, where victims may continue to have to face their attacker in classroom settings.
Although aware to a greater or lesser extent of the ‘lad culture’ issue (and not regarding ourselves as particularly naïve) we were still both profoundly shocked and disturbed to hear these stories, some coming from our own students. The debate put flesh on the vague, skeletal suspicions we have occasionally harboured of possible harassment and bullying of some of our students that may have been responsible for the regrettable decision of, otherwise promising, students who suddenly drop out of their programmes.
Academics, by and large, are usually blissfully unaware of the extent of these kinds of intimidation taking place in the student body. If students do complain of their treatment, it is usually not to academics that they turn, for some reason – this is particularly worrying when the pastoral role of Academic Advisors is strongly promoted. Our guess is that harassment, intimidation and assault is seen as something outside of the rarefied academic setting and as not directly linked to student studies – although of course the ramifications of these situations are clearly apparent to student progress and retention.
What therefore should be done? The extent of these events needs to be investigated and recorded rigorously in order to develop a clearer idea of the extent of the problem. The agenda to enhance the student experience at BU, laudable though it indubitably is, will not in itself eradicate victimisation of students by students; but it can be used to greatly extend its remit to offer enhanced protection of students and to severely penalise those who prey upon their fellows. It can also be used to further inform and bolster the role of the Academic Advisor as one that is integrally conjoined into a pastoral and academic enhancing role.
We would also be keen to see additional institutional support towards student safety initiatives; for example, embedding ‘consent’ workshops into Freshers’ induction in relation to sexual experimentation; in addition to the aforementioned zero tolerance policies towards the abusive repercussions of ‘lad culture’. We would like to see visible ‘safe’ spaces where women who have been assaulted can go; and in this vein, should there be a need, appropriate services for male victims. The issue of what constitutes rape and sexual assault in relation to student safety is of such gravity that more attention needs to be given from the outset to raise awareness of this among student groups, particularly among our vulnerable new Level C students, many of whom are recent school leavers.
The debate left us with mixed views: horror that these were some of the ‘normal’ experiences that predominantly (but not always) female students have; but also reassurance that at least this is an institution where we are able to talk about this issue. Now that it has been publicly raised momentum needs to be maintained: we need to talk about it, to act upon it and we look to colleagues for support in this regard.
Sara Ashencaen Crabtree and Heather Savigny