Congratulations to Dr Clare Killingback on her inspirational pedagogy article on assessment feedback. Enhancing the student experience through systematic inquiry along with Dr Osman Ahmed and Dr Jonathan Williams.  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0260691718308785?via%3Dihub

Dr John Oliver (FMC) requires a research assistant to work on a British Academy funded project, starting in early January.

The project involves a longitudinal analysis of Corporate Annual Reports using the qualitative software package NVivo. The first stage of the research will involve up to 150 hours of work paid at Grade 6. The successful applicant will be an experienced NVivo user and proficient in English Language.

For further details or an informal chat, please contact Dr John Oliver (FMC) via the following email address (joliver@bournemouth.ac.uk)

Virgin StartUp is a not-for-profit organisation, started by Sir Richard Branson, that helps entrepreneurs in England with the funding, resources and advice they’ll need to make their business idea a reality. Their main focus is to help entrepreneurs get the support they need to turn their great idea in to a successful and sustainable business. Anyone 18 or over and a British citizen or legal UK resident who wants to start or expand a new business that’s less than a year old in England may be eligible for a start-up loan.

In each area that they are based Virgin Start Up look for suitable people to become mentors and Debbie was approached to become the first female mentor for Bournemouth and surrounding areas. The mentor’s role is to act a a sounding block to help develop the entrepreneur’s confidence, knowledge and skills. Mentors are not there to tell what to do or even how to do it, but to help them make the right decisions themselves.

As part of her role Debbie also attends the Screw It, Just do it Virgin Start Up talks in Bournemouth https://www.startupu.co.uk/new-events/2018/11/29/the-real-ted-talk-2 the next one of which will be Ray Kelvin the founder of Ted Baker. Other recent talks have been from Candy Kittens (co owned by Jamie Laing), Conker Gin, Jimmy’s Iced Coffee. If anyone is interested in knowing more please email dsadd@bournemouth.ac.uk

Professor Iain MacRury, Visiting Professor and psychotherapist Brett Kahr and I are hosting an event at the EBC in Bournemouth, 2-4pm Saturday 10 November.

We will be sharing psychosocial perspectives on the meanings of empathy and the potential for its development in a polarised Brexit landscape.

Tickets are free, but limited and so book your place soon.  Further details can be found on the link below.

We hope to see you there!

Candida Yates

Prof of Culture and Communication, FMC

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/communicating-empathy-in-a-post-brexit-landscape-tickets-51241331201

The BU Research Staff Association (RSA) are hosting a writing morning on 21^st November in P402, Poole House, Talbot Campus. As part of the morning we will run a shut up and write session, this includes some networking over coffee and cake plus focused writing time where you should plan to work on one activity. The room will be available from 9-1pm with the shut up and write session taking place 10-11am. Refreshments will be provided at 10am. The RSA writing mornings are open to all staff at BU, and we particularly welcome those on research specific contracts including PGRs.

Please feel free to join us for the whole morning, the shut up and write hour, or any other part of the morning.  Please note this is a seminar room only so you will need to bring your own laptop if you wish to use one.

For catering purposes please email mheward@bournemouth.ac.uk if you wish to attend.

We look forward to seeing you there.

BU Research Staff Association

The end of October saw the conclusion of the AHRC funded ‘Romantic Scotland’ Project. Working with Historic Environment Scotland (classed as an Independent Research Organisation) and colleagues at Bath, Edinburgh and Xin’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Professor Michael Silk formed part of the research team that sought visitor experiences of Scotland through the Romantic Scotland Exhibition that debuted at Nanjing museum earlier this year. The exhibition saw over 100,000 visitors.

Using an array of methodologies—ranging from development of a tracking up, to a video booth, to a graffiti wall, to ‘postcards’ to Scotland–the research team collated and analysed over 10,000 individual data instances. A resultant stakeholder report was launched at Edinburgh Castle and the Tate (London) in October 2018. Attendees included those from the creative, museum, tourism, and heritage sectors from both the UK and China; we are already gathering evidence with regard to how the research will change policy and practice within these sectors!

The research has provided the focus for visits and workshops in Nanjing organised by Visit Scotland and Scottish Enterprise; has been presented to senior UK and China government ministers at events in Shanghai and London; features on the coverof the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s publication A Decade of Success; has inspired a spin-of  knowledge exchange workshop on heritage tourism hosted by the Suzhou Municipal Administration of Tourism; and has been discussed at a number of UK-based and international conferences, seminars and workshops.

To download the full report, visit:

https://www.historicenvironment.scot/archives-and-research/publications/publication/?publicationId=7a349db2-9cb0-46c5-8da5-a97d00863f89

And for a blog from HES during the week of the launch events (including a fascinating video drawn from the data (a snippet of the 6000 video booth responses) that demonstrates Chinese understandings of Scotland based on the exhibition visit here:

https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2018/10/romantic-scotland-insights/

Dr Varuni Wimalasiri of  (Faculty of Management) took part in a panel discussion on ‘International Activism’  at the WOW festival in Exeter last weekend. She spoke about her projects ‘Woman’s Work’ (funded by the Big Lottery) and also ‘HANDMADE’ (PALMERA), both which are helping refugee women to reclaim their livelihoods following displacement due to war.  In the panel Varuni spoke about how we all have a role, in whatever shape or form, in speaking up and creating opportunities for those who are marginalised.  Amongst the panelists were Grace Campbell who is a co-founder the Pink Protest.

Southbank centre’s WOW – Women of the World festival  is a global network of festivals looking to create an impact and change.  It celebrates women and girls, and looks at the obstacles that stop them from achieving their potential.  This year in the centenary of women getting to vote in UK and the #MeToo campaign – WOW was particularly important. It was a fantastic event full of food for thought!

https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/festivals-series/women-of-the-world

Dr. Miguel Moital, Principal Academic in the Department of Events & Leisure, delivered a workshop on academic writing to Masters students from the Estoril Higher Institute for Hotel and Tourism Studies (ESHTE), the leading Hotel and Tourism School in Portugal.

Academic writing tends to follow different standards in countries like Portugal and Miguel was invited to share best practice in academic research and writing to 20+ students who are currently starting their dissertation.

Among other topics, the lively four-hour workshop discussed the 6’C’s of academic writing excellence, the three pillars of research (Process, Content and Context), theoretical underpinning (models and frameworks) and writing strong arguments.

ESHTE is Miguel’s ‘second home’ as he holds a degree in Tourism Management from the school (he was part of the first cohort of students) and worked there for 10 years before joining BU.

Miguel is the author of the e-book “Writing Dissertations & Theses: What you should know but no one tells you”, where he shares valuable practical information about the process of writing academic work, notably dissertations. The book starts with explaining the six criteria, expressed in the form of 6 ‘C’s, required to produce high quality dissertations: Confined, Corroborated, Critical, Coherent, Concise and Captivating. The e-book then goes on to share a range of ‘tips and tools’ which contribute to fulfilling the 6 Cs.

BU academics can obtain a free inspection copy of the ebook by sending an email to Miguel (mmoital@bournemouth.ac.uk)

Miguel visited ESHTE in addition to work carried out in Porto as external international examiner for the Portuguese Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education – A3ES.

Update on progress of our LEAP: Landscape Ecology and Primatology research group at Bournemouth University.

EU-funded postdoc Cici Alexander completed her 2 year position (https://go-leap.wixsite.com/home/forest-3d-ecocarb) with Ross Hill and Amanda Korstjens in September 2017. It was sad to see her go but it’s fantastic to see her four papers all accepted and online now.  Cici analysed LiDAR and UAV imaging data to identify trees and forest structural characteristics for the tropical forests that LEAP works at in Indonesia. Our papers are online and open access (although 1 only via BU’s BRIAN):

The work continues in collaboration with our charity partners (Matt Nowak, Graham Usher, Dr. Gabriella Fredriksson) at Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme, and Prof Serge Wich from Liverpool John Moores University as well as Dr Abdullah from our international partner Universitas Syiah Kuala. Authors of the completed papers also include Emma Hankinson and MRes student Nathan Harrison.

1. Alexander, C., Korstjens, A.H., Usher, G., Nowak, M., Fredriksson, G. and Hill, R.A., 2018. LiDAR patch metrics for object-based clustering of forest types in a tropical rainforest. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 73, 253-261. PDF open access on the journal’s website

In this most recent paper, we identify habitat types using LiDAR data from Batang Toru, Sumatra, Indonesia where the newly identified and highly threatened Tapanuli orangutans occur and a planned dam is threatening the ecosystem.

Fig. 6.  Vertical profiles through the point cloud from an area of 500 m × 20 m with all the six clusters (A), with the three shortest clusters (B) and the three tallest clusters (C), with points extracted from the Digital Terrain Model (black); Sample height profiles based on ALS point cloud (40 m × 20 m) are also shown.

2. Alexander, C., Korstjens, A.H., Hankinson, E., Usher, G., Harrison, N., Nowak, M., Abdullah, A., Wich, S.A. and Hill, R.A., 2018. Locating emergent trees in a tropical rainforest using data from an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 72, 86-90. PDF open access on the journal’s website

3. Alexander, C., Korstjens, A.H. and Hill, R., 2017. Influence of micro-topography and crown characteristics on tree height estimations in tropical forests based on LiDAR canopy height models. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 65, 105-113. PDF open access on the journal’s website

4. Alexander, C., Korstjens, A.H. and Hill, R., 2016. Structural attributes of individual trees for identifying homogeneous patches in a tropical rainforest. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 55, 68-72. Pre-print version available in BU repository (or upon request by email).

For more information on the ‘LEAP: Landscape Ecology and Primatology‘ research group, visit our website or like our facebook page. Our work featured also in the BU2012-2018 review (p17).