BU Research Blog

The Ageing and Dementia Research Centre (ADRC) and the Centre for Games and Music Technology Research (CGMTR) have been successful in their second H2020 ERASMUS PLUS funding application.

The project, led by Dr Ben Hicks from Psychology and supported by Professors Wen Tang (CGMTR) and Jan Wiener (Psychology), aims to work in collaboration with European partners to develop an online training toolkit that promotes the use of Assistive Technology for people with dementia and their care partners. In addition to this, it will also explore the use of VR technology as a tool for educating the public on dementia awareness. The project will begin in September 2017 and run for two years. This work follows closely on from their first ERASMUS project (awarded in September 2016 and on-going until August 2018), which sought to develop an e-training package for the use of Serious Games amongst people with dementia and their care partners.

The quick-fire successes for the project team demonstrates the growing interest across Europe in the use of technology as a means to enhance Quality of Life and well-being in people with dementia. As technology evolves, and awareness increases amongst researchers and practitioners of the benefits it can have for this population, it is likely that this field will expand at a rapid rate. Hopefully the ADRC and the CGMTR, with their growing expertise in this area, will be well positioned to take full advantage of this in the future!

For further details of the projects please contact Ben Hicks: bhicks@bournemouth.ac.uk

I attended the European Conference on Arts & Humanities (ECAH), July 11th -12th 2017 held in Brighton. With the conference theme being “History, Story, Narrative”, the aim of the conference was exploring how best to write history, while we were spectators to the process of history, often, while being intimately situated within its impact and formations. Who gets to tell history if the issue is colonialism or class? How does geography, the power of place, intersect with history? What is the status of the personal story or narrative within the larger frame of events?
My presentation explored the use of narrative from qualitative research using multi-layered archival data and the need for liberatory narratives when the voices of people are silent in the paperwork. This is an original archival early narrative of Anna, an enslaved mulatto girl who lived in the eighteenth century and the extraordinary turn of events in which her life transformed from slavery to wealth. Within this period of sociohistory, black and mixed-heritage people were both enslaved and considered property or free with minimal rights and privileges. The power of wealth intersects with slavery, family, freedom, and mortality. The social sciences explore humanity and its relationship to the environment in which humans live, thus bringing into this narrative the anthropology and development of Caribbean British Jamaican society. The presentation focused on the life and relationships of eighteenth-century Jamaican-born Anna PW and her British colonial community. Her remarkable story, as an analytical case study, highlights a developed narrative embedded in her “lived experience”, however, her voice is absent from the paperwork. In the paper, I argued that narrative analysis represents an explorative method of unpicking and understanding those experiences, thus providing socio-moral education and the need for a liberatory narrative to give Anna a voice in those ‘lived experiences’. A liberatory narrative according to bell hooks (2002), engages the personal and the emotional as it depicts the history of slavery and reminds us of how little we know … particularly if all we know are the facts … “. In Anna’s case, all we have are the facts.
Anna’s story takes us from her enslaved birth in 1745 Jamaica, to her manumission by her white father who bequeathed her a substantial amount of property in Jamaica, Britain, and the USA. The narrative explores the legal lengths Anna’s father went to ensure her protection from a patriarchal, racist society including, the involvement of King George III and the Archbishop of Canterbury, all to ensure her wealth was secure when she married and had children. In addition, Anna’s uncle Robert, also bequeathed her his Jamaican properties making her possibly the richest black woman of her time.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the International Academic Forum (iafor) for choosing me to present this paper, the BU Doctoral College, Santander for the award and the fantastic support I receive from my supervisors; professors Sara Ashencaen Crabtree, Jonathan Parker and Dr Hyun Joo Lim. Much respect to you all.

Melsia (left) with the UWI Trinidad & Tobago delegates

Following our first successful meeting earlier this year, the ADRC ‘Ageing and Dementia Friendly Design Advisory Board’ met for the second time in June 2017. The Advisory Board brings together internal staff and external members such as architects, designers and care home managers and developers (see previous article for a full list of membership*). The purpose of the Advisory Board is to exchange knowledge between academics and external stakeholder, to discuss findings from our research into the effects of typical and atypical ageing on wayfinding and navigation and – importantly – to translate research findings into practice-relevant design guidelines for the built environment that minimises spatial disorientation in later life.

In this meeting Prof Jan Wiener provided Advisory Board members with an overview of the relevant research findings and suggested new, improved design guidelines focusing on the use of landmarks to support orientation. The group discussed these findings and provided feedback about how these guidelines might be implemented, published and disseminated in the future. ADRC will continue discussions with the Advisory Board when they meet next in September 2017.

For more information about this research or the ADRC please contact Prof Jan Wiener jwiener@bournemouth.ac.uk

* http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2017/03/29/advisory-board-meet-to-discuss-dementia-friendly-design-guidelines/

Dr Miguel Moital, Principal Academic in Events Management within the Department of Events & Leisure, has recently returned from Brazil, where engaged in a number of activities at 5 universities.

The trip started with a visit to the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), in Natal, where Miguel delivered two presentations to tourism master students and staff. The first one was research related and focused on ‘How can research centres contribute to increase academic research and publication? BU’s experience’. In the afternoon Miguel shared one of the topics he teaches at BU with a presentation about ‘Events as a strategic marketing tool for city branding’.

The next stop was Recife (Pernambuco state) where Miguel attended the ATLAS Americas and ABRATUR conferences, organised by the Pernambuco Federal University (UFPE). At the ATLAS Americas conference Miguel delivered a paper co-authored with BA Events Management graduate Giulia Calcagno on ‘Photographic triggers of engagement with event pictures on Instagram’. At the ABRATUR (International Academy for the Development of Tourism Research in Brazil) Forum, he delivered a keynote on “My internationalisation story: challenges and strategies”. As a founding member of the Academy, Miguel also participated in a strategic meeting of the Academy .

At Parana Federal University (UFPR) Miguel was a member of the panel examining a post-doc report by Dr. Osiris Marques on “The impact of the Olympic Games 2016: an analysis of the tourist profile, of the economic impact and of the quality of the tourist experience in Rio de Janeiro”.

Miguel also visited the Fluminense Federal University (UFF, Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro) and Sao Saulo University (USP), where he led a half day workshops on writing dissertations and theses, attended by tourism master students and staff. Miguel is the author of an e-book on the topic.

Researchers from across Bournemouth University (BU) hosted the Curiosity Playground event on 8^th July 2017 as part of this year’s Festival of Learning. The aim of the event was to celebrate the diversity of research happening across BU and also included fun activities for children (and adults) to get them thinking.

We certainly entertained the crowds and had some thought provoking conversations about our research:

• Dr Viola Prifti from the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management got people’s attention with purple, orange and yellow carrots so that she could talk about food and intellectual property policy.
• Dr Henry Bang from the Disaster Management Centre discussed his work on the lessons learnt from the recent Grenfell Tower fire.
• Dr Marcellus Mbah from the Centre for Excellence in learning used a jigsaw puzzle to talk about the role of community engagement within a University.
• Dr Michelle Heward from the Ageing and Dementia Research Centre made life story sketch books with families to highlight the importance of knowing information about the person being cared for in health and social care settings.

Thanks to those who took part in the event which was organised by the BU Research Staff Association (RSA). To find out more about BU RSA please come along to our next coffee morning on Wednesday 26^th July 2017 at 10am in the Global Hub (DG68) at Talbot Campus.

Kind regards,

BU Research Staff Association

I have just spent the last month working with the team at the Ageing and Dementia Research Centre (ADRC) working on DEALTS 2, a training program commissioned by Health Education England that incorporates simulation, and aims to improve dementia training in acute settings at a national level.

This month has been eye-opening, insightful, and above all exciting. I was firstly amazed by the amount of responsibility I was given by Michele Board, Jane Murphy, and Michelle Heward, who set me to work with analysing the data collected from DEALTS 2 workshops. Indeed, it is often thought that Research Assistants deal with the ‘back end’ of the project, which I can understand would make the task mundane. Nevertheless, with the varied roles and responsibilities, I soon felt immersed into the project.

I was given the responsibility of putting together some preliminary findings to present at the Humanisation conference. Not only was I given role of creating the slides, but I had the pleasure to present the findings at the conference with Michelle Heward. This was a fantastic opportunity to not only feel part of the project, but to increase my confidence, network with likeminded professionals, and feel part of an academic community.

I was also lucky enough to travel to London to help deliver the DEALTS 2 train the trainer workshop to the dementia ‘trainers’. I was able to run through some simulations with the trainers, which again increased my passion and accountability for the project. The whole day was inspiring and highlighted the need for such a project from seeing its real world applicability. This has indeed supported my work in the office when conducting the literature review for the DEALTS 2 project, which we aim to publish in due course.

Overall, this project has exceeded my expectations, and not once have I felt like an RA, but rather a team member. Working in the ADRC office has opened opportunities to learn from others, attend seminars with colleagues, and have a glimpse of what academia can be like. It has been a pleasure to work alongside a team who are so clearly passionate about ageing and dementia, which has certainly consolidated my desire to work in this field. I would highly recommend fellow students to consider summer RA positions because it not only allows you to apply the knowledge you have learnt throughout your degree, but it enables you to increase these skills in new and invaluable ways. Although my contract is over, I am not finished with DEALTS, and intend to continue to help the team publish the paper.

I want to thank Jane, Michele, Michelle, and the rest of the team for giving me an insight into their world and providing me with such a fantastic experience. Although I am leaving Bournemouth University to do my masters in Occupational Therapy, I have no doubts I will work with the ADRC again in the future.

POST SCRIPT

Laurie has been an excellent student to work with, we were also fortunate to have her as part of our team. She’s been diligent and proactive, and its not a surprise that she secured a first in her degree in psychology.  We wish her every success in the future.