The British Academy has issued a call for evidence for a new project on interdisciplinarity in research and HE. They will ask academics, university managers, publishers and funders about their experiences, successes and challenges. The project will consider how interdisciplinary research is carried out, demand for interdisciplinary research and research skills, how academics can forge interdisciplinary careers and whether the right structures are in place to support interdisciplinarity across the research and higher education system. If you would like to know more, or contribute your thoughts, please see http://www.britac.ac.uk/policy/research_and_he_policy.cfm?frmAlias=/interdisc/
/ Full archive
Research Professional – all you need to know
Every BU academic has a Research Professional account which delivers weekly emails detailing funding opportunities in their broad subject area. To really make the most of your Research Professional account, you should tailor it further by establishing additional alerts based on your specific area of expertise. The Funding Development Team Officers can assist you with this, if required.
Research Professional have created several guides to help introduce users to ResearchProfessional. These can be downloaded here.
Quick Start Guide: Explains to users their first steps with the website, from creating an account to searching for content and setting up email alerts, all in the space of a single page.
User Guide: More detailed information covering all the key aspects of using ResearchProfessional.
Administrator Guide: A detailed description of the administrator functionality.
In addition to the above, there are a set of 2-3 minute videos online, designed to take a user through all the key features of ResearchProfessional. To access the videos, please use the following link: http://www.youtube.com/researchprofessional
Research Professional are running a series of online training broadcasts aimed at introducing users to the basics of creating and configuring their accounts on ResearchProfessional. They are holding monthly sessions, covering everything you need to get started with ResearchProfessional. The broadcast sessions will run for no more than 60 minutes, with the opportunity to ask questions via text chat. Each session will cover:
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Self registration and logging in
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Building searches
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Setting personalised alerts
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Saving and bookmarking items
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Subscribing to news alerts
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Configuring your personal profile
Each session will run between 10.00am and 11.00am (UK) on the fourth Tuesday of each month. You can register here for your preferred date:
These are free and comprehensive training sessions and so this is a good opportunity to get to grips with how Research Professional can work for you.
New book for Centre for Social Work, Sociology & Social Policy visiting fellow Assoc Prof Dr Maria Luisa Gomez Jimenez
It is our great pleasure to announce the publication of a comparative sociological, economic and social administrative study of social service provision in Spain and Costa Rica.
Visiting fellow's new book
Our visiting fellow from the Centre for Social Work, Sociology & Social Policy, Assoc Prof Dr Maria Luisa Gomez Jimenez from the Universidad de Malaga in Spain, is a legal sociologist who works with BU Profs Sara Ashencaen Crabtree and Jonathan Parker concerning housing provision and its meaning in times of austerity in Spain. She has also edited Active Ageing: Perspectives from Europe on a vaunted topic with Centre director Prof Jonathan Parker.
Jonathan Parker & Sara Ashencaen Crabtree
HE Policy Update
Monday
Immigration policy
The head of the Institute of International Education has warned that the UK government must be clearer in articulating its immigration policy or risk facing a decline in the number of overseas students. UK risks closing door on overseas student growth, warns IIE head (THE).
Tuesday
Degree overhaul
More than 20 universities have been testing the use of a grade point average (GPA), which sees students given a points score on completion of their degree. The two-year pilot, ordered by the government, follows fears that the traditional honours classification is outdated. The report from the pilot, to be published by the Higher Education Academy (HEA), will recommend a national GPA system, giving students a score on a 13-point scale. Several universities, including Oxford Brookes and University College London, already run the GPA alongside the traditional degree classification. UK degree system in ‘need of overhaul’ (The Telegraph).
Wednesday
Queen’s speech
The Queen’s speech which sets out the Government’s priorities for the coming Parliament did not specifically reference higher education, however, apparently BIS officials have been in contact with University Alliance to say that in the longer term, they do recognise the need for an HE Bill but are not making any promises (although that doesn’t mean it is off the table).
The speech announced the planned introduction of 25 new Bills, as well as one draft Bill. Amongst others, headline legislation included: an income tax, VAT and national insurance freeze, the referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU, measures to reduce regulations on small businesses, plans to increase energy security, free childcare for three and four year-olds, legislation to proceed with HS2, a cut to household benefits claims, plans for devolution, 500 more free schools and plans to turn failing schools into academies, and a ban for ‘legal highs’.
For those of you that are interested, please find attached an in-depth briefing on each of the Bills which includes a likely legislative timetable. If you’re short on time and only interested in the HE aspects, the UUK blog provides a good summary.
Thursday
Studying abroad
Studying overseas has become more popular, with half of those considering a university course in another country wishing to study at undergraduate level, a new survey by the British Council shows. UK students continuing to look overseas (British Council).
Friday
Senior leadership diversity
Oxford has appointed its first female Vice-Chancellor – Professor Louise Richardson. She is currently the principal and vice-chancellor of St Andrews University. Oxford appoints its first female vice chancellor (The Guardian).
Degree ratings
The Higher Education Academy has published a report Grade Point Average: Report of the GPA pilot project 2013-14. With 70 per cent of students leaving university with at least a 2:1, employers are finding traditional classifications obsolete, and many use A level results to differentiate between candidates. This report is the product of a pilot involving 21 higher education providers designed to test the use of various GPA scales and to explore implementation issues. Points system to replace old degree grades (The Times).
GENERATION EXODUS! Rising from brutality’s crucible
Professor Otto Hutter
As part of our on-going successful research seminar series at the Faculty of Heath & Social Sciences’ Centre for Social Work, Sociology & Social Policy, on the 27th May we were very privileged to be able to invite back Professor Otto Hutter, former Regius Professor of Physiology at the University of Glasgow (1971 to 1990). This was a hugely successful public engagement event that attracted an audience of 52 people, drawn in part via the Dorset Race Equality Council, the Bournemouth Council of Christians and Jews and composed of a large number of the general public, our Visiting Fellow, the Rector of St Peter’s Church, Revd Dr Ian Terry, BU students and staff from the Midwifery, Social Work and Sociology teams and the Public Engagement team.
Educated in Vienna and England, Professor Hutter graduated with a BSc and PhD from University College, London and worked in the Department of Physiology there focusing on neuromuscular and synaptic transmissions and cardiac and skeletal muscle. He was a member of the staff of the National Institute for Medical Research from 1961 and joined the University of Glasgow ten years later, eventually becoming an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the School of Life Sciences at the University.
His childhood experiences, however, are even more astonishing. Back in 1938 with the black clouds of war looming over Europe, Stanley Baldwin, the former Prime Minister, made an impassioned appeal on radio for public aid on the 8th Dec 1938, in the wake of the infamous Kristallnacht pogrom that had just taken place a month earlier in Germany. Over £522,000 – a huge sum then – was raised in answer to the call from the concerned, ecumenical British public. This provided the impetus for the famous Kindertransport Movement that sought to rescue as many endangered Jewish children as possible from Nazi oppression.
Otto, as a 14-year-old boy, was one of the first children to reach sanctuary in Britain on the Kindertransport. He was eventually taken under the wing of his British sponsors and soon after excelled at the public school, Bishop’s Stortford College, as public schools also rose to the challenge of taking in refugee children on a scholarship basis. From there, he continued his rise to eminence.
However, since retirement to Bournemouth, Professor Hutter has been a tireless member of the local community, giving and attending talks at Holocaust Commemoration events. About 18 months ago Professor Hutter was kind enough to give a talk to our BU sociology students. It was so very good, so deeply moving – as many students told us later – that we wanted him to repeat it. However, Professor Hutter told us that he does not like repeating the same talk and so this time the seminar focused on the individual research he has painstakingly undertaken to uncover the stories of the 40 Viennese school mates from the academically elite Chajes Gymnasium in Vienna that he left behind upon his escape to Britain.
A quite incredible piece of social history was revealed emerging from the darkest period of modern European history; and yet among the tragic examples there were many more where the classmates had survived through combinations of ingenuity, luck, sheer perseverance and opportunism – not forgetting the key element for many tales of survival: the diligence and self-effacing devotion of the parents of these gifted children.
More of these youngsters than might reasonably be supposed went to on survive and prosper across the globe as far afield as Latin America, North America, the UK and, in particular, Israel. A high proportion went on to become academics, like Professor Hutter himself, along with others who became successful professionals and entrepreneurs. Jewish refugees, including some classmates, who escaped to Ecuador, were apparently later celebrated by the Ecuadorian Government as having brought vital technical innovation and European know-how to greatly benefit this formerly undeveloped, agrarian society.
Professor Hutter had the audience delighted by the account of an incredible escape of a particularly irresistibly charming classmate, who having escaped to Vichy France, had been rounded up for deportation and was rescued on the eve of his journey to death by the plucky daughter of a high powered Vichy politician.
However, equally those who did not survive need to be commemorated as the unforgotten victims of the Holocaust. We heard of one young girl who died of typhoid fever, having nursed fellow sufferers among the refugee ship to Cuba, where very sadly she succumbed to the disease upon docking at Havana. Professor Hutter told us about other classmates who had escaped to Belgium but were then captured and sent first to Theresienstadt concentration camp and then to their deaths in Auschwitz. One of the most moving accounts was that of young man and his sister who were killed in 1945, having managed to survive in hiding in Vienna for so long. The brother was captured in a bunker with nine other Jews as the SS were fleeing from the city ahead of the Allies, but still determined to kill as many of the dispersed Jewish community as could be found. Each captured individual was taken out one-by-one where those inside could hear the rattle and blast of the machine-guns and hand-grenades used for execution. Prof Hutter’s former classmate was the first to die.
The highly picaresque and deeply poignant were all covered in this splendid piece of research, which completely engaged the audience. However, these are also lessons from history that hold powerful resonance for today’s political arena, where European governments seem to gravitate towards entrenched right-wing positions, as can be seen by the election results in both the UK and Israel.
Each survivor from the Viennese Gymnasium enriched the countries immeasurably with their intelligence and their talent. These immigrants had no choice but to try to make a new life for themselves in their adopted countries and did so with extraordinary energy, zeal and optimism. This is the real story of why immigration remains the life-blood of progressive nations – and yet is so little heard of these fundamentally positive aspects in today’s ignorant and short-sighted political rhetoric that panders to xenophobia and isolationism. Today UK governments might well have been tempted not allow individuals like Otto Hutter into this country in the first place or equally tempted to deport them back again to their countries of origins. It makes one pause for a long moment to truly take in the full consequences of such disastrous and bigoted attitudes and associated actions.
Sara Ashencaen Crabtree and Jonathan Parker
Event: Using Athena SWAN to create an inclusive work and study environment
Central to the Athena SWAN approach to addressing gender inequality in UK universities are two facts:
- Vice-Chancellors love/need prizes!
- Evidence is essential to convince rational people when changes need to be made.
Therefore Athena SWAN offers a series of prizes, based on submissions that acknowledge and attempt to rectify gender inequality. The submissions are data-centred. This is absolutely critical – only evidence can convince, only evidence can direct the Action Plan. Without these data, policies and procedures can be changed (or may have been in place for ages) without understanding the gender implications. The Action Plan targets (set by the data analysis) must be evidence-based as well as SMART – realistic and potentially achievable. Comparative data are tremendously important – there might be only 10% females on the staff of a unit, but if the UK comparison is 2%, then that’s great! Practices that we take for granted, such as female representatives on interview panels, are an outrageous novelty elsewhere! We must have support from leadership – each leader must all the time have gender equality and fairness in mind as a parallel goal to bringing in more money, research achievements, etc. Everybody needs to understand why we doing this – reducing gender inequalities benefits everyone.
| Title | Date | Time | Location |
| Using Athena SWAN to create an inclusive work and study environment | Monday 8th June 2015 | 14:00 – 15:00 | Talbot Campus |
To book your place on this workshop, please email Organisational Development
Speaker’s Biography
Christine Maggs started as Dean of Science and Technology at Bournemouth University after five years as Head of School of Biological Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast. At QUB she led the School’s successful 2009 submission for a Silver SWAN Athena award, and was closely involved in the successful Gold award application. Her research interests include the systematics and ecology of seaweeds, and the conservation and exploitation of marine resources. She was appointed as a Member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2013 and in 2014 received the Award of Excellence of the Phycological Society of America.
Academic induction to Research and Knowledge Exchange at BU
The Research and Knowledge Exchange Office (RKEO) invite all ‘new to BU’ academics and researchers to an induction. The purpose of the induction is to inform you of the following:
- how we can support you when planning your research career;
- how to apply for funding (the policies and processes around costs and approvals);
- how to manage your successful research applications (including ethics, governance, risks and finance);
- how we can support you on impact, public engagement, outputs and open access, case studies, and a whole lot more.
The second induction will be held on 16th June 2015 on the 4th floor of Melbury House. The format of the day is as follows:
9.00-9.15 – Coffee/tea and cake will be available on arrival
9.15 – RKEO academic induction (with a break at 10.45)
11.30 – Opportunity for one to one interaction with RKEO staff
12.00 – Close
There will also be literature and information packs available.
If you would like to attend the induction then please contact Charmain Lyons, clyons@bournemouth.ac.uk for an official invitation. We will directly contact those who have started at BU in the last five months.
We hope you can make it and look forward to seeing you.
Regards,
The RKEO team
Research Professional Funding Insight module – research active volunteers required
Research Professional are visiting BU on the morning of 23rd June to demonstrate their ‘Funding Insight’ module. Their description of Funding Insight is that it ‘helps you avoid spending too much time on funding applications that fail. It reveals the hidden structures in the research funding landscape, giving you deeper insight and helping you make better applications’.
As part of the demonstration, they will also arrange trial access to the module. If you are a research active academic and would like to attend the demonstration and participate in the trial of the module then please contact Jo Garrad by 12th June.
AHRC Research Networking call for funding
The AHRC Research Networking Scheme is intended to support forums for the discussion and exchange of ideas on a specified thematic area, issue or problem. The intention is to facilitate interactions between researchers and stakeholders through, for example, a short-term series of workshops, seminars, networking activities or other events. The aim of these activities is to stimulate new debate across boundaries, for example, disciplinary, conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and/or international. Proposals should explore new areas, be multi-institutional and can include creative or innovative approaches or entrepreneurship. Proposals must justify the approach taken and clearly explain the novelty or added value for bringing the network participants together.
Proposals for full economic costs up to £30,000 for a period of up to two years may be submitted. The exact mechanism for networking and the duration is up to the applicants to decide but must be fully justified in the proposal. An additional threshold of up to £15,000 full economic cost may be sought to cover the costs of any international participants or activities in addition to the £30,000 fEC scheme limit. Proposals will need to be submitted by an eligible Research Organisation but must involve collaboration with at least one other organisation, as well as having significant relevance to beneficiaries in the UK.
A highlight notice is currently in operation under the research Networking Scheme. It encourages applications that explore innovative areas of cross-disciplinary enquiry across the remits of the AHRC and other Research Councils. The highlight notice will close at midnight on 31 July 2015. Further information can be found on the Highlight Notice page.
This scheme operates without formal deadlines. You are able to submit proposals at any time of year.
All applications to this scheme must be submitted via the cross-council Joint Electronic Submission – (JE-S) System (opens in a new window). If you need any assistance to use the system, please contact the JE-S helpdesk on 01793 444164 or on JesHelp@rcuk.ac.uk. AHRC Funding Guide (PDF 919KB) (opens in a new window) provides an overview of the Research Networking Scheme. It details the eligibility criteria, assessment criteria, information on how to apply, application deadlines, eligible dates and terms and conditions of awards.
You must contact your RKEO Funding Development Officer in the first instance if you wish to apply to this call.
‘Nutrition and Dignity in Dementia Care Workshops’
Last week we delivered the second of two workshops to care home managers, registered nurses and care staff in Bournemouth and Dorchester. This is a key output of our research project ‘Nutrition and Dignity in Dementia Care’ funded by the Burdett Trust for Nursing. We were delighted that Professor Keith Brown, Dr Michele Board and Dr Janet Scammell could join us and share their expertise on both days.
The inspiring and engaging presentations included the essential components of delivering nutritional care including:
- Exploring the evidence base for nutritional care.
- Understanding the barriers and enablers of best practice.
- Person centred care and the importance of knowing the person.
- Empowering staff to deliver organisational leadership and manage change in culture.
The workshops were really well received, generating lively and interesting discussion amongst attendees. There were many positive comments including:
“I would recommend this learning to all within the care-sector no matter what their role. Everyone would benefit ultimately” Activities Coordinator
“Lots of valuable research-how to deliver, ways to deliver and a good combination of data and references to real life practice” Care Home Manger
“Absolutely fantastic! So Inspiring! Really varied material-engaging-really thought provoking-so many new ideas and perspectives. So much to take away. Thank you so much” Care Assistant
In the next few weeks the research team will be following up the learning with some impact evaluation from attendees to understand how the course has influenced their everyday practices of delivering nutrition and dignity in dementia care.
Our research is designed to equip frontline staff with the skills and knowledge they need to improve nutrition in people with dementia. The generous support of the Burdett Trust has enabled us to work with staff in local care homes to develop new resources that will be shared by caring professionals all over the country.
Commenting for the Burdett Trust, Dame Christine Beasley said, “We are delighted to have supported this vital area of research. Nutrition is a key issue for people with dementia and for busy frontline staff, it can sometimes be difficult to know exactly how best to support someone. We are pleased to see the development of these resources and pilot training programme and hope that they will make a real difference to dementia care practice.”
The team express a big thanks to all those who attended the workshops and to all of the speakers for such thought provoking and engaging presentations. We are also grateful to our partners including Borough of Poole Council, Partners in Care, The Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership and national care homes and private care home organisations for their continued and committed support for the project.
Please see our project webpage here: http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/nutrition-dementia
Dr Jane Murphy, Joanne Holmes and Cindy Brooks.
Faculty of Health & Social Sciences
Lunchtime Seminar with Jane Murphy, Wednesday 3rd June
Lunchtime Seminar with Jane Murphy, Wednesday 3rd June 1-1.50pm, R301
Please feel free to come and listen to Jane Murphy present on Nutrition@BU.
Further information on this Seminar series can be found by clicking on the link below.
There is no need to book – just turn up. Contact Zoe on zsheppard@bournemouth.ac.uk for more information.
Jane looks forward to seeing you on the 3rd.
New eBU submission: identification of temporal factors related to shot performance in Recurve archery
Did you grow up watching Robin Hood? Did you take a fancy to Errol Flynn, Sean Connery, Kevin Costner or Russell Crowe in their green tights? Have you ever picked up a bow and arrow, or have you ever wondered what are the critical factors in archery performance?
Andrew Callaway and international colleagues address this latter question in a new submission to eBU, BU’s immediate publication and open peer review working paper journal. The abstract and link to the paper are below:
The purpose of this study was to investigate the temporal phases of the archery shot cycle that distinguish the arrows distance from centre, in an attempt to understand critical factors that effect performance. Sixteen archers of varying ability each performed 30 shots at 18m. Ten potential predictor variables were measured for statistical modeling by stepwise multiple linear regression. The results show that pre-shot time (pre-performance routine), release time (post-performance routine), aiming time and the speed of the arrow account for 7.1% of the variation in predicting shot performance. Clicker to release (CRT) variation has previously been shown to relate to shot performance. The results of this study show that this may be true for higher-level sub-populations, but not for the general wider population. The results have implications for practice demonstrating factors that coaches should focus on to develop their athletes. Further work on pre-, but more importantly, post-performance routines are needed in this field.
The paper can be accessed here, or if off campus via ‘View’ (just type eBU into a web browser), and is open for comment and review.
BU academic selected as a BBC New Generation Thinker
BU’s Dr Sam Goodman has been chosen to be a broadcaster of the future in a BBC Radio 3 scheme.
BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) today at Hay Festival unveiled the ten academics – and their research – who will be New Generation Thinkers 2015. The scheme is a nationwide search for the brightest minds who have the potential to share their cutting edge academic ideas through radio and television.
Aimed at giving early career academics a break into broadcasting, the scheme attracts interest from a wide variety of disciplines. Ideas from this year’s selection range from the history of tickling to the secret discovery hidden in a chair in Prague; how the lives of the disabled were portrayed in Victorian literature to the symbolism of power.
Sam beat competition from hundreds of other applicants over two selection stages, involving writing a potential radio programme and participating in workshops and debates. It also involved a trip to BBC Broadcasting House in London where Sam presented his ideas to Matthew Dodd, Head of Speech Programming at BBC Radio 3, and other producers.
Currently a lecturer in English & Communication, Sam’s research interests cover Twentieth Century literature with a broad focus on identity, medicine, notions of Englishness and Empire, and post-World War II popular culture. He is hoping to bring his passion for his subject to a wider audience via the scheme.
New Generation Thinkers will give him, and the other selected academics, the opportunity to write for and contribute to BBC Radio 3 programmes such as Free Thinking and The Essay. Sam will also make an appearance at the BBC Free Thinking Festival in November 2015.
Over the course of the coming year he will be working with radio and TV producers at the BBC to develop his research ideas into potential programmes, and gain broadcasting training and skills for the future.
Reflecting on the selection process Sam said, “It was a simultaneously nerve-wracking and very exciting feeling getting the email telling me I’d been selected! What with the scheme attracting so many applicants and having seen so many brilliant presentations on the workshop day it felt great to be told mine had been judged one of the best.”
“Ultimately, this is a great advantage to my existing work in public engagement and knowledge exchange, as well as in bringing my research to a wider public audience.”
Matthew Dodd, Head of Speech programming at BBC Radio 3 and one of the selecting panel, said,
“Some of the very first graduates of the New Generation Thinkers Scheme are now experienced TV and radio broadcasters having first participated in the scheme; we’re sure that this year’s intake will prove just as insightful and enticing to our audience who are always thirsty for knowledge.“
The full list of New Generation Thinkers is available here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2015/r3-new-gen-thinkers
Launch of BU and DCCI Short Courses
A programme of high level short courses run in partnership with the DCCI launched with a 1 day ‘Developing Leadership Skills’ course at the Executive Business Centre on the 21st May.
Mark Painter, Centre for Entrepreneurship Manager, commented, ‘I am absolutely delighted that we have launched this programme and that our first course attracted 13 delegates. The feedback was excellent and I am looking forward to working with the DCCI and my academic colleagues to run further short courses in the future.’
These new interactive short courses are targeted specifically at business owners and senior managers enabling them to access specialist training and expertise to help them develop and grow their businesses. DCCI members also enjoy the benefit of an exclusive discounted rate.
The course was delivered by Faculty of Management academics, Dr Lois Farquharson, Head of the Human Resources and Organisational Behaviour Department, and Melissa Carr, Senior Lecturer in Leadership Development. Objectives of the course included helping delegates to understand the core skills for leadership effectiveness and to consider the requirements of their current leadership situation. The course also looked at how to develop leadership skills and competencies to meet organisational goals.
BU academics interested in getting involved with this programme and delivering future courses are welcome to contact Mark Painter at the BU Centre for Entrepreneurship on mpainter@bournemouth.ac.uk
Does playing surface make a difference to fast bowlers in cricket?
Tibial Accelerometer
In the world of sports science, we are always trying to place participants in as realistic an environment as possible, making data collection methods smaller, lighter and less obstructive. This is no different for my PhD study; I am looking at the effect of fast bowling technique on lower back pain in cricket. Current research has focussed a great deal of variables such as ground reaction force and how they contribute to fast bowling injury. However, the nature of the equipment has restricted these studies to lab environments. One of my aims was to develop a portable data collection method, to allow a more realistic bowling environment. The answer to this problem came in the form of accelerometers. This method has enabled me to address questions which have previously been difficult to answer, such as; how does playing surface affect force experienced during fast bowling?
The seasonal nature of cricket means that a lot of players must bowl indoors during the winter. Whether bowling on different surfaces has an impact on the bowler’s technique or the magnitude of force they are exposed to during bowling has not been tested previously. My study investigated these questions comparing bowling on a grass wicket, indoor rubber composite surface known as ‘uniturf’, outdoor artificial wicket and standard wooden sports hall floor.
With the grass and uniturf surfaces used most regularly in professional cricket, differences between these two surfaces are of most use to coaches and medical teams. These results were intriguing; even though (according to baseline surface firmness testing), the uniturf surface was firmer than the grass wicket, no difference in tibial acceleration was observed when bowling. This may suggest the bowlers subconsciously adjust their technique in order to avoid exposure to higher magnitudes of force. Although, such suggestions have been made within running literature, this is a novel finding within fast bowling.
It is commonly reported that change in technique or impact characteristics such as surface or footwear increases risk of injury. The findings of this study highlights that such technique modifications may exist and may aid coaches in addressing this issue if these technique modifications can be investigated further. As a result, I submitted my findings to the International Society of Biomechanics with the aim of presenting both the novel methodology and it’s results. I was lucky enough to have been accepted to present these orally at the International Society of Biomechanics Conference in Glasgow. I have been very fortunate to gain the support of the university in this venture and they have very kindly agreed to fund costs associated with attending this conference. I am immensely grateful for this opportunity and am excited to share my work with the wider community of biomechanists – thank you to Bournemouth University for your continued support
Force experienced by a fast bowler
Religion as Resistance: Problematising and eulogising contemporary faith positions – Islam and Buddhism
The crisis of the Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar through perilous sea routes reminds us of our visit to Myanmar, as part of our Fusion Fund study leave last year, where we discussed the newly formed assistance centre in Penang, Malaysia, set up for such people, with our Southeast Asian colleagues. The city of Yangon, formerly Rangoon, in Myanmar is graced by the golden pagodas of the national religion, Buddhism, and is also where Christian churches of past colonial times and new ‘mega-churches’, and mosques stand within easy reach and visibility of one another. Seemingly, then, based on this rich and historical bricolage of spiritual phenomena, Myanmar is a jewel of multi-faith tolerance. Underneath this thin and brittle surface, however, boils a crucible of ethnic, religious and nationalist violence.
At Schwedegon in Yangon
Our ingrained Westernised hegemonic partiality, in which we are presented with images of Buddhism as symbolising peace, compassion and contemplation, in contrast with Islam as the font of world terror, is seriously challenged in the Myanmar context. We experienced religion here as a form of resistance in respect of the revivalist religiosity of Baptist Christian groups amongst the Chin tribes during our short visit, which was also a time of curfew and riot, although not one generated by these groups who found an outlet for their dissatisfaction in their ‘born again’ philosophies and the construction of a sense of belonging through ‘otherness’. At that time the curfew was ordered in parts of the country because of the increasing discord and physical violence between nationalist Buddhist groups, including (bizarrely to some maybe) Buddhist monks, and the minority Islamic peoples, the Rohingya, who, although officially robbed of citizenship status and therefore stateless, also claim autochthonous status in Myanmar.
Indigeneity, itself, is a much-contested concept, more so when we consider theories of human evolution or when we excavate the historical migratory patterns employed by human groups. Indigeneity offers a powerful discourse that has been applied by all sides of the political spectrum: the oppressed and disenfranchised, and also those who seek, by means of violent ethno-nationalism, to protect their state borders, or to impose a particular ideology which is put forward as legitimisation owing to the prerogatives of precedence.
The Buddhist majority exert the forces of ethno-nationalism as a means of purifying modern Myanmar from this Islamic group, a use of state religion to justify oppression and to forge a single state religion. What we witnessed last year in Myanmar and what is happening to the Rohingya currently represents an uglier face of our working analytical concept of ‘religion as resistance’, creating the overt challenge of supremacist politics.
We have seen some of the worst of humanity in dealing with the crisis of the Rohingya fleeing from Myanmar. With Thailand policing its physical borders more rigorously, the people have turned to people smugglers, traffickers and to the seas, in particular the dangerous waters of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. We have witnessed Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia’s attempt to remove the ‘problem’ from their national boundaries but also then adopting a more humanitarian response under international pressure, and we have witnessed the shock of individuals when the full horror of trafficking and death is revealed. Yet we have not seen the international community mobilise in support of the Rohingya people perhaps for some immediate reasons. Firstly, the Rohingya are Muslim, and a stereotype of contemporary terrorism as located in faith ideologies prevails. These prejudices may be strengthened further by Western applaud of the economic, rather than political, raising, of the formerly impenetrable bamboo curtain of Myanmar. Finally, Western eyes may view the state religion in Myanmar through lenses of prior assumption of Buddhism as fundamentally and prima facie incompatible with aggressive oppression of others.
The plight of the Rohingya echoes, to varying degrees, that of many other displaced or disenfranchised indigenous peoples: dislocation, diminishment of economic, political and religious rights, and the precariousness of marginal existence. To exploit terms that the sociologist, Max Weber, coined, the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) offers the rational-legal authority to battle their cause. However, there is also a need to call upon traditional authority to reinforce beleaguered identities and it is here that we see the contemporary development of religious resistance. This has its positive aspects in creating a sense of belonging, of purpose, of transcendence but it may also have a downside in creating active resistance not to oppression but to the rejected Other – and together forms another important plank in our exploration and theorisation. Our continuing work with the experiences and voices of indigenous peoples throughout Southeast Asia, MENA and now Central America will further develop this deeply intriguing concept of religion as resistance.
Jonathan Parker & Sara Ashencaen Crabtree
PG Researcher Development Workshops available throughout June/July
For all Postgraduate Researchers – the following PG Researcher Development workshops are available throughout June/July:
- Tuesday 2 June 2015 – Time Management
- Tuesday 2 June 2015 – How to manage your Research Project
- Wednesday 3 June 2015 – Presentation Skills
- Wednesday 10 June 2015 – Introduction to Nvivo
- Thursday 11 June 2015 – Advanced Nvivo – By invitation only*
- Monday 15 June 2015 – Manage, Influence & Motivate!
- Wednesday 17 June 2015 – Library Session: Development a Search Strategy and Using Researcher Tools
- Thursday 18 June 2015 Intro to ‘Observation as a social science research method’
- Thursday 25 June 2015 – Managing your Citations using Endnote and Endnote Web
- Tuesday 7 July and Thursday 9 July – Advanced Presentation Skills – By invitation only*
- Wednesday 22 July 2015 – Preparing for your Initial Review
If any are of interest to you, booking is via myBU Graduate School PGR Community (don’t forget to log on with your student username and password)
Fair Access Project Fund – call for under £25,000 short term projects
BU’s Fair Access Agreement includes a project fund to support Fair Access (FA) and Widening Participation (WP) projects and innovation. Faculties and Professional Services are invited to bid for funding to support specific and targeted projects that will have a FA or WP impact. It is hoped the projects will contribute to and inform the growing evidence base on FA and WP work.
This call is open for short term projects costing under £25,000 that will complete spend by 31 July 2015. We would also welcome applications for projects involving organisations external to BU where there is a clear link to WP and there is a BU staff member sponsor who holds a steering role in the project.
To submit a proposal for funding, please complete the complete the application form and email and email it to Lukasz Naglik. Please also contact Lukasz if you would like to discuss this opportunity further or if you would like to find out about current Fair Access and Widening Participation projects.
Further opportunities for bidding for longer term projects and for projects costing over £25,000 will be advertised in September 2015.
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