Dr Sascha Dov Bachmann, Associate Professor in International Law, FMC, and Extraordinary Associate Professor in War Studies, FHS, will present on Russian Information Operations in Ukraine during NATO’s EUCOM/SHAPE International Legal Conference (2016)
“The Legal Aspects of the National Security Response to Russian Aggression”. The event brings together 100 experts who are to dicsuss the legal aspects of Russia’s aggressive politics in Eastern Europe. Sascha will reflect on his ongoing work on Hybrid Warfare, http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/defence-committee/russia-implications-for-uk-defence-and-security/written/28402.html, http://www.ajol.info/index.php/smsajms/article/view/117421 and https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277953401_RUSSIA’S_HYBRID_WARFARE_IN_THE_EAST_USING_THE_INFORMATION_SPHERE_AS_INTEGRAL_TO_HYBRID_WARFARE?_iepl[viewId]=5SEnEq26z9n23PZ8z1IVu0EN&_iepl[contexts][0]=timeline&_iepl[data][activityData][activityId]=277953401&_iepl[data][activityData][activityType]=Publication&_iepl[data][activityData][activityTimestamp]=1434326400&_iepl[data][viewType]=self&_iepl[interactionType]=publicationClickThrough.
Tagged / collaborative research
New comparative paper India-Nepal
This week saw the publication of a new paper co-written by BU staff in the Sociological Bulletin. This is the first paper comparing Indian and Nepali Maoist rebels providing health services and health promotion to the communities under their influence. It presents the key provisions either made by rebel health workers themselves or by putting political pressure on government health workers to deliver better services in the areas controlled by rebels. Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen’s co-authors are based in India and Nepal. Prof. Gaurang R. Sahay is based at the Centre for Study of Developing Societies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India, whilst Bhimsen Devkota is Professor in Health Education, Tribhuvan University, Nepal.
This sociological paper is based on a mixed-method approach comprising 15 interviews and a questionnaire survey with 197 Nepalese Maoist health workers and a secondary analysis of policy documents and other published materials on the Maoist health services of India. The paper suggests that rebel health services in India and Nepal followed a fairly similar approach to what and how they offered health care services to local populations. Maoists becoming a government party changed the political landscape for the rebel health workers in Nepal. However, not incorporating the Maoist rebel health workers into the government health system was a missed opportunity. There are lessons that India and Nepal can learn from each other. Should the Maoist rebels and the Government of India come to an agreement, potential for rebel health workers to be integrated in the official health care system should at least be considered.
The paper benefitted from an earlier review through eBU: Online Journal. The feedback from the eBU: Online Journal’s reviewers helped shape and polish the paper before submission to the Sociological Bulletin.
Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
References:
- Sahay, G., Devkota, B., van Teijlingen, E.R. (2016) Rebel Health Services in South Asia: Comparing Maoist-led Conflicts in India & Nepal, Sociological Bulletin 65(1):19-39.
BU Academic appointed as Extraordinary Visiting Professor (AP) at Swedish Defence University
Sascha Dov Bachmann, Associate Professor in International Law, FMC, has been made Extraordinary Visiting Professor (AP) in War Studies at the Swedish Defence University (FHS). This appointment recognizes his contribution to the work of the Department of Military Studies at FHS on the subject of Hybrid War and Hybrid Threats. He continues to collaborate with colleagues from Sweden, Germany and NATO on the subject.
THET presentation at BNAC
On Thursday 14th April Dr. Bibha Simkhada (Liverpool John Moores University & BU Visiting Faculty) and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen presented their education research in Liverpool. The work is part of a THET-funded project at the 14th Britain-Nepal Academic Council (BNAC) Nepal Study Days. The presentation ‘Mental Health Training and Education in Nepal‘ is part of an international project led by Bournemouth University. BU collaborates with Tribhuvan University (Nepal’s largest & oldest university) and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). The project receives funding from DFID, and is managed through THET and supported locally in Nepal by a non-governmental organisation called Green Tara Nepal. The project takes UK volunteers, people with experience in midwifery, mental health, higher education, nursing, health visiting, etc. to the southern part of Nepal.
Mental health is a difficult topic to discuss in Nepal (as it often is in the UK). This makes it hard for front-line health workers, especially non-mental health specialists, to start a discussion about mental health issues with patients.
As part of this THET-funded programme to train community health worker such as Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) on mental health issues related to pregnancy, we conducted a review of all relevant health curricula in Nepal. The key findings are that mental health issues in pregnancy and childbirth are often lacking in the curricula for both nurses and ANMs as a result community-based staff lack training in this topic. There is a great need for a curriculum to facilitate relevant training for ANMs.
We would like to repeat our call for volunteers. If you are a health or education professional with an interest in mental health and/or maternity care and you are interested in volunteering later this year for a week to ten days in Nepal please contact Edwin van Teijlingen (evteijlingen@bournemouth.ac.uk ).

2016 BNAC conference with BU representation in Liverpool
At the 14th BNAC (Britain-Nepal Academic Council) Nepal Study Days starting tomorrow (14th April 2016) FHSS’s PhD student Jib Acharya will presenting his poster on ‘A Comparative Study on Nutritional Problems in Preschool Aged Children of Kaski district of Nepal’. Jib’s PhD project is supervised by FHSS’s Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, Dr. Jane Murphy and Dr. Martin Hind. Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen is also joint supervisor of Sarita Pandey (based at the University of Sheffield) whose poster ‘Factors that promote and hinder provision of maternal health services by Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHV) in rural Nepal’ will also be on display.
BU Visiting Faculty Dr. Bibha Simkhada (based at Liverpool John Moores University) will be presenting on the on-going THET-funded project ‘Mental Health Training and Education in Nepal’. This paper is part of the education stream of the conference,and its acceptance is a reflection of BU’s reputation in Educational Research. This paper has co-authors based in the UK and Nepal: Bibha Simkhada, Edwin van Teijlingen, Jillian Ireland, Padam Simkhada, Bhimsen Devkota, Lokendra Sherchan, Ram Chandra Silwal, Shyam K. Maharjan, Ram K. Maharjan, Geeta Sharma, and Samridhi Pradhan. Both Prof. Padam Simkhada and Ms. Jillian Ireland are BU Visiting Faculty.
The first Study Day tomorrow starts with an invited Skills-building session on Focus Group Research by Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen. The final day includes a paper on ‘Impacts of Migration in Nepal’ by Prof. Padam Simkhada and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.
We are hoping to get the 15th BNAC Study Days to Bournemouth University for this time next year!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Universities increase income from business collaboration
Universities also upped their earnings from courses for business and the community by £35m to £715m, from regeneration and development programmes by almost £22m to £205m, and from intellectual property by £24m to £155m.
The analysis also includes information on the number of spinouts and start-up companies created by UK universities, and shows that the number of graduate start-up companies created in 2014-15 was 4,160, lower than the 4,581 companies started in 2013-14.
However, the total number of active firms with some involvement from a higher education provider in the UK was 13,045 in 2014-15, up from 11,856 in 2013-14.
The Higher Education Funding Council for England will publish its analysis of the data for England later in the year.
This article was posted in Research Professional.
You can set up your own personalised alerts including news on Research Professional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s/Faculty’s Funding Development Officer in RKEO or view the recent blog post here.
Congratulations to Prof. Hundley on her latest systematic review paper

This week Professor Vanora Hundley in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) published a systematic review form with her international collaborators working on early labour. The paper is called ‘Diagnosing onset of labor: A systematic review of definitions in the research literature‘ and can be found it the Open Access journal BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth. [1]
Congratulations!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Reference:
- Hanley GE, Munro S, Greyson D, Gross MM, Hundley V, Spiby H and Janssen PA (2016) Diagnosing onset of labor: A systematic review of definitions in the research literature. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth 16: 71 http://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-016-0857-4
Latest BU paper sexual health & tourism
This new issue of the Nepal Journal of Epidemiology contains a systematic review by FHSS Visiting Faculty Prof. Padam Simkhada (based at Liverpool John Moores University). The review was produced in collaboration with Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in BU’s Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH). Their paper ‘Factors influencing sexual behaviour between tourists and tourism employees: A systematic review’ is co-written with a researcher from Green Tara Nepal and an independent Public Health Consultant based in the UK. [1] This systematic review reports on factors influencing sexual behaviour between workers in the tourism industry and tourists, including their risk perceptions when engaging in sexual activities and the knowledge of STIs (sexually transmitted infections).

This is the third paper from this group on sexual health and tourism. The previous two papers were written with BU’s Dr. Pramod Regmi. These two publications reported on sexual behaviour of male trekking guides in Nepal such as sexual interactions with tourists and locals. The qualitative paper based on interviews with trekking guides has been published in Culture, Health & Sexuality [2] and the quantitative survey paper appeared in Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences [3].
This week’s publication the Nepal Journal of Epidemiology is Open Access, hence freely available, as is the third paper listed below.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
References:
- Simkhada, P.P., Sharma, A., van Teijlingen, E.R., Beanland, R,L. (2016) Factors influencing sexual behaviour between tourists and tourism employees: A systematic review. Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 6(1): 530-538.
- Simkhada, P., Bhatta, P., van Teijlingen E., Regmi, P. (2010) Sexual health knowledge, sexual relationships and condom use among male trekking guides in Nepal. Culture, Health & Sexuality 12(1): 45-58.
- Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Regmi, P., Bhatta, P., Ingham, R., Stone, N. (2015) Sexual health knowledge and risky sexual behaviour of Nepalese trekking guides. Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences 1(4): 35-42.
New paper out this week by Dr. Regmi
Since his arrival in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences last year postdoctoral researcher Dr. Pramod Regmi has been busy getting his publications out. Yesterday saw the latest of his articles appear in print, this time in the latest issue of the Nepal Journal of Epidemiology. The editorial, co-authored with Dr. Om Kurmi (University of Oxford) and Dr. Puspa R. Pant at the University of the West of England, addresses the growing problem air pollution in low-income countries such as Nepal. The paper is called: ‘Implication of Air pollution on health effects in Nepal: Lessons from global research’. [1]
The journal is Open Access so the article can be accessed by anybody across the globe for free.
Congratulations!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
References:
- Kurmi O, Regmi PR, Pant PR. Implication of Air pollution on health effects in Nepal: Lessons from global research. Nepal J Epidemiol. 2016;6(1); 525-527. (online at: http://www.nepjol.info/index.php/NJE/article/view/14733/11949 )
Blog THET volunteer on BU-led project

On previous occasions we have written on the BU Research Blog about our THET-funded project, for example earlier this year on the first training sessions in Nepal. Bournemouth University is leading on a project in collaboration with Tribhuvan University (the largest and oldest university in Nepal) and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). The project receives funding from DFID, and is managed through THET and supported locally in Nepal by a non-governmental organisation called Green Tara Nepal. We have been working with this charity for nearly ten years.
This time we would like to highlight a regular research blog written by Ish Fawcett who went out to Nepal last month as one of the UK volunteers. She has written some lovely blogs on her time in Nepal, about the training sessions as well as her general experiences of and observations on Nepal. Her blogs can be accessed here!

We would like to take this opportunity to repeat our call for volunteers. If you are a health or education professional with an interest in mental health and/or maternity care and you are interested in volunteering later this year for a week to ten days in Nepal please contact Edwin van Teijlingen (evteijlingen@bournemouth.ac.uk ).

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Who are the World’s Heaviest Tear Gas Users?
Check out the interactive maps on our BU Civic Media Hub website to find out!
Everyday tear gas is used around the world, from Brazil to Bahrain, from Thailand to the Occupied Territories of Palestine. Yet, while journalists file news stories of tear gas deployments, there is no national or international data recorded on its use or its effects.
Researchers and campaign groups work hard to raise awareness of the true effects of tear gas, yet its health effects remain undetermined and its death toll ill-defined. Data on tear gas is dispersed across nations, suppressed by governments, and spun by corporate manufacturers with a vested interest in keeping sales figures high. Largely unregulated and unmonitored, the for-profit transnational trade in tear gas continues to raise legal questions, as people around the world face its repressive and often violent effects.
Our 2015 Mapping the Media project sought to aggregate news reports on tear gassing in efforts to make public the frequency and motivations for its use. The maps form part of a larger research project led by Dr. Anna Feigenbaum, Senior Lecturer in Digital Storytelling at Bournemouth University. The 2015 mapping was done by Dr. Feigenbaum and her Undergraduate Research Assistant (URA) Laura McKenna with support from Dr. Pippa Gillingham and the BU Datalabs Team that came together through CCCP Fusion Grant in 2014.
Find out more about digital storytelling for impact from Dr. Feigenbaum’s blog post on the topic.
BU BMC paper followed up by BMC Series Blog
Our latest paper in the international journal BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth published late last month was highlighted yesterday in a BMC Series Blog.[1] The blog post reminds us that the media plays an important role in providing the general public with information about a range of issues, including pregnancy and childbirth. The visual media, such as television, can provide planned information (education), for example in documentaries, advertising and the news. Our paper “Is it realistic?” the portrayal of pregnancy and childbirth in the media’ looked into how the representation of childbirth in the mass media affects childbirth in society as there is evidence to suggest that it can have a negative effect. BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth is an Open Access journal therefore the paper is freely available for anybody across the globe with an internet connection, for access click here.
Our paper is great example of interdisciplinary research, as celebrated at the forthcoming Interdisciplinary Research Sector Day on June 21st (see here). The authors of our paper combine expertise in media studies, midwifery, sociology and health services research. Moreover, it involved collaborations across universities (Bournemouth and Stirling) and within BU across faculties, namely the Faculty of Media & Communcation and the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences.
Ann Luce, Marilyn Cash, Vanora Hundley, Helen Cheyne, Edwin van Teijlingen & Catherine Angell
Reference:
- Luce, A., Cash, M., Hundley, V., Cheyne, H., van Teijlingen, E., Angell, C., (2016) “Is it realistic?” the portrayal of pregnancy and childbirth in the media BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth 16: 40 http://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-016-0827-x
BU Civic Media Hub & the Omega Research Foundation publish report on the misuse of Tear Gas in Europe
Responding to a request for more data on tear gas misuse in Council of Europe member states, the BU Datalabs team hosted a daylong data hack day to aggregate information and produce a report for the Council of Europe. The report offers a brief summary analysis of Human Rights investigations into the misuse of tear gas on peaceful and civilian protesters. It covers member states of the Council of Europe that came under investigation in a sample of publicly available reports published between 2006 and 2016.
Our summary report shares a number of key findings regarding human rights concerns. These findings include data indicating that tear gas is frequently being used in confined and enclosed spaces, which can increase the likelihood of suffocation, stampeding and related injuries and deaths. Tear gas is also being used in places with uninvolved bystanders, and in places where there are vulnerable populations, such as near, or even inside, hospitals and schools.
Another major finding of the report reveals the lack of adequate and transparent record keeping on police use of force. No Council of Europe member state currently keeps publicly available statistics on police use of force with tear gas or other less lethal weapons. This means that there is no access to information on the amount of tear gas that is used, where it is used, or what injuries and deaths it causes.
We conclude our report with a list of 9 recommendations for change. Primary among these is a call for member states to comply with the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials.
Our full report is available to read and download here:USE OF TEAR GAS ON PEACEFUL PROTESTERS BY COUNCIL OF EUROPE MEMBER STATES
Dr. Anna Feigenbaum, Laura McKenna, Ozlem Demirkol, Tim Sontheimer, Daniel Weissmann, Charlotte Souter-Phillips, Thomas Dence, and Wilfred Collins-Fierkens conducted research for this report. With thanks to Dr. Phillipa Gillingham and Dr. Einar Thorsen for guidance, and a special thanks to Laura McKenna who worked as the Research Assistant throughout this project.
The Omega Research Foundation is part funded by the European Instrument on Democracy and Human Rights.

“Designing ‘Playful’ Business Events” – Dr Phil Crowther (Sheffield Hallam University) visiting BU
Dr Phil Crowther, from Sheffield Hallam University (Sheffield Business School), will be on a short visit to BU where he will meet researchers from the Department of Events and Leisure to exchange and explore potential research opportunities (8th March 2016).
“Designing ‘Playful’ Business Events” is the title of his guest lecture, where Dr Phil Crowther explores the very serious nature of play in the design of business events.
We invite you to join this session, to the limit of seating capacity, on the 8th March 2016, Allesbrook Lecture Hall (Talbot Campus), 1 p.m.
For a little bit more on Dr Phil Crowther, please read below his story in the first person.
Would you like to know more details on this visit or to join us in the research meeting programme, please email Dr Lenia Marques, lmarques@bournemouth.ac.uk .

My first degree was in Recreation Management from Loughborough University, graduating in 1995. Since then I have enjoyed a career in recreation / leisure / tourism / event management for eleven years, running cinemas, theme parks, and health and racquet clubs as General Manager. During this time I had the pleasure of designing and delivering such highlights as film premiers, celebrity birthday parties, and large team building events. During my industry career I completed a part-time MBA in Executive General Management which was my pathway back into universities. Since then I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching, researching, and delivering continuing professional development (CPD) events and consultancy in the area of Event Management.
My teaching focuses heavily on strategy and events, leading teaching on modules such as Event Policy and Planning, Strategic Event Design, and Strategic Event Creation. My research focusses specifically upon Marketing Events, part of the Experiential Marketing eruption, and I have published a number of journal papers. I have recently edited a book entitled Strategic Event Creation with colleagues which sets out an agenda for the practice, and teaching, of events. Most recently completed my PhD entitled ‘Strategic Application of Marketing Events’ which continues to be my main interest.
Beyond that I have two fabulous daughter, a wonderful partner, and two amazing dogs called Baxter and Will. I also have a passion for running and was most recently, in January this year, running the Hong Kong Marathon in pouring rain.
Lightning Talks at Cafe Scientifique Bournemouth- Interested in presenting?
Cafe Sci runs every first Tuesday of the Month from 7.30pm – 9pm and takes place at Cafe Boscanova in Boscombe.
You can find out more about Cafe Sci here: https://cafescibournemouth.wordpress.com/
We are looking for BU Academics, Researchers, PGR students and URA students to present a Lightning Talk on their Research as part of Cafe Scientifique on Tuesday 5th April.
What is a Lightning Talk; In essence it is a short, to the point talk on a particular subject.
If you are interested in taking part in this event and sharing your research in an enganing and lively manner then please contact Rhyannan Hurst in RKEO on 61511
Supporting you to support students: a survey
As part of the Fair Access Research project we would like academic staff to complete this survey to help us understand how students are supported at BU. The area we are focusing on is support for students’ health and wellbeing, as this is becoming increasingly important for students and staff in universities. Your responses to the survey will help us find ways to support you in supporting students to succeed at BU.
Questions of access to higher education do not end (or start) at the university gates. Widening participation involves an engagement with long and complex cycles of learning.
The Fair Access Research project seeks to understand the experiences of students from different backgrounds in order to develop practical solutions to enhance outcomes and maximise opportunities. This includes understanding how students are supported at BU.
In the words of Vincent Tinto: “Access without support is not opportunity”. If we are committed to opening up higher education, we must be committed to supporting all students to succeed across the university learning journey.
A recent survey by the NUS found that 78 per cent of students said they experienced mental health issues over the last year. More than half of the students said that they sought no support.
In a report to HEFCE by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) and Researching Equity, Access and Partnership (REAP) it was found that students with mental health and social/communicative impairments (such as autism) have doubled since 2008-09. These significant increases are impacting the structures of support that institutions have in place, including academic support
Living with challenging health and wellbeing needs, and not always seeking support, shapes whether or not you stay and impacts upon attainment. It re-orients (or, perhaps, disorients) your whole student experience. And that includes your interactions with academic staff.
With all this in mind, we are surveying academic staff to find out more about how they understand their role in supporting students’ health and wellbeing.
We have developed a short survey for you all to complete. It should take no more than 10 minutes to complete and we hope that it will lead us to develop ways to support you with your students:
To complete the survey click here
Please complete the survey and share with your colleagues from across the university. Your responses will help us to find ways to support you to better support your students, particularly those most in need.
If you want any more information about the survey please email Alex on awardrop@bournemouth.ac.uk
For more information about the Fair Access Research project please email the Principal Investigators, Dr Vanessa Heaslip (vheaslip@bournemouth.ac.uk) and Dr Clive Hunt (chunt@bournemouth.ac.uk)
Civic Media Hack Day: Human Rights and Policing
Civic Media Hack Day: Human Rights and Policing
Feb 9th 2016
10:00-16:00
W403 (Computer Lab, Weymouth House)
Open to all UG students, PG students, staff and the wider BU community. To register email: a.feigenbaum@bournemouth.ac.uk
On Tuesday February 9th Bournemouth University’s Civic Media Hub – Datalabs team will have a ‘Hack Day’ at Bournemouth University, pulling together news and human rights data to feed into an investigation for the Council of Europe’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights.
The Council and UN Special Rapporteur is looking for figures on death and serious injury from tear gas in member countries for their March 2016 policy meeting. Our Hack Day at BU stands to have a direct impact on European human rights policy-making, shaping the regulation of policing in member states. There will also be opportunities to write and pitch journalistic stories arising from the investigation, as well as for mapping data.
During the hack day, we will use investigative web searching, as well as basic data scraping techniques to aggregate and verify records of tear gas deaths and serious injuries in Council of Europe member states. This will involve, in particular, working with data and reliable sources from human rights reports, news organisations and medical institutions. If you are new to these methods, mentorship will be provided on the day – all welcome.
There will be a briefing on the task from 10:00-10:30. After that, you are welcome to come for all of the day or part of the day. It is also fine to pop in and out.
There will be lunch and refreshments provided throughout the day.
Please RSVP if you would like to attend by emailing a.feigenbaum@bournemouth.ac.uk
ESRC Research Seminar: 12 Jan, ‘Media Representations of Antisocial Personality Disorder’: places still available
ESRC Research Seminar: Bournemouth University and the University of East London:
Media Representations of ‘antisocial personality disorder’
Tuesday, 12 January, 2016: Room EB702, Bournemouth University

11-00: Coffee
11-15: Introductions and introduction to the series.
11.30 : David W Jones (University of East London): Overview of the significance of ‘the media’ and the story of ASPD
12.15 Candida Yates:(Bournemouth University) ‘I know just how he feels’ Taxi Driver, Disordered Masculinities and Popular Culture
1-00: Lunch
2.00: Alison Cronin (Bournemouth University): ASPD and the media reporting of crime.
2-45: Stefania Ciocia (Canterbury Christ): ‘Only Underdogs and psychos in this world’
3-30 – Tea
3-45: Bradley Hillier, ( South West London Forensic Service) “Breaking Bad: How dark is Walter White?”
4-30 Discussion
5-6pm Wine and canapes
VENUE: Room EB702, Bournemouth University Executive Business Centre, 89 Holdenhurst Road
Bournemouth
BH8 8EB
*If you would like to attend this event, please contact Prof. Candida Yates: cyates@bournemouth.ac.uk