Connecting Research

Destigmatising self-injury through art (Posters in the Library)
2022-11-18 13:00 - 13:30 (Europe/London) | Library Foyer
On Friday 18 November at 1pm, Alanna Skuse and Tina O’Connell will be discussing how their series of participant-led art workshops are raising important questions about how we understand and talk about self-injury.
As part of our Posters in the Library from 12pm each weekday between Tuesday 15 and Friday 18 November, you can learn more about how research at Reading is addressing twenty-first century challenges.
Each day, in an informal ten-minute presentation, one of the finalists from the University’s Research Engagement and Impact Awards 2022 will present their life‑changing work and answer any questions you might have.

ID Seminar: An interplay: analysing the narratives of women farmers in the small-scale sugarcane plantation in Negros Occidental, Philippines
2022-11-21 13:00 - 14:00 | Online
The Department of International Development is pleased to have Doctoral Researcher, Pamela Eleazar, delivering a seminar entitled: ‘An interplay: analysing the narratives of women farmers in the small-scale sugarcane plantation in Negros Occidental, Philippines’.
The seminar is taking place on Monday 21 November from 1-2pm on Teams. You can join here.

ID Seminar: Social vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in India
2022-11-28 13:00 - 14:00 | Agriculture Building, Seminar Room 1L10
The Department of International Development is pleased to have Dr Sanchita Garai (Visiting Academic Dept
ID, and Scientist Dairy Extension Division, ICAR-NDRI India) delivering a hybrid seminar entitled: ‘Social vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in India’.
The seminar is taking place on Monday 28 November from 1-2pm in the 1L10 Seminar Room, Agriculture Building. You can also join via Teams here.

Creative Entrepreneur in Residence talks programme: Authentic Enough? Opening up the past with selective authenticity
2022-12-01 13:00 - 16:00 | Edith Morley, 127, University of Reading, Shinfield Road, Reading, RG6 6EL
1st December, 1pm Edith Morley 127
All UoR researchers who might be interested are warmly invited to join the talks in this programme. Do join us for the presentations and a chance for cross disciplinary conversation.
Some of the world’s biggest entertainment IPs are rooted in historical stories or eras – from TV series like The Last Kingdom, Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, to video games such as Assassin’s Creed.
Whilst the past offers clear creative opportunities – a ready-made storyworld and audience familiarity with characters and plot – there is often a tension between historical accuracy and the needs of narrative, audiences and formats.
In this talk we will hear from creatives whose work has addressed these questions in theatre, games and immersive experiences. We will discuss ‘selective authenticity’, where situations when historical fact is at odds with popular conceptions of the past are avoided, to ensure that suspension of disbelief isn’t broken. And will explore the concept of ‘authenticity of experience’ as a means of opening up the past for audiences.
Speakers include:
Luke Holmes is a game designer for Creative Assembly, producers of the multi-million selling Total War series. Prior to this he has been an interpretation manager at leading heritage attractions, including the Tower of London and the SS Great Britain, and is the author of several academic articles on historical gameplay and ludic theory.
Hannah Price is a director and creative director working across theatre, VR, digital, games and events. She is an award winning freelance theatre director, founder and previous Co-Artistic Director of Theatre Uncut and has directed theatre and immersive events across the world. She is Creative Director of the Gunpowder Plot, the new 5 star reviewed immersive theatre and VR experience at the Tower of London – and as a BAFTA-winning video game performance director, she has worked on some of the world’s biggest titles.
And Tim Powell, the University of Reading’s Creative Entrepreneur in Residence.

ID Seminar: Understanding the adaption of Zero Budget Natural Farming in Andhra Pradesh, India
2022-12-05 13:00 - 14:00 | Frank Parkinson room, Agriculture, Whiteknights, RG6 7BE
The Department of International Development is pleased to have Dr Sarah Duddigan (Research Fellow) and Dr Grady Walker (Senior Research Officer) delivering a seminar entitled: ‘Understanding the adaption of Zero Budget Natural Farming in Andhra Pradesh, India’.
The seminar is taking place on Monday 5 December from 1-2pm in the Frank Parkinson Room, Agriculture Building. You can also join via Teams here.

Visiting Filmmaker: Peter Treherne
2022-12-06 15:00 - 17:00 | Bob Kayley Theatre, University of Reading, Shinfield Road, Reading, RG6 6AH, United Kingdom
TUE DEC 6th (Wk11) / 3pm / Bob Kayley Theatre
CFAC is building a partnership with the filmmaker Peter Treherne, who has recently secured Arts Council funding for a wonderfully ambitious feature film, Matter of Britain. The project also builds on a collaboration with The Museum of English Rural Life, part of the University of Reading’s Museums and Special Collections Services.
Treherne will come and talk with us about his project – his inspirations and creative ambitions, and his plans for engaging a village community in the trials and tribulations of film production.
All welcome. No booking required.
Matter of Britain is a co-creative film that performs the Quest for the Holy Grail with the community of Mayfield, East Sussex. In the Arthurian myths, knights seek the Grail in the hope of restoring their land which has been laid waste by human greed and violence. This waste land serves as a metaphor for the climate crisis and so the film/quest becomes a means through which the people of Mayfield can express their ecological concerns and connect with the agricultural landscape of the High Weald.
The script, based on Sir Thomas Mallory’s 1470 Le Morte Darthur, was developed by Peter Treherne with the support of an Arts Council of England Project Grant. Production will take place on farmland around Mayfield between January 2023 and January 2024. The completed project will be exhibited at the Museum of English Rural Life in Reading and Ditchling Museum of Art & Craft in Sussex.
The production is supported by an Arts Council of England Project Grant, the Lund Fund, East Sussex Arts Partnership, the Wateryard Theatre Group, the Museum of English Rural Life, the University of Reading and Ditchling Museum of Art & Craft.

Ghandhi Research Seminar Series: Prof Holger P Hestermeyer
2022-12-07 14:30 - 15:30 | Palmer Building, Room 108
Global Law at Reading (GLAR) is one of the leading groups of expert staff researching and teaching global law at any university in the UK. As Reading’s research hub for public international law, EU law and human rights law it has a proud international reputation for research excellence in these areas. The series was launched in 2015. It is named in honour of Professor Sandy Ghandhi, who taught at the School of Law from 1978 to 2013 and remains an emeritus professor at Reading.
Anyone is welcome to attend this seminar, and attendance is free.
Wednesday 7 December
1-2pm
Palmer 108 Professor Holger P. Hestermeyer (King’s College London)
The Unbearable Flexibility of International Law: The (Ab)use of MoUs

Workshop: Accommodating diversity in the workplace
2022-12-08 10:00 - 16:00 | University of Reading, RG6 6UR
Date: 8th December 2022
Where: Whiteknights Campus, University of Reading
We are pleased to invite you to the first workshop in our “Accommodating Diversity in the Workplace” Series. We are a group of researchers based at the University of Reading working on a range of projects focusing on best ways to accommodate diversity in the workplace. We aim to understand issues relating to diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and consider the implications for good workplace practice and policy.
Attendance is free and includes a networking lunch and refreshments.
About the workshop
The purpose of the workshop is to bring together academics and organisations in an informal way to brainstorm and build a share understanding of the challenges around policy and practice related to various types of diversities.

Topics for discussion at the workshop:

The meaning of diversity in the workplace (what is and what is not diversity)
To what extent and how diversity enters hiring decisions
Diversity issues that we are currently addressing in our research and want to understand the challenges of employers when they decide on policies and practices on these issues

Who is the workshop aimed at?
HR professionals and others involved in designing and applying diversity policies in the workplace; Hiring and Line managers; Diversity & Inclusion representatives within the workplace; Employer organisations; Charities interested in diversity in the workplace.

Register here

Spaces of Translation: European Magazine Cultures, c. 1945-1965
2022-12-08 17:00 - 18:30 | Edith Morley Building, G74, University of Reading, Shinfield Road, Reading, RG6 6EL, United Kingdom
Speakers: Andrew Thacker (Nottingham Trent) and Alison E. Martin (Mainz/Germersheim)
This research seminar is free and open to all. Join us in person in the Edith Morley Building, Room G74. To join via Zoom, register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/428120508967
In this project we study a small constellation of literary and cultural magazines from three countries and language areas – Britain, France and Germany – in order to consider how, through translation, they explore and construct notions of European identity in the period following from the end of World War Two to the mid-1960s. Rapid shifts towards decolonisation, the Americanisation of European culture, the rise of anti-militarism and the strategic and ideological conflicts instigated by the Cold War all stimulated an ongoing reassessment of what the European idea stood for and whether or how it might be achieved. Using the notion of periodicals as ‘European spaces’, the project addresses how periodical culture in Britain, France, and Germany used translation to reconfigure a vision for Europe after the catastrophe of World War Two. As The Gate/Das Tor declared in 1947, art, music and literature were ‘not the property of one nation alone’ and that ‘a deeper understanding of our cultural ties with Europe is a surer way to international friendship than political treaties’. But what exactly was the significance of the translation of works of poetry, fiction, criticism, and non-fiction in this period? How did translated texts operate as vehicles for the forging of new European identities? And how did the crossing of linguistic boundaries produce alliances across national borders?

Catherine Butler, ‘Studio Ghibli and British Children’s Literature in Japan’
2022-12-13 17:00 - 18:30
This talk is part of the CBCP and Outside in World Webinar series on Children’s Literature and Translation.
Join us online to hear Catherine Butler (Cardiff) talking about ‘Studio Ghibli and British Children’s Literature in Japan’.
This event is free and open to all. To register for the Zoom link, click here.
Hayao Miyazaki has had a lifelong interest in British children’s literature, and an influential role in popularising it in Japan, notably through the animations he created at Studio Ghibli. In this talk I will discuss some aspects of that contribution, and that of directors whom Miyazaki directly influenced, especially his protogé, Hiromasa Yonebayashi. But I will also ask two questions: why does Hayao Miyazaki, who loves British children’s books and has adapted several, never used Britain as a setting? And what are the consequence of taking a story from one setting and medium and putting it into another?
Catherine Butler is Reader in English Literature at Cardiff University. Her academic books include Four British Fantasists (2006), Reading History in Children’s Books (with Hallie O’Donovan, 2012) and Literary Studies Deconstructed (2018), and several edited collections. Her latest book, British Children’s Literature in Japanese Culture: Wonderlands and Looking-Glasses, is due to be published by Bloomsbury in 2023. She has also published six novels for children and teenagers. Catherine is Editor-in-Chief of Children’s Literature in Education.

Exploiting farm-level big data to increase economic and environmental efficiency in crop management webinar
2022-12-14 10:00 - 11:00 | Online
The online webinar event entitled “Exploiting farm-level big data to increase economic and environmental efficiency in crop management” will showcase the results from the EIT Food project, LINKDAPA.
The LINKDAPA project has been running for three years and has developed algorithms to integrate historical and current data from individual fields with the aim of enhancing within-field level management by farmers. A core part of the projects work has been the co-creation with farmers and identifying opportunities to increase adoption of more precise and sustainable farming systems. The online webinar event will take place on Wednesday 14th December at 10.00 – 11.00 GMT as follows:

10:00-10:30. Presentation: Exploiting farm-level big data to increase economic and environmental efficiency in crop management” by Dr Lindsay Todman, University of Reading
10:30-11:00. Q & A with the research team.

To join the webinar please Click here to join the meeting
Find out more on the Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health’s webpages

Essential minerals in milk: their variation and nutritional implications hybrid event
2022-12-16 12:00 - 14:00 | Frank Parkinson room, Agriculture, Whiteknights, RG6 7BE
The Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health’s hybrid event “Essential minerals in milk: their variation and nutritional implications” showcases the results from the EIT Food project NUTRIMILK, an investigation of the variation in macrominerals and trace elements in retail milk throughout the year and the nutritional implications for consumers. The hybrid event will take place on Friday 16 December at 12.00 – 14.00, in-person at the Frank Parkinson room, Agriculture Building, University of Reading, as well as live online via MS Teams, and includes two parts:

12:00-13:00 (hybrid). Presentation: Macrominerals and trace elements in cows’ retail milk: seasonal variation and implications for consumer nutrition, by Dr Sokratis Stergiadis, Associate Professor at the University of Reading
13:00-14:00 (in-person only). Networking and lunch: Tea/coffee and lunch will be provided for those who will be able to attend in-person at the Frank Parkinson room.

The attendance is free but registration for both, in-person and online is required. Deadline for registration is Monday 12 December 17:00 GMT.
To register your attendance, please visit our webinar Eventbrite page. Please feel free to share the invitation within your professional networks.
Abstract: Milk is an important dietary source of essential macrominerals and trace elements (Ca, I, P, Zn, K, Se, Mg, Na), but there is substantial seasonal variation in their concentrations because of different feeding management between seasons. This large variation may increase the risk of nutrient imbalances throughout the year, particularly in demographics with higher requirements (toddlers, children, pregnant/nursing women). Farm-to-fork interventions can improve consistency in mineral composition but the seasonal and production systems’ variation of the retail milk mineral profile is unknown, thus making it difficult for the food and livestock industry to identify the potential risks to nutrient supply. This project study will investigate the seasonal variation in macromineral and trace element concentrations of milk from conventional and organic dairy systems, and assess the impact on mineral intakes of the different demographics across the year. Results can be used to inform food-chain interventions for optimum milk mineral contents.

Money Matters: Children's Christmas Lecture
2022-12-20 16:30 - 17:30 | Palmer Building, G10
We all know what money is – but what if I told you that everything you knew wasn’t quite as it seems?
Join Professor Adrian Bell, Research Dean and Professor in the History of Finance, as he describes how the concept of money has changed over time, from seashells to silver coins, to paper money and now crypto currencies. What is money and why does it matter so much against the contemporary background of the current cost-of-living?
Admission free. Booking essential. Suitable for children 7-12 years. Find out more.

Anthony Glinoer, ‘Between Archives and Databases. The Archives éditoriales platform.’
2023-01-12 17:00 - 18:00
Join us online to hear Anthony Glinoer (University of Sherbrooke, Quebec) talking about The Archives éditoriales platform http://archiveseditoriales.net.
This event is free and open to all. To register for the Zoom link, click here.
A presentation of the internet platform Archives éditoriales (http://archiveseditoriales.net) and of the research partnership project of francophone publishers’ archives, which made the platform possible. Amongst the tools made available on the platform (a database of more than a thousand interviews with francophone publishers about their publishing activity, digital exhibitions, a blog, etc.), Anthony will focus on the database of publishers’ archives, addressing the questions of why, how and when publishing houses tend to donate their archives to public institutions.
Anthony Glinoer is a professor at the University of Sherbrooke (Quebec). His work focusses primarily on the history of publishing (Naissance de l’Éditeur with Pascal Durand in 2005), on the study of representations of the literary life (La bohème. Une figure de l’imaginaire social in 2018) and on groups of authors and artists (L’âge des cénacles with Vincent Laisney in 2013). Anthony Glinoer has also led the Socius project, which has produced re-editions of the classics in literary social theory, re-edited or original bibliographies, and a lexicon of concepts (see the open-access site: ressources-socius.info).
(The illustration is a badge from the Prise de Parole publishing house, Sudbury, Archives of the CRCCF, Fonds Paul-François-Sylvestre (P179), M81-14, Ottawa.)

Ghandhi Research Seminar Series: Prof Phillippa Webb
2023-01-18 13:00 - 14:00 | Palmer Building, Room 108
Global Law at Reading (GLAR) is one of the leading groups of expert staff researching and teaching global law at any university in the UK. As Reading’s research hub for public international law, EU law and human rights law it has a proud international reputation for research excellence in these areas. The series was launched in 2015. It is named in honour of Professor Sandy Ghandhi, who taught at the School of Law from 1978 to 2013 and remains an emeritus professor at Reading. Wednesday 18 January
13.00–14.00
Palmer 108 Professor Phillippa Webb (King’s College London)
Using existing exceptions to sovereign immunity to advance accountability; potential and pitfalls.

Reading Latin American and Caribbean (R-LAC) Networking Event
2023-01-18 16:00 - 18:00 | Blandford’s, Park House, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6EF, United Kingdom
Wednesday 18th January, 4-6pm, in-person (Blandford’s, Park House, Whiteknights Campus) with the option to join online via zoom.
The aim of this event is to bring together members of Reading’s Latin American and the Caribbean research network (R-LAC), as well as other interested colleagues from across the University.
The event will showcase the findings from R-LAC’s recent grant success (Natural Environment Research Council, NERC), which enabled the network to run a series of disciplinary-hopping workshops focusing on climate change and adaptation in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The event will also outline R-LAC’s future plans, launch the newly created website, and provide a space for networking between UoR staff and PhD/PostDoc students working on Latin America and the Caribbean, with the aim of facilitating future interdisciplinary collaboration across the university.
Refreshments will be provided, so please register for catering purposes on our Eventbrite page.
For online attendance please email Dr Elston (c.elston@reading.ac.uk) to receive a Zoom link.

FTT Seminar: Mysticism and Spirituality in Film and Performance
2023-01-23 16:00 - 17:30 | Online
RUINS – An Archaeological Excavation
Silvia Battista
This presentation stems from the practice-research Spirits Read Foucault to explore questions around traces, ruins, and their value for future ‘ruminations’. It does not follow a linear structure, but it is organized around a list of 13 fragments, ruins of my own thinking. I encourage participants to treat them as an archaeologist would do with founded fragments: weave a fabric of their own by following intuitive impulses.
Spirits Read Foucault (2015-2019) consists in a video-performance-research-experiment that employs storytelling, guided visualization, and mental imaginary. The aim is experiential wherein performance is used as a vehicle to guide audiences to reflect on the meanings of our embodied lives, on the identity politics attached to our bodies and their appearances, and on what – if something – remains after the physical body is no longer physically present. The intention is to encourage attention toward the intertwined body-mind liminal complex, as an order of materiality that crosses beyond its discrete boundaries to meet the spiritual.
Spirits Read Foucault is permanently available on RUINS, the online festival curated by the artist, scholar [M]Dudek and BARS – the British Association of Religious Studies.
Instructions: Please sign up to the festival – it is a very easy process. Once signed up, you will be able to sign in any time you want – there are many interesting works to be explored.
When you enter the platform click on Spirits Read Foucault – on the top, right corner. Before playing the video, please click on READ FIRST: LETTER: SPIRITS READ FOUCAULT: ACT ONE. It is important that you do that as there are warnings regarding contents. Once read the letter and decided to proceed, play the video.
Silvia Battista is a multidisciplinary artist and academic. She is senior lecturer at Liverpool Hope University and the co-convenor of the international working group Performance, Religion and Spirituality of the IFTR – International Federation of Theatre Studies. Central to her practice-research is the study of spiritual practices and mythmaking processes in contemporary performance art. She sees herself as a weaver of metaphorical fabrics, mythopoeia, and speculative fiction. She has presented her work internationally from pubs and music venues to galleries, museums, and universities. Lately, she has performed at the Williamson Gallery (2022); Tate Liverpool (2019); Liverpool Biennial (2019); and the Stockport War Memorial Gallery (2018). She published the monograph Posthuman Spiritualities in Contemporary Performance: Politics Ecologies and Perceptions (Palgrave) and the edited book The Performances of Sacred Places: Crossing, Breathing and Resisting (Intellect).
Visionary, transpersonal and entheogenic experience in Tarkovsky’s Stalker
David Foster
Andrei Tarkovsky wrote that his film Stalker (1979) ‘is about the existence of God in man’. This paper examines that film, and particularly one of its key sequences, in the light of this idea, and asks what an approach to the film through this context might suggest about its engagement with visionary, transpersonal and entheogenic experience, and about the relationship of such experience to the uses and value of art. Via a brief consideration of the constitution of mankind in relation to the divine as mythologised in The Truman Show (Peter Weir, 1998), the paper draws on some of the work of C. G. Jung, Aldous Huxley, Rainer Maria Rilke, Friedrich Nietzsche, Mircea Eliade, and the Neoplatonist philosopher Plotinus, as well as the writings of Tarkovsky himself and the work of some noted Tarkovsky scholars. Ultimately I want to suggest that the experience of ‘The Room’ in Stalker would be the experience of ‘the Real’: the ineffable, the absolutely paradoxical, that which is beyond symbolisation but upon which manifestation is founded.
David Foster is a visual artist and a lecturer in film at the University of Reading. He makes artwork about his experience of and relationship with place, land, and the natural world. He works mainly with photography, especially double-exposure photography, but also with video, film, text, and found objects. In recent years, his practice has been funded by several grants from Arts Council England, and solo exhibitions of his work have been held in Oxford, Suffolk, Dorset and Sussex. David’s main interest as a film scholar is the ‘art cinema’ of such filmmakers as Andrei Tarkovsky, Ingmar Bergman, Jean-Luc Godard, Michael Haneke and others, but his previously published research has mostly related to some of Samuel Beckett’s work and has appeared in Screen, Studies in European Cinema, the Journal of Beckett Studies, the Moving Image Review and Art Journal, Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd’hui, and in edited collections.
About this event
The FTT Research Seminar Series is hosted by the University of Reading and puts research from scholars in Film, Theatre and Television into dialogue. This celebrates the exciting intersection of these fields within our department and seeks to support collaboration and conversation across Film, Theatre, and Television.
Each invited paper is 25-30 minutes long and is followed by a participatory Q&A discussion. This seminar will be held online.
Reserve your space on Eventbrite.

Valeria Illuminati, Roberta Pederzoli, and Beatrice Spallaccia, ‘The G-Book Project. Literature for children and YAs from a gender perspective: literary and translation issues’
2023-01-25 17:00 - 18:00
This talk is part of the CBCP and Outside in World Webinar series on Children’s Literature and Translation and is open to all. To register to join us via Zoom click here.
Speakers: Valeria Illuminati, Roberta Pederzoli, and Beatrice Spallaccia (University of Bologna, MeTRa Centre – Research Centre on Mediation and Translation by and for Children and Young Adults)
The CBCP x OIW webinar series is delighted to welcome a team of speakers from the European G-Book projects. The projects G-BOOK 1 and 2 (Gender Identity: Child Readers and Library Collections and European teens as readers and creators in gender-positive narratives) aim to promote gender positive children’s and young adult literature in terms of roles and models, a literature that is open-minded, plural, varied, free from stereotypes, and that encourages respect and diversity. The first part of the webinar will develop a critical-theoretical reflection on literature for children and young adults from a gender perspective and on its translation. In particular, we will discuss:

gender representations and stereotypes
families
male and female characters
LGBTQ+ issues
and the G-BOOK European projects.

The second part will explore case studies of LGBTQ+ themed illustrated books in English and French translated into Italian. We will analyze both the paratext and the text itself, showing how in the transfer from one language and culture to another there are some shifts and changes, which are not necessarily questionable, but however present the source text in a new light and produce a different effect on the target reader.

IFNH F2F Dissemination event
2023-01-27 13:00 - 14:00 | Frank Parkinson room, Agriculture, Whiteknights, RG6 7BE
Join the Institute for Food Nutrition and Health at the IDRF dissemination event showcasing the funding outcomes from the four awarded projects from the 2021 call. The event will take place on Friday 27th January at 13:00 – 14:00 in the Frank Parkinson Room, School of Agriculture Policy and Development.

13:00 – 13:15 Presentation: Effects of Lacto-vegetarian and Vegan Diet on the Glycaemic and Metabolite Profiles in Healthy Asian Indians by Professor Vimal Karani, Deputy Director IFNH
13:15 – 13:20 Presentation: The impact of counter layout and labelling on consumer preference for plant-based alternatives in University catering facilities by Dr Stephanie Bull, Lecturer, Food & Nutritional Sciences
13:20 – 13:35 Presentation: Putting comfort into healthy and sustainable food: Co-creating appealing presentations of healthy and sustainable food to promote its consumption by Dr Julia Vogt, Lecturer in Sensory Science, School of Chemistry, Food & Pharmacy
13:35 – 13:50 Presentation: See & Eat 2022: exploring printed books and expanding online content by Professor Carmel Houston-Price, Head of School, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences
13:50 – 14:00 Q & A

Using evidence in policy and practice
2023-01-30 13:00 - 13:50 | Frank Parkinson room, Agriculture, Whiteknights, RG6 7BE
Prof Ian Goldman from the University of Witwatersand, South Africa will be delivering a seminar entitled: ‘Using evidence in policy and practice.’
Join us in the Frank Parkinson room (Agriculture building) or via Microsoft Teams from 1–1.50pm on Monday 30 January.

Ghandhi Research Seminar Series: Prof Aoife Nolan
2023-02-01 13:00 - 14:00 | Palmer Building, Room 108
Global Law at Reading (GLAR) is one of the leading groups of expert staff researching and teaching global law at any university in the UK. As Reading’s research hub for public international law, EU law and human rights law it has a proud international reputation for research excellence in these areas. The series was launched in 2015. It is named in honour of Professor Sandy Ghandhi, who taught at the School of Law from 1978 to 2013 and remains an emeritus professor at Reading. Wednesday 1 February
13.00–14.00
Palmer 108 Prof Aoife Nolan (University of Nottingham)
Giving meaning to social rights in Europe at a time of pressure – the European Social Charter System in Action

The dark side of prediction: Pervasive false memories for nouns predicted but not seen
2023-02-02 13:00 - 14:00 | Online
Dr Katja Haeuser from Saarland University is delivering a seminar entitled: ‘The dark side of prediction: Pervasive false memories for nouns predicted but not seen.’
Abstract: An accumulating body of research has shown that predictability modulates online language processing, in that language users anticipate semantic features, and sometimes word forms, of upcoming linguistic material. In contrast, there is a shortage of studies addressing the longer-term memory consequences of having predictions confirmed or disconfirmed. In this talk, I will show how my work has helped inform research on the conditions that enable word form prediction during reading, and that promote learning following prediction error. In particular, I will highlight how psycholinguistic concepts can inform theories on memory consolidation and error-driven language learning. I will conclude with an outlook on my current research agenda that investigates memory illusions rooted in predictive processing from a lifespan perspective.
Join the online seminar on Microsoft Teams.

Linking social protection and climate change adaptation for rural livelihoods in Senegal
2023-02-06 13:00 - 13:50 | Frank Parkinson room, Agriculture, Whiteknights, RG6 7BE
Al Hassan Cisse, PhD student at distance, based in Nigeria/Senegal, will be delivering a seminar entitled: ‘Linking social protection and climate change adaptation for rural livelihoods in Senegal.’
Join us in the Frank Parkinson room (Agriculture building) or via Microsoft Teams from 1–1.50pm on Monday 6 February.

Digital Humanities and the Network Turn
2023-02-08 14:00 - 16:00 | Edith Morley Building, G25, University of Reading, Shinfield Rd, Reading, RG6 6EL, United Kingdom
We are pleased to announce the third Digital Humanities discussion event on Wednesday 8 February 2023, focusing on Social Network Analysis.
Please note, this event is open only to University of Reading researchers and certain invited guests. If you are interested in any of the presentations, please contact Mara Oliva (m.oliva@reading.ac.uk).
The event will be taking place on campus, but there is a hybrid option in order to ensure ongoing accessibility for those especially vulnerable to Covid-19 as well as colleagues with caring responsibilities. If you would like to attend virtually, please get in touch to request the link for access.
If you are not already a member, you are welcome to join the Digital Humanities Community of Practice via our MS Teams channel. (This link will take you to the Teams channel. If you are not already a member, you will be presented with a dialogue box that says ‘Join’. Click this to send a request, which will be approved if you are a member of the University of Reading. If you are already a member of the Team, this link just takes you directly to the ‘General’ channel.)
Within the COP, you will be able to introduce yourself, share your research, and access information about funding opportunities, support, and events. Read more here.
Our events are open to all researchers, staff, and PGRs from any subject – we welcome interdisciplinary collaboration!
To attend the event (in person or via Teams), or if you have any other questions, please contact the DH Academic Champion, Mara Oliva (m.oliva@reading.ac.uk).
Programme
14.00 Welcome and Intro – Roberta Gilchrist and Mara Oliva
14.10 Keynote address: Professor Ruth Ahnert (QMUL and Turing Institute) – ‘The Network Turn: Changing Perspectives in the Humanities’
14.50 Break
15.00 Roundtable:

Dr Amy Richardson (University of Reading) – Social Network Analysis and the archaeology of Iraq: networks of materials and practice in pre- and proto-history
Dr Fiona Coward (Bournemouth University) – The Connected Past
Dr Valentina Vavassori (National Archives) – tbc

15.30 Q&A
15.55 What’s next (DH CoP and Hub – future events) & close
~~~
Abstract: Keynote Address – Professor Ruth Ahnert
The Network Turn: Changing Perspectives in the Humanities
We live in a networked world. Online social networking platforms and the World Wide Web have changed how society thinks about connectivity. Because of the technological nature of such networks, their study has predominantly taken place within the domains of computer science and related scientific fields. But arts and humanities scholars are increasingly using the same kinds of visual and quantitative analysis to shed light on aspects of culture and society hitherto concealed. This paper will argue that networks are a category of study that cuts across traditional academic barriers, uniting diverse disciplines through a shared understanding of complexity in our world. Moreover, we are at a moment in time when it is crucial that arts and humanities scholars join the critique of how large-scale network data and advanced network analysis are being harnessed for the purposes of power, surveillance, and commercial gain. To illustrate the potential of the frameworks and methods of network analysis, this paper will draw from the findings of two recent projects that I led, Tudor Networks of Power, and Networking Archives.
~~~
Speaker information
Professor Ruth Ahnert is Professor of Literary History and Digital Humanities at Queen Mary University of London. Her research background is in early modern history, with a particular interest in book history and epistolary culture. More recently she has explored the application of quantitative network analysis to the study of early modern letters, and is currently Principal Investigator on the large interdisciplinary project Living with Machines based at the British Library and Alan Turing Institute.
Dr Amy Richardson is a Senior Research Fellow in Archaeology at the University of Reading. Her research focuses on the analysis of new and archival archaeological datasets to examine networks of people and materials in the Middle East, applying materials and network analysis to assemblages of clay and stone artefacts. She is also a University of Reading Open Research Champion.
Dr Fiona Coward is Associate Professor in Archaeological Sciences at Bournemouth University. Her work focuses on the evolution of human social life and cognition throughout the Palaeolithic but also throughout the shift from mobile foraging to more settled and agricultural lifeways in the early Holocene. She employs a multidisciplinary approach, emphasising the interrelations between humanity’s physical and social environments, as well as a variety of techniques including network analysis, GIS and agent-based modelling.
Dr Valentina Vavassori is a Digital Scholarship Researcher at the National Archives. She is interested in the development of User Interfaces for Linked Open Data, ontologies and data modelling. She completed her PhD, on ‘Digital Narratives in Physical Museums. Narrative Construction with Contextual Technologies’, at King’s College London, where she also worked on the project ‘Reframing Art: Opening up Art Dealers’ Archives to Multi-Disciplinary Research’ in collaboration with the National Gallery.

IFNH 5th Annual Forum: Shaping sustainable food systems for future generations
2023-02-08 14:00 - 17:00 | Online
The Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health (IFNH) is delighted to invite you to our 5th Annual Forum, which will take place online on Wednesday 8th February 2023 from 14.00 – 17.00 (GMT).
This year’s theme is about shaping sustainable food systems for future generations, including the combination of improved knowledge and innovative policies to enhance behaviour change by food producers, food processors, food distributors, and consumers.
The event is free to attend, please register your attendance and share this with your networks.
Download the programme of events (PDF)

Projected land use change in an oil-rich landscape in Uganda: A participatory modelling approach
2023-02-09 13:00 - 13:50 | Frank Parkinson room, Agriculture, Whiteknights, RG6 7BE
Dr Ronald Twongyirwe (Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda) will be delivering a seminar entitled: ‘Projected land use change in an oil-rich landscape in Uganda: A participatory modelling approach.’
Join us in the Frank Parkinson room (Agriculture building) or via Microsoft Teams from 1–1.50pm on Thursday 9 February.

Exploring the Twitterverse of Filipino Men Living with HIV
2023-02-20 13:00 - 13:50 | Frank Parkinson room, Agriculture, Whiteknights, RG6 7BE
Aldo Gavril Lim (UoR PhD student and Faculty at UPLB Philippines) will be delivering a seminar entitled: ‘Exploring the Twitterverse of Filipino Men Living with HIV.’
Join us in the Frank Parkinson room (Agriculture building) or via Microsoft Teams from 1–1.50pm on Monday 20 February.

Revisiting Coercion as an Element of Prohibited Intervention in International Law
2023-02-22 17:00 - 18:00 | Henley Business School, Room G11, Henley Business School, Whiteknights Campus, Reading, RG6 6UR, United Kingdom
Professor Marko MilanovicInternational Law: Revisiting Coercion as an Element of Prohibited Intervention in International Law.
Wednesday 22 February, 17:00, G11, Henley Business School
In his inaugural lecture, Professor Milanovic will argue that coercion can be understood in two different ways or models.
First, coercion as extortion, as a threat to engage or continue engaging in some activity (which itself may be lawful or unlawful) in order to extract some kind of concession from the victim state – in other words, an act targeting the victim state’s will or decision-making calculus.
Second, coercion can be understood as the actual deprivation of the victim state’s ability to make its sovereign choices, which may be done even through acts like cyber operations that the victim state may be unaware of. Professor Milanovic will argue that many of the difficulties surrounding the notion of coercion arise as consequence of failing to distinguish between these two different models.
Professor Milanovic is Professor of Public International Law at the University of Reading and Director of Global Law at Reading.
Register to attend

The New Disability Media Webinar
2023-02-24 18:00 - 19:30 | Online
Film Quarterly explores new directions in disability film and media in a two-part webinar discussing its special dossier “The New Disability Media” (Winter 2022) co-presented with NYU’s Center for Disability Studies and Center for Media, Culture & History.
Dossier co-editors B. Ruby Rich (Film Quarterly), Faye Ginsburg (NYU) and Lawrence Carter-Long (DisArt) will moderate conversations with the dossier’s scholars and filmmakers on exciting developments in disability film and media.
Jenny Chamarette, School of Art, University of Reading, will be discussing the digital activism of filmmaker Stephen Dwoskin, whose archive is based in Special Collections at Reading. She was Co-Investigator on the AHRC funded project that supported the cataloguing of the archive and research into his life and work. Dwoskin was an important figure in the history of experimental film in the UK, and a disability rights activist.
Speakers:

Jenny Chamarette (University of Reading)
Arseli Dokumaci (Concordia University)
Slava Greenberg (University of Southern California)
Salome Chasnoff (filmmaker, Code of the Freaks)
Carrie Sandahl (filmmaker, Code of the Freaks)
Rodney Evans (filmmaker, Vision Portraits)

Register for the Zoom event to attend.

Queer Tragic Masks: LGBT History and Ancient Drama
2023-02-27 18:00 - 19:00 | Edith Morley Building, Van Emden Lecture Theatre, Edith Morley Building, University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, RG6 6UR, United Kingdom
Join Oliver Baldwin, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Classics, for a public lecture on how performances of ancient tragedies have been used to tell LGBT+ stories.
Since the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York, queerness has often been embodied, assessed, and enacted through performances of ancient tragedy. Tragic plots, characters and conflicts have been used to work through many key issues in LGBTQI+ history, from AIDS and same-sex marriage to homophobia and queer liberation. This LGBTQ History Month lecture explores three key stage versions of Greek tragedy: a lesbian version of The Bacchae against Section 28; a gay retelling of Medea exploring same-sex marriage and parenthood; and a re-interpretation of Trojan Women as a queer family of colour led facing AIDS.
Join us to experience how a lesbian goddess brought queer divine retribution over Thatcherite homophobia, how a gay Medea endures the lack of protection of marriage and how a Black trans woman burns down the hospital where AIDS is crippling her family. These examples demonstrate how the tragic masks of ancient drama have been painted over with queer colours to defend, vindicate and celebrate LGBTQI+ people and their history.
Register to attend.
