Connecting Research

New Food Solutions for Cancer Patients - study participants needed
2020-11-19 08:00 - 2020-12-07 17:00 (Europe/London)
Help researchers at the University of Reading evaluate food products specially designed for cancer patients who are experiencing taste and smell alterations and/or require, or have required, texture-modified foods as a result of their treatment. Your input will directly influence the design and development of new innovative food solutions for cancer patients.
Close to 70% of cancer patients undergoing treatments experience side-effects (taste loss, bad taste in mouth, metallic taste, saliva absence, sores in mouth, vomiting, loss of appetite) that may have a large impact on their daily food intake.
The main aim of this study is to design and develop new innovative food solutions for cancer patients, taking into account not only their nutritional requirements but also their sensory changes thereby promoting eating pleasure.
We are looking for:

Cancer patients who require/have required texture-modified foods to attend an online focus group session
Healthcare workers of adult cancer patients who require texture-modified foods to attend an online focus group session
Cancer patients experiencing taste & smell alterations to evaluate some food products at home over 2 weeks,
All participants must be aged 18+ (patients 18-70)

You will be remunerated for your time.
The study runs until 7 December 2020
For more information or if you would like to sign up, contact us at SensoryScienceCentre@reading.ac.uk

Performing Domesticity at Cromwell’s Court 1653-1658 / Women Writing About Women: Tracing a 17th Century Feminist Heritage
2020-11-23 13:00 - 14:00
Early Modern Research Centre seminar series: ‘Performing Domesticity at Cromwell’s Court 1653-1658′, Beth Bourne-Williams / ‘Women Writing About Women: Tracing a 17th Century Feminist Heritage’, Kate Shaw
Mondays at 1pm via Zoom. To join, please email emrc@reading.ac.uk.
Programme – Autumn Term 2020
7 December: ‘Illness and Recovery in the Early Modern World’, Hannah Newton, University of Reading

Macroeconomics and Reality: Where Are We Now?
2020-11-24 09:00 - 18:45 | Zoom
A one day conference hosted by the Economic Analysis Research Group, University of Reading and ESRC’s Rebuilding Macroeconomics network.
The sessions ar themed around Climate Change and Pandemics, Beyond the Representative Firm and Consumer, Information and Big Data, Computational Advances and Politics and Society and this is the full programme.
To register for the conference, please contact Richard Arnold.

GLAR Ghandhi Research Seminar: ‘Intersectional Discrimination’
2020-11-25 13:00 - 14:00
GLAR is the home of public international law, EU law and human rights law at the University of Reading. The Ghandhi Research Seminar Series showcases the work of experts in these fields. The series was launched in 2015 and is convened this year by Dr Marie Aronsson-Storrier and Dr Matthew Windsor.
All sessions will be held on Microsoft Teams. Please email Matt Windsor (m.r.windsor@reading.ac.uk) for an invite.
25 November 2020 at 1pm – ‘Intersectional Discrimination’, Dr Shreya Atrey, University of Oxford

LOB Research Seminar Featuring Professor Abby Ghobadian
2020-11-26 13:00 - 14:00
LOB Research Seminar Featuring Professor Abby Ghobadian, Henley Business School
Date and time: 26 November 2020 at 1pm-2pm
Location: Held virtually on Microsoft Teams, details TBC
Name of organiser: Marcello Mariani

Methods for Participatory Development and Communications
2020-11-27 13:00 - 14:30
Global Research Division workshop
Using visual methods to enable participatory action-research: women and Zero-Budget Natural Farming in Andhra Pradesh, India – Henny Osbahr and Grady Walker
We use participatory photography when reporting on Zero-Budget Natural Farming approaches in Andhra Pradesh, India. Reporting of sustainable agricultural innovation practice has not always created space for marginalised voices. Participatory action-research merges theory with action and participation, while challenging institutionalised academic methods of collecting and curating knowledge. It relies on the accumulation of knowledge through participant action and seeks to advance the interests of underrepresented groups and classes, including in policy debate. In this short presentation, we will highlight how the approach was used to facilitate a channel for self-help groups of women to explain their often subjective reasons for adopting innovative rural practice.
Understanding how participatory scenario planning can support learning for social-ecological resilience – Sam Poskitt
Participatory scenario planning (PSP) is widely used for public engagement and co-production by researchers and practitioners with the expectation that this can encourage learning that supports progress towards social-ecological resilience. However, thus far there is limited theoretically informed analysis regarding how PSP may support learning in this context. In this presentation, I will explain how I developed a conceptual framework to help understand how PSP can support learning and then applied this framework to an empirical study of learning in PSP processes that focuses on social-ecological resilience.
One step backwards, one step sideways: notes at the margins of a participatory ethno-fiction – Lorenzo D’Angelo
This presentation aims to discuss the choices behind the making of a film shot in collaboration with people living in a gold-mining area in South-Western Uganda. Among other features, this is a locality in which Ugandan security services keep an active eye on gold mining sites and on a researcher eager to film. Hence, the presentation will reflect on issues such as: What is the relationship between reality, fiction, and storytelling? To what extent can collaborative ethnography be participatory?
,

Interrogating the promises of agriculture 4.0: who will win, who will lose, and who has the power to decide?
2020-12-03 13:00 - 14:00
Human Geography Research Seminar
Dr David Rose, Elizabeth Creak Associate Professor of Agricultural Innovation and Extension, School of Agriculture, Policy and Development.
Presentation, followed by commentary and Q& A with discussant, Professor Mike Goodman
Thursday 3 December
1-2 pm MS Teams

Microsoft Teams meeting
Join on your computer or mobile app
Click here to join the meeting
Learn More | Meeting options

, Sen

Annual Percy Ure Lecture: Pompeii of the Syrian Desert: Rethinking Dura-Europos for the 'decolonial' era
2020-12-04 16:00 - 17:00
Annual Percy Ure Lecture: Pompeii of the Syrian Desert: Rethinking Dura-Europos for the ‘decolonial’ era, Professor Simon James, University of Leicester
All are welcome to join University of Reading’s Classics Department online for the 10th Annual Percy Ure Lecture, to be delivered by Simon James, Professor of Archaeology at University of Leicester and President of the Ermine Street Guard. In this lecture, which honours the legacy of our founding Professor, Percy N. Ure, Professor James will consider the civil aspects of the Roman garrison at Dura-Europos, its nature and origins.
Admission free. Booking essential.
To book your place visit
https://tinyurl.com/UreLecture2020
For more information, please contact Professor Amy C. Smith at a.c.smith@reading.ac.uk

Illness and Recovery in the Early Modern World
2020-12-07 12:30 - 14:00
Early Modern Research Centre seminar series: ‘Illness and Recovery in the Early Modern World’
Hannah Newton, University of Reading
Mondays at 1pm via Zoom. To join, please email emrc@reading.ac.uk.

Why Language and Migration?
2020-12-07 15:00 - 16:30
An event organised by the Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism
Polarisation over migration continues to divide the world. Currently, the 27 countries of the EU are fiercely contesting a new pact on asylum and migration where biases around race, religion and ethnicity are at the heart of debates about values, identity and language.
Join Tony Capstick, author of Language and Migration, in conversation with five international scholars as they each respond to the question why language and migration?
This event will take place as a Zoom webinar. Please register via form below and you will receive an email with joining instructions closer to the event date.
Register here: https://bit.ly/34ZISlp
SPEAKERS
Anna De Fina, Professor of Italian Language and Linguistics, Italian Department, Georgetown University
Tony Capstick, Lecturer in Applied Linguistics, University of Reading
Ruth Wodak, Emerita Distinguished Professor of Discourse Studies, Lancaster University
Xiao Lan Curdt-Christiansen, Professor in Applied Linguistics, Department of Education, University of Bath
James Simpson, Senior Lecturer, School of Education, University of Leeds
CHAIR: Ludovica Serratrice, University of Reading
DATE: Monday 7 December 2020 – 3pm (UK)

Around the World in Eighteen Books
2020-12-10 17:00 - 18:30 | Teams
A Centre for Book Cultures and Book Publishing event
Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp, WorldKidLit, translator from Arabic, German and Russian
Ruth will open a door onto the global children’s publishing industry, looking at how publishing rights are sold from one country to another, how translations are commissioned and funded, how marketing and age-banding varies between territories, why there are so few translations from outside of Europe and so few translated books by non-white authors, and how that could change.
Organised in partnership with Outside in World.
You can join via Teams.
Contact The Centre for Book Cultures and Book Publishing.

Exploring Collections, Archaeology, and Empire: Creating narratives for younger audiences, past present, future
2020-12-11 15:00 - 17:00
Histories of collections present an opportunity to present inclusive narratives that are not usually part of museum interpretation. This is particularly true in relation to archaeology collections and histories of imperial collecting. Recent reports (see Further Reading below) have focused on the lack of diversity across many areas – including publishing, children’s literature, and the curriculum.
This workshop will examine how collections histories, histories of archaeology, and archaeological artefacts and sites have been presented to children in the past, and explore how new narratives could be presented in museums now and in the future.
Please register for a free ticket via Eventbrite at this link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/exploring-collections-archaeology-and-empire-tickets-131586728447
Exploring Collections, Archaeology and Empire has been organised as part of a joint University of Reading and British Museum partnership project, “Narrating the Diverse Past”, currently being undertaken by Dr Amara Thornton (Research Officer, University of Reading).

Programme

3.00-3.05
Welcome (Amara Thornton)

3.05-3.20
Sarah Saunders (Head of Learning and National Partnerships, The British Museum) – Current Activities at the British Museum

3.20-3.35
Fiona Melhuish (University of Reading, Special Collections) – Empire and Archaeology in the Children’s Collection

3.35-3.50
Sue Walker (University of Reading, Typography & Graphic Communication) – ‘They lived like this’ books for children: Marie Neurath’s collaboration with museums

3.50-4.00
Questions

4.00-4.15
Amara Thornton (University of Reading) – Archaeology Books for Children: A Brief History

4.15-4.30
Michelle Keeley-Adamson (MKA Illustrations) – Illustrating Archaeology

4.30-4.40
Questions

4.40-4.50
Wrap Up

Addressing food system challenges: Making interdisciplinarity work
2020-12-15 14:00 - 17:00
The Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health (IFNH) is holding their 3rd Annual Forum online on Tuesday 15 December at 14.00 – 17.00 (GMT). This year’s theme is the importance of interdisciplinary working to successfully address food system challenges.
The importance of sustainable and resilient food supply systems, capable of responding to shocks and disruptions such as the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, is widely acknowledged. However, food systems are complex with inter-relationships between agriculture, the environment and consumers, and require approaches that are holistic and interdisciplinary, drawing upon natural, social and physical sciences. The Annual Forum provides an opportunity to learn about the application of such approaches in practice in different parts of the world and draw on the experience of the IFNH in applying interdisciplinary approaches to systems-wide challenges.
The event hosts talks from a range of speakers from the University as well as key partners: Joanna Kane-Potaka, Assistant Director General, External Relations, ICRISAT and Executive Director at Smart Food Initiative (ICRISAT) and Dr Adegbola Adesoga, Professor of Animal Nutrition and Director of the Food Systems Institute at the University of Florida and a leader of USAID’s Feed the Future initiative.
Professor Ian Givens, IFNH Director says: “The Forum highlights research from the University and our partners and how this connects with work done elsewhere. We are very pleased that in addition to University colleagues we will be joined by two external speakers who share a common vision but approach it from very different perspectives: the contrast between an animal-derived foods and a plant-based approach to reducing childhood stunting will prove interesting.”
The event is free to attend. For more information and to register your attendance please click here. Please register by Monday 7 December 2020.

Home-based reading study - call for families to participate
2020-12-18 08:00 - 2021-01-31 23:30
Do you want to find out more about how your child reads?
Can home-led reading and writing help close the COVID-19 learning gap that educators report especially for children with literacy difficulties or coming from diverse backgrounds?
At the University of Reading we are looking into it with an online study for parents/carers with children of primary-school age. We are looking for families of English-speaking and multilingual children of any reading level. The study will be open between December 2020 and January 2021.
Take part by the 31 January 2021 to:

Receive individual feedback on your child’s reading profile and expert advice with simple steps that you can do at home to help them improve
Enter the £50 voucher prize-draw at the end of data collection.

Learn more and participate at:
https://reading.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/reading-activities-and-strategy-use-at-home-for-familiesc
For queries, please contact the lead researcher Anna Tsakalaki: a.tsakalaki@reading.ac.uk

DELAL-CeLM PhD conference
2021-01-18 08:00 - 17:00
The Department of English Language and Applied Linguistics (DELAL) and the Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism (CeLM) present a PhD seminar hosted by Parvaneh Tavakoli.
Session: 15 March 2021

From feminism to genealogy: Virginia Woolf’s impact in Italy
2021-01-20 17:00 - 18:30
Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing Seminar: ‘From feminism to genealogy: Virginia Woolf’s impact in Italy’, Dr Elisa Bolchi, Department of Languages and Cultures
Jointly organised with English Literature, in this online research seminar, Dr Elisa Bolchi will be discussing the exciting research she has been carrying out here at Reading, as a Marie Curie Fellow.
Free to join, please contact s.l.heywood@reading.ac.uk for Zoom link and password.
Please click here for more details.
Follow us at @cbcp_UniRdg

Centre for Health Humanities Online Seminar
2021-01-27 13:00 - 14:00
Amy Austin, ‘The Role of the Body in Transgender Identities, 1940-’60’
Sarra Bouabdeli, ‘Body as a Sign in Virtual Reality’
To join, email a.s.mangham@reading.ac.uk
Please click here to see the other seminars in our series
Follow us on Twitter @healthhums

Classics Research Seminar Series – Spring 2020
2021-01-27 16:00 - 17:00
The Department of Classics at Reading is delighted to present an online seminar series to accompany the exhibition Troy: Beauty and Heroism, at the Ure Museum in Spring 2020. This series of presentations from Reading Classics’ own scholars, as well as some special guests, explore the interconnectedness of ideas about beauty and heroism in relation to the epic tradition and its reception, throughout antiquity. Interested individuals are welcome to join us online via Teams Wednesdays at 4pm, from 27 January to 25 March.
27 January – Ian Rutherford (Reading) Beauty, Proportion and the Canon: What did the Greeks borrow from Egypt?
3 February – Amy Smith (University of Reading) Beauty and Heroism in the Amazonomachy
10 February – Claudina Romero Mayorga (University of Reading) Who’s the fairest of them all? The Judgement of Paris in Etruscan mirrors
17 February – Barbara Goff (University of Reading) Helens: Speeches and silences
24 February – Signe Barfoed (University of Oslo/Reading) The white teeth of a boar of gleaming tusks: Boar-hunt and warrior ethos in Homer’s world
3 March – Oliver Baldwin (University of Reading) Penelope: Inward and outward beauty
10 March – James Lloyd (University of Reading) Alexander the Great and the music of Paris and Achilles
17 March – Sonya Nevin (Panoply/University of Roehampton) Beauty and Heroism in Panoply’s Our Mythical Childhood animations
25 March – Sophia Papaioannou (University of Athens) The Charming Artistry of Competitive Performance in Nonnus’ *Dionysiaca* 19

Chemistry Research Colloquium Research Seminars
2021-02-01 15:30 - 17:00
Please find a list of the Chemistry Research Colloquium Research Seminars run during the Spring Term. All events will be held on Microsoft Teams and are scheduled to commence at 3:45pm unless otherwise stated.
Sessions:
1 February – Event TBC
8 February – Dr Florian Maier, Friedrich Alexander University, Germany: “A close look at ionic liquid interfaces by angle-resolved XPS”
22 February – Dr Piers Gaffney, Imperial College London: Event TBC
1 March – Dr Karen E. Johnston, Durham University “Probing Ion Mobility Mechanisms in Solid Electrolytes using Solid-State NMR”
8 March – Dr Gosia Swadzba-Kwasny, Queen’s University, Belfast: Event TBC
15 March – Dr Mary Pryce, DCU, Dublin: Event TBC
22 March – Dr Emmanuel Guilmeau, CRISMAT, Caen, France “Ternary and quaternary TE sulfides: mechanical-alloying, ordered/disorded phenomena, conductive network, transport properties, theoretical calculations..”

Wolfenden Seminar on LGBT+ inter-sectionality
2021-02-02 17:00 - 18:00
Dr Ruvi Ziegler and Prof Alina Tryfonidou in conversation with S Chelvan (@S_Chelvan) and Ailbhe Smyth (@ailbhes) as part of LGBT+ history month. The event will be convened by Dr Ruvi Ziegler.
Date and time: 2 February 2021 at 5pm
This session will be held on Microsoft Teams. Please click on the link here to join.

Why Are We All Not Equal?
2021-02-03 19:00 - 20:00
Why Are We All Not Equal? Annual Wolfenden Lecture with special guest, Hafsa Qureshi, Stonewall Bi Role Model of the Year 2019.
As a modern society, we treat the problem of inequality as a thing of the past. This lecture will work to dispel the notion that equality has been achieved. We will look at the ways society has adapted the way we discriminate against one another, and what we can do to oppose this.
This special event is named in memory of Lord Wolfenden, who was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Reading from 1950-64. Lord Wolfenden chaired a committee that wrote the 1957 ‘Wolfenden Report’, a key milestone in LGBT+ history in the UK.

Facial Disfigurement and Madness in Early Modern Britain: Reconsidering Arise Evans
2021-02-10 13:00 - 14:00
Centre for Health Humanities Online Seminars: ‘Facial Disfigurement and Madness in Early Modern Britain: Reconsidering Arise Evans’, Emily Cock, Cardiff University
To join, email a.s.mangham@reading.ac.uk
Please click here to see the other seminars in our series
Follow us on Twitter @healthhums

Sport and COVID: What do we know?
2021-02-10 19:00 - 20:00
Sport and COVID: What do we know?
University of Reading Public Lecture by Professor James Reade (Economics)
Sport, like most aspects of our lives, has been heavily disrupted by Covid-19. Even as a vaccine begins to be rolled out, sporting events are being cancelled, rescheduled, or adapted to fit Covid-19. Sport without fans has become normal, yet before March 2020 less than 200 elite football matches had ever taken place without fans in the stadium. Removing all fans has affected sports clubs financially, and arguably also on the field – a number of academic studies have shown that this affects outcomes, especially for the visiting team. Sports events are mass events, and before now scant attention has been paid to their potential public health risk. Yet how much did they contribute to the first wave? Have they contributed at all in the second one?
In this talk Professor James Reade, Head of Department of Economics, will review the evidence that has been accumulated over the last year.

Human Geography Seminar Series – Spring 2021
2021-02-11 13:00 - 14:00
Human Geography Seminar Series – Spring 2021
We have a great line-up of speakers for the spring term:
11 February, 1-2pm: Thematic collages in participatory photography. Dr Grady Walker, University of Reading
25 February, 1-2pm: The Labour of Hope: meritocracy and neoliberal disconnection in post-revolutionary Egypt. Dr Harry Pettit, University of Reading
4 March, 1-2pm: “A riot in Shoeton”: Violence, insecurity and post-socialist geographies of racism. Dr Matej Blazek, Newcastle University
18 March, 1-2pm: Feeding the world Silicon Valley-style: Place, protein and promise. Dr Alex Sexton, University of Sheffield.
22 April, 1-2pm: Dr Sylvia Jaworska, University of Reading. Topic TBC
All sessions will be held on Microsoft Teams. Please email Ruth Evans (r.evans@reading.ac.uk) for more information.

Human Geography & Global Development Seminar
2021-02-11 13:00 - 14:00
Join us for the first Human Geography & Global Development online seminar this term. Grady Walker, Walker Institute, will be presenting on: Thematic collages in participatory photography: A process for understanding the adoption of Zero Budget Natural Farming in India.
11th February 2021 1-2 pm – join via Microsoft Teams
Please click for a link to the poster

Histories of Development and Change
2021-02-12 13:00 - 14:30
A Global Development Research Division workshop
Details to follow

Children's Literature in Translation: A window into the cultural changes of '68
2021-02-22 18:00 - 19:30
Children’s literature in translation: a window into the cultural changes of ’68
Dr Sophie Heywood
International Mother Language Day Annual Public Lecture
The Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism (CeLM) and the Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing (CBCP) are delighted to invite you to our annual public lecture celebrating International Mother Language Day at the University of Reading.
Books play an important role in our understanding of how society changes, both at the time of the change and in the long view of historical events. In this public lecture Dr Sophie Heywood will illustrate how the global upheaval caused by the protest movements of 1968 fuelled an explosion of radical creativity in children’s literature. By tracing the journeys of key books such as Where the Wild Things Are and The Little Red Schoolbook as they travelled across different countries, Dr Heywood will explore the crucial role that translations and cultural exchange played in the ‘children’s ’68’. How did concepts of what was ‘radical’ in children’s books change across time, place and context? And what were the long-term legacies of this watershed moment on children’s culture in Europe?
This online event is free and open to all. Please register your interest to receive a personal invitation: http://bit.ly/2KYp9N6
For further information please see the event information

Regenerative Agriculture Managing the Farm Carbon Footprint
2021-02-23 17:00 - 18:00
Regenerative Agriculture Managing the Farm Carbon Footprint
Annual Edith Mary Gayton Lecture, School of Agriculture, Policy and Development
Speaker: Jake Freestone, Farm Manager at Overbury Farms
Details to follow
To register please contact Teresa Hicks at
t.m.hicks@reading.ac.uk or telephone 0118 378 8152

The Making of Dominion: An interview with Tom Holland
2021-02-23 19:00 - 20:00
The Making of Dominion: An interview with Tom Holland
Annual Chaplaincy Lecture, University of Reading
Tom Holland is an award-winning historian, author and broadcaster. During this online event, he will be discussing his most recent work, ‘Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind’.
‘If great books encourage you to look at the world in an entirely new way, then Dominion is a very great book indeed’, Sunday Times History Book of the Year.
Previous works by Tom Holland include studies of Rome, Greece, Persia, and early Islam: examples include Rubicon: The Triumph and the Tragedy of the Roman Republic; Persian Fire; and In the Shadow of the Sword.
Holland has adapted Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides and Virgil for the BBC and his translation of Herodotus was published in 2013 by Penguin Classics.
He is presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Making History and has written and presented a number of TV documentaries, for the BBC and Channel 4, on subjects ranging from Isis to dinosaurs.
Attendance free, but booking essential.

Meteorological Masterclass: Flood Forecasting Hours to Months Ahead
2021-02-24 15:00 - 16:30 | Online event
Wednesday 24 February 2021: Flood forecasting hours to months ahead
Dr Linda Speight: University of Reading
This Masterclass will discuss the very latest work in probabilistic hydrometeorological forecasting – hours to months ahead – and the use and communication of flood forecasts to support decision-making. It will look at how well we can forecast floods at a range of scales and how we can balance lead time and uncertainty to answer the important operational question “when and where will impact occur?”. It will also cover how flood forecasting can be used in locations with limited data to support early action and will close with a discussion on what the future research directions are for flood forecasting.
Part of the University of Reading /Royal Meteorological Society Masterclass Series: Anticipating floods, droughts and heatwaves. Forthcoming dates include:
Wednesday 10 March 2021: Representing convection in Numerical Weather Prediction models and its implications
Professor Bob Plant, University of Reading
The forecasting of convective precipitation remains among the most challenging and most stubborn problems in meteorology. In this talk, Bob will review the fundamental scientific challenges, discuss recent progress and advances being made in this field, and highlight some of the implications for operational forecasting.
Wednesday 24 March 2021: Heatwaves and climate change in urban microclimates
Professor Sue Grimmond, University of Reading
The focus of this talk is on heatwaves and how urban areas can exacerbate their impact because of the well-known canopy layer urban heat island effects, and why cities and their residents are particularly vulnerable. Impacts of heatwaves have been very significant if people are not appropriately prepared (as witnessed during the 2003 heatwave across Europe). Attention will be directed to the important impact of scale and an understanding of the dynamics of urban climate, challenges in predictions and advance warning, and strategies and interventions for heat stress mitigation.
About the series
These masterclasses are intended to provide additional training for professionals working in Meteorology and Climate Science, and its operational application.
Each masterclass webinar will run from 3pm to 4.30pm, starting with a presentation followed by the opportunity for questions and discussion with the speaker. While the webinars are part of a series, delegates can choose which seminars they attend (attendance at all three is not compulsory).
Registration: Member: £20.00 | Non-member: £25.00
Last year we welcomed 542 delegates throughout the series – view all three seminars on the RMetSoc YouTube channel here.
