Connecting Research

In the shadow of Hippolytos: Classical studies in honour of Professor Barbara E. Goff
2023-09-22 10:00 - 18:00 (Europe/London) | Edith Morley, 127, University of Reading, Shinfield Road, Reading, RG6 6EL
To celebrate the work of our esteemed friend, colleague and Co-head of Department, Prof. Barbara Goff, we have planned a one-day conference in her honour, on the cusp of her retirement, Friday 22nd September 2023. We have assembled an international cadre of her colleagues, collaborators, (former) students and other associates to discuss the diverse range of inclusive and innovative Classical studies on which she herself has contributed so greatly to scholarship in our and related academic fields. The conference’s four themes, which engage with aspects of her teaching and scholarship are the following:

Drama, Theory, History
A Sporting Life
Broad(er) Classics
Re-roo/uting Classics

We are delighted to announce that we will be joined also by Dr Stella Keramida from University of Reading’s Department of Film, Theatre, and Television, who with her students is preparing a performance of (some of) Trojan Women.
Everyone is invited to join us — whether in person or online — to celebrate Prof. Goff on this august occasion, but please sign up here (using the link or this QR code). Please do not hesitate to contact doukissa.kamini@reading.ac.uk for further details or if you have any questions.
Amy Smith, Dania Kamini and Oliver Baldwin
Read the full programme here.

In the Company of Monsters: New Visions, Ancient Myths
2023-09-23 - 2024-01-27 | Reading Museum, Blagrave Street, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 1HQ, United Kingdom
Free exhibition
23 September 2023 – 24 February 2024
Reading Museum
In the Company of Monsters: New Visions, Ancient Myths will be an exhibition of the works of the contemporary artists Eleanor Crook and Paul Reid, alongside objects, texts, and artworks from the University of Reading and Reading Museum. Brought together for the first time, these detailed and striking works share an interest in retelling ancient myths of body difference, diversity, and hybridity. Inspired by the enduring dreams, or nightmares, of bodily ‘otherness’, the weird and wonderful creatures portrayed in this unique exhibition will ask vital questions about humanity’s place in nature, the biological and artistic meanings of diversity and difference, and the vital role that history plays in our understandings of the dynamic workings of natural history.
Eleanor Crook is a British sculptor with a special interest in mortality, anatomy and pathology, who exhibits internationally in fine art and medical and science museum contexts. She studied Classics and Philosophy at Oxford before training in sculpture at Central St Martins and the Royal Academy Schools in the early 90s, where she specialised in wax modeling, lost wax bronze casting and other lifelike media. She pieced together a knowledge of Anatomy from London’s medical museums and the dissection room as a medical artist, finding figurative art to be not in favour at the time; even so, her Classical background meant that communing with statues, and therefore the body, were second nature. Crook considers her work ‘more effigy than statue’, as they are imbued with a convincing sense of life. She has developed close, long-term collaborations with medical museums and historic anatomical wax collections such as the Gordon Museum of Pathology, Guy’s Hospital, Ghent University Museum, and the Vrolik Museum Amsterdam, where she continues wax modeling traditions and combines research through human dissection and studying the history of anatomical model-making. Most recently, she has worked with museum project partners on creating a genre of anatomical Expressionism, uncanny yet rooted in medical investigation, mythology, and the mysteries of the mind. To learn more about Eleanor Crook, her work, and find selected art for sale, visit https://www.eleanorcrook.net

Paul Reid was born in Scone, Perth, in 1975. Between 1994 and 1998, he studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee, where he obtained First Class honours in drawing and painting. Since then his work has been part of a number of major exhibitions, in Scotland and northern England in particular, but also in Europe. He has accompanied the then Prince of Wales on visits to Italy, Turkey, Jordan and Canada, drawing and painting the landscapes and people encountered. He is firmly established as an artist who combines technical mastery with striking new visions of ancient myths. On the face of it, Reid’s work is traditional in medium (oil; charcoal), though he has more recently moved into the use of digital technology. Within the traditional aesthetic, however, lies a world of the unexpected: uncanny hybrids of human and animal; juxtapositions of ancient myths with modern landscapes, faces, buildings. Central to every work is storytelling: characters from Greek mythology are caught at tense moments in their narrative, at some point of shocked discovery or on the very edge of violence; or else they pause in strange stillness, allowed a moment’s repose even as the next (perhaps final) act of the mythical drama impends. The seated Minotaur is a perfect example: he sits easily, casually, but the ancient story dictates what is shortly to befall him. To work with ancient myths is to work with stories that have been told and retold for millennia. This is not to say that they cannot be reshaped; they always have been. Reid’s reshapings are subtle, but they leave the viewer in no doubt that ancient men, women, monsters and gods have a place in the modern world as they did in the distant world that first created them.To learn more about Paul Reid and his work, and find selected art for sale, visit: https://www.paulreidart.co.uk/

Workshop on multilingualism in conflict zones
2023-09-28
In the third millennium, issues related to conflict zones and ensuring their security are increasingly important for the whole world. In many of the contemporary conflict situations issues connected to identities are central. More specifically, conflicting arguments pivot around culture, religion, and ethnicity, all of which are organically related to and expressed through language.
This British Academy-funded workshop, which is organised by the Department of English Language and Applied Linguistics (University of Reading), aims to explore the nature of communication in real-life case studies of conflict from a wide range of geographical locations and different scales of engagement.
It will offer a forum for discussion which will unite early career researchers (including PGR) and established academics with overlapping interests in the field. Scholars from different disciplines are invited to disseminate findings from original research and discuss theoretical and methodological challenges when conducting research in conflict or post-conflict zones from an applied linguistic/sociolinguistic perspective. We endeavour that this workshop will highlight the importance of language in promoting peace, social cohesion, collaboration, and trust in conflict-ridden communities.
The objectives of this workshop are:

To share empirical research on multilingualism in conflict and post-conflict zones.
To share methodological and practical challenges in studying multilingualism in conflict and post-conflict zones and discuss possible ways of overcoming these.
To raise awareness about various social, educational, linguistic, psychological, and political issues that are faced by the people who live in communities affected by conflict.
To offer a supportive forum where issues in relation to language and conflict can be openly discussed.
To encourage scholars to come together, get to know each other and interact in positive and constructive ways.
To come up with creative initiatives that can help build trust and promote peace in conflict and post-conflict zones.

The workshop envisions a critical space for stimulating dialogue among scholars working on all aspects of multilingualism and conflict, including (but not limited to) the following themes:

Language and identity
Language policy and planning
Hate speech
Media and social media
Language choice
Linguistic vitality, language maintenance and language shift
Linguistic landscapes
Language attitudes
Language ideologies
Education and language learning
Migration and citizenship
Linguistic rights
Minority languages

Each paper will last for 30 minutes: 20 minutes for presentation; 10 minutes for discussion. The language of the conference is English.

Extreme Science with Dr Nicola Fox
2023-09-28 15:00 - 16:30 | 150 – LLT ICMA Centre
Join NASA’s chief scientist Dr Nicola Fox at the 10th Annual Edith Morley Seminar hosted by the School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences on 28 September to uncover the secrets of the universe.
The scientist leading NASA’s missions to uncover the secrets of the universe will share her story and experiences as Associate Administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
Dr Fox leads a portfolio of around 100 scientific missions for the Agency. From understanding the impact of space hurricanes to exploring the possibility of benefiting from untapped lunar resources, her work seeks to protect and improve life on Earth, and in space.
Originally from the UK, Dr Fox studied Physics at Imperial College London and the University of Surrey. She joined NASA in 2018 as the Science Mission Directorate’s Director of the Heliophysics Division, before being appointed Associate Administrator at the NASA Directorate in February this year.
Find out more and register to attend.

Life Cycle Assessment of Transportation
2023-09-29 10:00 - 16:00 | Blandford’s, Park House, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6EF, United Kingdom
You are cordially invited to a dynamic and insightful workshop on “Life Cycle Assessment as a Circular Economy Solution to Transport.” This engaging event, organized in collaboration with University of Reading, Northampton Council, University College London, University of Portsmouth, and the BarcelonaTech (UPC), aims to bring together industries, public organizations, and academics to collectively discuss and explore the innovative potential of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in promoting circular economy practices within the transport sector.
During this workshop, we aim to:

Gain comprehensive insights into the current and ideal practices of LCA in road transport.
Facilitate meaningful discussions and knowledge exchange among industry professionals, academics, and public organizations.
Identify innovative approaches and solutions to foster circular economy principles in the transport sector.
Focus on the missing links in LCA carbon accounting, with particular emphasis on consumer behaviour and its impact on carbon emissions.
Address the significance of waste management in the context of LCA, exploring strategies for reducing environmental impact throughout the product lifecycle.

The workshop will feature:

Keynote presentations from industry experts and academics
Panel discussions with Q&A sessions
Interactive workshops and group activities
Networking opportunities to connect with like-minded individuals.

This workshop is designed for professionals and stakeholders involved in:

Life cycle Assessment
Transportation and logistics
Sustainability and environmental management
Circular economy initiatives
Research and academia

Register for free here.
For any inquiries or further information, please reach out to:
Email: n.darvish@reading.ac.uk
Phone: 07952930092
We look forward to welcoming you to this transformative LCA workshop on September 29th at the Blandfords, Park House, University of Reading, RG6 6UR. Free parking will be available at the University Campus.
Let’s shape a sustainable future for the transport industry together!

Climate and Finance Conference
2023-10-05 09:00 - 13:00 | ICMA Centre, Henley Business School
We are pleased to announce a half-day conference on climate and finance to be held at the ICMA Centre – Henley Business School on Thursday 5th October 2023 from 9:00am to 1pm. The aim of this event is to bring together UoR researchers in the area of climate change and finance to foster the development of joint research activities.
The conference will include two plenary sessions and a panel discussion. Speakers will present in person.
Participants can attend in person by registering for free by 25 September 2023 or online via this Teams link.
View the full programme here.

All Eyes on 'My Climate Risk': Q-Storming towards Collective Pathways to Adaptation Action, from Local to Global
2023-10-05 16:00 - 17:30 | Palais des Congrès de Montréal, 201 Av. Viger O, Montréal, QC H2Z 1X7, Canada
From October 2nd to 6th, 2023, over 1,500 members of the climate change adaptation community from more than 80 countries will gather in Montreal to share their cutting-edge knowledge and contribute to the global momentum for adaptation.
With 180 sessions, the 7th edition of the international conference Adaptation Futures will cover several key areas of adaptation research, planning and action.
As one of the appointed World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) ‘My Climate Risk” (MCR) Regional Global Hubs, The Walker Institute will be joining with 3 other WCRP MCR hubs from Nepal, West Africa and Jordan to host a session on Thursday 5th October entitled: All Eyes on ‘My Climate Risk’: Q-Storming towards Collective Pathways to Adaptation Action, from Local to Global.
Find out more and register for the conference on the Adaptation Futures website.

All eyes on ‘My Climate Risk’: Q-storming towards collective pathways to adaptation action, from local to global
2023-10-05 16:00 - 17:30 | Hybrid
The Walker Institute will be attending the conference Adaptation Futures taking place from October 2 to 6 this year. More than 1500 members of the climate change adaptation community from around the world gather in Montreal to share their knowledge on the challenges and opportunities of adaptation.
A new approach that synthesises cross-disciplinary insight and information is needed to address the adaptation challenges of the climate emergency. This requires forward-looking analysis based on integrated data and evidence, and a transformation in how natural and social scientists work alongside counterparts in the government, non-government and community sectors.
Watch this space for updates on upcoming events and presentations.
Side event: All eyes on ‘My Climate Risk’: Q-storming towards collective pathways to adaptation action, from local to global
Session 285 – Governance & Finance
5 October, 16:00-17.30 (EDT) / 21:00-22:30 (BST)
A new approach that synthesises cross-disciplinary insight and information is needed to address the adaptation challenges of the climate emergency. This requires forward-looking analysis based on integrated data and evidence, and a transformation in how natural and social scientists work alongside counterparts in the government, non-government and community sectors.
This hybrid ‘Q-storming’ session is designed to bring together representatives from all these communities, to explore how we can bridge science and socio-political action, addressing multiple risks while responding to local adaptation needs. It will draw on the break-through approach of a new World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Lighthouse Activity, entitled ‘My Climate Risk’ (MCR).The title reflects the need to embed climate risk within its unique local and social context. Eight WCRP MCR hubs have been established globally and are going ‘broader and deeper’ in their work with local counterparts to assess risk and implement credible and effective climate actions. Examples will be presented as part of the Q-storming session.
Q-storming is designed to come up with well-stated questions and problem formulations, not easy answers. To reach actionable solutions, we need first to identify obstacles, then map out local pathways to overcome them. Our virtual and in-person colleagues will contribute to this process, following short case-study presentations. The session builds on our AF2018 Q-Storm experience and introduces the use of Facilitated Q-Storming Tables using Mural Boards.
Participants

Prof. Rosalind Cornforth, Walker Institute, University of Reading, UK
Dr. Celia Petty, Walker Institute, University of Reading, UK
Prof. Abdou, AGRHYMET, Niger
Dr. Chi Huyen Truong, Himalayan University Consortium, ICIMOD, Nepal
Prof. Amadou Gaye, University of Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar
Prof. Iain Stewart, Royal Scientific Society, Jordan
Prof. Ted Shepherd, Co-Chair, “My Climate Risk” Lighthouse Activity, World Climate Research Programme/ Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, UK
Prof. Regina Rodrigues, Co-Chair, “My Climate Risk” Lighthouse Activity, World Climate Research Programme/ Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil
Dr. Narelle Van Der Wel, My climate Risk, World Climate Research Programme, Switzerland

Find out more on the Walker Institute website.

‘Don’t call me resilient again!’: the New Urban Agenda as immunology
2023-10-09 13:00 - 14:00 | Online
Join the Walker Institute for the inaugural session of the My Climate Risk Interdisciplinary Reading Group as part of the WCRP Lighthouse Activity.
Coleen Vogel, University of the Witwatersrand, will present Maria Kaika’s paper: “Do not call me Resilient again”.
Coleen Vogel is a Distinguished Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand. She is a climatologist by training but has increasingly worked in the social dimensions of climate change, focusing particularly on climate change adaptation. She obtained her PhD in the field of climate change in 1994. She currently serves on various local and international boards. She has, for example, chaired and been the vice chair of international global environmental change scientific committees (e.g. IHDP and LUCC and involved in the Earth System Science Programme), groups that preceded the current Future Earth developments. She was also one of the lead contributors to the preparation of the Disaster Management Act in South Africa. She has been Chapter Lead Author and co-author of chapters in the IPCC (4th and 5th assessment reports). She is now also involved as a lead author in the IPBES transformative assessment. She has also received the Burtoni Award for international excellence in adaptation research and received the University of the Witwatersrand Vice Chancellor’s award for excellence in teaching.
Find out more on the Walker Institute website, and register to attend by filling out this form.

Making Mutants: How and Why We Break Genes on Purpose
2023-10-10 18:00 - 19:30 | Reading Museum, Blagrave Street, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 1HQ, United Kingdom
Join Dr Louise Johnson from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Reading to explore how mutation in genetic research is helping to identify and understand the building blocks of life.

Emotional Labour: provenance, politics and practice
2023-10-13 10:00 - 13:00 | Henley Business School, Room G03, Henley Business School, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6UD, United Kingdom
Join Professor Jenna Ward (Dean of Coventry Business School) for a workshop seminar on emotional labour as part of Dr Simon Willems (Reading School of Art, Henley Business School) interdepartmental fellowship research project.
With a focus on marginalised voices, Jenna employs innovative arts-based research methods to explore emotionality within organizations and management. Her research spans various sectors and has led to her working with organisations such as the Department of Health, the National Trust, the City of London, NHS, Samaritans and, most recently, England Netball.
Tea & coffee and light refreshments will be available at 9:30 (lunch is included).
View the seminar flyer for more information.
Please contact Simon Willems to RSVP.

UKRI Open Access policy for journal articles
2023-10-24 13:00 - 13:45 | Online
If you are a UKRI funded author your journal articles must be Open Access with a CCBY licence immediately on publication and without embargo, via CentAUR (green Open Access) or published gold Open Access on the publisher’s website. This policy applies to all peer reviewed articles submitted for publication since April 2022. In this short briefing we will help you to:

Check whether a journal is compliant before you submit to it
Use look-up tools, including the journal checker and SciFree
Add a CCBY licence statement to your article when you submit it
Apply to the UKRI block grant to cover Open Access article publishing charges

Register to attend on UoRLearn.

UKRI Open Access policy for books, chapters and edited collections
2023-10-25 13:00 - 13:45 | Online
All UKRI funded authors are required to make books, chapters and edited collections, published on or after 1st January 2024, Open Access with a Creative Commons licence. The final Version of Record or the Author’s Accepted Manuscript must be free to download via an online publication platform, publishers’ website, or repository within 12 months of publication. In this short briefing we explain:

Routes to Open Access
UKRI policy scope and exemptions
How to apply to the central UKRI fund to cover Open Access publishing charges
Finding Open Access publishers for books

Book via UoRLearn

Paying to Publish Gold Open Access journal articles
2023-10-26 13:00 - 13:45 | Online
Publishing your article as Open Access on the publisher’s website usually incurs a fee. This applies for many fully Open Access journals and to hybrid journals unless covered by a Library read and publish agreement with the publisher. We will help you to navigate this complex landscape, to access funds to cover charges and to avoid receiving an unexpected bill. This short briefing will:

Explain which journals are covered by the Library’s read and publish deals
Check whether a journal meets the criteria for the University’s Gold Open Access fund and the UKRI block grant
Show when and how to apply to these funds to cover the cost of an article APC

Register your place on UoRLearn.

Open Access at Reading: All you need to know
2023-10-27 10:15 - 11:00 | Online
This session is intended for new research staff, including early career researchers, and managers and professional services staff needing a general overview of Open Access at the University of Reading. We provide practical information about maximizing the visibility of your research publications for the benefit of both you and the University. Following the session you will be able to:

Recognise the different types and benefits of Open Access
Comply with the key Open Access policies affecting you
Know what to deposit in CentAUR
Apply to the University’s fund to cover Open Access publishing costs
Make informed choices about where to publish
Make informed decisions about sharing networks
Access key bibliometric tools and Altmetric
Register for and populate an ORCiD identifier

Creative Collections Networking Event
2023-11-01 14:00 - 16:00 | Palmer Building, Room 105, Whiteknights Campus, RG6 6UR, United Kingdom
Creative practice within museums and collections interrogates and animates collections with different stakeholders. For academic researchers it can also bring together different disciplines to collaboratively explore complex problems. Some familiar examples are visual art installations, live and digital performances, and creative writing residencies. However, this list is only skimming the surface and it’s important to note that the process behind these creative interventions is as important as the final outputs. There is excellent work going on across the University of Reading but it can be hard to find time to share and connect with colleagues.
This workshop will be a chance to share current projects involving UoR collections, and best practice regarding wider creative practice with museums, archives, and collections.
This will be of interest to colleagues engaged in creative practice, creative research, curation and facilitation of creative projects based in collections. It will also be of interest to colleagues from the sciences and social sciences who are seeking to build cross-disciplinary research collaborations to explore complex ideas in creative ways.
The aim of this event is to:

identify potential participants who wish to be part of a community of colleagues sharing practice and developing ideas and connections
begin to highlight some thematic connections and areas of interest or emerging practice
discuss future networking and sharing opportunities.

The workshop will consist of:

quick fire presentations from participants on current projects and interests
a networking session using items from the University collections as a way to spark conversations
a facilitated discussion of ways to collaborate moving forward, including the option of an Away Day

Book your place by completing this form: https://forms.office.com/e/C0fLLpshV3

AI and the Arts – can we automate creativity?
2023-11-01 17:00 - 19:00 | Bulmershe Theatre, Minghella Studios, Bulmershe Theatre, Minghella Studios, University of Reading, Shinfield Road, Reading, RG6 6BT, United Kingdom
The exhibition ‘AI: More than Human’ at the Barbican Centre in London – co-curated by Suzanne Livingston – was the first over-arching look at the past, present and future of AI in a museum environment. It includes contributions from DeepMind, IBM, Google, TeamLab, Massive Attack, Es Devlin, Neri Oxman, Joy Buolamwini, Amnesty International, Jigsaw and Affectiva. Since its London run in 2019, it has toured regionally in the UK and globally, with periods of time in the Netherlands and China. As of October 2023, it is showing in Spain at CCCB Barcelona.
In this talk, Suzanne will expand on the themes of the exhibition, as well as her ongoing research and consultancy on the relationships between advanced technologies and people, society and commerce. She will reflect on how the current explosion in AI tools, and corresponding public interest and concerns, sits within this – and shares her thoughts on where this will eventually settle within the arts.
This is a hybrid event taking place in-person at Bulmershe Theatre, Minghella Studios and online on Teams. In-person attendance is encouraged as the talk will be followed by a wine reception and discussion over drinks.
Please RSVP to shweta.ghosh@reading.ac.uk by Tuesday 24th October, indicating if you would like to attend in-person or online. A joining link for online attendees will be circulated nearer the time.
About the speaker
Dr Suzanne Livingston is a strategy consultant, curator and coach working with advanced technologies across sectors – but often with creative arts and culture organisations. Until 2019 she was Head of Strategy and then Global Principal at Wolff Olins and has a PhD in Philosophy, focussing on cybernetic systems. This led her to co-curate the blockbuster exhibition ‘AI: More than Human’ which opened at the Barbican in 2019 and is currently in the midst of an ongoing world tour.
Her research area is advanced technologies and their effects on people, society and commerce – and the need for genuinely new models and concepts to see ourselves and the world we exist in. She continues to write about technologies and changing ideas of human, self, agency and control, and often draws on non-western ideas to do so.

Typodiversity 01: exploring the Arabic script world
2023-11-03 - 2023-11-04 | Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, TOB 2, Earley Gate, Whiteknights Campus, University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, RG6 7BE, United Kingdom
CBCP is collaborating with Typodiversity, an open, participatory event series combining talks and workshops on the intersection of research and practice in typography and type design. Our agenda raises issues of agency, resource, representation, and inclusion in the development of environments for authoring, design, and distribution. We aim to place informed, representative narratives at the heart of discourse.
We intend that each event adapts to the environment in which it is held, shaped by the team and hosting location. There are two conditions for Typodiversity events: 1) that they are run with as little expenditure as possible, taking advantage of institutional resources; and 2) that the recorded content of the talks and workshops will be openly and freely accessible.
We prioritise a hybrid online format to minimise the impact of travel and attendance costs, visa hurdles, legal limitations, and time zone differences. While we recognise that English functions as a shared language for global scholarship and exchange, we aim to actively support other languages as an alternative. To achieve this, we ask presenters to provide a video of their presentation in advance, so that subtitles can be added: English presentations will have subtitles in the relevant second language of the event, and vice versa. We are starting this initiative with only one pair of languages to gain experience of time and effort required, and aim to extend to more languages as we grow. To facilitate real-time Q&A sessions and open conversation rooms, we aim to provide interpreters for real-time translation.
The first event will take place at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, University of Reading (UK), on the 3rd & 4th November 2023, on the theme of “exploring the Arabic script world.” Talks, speakers and workshops will be announced shortly. Please follow us on Twitter and Instagram for updates and to stay connected.
https://twitter.com/typodiversity
https://www.instagram.com/typodiversity/

Sensation or Science? Monsters Ancient and Modern
2023-11-07 18:00 - 19:30 | Reading Museum, Blagrave Street, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 1HQ, United Kingdom
Join Professors Emma Aston and Andrew Mangham from the University of Reading to explore how Classical myths worked their way into the monster science and monster stories of the modern period.

UKRI Open Access for longform publications
2023-11-08 10:30 - 15:00 | Online
UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) new open access policy for monographs, book chapters, and edited collections that need to acknowledge UKRI funding starts on 1 January 2024.
This event will share the latest information about the policy and its implementation. It will also provide an opportunity for participants to ask questions and share experiences about supporting open access to longform publications.
The event is for UKRI-funded researchers and staff that manage open access at UKRI-funded research organisations.
The event will include a webinar and question and answer session, which will be recorded and made available online. There will also be an opportunity to join smaller breakout discussions to share experiences. UKRI may manage attendance of these discussion sessions depending on demand.
Register to attend on the UKRI website.

Armistice Lecture: Medical care and medical pacifism
2023-11-09 18:30 - 20:00 | Edith Morley, Room G27
Join Dr Fiona Reid for this year’s annual Armistice lecture to unveil the history of medical pacifism during and after the Great War.
The First World War was a machine war which lasted for over four years. Approximately 8 million soldiers died while about 20 million were wounded, and many millions were either disabled or debilitated for the rest of their lives. During the war, men and women responded to these casualty rates by working with military-medical services or with voluntary organisations such as the Red Cross or the Friends Ambulance Unit. They were motivated by the firm belief that ‘Our duty is to save’ and that ‘binding the wounds of war’ was a humanitarian act. Yet others interpreted military-medical service differently, and saw wartime medical work as somehow complicit with militarism.
After the war, a small but vocal medical pacifist movement emerged to argue that all medics should refuse completely to co-operate with military-medical services on any level. Interwar medical pacifism did not succeed in preventing future wars and few now support the idea of a ‘medical strike’ but their debates raised questions which remain pertinent now: What should medics do during wartime? To what extent does their work alleviate the pain of war and to what extent does it prolong war?
About the speaker
Dr Fiona Reid is an historian of the social and cultural history of war and has written widely about the First World War in Europe and about refugees and displaced people in the Second World War. She is particularly interested in the consequences of war trauma and in the coping mechanisms of combat troops, medical personnel and civilians both during war and afterwards.

PhD to Head of Department: Deepa Senapathi | Career Champions Event
2023-11-15 13:00 - 14:00 | Edith Morley, Room G27
Join Reading’s BAME+ allies network and Women@Reading+ allies network for an inspiring event with expert and guest speaker, Dr Deepa Senapathi.
Dr Senapathi’s journey in academia is testament to her commitment, expertise and excellence. Primarily Deepa’s research centres on environmental change/impact on biodiversity and ecosystems, in particular climate change and land-use change on avian populations and insect pollinator communities.
The talk will take place on Wednesday 15 November from 1300-1400 at room G27, Edith Morley building. All welcome. Accessible online. Booking essential. Light lunch provided.
For more information, contact bame.network@reading.ac.uk and womensnetwork@reading.ac.ukLearn about Staģ Networks at www.reading.ac.uk/diversity/getting -involved/networks.

Natural History Museum Collections & Culture workshop
2023-11-20 11:00 - 16:00 | Museum of English Rural Life (The MERL), Redlands Road, Reading, RG1 5EX, United Kingdom
As part of the University’s developing partnership with the Natural History Museum (NHM), and as a return visit by NHM curators and researchers to the trip a number of us made to South Kensington in early May, we will be holding a joint workshop day at The MERL on 20th November 11-4pm.
Organised in collaboration with colleagues in UMASCS and the Collections and Culture Theme at NHM, the day will be a chance to develop individual relationships, share research enthusiasms and to advance more concrete plans to develop joint activities, including joint grant applications and doctoral training collaborations.
Agenda

11:00
Welcome and coffee

11:15
1-minute introductions.
Slides are encouraged from all participants in advance (please submit to Beth Steiner: e.steiner@reading.ac.uk by 14th November).

12:15
Object-based discussion

13:15
Lunch

14:00
Strategic breakout groups I
Proposed themes include:

Maritime Exploration and Monitoring [voyages of discovery; collectors at sea and maritime impact of collections; aligning specimens and documentation with ships’ logs and written histories]
India and Hidden Collectors [botanical hidden histories; decolonisation of collections; exploring the histories of the people who collected the specimens but whose names don’t feature in the record]
One Health [the integrated health of people, animals, plants, and environment; zoonotic research; the human-nature relationship from the past to the future and the public dialogue around it]
Creative Approaches to the Natural History Museum’s Collections, especially visual and material culture, including data and digitisation

15:00
Refreshments

15:10
Strategic breakout groups II – feedback and future planning.

16:00
End

These breakout group themes are not exhaustive and we would welcome further suggestions for breakout groups, which we can facilitate according to demand. Please respond to the question in the form when you register so we can try to accommodate as many areas of interest as possible.
Lunch and refreshments will be provided.
Please register here by Friday 3rd November.

Algorithmic Contracts and Consumer Law – thoughts from ELI’s Guiding Principles and Model Rules for Algorithmic Contracts project
2023-11-23 12:00 - 13:00 | Palmer Building, Room 103
Exciting technological developments offer increased potential for contract automation. After much excitement about “smart contracts”, the focus has now shifted to contract automation through algorithmic decision making (ADM) based on artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, especially deep-learning algorithms.
Imagine a new form of “digital assistant” which would not only assist a consumer in identifying possible purchase options (as is already the case with digital voice assistants and some chatbots) but take over the conclusion of routine contracts for a consumer. Would taking a consumer out of the decision-making loop altogether pose new challenges for (consumer) contract law? The European Law Institute (ELI) is part-way through a project exploring the many legal implications of utilising AI-driven ADM in contracting. Its first, interim, output focuses on testing the ADMreadiness of the current EU consumer law acquis. This paper will sketch the main elements of this interim report and suggest pointers for the continuing debate around algorithmic contracting.
About the speaker
Professor Christian Twigg-Flesner LL.B. PCHE Ph.D. (Sheffield) is professor of Contract and Consumer Law at the University of Warwick. His research and teaching interests are in the areas of Contract, Consumer and Commercial Law, with a particular focus on the implications of digitalisation. His research covers English, European and International dimensions.
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IFNH: Funding outcomes showcase
2023-11-24 13:00 - 14:20
Join us at the IFNH dissemination event showcasing the funding outcomes from the awarded 2022 projects. The event will take place online on Friday 24th November at 13:00 – 14:30 via Teams. Click here to join the meeting and please share the invitation within your school/group.

13:00 – 13:10 Welcome – Professor Ian Givens, Director IFNH
13:10 – 13:20 Presentation: SEE & EAT: Development of promotional materials to enhance user engagement by Natalie Ellison, Research Assistant, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences
13:20 – 13:30 Presentation: Qualitatively exploring the enablers and barriers for healthy eating and attitudes towards a personalised nutrition app in UK University students by Michelle Weech, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Food & Nutritional Sciences
13:30 – 13:40 Presentation: Agrinatura General Assembly in Prague presented by Jurgen Peci, Graduate Teaching Assistant in Agricultural Economics, Agri-Food Economics & Marketing
13:40 – 13:50 Presentation: International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics Conference by Patricia Sanz Morales, Research Student, Food & Nutritional Sciences
13:50 – 14:00 Presentation: ASN’s Nutrition 2023 by Kim Vogtschmidt, Research Student, Food & Nutritional Sciences
14:00 – 14:10 Presentation: Federation of European Nutrition Societies (FENS) by Daniel James, Research Student, Food & Nutritional Sciences
14:10 – 14:20 Presentation: 15th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium by Dimitra Zannidi, Research Student, Food & Nutritional Sciences
14:20 – 14:30 Q & A

Player vs. Monster: The Making and Breaking of Video Game Monstrosity
2023-11-25 15:00 - 16:30 | Reading Museum, Blagrave Street, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 1HQ, United Kingdom
Video games seem to teach us that monsters must be fought and can be defeated. Join Dr Jarosłav Švelch from Charles University in Prague to explore how this came to be. Do games offer potential for more nuanced representations of monstrosity?

Stickers as self-authorised ‘publishing’ in urban spaces: The graphic language, themes, and localisations of stickers in the Ruhr area, Germany
2023-11-30 17:00 - 18:00 | Typography, TOB 2, Room T4, Earley Gate, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6AU
Speaker: Dr Irmi Wachendorff (University of Reading)

This research seminar is free & open to all.
Join us in person in the University of Reading’s Department of Typography, Room T4.
To join via MS Teams, please register here.

Dr Irmi Wachendorff’s presentation will analyse a dataset of 5500 tagged and geo-referenced stickers in public space from the Signs of the Metropolis research project (Ziegler et al. 2022) which explored visual multilingualism in the Ruhr area in Germany. She will focus on typographic and semiotic visual analysis, discuss stickers in comparison to other signs in urban space, and examine the publicised themes.
Stickers are one of the smallest and yet – on looking closer – one of the most visually expressive and liberated forms of signs in urban space (Wachendorff 2021). Clustered on dedicated canvases such as lampposts, road signs and electricity boxes, they are placed by various stakeholders with different goals: supporters of political parties, protest movements, members of football clubs, music fans, sticker artists, and commercial actors. Stickering is an act of democratisation and place-making in which citizens as authors negotiate their social and cultural positions through visual signs in the urban environment (Vasileva 2021).
Dr Wachendorff is an Associate Professor in the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication at the University of Reading. She is a graphic designer and design historian with specialisations in typography and sociolinguistics. Her PhD focussed on ‘Typographic Landscapes – Letters in Cities as Social Artefacts’ at the University of Duisburg-Essen and was funded by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation. Irmi is passionate about design education, the practice, theory and history of graphic communication, typography and visual culture, lettering in urban space, the relationship of typography and language, and the bridge between graphic design and sociolinguistic disciplines.

Under the Bed and Among the Dead: Monsters in Ancient Egypt
2023-12-05 18:00 - 19:30 | Reading Museum, Blagrave Street, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 1HQ, United Kingdom
Learn from Dr Jordan Miller from the University of Cambridge about the fearsome qualities of some famous (and lesser-known) supernatural beings from ancient Egypt, the situations in which ancient Egyptians encountered them, and whether we might call them monsters.

Heinemann and Biafractivist Authors: Politics of Publishing the Rebel
2023-12-07 17:00 - 18:00 | Edith Morley, Room 125, Edith Morley Building, University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, RG6 6UR, United Kingdom
Speaker: Dr Abba Abba (University of Reading)

This research seminar is free & open to all.
Join us in person in the Edith Morley Building, Room 125.
To join via MS Teams, register here.
Dr Abba Abba’s paper interrogates the archival and literary evidence of Heinemann’s minoritization of Biafran voices and politicisation of publishing them during the Nigeria-Biafra war. It argues that some significant publisher-author correspondences and unpublished materials reflecting the perspectives of Biafractivist authors, which are kept at the African Writers Series’ Archive at the University of Reading, can function as research tools for engaging and reclaiming the perceived “rebel” authors’ voices and the publisher’s ambivalent circumstances during the war. Relying on a postcolonial reading of Homi Bhabha’s “Third space” as a theoretical strategy, and deploying archival methodology and its application to literary intersectionality, it teases out how these materials represent Biafrans as “outsiders within” Nigeria., and why Biafran voices fall through the cracks in the war’s historicity through an analysis of their experiences in selected documents and unpublished materials on the war
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Dr Abba Abba is currently a British Academy Visiting Research Fellow, Department of English Literature, University of Reading, with some research visits at the Special Collections Archive at MERL. He is a Fellow of the German Academic Exchange Service – DAAD (completed a postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Humboldt University, Berlin, 2018–2019). He is also a Fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies (completed his another Postdoctoral Fellowship in the African Humanities Programme with Residency at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 2021–2022). Abba won the Nigeria-LNG Prize for Literary Criticism 2019 as well as the Association of Nigerian Authors Prizes for Literary Criticism for both 2019 and 2022. Author of the novel The Ugly Queen, and the plays Lunatic on the Throne and The Blood Price, Abba’s research interests cut across the conversations of literature with cultural, ecocritical and archival ecologies. A Lecturer in the Department of English and Literary Studies, Federal University Lokoja, Nigeria, Abba has previously served as the Head, Department of English and Literary Studies, Edwin Clark University, Kiagbodo Nigeria. He received his MA and PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

What really happened at COP28?
2023-12-15 11:00 - 12:30 | Sutcliffe Lecture Theatre, Room GU01, Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Whiteknights, RG6 6AH
The 28th Conference of Parties, COP28, is currently in full swing in Dubai. With heated debates on the phase out of fossil fuel and climate finance currently happening on the ground, we are yet to see the final outcomes of this year’s climate conference such as the Global Stocktake.

What are the topics we have made progress on this year? How is it like to be at COP on the ground? Why do we need these climate conferences anyway? To explore some of these questions together, we invite you to join our What really happened at COP28?event held on Friday, December 15th at 11am in the Sutcliffe Theatre, Brian Hoskins Building in the Department of Meteorology. Students and staff from the University of Reading who attended COP on the ground in Dubai and in the Newsroom in Reading, will share their perspectives on the conference. We will cover the overall outcomes as well as specific topics that we have engaged with more deeply such as biodiversity, loss and damages and the rights and perspective of indigenous peoples.

The event will showcase videos and other media output produced by students, reflect on the role of the University at these climate conferences and provide a space for you to ask and discuss all the questions you have around COP28.

We hope to see many of you there,
The COP Climate Action Studio Team of 2023
