Author: gillecdt

Public Engagement with Research Officer, University of Birmimgham

21st Century Body: Birmingham Heroes Autumn Events

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Join the faces behind the University of Birmingham #birminghamheroes #21stcenturybody campaign this Autumn for a series of high-profile festival events.

L-R: Dr Victoria Goodyear, Professor Heather Widdows, Professor Alice Roberts & Professor Muireann Quigley.

Heather Widdows is the John Ferguson Professor of Global Ethics in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham and the Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor Research (Impact). She is currently working on the increasing demands of beauty. Her latest book is Perfect Me: Beauty as an Ethical Ideal (Princeton University Press) and she co-runs the Beauty Demands blog.

Muireann Quigley is Professor of Law, Medicine, & Technology. Her research focuses on the philosophical analysis of law and policy in medicine and the biosciences. Her most recent book is Self-ownership, Property Rights, & the Human Body: A Legal and Philosophical Analysis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018).

Alice Roberts is an anatomist, author and TV broadcaster. She is also the Professor of Public Engagement with Science at University of Birmingham. Her research interests focus on evolutionary anatomy, osteoarchaeology and palaeopathology. She has presented several landmark series on the BBC and written seven popular science books.

Victoria Goodyear is a Lecturer in Pedagogy in Sport, Physical Activity and Health. Her research focuses on digital technologies and social media in young people’s health and wellbeing, teacher professional development and curriculum innovation, as well as digital methods and ethics.

EVENT ONE, Warwick

British Science Festival 2019: “Perfect Bodies”, panel discussion

12th September, 2019 at 1-2pm (University of Warwick, Zeeman Building: MS02)

HEATHER BOOK COVER

With the rise of social media, a culture that normalises plastic surgery and an era where the value of having the ‘perfect body’ is demonstrated constantly through the pay cheques of the world’s most influential celebrities, what are the moral, ethical and cultural consequences for society? Join University of Birmingham #BirminghamHeroes Alice Roberts, Heather Widdows, Muireann Quigley and Victoria Goodyear as they debate the impact of this impossible pursuit of perfection, drawing on learning from law, philosophy, psychology, health and wellbeing. Book your place now through the British Science Festival: HERE.

Image taken from Heather Widdow’s book Perfect Me: Beauty as an Ethical Ideal.

Joining us at British Science Festival? We look forward to seeing you there! Help us spread the word using this tweet:

Looking forward to joining in the #21stcenturybody discussion with @theAliceRoberts & fellow #BirminghamHeroes @profmq @ProfWiddows @VGoodyear this Sept 12th as part of the ‘Perfect Bodies’ event @BritishSciFest #BSF19! Tickets here: https://britishsciencefestival.org/event/perfect-bodies/

 

EVENT TWO, Birmingham

Being Human Festival 2019: “21st Century Body”– an in-depth panel discussion with extended audience Q&A

BODY NEON

21st November 2019, 6-9pm (event starts at 6.30pm) in the Elgar Concert Hall, Bramall Music Building at the University of Birmingham.

Join broadcaster Alice Roberts (Professor of Public Engagement) at  Being Human Festival 2019, as she debates evolving beauty demands and body property rights with an interdisciplinary panel of fellow researchers Professor Heather Widdows, Professor Muireann Quigley & Dr Victoria Goodyear – all part of the current #BirminghamHeroes campaign. ‘21st Century Body’ offers a thought-provoking ride through contemporary ethical and moral questions relevant to us all. Join in the discussion, tickets (free) available HERE.

Joining us at Being Human Festival? We look forward to seeing you there! Help us spread the word using this tweet:

Looking forward to joining in the #21stcenturybody discussion with @theAliceRoberts & fellow #BirminghamHeroes @profmq @ProfWiddows @VGoodyear this Nov 21st as part of @BeingHumanFest #BeingHuman19! Tickets now available: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/being-human-festival-2019-21st-century-body-with-professor-alice-roberts-tickets-65409380217

If you have any questions about either of these events, please get in touch with Caroline Gillett: c.d.t.gillett@bham.ac.uk

 

 

WORLDS COLLIDE III – Debrief!

Posted by on in Upcoming opportunities

WORLDS COLLIDE III

This past week on May 23rd, 2018 we were joined by artist Charlotte Jarvis, who facilitated our interdisciplinary ‘WORLDS COLLIDE’ mixer event for UoB researchers and external creatives.

Charlotte has collaborated with scientists on public engagement projects and currently lectures at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College. Charlotte has seen her own heart beat outside of her body, grown her own cancer in a dish and recorded music onto DNA!

The evening was spent exploring public engagement collaborations between scientists, artists, creatives, academics and curious organisms of all varieties. Public engagement opportunities were investigated across sectors, and their value was debated, before workshop attendees had a go at developing ‘mock proposals’ for collaborative public engagement projects focused around key societal challenges/opportunities e.g. Big Data, Genetic Engineering, AI etc. Some really inspiring ideas were concocted!

This was the third event we’ve run now and previous events have already led to real-life collaborations between artists and researchers in Dentistry and Physics.

If you didn’t make it to this last event, have no fear as WORLDS COLLIDE IV is headed your way this July! This next event will have a biomedical focus, however regardless of your research area you are very, very welcome to come along. We are also going to be thinking about a future event themed around arts and humanities research in particular, though we stress again that the whole point of these events is to mix researchers from across disciplines as the connections and synergies which sometimes arise can be really uncanny and inspiring!

Watch out for the June edition of our newsletter, when we’ll have the date, location and further details ready for you!

LAPWORTH LATES (Thursday July 19th, 2018) – Live for registration now!

Posted by on in Upcoming opportunities1 Comment

We are pleased to be initiating the first ever Lapworth Lates event on the evening of Thursday 19th of July, 2018. The Lapworth Museum of Geology will throw open its doors for an evening of performance, workshops, interactive demos and more, all aimed at a curious adult audience. Coinciding with a new exhibition in July on ‘Dinosaurs in Popular Culture’, this first Late event will draw inspiration from this theme as well as the wider museum collection and research at the University.

Funding from the Alumni Fund is allowing us work alongside a small interdisciplinary team of postgraduate students who are helping us programme activities and we are also extremely pleased to have been able to commission two artists for one-night-only spectaculars…

Expect a truly magical and immersive night especially of interest to those who enjoy the intersection between science and art. If you’ve never visited the Lapworth before, let this be your excuse and we are certain you’ll want to come back! The event is open to everyone and is free, so mark the date in your diary now and bring along your partners, friends or colleagues! Eventbrite link to register HERE.

Researcher registrations are now CLOSED, but if you want to help us or have any idea please get in touch with engage@contacts.bham.ac.uk – We’d love to hear from you. 

BORDER CROSSINGS: Want to turn your research into a documentary film? (Deadline May 23, 2018)

Posted by on in Awards and Prizes, Competition, Dissemination, Training Event, Upcoming opportunities2 Comments

Filmmakers, are you ready for an academic project to inspire your storytelling? Would you like to collaborate with some of the world’s leading scholars? Could your film skills make some brilliant academic research accessible to wider audiences?

Academics, do you have a research story that could be turned into a documentary film project? Would you like to collaborate with a professional filmmaker with an established track record? Do you want to share your research with a wide public audience?

To celebrate our new Creative Documentary by Practice MFA (to be led by Sophie Fiennes, Kim Longinotto and Riete Oord), Open City Documentary Festival are relaunching their Border Crossings initiative with a £5,000 development fund for filmmakers collaborating with academics who have a research story in search of an author. A runner’s up prize of £2,500 will also be awarded.

Taking place as part of UCL’s Festival of Culture, this is an exciting ‘speed-dating’ initiative aiming to build partnerships, to create opportunities for research and knowledge to be translated into insightful and engaging documentary and to allow filmmakers access to table-turning research stories.

The deadline for applications is midnight on 23rd May 2018

There are places for 10 filmmakers and 10 researchers. During the course of the two hour session, researchers and filmmakers will meet to discuss their work and will form teams following this meeting. These teams will be eligible to apply for the £5,000 development fund. All applicants will pitch their projects to a panel of expert judges during Open City Documentary Festival 2018 (4th – 9th September). The award will go to the most exciting and viable project pitched.

FURTHER INFO HERE

To apply for a place at the Border Crossings event on the 7th of June, please fill in the below form

Academics – APPLY

Filmmakers – APPLY

Elsevier Researchers’ Choice Communication Award – nominate your peers by May 17th, 2018!

Posted by on in Awards and Prizes, Competition, Dissemination, good practice, Upcoming opportunities1 Comment

“Science is not finished until it’s communicated”

Just before Easter Elsevier launched the Researchers’ Choice Communication Award RCCA #RCCA2018. They’d be delighted if you would encourage your faculty departments and your student groups to nominate their outstanding early career researchers and peers via Mendeley, the social network for scientists. There are several ways you can do this:

  • Share this Mendeley blog post on your own channels
  • Circulate or print-out the attached poster and display around campus
  • Leave copies of the flyer in your library or other student study areas

You can also follow Elsevier on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn for the latest updates and more shareable content.

The winner, chosen by their judging panel, will be announced at the awards ceremony in the presence of UK research leaders and the CEO of Elsevier on 4th October at the Royal Society in London. Chairman of the ceremony is President and Vice-Chancellor of Cardiff University and Fulbright Commissioner, Professor Colin Riordan.

Nominating a researcher for the RCCA – How does it work?

  • Nominations open on Wednesday 28th March 2018
  • Post the nomination directly to the dedicated Mendeley group
  • Those new to Mendeley will either need to sign up for a free account or email nominations to ecrawards@kaizo.co.uk
  • You cannot nominate yourself
  • Include the following information as part of the nomination:
    • Name
    • Age
    • Institution
    • Summary of nomination (250 words max)
    • Links to evidence of good work (e.g. research, speeches, blog posts, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) Only content clearly listed as part of the nomination will be used for final review
  • Nominations will be accepted until Thursday 17th May 2018

The winner will be announced at this year’s Awards ceremony at the Royal Society in London on 4th October 2018.

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Exciting public engagement opportunities with Thinktank Science Museum & inaugural Lapworth Lates

Posted by on in Birmingham Museums, Upcoming opportunities

We’re thrilled to be launching two exciting new public engagement opportunities for University of Birmingham staff and students:

FOR ACADEMIC STAFF WORKING IN STEM:

YOUR RESEARCH EXHIBITED AT THINKTANK SCIENCE MUSEUM’S ‘FUTURES GALLERY’?

The University is offering one researcher/research group a rare and exciting opportunity to work alongside curators and design team at Birmingham Thinktank Science Museum to bring to life their research as part of an inspiring and innovative long-running exhibit within the museum’s Futures Gallery, to be installed in early 2019.

We are now seeking expressions of interest from University of Birmingham academics who would like to make greater public impact through providing audiences access to contemporary science, whilst also gaining meaningful experience in museum-researcher collaboration and the cultural sector.

Full details of the call and how to apply HERE (Deadline for EoI: Friday 13th April, 2018)

Eligibility: This scheme is open to academic research-active staff in the College of Medical & Dental Sciences, College of Engineering & Physical Sciences and College of Life and Environmental Sciences. The callout is not open to postgraduate students.

 

FOR MASTERS/PHD STUDENTS

LAPWORTH LATES – PGRs needed!

The public engagement team are looking for a small interdisciplinary team of research students (masters or PhD) to co-design, organise and run a new public evening event involving academics and artists in the Lapworth Museum. You will be responsible for programming and budgeting for activities (with our support!) to help bring the museum and its exhibits alive for the public at our inaugural Lapworth Lates event.

The event will run on Thursday 19th July 2018. In addition to committing to design and organisation activities, you will also need to be available for around 4 planning/operations meetings between April and the event date.

In order to register your interest, please email the team at engage@contacts.bham.ac.uk by April 13th to tell us why you want to be involved and what you will bring to the team (200 words max). No subject specific knowledge required, students from all Colleges welcome to apply.

[This Lapworth event is being supported with Alumni Impact Funding – thank you to our alumni and we hope to see you there on 19th July!]

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BY THE WAY

Academics: In the coming weeks we will also be looking for researchers who would like to carry out public engagement activities at the Lapworth Lates event. If you would like to be involved let us know: engage@contacts.bham.ac.uk

 

STFC launches Interact 2017 Evaluation Report in partnership with UoB

Posted by on in Dissemination, good practice, News, Raising Awareness, Resource, Upcoming opportunities

University of Birmingham, together with STFC, Institute of Physics and SEPnet are proud to launch the evaluation report from Interact 2017. Interact 2017 was a symposium whose aim was to cultivate a community of engagement practitioners within the physical sciences who develop high quality STEM engagement and encourage a culture of strategic and reflective practice.

The symposium was a success with over 120 physical scientists from across the UK attending and sharing best practice. The symposium is also measuring its impact on these scientists through a yearlong evaluation process, the baseline of which can be found in the report.

In addition to this, the report showcases the rich landscape for Outreach and Public Engagement that currently exists in the physical sciences across the UK and sets good measures for its continued development.

The symposium also featured plenary speakers Prof Alice Roberts (University of Birmingham), and SEPnet’s Prof Jim Al Khalili (University of Surrey) talking about their careers as engaged researchers and science communicators.

30 parallel sessions were on offer at Interact 2017 and most of these were delivered by physicists. This shows how the Interact partnership is promoting best practice across physics departments in the UK.

If you missed the day and would like to get a feel for it, check out his video from the Institute of Physics which features SEPnet’s Director of Outreach and Public Engagement, Dr Dominic Galliano.

For more information, feel free to contact the UoB Interact team members: Dr Caroline Gillett & Professor Cristina Lazzeroni by dropping us an email: engage@contacts.bham.ac.uk

 

 

Social Media Toolkit for Healthcare

Posted by on in Resource, Upcoming opportunities1 Comment

More and more people are using the internet to discover and share information about their health. In fact, more than 40% said information found via social media affects how they deal with their health.

58% of the UK adult population use social networking sites and more and more are using them for information and advice in all areas of their life – including their health. It is therefore vital that healthcare organisations find their place on social media.

Skills For Health have developed a new social media toolkit for healthcare which may be of interest to those of you working in a health related field.

Check it out here: skillsforhealth – socialtoolkit

Sense About Science – Public Engagement: A practical guide

Posted by on in Biomedical Sciences, Resource, Upcoming opportunities1 Comment

Sense about Science have launched Public Engagement: a practical guide, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). It is aimed at researchers to help and encourage them to involve the public in working out how to communicate findings — from the earliest stages of projects, and on the most challenging of subjects.

 Sense about Science, have worked with researchers on many of the most sensitive subjects – some fraught with misunderstanding – to improve the communication of their research findings. They only undertake such partnerships where there are high stakes for the public and communication is difficult. Communicating the survival statistics of children’s heart surgery at different treatment centres in 2016 was among the toughest of these, with potentially major consequences for all involved. 

 The guide uses this experience as a case study throughout. Their public engagement team worked with NIHR-funded health researchers to present research information in a way that is shaped from the outset by people who will use it. 

We hope you find the guide useful and if so please consider sharing it with your networks. You can also follow the conversation on Twitter via their hashtag #PublicLed