Postgraduate Research Showcase event: Understanding how our work meets Sustainable Development Goals
Time: 10am-1pm
Room: EWD Event Space
Target Audience: This event is open to all
Description:
Most organisations now embed sustainability within their strategies and working practices. This event is designed to enhance the understanding of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), allow for discussion of the SDGs in the wider context, and to showcase ongoing postgraduate research and how it may be related to one of the 17 SDGs.
In 2015, all United Nations Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that:
“provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.” (https://sdgs.un.org/goals)
For the first part of this session, we will have a talk by Professor David Simon from the Geography department, discussion of the Sustainability Development Goals followed by networking around posters in the EWD Foyer that showcase Postgraduate researchers’ work.
Submit your interest to display a poster here.
This event is open to all. Book your place here.
International research: challenges and opportunities with the Global South
Time: 11am-12pm
Room: Arts Lecture Theatre 1
Target Audience: This workshop is for academics and students across Royal Holloway who are currently working with, or planning to work with, international partner institutions, including those in the Global South who may not have a long history of partnership with Global North institutions.
Description:
The event will involve a presentation on the International Science Partnership Fund (ISPF), including current calls under UKRI and the British Academy ODA ISPF funding. This will be followed by a lecture and discussion on the challenges of partnering with Global South partners funded through ISPF. There will also be a short presentation on compliance requirements when working with international partners.
This workshop is for academics and students across Royal Holloway who are currently working with, or planning to work with, international partner institutions, including those in the Global South who may not have a long history of partnership with Global North institutions.
Speakers bio
Dr Jennifer Cole is Senior Lecturer in Global and Planetary Health in the Department of Health Studies and Co-chair of the Planetary Health Alliance European Hub Education Working Group. Since 2019, she has been working with University of Eldoret, Kenya, which hosts the Eastern African Hub of the Planetary Health Alliance to help capacity build researchers and improve laboratory infrastructure. This has highlighted challenges and barriers inherent in current UKRI (and Global North more broadly) funding mechanisms that disadvantage and exclude Global South institutions that do not already meet Global North standards/expectations from being the ‘equitable partners’ funding requires. She is currently exploring – through a British Council Springboard Grant led by Oxford University – ways to address the current approaches to enable periods that enable upskilling partners during the early stages of research projects that accept they may not be ‘equitable partners’ at the beginning of the project but can be supported to get there by the end of it.
Dr Hilary Lynch is the Head of Strategic grants within Research and Innovation (R&I) has over 20 years’ experience of working in Higher Education Institutes. Her previous role within R&I was Global Challenges Strategy Manager where she supported academics across the university and their Global South partners in applications to the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).
Hayley Skinner is the Research Compliance Officer and can help with matters in Partnership and funder due diligence. She also works with other professional services colleagues on areas such as risk, compliance, Trusted Research and Export Controls. Hayley joined RHUL in late October 2023 having previously worked at other UK HEIs (Imperial College London and University of Brighton) in similar roles within the Research Office.
Book your place here.
Interdisciplinary Research, International Networks and Creative Practice
Time: 11am-5pm
Room: Caryl Churchill Theatre
Target Audience: This event is for Royal Holloway Schools/Departments, with external audiences welcome (Caryl Churchill Theatre can fit 140 max)
Description:
This session will celebrate Interdisciplinary Research, International Research Networks and Creative Practice.
Schedule
11am-12 noon: Citizenship & Waiting
Professor Vandana Desai (Department of Geography)
Dr Antara Datta (International Relations, PIRP)
Dr Prarthana Purkayastha (Department Of Drama, Theatre and Dance)
12noon -1pm: Heritage
Professor Helen Nicholson (Department Of Drama, Theatre and Dance)
Professor David Gilbert (Geography, TBC)
Dr Ashley Thorpe (Dept. Of Drama, Theatre and Dance)
Professor Stephen Rose (Department of Music)
Dr Libby Worth (Department Of Drama, Theatre and Dance)
1-2pm: Networking Lunch
2pm-3pm: Forgotten Histories
Professor Heebon Park-Finch (Department of English Language and Literature, Chungbuk National University, South Korea)
Professor Bishnupriya Dutt (Theatre and Performance Studies, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi).
3-3.30pm: Tea/coffee break
3.30-5pm:
A preview playing of Professor Dan Rebellato’s new play for BBC Radio 4, Restless Dreams (2024) as part of a short season commemorating the 100th anniversary of the death of Franz Kafka.
Research Ethics in Practice
Time: 11am-12pm
Room: Arts Building, Room S008
Target Audience: This session is open to all researchers and research students.
Description:
Research Ethics can often be seen as an obstacle or a compliance requirement. During this roundtable discussion we will share our and listen to your perspectives of research ethics. Exploring what research ethics means to you and research ethics in action. This discussion will help to shape research ethics initiatives at Royal Holloway over the next 12 months. The panel will include members of the REC, researchers with extensive experience and Chaired by the Professor Robert Jago, Research Ethics Lead.
This session is open to all researchers and research students.
Other speakers at this event are:
Professor Robert Jago
Professor Christopher Wilkinson
Professor Jessie Ricketts
Dr Daniela Lai
Book your place here.
StoryFutures VR experiences
Time: 1-3pm
Room: The Boilerhouse Tank Room
Target Audience: This event is aimed at anyone who is interested in VR and Storytelling.
Description:
There have been three rounds of Virtual Reality (VR) productions funded by StoryFutures or StoryFutures Academy. In total we have 21 experiences.
Each VR experience covers challenging and important topics that are part of all of our world today - including the environment, disabilities, music, art, health, immigration and well-being. Some are more universal stories and others are based on true stories of an individual.
This event is aimed at anyone who is interested in VR and Storytelling.
Book your place here.
The experience we will be showing are:
Kindred (13+)
Based on the remarkable true story of an aspirational parent called Syd, and their groundbreaking journey through the adoption process in the UK, experiencing first-hand the highs and lows of a dream shared by so many. After years of setbacks and rejections, Syd gets matched with a child, Ollie, and in the process helps redefine the meaning of family.
Content/Trigger warning: Flying motion (may cause slight nausea).
Drop in the Ocean (13+)
Give in to the urge to submerge. Ride a jellyfish. Meet a leatherback turtle. Come face-to-face with a whale shark. From the perspective of a tiny plankton, you’ll explore the ocean in stunning interactive VR, and see why the need to protect it is so urgent.
Content/Trigger warning: Not suitable for people with thalassophobia (Fear of deep water/Ocean).
When Something Happens (13+)
When something happens is an immersive experience that focuses on merging poetry and science. It's a journey that takes the user from fun experiments in our VR bedroom to the edge of the known universe via a poem written and narrated by Boston Williams.
Content/Trigger warning: Contains some flashing images in the first scene.
VR Health and Safety
Most people do not experience any serious negative reactions to virtual reality (VR). However, VR may be disorientating for individuals who are neurodiverse, have hearing or sight impairments or experience vertigo, epilepsy, dizziness, seizures, motion sickness or fainting. If people are sensitive to bright or flashing lights or has epilepsy, we do NOT recommend you use these headsets. If a person is pregnant or have a pacemaker, they should consult their GP before taking part.
The session will be facilitated by: Destiny Lawrence (Junior Technician & Showcasing Co-ord. at StoryFutures)
Please note that you will need to contact FestivalofResearch@rhul.ac.uk to book you place, as only 6 people can attend a session.
1:00 - 1.30pm- Session 1: Kindred
1.45 - 2.15pm- Session 2: Drop in ocean
2.30 - 3:00pm- Session 3: When Something Happens