Loughborough Institute of Advanced Studies Podcast

Dr Mario Panico - Re-imagining Conflicts, Making Up Futures: AI-Generated Images and the Memorability of War

IAS Residential Fellow Dr Mario Panico delivers a seminar on their research - 
This seminar will present the first results of my research project on the use of artificial intelligence-generated imagery in contemporary conflict contexts. Through examples drawing from contemporary wars, I will address two questions: (i) how these visual texts activate specific emotional rhetorics, iconographic patterns and memorial references. In this part, I will focus on the notion of the “archive of the present” and how AI images draw on pre-existing visual heritage to appear authentic and culturally credible, redefining what is perceived as “memorable”; ii) how the future is “prescribed”: looking at how temporalities are reconstructed through the representation of future scenarios, between coping, predictions and collective avoidance.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias

Professor José Ferreira Alves - Fractals: Patterns Bridging Mathematics and the Arts

Royal Society Wolfson Fellow Professor José Ferreira Alves delivers a seminar on their research -
Fractals and chaotic dynamics reveal how complex structures emerge from simple rules, often exhibiting self-similarity across multiple scales. This talk offers an accessible overview of the mathematical foundations of fractals—self-similarity, scaling laws, and fractal dimension—illustrated with classical examples such as the Sierpiński gasket, the Koch snowflake, and the Mandelbrot and Julia sets. Beyond mathematics, we examine how fractal geometry appears in natural landscapes, artistic practice, and cultural expression. Case studies include the fractal analysis of Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings, hierarchical organisation in Bach’s music, and multi-scale patterns in the poetry of Wallace Stevens and Borges. These examples show how fractal principles provide a coherent framework for interpreting complexity, perception, and creative structure across disciplines.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias 

Dr Gemma Sou - Worldmaking the global climate order: reparative politics in small island developing states

IAS Residential Fellow Dr Gemma Sou delivers a seminar on their research -
Small island developing states (SIDS) are disproportionately affected by climate change yet have been marginalized within the global climate regime. Often overlooked are their purposeful collective efforts to reform global climate governance to increase self-determination over their climate futures. Drawing on interviews with civil servants in Antigua and Barbuda, this talk argues that we can reframe SIDS transnational actions as contemporary worldmaking—a resistance-driven process of reimagining and reshaping global systems to foster greater self-determination. The capacity of SIDS to act as world makers reveals how ideas of self-determination and resistance endure, even under profoundly disadvantageous structural conditions, offering critical insights into the possibilities for a more just and inclusive global climate regime. This emphasis also moves beyond the local and regional to centre imaginaries of climate governance at the global scale, showing how such imaginaries are also informed by the emotional and historical terrain of SIDS. 
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias 

The Simon Marshall Lecture - Athlete advocacy: what motivates athletes to champion climate action?

With thanks to the generosity of the Biddle Family Scholarship, the IAS is hosting The Simon Marshall Lecture -
Sport is full of challenges and is constantly changing. One of the biggest challenges facing sport is coming from climate change. Whilst news stories have rightfully focused on the ecological damage and the impact on sport facilities, the impact on those participating in sport is often overlooked. Despite this, many athletes have pushed for sport to do more.
This event is a talk by two former Olympians, Etienne Stott and Laura Baldwin, to explain what motivated them to start advocating for climate action and what they are doing to raise awareness. Etienne and Laura are hosted as IAS Fellows by Dr Mark Doidge. Following their lecture, there will be a panel with Etienne and Laura, and a member of a national governing body (Denise Ludlam).
The Biddle family is delighted to support the work of Loughborough University through the Biddle Family Scholarship. Eight members of the family have had an association with the university as either staff or student, or both. This includes James Biddle as a Physical Education in the early 1950s, to James’ son, Grant, also a PE student in the 1970s, to Greg (post-doc) and Jack (MSc in Sport & Exercise Nutrition) from 2015. James’ other son, Stuart has been a student (1970s) and staff member, including being Head of the-then School of Sport & Exercise Sciences, 2001-2007.
An important part of the Scholarship donation is to support the Simon Marshall Lecture. Simon Marshall sadly passed away in 2024 aged 53. He grew up local to Loughborough and attended Quorn Rawlins school. After degrees from Liverpool John Moores and San Diego State Universities, he graduated from Loughborough with a PhD in Sport & Exercise Sciences in 2001 under the supervision of Professor Stuart Biddle. He was an outstanding PhD student and Loughborough post-doc prior to returning to San Diego to pursue an equally successful academic career. Later he became an entrepreneur, sport consultant, and sport psychologist, working closely with his wife, Lesley Paterson, a world champion triathlete. He was an outstanding speaker and writer, including contributing to award-winning screen plays.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias
 

Emerita Professor Marsha Meskimmon - From the Star of Bethlehem to a Cool Yule...

Emerita Professor Marsha Meskimmon, Former Director of the IAS, delivers our Inaugural IAS Festive Lecture, fully titled "From the Star of Bethlehem to a Cool Yule: Christmas Really Does Come But Once a Year"
Having rashly agreed to deliver the first IAS Festive Lecture in the heady months of the summer, I found myself at the start of November wondering where the time had gone. More to the point, I found myself wondering what Christmas has to do with time...
In this talk, I will share some of my ruminations on the origins and traditional celebrations associated with this annual festival to ask what it might teach us about time and tide, light and darkness, joy and renewal. Oh, and for those who know me, why having hundreds of lights on a tree in your house is an eminently sensible thing to do, but once a year.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias
 

Dr Christopher Todd Minson - "Get Out!" Breaking Out of Our Comfort Zone to Improve Human Health

IAS Visiting Fellow Dr Christopher Todd Minson delivers a seminar on their research -
We are now in the “urban century” in which humans are more disconnected from the natural world than previously in human existence. This is having a profound negative impact on our physical and mental health. How do we counter the demands and distractions of a plugged-in life with our mental and physical health? The answer may be to get outside our comfort zone through exposure to the world we evolved in: to be surrounded by nature, to be hot, to be cold, to be out of breath. There is a growing interest in how environmental exposures can improve health and well-being, with many people seeking out ways to get back to our core experiences. Research is now demonstrating that these exposures can create a more stress-resistant phenotype to counter inflammation and oxidative stress, which underlie physiological changes with aging, chronic disease, and a sedentary lifestyle.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias

Dr Andrea Pérez Fernández - Intergenerational genealogies: Feminist Art History and the legacy of the avant-garde

IAS Residential Fellow Dr Andrea Pérez Fernández delivers a seminar on their research -
This seminar explores three intersections between the normative contributions of 1980s British feminist art historiography and the insights of interwar avant-garde women artists and thinkers in Germany. The focus is on the work of Hannah Höch and Lu Märten. The first intersection concerns the critique of the genius, while the second addresses how the distinction between art and crafts can result in the precariousness (both metaphysical and economic) of creative activities more commonly undertaken by women. The third intersection concerns the social function of the arts and how art can expand the political imagination. This approach is based on Rosa Luxemburg's reflections on culture and considers how the emancipatory potential of the arts is defined more by their status as a social practice than by the creator’s intention. Drawing on recently recovered or untranslated primary sources, the seminar will facilitate discussion on the relevance of these insights in the context of contemporary debates in feminist theory and visual culture.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias

Professor Sébastien Tutenges - The Pursuit of Collective Effervescence in Nightlife Settings

IAS Visiting Fellow Professor Sébastien Tutenges delivers a seminar on their research -
For two decades, Sébastien Tutenges has conducted ethnographic research in bars, nightclubs, festivals, drug dens, nightlife resorts, and underground dance parties in a quest to answer a fundamental question: Why do people across cultures gather regularly to intoxicate themselves? In this talk, he argues that the primary aim of group intoxication is the religious experience that Durkheim calls collective effervescence, the essence of which is a sense of connecting with other people and being part of a larger whole. This experience is empowering and emboldening and may lead to crime and deviance, but it is at the same time vital to our humanity because it strengthens social bonds and solidarity. In developing this argument, Sébastien will present a new definition of collective effervescence, propose a typology of its varieties, and discuss the ways commercial forces amplify and capitalize on this universal human drive.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias

Dr Vinícius Teixeira Pinto - Democracy on the pitch...

National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) Fellow Dr Vinícius Teixeira Pinto delivers a seminar on their research, fully titled "Democracy on the pitch: an anthropological approach to the politics and activism of Brazilian football supporters." -
Brazilian football has undergone significant shifts in its gameplay and its politics in a few years: from its new stadiums, passing through social and urban change, until the recent laws that allowed the conversion of its football clubs into Public Limited Football Companies. Aside the sporting angle, not least important were the political demonstrations that had football as target or background—such as the 2014 FIFA WC protests, or the wearing of Brazilian National Team shirts by the far-right rallies, or lately the anti-fascist football fans activism against ‘Bolsonarism’. Based on ethnographic fieldwork undertaken in Southern Brazil during the Bolsonaro Government (2019-2023), this seminar revisits some of Brazil’s recent political events, offering an anthropological approach to the modalities of political participation and activism that emerged in sport and that in certain cases resonated beyond it, even inspiring the demand for democracy both on and off the football pitch.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias
 

Dr Mrinal Bachute - AI-Driven Innovations for Smart and Sustainable Urban Mobility

IAS Visiting Fellow Dr Mrinal Bachute delivers a seminar on their research -
Urban mobility systems are at a critical inflection point, driven by rapid urbanization, climate imperatives, and the need for equitable access. This talk explores how advanced Artificial Intelligence—particularly Generative AI, Agentic AI, and Graph Neural Networks—can transform urban transport into intelligent, adaptive, and sustainable ecosystems. Drawing from real-world deployments in global smart cities, the session showcases AI applications in real-time traffic optimization, demand-responsive transit, and active mobility planning. Emphasis is placed on practical AI architectures using digital twins, federated learning, and edge computing to ensure scalability and data privacy. The talk further outlines how autonomous AI agents can make real-time policy-aligned decisions to support net-zero and inclusive mobility outcomes.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias