Loughborough Institute of Advanced Studies Podcast

Dr Tanja D. Hendriks - Disasters, Duties and Dependencies: Malawian civil servants in disaster relief interventions

IAS Visiting Fellow Dr Tanja D. Hendriks delivers a seminar on their research -
Malawi is a donor-dependent country in southern Africa, at the forefront of experiencing the intensifying impacts of climate change. Its Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DODMA) is responsible for the coordination of disaster governance and relief interventions, but profoundly reliant on donor-funding to do so. Based on 20 months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai (2019), Cyclone Freddy (2023) and an El Niňo-induced drought (2024), I zoom in on different characteristics of disaster governance, to show how despite its lack of resources and actual capacity to deal with them, the state is central to relief interventions. Detailing how DODMA civil servants navigated the demands placed on them by colleagues, citizens, chiefs and (international) collaborators as they attempted to fulfil their duties, I suggest that these interventions throw the state itself into relief and render visible civil servants’ sense of duty as well as what it is up against.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias 

An introduction to Research Summits for Loughborough Academics (Dec 2024)

Recorded as part of a sandpit session for the new Research Summits, Director fo the IAS, Professor Ksenia Chmutina, outlines how the IAS can help support a week-long Research Summit, gathering international Fellows around key topics, to provide high quality legacy outcomes.
This more recent session in December 2024 has greater context, as by then we had then hosted the Africa Summit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias/programmes/africa-summit/
For more details on Research Summits and how to apply to host one, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias/opportunities/researchsummits/
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias

Dr Sarah Jewett & Professor Mike Wilson - Re-envisioning International Partnerships

Fulbright Scholarship Fellow Dr Sarah Jewett and their host Professor Mike Wilson (SDCA) deliver a seminar on their research -
International partnerships have often been lauded for fostering diverse perspectives and collaboration across global networks. Yet they often become best intentions embedded in signed artifacts and fixed institutional mechanisms. How can we envision and enact them as fluid sets of responsive practices that deepen both relationships and knowledge, and continuously draw on emerging priorities, aspirations and expertise? Come join Prof. Michael Wilson and Dr. Sarah Jewett as they discuss the ways they are rethinking traditional forms of institutional partnership through the launch of a new storytelling collaboration between Loughborough University and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias
 

Dr Arnoud Arps - Memori Melompat: Jumping Memory, Popular Culture, and the Indonesian War of Independence

IAS Residential Fellow Dr Arnoud Arps delivers a seminar on their research -
This seminar uses Indonesian popular culture (film, historical re-enactment, and online music videos) about the Indonesian War of Independence (1945-1949) in its aim to understand ‘colonial histories’ from the decolonial non-Western perspective of the formerly colonised. In this seminar, I would like to critically scrutinise the idea that memory travels freely and discuss how a straightforward mobility of cultural memory does not apply to every local context. Memory in Indonesia travels temporarily, briefly, and not far. As a demonstrative semantic device, the Indonesian term memori melompat (jumping memory) signifies cultural memory formation beyond the West. It emphasises that Indonesian popular culture about the war is indicative of the need for a local reframing of existing memory concepts to better understand contemporary engagements with the colonial past.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias 

Dr Amrita Jash - China in the Middle East: Trends, Drivers and Implications

IAS Visiting Fellow Dr Amrita Jash delivers a seminar on their research - 
China’s evolving role in the Middle East is crucial for several reasons. While China’s growing influence in the Middle East is a recent but a significant trend with far-reaching consequences. Especially, against the China-brokered Saudi-Iran peace deal, the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, the tensions in the Red Sea and growing competition between China and the US, it has become imperative to understand how China is influencing the geopolitical landscape of Middle East. Once a distant observer, China has emerged as a key player in the region’s political and economic landscape, driven by its economic ambitions and growing global influence. While the region offers China opportunities, it also presents complex challenges. How China navigates these complexities is significant in shaping the future of the Middle East and the global order. The presentation will focus on the evolving nature of China’s engagement with the Middle East, the various dimensions of China’s engagement, and the implications of it.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias 

Ms Maura Della Flora Flores - The User Experience in Design Education

IAS Visiting Fellow Ms Maura Della Flora Flores delivers a seminar on their research -
Design education is undergoing constant evolution, keeping pace with the rapid availability of technological innovations and contemporary societal changes, which also necessitate new pedagogical approaches. In this sense, undergraduate design courses must be revised to meet these demands. An ongoing research project is investigating how professors and students interact in these new contexts, with preliminary results indicating that the relationship between professor and student goes beyond the simple transmission of knowledge, valuing personal and collaborative experiences. The research suggests that design education should focus on richer and more meaningful learning experiences, preparing future designers for an increasingly dynamic job market.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias
 

Dr Achituv Cohen - Walkability: Geo-informatic Tools for Sustainable Urban Mobility

IAS Visiting Fellow Dr Achituv Cohen delivers a seminar on their research - 
Walkability is a key element in modern urban planning, shaping cities' environmental, social, and economic dynamics. Factors such as street design, destination proximity, connectivity, and subjective perceptions like safety and comfort influence walkability. However, measuring it effectively remains challenging, particularly when combining both objective and subjective factors.
In this seminar, Dr Cohen will share insights from his research and other studies on walkability measurement using Geographic Information System (GIS) and geospatial data science. He will explore how innovative methodologies, like machine and deep learning, offering new ways to analyse walking behaviour. Additionally, he will introduce emerging trends, including integrating subjective perceptions, improving accessibility for vulnerable populations, and utilizing the POI VizNet, tool we developed for assessing urban visual accessibility.  These approaches enhance our ability to understand walkability and not just deepen our knowledge of urban mobility, but also contribute to the creation of more inclusive and sustainable communities. 
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias 

Professor Terry Tao Ye - Passive Sensing and Battery-less Devices for e-Textile Applications

IAS Visiting Fellow Professor Terry Tao Ye delivers a seminar on their research -
eTextile have been an active research focus in wearable electronics, where fabric-based sensors and devices are interconnected into Body Area Networks (BANs) to enable multi-dimensional, long-term, and real-time monitoring for athlete training, rehabilitation, and patient care applications. With numerous eTextile devices integrated into BANs, energy sourcing and data transmission have emerged as major challenges. Passive sensing techniques and battery-less embedded devices offer ideal solutions to these issues. By utilizing backscatter modulation or mutual electromagnetic (EM) coupling methods, sensing information can be efficiently extracted and transmitted.
Additionally, by harvesting energy directly from incoming EM waves, eTextile devices can function as therapeutic apparatuses without the need for bulky solid-state batteries. In this presentation, we will demonstrate the potential of eTextile devices constructed from conductive fibers and specially embroidered structures. By integrating these fabric-based components with NFC and RFID transponder chips, passive sensing and battery-less embedded devices can be seamlessly incorporated into fabrics to perform various functions, including body movement sensing, vital sign monitoring, antenna and energy harvesting, and electronic bandages for wound therapy. This research offers a novel platform and enhanced user experience for patient care through smart clothing, as well as athlete training and human-machine interaction applications.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias 

Cassie Thornton - Care in the Ruins

Roundtable Discussion with IAS Visiting Fellow Cassie Thornton, guest speakers Dr Valeria Graziano, Evie Muir and Loughborough colleagues Dr Victoria Browne (International Relations, Politics and History), Dr Jade French (English and the Health Humanities) and Dr Catherine Coveney (Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy), moderated by Radar Curator Dr Lucy Lopez.
As part of Cassie Thornton’s IAS fellowship, this roundtable discussion focuses on strategies for practicing care amidst the ruins: how can we engage in acts of solidarity, of rest, and of vital healthcare, when societal infrastructures fail?
In addition to artist Cassie Thornton, we will be inviting two guest speakers: Dr Valeria Graziano, researcher and one of the conveners of Pirate Care, a research project and network which stands for a common care infrastructure; and writer Evie Muir, whose work advocates for rest, healing and resistance as abolitionist praxis.
Loughborough colleagues Dr Jade French, Dr Victoria Browne, and Dr Catherine Coveney will introduce how their work aligns with the question of care in the ruins, from research in the Health Humanities, aging studies and intergenerational care, to the politics of reproduction, to the sociology of sleep and chronic illness. Cassie’s visit is also supported by Dr Rachael Grew (International Relations, Politics and History), whose research looks at the concept of the ‘monstrous’ in relation to genders, bodies and identities.
Valeria Graziano (she/her) is a cultural theorist, educator and organizer based in Rijeka, Croatia. Her research is rooted in collective practice and centers on strategies of work refusal, the commoning of social reproduction, and the politics of pleasure. Valeria’s work has been published in a range of journals and books, including MIT Press; Artforum; Theory & Event; ephemera and Cultural Studies. Currently, she is lead researchers of “Figure It Out. The Art of Living Through System Failures” (CREA-CULT-2022-COOP-1) and coordinator of the working group "Analysis, Theory & Politics of Care" (COST Action CA21102). Her book Pirate Care: Acts Against the Criminalization of Solidarity, co-authored with Marcell Mars and Tomislav Medak, is forthcoming from Pluto Press in 2025.
Evie Muir (she/they) is a nature writer, author of Radical Rest: Notes on Burnout, Healing and Hopeful Futures, and founder of Peaks of Colour, a Peak District based nature-for-healing community group by and for people of colour. Their work sits on the intersections of gendered, racial and land justice, and seeks to nurture survivors’ joy, rest, hope and imagination as Black Feminist and abolitionist praxis.
Cassie Thornton (any pronoun) is an artist, writer and organizer who makes a “safe space” for the unknown, for disobedience, and for unanticipated collectivity. In her recent work she explores the struggle of reorganizing and using privilege in the apocalypse. She uses social practices including institutional critique, insurgent architecture, and “healing modalities” like hypnosis and yoga to find soft spots in the hard surfaces of capitalist life. Cassie has invented a grassroots alternative credit reporting service for the survivors of gentrification, has hypnotized hedge fund managers, has finger-painted with the grime found inside banks, has donated cursed paintings to profiteering bankers, and has taught feminist economics to yogis (and vice versa). She is currently a co-organizer of a bar that is an undercover clinic in Berlin. Her 2020 book, The Hologram: Feminist, Peer-to-Peer Health for a Post-Pandemic Future, is available from Pluto Press.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias 

Africa Summit - Vibrant and Inclusive Communities - Morning Session 2

For the fourth day of the Africa Summit, we address the strategic theme area of Vibrant and Inclusive Communities.
We have a panel discussion titled "Preserving cultural heritage and community identity in rapidly changing environment", chaired by Professor Ksenia Chmutina (ACME & IAS). Panel members will include IAS Visiting Fellows Dr Janet Febisola Adeyemi, Women In Mining Nigeria, Professor Cheryl Potgieter, Durban University of Technology, Nana Badu (Founder, Badu Sports) and Dr Jessica Noske-Turner (LUL).
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias