Loughborough Institute of Advanced Studies Podcast

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
 

Africa Summit - Vibrant and Inclusive Communities - Morning Session 1

For the fourth day of the Africa Summit, we address the strategic theme area of Vibrant and Inclusive Communities.
We have a keynote speech from IAS Visiting Fellow Professor Cheryl Potgieter, Durban University of Technology, titled "Building vibrant and inclusive urban spaces: The role of inclusion in sustainable development".
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias
 

Africa Summit - Climate Change and Net-Zero - Afternoon Session

For the third day of the Africa Summit, we address the strategic theme area of Climate Change and Net-Zero.
We have a panel discussion titled "Exploring climate resilience", chaired by Associate Pro Vice Chancellor for Climate Change and Net Zero, Professor John Downey, featuring panel members Professor Paula Griffiths (SSEHS), Dr Helen Osiolo (SSH and MECS), Dr Yasmeen Khalifa (SSH and MECS) and IAS Visiting Fellow Professor Samuel Nii Ardey Codjoe, University of Ghana.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias
 

Africa Summit - Climate Change and Net-Zero - Morning Session

For the third day of the Africa Summit, we address the strategic theme area of Climate Change and Net-Zero. This session will be opened by Associate Pro Vice Chancellor for Climate Change and Net Zero, Professor John Downey.
We have a first keynote speech titled "Status and pathways to net-zero in SSA: Strategies & challenges" by guest speaker Professor Matthew Leach (Emeritus Professor - University of Surrey) and then a second keynote speech titled "Impact of Extreme Weather Conditions on Healthcare Provision in Urban Ghana" by IAS Visiting Fellow Professor Samuel Nii Ardey Codjoe.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias
 

Africa Summit - Sports, Health and Well-being - Afternoon Session

For the second day of the Africa Summit, we address the strategic theme area of Sports, Health and Wellbeing.
We have a panel discussion, titled "Gender and inclusion in sports - Strategies for enhancing inclusivity and empowerment through sports.", chaired by Dr Oliver Hooper (SSEHS), and featuring panel members Dr Mark Doidge (SSEHS), Dr Rachel Sandford (SSEHS), Dr Lombé Mwambwa (Research Director, Global Observatory for Gender Equality & Sport), Peter Musembe (BBC World Service) & IAS Visiting Fellow Professor Cheryl Potgieter (Durban University of Technology).
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias
 

Africa Summit - Sports, Health and Well-being - Morning Session

For the second day of the Africa Summit, we address the strategic theme area of Sports, Health and Wellbeing. This session is opened by Pro Vice Chancellor for Sport, Professor Jo Maher.
We then have a keynote speech titled "The power of sports in shaping societies & community resilience – Lessons from the African continent", delivered by IAS Visiting Fellow Dr Lin Cherurbai Sambili-Gicheha, Advisor for Sport, Development and Peace at The Commonwealth Secretariat.
Following this Dr Sambili-Gicheha will join a panel discussion, titled "Integrating sports with national health programs—Examining policy, sustainable sports facility infrastructure, and community impact. " chaired by Professor Richard Giulianotti (SSEHS). John Olaleye from Leicester City Football Club and Dr Janneth Mghamba from The Commonwealth Secretariat also join the panel as guest speakers.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias

Africa Summit - Launch & Exhibition

We open with an introduction from Director of the IAS, Professor Ksenia Chmutina & Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation, Professor Daniel Parsons. Following this, Summit Co-Leads Dr Oluwasola (Sola) Afolabi (ABCE) & Dr Hibbah Araba Osei-Kwasi (SSEHS), give an overview of the week and also introduce two of our four IAS Visiting Fellows -
Professor Samuel Nii Ardey Codjoe, University of Ghana and Professor Cheryl Potgieter, Durban University of Technology
Our other two IAS Visiting Fellows join us later in the week -
Dr Lin Cherurbai Sambili-Gicheha, The Commonwealth Secretariat and Dr Janet Febisola Adeyemi, Women In Mining Nigeria
To close this session we have an African Culture and Artistic Exhibition, curated by Dr Kerri Akiwowo, Senior Lecturer in Textiles -
A cultural display showcases collection of visuals and artefacts linked to Loughborough University’s three strategic themes: Sport, Health and Wellbeing, Climate Change and Net-Zero; and Vibrant and Inclusive Communities. The exhibition features items loaned from members of the Loughborough community. Exhibits have their origins in African heritage, identity, people and place. Diversity in African culture is represented by objects, artworks, textiles, images and text.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias

Dr Sara Bonati - (Re)producing nature in climate change: examples from Italy

IAS Visiting Fellow Dr Sara Bonati delivers a seminar on their research -
Climate change is reconfiguring the ways in which society relates with nature and conceptualises it. The challenges posed by climate change ask for innovative ways to approach ‘nature’, ‘work with’ it and ‘save’ it. The proposed presentation will focus on the ways nature is used, re-used, re-assembled, and re-conceptualised in the ongoing climate change debate, producing new socioecological relationships that shape new forms of ‘nature’. By proposing examples from Italy, as a country in the Mediterranean climate change hotspot, the presentation aims at critically reflect upon controversial responses to climate change, going through different examples of (mal)adaptation in which nature is involved, and question its consumeristic and neoliberal interpretations. The lens of more-than-human geography is here applied.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias

Associate Professor Christopher M. Campbell - Time will tell: Examining the potential effects of pre-arrest diversion efforts for drug offences using interrupted time-series analyses

Fulbright Scholarship Fellow Associate Professor Christopher M. Campbell delivers a seminar on their research -
To combat drug use and possession while reducing systemic social harm (e.g., conviction records and incarceration) some localized jurisdictions in England have made an effort to divert some of the lowest-level offences to treatment, away from system sanctions. In an effort to gauge the aggregate impact of pre-arrest (police-led) diversion, we employ a synthetic control design in an interrupted time series analysis. Relying on quarterly data over the last 10 years from several policing areas in England, we compare jurisdictions that engaged in a systematic diversion effort (e.g., West Midlands) to those that did not, while controlling for multiple factors on which the jurisdictions may differ (e.g., police workforce size, unemployment, population). The detectable impact of pre-arrest diversion on key outcomes and implications regarding police reported crime, cautions, and prosecutions are discussed. 
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias