Author Archives: cbb1@staff.staffs.ac.uk

EPOD-2026 announced to be hosted by University of Leeds in partnership with C3 staff

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A team of podcasting academics is preparing for the third annual EPOD conference (Podcasting Through Education) to take in Leeds in June 2026. As part of this, work is ongoing to publish another volume in their Routledge Book series under the same title. The work as part of the conference demonstrates the international, innovation-orineted partnerships that C3 members hold.

EPOD Conference & Book Team:

  • Carl Hartley, University of Leeds, UK
  • Camilo Salazar, Morley Radio/Morley College London, UK
  • Carola Boehm, University of Staffordshire, UK
  • Joanna Duchesne, Morley College London, UK
  • Dr Lindsay Persohn, University of South Florida, USA

EPOD’26 Theme: Beyond the Classroom – The Power of Podcasts in Shaping the Future of Learning and Media

  • Venue: University of Leeds
  • Date:  18th – 19th June 2026
  • Deadline for Abstracts: 16 January 2026
  • After the conference book chapters will be due (6000 words): 1 October 2026
  • Approximate Book Publishing Date:  1 July 2027

Education through Podcasting (EPOD) is a conference and book series where academics, researchers and professionals come together to discuss and disseminate their research and innovative practices around learning/educational contexts using recorded audio, media and podcasting.

All speakers at the conference will be given the opportunity to write up their presentation into a chapter for the proceedings book published by Routledge.

The book will have a similar theme around challenging and innovating the higher learning spaces through new podcast practices:

Themes of the conference and book will include, but are not limited to:

  • Pedagogical Possibilities of Podcasting: Exploring how innovation in podcasting in education can support diverse teaching and learning strategies, including flipped classrooms, microlearning, and reflective practice.
  • Blurring Boundaries Between Formal and Informal Learning: How do educational podcasts straddle entertainment and learning, and with this make it harder to distinguish between institutional learning and public discourses.
  • Academic Storytelling and Knowledge Mobilisation: Innovative practices that use podcasting to translate research into engaging narratives for public audiences and interdisciplinary dialogue.
  • Decentralising Knowledge Production and Distribution: Podcasting practices that allow academics, students, and external voices to bypass traditional gatekeepers, reshaping who gets to produce and share educational content.
  • Student-Generated Podcasts as Assessment and Engagement: How to empower students to create podcasts as part of coursework, and methods that foster creativity, digital literacy, and ownership of learning.
  • Institutional Strategies for Podcast Integration: Case studies and frameworks for embedding institutional wide podcasting into teaching frameworks, marketing, or outreach strategies.
  • Podcasting and Civic Engagement: Examining podcasting’s role in civic engagement by higher education institutions, including collective cultural production and community partnerships.
  • Reconfiguring Academic Authority and Voice: Podcasts often feature informal, conversational tones. How can they challenge traditional academic hierarchies and open space for diverse epistemologies and challenging discourses?

Submissions: please submit 300-500 word abstracts to epod@morleycollege.ac.uk by 16/01/2026

Paper abstracts of 300-500 words will be reviewed for inclusion in the conference programme and forthcoming book. After the conference, presenting authors will be invited to submit a full paper for peer review for consideration within a Routledge book of proceedings.

Key Dates:

  • 16/01/2026 Deadline for Abstracts
  • 16/02/2026 Abstract acceptance notifications
  • 16/02/2026 Early bird registration opens   
  • 16/03/2026 Early bird registration close
  • 17/06/2026 Registration closes
  • 18/06/2026 2-Day Conference starts
  • 01/10/2026 Book Chapters due (6000 words)
  • 01/07/2027 Approximate Book Publishing Date

The first series in the book was published earlier this year, with the next one in the series on schedule to be published in time with the 2026 conference. 

This year’s conference featured Stoke-on-Trent regional podcasting educators, including Carola Boehm (C3), Adam Gratton (CommunityCast) and Alex Hough (C3), whose work will be available in the next book of the series. 

Full call as a printable pdf: https://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/c3centre/wp-content/blogs.dir/1790/files/sites/1790/2025/11/Call-For-Papers.pdf

C3 Centre’s  Professor Neil Brownsword and the Ceramic Cultures, Practices and Debates Research Group is organising a symposium to celebrate the rich ceramics heritage of the city

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  • Where: Stoke Town Hall, Glebe Street, Stoke-on-Trent ST4 1HP
  • When: Nov 21 at 9am to Nov 22 at 5pm GMT
  • How to register for free: Eventbrite Link

Legacy and Continuity Ceramic Symposium will be a  two-day symposium celebrating the rich ceramics heritage of the city and its modern World Craft City status.

This symposium will be one of the highlight events for the Stoke100 Centenary Heritage Celebrations. Re-Form’s Dr Alasdair Brooks and C3’s Professor Neil Brownsword in collaboration with Jingdezhen Ceramic University in China will bring together speakers from across the globe to outline the international impact of Stoke-on-Trent’s ceramic industry.

This two-day symposium celebrates the rich ceramics heritage of the city and its modern World Craft City status to engage both scholars and members of the public in a discussion of the past and present of Staffordshire ceramics.

The symposium is free to attend and is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Day One: The Archaeology of 19th-Century British Ceramics in an International Context

The first day will emphasise the global reach and significance of Stoke-on-Trent’s history and heritage from an archaeological perspective. Speakers working on objects from England, Scotland, Portugal, Ghana, the Persian Gulf, the US, Chile, and New Zealand will address how relevant studies of 19th-century British ceramics can contribute to an understanding of globalised trade, international domestic consumption, and the socio-economic impact of formal and informal empire.

Day Two: Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’: Cultural Influence and Exchange Between China and Britain

Day two will expand on the themes explored in the Spode Museum’s exhibition Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’, curated for the City of Stoke-on-Trent’s Centenary Celebrations. Speakers from the UK and China will explore the cultural origin of the famous Willow pattern, the British Orientalist discourse reflected in the 19th century Willow pattern story, and industrial exchange and impacts of globalization between the British and Chinese ceramics industries to the present day.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/legacy-and-continuity-ceramic-symposium-tickets-1418675770419

C3 Agata Lulkowska’s 5th Season of Rebellious Research will be kicking off next week!

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We are delighted to share the details of the 5th season of Rebellious Research, hosted by Associate Professor and Centre Lead Agata Lulkwoska,  and exploring Creative Practice Research in an online live series of talks and discussions. 

The full seminar programme is available here:  https://www.agatalulkowska.com/seminar-series

Over the last few year, the prior four rounds led to a Special Issue on Recontextualising Practice-based Research, a creative practice research manifesto, Collaborative Creative Provocation, a book on Filmmaking in Academia, another one on Fiction Filmmaking as Research (due 2026), and a book series (in progress) on Creative Practice Research.

For the fifth time, the seminar series returns with, again, some truly exquisite guests. As always, free and open to all (all sessions run online via MS Teams), this initiative aims at widening support and understanding around practice research in a friendly and inclusive manner, with some top experts sharing their experience and advice.

For more info and to be added to the mailing list, please contact Agata Lulkowska (Agata.Lulkowska@staffs.ac.uk)

All sessions are recorded and available to rewatch on the dedicated YouTube channel.

Kick-starting the fifth round is Chris Nunn (University of Birmingham)  who on Wednesday, 29th October at 3:30 (UK time), will deliver a talk on ‘Practice-Based Research and Feature Film Production.‘

Details below:

Session 1: Wednesday 29th October 2024, 3:30-5pm (UK): Chris Nunn (University of Birmingham)

 Link to join on MS Teams

Title: Practice-Based Research and Feature Film Production

This talk examines how universities might function as alternative production bases for feature films that commercial industry structures cannot support. Drawing on two recent University of Birmingham projects – the documentary Children of The Wicker Man (2024) and folk horror feature An Ill Wind (2026) – I argue that higher education institutions possess unique resources positioning them as sites of genuinely independent filmmaking.

Both projects emerged from archival discovery and practice-based research, prioritising investigative inquiry over commercial viability. Children developed from found documents exploring Robin Hardy’s cult film and complex creative legacy, while An Ill Wind attempted ethical folk horror through extended Shetland Islands collaboration. Neither would have necessarily secured traditional funding due to their investigative approaches, moral complexity, and development timelines allowing genuine reflexivity.

Universities offer key advantages: access to emerging talent, reduced labour costs through academic-industry hybrid models, intellectual frameworks for complex cultural questions, and freedom from immediate commercial pressures. However, this model faces limitations around funding structures, equipment access, and temporal conflicts between academic cycles and industry schedules.

The talk examines whether universities can genuinely function as alternative production spaces or inevitably become industry training grounds. Rather than mimicking industry practices, universities might develop distinctly educational approaches prioritising process over product, collaboration over hierarchy, and inquiry over entertainment. The question remains whether such approaches can create films finding audiences beyond academic contexts, and whether rebellious research can translate into genuinely rebellious cinema.

 

Dr Chris Nunn is Assistant Professor of Film at the University of Birmingham, creative producer of both films discussed, and Associate Editor of the Film Education Journal.



‘Un-Podcasting’: C3’s Carola Boehm proposes a new definition for ‘podcasting’ at EPOD 2025 in London

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At this year’s EPOD2025 in London in June, C3 Centre Co-Lead and Member, Professor Carola Boehm put forward a new defintion of what a podcast is: 

“Podcasting is an audio-focussed cultural form that is constructed by social innovation in content production”

Below is a recording of a presentation Prof Carola Boehm,  gave live in London. In the presentation, she focussed on the process of exploring the definitional boundaries of the term podcasting, drawing from the literature (Rime et al., 2022; McGregor, 2022; Chan-Olmsted & Wang, 2022; Smith et al., 2021) and her own current experimental ‘un-podcasting’ practice.

As she suggests, “this practice explores the still seldom-used music-talk show format available currently on only a few platforms, which incorporate legal music licensing. My ‘podcast’ – which some might suggest is not really a ‘podcast’ – includes music immersion with a reflective audio-narrative, recorded outside on various runs and provides audio-coached training guidance for ‘learning how to run’. It provides a follow-along, 6-week, return-to-running plan geared towards hypothyroid challenged runners that are in the process of building back up after a break.

The above rather un-snappy elevator pitch for my current experimental podcasting project (CBDB & Boehm, 2022–2024, 2025) expresses one example of the rich and creative opportunities within diverse podcasting practices enabled by different technologies or platforms, and as such, can represent an element of an ‘experimental lab’ in which – in my case – various cultural concepts are interrogated by a practice that pulls along new knowledge, new critical concepts and new conceptual frameworks for the intersections between education and training, entertainment and creative self-expression, personal but public learning journeys”.

This most recent and 4th podcast project of Boehm does not conform to the podcast definition that she herself set out at last year’s EPOD conference and which was – as she put it – outdated the moment it was written: “an audio-first show, made available in digital format via the internet through RSS feeds, stored in mp3, hosted on dedicated or shared or distributed server spaces” (Boehm, 2025). However, this project is an audio-first experience.

Considering the rise of conceptualising podcasting as a cultural phenomenon rather than a technologically enhanced medium, calling it a podcast could be argued to be the right way forward. However, pondering about the validity of what it is she created allowed her to unpick the accepted definitions and meanings, thus shining a light on the term, also signified by using the word of ‘un-podcasting’ in the title.

Using this current ‘un-podcasting’ practice as a case study, the presentation thus explored questions at the heart of this year’s theme of the EPOD Conference. First, it explored critical and conceptual frameworks to support the formation of a broader definition for the term ‘podcast’. Then it considered the tensions inherent in some explorative, personal learning journeys provided by or to a broader community, situating such podcasts between education, entertainment and music listening. Boehm argued  for its potential of minding the gap between formal education and informal learning and how it bridges the different ways of listening from music immersion to guided audio-coached training. Practices like these thus could be understood to situate itself within either commercial, private or public use contexts.

The presentation made use of existing concepts, such as Sacco’s Culture 3.0 (Sacco et al., 2018) and the author’s University 3.0 (Boehm, 2022, chap.4) for unpicking some of the nuances around the above-described tensions.

As an outcome, she puts forward a new definition for the concept of ‘podcasting’, to ensure there is a definition that is inclusive of audio innovations and experiments of expanding innovative podcasting features . 

She thus put forward a new definition:  Podcasting is an audio-focussed cultural form that is constructed by social innovations in content production.

Links: Run/Listen with Carola at CBCB Runs https://www.mixcloud.com/CeeBeeDeeBee/

Last Chance to register for Critical Ecologies Summer Symposium 2025

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Last call to participate in our C3 Critical Ecologies Symposium, July 9th 2026!

Where:    Level 3, Catalyst Building. Leek Rd. Campus, University of Staffordshire
When:    July 9th 2026 10 – 4pm

Last chance to sign up and join Rebecca Nunes and Anna Francis and other researchers whose practices intersect with climate alliance and social equity for a day of research sharing and development of exploratory future collaboration. If you would like to join us please email or Teams me: rebecca.nunes@staffs.ac.uk so we can add you in. The day will be held in Catalyst, and food and drinks will be provided.

Critical Ecologies Summer Symposium 2025

Critical Ecologies is a grassroots research hub, generating a community of practice holding space to focus discussion and innovation around nature recovery and environmental justice.

The outcomes of our collaboration throughout the day will form a Research Document, which will be shared immediately after the Symposium with all participants and will inform our ongoing efforts for the next year’s cycle of Critical Ecologies Seasonal Gatherings for 2025/26.

Symposium Date: Wednesday, 9th July 10 – 4

Level 3, Catalyst Building. Leek Rd. Campus, University of Staffordshire 

“Speak to the earth and it will teach you”: a theological Bestiary for the ecological crisis

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A slime mould, as imagined by AI
A virus, as imagined by AI

In “Speak to the earth and it will teach you”, C3 member PETER KEVERN is seeking to recover the wisdom of the mediaeval Bestiaries to rethink our relationship to the natural world.

Professor Peter Kevern is a theologian whose research focuses on the influence religious ideas and images have on our individual and social wellbeing. He is currently working on a project to use the thinking behind the mediaeval Bestiaries to inform our response to the ecological crisis.

The mediaeval Bestiaries were books of ‘beasts’, often imaginatively written and richly illustrated. Although they are often treated as manuals of early (and very inaccurate) natural history, they are more concerned with theology and ethics. In most examples, each creature is considered to display some deep truth about human beings, God, or good and evil, meaning that can be discerned by thoughtful reflection on the creature’s properties and behaviour.

The Bestiaries emerge out of a world where human beings were inseparably linked to creation and believed the natural world to be charged throughout with deepest meaning and wisdom. In an age when our alienation from the natural world is bringing it, and us, to the brink of collapse, the pattern of thought behind the Bestiaries may have something to teach us.

“In this project I seek to recover some elements of that pattern, and apply them to creatures (such as viruses, slime moulds, black holes and Schrodinger’s cat) which were undreamt of by our forebears. In the process I hope to recover for our own time this sense of a world charged with meaning, and develop a set of practices that respond to its prompting.”

Contact Peter Kevern or the C3 Centre at C3Centre@staffs.ac.uk if you want to know more.

C3’s Professor Carola Boehm joins the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) College of Experts

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Carola Boehm, Professor of Arts and Higher Education from the C3 Centre for Creative Industries and Creative Communities at the University of Staffordshire, has been recruited to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) College of Experts. She will be joining 58 external experts from across academia and industry, forming a diverse and experienced community of experts. The DCMS College of Experts members have been called upon to provide external expertise and apply innovative scientific methods to support government policy.

Her expertise will contribute to helping DCMS tackle complex challenges across their policy areas with research insights.

Professor Carola Boehm said:

“I am delighted to be collaborating with fellow college members and DCMS colleagues and look forward to supporting evidence-based policymaking, driving forward impactful solutions for our creative and cultural sectors.”

Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Tom Crick said:

“We are delighted to welcome our new members of DCMS College of Experts. Since 2021, the College of Experts has made a significant impact on our department, ensuring that our policy design, development and implementation is grounded in the most rigorous and robust research and evidence available. Your engagement will help us continue to tackle the complex and interdisciplinary challenges across our policy areas with confidence and insight. We look forward to engaging with you and building on the meaningful collaboration that has shaped and informed impactful decision-making.”

 The College of Experts has expertise across the DCMS portfolio. The College supplements any existing relationships that teams have established with experts and offers a diverse breadth of scientific and technical knowledge that colleagues can draw upon dynamically. This allows the department to benefit from longer-term, systematic working relationships and addresses the increasing need for on-demand expert advice to underpin policy work.

Professor Carola Boehm’s research focusses on creative and cultural industries and has already been featured in the UPEN Study on how Arts and Humanities research influence public policy making (https://upen.ac.uk/resources/how-does-arts-and-humanities-research-influence-public-policymaking/). Her work underpins various strategic initiatives, from Cultural Leadership Programmes, such as Create Place Programme (https://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/createplace/), or supports the work of Cultural Compacts, such as Stoke Creates, where she is currently the chair (https://stokecreates.org.uk/). She has recently published a book in Emerald’s book series, Great Debates in Higher Education, titled Arts and Academia: The Role of the Arts in Civic Universities.

Her public output can be accessed or requested from EPRINTS/STORE BOEHM

The Universit press release can be read at https://www.staffs.ac.uk/news/2025/06/staffordshire-professor-joins-the-department-of-culture-media-and-sport-dcms-college-of-experts

Critical Ecologies Symposium 2025

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Symposium Date: Wednesday, 9th July 10 – 3
Where: Catalyst Building, Leek Road, University of Staffordshire
Expression of Interest in Contributing: Friday June 20th, by 5pm
Registration via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/critical-ecologies-symposium-2025-tickets-1376317244929
PDF Details and Programme: https://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/c3centre/wp-content/blogs.dir/1790/files/sites/1790/2025/06/CriticalEcologiesSymposium-2025-1.pdf  

Critical Ecologies is a grassroots research hub, generating a community of practice holding space to focus discussion and innovation around nature recovery and environmental justice.

The 2025 Symposium supports shared visioning for future collaborations and practice-led research connections. We invite all researchers and practitioners interested in these themes to come together via an experimental, generative format, where throughout the day, we will propose provocations that generate knowledge around specific enquiries.

We invite you to propose either a 10-minute sharing provocation of your practice and/or research or a 30-minute hands-on making activity that responds to one of the enquiries.

The Enquiries:
1. Nature Recovery Strategy:
In this session, we will consider the Local Nature Recovery Strategies being prepared nationally; what role and purpose they need to fulfil, and how we, as creative and academic practitioners, might inform the processes or support communities in having a voice within the proceedings. What role can the strategy play in our research and practice in the coming years? More broadly, how can our work as practitioners and researchers better inform policy development?

2. Declaration of Intent:
This session aims to create a shared understanding of the Critical Ecologies Research Hub and to formulate a declaration of intent for the upcoming seasonal cycles. We will discuss the current functions of the hub, which include providing space for resistant research, supporting practice-led research, and fostering transdisciplinary connections and networks. How can we strengthen and build upon these aims?

3. Body/Brain:
Through a haptic experience of the subject themes, this session will enable us to synthesise the insights gained throughout the day, making them visible through practice-led guided engagement with material processes. From this collaborative process, visual motifs will emerge that will reinforce the strategic directions of the research hub moving forward. This session will also facilitate the cross-pollination, discussion, and experimental generation of ideas that occur during a practice-led workshop or workshops.

The outcomes of our collaboration throughout the day will form a Research Document, which will be shared immediately after the Symposium with all participants and will inform our ongoing efforts for the next year’s cycle of Critical Ecologies Seasonal Gatherings for 2025/26.

Symposium Date: Wednesday, 9th July 10 – 3
10 -10.30 – Introduction and framing the day.
10.30 – 11.30 – Enquiry 1: Nature Recovery Strategy
11.30 – 12.30 – Enquiry 2: Convening a Declaration of Intent
12.30 – 1.30 – LUNCH
1.30 – 2.30 – Enquiry 3: Body/Brain
2.30 – 3.00- Wrap Up

Expression of Interest in Contributing
To send in an Expression of Interest to
• present a 10 minute sharing provocation of your practice and/or research or
• a 30 minute hands-on making activity which responds to one of the enquiries,
please send us up to 500 words indicating which of the enquiries you are responding to, and what you intend to present or share by 5pm Friday June 20th to rebecca.nunes@staffs.ac.uk

Attending the Symposium:
If you would like to simply attend the Symposium, please sign up via our EventBrite link above. (We will contact you to ascertain any dietary requirements etc).
Further detail to follow.
We look forward to sharing the day with you.

London’s EPOD conference set to highlight education through podcasting in June

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Education through Podcasting (EPOD) is organising its second conference on 26th and 27th June 2025 at Morley College London. A group of educators, podcast practitioners and industry experts will gather to discuss ‘Between entertainment and education’. Speakers will share how they use podcasts, best practices, and themes around ethics and inclusivity.

This conference continues a partnership formed between University of Staffordshire’s C3 Centre, Routledge, Morley College London, the University of Leeds and the University of South Florida. Industry sponsors include Audio UK, Broadcast Radio, HHB, Morley Radio, Routledge, and The Radio Academy.

It was announced also on the Podnews’s newsletter at https://podnews.net/press-release/epod-conference-25, which has a distribution of 32,457.

Carola Boehm, EPOD committee member and C3 member, said: ‘This is a fabulous conference that highlights the opportunities of podcasting to lean into higher education, and universities to lean into podcasting’.

This year’s keynote speakers include freelance producer and presenter Meera Kumar, recently named Producer of the Year 2024; Naomi Mellor, host and producer; and Stephen Coleman, author and emeritus Professor of Political Communication at the University of Leeds.

Camilo Salazar, EPOD committee member and manager at Morley Radio in London, said: ‘We are excited to host this event again. It will be so interesting to bring together people from all over the world and hear how media industry expectations apply in educational contexts.’

Each year, speakers will be given the opportunity to write up a chapter for a book in the EPOD book series, published by Routledge. The first book from the inaugural conference is due for release later this year. For more information about the event or to get tickets to attend, visit: https://www.epod.org.uk/epod-conference-2025

 

Critical Ecologies Spring Session on the IKON Slow Boat

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Ikon Slow Boat will be in Stoke-on-Trent throughout April and May, and provides an excellent space for our next Critical Ecologies Session.

https://www.ikon-gallery.org/news/view/ikon-slow-boat-stoke-on-trent-2025

For our next session we will be considering the Local Nature Recovery Strategy for Staffordshire, and asking what we feel priorities should be for both rural and urban areas.

Given the significant loss of habitat we have seen across continents in the past 50 years, and the recent attack on the environment by the current US government, while closer to home reports of tree felling across cities and recent threat to the Dartington Forest – there has never been a more pressing time to think about what we as researchers might be able to do to advocate for nature.

In this session we will experience the new public art trail installed along the Caldon Canal, celebrating biodiversity, before a session aboard the Ikon Slow Boat, where we will consider the importance of our post-industrial water ways as nature corridors through urban landscapes – which then move out to more rural areas.

In the context of the LNRS for Staffordshire currently being prepared, we will hear from Nicola Lynes of Support Staffordshire, Chair of the Community Advisory Panel for the Staffordshire LNRS, who will share information about the Public Consultation underway and consider with us what we would recognise as priorities for Nature Recovery.

As always, this will also be an opportunity to discuss what you are working on currently, and an open discussion on potential for collaborations and information about our July Symposium, while enjoying the experience of the Slowness of Canal Travel on a boat ride.

We will share a reading list with those that sign up for the event, but for now a couple of relevant links:

Link to book a place: Critical Ecologies Spring Session on the IKON Slow Boat Tickets, Wed, May 14, 2025 at 1:00 PM | Eventbrite