Category Archives: Public Events

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

REBELLIOUS RESEARCH: Create Practice Research Seminar Series – Round 4

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Welcome to Round 4  of the Rebellious Research Seminar Series focusing on Creative Practice Research. The seminar series returns yet again, with 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.

Download your Round 4 (2024/2025) PROGRAMME 

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

Download your Round 4 (2024/2025) PROGRAMME 

​All the past sessions are available on a dedicated YouTube channel

Any changes ot the programme will be announced on: https://www.agatalulkowska.com/seminar-series

Philosophy Research Seminar Series – Life Matters: Thought, Nature and Technology

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  • When: 27th March 2025
  • Where: Online
  • Registration: Please contact Patrick O’Connor if you would like an invite to the meeting.

You are invited to Staffordshire Philosophy’s research seminar series. This time we will be speaking with Prof. Katherine Withy who teaches Philosophy at Georgetown University.

Paper: The World of the Kitchen

Abstract: When Heidegger introduces the notions of world and being-in-the-world in Being and Time, he speaks of the carpenter’s workshop.1 The carpenter’s workshop is both part of a world—namely, the world of a tradesperson in early 20th Century Germany—and a model for what it is to be in a world at all. As a model, the carpenter’s workshop has profoundly influenced how Heidegger’s concepts of world and being-in-the-world were developed and how they have been given uptake. You can hardly take two steps into Heidegger scholarship without running into a carpenter and their hammer. Using this example as a model for being-in-the-world makes certain features of us and the worlds we inhabit salient while obscuring others. Some of what this model obscures is crucial to the phenomenon of being-in-the-world, and it is made perspicuous by a different model. I want to suggest that a better model for being-in-the-world is being in the world of the kitchen.

Please contact Patrick O’Connor if you would like an invite to the meeting or if you are having trouble accessing the paper

Launch of a new Creative Industries Lecture Series

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  • When: 5th March 2025
  • Where: G027 Cadman Building / Cadman Yard, University of Staffordshire
  • Registration: Sign up for free through Eventbrite linke below

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/staffs-creative-industries-lecture-series-tickets-1222599059699

Led by C3 Member Dr. Mark McKenna, the inaugural lecture in the newly established Creative Industries Lecture Series will be at 3pm on March 5th in G027 Cadman Building / Cadman Yard. Britain’s creative industries are world leading and they are the engine of our economic growth. In stark financial terms, in 2021 they generated £108bn in economic value and employed 2.3 million people. They are valuable and vital, but the importance of the creative industries goes well beyond the economy. Art, design, and entertainment enrich our lives and contribute to cultural identity and societal well-being. The works that these industries produce are the lens through which we understand the world.

This series of lectures will feature emerging and established speakers sharing their insights and experiences of the creative industries and, whether you’re a student, professional, or simply ‘creative industries curious’, the series is perfect for anyone looking to be inspired and to learn something new.

Mark has a forthcoming book with Routledge – Levelling Up the Screen Industries: Film and Television Production as Regenerative Strategy in Places Left Behind (2025), which grew out of a piece of work for Stoke-on-Trent City Council on the viability of a Film Office in the region and offers an assessment of the contribution that similar regions can make to the screen economy. The book considers the impact that various industrial and governmental devolution strategies have had or are having and explores the potentially transformative effect that this could have on the UKs screen economy.

 

 

Education Through Podcasting EPOD Conference Deadline coming up: Don’t miss the deadline!

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The deadline for submitting abstracts for EPOD 2025 Conference is fast approaching. Don’t miss your chance to be a part of this year’s conference!

https://www.epod.org.uk

This conference cements a partnership of EPOD with Routledge. For this year’s conference Morley College London is partnering with the University of Staffordshire, Leeds University, and the University of South Florida. In this conference, academics, researchers and practitioners will share and disseminate research and experience of teaching, learning and training through podcasts.  

The focus of the conference this year will be Between entertainment and education: balancing media industry expectations within educational contexts. 

We invite you to submit a paper abstract of 300-500 words to be reviewed for inclusion in the conference programme. This should be submitted by 28/02/2025 and you can find the Call For Papers here.  Note that this is an in-person conference and it will not be possible to present online.

Presenting authors will be given the opportunity to submit a paper for peer review and consideration for the next Routledge publication.  

A publication from last year’s conference contributors is in press and will be published by the time this conference rolls around!

We would really appreciate it if you could help spread the word about EPOD over email to anyone who may be interested, and social media. You can follow, like and share our social media posts on Instagram, X and Facebook, as well as sharing the Call for Submissions to networks.

Many thanks again, looking forward to seeing you in June 2025!

Warm regards, 

The EPOD Team

 

Education Through Podcasting Conference 2025 – Announcement of 2025 Dates and Theme

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Education through Podcasting (EPOD) is a collaboration between Keele University Tim Canfer), University of Staffordshire (Carola Boehm) and Morley College (Camilo Salazar and Joanna Duchesne)  and includes an annual conference and a book series focusing  on discussing  and disseminating research and practice of learning/educational contexts using podcasting and recorded audio media.

EPOD welcomes academics, researchers and professionals to be part of our growing network that explores the intersections between podcasting and education. 

Main Website: https://www.epod.org.uk

EPOD’25 Education through Podcasting Conference

EPOD  2025 will be hosted again on 26th and 27th June 2025 by Morley College’s facilities at their Waterloo Campus in Central London, made for an ideal venue. Our theme for 20025 will be: Between Entertainment & Education: balancing media industry expectations within educational contexts.

Key Date and link to more Info:

  • 03/02/2025               Deadline for Conference Abstracts (see call)

Proceedings Publication

The proceedings from the conference will be published by Routledge. More details can be found here.

About:

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

New Book and Book Launch Event: The role of landscape and place in creative writing

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Writing Landscape and Setting in the Anthropocene: Britain and Beyond

Editors: Philippa Holloway and Craig Jordan-Baker. Including contributions from Mark Brown, Martin Brown, Lisa Mansell, Mel Ebdon, Philippa Holloway, and many others.

  • Explores the role of landscape and place in creative writing, in a world deeply affected by human interventions
  • Includes case studies from Britain and beyond, as well as theoretical chapters examining creative practice and process
  • Responds to current debates about the writer’s practice and social conversations about our relationship to nature

The new book has been published by an international group of academics, including C3 members that focus on Stoke-on-Trent as a place. The book launch took place on 10/07/2024, and the recording will be linked soon.

This edited collection offers an in-depth exploration of the role of landscape and place as literary ‘settings’. It examines the multifaceted relationships between authors, narrators, and characters to their locales, as well as broader considerations of the significance of the representation of landscape in a world deeply affected by human interventions. Consisting of case studies of projects that engage with these questions, as well as research examining the theoretical underpinnings of both creative practices/processes and post-textual analysis of published works, this volume is both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary in scope. In the context of the climate crisis and a pandemic which has caused us to re-evaluate the significance of landscape and the environment, it responds to the need to engage current trends within the academy and in broader social debate about our relationship to the natural world.


The books available from from Springer at https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-49955-5 and from our Staffordshire University Library Catalogue from this LINK.

Online Book Launch Event and Readings from 10/07/2024.

EVENT: Critical Ecologies, Thursday 11th July 2024

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  • Thursday 11th July 2024
  • Catalyst CA2 Creative Lab
  • 10 am – 5pm

Critical Ecologies is an opportunity for academic and non-academic staff to come together and share research in alliance with communities and ecologies.

We have two exciting keynote presentations, and space for 6 presenters from within the University to share their research. In creating this fledgling research hub we are acknowledging the need for an open and respectful space where we can build (and rebuild) an interdisciplinary research culture. We also aim to centre nature recovery and environmental justice within these interdisciplinary conversations.