As Professor of Creative and Cultural Industries, Chair of Stoke Creates Cultural Compact, and as part of the leadership team of the C3 Centre: Creative Industries and Creative Communities at the University of Staffordshire, Prof Carola Boehm has been inmvited to join the Birmingham and the West Midlands Conference Ambassador Network.
She said: “As an academic and a cultural leader of our region, we regularly bring audiences, visitors and delegates to our city-region. Visitors contribute so much when joining us in our cultural and academic events that make our creative place what it is, the quintessential creative city with a deep and long history of producing creative products, services and creativity-underpinned knowledge & innovation. From medium-scale academic conferences to large-scale international festivals, from music concerts to boutique cultural gems, as a place with two universities and a multitude of vibrant creative and cultural organisations, we want to share our city with visitors.”
The West MIdlands Growth Company, under Chief Executive Neil Rami, set up the network to help reinforce the international reputation for excellence in academic research and contribute to our ongoing economic growth in the region.
“The Birmingham and the West Midlands Conference Ambassador Network has been created as a platform for the region’s greatest minds and leaders to work together in pursuit of a common goal – to contribute to our ongoing economic growth and reinforce our international reputation for excellence in academic research and business.”
“Ambassadors are influential in their field and play a key and active role in attracting their association conferences or connecting us with other people in the region who might be interested in working with us.”
The Birmingham & West Midlands Convention Bureau’s purpose is to promote the West Midlands and the wider region as a leading destination for events. The Bureau offers support for large-scale event bids, and help win and deliver events, assisting also with accommodation booking for delegates and marketing support.
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
Camilo Salazar, Morley Radio/Morley College London, UK
Professor Carola Boehm, University of Staffordshire, UK
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.
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:
Education through Podcasting (EPOD) is a conference series where academics, researchers and professionals will find a forum to come together to discuss and disseminate their research and practice within 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.
Themes of the conference include, but are not limited to:
Practices in the intersection of the podcasting industry and the education sectors
Developments of podcasting as a learning environment
How does podcasting fit into pedagogical trends of Blended, Online, Mixed Mode, Digital or other?
Public vs private vs common. Where does Podcasting in Education sit?
Explorations of issues related to intellectual property in educational podcasting?
Standards and standardisation and their effects on Podcasting in Education (both industry and educational standards)
Case studies of good practice, podcasting and community learning
Case studies in discipline specific uses of podcasting in education (e.g. in Theatre, Music, Storytelling and Creative Writing, Forensic Science and True Crime, Philosophy, Journalism and Podcasting, Media Production, Audio, Music Technology and Music Production)
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.
“Welcome to Stoke-on-Trent”, Student Projects 2017 (*)
Last week, Rishi Sunak called for a General Election to be held on Thursday 4 July 2024, saying it was “the moment for Britain to choose its future”. Our C3 members have their on thoughts on what this future ought to look like, and what they see to hope in various party manifestos. Here are some:
Carola Boehm, Professor of Creative Industries and Creative Communities at Staffordshire University:
“As Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the UK general elections, all I could think about was: Could this be the return to “Cool Brittania”? I arrived in the UK at the beginning of 1997, and thus, I experienced the rush of immense hope and giddiness that caught the country as Labour swept into power after a decade of austerity. This giddiness had at its core an appreciation of British creative outputs, both in terms of the biggest Creative Industries of music and film, as well as the art scene of designers. It was the time when the likes of Noel Gallagher were invited to No 10, where there was a real and explicit effort to turn the UK into a cultural powerhouse, as the Blair government recognised the cultural moment that could help the whole country get back to its feet. These were the years of Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting, Ginger Spice wearing the Union Jack at the Brit Awards, Austin Powers, and Vanity Fair covers of “London Swings Again”, Blur, Pulp and Notting Hill.
Since then, we have had various Creative Industry strategies and policies, which I would suggest are, at worst, uninformed and, at best, lack aspirations. So when this election was called, my mind snapped immediately to the question of whether any incoming government is aware of how much the creative sectors contribute to our daily lives in the UK. Will it be at the forefront of their thinking, that it was our UK Creative Industries that tended to grow faster than any other sector in the UK; that pre covid, 12% of our total exports of services were from the Creative Industries, and that boosting the Creative Industries was the fastest economic leveller than any other policy implemented, with, for example, West Midlands Creative Industries jobs growing by 38.9%, whereas all jobs only grew in that region only by 10% (Figures DCMS 2011-2017). So my hope for any incoming government is that they understand the power of the Cultural and Creative Industries and invest in the country by putting policies in place that allow us all, up and down the country, to re-imagine and experience another era of Cool Britannia. In the words of Austin Powers, we have lost our mojo, so wouldn’t it be groovy to get it back?”
Anna Francis, Associate Professor of Fine Art and Social Practice:
“After 14 Years under the current administration it is certainly true to say that I will be looking carefully at the messages of all parties concerning arts and culture and particularly arts education, and who has access to it. The latest report by the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (May 2024) set out the important role the creative and cultural industries play in health and well-being, community development, and education, but also set out the worrying statistics in terms of the underrepresentation of people from working class backgrounds in employment within every area of arts and culture.
The stripping of the arts from school curriculums, and the significant undermining of the role of arts and culture in our society that we have seen in recent years is certainly having an impact on who feels able to take up a career in the arts.
Keir Starmer’s speech at the Labour Creatives Conference, in March 2024 directly addressed these issues and I think we should all be observing with interest how this may be acknowledged within Party Manifestos ahead of the election.”
Sarah Page, Associate Professor in Social Justice and Social Learning:
“With austerity cuts and the cost-of-living crisis significantly impacting people and particularly the most vulnerable, inequalities have seemingly widened. For example, more people have needed to use foodbanks, while others have seemingly misused their privileged positions with illicit covid lockdown parties and visits to second homes when travel was not permitted. Such injustices have led the public to question the authenticity of some policy makers, who have one rule for the public and another for themselves. I wonder whether now is the time for leadership that better understands and address the inequalities gaps in Britain, and is prepared to challenge price extortions that we have been experiencing?”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – (*) If you were the artist that designed above posters, we would love to add credits to the image. Contact us on c3centre@staffs.ac.uk
Led by one of our C3 Centre members, Agata Lulkowska, a new third season in the Rebellious Research Seminar Series (previously known as art/practice based-research seminar series) is now published and available to download and share.
It runs on a last Wednesday of each month starting in October, via MS Teams, at 3:30-5pm UK time.
More details and the programme can be found in the links below or the downloadable PDF.
C3 Centre members will be presenting on various sessions at the upcoming Research, Innovation and Enterprise Conference on 24th and 24th of May 2023, this week.
It is still time to sign up for free at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/staffordshire-university-research-innovation-and-enterprise-conference-23-tickets-522644542897
Key events include a session on getting to know the C3 Centre, with a panel including:
On 29 March 2023, Carola Boehm gave a talk at CHIME https://www.chime.ac.uk/ , bringing together some key thematic discourses from both higher education policy.
This partnership, recorded on 19 May 2022, was co-devised by colleagues at Keele University, Staffordshire University and Age UK Oxfordshire, as part of the Age of Creativity Festival 2022 and Creative Later Life 2025.
The keynote presentations and panel discussions around creative aging and placemaking, is now avaiable from the link above.
C3 Centre’s Professor Carola Boehm gave a talk on #Culture30Walks: How Creative is your Place?
Speakers included:
Professor David Amigoni FEA- Director, Keele Institute for Social Inclusion (KISI), Keele Deal Culture & ArtsKeele (chair)
Carola Boehm– Professor of Arts and Higher Education, Staffordshire University
Rose Gilroy-Professor of Ageing Planning and Policy, Chair of Future Homes Alliance, School of Architecture Planning and Landscape
Steven Millington– Director/ Senior Fellow at The Institute of Place Management and Reader in Place Management at Manchester Metropolitan University
Jason Jones-Hall– Director of Development, Five10Twelve
Neil Johnson– Engagement Project Lead, Liverpool City Region
It covers topics and case studies exploring the following:
How does creativity/ culture contribute to ‘vibrant’ places for older people beyond local tourism?
What constitutes a creative/ cultural ‘asset’ to older communities experiencing inequality?
What ‘value’ do we give creativity/culture and older communities experiencing inequalities in rebranding places?
What role does place based leadership have in making places both ‘Creative/ Cultural’ and ‘Age Friendly’?
How can inequalities be tackled by ‘making’ in place and is this place leadership?
