GCDC Newsletter Spring 2021

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GCDC Termly Update

In this Issue Lecture by Prof Eric Neumayer Student and post-doc profiles Sustainability on campus

Image of Bogota, Colombia. Photo by Kobby Mendez on Unsplash

Spring 2021


“There is no other way of summing up the past few weeks running the Global Challenges Doctoral Centre than to quote the opening line of Dickens’ masterpiece A Tale of Two Cities: ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.’ In February after an extensive competition that attracted dozens of applications from across the world, we selected six talented young people from Lebanon/Palestine, Nepal, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and the UK, to become the fourth cohort and join us in September 2021. Just three weeks after the successful students were notified and accepted their awards, we received a letter from UK Research and Innovation informing us that our funding had been cut. After intense internal discussions, during which it became clear that GCDC has the full support of the university’s leadership who appreciate its unique value, we received agreement that funding would be found to support our existing and new students to completion…” Read Beth’s full message: https://research.kent.ac.uk/gcdc/gcdc-spring-2021-update/


KBS LECTURE

Vivianne Horsti Dos Santos gave her first lecture in KBS to an audience of Masters students, based on her recent paper on Hybrid Simulation, which is the combination of two or more methods in simulation. Vivianne talked about the definition and types of simulation, before exploring their challenges and benefits. COVID-19 YOUTUBE SERIES

questions or concerns about GCDC student Charlotte Byford Covid or the vaccine. I then has created a series of video arranged interviews with interviews with experts at Kent appropriate experts to answer to explain the Covid-19 virus these questions in terms that and vaccine in simple terms. could be shown to the public.” After tragically losing her father “I really wanted to show real to the illness last year, Charlotte people in this industry and decided to create this YouTube break down barriers that had web series to counter arisen between science and the misinformation, and to reassure public during this pandemic, people. and to do this in an unbiased Charlotte says, “I asked online if way that got people the answers they needed.” anyone in the public had any


Charlotte’s videos have been released on the School of Physical Sciences YouTube channel. Each video answers a specific question she has received from the public. You can also find an introductory video in which Charlotte introduces herself and explains her motivation for the series.

You can watch the first video here: https://www.youtube.com/watc h?v=bNq3Ma7i6Jg

FEBRUARY 2021 ZOOM ‘HANGOUT’

February saw Beth Breeze lead the first GCDC Zoom Hangout of 2021. Joined by nine of our first and second year students, it was a great opportunity to see some familiar faces and catch up after the winter break. Students shared stories of the trials and tribulations of trying to organise fieldwork during a pandemic and also discussed which lockdown habits everyone would hang on to once ‘normality’ is restored.


Post-doc Profile: Francesca Giliberto Photo: Edwin Hooper / Unsplash

Dr Francesca Giliberto is a post-doctoral researcher in the School of European Culture and Languages. She is currently working with Professor Sophia Labadi on a project to identify sustainable tourism and heritage strategies at Mosi-oa Tunya/Victoria Falls in Zambia and Zimbabwe. “My research looks at the impacts of COVID-19 on the livelihoods and well-being of people working in heritagebased tourism, on heritage sites, and—more generally—on local communities living within or around heritage sites.

The limited research expenses encountered so far due to the impossibility of travel and fieldwork on the ground will probably allow the hire of more local research assistants in Tanzania and South Africa in the next months, supporting As a result of the pandemic, the collection of a larger my data collection has been number of data and a greater engagement of local revised, allowing me to extend the scope to six case communities and informal workers in the tourism studies, and to work sector in these countries.” alongside a local research assistant based in Kenya. This is the first time I have Read the full article: https://research.kent.ac.uk/gcdc worked so closely with a /pdra-profile-dr-francescaresearch assistant from an ODA recipient country.

giliberto/


Student Profile: Sadiya Maxamhud Sadiya Maxamhud joined the GCDC in September 2020. Her PhD, supervised by Dr Anastasios Tsaousis in the School of Biosciences, investigates diarrhoeal diseases in developing countries. She tells us about her project and doing lab work during a pandemic.

Above: Sadiya in the lab

“My project initially included fieldwork in both Bangladesh and Thailand. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, travelling is currently prohibited. Nevertheless, samples have been sent to me from Thailand, which will allow me to start investigating the source and transmission dynamics of diarrhoeal diseases. Further samples from Bangladesh, Algeria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will also be sent to the laboratory in due

course. I am also working on parallel projects that further support the SDGs, while simultaneously developing my research and laboratory skills. I am working with collaborators from the Higher National Veterinary School, Algeria to detect the presence of Cryptosporidium parasites in different fish species. These parasites will provide further insights on the contamination levels of lakes, rivers and dams in Algeria.”

Read the full article: https://research.kent.ac.uk/gcdc/phd-profile-sadiya-maxamhud/


SDG TRAINING SESSIONS The first training session was held on 18 March 2021. Our speaker, Prof. Eric Neumayer, is Professor for Environment and Development at the London School of Economics. Prof. Neumayer has published extensively on topics related to Global Challenge areas, and co-edited the 'Handbook of Sustainable Development’. He has also published a monograph entitled 'Weak versus Strong Sustainability: Exploring the Limits of Two Opposing Paradigms’, which is now in its fourth edition.

Image: © LSE 2021

The Spring and Summer terms of 2021 will see a programme of GCDC training sessions that focus on sustainable development and the UN’s SDGs – the common theme of our students’ work. Our first speaker, Prof Eric Neumayer


The Student Perspective “We often hear the words ‘sustainability’ or ‘sustainable development’, but do we actually know what they mean? PhD students and researchers from the GCDC had the great pleasure to welcome Prof. Eric Neumayer to give us the ‘Sustainability 101’ talk. From the get-go, Prof. Neumayer emphasised that he came from an economics perspective, thus highlighting how the sustainability concept can be pulled, shaped, and moulded depending on the discipline one comes from. As GCDC students and researchers, we were all encouraged to reflect on the relevance of sustainable development in our own research. One of the huge struggles that we face currently is not only the balance between environmental loss and economic development, but also issues around inter-generational equity (i.e. between current and future generations), and intra-generational equity (i.e. between people within the current generation). The inclusion or exclusion of the latter, Prof. Neumayer states, can present trade-offs relating to the rigour of our academic research. Whether we adopt a narrow or broad concept of sustainability, it is nonetheless imperative to understand the implications that our research has on global equity and justice. All researchers in GCDC are undertaking fascinating research projects, and through our endeavour to make sense of these global challenges, we hope to develop meaningful work that contributes to enhancing the lives of current and future generations, in all its complexities.” - Michaela Lo, GCDC PhD student, School of Anthropology & Conservation Read Michaela’s full report: https://research.kent.ac.uk/gcdc/sdg-lecture-professor-eric-neumayer/

Details of forthcoming GCDC events can be found at https://research.kent.ac.uk/gcdc/training-events/


Did you know that the University of Kent has a Sustainability Team on campus, dedicated to promoting and implementing sustainability at the University? Emily Mason and Catherine Morris use the UN SDGs as a tool to facilitate sustainable practices, following the University of Kent’s signing of the Sustainable Development Goals Education Accord. Their work considers how best to embed sustainability into Kent's curriculum and business strategy, as well as supporting

students and staff to develop their sustainable development project ideas on campus. We chatted with Emily who told us about a few ways that GCDC students and affiliates can get involved with sustainability outside of their research.

KENT COMMUNITY OASIS GARDEN This project partnership between the University and mental health charity Mind uses the SDGs as a framework to run a garden based on permaculture principles. It’s currently closed, but plans are to reopen as soon as Covid restrictions allow. More here: https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/kentcog/.


SDGs WALKING TRAIL Whilst everyone has been away from the Canterbury campus, a new walking route following the UN’s SDGs has been installed. Starting outside the Senate Building by the library, you can follow the trail across campus via numbered posts, each highlighting a different SDG. This is a great way to not only raise awareness, but also provides a good opportunity to get away from the laptop screen for some fresh air. Refamiliarize your self with the university grounds by walking the route.

BECOME A STUDENT SUSTAINABILITY DIGITAL AMBASSADOR Becoming a Student Sustainability Digital Ambassador gives you the chance to tell your own sustainability stories, which are then published on the team’s blog. This is a great chance to share your research and specialist knowledge with members of the university and public more broadly. You can find more information along with the kinds of content you could produce at https://www.kent.ac.uk/sustainability/futureproof/students.

The activities of the Sustainability Team are informed by students and staff so if you have any ideas, comments, or concerns they’d love to hear from you. You can get in touch with Emily and Catherine via sustainability@kent.ac.uk, or follow them on Twitter @UniKentSustain and Instagram @unikent.sustainability


Does your research align with Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) aims and challenge areas? Become a staff or student affiliate of the GCDC, and join an interdisciplinary community of researchers working to address global challenges through research. Find out more at https://research.kent.ac.uk/gcdc/gcdc-affiliates/

Read about our academic staff affiliates at https://research.kent.ac.uk/gcdc/gcdcaffiliates/academic-staff-affiliates/


Have questions about content in this update, or general queries about the GCDC? Get in touch with the Centre via kentgcdc@kent.ac.uk


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