GRADUATE SCHOOL FESTIVAL 2021 TELLING THE STORY OF OUR RESEARCH UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER GRADUATE SCHOOL
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CONTENTS FOREWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 THE GRADUATE SCHOOL AND THE DOCTORAL RESEARCHER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (DRDP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
RESEARCHERS 1. MAHMOUD ALDRAIMLI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2. ZAIN AZIZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3. STEVEN BARCLAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 4. ELVAN CAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 5. VEDIA CILEM CAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 6. SABINA CIOBOATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 7. PENNY CLARK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 8. JAN GERHARDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 9. FRANKIE HINES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 10. KON KIM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 11. MATTHIAS KISPERT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 12. DARYNA LYSENKO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 13. EMMANUEL SAWYERR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 14. MEGAN SHARKEY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 15. NADEEN SHAIKH SOLAIMAN . . . . . . . . . 32 16. MARTA WELANDER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
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FOREWORD
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER, WE ARE PROUD TO HOST A THRIVING COMMUNITY OF TALENTED AND AMBITIOUS DOCTORAL RESEARCHERS. In the arts and sciences, in business studies and the humanities, in architecture and the social sciences, our doctoral researchers are engaged in a rich variety of original, high-quality and potentially world-changing research. Our doctoral researchers make a crucial contribution to our research culture here at Westminster; but beyond the university too many can be seen informing and influencing the world of academia, business and public and cultural life.
This booklet, featuring 16 projects from final-year students, gives a flavour of the kinds of innovative doctoral research projects recently undertaken across our three Colleges. In recognition that public engagement is an important element of all research, it provides an opportunity to present doctoral research to a wider, non‑specialist audience, and demonstrates the ‘translation’ of what is inherently complex knowledge into accessible language and images. In preparing their contributions, the doctoral researchers worked closely with a professional designer, and their combined effort has resulted in an impressive collection of research profiles. As you read this brochure, we invite you to join us in celebrating the achievements of our next generation of researchers. Professor Leigh Wilson
Graduate School Director
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THE GRADUATE SCHOOL AND THE DOCTORAL RESEARCHER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (DRDP) The Graduate School was established in 2012 to provide institution-wide support for doctoral research. The aim of all of our activities is to enhance the university’s research environment and culture.
The DRDP complements the contribution to knowledge made by each individual’s project by equipping doctoral researchers with the confidence and skills necessary for them to succeed in their research and in their subsequent careers.
Each year we offer a varied calendar of events catering for doctoral researchers, supervisors and our wider academic staff. These events support student development, facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration and provide space for supervisors to keep up with new ideas and debates in graduate education.
The Graduate School is also committed to establishing connections beyond the university that will benefit our doctoral researchers in a range of ways. We are active in our collaborations with, for example, the UK Council for Graduate Education, the AHRC-funded Techne Doctoral Training Partnership and the Quintin Hogg Trust.
Our tailor-made development programme (the DRDP) is central to the support we provide for doctoral researchers. It offers a broad range of activities and specialist training – from sessions on research skills through to employability and wellbeing. The programme also provides social support and facilitates interdisciplinary discussion by bringing together doctoral researchers from across Colleges and disciplines.
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ISOLATING THE GOOD FROM THE BAD IN UGLY DATA: PREDICTIVE MODELLING APPLICATIONS IN HEALTH MAHMOUD ALDRAIMLI
School of Computer Science and Engineering After working in the software and telecommunications industry for ten years, I joined the University of Westminster in September 2017 as a Doctoral Researcher in Health Data Science and Machine Learning funded by a Quintin Hogg Trust Studentship and supported by the Health Innovation Ecosystem. As industry attention shifted towards intelligent solutions by utilising AI and Big Data, I decided that it was the right time to pursue further research to use my skills to investigate the application of Machine Learning techniques to improve patients’ health. I am part of the Health & Social Care Modelling Group within the School of Computer Science and Engineering and an associate member of the Cancer Research Group within the School of Life Sciences, investigating how Artificial Intelligence and Big Data can be leveraged to predict breast cancer occurrence using big data obtained from the UK Biobank. During my PhD I became part of the UK STFC-funded Radiotherapy Machine Learning Network, based at the University of Manchester, leading a group of experts working together on the application of Machine Learning to predict radiotherapy toxicity in cancer patients. This project develops a framework to assess the usefulness of real-world data for health prediction modelling. The framework is applied to three different novel problems: susceptibility to visceral fat associated diseases; breast cancer occurrence; and cancer treatment toxicity predictions. The project is a collaboration between researchers in computer and biomedical sciences at the university and external organisations, including the UK Biobank.
Developing prediction models with Machine Learning (ML) often requires a significant amount of data, time and computer processing power. My research provides a framework for data scientists and health professionals to evaluate the usefulness of datasets at hand before modelling so that significant trends can be distinguished without the need for additional data. The framework uses information theory and pattern recognition to guide researchers to discover useful observations before proceeding with predictive modelling. ‘Good’ and ‘bad’ data are brought to life from incomplete, noisy and ‘dirty/ugly’ data. Separating the good and the bad is important; ML is a powerful discriminative tool, but bad data renders ML useless, producing results that are inaccurate or incoherent. Good data contains information that expresses patterns which are essential for ML. It is not AI that enlightens, but the data. Good data allows ML to gain greater capability over time by analysis of larger datasets, making adjustments for more intelligent applications. In the case of breast cancer occurrence prediction, for example, similar published studies presented varied prediction results for similar datasets’ variables. Prediction models are criticised for not declaring the presence of any bias in their utilised data. Our framework will advise researchers to publish additional information to boost readers’ confidence in the results. Finally, I will apply the framework to create novel predictive models that aim to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals and existing patients.
It is not AI that enlightens, but the data.
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PLASTIC (NOT SO) FANTASTIC: CAN BACTERIA END OUR RELIANCE ON PLASTICS? ZAIN AZIZ
School of Life Sciences In 2016 I was awarded a BSc in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Westminster. In my final year I was given the opportunity to lead my own research project in the field of Biotechnology, gaining experience in scientific research. Being given the freedom to explore aspects of the field that genuinely interested me whilst also working alongside doctoral researchers within the laboratory allowed me to gain a real appreciation as to what it was truly like to be a researcher in science. Ultimately, it was because of this experience that I chose to pursue a PhD and chose to focus on biopolymers and plastics. During my time at Westminster as a doctoral researcher, I have been able to develop my skills within the laboratory, becoming proficient in fermentation technology, whilst also developing my skills as a scientific communicator, taking opportunities to engage with the public as well as researchers from other disciplines to reinforce the quality of my research within the field of Biotechnology. Ever since their invention in the early 1950s, plastics have significantly transformed our society. Their low cost of production and desirable properties means they are used extensively for diverse applications, often replacing traditional materials such as glass, metal and wood. However, recently we have begun to realise the damaging effects plastics have on our landscapes and waters, affecting our well-being and quality of life. These effects have been attributed to our improper disposal of and overreliance on disposable plastics. As of 2019, roughly 300 million tonnes of plastic waste are produced worldwide annually, which is nearly equivalent to the weight of the entire human population.
As a result, there is an ongoing effort for the research and development of materials that can rival the characteristics and properties of plastics, with the added value of controllable biodegradability. The solution for this could lie with a select number of bacteria that possess the ability to produce bioplastics, namely polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). PHAs can be designed with similar characteristics to traditional plastics, but also have the added advantage of biodegradability within the environment. Yet the applications of PHAs have been limited due to their prohibitive production costs. My research investigates two different Gramnegative bacteria (Pseudomonas putida and Cupriavidus necator), both capable of producing PHAs and developing novel strategies based around cellular and process manipulation to provide new approaches for increasing the production of PHAs as well as potentially other microbial metabolites. This would result in the reduction of costs, directly addressing the biggest issue faced within industry, making PHAs more economically viable for large-scale production and mitigating our current reliance on traditional mineral-based plastics.
… roughly 300 million tonnes of plastic waste are produced worldwide annually, which is nearly equivalent to the weight of the entire human population.
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INFORM, ENTERTAIN, AND … EDUCATE? BBC SCHOOL BROADCASTING, PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION AND LITERACY 1957–1988 STEVEN BARCLAY
School of Media and Communication After studying history and philosophy at Glasgow University, I worked as a teacher in various contexts and became interested in educational media. I retrained as a video editor and worked in the TV industry and for an educational publisher making classroom films. I became interested in the history and theory of what I was doing and completed a PGDip in Russian language in order to study Soviet children’s film and I made a research trip to Russia. This led me to an MA in Film studies at the University of Amsterdam, where I rekindled my interest in language and communication from my undergraduate degree. I was awarded a Quintin Hogg Trust Studentship to study the history of BBC school broadcasting at Westminster. I wanted to share my enthusiasm for the possibilities of educational media and also to find out what policy and historical influences caused school broadcasting to flourish. Many who went to school in the UK will remember the television trolley being wheeled in for Look and Read, or cavorting in the school hall to Music and Movement. But where did these programmes come from? I’ve been looking in archives and doing oral history to find out. By the 1960s, the BBC was producing hundreds of series for classrooms which were being used in almost all schools. It was an exciting time to be in education – progressivism was becoming mainstream and schools were alive with new ideas like discovery learning and project work. But there was a problem with school broadcasting. Progressive teachers were suspicious because it seemed to usurp their role and to promote ‘passivity’. The government, which funded the education system, was also unsure of the place of broadcasting. The BBC was a public
body, but not part of the state – an ambiguous status where, like an educational publisher, it provided resources for schools, but unlike them was publicly funded. Meanwhile, language and society were changing. As class divisions dissolved, people started to see language as a vehicle of communication rather than as ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. The mass media had a complex role to play. On one hand it tended to unify, but it also gave exposure to different ways of talking. Some argued that the education system was unfair because the behaviours and language of schools were designed for the middle class. The BBC was valuable as an education provider because, potentially, it stood outside of schools. By the 1980s BBC School broadcasting was part of a resource rich, mediatised classroom, but would come under pressure when media policy discouraged public service principles. This research uncovers the forgotten history of the media’s educational role, and shows what is possible as we enter a new media era.
By the 1960s, the BBC was producing hundreds of series for classrooms which were being used in almost all schools.
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LIFE BETWEEN CONSTRUCTIONS: THE CURRENT STATE OF ISTANBUL
ELVAN CAN
School of Social Sciences Born and raised in Istanbul, I have always had a fascination with urban life and the constant transformation of cities. I did my BA in Sociology at Istanbul Bilgi University and I hold an MA in Sociology from the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex. My MA research explored discourses that create masculinity in the media. The pace of transformation and large number of urban interventions in Istanbul made me realise how relational urban spaces are and how they can hold memory and meaning. Istanbul has always represented a place of belonging for me and heavy construction works in my city under the name of urban transformation grasped my attention and changed my connection to the city as paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks were demolished, erased and transformed. Collective memory and the experiential use of public space are valuable and crucial concepts to creating an ongoing narrative about urban life. I have focused my research on the impact of life between constructions in Istanbul, on the reconfiguration of public space and on the potential loss of urban collective memory by observing three of the city’s areas. The ongoing and increasing number of urban transformation projects in Istanbul have been associated with gentrification. This inevitably changes and shapes everyday life, streets and neighbourhoods, and creates a city that is constantly under construction. With 1 million buildings listed to be demolished in Istanbul, everyday life is experienced in and around construction. Public spaces both in physical and relational sense are being transformed, reconfigured, emptied and even demolished.
In my research, public space is understood as a verb rather than a noun, something that is constantly shifting and changing in use and meaning. The current use of public spaces is limited in Istanbul for different reasons: for historical reasons, such as favouring private spaces over public ones, and for political reasons, such as the increasing number of state-initiated regeneration projects. What it means to live one’s everyday life surrounded by building works and construction projects in Istanbul is one of the main questions of this research. Construction works are in every corner creating noise and dust, blocking traffic and closing off streets in order to accommodate building works. This systematic ‘cleansing’ changes the characteristics of neighbourhoods by erasing fundamental and mundane everyday life practices. The chain of continuity in certain neighbourhoods is being reconfigured and the collective memory of places is being erased both physically and emotionally. My research looks at three areas in Istanbul where these processes of urban change are re-orientating the use, meaning and experience of public space. Fieldwork has been conducted in order to observe and investigate the ongoing urban transformation projects and their impact on everyday life practices, on the use and experience of public spaces in Istanbul and overall collective memory.
The chain of continuity in certain neighbourhoods is being reconfigured and the collective memory of places is being erased both physically and emotionally.
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NOVEL TREATMENT OPTIONS FOR OSTEOARTHRITIS
VEDIA CILEM CAN
School of Life Sciences During my Bachelor degree in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Westminster I was given the opportunity to explore my interest in arthritic research in Dr Kerrigan’s research laboratory. This involved developing and evaluating a primary bovine cell-line. This allowed me to gain my first research paper publication which led me to pursue a part-time Masters degree in Medical Molecular Biology where I joined Dr Getting’s research team to investigate the effect of Melanocortin Peptides and Dexamethasone on chondrocytes. Work in the Clinical Trials department at the UCLH and involvement in voluntary projects for the British Pharmacological Society and GlaxoSmithKline alongside my studies allowed me to become a tutor for St George’s Medical School. However, I was intrigued and interested in research involving Drug Development and Design, which is why I decided to embark on a PhD project with Dr Getting and Dr Locke. I have presented my research at over 30 conferences worldwide, winning best poster and oral communication prizes both at national and international conferences. I have also chaired numerous symposiums at world leading conferences and hosted cartilage dissection workshops funded by accredited bodies. Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that affects over 240 million people worldwide with approximately 9.6% of men and 18.0% of women over the age of 60 being affected (Osteoarthritis Research Society, 2016). Osteoarthritis leads to long-term disability which is characterised by the loss of articular cartilage, the tissue that lines the joints and provides pain‑free movement. Loss of articular cartilage and the cells within it results in pain in the affected joint, loss of mobility and a reduction in the quality of life. The exact pathogenesis and cause of osteoarthritis is not fully understood but is largely due to long-term or abnormal
cartilage ‘wear and tear’ ultimately leading to a loss of cells within the tissue and bone remodelling. Current treatment options for osteoarthritis include several drugs including glucocorticoids and non‑steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (eg Ibuprofen). Although beneficial in modulating aspects of the pathology such as pain and inflammation, they do not treat the underlying cause. In addition, they have numerous side effects including gastro-intestinal tract bleeding, bone loss and cardiovascular damage following long‑term use. As the disease progresses, the long-term prognosis of joint replacement is required. This is invasive and expensive, requiring long‑term rehabilitation. Thus, current treatment options for osteoarthritis are useful for temporarily treating the symptoms of osteoarthritis but not the underlying cause of the pathology. Therefore, the focus of this research is to investigate the effect of endogenous novel compounds (melanocortin peptides), which are devoid of side effects, and their ability to treat not only some of the symptoms of osteoarthritis (inflammation) but also the underlying cause (upregulation of destructive proteins and cell death). Long-term development of these melanocortin peptides would reduce the number of patients undergoing costly and invasive cartilage repair or joint restoration procedures, thus reducing the social isolation caused by this morbidity.
Current treatment options for osteoarthritis are useful for temporarily treating the symptoms of osteoarthritis but not the underlying cause of the pathology.
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WELLBEING AND URBAN REGENERATION IN CHINA: TOWARDS A ‘PEOPLE-CENTRED‘ URBAN AGENDA SABINA CIOBOATA
School of Architecture and Cities My journey in China began in 2015 when I joined the UNESCO World Heritage Institute of Training and Research for Asia and the Pacific Region (WHITR-AP) in Shanghai as a research assistant. In the two-and-a-half year period spent there, I was involved with research and capacity building regional programmes, including work for the 2016 UNESCO Regional Report on Culture for Sustainable Urban Development and coordinating an international training course on Heritage Impact Assessments. Before this, I collaborated with international organizations such as the Global Heritage Fund and was involved in research projects in Bhutan, Romania and the UK. My experience in China led me to understand that some of the frameworks used to view non-Western contexts need to be critically re-thought. I therefore decided to embark on a PhD in 2017, supported by the Quintin Hogg Trust Studentship. In addition to continuously evaluating my position as a Western researcher studying China, I also believe that current challenges linked to urbanization require inter-disciplinary, holistic solutions. I hold an MA in Cultural Heritage Studies from UCL, but my current research links the fields of urban planning, development studies, political science, sociology and heritage studies. Following thirty years of reform, China has lifted millions out of poverty. Nevertheless, the social costs of the country’s growth-oriented agenda have long been scrutinized, with phenomena such as rapid urbanization being one of the most transformative forces. Under the umbrella of urban regeneration, state-led projects have been criticized for their primary focus on selective physical upgrading and large-scale demolition and relocation, impacting the socio-economic prospects and quality of life of many. However, recent paradigm shifts are pointing towards
increased governmental interest in promoting wellbeing-oriented development: a response aligned with global efforts to define new directions for evaluating human progress beyond narrow economic measures. My research project acknowledges that it is necessary to carry out further inquiries into the social benefits of new urban interventions in China. It also recognizes the need for constructing new assessment frameworks which take into account the political, socio-economic and cultural specificities of the country, moving beyond Eurocentric thinking. As a result, I aim to investigate how a context-specific understanding of ‘wellbeing’ in China is currently being materialized into urban renewal solutions. The research is structured in three inter-related studies. I first analyze Chinese intellectual engagements with the concept of ‘wellbeing’, revealing a complex picture of urban China in transition – one where wellbeing lies at the convergence between the legacy of collectivism and the rise of individualism, market-led processes and rising inequality. I then conduct a review of Chinese urban regeneration mechanisms (including planning and design solutions, policy and governance) in the last three decades by analyzing case studies pertaining to four typologies of neighbourhoods. Finally, through interviews with local experts, I zoom in on the context of Shanghai in order to highlight current practices. A series of innovative urban interventions are revealed including participatory planning, place-based solutions for regeneration and novel governance mechanisms.
China has been scrutinized for the social costs of its growth oriented urbanization, but policy and practice innovations call for new assessment frameworks. 15
COULD CO-HOUSING AND CO-LIVING BE PART OF THE SOLUTION TO OUR CLIMATE CRISIS? PENNY CLARK
School of Architecture and Cities During my Masters in Social Research Methods I discovered ecovillages and for my dissertation visited several across the UK. Staying and interviewing people in these places turned out to be educational in both an academic and a personal sense. It fascinated me that these spaces brought together utopian ideologies with mundane, everyday practicalities. In terms of their sustainability practices and communal mindset, I found them inspiring; however, it was clear that they would not be practical in an urban setting. This got me thinking: is there an urban equivalent? And this is what led me to my research into co-housing and co-living communities. My PhD, which has been funded through the Quintin Hogg Trust Studentship, has been a fascinating journey of discovery. I have been able to visit and learn about a multitude of experiments in living which re-address the habits and ways of life we take for granted. It is my belief that there’s a lot we can learn from co-housing and co-living, not just about sustainability practices, but about living more connected and contented lives. According to the Committee on Climate Change, housing accounts for 23 percent of UK carbon emissions; yet, after a number of lapsed schemes (CERT, CESP, Zero Carbon Homes, The Green Deal), the government is showing little impetus in providing strong policies to tackle the environmental inefficiencies of homes. Innovative housing solutions are urgently needed considering the climate crisis that we face.
and manage community space and engage in community activities.
• Co-living is a form of shared living in which residents share a single home and a set of values or intentions. Due to these housing types’ spatial efficiency and the sharing of resources, labour, knowledge and values, there is potential for them to be low impact housing options. However, co-housing and co-living communities are still niche housing options in the UK, with little support being given by the government, scant academic research and little awareness on the part of the general public. Therefore, their potential as more environmentally efficient models of housing in the UK have not yet been thoroughly explored. In this mixed methods, multiple‑case study research, I have used an ethnographic approach to generate new knowledge on how social networks and environments within co-housing and co‑living communities may enable sustainable practices. I explore the meanings, competences and objects which constitute sustainable practices within the communities of study. I am also using quantitative surveys to measure the CO2e impacts of the communities with a view to linking carbon emissions to practices to deepen the understanding of how they are related and to compare the carbon emissions of co-housing and co-living communities with the average household.
… the sharing of resources, labour, knowledge and values means that co-housing and co-living may be low impact housing options.
Could certain types of communal living form part of the answer? I am looking at two types of community: • Co-housing is housing in which residents retain their own private homes, but share
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A MORE FLEXIBLE SUSTAINABILITY TOOL: UNDERSTANDING THE ONE PLANET LIVING FRAMEWORK JAN GERHARDS
School of Social Sciences I was drawn to this research project due to its practice‑oriented, collaborative nature, providing the opportunity to build a bridge between research and practice. Its focus on the One Planet Living framework also appealed, with its broad scope and numerous inspiring features and projects. As part of the research I was motivated to contribute guidance documentation and sets of indicators for monitoring city and community sustainability. I also became a member of the core development team on the new OnePlanet.com digital platform for strategy and monitoring, which takes an innovative, inter‑connected and collaborative view of sustainability. This has given me the opportunity to now work as a Data Analyst with OnePlanet.com alongside completing my PhD. My first degree was in Land Economy at the University of Cambridge, where I participated in research and community projects on low-carbon buildings. After university I worked in the renewable energy industry before moving into the education sector, developing a secondary science teaching programme aimed at engaging students with sustainability issues – something which I still dream of taking further, when I have the opportunity. A range of sustainability tools and initiatives has arisen to help address issues such as climate change. They are used for strategy, assessment or monitoring and are variously known as standards, frameworks, certification schemes, rating tools or climate initiatives. They are applied across increasingly varied and complex contexts such as large companies, neighbourhoods and cities. Many exhibit some kind of ‘standardisation’, emphasising replicable criteria, objectivity and impartiality. However, rather than standardisation, some recent academic literature emphasises complexity, holism, collaboration and tacit knowledge, suggesting the importance of more flexibility and discretion.
This research takes a comparative perspective across a range of tools and initiatives with standardised and flexible characteristics, but focuses empirically on Bioregional’s One Planet Living framework. This relatively flexible, cross-sector strategy, assessment and monitoring tool is more closely aligned to academic approaches. In this research, to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of tools, an innovative conceptual framework based on ‘legitimacy’ was used. The research methodology was practice-oriented, using participant observation, interviews and document analysis. The findings with regard to the OPL framework are based on four themes. First, the framework has largely balanced context-appropriateness and robustness by focusing on ambitious, open‑ended goals and motivated users, although city initiatives using it have struggled in a challenging policy environment. This echoes other findings on the importance of motivations in producing good outcomes for voluntary tools. Second, the framework has largely balanced good transparency and public information with flexibility, although some improvements could be made to communication, monitoring practices and comparability. Third, it has achieved some influence but limited take-up; partly due to its ambitious, voluntary and more bespoke nature. Fourth, whilst the more flexible model allows for wider stakeholder input, it also does not guarantee it. The findings highlight lessons learned from a tool compatible with collaboration, holism, complexity and variation, as well as the difficulties of scaling such voluntary governance.
Recent academic literature emphasises complexity, holism, collaboration and tacit knowledge, suggesting the importance of more flexibility and discretion. 19
THE LITERATURE OF CONTEMPORARY US ANARCHISM
FRANKIE HINES
School of Humanities I am a Quintin Hogg Trust Studentship-funded doctoral researcher in English Literature in the School of Humanities at the University of Westminster. I received my BA in American Studies (2015) and MA in Modern and Contemporary Literature, Culture and Thought (2017) from the University of Sussex. My doctoral thesis is the continuation of work on the literatures of radical political movements in the United States conducted at Sussex and during an exchange year at Reed College (Portland, Oregon), including work on the cultural politics of the global justice movement and my MA dissertation on accounts of the squatters’ movement on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The thesis draws on experience organising in political movements around a number of issues in the UK and US since 2010, and draws together disparate research interests, from the politics of American domestic fiction and feminist theories of the subject to the politics of memory in conjunction with radical movements and questions of revolutionary strategy in the contemporary metropolis. Anarchism, the political movement that opposes both the state and capitalism and acknowledges the inseparability of means and ends in political praxis, has throughout its history developed a critique of the implicit authoritarianism of representation and, in its place, foregrounded the possibilities offered by direct action. In the contemporary United States, amidst protracted economic and political crises, anarchism is resurgent: from the Occupy movement, which confronted finance capitalism on its doorstep while also constructing anarchistic lifeways in its encampments, to the antifascist community-defence mobilisations of the Trump era, activists embody anarchist principles as a matter of political instinct.
In response to this, anarchism has been the subject of a growing body of research in philosophy and the social sciences – but it remains under‑examined in literary studies. This is in spite of the efflorescence of textual production by contemporary US anarchist movements, and the intriguing dilemma posed by anarchist literature: namely, in what ways, and to what extent, does anarchism’s critique of political representation (its antipathy to both liberal democratic institutions and the party form of orthodox Marxism) function also as a critique of representation in the aesthetic sphere? That is to say, how can anarchist literature be theorised if anarchism rejects representation? Through readings of contemporary US anarchist literature – including manifestoes on the city and counterlogistics, communiques on protest and temporal rupture, and zines on sexuality and gender violence – this thesis argues for an approach foregrounding anarchism’s ethic of direct action. Whether blockading a rail line, smashing a Niketown window, or developing non-state processes for responding to abuse, anarchism emphasises the vitality of unmediated political intervention. Accordingly, direct action provides a methodology for understanding anarchist literature: rather than considering texts in terms of what they represent, this thesis considers texts’ political effects – which are often unexpected, and always multifaceted and complex.
To what extent does anarchism’s critique of political representation … function also as a critique of representation in the aesthetic sphere?
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COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN URBAN REGENERATION THROUGH INTERMEDIATE ORGANISATIONS: THE EXPERIENCE OF SEOUL KON KIM
School of Architecture and Cities I was educated as an architect at Korea National University of Arts. After graduation, I was trained as a spatial planner in diverse professional disciplines such as shipbuilding, advertising and marketing in East Asia. Such professional experiences broadened my horizons towards policy and practice in the built environment, which led to my second cycle of study in Planning (MSc) at UCL. During the Masters programme, I focused my research on communitybased small urban regeneration as an alternative to market-driven large urban development in the post-2008 recessionary era. This enlarged my understanding of creative placemaking and community building in planning. Then, working for a municipal research centre, I carried out several research projects that drew my attention to the intermediate sector emerging in Korea’s new planning framework. In 2016, I was awarded the Korean Government Scholarship, which enabled my doctoral research on intermediaries at the University of Westminster. During my PhD studies, I have tried to fill in the gaps between Western-centric theory and non‑Western practice with in-depth debates about space, community and society. This PhD journey has encouraged me to grow as an interdisciplinary researcher while crossing the West and the East as well as moving between theory and practice. East Asian cities have experienced rapid economic growth and urban development under strong interventionist states. Recent political changes and economic slowdown, however, have pressured cities to seek alternatives to the previous state-led or market-driven urban development. New forms of inclusive urban governance have been increasingly devised to mobilise citizen participation in urban regeneration. Such citizen participation, however, is not simply initiated by direct interactions between the state and citizens. It is rather guided and
facilitated through the interventions of publicly funded bodies, or ‘intermediate organisations’. Seoul is a case in point. Over the past decade, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has attempted to create new partnerships in collaboration with intermediate organisations – such as urban regeneration support centres – to expand community participation in urban regeneration. My research critically examines the roles of such intermediate organisations by exploring the urban regeneration of deprived neighbourhoods in Seoul. For this, I am using a case-oriented qualitative approach which includes intensive fieldwork with participant observation and in-depth interviews, contextualised with an extensive literature review. My findings show that intermediaries play an important role in initiating and expanding community participation in urban regeneration. However, I have found that such intermediary‑led participation is inadequate for fostering community empowerment. This is because of competitive funding structures, centralised property ownership and strong bureaucracy, which are a legacy of the previous state intervention. Given this, I argue that intermediaries have inherent limitations in making community participation more inclusive and sustainable. This critical argument will be able to form the basis of an extended discussion of intermediary‑led participation in other Asian cities with similar developmental legacies such as Singapore, Taipei and Hong Kong in future research. Furthermore, my findings could also be used as a reference point for the Global South where community participation is mobilised under developmental urban processes.
Intermediaries play an important role in initiating and expanding community participation … However … such intermediary‑led participation is inadequate for fostering community empowerment.
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CLOUDS OF DISCONTENT: ART PRACTICE, CRITIQUE, SOLIDARITY AND DIGITAL PLATFORM LABOUR MATTHIAS KISPERT School of Arts
Since completing my BA in Sound Art and Design at University of the Arts London in 2005, I have been working as a creative practitioner. This has always involved precarity and unpredictability, with the promise of interesting and fulfilling projects as something of a compensatory reward. At the same time, this all-consuming way of working has come to be presented as a romanticised ideal evoking resilience when dealing with insecurity as well as passionate dedication to one’s work. As digital labour platforms rose to increasing prominence after the 2008 financial crisis, I could observe the precarious working conditions that I am familiar with being enforced on workers in the lowest-paid jobs, with little of the associated benefits of self-fulfilment or creativity. I see the way that workers are increasingly forced to accept more and more insecurity as an important issue to investigate through artistic practice and research, with a view to finding commonalities and solidarities that can be developed between people engaged in very different kinds of precarious work. This is a practice-based research project that employs artistic methodologies to investigate on-demand digital platform labour (the ‘gig economy’). Digital platform labour has become the subject of much debate in academic research, journalism, labour activism, policymaking and law ever since the inauguration of Amazon Mechanical Turk, the first online labour platform, in 2005, and since the widespread adoption of in-person work platforms such as Uber and Deliveroo in the mid-2010s. My research centres around the creation of artistic interventions that use digital labour platforms as the medium with which to produce artworks that propose forms of critical engagement with the same platforms, as well as working with labour activists who organise around precarious work.
The interventions can be seen as probes for testing what critical or resistant flows can be inserted into or extracted from platforms which are highly restricted and closely monitored in terms of their use, while the work with activists asks what practical contributions artistic practice can make to movements for workers’ rights. My work crosses different media and methods, including artist and activist video, delegated performance and outsourcing the production of work, intervention, painting and artisan cheese. Workers leaving the cloud factory, for example, is a remake of the Lumière brothers’ 1895 film Workers leaving the factory, with atomised platform workers in the place of the crowd of workers in the original. I am collecting the outcomes of my research under the fictional research institute superconductr (www.superconductr.org). Its name refers to Michel Foucault’s description of power as the conduct of conduct, which here takes into account conduction as the transmission, control and mining of data streams in networks that facilitate the capture and extraction of human labour power. With my research, I am aiming to contribute critical perspectives to contemporary debates about how work is organised.
My research centres around the creation of artistic interventions that use digital labour platforms as the medium with which to produce artworks.
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THE IMPACT OF BIG DATA AND THE VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER ON IDEATION IN NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT DARYNA LYSENKO
School of Management and Marketing I am an academic researcher, part-time lecturer in Marketing and marketing professional, implementing a multi-channel strategy in a UK SaaS business. Coming from a diverse background in communications, I have always been interested in understanding patterns in customer behaviour through using the most advanced technologies to stay on top of developments in the area. Having worked in the marketing industry for almost 10 years, I have been involved in a number of projects using Big Data for business purposes, and it is through this involvement that I developed the research idea for my PhD project. I was inspired by the opportunities Big Data provides to businesses and the potential it has to advance industries, the non-profit sector and society overall. Understanding customers has never been easier than it is now, with people leaving digital traces and voluntarily giving away their personal data across the virtual world. The Internet keeps expanding from being a source of information and a communication platform to being a source of valuable data on customers and their behaviours. In the light of its expanding commercial value, I started my project to get a better understanding of the influences Big Data technologies and Customer Oriented Ideation (COI) have on one of the most crucial business processes – new product development. COI combines quantitative data sourced via Big Data technologies with qualitative data referred to as the Voice of the Customer and stresses customers’ needs and wants in the creation of new ideas during product development. My research draws from the current developments of institutional arrangements theory and looks
at the ways COI is facilitating innovation in the development and introduction of new products to the market and, subsequently, investigates its effects on customer adoption of these new products. My research project is structured as three independent but related studies. It uses a new theoretical framework to explain the impact of customer information in the form of Big Data and via the notion of COI. It is important to consider the knowledge base of the actors at the ideation stage of new product development projects because the cost of a mistake at the beginning of the product lifecycle is greater than that of mistakes at later stages. This is why it is important to make informed decisions at the ideation stage and have extensive customer data to ensure that the ideas generated will lead to a product which will have a place in the market. This project aims to provide evidence of the impact that COI has on the customer adoption of new products.
It is important to consider the knowledge base of the actors at the ideation stage of new product development projects because the cost of a mistake at the beginning of the product lifecycle is greater than that of mistakes at later stages.
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GETTING AID TO WHERE IT URGENTLY NEEDS TO BE
EMMANUEL SAWYERR
School of Applied Management As a trained electrical/electronic engineer, I worked in the telecommunications sector for almost seven years in Ghana. Upon careful consideration, I decided to pursue my Masters in Logistics and Supply chain management after seeing how its proper practice (at all management levels) could drastically change the fortunes of the company I worked with. However, by the time I was done with my Masters (at the University of the West of Scotland), my interest in the role of supply chain management in the operations of humanitarian organisations had heightened. My Masters dissertation had revealed to me the vulnerabilities that supply chains were exposed to due to globalisation and to the extreme implementation of certain management practices. Considering the complexity and uniqueness of humanitarian supply chains, I set out to research the practical means by which these supply chains could be better secured since disruptions there result not only in resource wastage, but sometimes in the loss of human lives. Thankfully, the Quintin Hogg Trust Studentship is providing the funding to facilitate this research. Though the number of disasters that occur annually is gradually reducing, more people have been affected by disasters in recent times than previously because of population growth and climate change. Humanitarian aid organisations work to provide relief to the affected in the immediate aftermath of disasters and they usually continue to do so until they are able to return to their normal lives. However, these interventions – even though they may seem simple – require a complex set of decisions to be made in order to ensure that the right aid is delivered at the right time and place to save as many lives as possible.
Since aid organisations are themselves not producers of the materials and some services that they provide to the vulnerable, they have to engage suppliers who can respond at short notice and provide the required quantity of materials based on the type and location of disaster. Things are made even more complex for the organisations because they don’t usually generate much funding on their own. They have to rely on raising funds from the general public, governments and donor agencies, all of whom have different motives and demands. Aid organisations therefore have to maintain a good public reputation and do their best to meet all the local and global requirements of their donors and host governments in order not to risk losing income. Further, they also have to make sure that their suppliers are not engaged in unsustainable practices such as modern slavery, money laundering, pollution and the financing of terrorism. My research therefore seeks to: • Determine which resilience formative elements currently influence the procurement decision making of aid organisations, • Provide a framework that will help humanitarian organisations to navigate this complex decision-making process of supplier engagement while delivering aid reliably. It adopts a qualitative case study approach using semi-structured interviews and the review of documents within eight organisations.
Humanitarian interventions … require a complex set of decisions to be made in order to ensure that the right aid is delivered at the right time and place.
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CYCLING AND SOCIO-TECHNICAL TRANSITIONS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT IN LONDON MEGAN SHARKEY
School of Architecture and Cities I have been campaigning for as long as I can remember. During my Bachelor of Biochemistry, I joined environmental campaigns and became interested in retrofitting cities. In 2010, I moved to Australia, undertaking a Masters in Planning (2011) and a Masters in Sustainable Development (2012). During these degrees and since, I have worked to develop a socially just, sustainable infrastructure and healthy cities. My frustrations with the slow rate of change and the growing impact this would have on my two children (aged 6 and 8) increased my desire for finding solutions to speed things up. Government leaders did not have the political will to enact any changes and often stated that “voters don’t support it”. Groups were also not being as effective as we could be. Being presented with the Urban Studies Research Scholarship allowed me to engage deeply with groups generating change whilst studying. I wanted to understand these barriers and how grassroots movements I had been a part of could become more effective more quickly. For the health of the planet, our cities and our kids, taking 20+ years to make walking to school safe is just not good enough. Our planet and our cities require massive transitions to become resilient to climate change and sustainable. Transportation is a significant part of this problem. Motor vehicles cause millions of deaths per year through road collisions, air pollution and other environmental effects. They use valuable public space that could be used for gardens, seating or housing. My research explores grassroots movements campaigning for cycling infrastructure changes, the barriers they experience and how they influence the social and political landscape around them.
I am an activist researcher. I work in partnership with three volunteer cycling groups and the head charity office, London Cycling Campaign. Based on previous experience, I wanted to understand how these groups identified barriers in the council and to provide tools for them to overcome these barriers. Over an 18-month engagement period, the groups workshopped a vision and strategy, looked at the root cause of barriers within local government, engaged with the wider public and built coalitions. Legal demonstrations (a form of tactical urbanism) proved we can change how we use existing infrastructure more sustainably and for a low cost. My research illustrates the potential for increased effectiveness among urban transport grassroots movements. The creation of a coalition under a broader ‘healthy streets’ agenda, with active travel at the centre, enabled the groups to expand rapidly and diversify their support. The groups have developed confidence and have scored some wins with the councils, including deeper and more frequent engagement. Councils are still concerned about oppositional voices and have plans that will take generations to deliver. This research will ultimately provide a template for how grassroots movements can more effectively organise and work to speed up the infrastructure transition. Lastly, it will provide a framework for performing action research within urban planning, socio-technical transitions and grassroots communities.
For the health of the planet, cities and our kids, taking 20+ years to make walking to school safe is just not good enough.
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NOVEL ROLES OF A NEW CANCER DRIVER GENE IN MAINTAINING THE HUMAN GENOME NADEEN SHAIKH SOLAIMAN Genome Engineering Lab School of Life Sciences
With a BSc in Biological Sciences from UAE, my interest in demystifying cancer led me to pursue an MSc in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Westminster. It was during my MSc that I learnt about the promises that CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technology holds for studying the genetic basis of human diseases. This motivated me to undertake a PhD to investigate the molecular basis of human cancers. I am delighted and proud to be the first doctoral student to successfully establish a CRISPR/Cas9 human genome engineering work flow at Westminster. My cutting-edge work has paved the way for multiple research areas at the Genome Engineering Lab, focused on uncovering novel roles of a newly identified breast cancer driver gene and evaluating it as a novel therapeutic target. During my intense research journey, I have organised CRISPR workshops, London STEM ambassador events and lab taster sessions. I have presented my research findings at both national and international conferences including the prestigious Charles Rodolphe Brupbacher Symposium on ‘Breakthroughs in Cancer Research and Therapy’ in ETH Zurich Switzerland. I am an assistant fellow of the Higher Education Academy UK and contribute to teaching undergraduate tutorials and practicals in the School of Life Sciences.
landscape. My studies, focused on investigating a first-of-its kind link between cancer, DNA damage response and RNA binding proteins, reveals novel roles of RNA binding proteins in the maintenance of genome integrity and the prevention of DNA damage. Recently, two independent large-scale studies of over 2000 breast cancer patients identified the human RNA binding protein ZFP36L1 as a novel breast cancer driver gene. Past research has shed light on the roles of ZFP36L1 in the regulation of the immune system; however, the multifaceted nature of this protein remains poorly understood. For the first time, at the University of Westminster, our studies successfully utilized the CRISPR/Cas9 genome-editing technology to study the molecular roles of ZFP36L1 in cancer development and progression. My research is contributing to studies which indicate a strong correlation between ZFP36L1 and genomic instability, are leading to insights into novel mechanisms that are involved in cancer and are providing opportunities for developing new therapeutic approaches in cancer treatment.
My research is contributing to studies which … are leading to insights into novel mechanisms involved in cancer and are providing opportunities for developing new therapeutic approaches.
Many human cancers possess similarities in disease origins, also known as the hallmarks of cancer. One of the hallmarks is genomic instability, a common characteristic found in cancers. This hallmark is often caused by mutations in DNA repair/replication genes and eventually drives cancer development. The emerging roles of RNA molecules in the maintenance of the human genome – the instruction book of life – raises several intriguing questions and is a fast-evolving area in the current research
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THE POLITICS OF EXHAUSTION: IMMIGRATION CONTROL IN THE BRITISH-FRENCH BORDER ZONE MARTA WELANDER
School of Social Sciences As the Executive Director of the non-governmental human rights organisation Refugee Rights Europe, I have led and overseen extensive policy engagement and field research in refugee camps and settlements across Europe since early 2016. Having initially set foot in the so-called Calais ‘Jungle’ camp in 2016, I found myself unable to look away in the face of some of the most desperate human conditions I had ever witnessed. I decided to embark upon PhD research in order to further explore and analyse the complex situation at the British border. My PhD research project has allowed me to delve deeper into the dynamics of the British-French border zone and to hear the voices of many incredibly resilient individuals trapped in a seemingly hopeless predicament. As part of the public engagement around my research project and professional assignments, I have taken part in television, radio and print-media interviews, as well as in international conferences. My research has been made publicly available in a number of articles and guest posts on high-profile platforms in the UK and internationally. Within a climate of growing anti-immigration and populist forces, and in response to the increased number of prospective asylum seekers arriving in Europe, recent years have seen the continued hardening of borders and a disconcerting evolution of new forms of immigration control. In the specific case of the United Kingdom, its border arrangements with France mean that safe and legal routes to seek asylum in Britain are next to non-existent. This has led to the emergence of a ‘border zone’ stretching from Calais and Grande-Synthe in northern France to the capitals of Brussels and Paris if not further afield. In this
border zone, prospective asylum seekers are trapped in a violent bottle-neck scenario, unable to move forward, yet without any evident ways out of their predicament. Based on extensive field research carried out in Calais, Brussels and Paris in 2018–2019, this PhD research project explores the role of violence in Britain’s mobility governance and border tactics. Based on 75 formal and informal interviews with displaced individuals and volunteer aid workers, as well as continuous participant observation, the project is one of the very few in-depth academic research efforts that have taken place amongst displaced people seeking to cross the BritishFrench border. Situated within critical border and migration studies, the research project identifies and analyses a raft of violent dynamics inherent in contemporary immigration control measures, characterised by both direct physical violence and banalised and structural forms of violence, including active state neglect. The project draws explicit attention to the ethical and moral implications of Britain’s border tactics, and culminates in a proposed new framework for analysis, suggesting that a ‘politics of exhaustion’ is being employed as Britain’s latest approach to mobility governance and immigration control.
Prospective asylum seekers are trapped in a violent bottle-neck scenario, unable to move forward, yet without any evident ways out of their predicament.
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IMAGE CREDITS: Roman Mikhailiuk /Shutterstock.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Courtesy of University of Westminster Archive . . . . . . . 8 Multipedia / Shutterstock.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 All images courtesy of Vedia Cilem Can except bottom row, courtesy of Dr Kevin R Stone . . . . 12 Lane in Hongkou District, Shanghai, 2019 NG-Spacetime / Shutterstock.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 A guided tour of a co-housing community © Penny Clark, 2018 Building a barn together photograph Penny Clark, 2019. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Duan Fu © ZEDfactory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 © Fibonacci Blue 2015 and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic. https://flickr.com/photos/44550450@ N04/21393520218 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 © Kon Kim, 2019 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 © superconductr, Work hard dream big, 2017. Photograph by Vanessa Bowles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 monsitj . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Syrian woman in the camp for displaced persons in Atmeh, Syria (January 2013). Photograph Joel Carillet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 April 2016, Cyclists using the new East-West Cycle Superhighway, on the Embankment in the City of Westminster. Joe Dunckley/Shutterstock.com. . . . . . . 30 Absence of the cancer driver gene in study induces increased DNA (shown in blue) damage reflected by accumulation of DNA damage repair factories (shown in red). Image captured by Nadeen Solaiman, 2019 . . . . . . 32 © Rob Pinney, 2016 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
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westminster.ac.uk/graduate-school
