As a new term dawns at Birkbeck, we’re out and about in the College’s community speaking with academics and students about what’s keeping them busy. This latest edition features: - Research Focus: A conversation with organizational psychologist Dr Almuth McDowall about current research into fathers and their difficulties in striking a work-life balance. Dr Almuth McDowall - http://www.bbk.ac.uk/orgpsych/staff/academics/mcdowall - Birkbeck People: A new first year undergraduate student talks abou...
Oct 12, 2015•25 min
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 2, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss Parliament’s role in the Syrian crisis and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell’s speech at the Labour Party Conference. For more information: http://w...
Oct 07, 2015•25 min
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck’s BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 1, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss Jeremy Corbyn's election as Labour Leader and Robert Chote's reappointment as head of the Office for Budget Responsibility. For more inform...
Oct 01, 2015•21 min
Here’s our second edition of Birkbeck Voices’ new magazine format, featuring conversations with academics, students and members of staff in our three regular platforms: - Research Focus, which this month features Professor Matt Cook - http://ow.ly/Roivb - who will be talking about his recent study on Queer Domesticities. - Next, Birkbeck Alumna Miriam Phillips talks about her educational journey in the Birkbeck People section - And lastly, Professor Lynda Nead - http://ow.ly/RoiFX - takes this m...
Aug 26, 2015•33 min
Birkbeck Inaugural Lecture - 17 June 2015 Professor Adam Gearey - Professor of Law Although we are all equal in the eyes of the law, modern jurisprudence has been profoundly myopic towards the brute realities of poverty and material inequality. This lecture explores those peculiar figures, from Jack London, through to George Orwell and the poverty lawyers of the 1960s and 70s who have 'gone underground' and engaged with poverty in the US and UK. What can these accounts of living amongst and acti...
Aug 24, 2015•1 hr 2 min
Birkbeck Voices introduces its new magazine format this month, featuring conversations with academics, students and members of staff in our three regular platforms: - Research focus: Conversations with academics about their pioneering areas of research - Birkbeck People: We dive into the Birkbeck community, and come back to the surface with some funny anecdotes and inspirational stories in tow - The Calendar: We find out what’s going on in the College’s packed programme of events For our inaugur...
Jul 21, 2015•35 min
In this lecture, Dr Amy Harrison from Birkbeck, University of London, aims to share findings from the field of positive psychology on the science of happiness. It also explores what makes us happy and how we lead happier lives. Psychology has tended to focus on exploring people’s problems and difficulties, looking at what has gone wrong in people’s lives rather than their resources, strengths and what might be going well. Positive psychology is a field of psychological science which has sought t...
Jul 01, 2015•51 min
In this lecture, Associate Lecturer David Tross from Birkbeck, University of London, explores ideas around happiness and well-being at work. How do we achieve meaningful and challenging work? How can employees increase happiness at work and create conditions for wellbeing and engagement? Theories of human needs and psychological wellbeing relate to personal and professional developments are explored through relevant research and case studies. EnfieldThinks Pop-Up Learning Shop was a temporary sp...
Jul 01, 2015•47 min
In this lecture, Associate Lecturer David Tross from Birkbeck, University of London, explores the often neglected area of our leisure time. How does happiness and wellbeing relate to what we do? What are the pressures on our lifestyle and what does work/life balance look like? Ideas around the importance of social connections are explored in reference to our own personal preferences, as well as the positive and negative influences on mental and physical wellbeing including the way we construct o...
Jul 01, 2015•50 min
Birkbeck Inaugural Lecture - 18 June 2015 Professor Rick Cooper - Professor of Cognitive Science Understanding the human mind, given its complexity, requires drawing upon many tools and many sources of evidence. I will discuss how computational modelling of the cognitive processes underlying action and thought, and of how those processes break down following neurological injury, can help shed light on the organization and operation of the mind. Along the way I will discuss software for construct...
Jul 01, 2015•1 hr 2 min
Birkbeck Inaugural Lecture - 15 June 2015 Professor Karen Hudson-Edwards - Professor of Environmental Geochemistry and Mineralogy Global biogeochemical cycles describe the processes by which elements circulate from sources to sinks within the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere, and the fluxes associated with these transfers. These cycles give vital information to help understand and manage pollution, nutrients and climate change, and to evaluate natural and anthropogenic effects ...
Jun 24, 2015•46 min
Birkbeck Inaugural Lecture - 1 June 2015 Professor Carolyn Moores - Professor of Structural Biology Just as our bodies have a skeleton providing support and strength, so also do the cells of our bodies; this framework is called cytoskeleton, and it is involved in many cell functions - movement, definition of architecture, and multiplication. My research team studies the three-dimensional shape of the cytoskeleton (called microtubules) using an electron microscope, a powerful tool ideally suited ...
Jun 09, 2015•42 min
Birkbeck Inaugural Lecture - 4 June 2015 Professor Matthew Longo - Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience Spatial distortions have long been known to characterise early representatives of the senses in the brain. Recent studies have revealed traces of these distortions in higher- level aspects of perception and cognition. I will describe this research, focusing on distorted representation of body size and shape. In particular, I will describe distorted body representations underlying touch and prop...
Jun 09, 2015•1 hr 7 min
This year’s Birkbeck Arts Week, held at the School of Arts from 18 to 23 May, was a huge success, with members of the public flocking to see, and take part in, a packed programme of lectures, workshops, performances and screenings. Following up on the last Arts Week special podcast, Birkbeck Voices made it along to 43 Gordon Square during the week itself to experience the buzz at a handful of events. Here’s the line-up for the podcast: • We spoke to Dr Jaqueline Riding, Birkbeck alumna and histo...
Jun 01, 2015•39 min
Birkbeck’s Arts Week returns this month with a vibrant and packed programme of free-to-attend public events - www.bbk.ac.uk/artsweek Running in and around the School of Arts in the heart of Bloomsbury from May 18 to 23, Arts Week 2015 comprises a cultural smorgasbord of nearly 50 events, including lectures, performances, screenings, workshops and discussions. With the week just round the corner, this edition of the podcast features interviews with three Birkbeck academics that will be running ev...
May 14, 2015•38 min
Professor Nikolaus Wachsmann, Birkbeck, University of London. On the 29 April 1945 US troops entered the grounds of Dachau concentration camp, near Munich, where they found 32,000 inmates from over 30 European nations. Among them was Edgar Kupfer, a 39-year-old German political prisoner. A few hours after his liberation, Kupfer noted in his diary: ‘I shall celebrate this all my life as a second birthday, as the day, when I received the gift of life anew.’ In this lecture, Professor Wachsmann wil...
May 13, 2015•49 min
Professor Jay Winter, Yale University Remembrance is not a human right but the precondition for the effective establishment and maintenance of a regime of human rights. In this lecture Professor Winter explores the central role played by Holocaust remembrance in the framing and passage of one of the foundational human rights documents of the twentieth century: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Jay Winter will focus on the role of the French jurist, resistance leader, and Jewish statesma...
May 13, 2015•1 hr 17 min
Professor Mary Fulbrook, University College London in conversation with Professor Jane Caplan, St Anthony’s College, University of Oxford and Birkbeck, University of London. Two of Britain’s foremost historians on Germany and the Nazi era, Mary Fulbrook and Jane Caplan, discuss Mary Fulbrook’s new book, A Small Town Near Auschwitz - Ordinary Nazis and the Holocaust, exploring the wider historical issues it raises and Fulbrook’s own conflicts of interest, in her professional and personal roles, a...
May 13, 2015•58 min
Professor Miri Rubin, Queen Mary, University of London The Life and Passion of William of Norwich, written in the twelfth century by Thomas of Monmouth a Benedictine monk, contains the earliest accusation that Jews killed a Christian child for hate of Christians and their beliefs. Such accusations were repeated over the centuries, in Europe and beyond. Believed by some and dismissed by others, they sometimes led to violence. Miri Rubin’s lecture demonstrates the involvement of scholars and monks...
May 13, 2015•51 min
Professor Jeffrey C. Alexander, Yale University In this talk, Professor Alexander, one of the world’s leading social theorists, seeks to analyse the on-going conflict among the dominant majority groups in Europe over how immigrant groups, particularly Muslims, should be incorporated into the civil sphere. Alexander is particularly concerned with shedding light on the growing antipathy to multiculturalism. For more information about the Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism based at Birkb...
May 13, 2015•56 min
This General Election is the most unpredictable in decades. From the SNP in Scotland to UKIP’s assault and the Green insurgency, this election is full of uncertainties. We tried to make sense of a contest even pollsters are seeing as too close to call. Birkbeck staff from the Politics Department each gave a five-minute pitch and bite size assessment on a different aspect of the election, chaired by Professor Tony Wright. Did we piece together who could win? Staff will look at a variety of topics...
May 07, 2015•45 min
Dr Belinda Brooks-Gordon, Assistant Dean for Strategy (Equalities) in Birkbeck’s School of Science talks to us about her aspirations for gender diversity within Birkbeck, and why it is so important for the College and the country to address the current ‘leaky pipeline’ which sees women leaving science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine in large numbers. For more information about Birkbeck's School of Science - www.bbk.ac.uk/science
Apr 16, 2015•7 min
Professor Mike Oaksford, Head of Birkbeck’s Department of Psychological Sciences, talks about how our academics’ research is making an impact in society, following the REF 2014 results in which all of the department’s research was awarded the top rating for impact. Professor Oaksford describes how the department supports researchers at all stages of their careers and creates an environment which is conducive to conducting this world-leading research. For more information about Birkbeck’s Departm...
Jan 28, 2015•8 min
Bryony Merritt talks to Professor Stephen Frosh about Birkbeck's performance in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF). For more information about our REF results - www.bbk.ac.uk/news/ref-results and research at Birkbeck - www.bbk.ac.uk/research
Dec 17, 2014•8 min
Undergraduate and postgraduate students at Birkbeck are benefiting from generous funding thanks to support from ArcelorMittal – the world’s leading steel and mining company. In this podcast, Ian Louden, Head of Brand Worldwide, at ArcelorMittal, explains how the scholarships are part of the company’s regeneration efforts in east London. These began with the building of the distinctive 114.5m high ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture for the Olympics in London two years ago. Three of the scholarship stu...
Dec 16, 2014•8 min
This month's podcast was recorded from an event held on 11 November to unveil a portrait of Professor Eric Hobsbawm at Birkbeck. The event also gave supporters of the Hobsbawm Scholarship Fund the opportunity to meet the first students to receive support from it. PhD History student Fabio Antonini explains what difference the Hobsbawm Scholarship has made to him and why he was drawn to study at Birkbeck in a department that was shaped by the teaching and research of Professor Hobsbawm over the 6...
Nov 18, 2014•11 min
Professor Hilary Fraser, Executive Dean of the School of Arts at Birkbeck and Geoffrey Tillotson Chair of Nineteenth-Century Studies, explores some of the areas covered in her new book: Women writing art history in the nineteenth century. Looking like a woman. She explains the social and technological changes which allowed art history to develop as a new intellectual discipline during the nineteenth century and how female art historians played an important role in this development. She discusses...
Oct 21, 2014•11 min
University research leads to scientific and medical advances and a better understanding of society. Today the impact of such work is increasingly being analysed, in part because of the requirements of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) – an audit of the quality of research in the UK higher education sector. Professor Stephen Frosh, Pro-Vice-Master for Research and Chair of the REF Working Party at Birkbeck, highlights the pragmatic and philosophical purpose of research in this podcast inter...
Sep 25, 2014•23 min
Birkbeck is offering £2,500 fee reductions for its innovative MA in Film Curating, which starts this October and responds to the changing relationship between film and art. The course will address the changes created by the expansion of digital technology, including the growth of moving images in galleries and art exhibitions. To celebrate the birth of this new postgraduate qualification, Professor Laura Mulvey, of Birkbeck’s Department of Film, Media and Cultural Studies, discusses, in this pod...
Sep 09, 2014•9 min
The future of history was centre stage at a major two-day conference called History after Hobsbawm, organised by Birkbeck and the journal Past & Present. Speakers discussed the arguably unprecedented influence of Professor Eric Hobsbawm upon the study of history, and also mentioned topics likely to occupy historians in the years ahead, including energy and climate change. In this podcast interview, Dr Brodie Waddell, of Birkbeck’s Department of History, Classics and Archaeology, discusses th...
Jul 04, 2014•8 min
