Centred around the newly published book (Palgrave Macmillan), the event challenged traditional notions of leadership by highlighting the often-unrecognised influence of incarcerated individuals. These leaders, shaped by survival and solidarity rather than hierarchy, offer critical insights into reforming a prison system in crisis.

Guest speaker (former Professor, University of Ұ������) underscored the importance of recognising lived experience as a legitimate and powerful form of knowledge. The event called for a shift from tokenistic inclusion to genuine collaboration across sectors—between academics, policymakers, and those directly impacted by incarceration.

The organisers emphasised that real reform must be rooted in humility, shared leadership, and a commitment to justice that listens to those who have lived it.

The visit resulted in MPs and Justice Select Committee representatives asking that the presented Policy recommendations based on the book’s findings be translated into law, illustrating how research-led impact can emerge in decision-making spaces.

Titled, "South Asian Artists and British Collections", her paper will introduce research into the acquisition and interpretation of artworks by FN Souza and Avinash Chandra by UK public collections, including Tate. She will introduce the ways in which Souza and Chandra were considered “exotic” by British critics and curators during the 1950s and 60s, and how such perceptions informed institutional framings of their work.

Archival research has revealed ambivalences on the part of collections to regard modernist painters of South Asian heritage active in London during the post-war period as part of the story of British art. Correia will present how those ambivalences have informed subsequent understandings and misunderstandings with reference to Souza’s painting Crucifixion (1961) in the Tate Collection. 

She argues that significant biases and blind-spots about Souza’s work found in Tate’s acquisition documents continue to ripple through the gallery’s online texts and display captions. 

You can view the artwork on the Tate website.

Alice Correia’s talk is organised by the , University of Leicester, and will be held on Friday, 20 June 2025, 1.00pm to 2.30pm.

It finds a ‘dose-response relationship’ between racial discrimination and poor mental health (ie the negative impact on mental health increased with increasing number of times and areas in which racism was experienced).

The authors also examine the impact of experiencing racism over many years. Recent experiences of racial discrimination (within the past 5 years only) had a stronger effect on mental health compared to experiences of racial discrimination that happened over five years ago. Chronic experiences of racial discrimination over someone’s life (both past and recent experiences) had the strongest effect on mental health.

Drawing on data from , the largest and most comprehensive survey to document the lives of ethnic and religious minorities in Britain during the pandemic, the report also shows how experiences of racial discrimination were associated with testing positive for COVID-19, financial concerns, feelings of loneliness, and a reduced sense of belonging. Racial discrimination also indirectly contributed to poor mental health, through these experiences.

The report is written by Patricia Irizar, Dharmi Kapadia, Harry Taylor, Gertrude Wafula, Albert Kwansa, Charles Kwaku-Odoi, Laia Bécares and Srinivasa Vittal Katikireddi.

This report summarises published in 'Sociology of Health & Illness' (open access).

Me neither, but that’s where we ended up in this recent innovative and energising session with , a Sociologist of Everyday Life and a member of the .

We started the session with a useful but whistle stop tour of thematic analysis, which set the scene for a reflection on what is really meant by themes in the interpretation of data, and how this process might change if we allow for a more reflexive approach which allows us to consider more carefully the ways we ‘work’ with data and our emotional connections with that data.

According to Andy, data is lively, and opening up to that liveliness entails recognising data’s many shapes and forms, rather than the ‘straight lines’ of themes so beloved of procedural-focused approaches to analysis, and the ways that we ‘live with’ data in our everyday lives as researchers.

The workshop then moved on to a practical encounter with our data through painting on our transcripts or making data poetry with them. 

Whether used as an end in itself or a tool to see data differently, perhaps surmounting an interpretation impasse, 38 workshop attendees eagerly embraced brush strokes and poetry. Analysis and interpretation were re-imagined and re-shaped, our data came alive, we read and saw it differently.

You can find out more about Andy’s ‘painting with data’ technique in and I will be eagerly awaiting the Morgan Centre book due to hit the shelves in Autumn, which Andy is co-authoring with Morgan Centre colleagues (Sophie Woodward, James Fletcher, James Hodgson and Jess Mancuso).

In the meantime you could satisfy your creative thirst with the Morgan Centre’s ‘creative approaches to qualitative research’ course, but do hurry as we are at near -full capacity!

Methods@Ұ������ workshops and activities

To keep up-to-date with Methods@Ұ������ events and activities see our and do let us know if there are particular innovative and advanced methodological approaches you would like to suggest for inclusion in next year’s workshop programme.

A new special issue of Le Mouvement Social features pioneering research co-authored by HCRI’s and . This edition brings together work from AHRC project and the project.

The issue represents a unique collaboration between HCRI and partners from Tribhuvan University in Nepal, and , exploring the impact of revolutionary war on health systems and gendered experiences of care and coercion. 

The article, titled ‘Soins, coercition et genre dans la guerre révolutionnaire au Népal (1996–2006)’, published in Le Mouvement Social, Numéro 288 (July–September 2024), pp. 113–132, showcases HCRI’s signature interdisciplinary approach.

The research situates the Nepal conflict within wider discussions about humanitarian ethics, power, and care. This work reflects HCRI’s commitment to international academic collaboration and research with meaningful impact.

Find out more in the .

The five-day interactive programme brought together policy professionals, analysts, and researchers from across the globe, offering a unique platform to explore evaluation approaches and practices in science and innovation policy.

Led by Senior Lecturer Kate Barker, with contributions from world-leading MIoIR scholars including Professors Erik Arnold (Technopolis), Jakob Edler (Fraunhofer ISI), Maria Nedeva, Raquel Ortega-Argilés, Dr Effie Amanatidou and John Rigby (Bibliometrica Ltd) and the course delivered a rich blend of theoretical foundations, practical tools, and real-world applications. 

The content spanned critical topics such as theory of change, logic models, qualitative and quantitative evaluation techniques, bibliometrics, peer review, altmetrics and AI in science policy.

Participants engaged in group projects and case-based exercises throughout the week, culminating in final presentations to peers and faculty. The course also featured insights from guest speakers, including Nancy Hey (Director, Lloyd's Register Foundation), Mike Thelwall (Professor, University of Sheffield), Cristina Rosemberg Montes (Technopolis) and Diogo Machado (Technopolis).

This year’s cohort comprised 19 participants from 11 countries, representing organisations such as the Japan Science and Technology Agency, UKRI, Research Council of Norway, Central Bank of Indonesia, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, National Science Centre Poland, Innosuisse, and Science Malta, reflecting the course’s global reach and reputation for excellence.

Course Director Kate Barker reflected:

With strong participant feedback and growing international interest, the Evaluation Course continues to be a leading professional development opportunity in the science and innovation policy space.

To find out more about MIoIR’s executive education and training opportunities, contact Deborah Cox, Institute Manager, or .

Moonraking Festival Committee Member and Project Organiser, Sky Burton-Smith says:

Slaithwaite (called “Slawit” by locals) is a semi-rural Pennine village in the Colne Valley, West Yorkshire, with a rich history dating back to the Romans and Anglo-Saxons. The Industrial Revolution’s canals and railways brought mills, industry and textile workers. 

Today it retains historic industrial buildings, including mills, churches, and stone cottages. The Huddersfield Narrow Canal remains a central feature, with scenic walking routes attracting tourists. The local economy has diversified, with independent shops, cafes and small businesses. The village is now a thriving community with traditions of creativity, ethical cooperatives and the handmade. We will tell this story of change in the project.

The 17-month programme focuses on participatory community heritage activities, researching, archiving, interpreting and celebrating local histories. It marks two significant anniversaries: 40 years of Slaithwaite Moonraking Festival in February 2025 (an extraordinary community light-festival based on a local legend) and 100 years of Slaithwaite’s Carr Lane central parade of shops. These anniversaries will bring people together, with shops and shopping as a theme for the programme exploring changing social and economic history. 

The project aims to conserve and revitalise Slawit’s heritage through multi-generational learning activities, developing skills and increasing capacity to sustain heritage of local traditions and stories.

Slaithwaite Moonraking Festival was established in 1985 by Satellite Arts with Slaithwaite Community Association. It was run by Satellite Arts’ Gill Bond until 2023, and is now sustained by a dynamic committee of local residents and artists. The biennial festival retells a humorous legend of quick-thinking smugglers, illicit barrels of moonshine, the canal and outwitting authorities. It is renowned for its parade of candle-lit willow and paper lanterns, and the “raking out” of a giant moon from the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. Previous Moonraking Festival themes have included circus, forest, pantomime, mythical beasts, and space exploration - with shops this year’s festival theme.

The Carr Lane Parade of shops is in the centre of the village opposite the canal. They were built in 1925 in an art deco style by entrepreneur John Jagger after the council had demolished previous buildings to widen the road. This element of the project focuses on the story of the eight units in the centre and memories of a century of shopping.

The intangible cultural heritage is uplifted through a combined approach of uncovering cultural and commercial heritage together, exploring oral histories, accents and dialogue, and ephemera and memories. Plus, celebrating the folk traditions and craft skills of the incredible Moonraking Festival.

Jenna first met the Moonraking Festival Committee during research in the Colne Valley for the project, Creative Adaptive Solutions for Treescapes of Rivers (CASTOR). She says:

To find out more about the project and its activities, visit the .

On 29 April 2025, and the hosted a compelling in-conversation event featuring Professor (Harvard University) and Professor (University of Ұ������), at the Alliance Ұ������ Business School.  

The afternoon began with a welcome address from Professor , Vice Dean for Research in the Faculty of Humanities, who introduced the speakers and highlighted the significance of the discussion in today’s political climate. 

In a wide-ranging dialogue, Professors Lamont and Younge explored the politics of recognition and multiculturalism in the context of Trump’s second presidency, drawing comparisons between the US and UK. Their conversation focused on the experiences of working-class communities and racialised groups, and the cultural shifts occurring amid political backlash.

Professor Lamont, currently a Leverhulme Visiting Professor at Ұ������, shared insights from her new book project, which investigates recognition claims across different social contexts. Her reflections were enriched by her interdisciplinary work in sociology, African and African American studies, and European studies at Harvard. 

Professor Younge, known for his incisive journalism and sociological commentary, brought a sharp lens to the discussion, highlighting the role of media, memory, and political backlash in shaping public discourse around identity and belonging. 

The event concluded with a lively audience Q&A and a drinks reception, offering attendees the opportunity to continue the conversation informally. 

This event was part of Professor Lamont’s Visiting Professorship, hosted by Professor Andrew Miles and the Department of Sociology.  

was delighted to host the inaugural event in a new series examining the critical role of arts centres across the UK and Ireland, in at the University of Ұ������ on 29 April. 

Led by Honorary Research Fellow Dave Moutrey in partnership with , the event brought together cultural leaders, researchers, and policymakers to explore the funding landscape and future potential of these vital community institutions.

Arts centres have long served as dynamic spaces for creativity, inclusion, and local engagement. Often operating outside the spotlight of larger cultural venues, they have nonetheless played a transformative role in shaping artistic practice and fostering social cohesion. Their significance was particularly evident during the Covid-19 pandemic, when their adaptability and deep community roots proved essential.

The event commenced with a networking lunch, followed by a presentation of new research by Ray Morrison, Research Associate to Dave Moutrey. Morrison’s analysis of Arts Council England (ACE) funding data offered a detailed view of how arts centres are resourced and the implications of current funding models.

A panel discussion followed, featuring Gavin Barlow of Future Arts Centres and Dr Jennifer Cleary of Arts Council England. The panel engaged in a robust dialogue on the findings, considering how funding structures influence the sustainability and reach of arts centres, and what strategic changes might be necessary to support their continued evolution.

This event marks the beginning of a wider programme of research and public engagement led by Moutrey during his fellowship. With the support of Future Arts Centres, the series will continue to investigate the development, impact, and future trajectory of arts centres, particularly in the context of ongoing political, social, and economic challenges.

Affect Theatre is an interdisciplinary method of research analysis and curation that decentres text and engages directly with the material elements of fieldwork.

A recent event introduced the method of Affect Theatre, offering a new way to engage with empirical research material, organised by researchers Meghan Rose Donnelly and Pete Carruthers, and led by the method’s creators, Cristiana Giordano and Greg Pierotti.

When writing up our fieldwork in academic outputs, it can be too easy to follow the conventions of text - and to lose some of the essential liveness of research along the way.

Affect Theatre is an interdisciplinary method of research analysis and curation that addresses this problem. By decentering text and engaging directly with the material elements of fieldwork—sounds, objects, lighting, dress, architecture, etc.—the method helps researchers explore the affective qualities of their subject matter, before boxing them into a linear analysis. Designed with anthropologists and ethnographers in mind, the method also provides a way for artists to create meaningful performances out of empirical research, true stories, and real people.

The workshop

In March 2025, participants in Ұ������ had the opportunity to experiment with Affect Theatre in a workshop led by the method’s creators: Cristiana Giordano and Greg Pierotti.

Giordanno and Pierotti have been for over a decade to develop the method, presenting workshops around the world and producing two full-length plays (one on police violence in the US and another on illicit migration into Italy). on the method was recently published with Bloomsbury.

Over 3 days in Ұ������, Giordano and Pierotti walked participants—researchers and students, anthropologists and artists—through the steps of Affect Theatre. Participants created short theatrical ‘episodes’ highlighting the affective and material qualities of research elements. How does a scarf sound when you snap it through the air? How does light shift from warm to cool on a person’s skin?

After being presented to the group, each episode was then analysed both for its affective qualities and for the kinds of stories it seemed to tell.

On the final day of the workshop, participants began to join multiple episodes together to make short sequences that transitioned into each other. 

They also added another level of detail and context by having Meghan Rose read out small sections of text from her field notes, relating to her anthropological research on the lives of Catholic nuns on the Indonesian island of Flores. In the photos you can see the participants working in small groups to create one of these sequences.

The first episode was connected to a description of nuns at evening prayer, where some of the nuns had a fit of giggles whilst ‘praying the rosary’.&�Բ�����;

The three panel lights and the Indonesian scarves, brought by Meghan Rose to the workshop, were used to create a sense of ritual, structure and repetition, evoking the formality and choreography of the liturgy, contrasting against the giggles of the nuns.

This episode transitioned to another previously unrelated episode, which the group connected to an extract from a story about a trip to the beach, where the nuns were required to cover their heads as they watched children splashing in the sea.

Feedback from attendees of the full workshop, as well as from those who only attended the masterclass at the end of day 3, was universally positive, with many people expressing a desire to learn more about the Affect Theatre method and apply it to their own research in the future.

Here are just a few examples of the written and verbal feedback from the workshop:

What’s next?

The workshop on Affect Theatre galvanised the University of Ұ������’s anthropology department’s research focus on performance and highlighted the interest in interdisciplinary methods between anthropology and drama amongst researchers and students across the North West. We can expect future explorations, including a longer workshop, next academic year when Giordano returns to Ұ������ as a Simon Visiting Professor.

Participants in the workshop are already beginning to work Affect Theatre into their projects, including a Masters’ project on taxi drivers in Ұ������, a PhD engaged research project on mental health training for nurses, and a faculty-led collaborative project bringing ethnographic research to the stage. You can catch that show, .

Meghan Rose and Pete will reflect on the workshop at a as well as in the School of Social Sciences (SoSS) Scholarship Showcase on 25 June. Come along to find out more and to register your interest in future workshops.

To find out more about methods@manchester and connect with us, visit our or email methods@manchester.ac.uk. 

. 

Key findings

• There was a significant fall in the Christian population, from 37.3 million (72%) in 2001 to 26.2 million (46%) in 2021.
•  At the same time the number of Muslims (1.5 million to 3.8 million), Hindus (0.5 million to 1 million) and those with no religion (7.2 million to 20.7 million) has more than doubled.
• There has been a significant drop in the percentage of White British, White Irish and mixed ethnicity groups (e.g. in 2001 82% of White British respondents identified as Christian compared with 49% in 2021). Most other ethnic categories saw a more gradual decline. 
• Across most ethnic categories, younger people are less likely to say they are Christian. 
• Looking at migration history, some ethnic categories (White British, White other, Indian, Asian other and black African and Caribbean, recent arrivals are more likely to be Christian than those born in the UK)
• Migration has contributed to the growth in the Christian population recently with 1.2 million Christians migrating to the UK between 2001 and 2011 and 1.9 million between 2011 and 2021 compared to only 0.4 million between 1991 and 2001. The majority of Christian migrants between 2011 and 2021 came from Europe. 

See the report for more detailed data from each region of England. The report is written by .

Kenneth delivered a well-received session titled "Ethical AI in Information Governance: Shaping the Future of Information Management." His presentation focused on the growing importance of ethical considerations in the deployment of AI technologies within the field of information governance. He addressed key concerns such as transparency, accountability, and compliance, as well as strategies for ensuring that AI tools are implemented responsibly to enhance efficiency, decision-making, and organisational effectiveness.

During the session, Kenneth also explored current and emerging AI regulatory frameworks from the EU, the US, and other regions, offering practical guidance on mitigating risks related to bias, data privacy, and data integrity. 

The session sparked meaningful dialogue among attendees and emphasised the importance of maintaining human-centred values as we continue integrating AI into complex information ecosystems.

Reflecting on the event, Kenneth said:

This engagement not only highlights Kenneth’s emerging leadership in the evolving discourse around responsible AI in Information Governance and Compliance but also showcases our university’s commitment to contributing to cutting-edge developments in digital transformation and ethical innovation.

We congratulate Kenneth on this achievement and look forward to seeing the continued impact of his work on the future of ethical information governance.

Pathways to Law is a social mobility programme, run by the University in partnership with The Sutton Trust, which supports college students from backgrounds under-represented in higher education who are interested in a career in law. 

The talented students have embraced the opportunities offered by the programme, accessing higher education information, gaining hands-on work experience, and building connections with leading legal professionals, stepping outside of their comfort zones and embracing challenges.

The ceremony brought together graduates, their supportive families and friends, inspiring guest speakers, student ambassadors and University staff. 

A highlight of the event was the powerful closing address delivered by Miran Khan, Pathways to Law and University of Ұ������ alumna. Her motto: “Continue to overcome barriers and break the status quo,” was a fitting reminder to the graduating cohort as they move into the next stages of their education.

The Pathways to Law programme is committed to fostering the next generation of future leaders and change-makers. The Faculty of Humanities and the wider University of Ұ������ community wishes all 2025 Pathways to Law graduates the best for their bright futures.

• Find out more about the  at The University of Ұ������.  
• Contact Emma McDougall, Student Marketing and Recruitment Coordinator, for more information.

Hosted by the Innovation Procurement Empowerment Centre (IPEC), the session highlighted the crucial role of procurement in driving not just technological advancements, but also broader improvements in public services.

The panel featured Rikesh Shah, Head of IPEC, Elvira Uyarra, Director of the Ұ������ Institute of Innovation Research, Shailee Howard, Partner at Mills & Reeve, and Sophie Moule, Marketing & Product Director at Bloom Procurement Services.

The panel discussed key challenges in procurement, including rigid processes, short-term thinking, and a lack of institutional memory, which have traditionally hindered innovation. They also explored the uncertainty around what constitutes ‘good’ procurement, which makes it difficult for public bodies to adopt best practices.

Experts also identified significant opportunities within the new Procurement Act, emphasising the need for leadership, ambition, and clear examples of success to drive both cultural and practical shifts in procurement practices.

Featuring a range of methods courses for both qualitative and quantitative researchers, the Summer School provides the opportunity for researchers to get together, learn or develop new social science and humanities methods skills while meeting and networking with their peers.

This year we are pleased to offer seven courses including training in Nvivo software, Qualitative Interviewing and Longitudinal Data Analysis. The courses themselves allow us to showcase the considerable expertise we have in the Faculty of Humanities in a range of methodological areas, providing opportunities for attendees to receive support from leading experts.

For example, are offering a team-taught course focused on Creative Approaches to Qualitative Research. Throughout this short course members of the Centre will support attendees in learning about their specific areas of expertise in innovative and creative methodological approaches.

is a leading centre in the development and application of social network analysis techniques and this year offers a course in Mixed Methods in Social Network Analysis. This course will focus on personal networks and uses qualitative methods combined with statistical modelling.

The team will run a course focused on Digital Methods. It will introduce state-of-the-art approaches (visual methods, geospatial methods, text mining, data visualisation, creative AI methods and sensing methods) and attendees can apply them to create, analyse, and question data.

And new for this year, experts within the are offering a course in AI Driven Analytics, providing the opportunity for participants to explore cutting-edge methods ranging from descriptive and predictive to prescriptive analytics.

And it’s not just about the courses, this year as well as our usual welcome event in a local brewery, attendees will be treated to a City Centre walking tour, providing a chance to learn about Ұ������’s rich history while getting to know participants across the seven courses.

Our Summer School fee structure features a reduced price for PGRs and those attending from the charity or community sector. We also offer the opportunity for those entitled to this reduced fee, yet without the necessary funding, to apply for a further reduction via our bursary scheme.

You can see the full range of 2025 Summer School courses and further details on the and don’t hesitate to contact methods@manchester.ac.uk if you have any questions.

At the heart of Kisii County’s emergency care system is its dedicated ambulance service, owned and operated by the Kisii County Ministry of Health. Currently, the county aspires to have 10 ambulances and 35 ambulance officers. While most of these personnel hold a basic first aid certificate, formal ambulance care training has been limited. 

To enhance emergency response capabilities, the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI) is launching a professionalisation programme. This initiative includes two cycles of a Kisii University-certified 4-week ambulance officer training course, modelled after the UK ambulance service Miller programme. The training aims to equip both existing personnel and new recruits with essential emergency medical skills, increasing the ambulance cadre to 48 trained personnel. 

Launch of the First Training Programme 

We are excited to announce that the first ambulance officer training programme in Kisii County has officially begun! This initiative is made possible through collaboration with volunteers from the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) in England, who are on-site to support the training efforts. 

The first cohort of 27 students have started their 4-week training, with hands-on instruction led by Prof. Walter and NWAS trainers. The training team is expanding, with additional colleagues arriving to further enhance the programme’s practical sessions. 

Government and International Support 

Kisii County government has taken ownership of the programme by covering in-country costs for the team. Dr Kinane, Economic Advisor to Governor HE Simba Arati, has expressed strong support for the initiative, emphasising the County’s commitment to improving emergency medical services. 

Furthermore, global health organisations are engaging with this initiative. The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the African Federation of Emergency Medicine (AFEM) are actively involved, with the WHO Basic Emergency Care Course integrated into Week 3 of training. AFEM is also working toward accrediting the programme. 

Looking Ahead: Future Development Plans 

The training programme is set to run until 14 March 2025, with the Governor of Kisii County expected to personally award certificates of completion. 

In parallel, discussions are underway to implement a formal dispatch and ambulance tracking system, along with a mobile-based electronic patient record system. NWAS representatives and UK-based companies are exploring philanthropic support to build and sustain these critical emergency response tools. The aim is to develop and roll out these systems within the next 18 months to 2 years, significantly improving emergency care coordination in Kisii County. 

Conclusion 

This initiative marks a significant step toward professionalising Kisii County’s ambulance services and strengthening emergency medical response for the community. With strong local and international partnerships, this programme is laying the foundation for a responsive emergency care system. 

The team estimate that over 132,000 children live in kinship care in England. Kinship carers contribute an estimated £4.3 billion a year to society. But unlike foster carers and adoptive parents, most have few rights to financial, practical and emotional support, and taking on the care of a child they love often pushes them into poverty, unemployment and ill health. 

The report is produced by at University of Sheffield in partnership with Kinship. It is written by Maria Petrillo, Jingwen Zhang, Becky Driscoll, and Nathan Hughes.

Khalid has previously held positions as Managing Director of the GDI, and Director of Research in the School.

Professor Fiona Devine, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, said: 

Khalid said: 

It was led by and Laura Pemberton.

• Qudamah is a research fellow within AMBS and works directly supporting the observatory, developing the data visualisations for ongoing projects.
• Laura is an AMBS postgraduate researcher and has worked on a number of projects that have used the lab, including her PhD research.

So what is the DVO?

It’s a 3D, large-scale visualisation facility with 72 full HD screens. As such, there are opportunities for immersive data analytics and social network analysis, the building of digital twins, experiments and tracking studies, the list goes on…

We were treated to a number of examples of what can be done. These included:

• A scenario based experiment: You are travelling to an airport, there is a public transport strike and you are offered the choice of an AI-driven or traditional person-driven taxi. Which would you choose? 
  How do various changes to this scenario such as the cost of the two options, the brand of the AI-driven car impact your choice? (e.g. are Volvos considered safer?) 
• A simulation to mimic the use of new technologies: Laura Pemberton’s PhD work concerns the potential of robots to assist elderly people in their homes. 
  Attitudes to different robot types ranging from ‘Ziggy’, with its futuristic design, to ‘Kitty’, a cute cat-like prototype, are measured through head tracking and other data capture methods (and yes there were a few involuntary “awws” at the cat!) 
  You can read more about Laura’s work in the . 

Attendees came from across the University, including nursing, architecture, anthropology, geography, music, physic and astronomy, dentistry and politics. And with them came a rich diversity of ideas and questions.

Laura reflects:

If you’d like to find out more about the DVO, you can find out more on the DVO website, or if you have an idea you’d like to discuss please contact Qudamah directly at datavisualisationobservatory@manchester.ac.uk.  

Our next staff training session is focused on Creative AI methods see the for more details and registration.

If you have ideas for research methods sessions you would like to see offered or that you would like to lead, please let us know.

To find out more about methods@manchester and connect with us visit our or email methods@manchester.ac.uk.

Our theme for this year is Research Methods in the Digital Age: Addressing Challenges, Realising Opportunities. 

However, we welcome submissions from researchers who work across the diversity of fields engaged in Humanities and Social Science methods and approaches. Attendees and contributors can be at any point in their development as researchers (e.g. whether in their first year of a PhD programme or established scholars).

Whether you opt to present a lightning talk or poster or want to attend to simply immerse yourself in the day, you can find out more details and information about how to submit on the .

To find out more about methods@manchester and connect with us visit our or email methods@manchester.ac.uk.

As Mitchell Online is designed with the beginner in mind, it will cover core concepts, methods and data analysis techniques of SNA. It will be hands-on and largely based around the use of the UCINET software package, giving participants experience in analysing real social network data.

**There is no prior knowledge of SNA or quantitative methods required**

Perhaps you have colleagues and friends who would benefit from this online course?

While attendees can attend from anywhere, it could particularly benefit those living overseas who find it difficult to benefit from the expertise at our regular in-person methods@manchester summer school courses.

All information can be found . But don’t delay as registration closes on Monday, 17 February and the Spring School sessions are spread over three weeks (3-17 March 2025) to maximise learning opportunities and flexibility.

To find out more about and connect with us, visit our or email methods@manchester.ac.uk.

As the latest academic to deliver one of these inspiring lectures, Peter will use his talk to delve into the compelling world of Baroque opera, exploring its historical significance in promoting equality and reconciliation.

Having garnered international recognition for his advocacy of 20th century and contemporary music, Peter is a distinguished professor currently teaching in the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA. He has received numerous prestigious awards for contributions to European culture, including the MacArthur Fellowship and the Erasmus Prize.

Peter’s visit to Ұ������ follows the launch of a major new partnership between the English National Opera (ENO) and Greater Ұ������. The organisation’s exciting relocation project will see the development of longer-term strategic partnerships with venues and organisations across Greater Ұ������, all working to create operatic experiences for communities and raise the curtain to the opera-makers of tomorrow.

Professor Maggie Gale, Vice-Dean for Research at the University of Ұ������’s Faculty of Humanities, said:

Following the lecture, Peter will be joined by distinguished academic, critic and curator Professor Maria Delgado, who will discuss his illustrious career and current interests. Professor Delgado is the Vice Principal at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. Her extensive work across Spanish-language theatre, film and cultural memory has garnered her numerous accolades, including the ATHE Lifetime Achievement Award in Academic Theatre and the Cross of the Order of Alfonso X the Wise for her services to culture and education.

Reserve your spot on .

The Horizon scandal, which led to the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of subpostmasters, has severely dented the public’s perception of the Post Office as an institution. Against this backdrop, across the Post Office network.

These further cuts to a system already struggling can only do further harm to the sense that well-resourced public services could and should play a central role in everyday life.

In my , I spoke to people about their thoughts on the Post Office and their ideas about the future of society more generally. One interviewee relished their trips to Ұ������’s now-closed crown post office at Spring Gardens and described it, with only a little irony, as “the cathedral of post”.

They loved the way it revealed something of the workings of a larger, complex and world-spanning system of communication. They also liked to daydream about how it would be to live in a society oriented towards a more community-focused, village-like way of life.

My work looks at these speculative dimensions of social life – the way hopes, dreams and desires for other ways of living are expressed by people now. These speculative dimensions have a political significance – they tell us something about the forms of social organisation people yearn for, and what frustrates them about our current way of living. Understanding how public infrastructures influence these frustrations and desires is a key focus of my research.

The infrastructures which facilitate social life also send signals to us about how society is organised, what’s valued and powerful within it, and what seems likely to be valued in the future. They help structure our ideas about what society is and what it could be like.

In the case of the Post Office, the Horizon scandal demonstrates how the consequences can be severe and dystopian when something malfunctions within a key institution of this kind.

Historically, the Post Office played a key role in developing infrastructures of modern life that came to be cherished. Key among these, as historian has noted, is routine engagement with paid officials of the state, through Post Office staff and postal delivery workers, or “posties”.

Speaking to Post Office workers and posties has long been among the most positively regarded interactions that an ordinary person routinely has with state infrastructures. Local post offices and posties have represented valued senses of local knowledge, community overwatch and benevolent officialdom.

Crown post offices (the larger branches in the network), often inhabiting a significant spot in a town or city centre, have done their bit too, contributing a sense of civic importance to a place, alongside libraries and town halls. They have provided access to a professional, knowledgeable human interface between a complex system of multiple state services, and those who rely on them.

But our positive engagements with this state system have been placed under decades of increasing strain. Privatisation has flowed from a creeping rejection of the idea that publicly owned public services could ever function beautifully. This, in turn, has left the services we need on a daily basis under-resourced.

The condition of crown post offices has reflected this. Their interiors often emanate a stark sense of minimal upkeep and only grudging repair. Already, many crown post offices have been closed. Where their services have not fully disappeared, they have been precariously relegated to space in retailers such as WH Smiths.

Meanwhile, the way we communicate, shop and socialise has been altering dramatically. Digital communication technology is impressing itself ever further into our social lives. Technology has deeply embedded associations with the future, but with this also comes a sense of unavoidability. The way AI is spoken about, as something set to bring inevitable and consequential transformations of our lives – whether we like it or not – is a case in point.

Both of these things – the neglect of physical places where we interact with state services and the increasing technologisation of social life – contribute to a growing sense of anachronism about places like the post office. The idea that a public service might attend to the public good in a well-appointed, pleasant, urban public setting feels, for no good reason, like a relic of the past.

All this affects the ways we imagine social futures. It brings a false air of inevitability to the loss of things people still need and care deeply about.

When talking with users of post offices for my research, there was a simultaneous sense among them that posties and post offices contributed vital resources to everyday life, and that technology meant these things were not likely to survive much further into the future. This was often regarded as something to be accepted, even as it was acknowledged that what was going to be lost was something important and irreplaceable. 

But such losses are not inevitable. They are a political choice built on two key failures – failure to challenge the idea that well-funded, publicly owned and run public services are unaffordable, and failure to envisage ways of organising public services in the digital age, such that they retain the vital material contributions they make to places. 

Further losses to the crown post office network would represent a sad and, I believe, unnecessary extension of these failures.

, Research Assistant, School of Social Sciences, University of Ұ������

This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. .

Do you want to learn more about this facility, the kinds of projects that can benefit from it, and how this kind of work can be supported within the University?

We invite you to join us for a methods@manchester staff training session which introduces you to the Data Visualisation Observatory.

This staff training session is for any UoM member of staff who is interested in finding out more about the Data Visualisation Observatory (DVO) for research purposes. 

You might be:

• A researcher working on a project or going for funding and interested in how you can utilise the DVO in your work
• A PGR supervisor who is working out whether the DVO could be useful for PGR(s) you are supervising
• Working with industry partners and see a potential use for DVO in your collaborations
• Wanting to learn more about this facility for your future projects and collaborations.

You can find out more about the session and register .

If you are a PGR who is interested in finding out more about the DVO, please contact methods@manchester.ac.uk.

The (MIOIR) at The University of Ұ������ hosted the 13th Annual Workshop on Medical Innovation and Healthcare (WOMI) from 11 to 13 December 2024. This year’s event brought together 23 participants from several countries to discuss contemporary issues in medical and healthcare innovation. 

WOMI is an international network of researchers dedicated to studying innovation, entrepreneurship, and the organisation of research and development within healthcare organisations, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and broader life sciences. The annual workshop serves as a platform for the core group of researchers and invited guests to engage in in-depth discussions on early-stage work and key themes in the field. Themes included innovation dynamics, cross-organisational collaboration and entrepreneurial activities in life sciences. 

This year’s conference was organised and chaired by Ronnie Ramlogan and Dimitri Gagliardi together with Professor Maureen McKelvey (University of Gothenburg). They invited discussions on various critical topics, including the adoption of AI in medicine, innovative business models for healthcare, and the integration of pharmacogenetics/genomics into the NHS and other health systems. 

Reflecting on the event, Professor Maureen Mckelvey remarked:

A key takeaway from the event was the recognition of the challenges and opportunities in integrating advanced innovations, such as pharmacogenetics and AI, into healthcare systems. This aligns with the overarching goals of WOMI to advance research and policy insights through interdisciplinary collaboration. 

The 2024 event was a collaboration between the Ұ������ Institute of Innovation Research at The University of Ұ������ and the University of Gothenburg’s U-GOT KIES Center. 

It also received funding support from the project ‘The Organisation and Diffusion of Translational Research: Can Cardiovascular Medicine learn from Oncology? Case Studies of Pharmacogenomics in the NHS’ (ES/W011484/1) and Swedish Research Council, Professor McKelvey’s Distinguished Professor Programme (VR DNR 2017-03360) ‘Knowledge-intensive Entrepreneurial Ecosystems’.&�Բ�����;

To learn more about the WOMI community and its ongoing contributions to medical innovation, . 

The University of Ұ������ is one of three stakeholders in the organisation, and each year offers a diverse series of workshops for the Festival of Libraries. These workshops are organised by the research platform and delivered by academics across the . 

The award went to the Festival of Libraries for its 2023 programme which included a vibrant selection of dance, theatre, music, comic art, poetry and family events, all of which were free.

Headline events featured Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, Drag Artist Cheddar Gorgeous, award-winning poet Raymond Antrobus and Icelandic novelist Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir in residence at John Rylands Research Institute and Library.

The University of Ұ������’s 2023 event offerings included a workshop looking at dictionaries and word meanings, delivered by the Linguistic Diversity Collective,‘Writing for Wellbeing’ workshops led by poets and authors from the Centre for New Writing, and a family-friendly session exploring food in children’s literature, run by the Programme in American Studies.

Head of the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, Thomas Schmidt, commented:

The Festival team, including Creative Ұ������ Director John McAuliffe, took to the stage to accept the award at the ' ceremony at The Hilton, Deansgate, which took place on 23 November.

The next will take place 4-8 June 2025.

Governance of Policy Failure Risks in Mission-Oriented Innovation Policies (MOIPs) 

is the Lead Principal Investigator on a collaborative research initiative titled Governance of Policy Failure Risks in the Design and Implementation of Mission-Oriented Innovation Policies. The project is supported by an international consortium including Dr Seweryn Krupnik (Jagiellonian University, Poland) and Dr Alexandra Mallett (Carleton University, Canada), with funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Polish National Science Centre (NCN), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). 

Mission oriented innovation policies (MOIP) are a new generation of transformative policies aimed at fostering innovations that help address complex societal challenges. The uncertain, multilevel, and complex character of MOIP exacerbates the risk of policy failure, i.e., the risk of the policies not delivering their intended goals, leading to ineffective policy support and growing distrust towards governments.

This project aims to analyse policy failure risks in the design and implementation of MOIP and identify suitable risk governance approaches to address them. To do so the project analyses specific MOIP initiatives with sustainability related goals in three selected countries (United Kingdom, Poland and Canada) using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (to identify necessary and/or sufficient links through systematic cross-case comparison) and Process Tracing (to construct key causal mechanisms at the within-case level). The research contributes to a better understanding of MOIP failure risks and their governance, which can in turn help reduce policy failure and increase levels of trust in institutions and public authorities.

Investigating the Relationship between Science Diplomacy and Global Democracy, Governance, and Trust (DGT)

as co-PI and join a global consortium led by Dr Cassidy R. Sugimoto (Georgia Institute of Technology) on the project ‘Investigating the Relationship between Science Diplomacy and Global DGT: The Role of Inclusive Metascience Observatories (IMSO4DIPLO)’. This multidisciplinary team includes experts from the University of São Paulo, Adam Mickiewicz University, Stellenbosch University, CNRS, and Université de Montréal. The project is funded by ANR, FAPESP, NCN, NRF, NSF, SSHRC, and UKRI.

This project is examining the role of evidence-informed science diplomacy as a strategic instrument to strengthen democracy, governance, and trust (DGT). The project will utilise qualitative and quantitative methods to (1) understand the relationship between science diplomacy and DGT; (2) conceptualise and operationalise metascience observatories and investigate the extent to which they can be leveraged to improve science diplomacy; and (3) explore how threats to DGT could be mitigated and opportunities seized through inclusive metascience observatories.

The outputs will include both academic-oriented products, as well as communications to policymakers and the wider public, honouring the practices of open science. In addition to these products, outcomes will include communities of practice for science diplomats and training opportunities for early-career researchers.

This dynamic event showcased the collective insights and innovative ideas of participants from diverse regions, including Finland, Ghana, Mainland China, Mexico, Norway, Taiwan, the UK, the US, and Hong Kong and Macao SARs. 

The conference marked a significant milestone in fostering international collaboration, featuring both in-person and virtual engagement. Since 2018, the ChinaHE network—led by a team at the Ұ������ Institute of Education (MIE)—has provided a platform to examine China’s evolving role in global higher education. 

The team, of MIE colleagues (Cheon Yin Chan, Heather Cockayne, Rui He, Miguel Lim and Jenna Mittelmeier) are delighted to see the ChinaHE network continue to grow, fostering a rich exchange of ideas that can shape the future of education in and beyond China. 

This year’s partnership with Lingnan University and their academic team led by Lucy Baohua Wu and Anne Tang has been especially impactful, reflecting years of collaboration and mutual commitment to advancing research and understanding. 

The visit to Hong Kong also included collaborative activities with Hang Seng University, The Education University of Hong Kong, The University of Hong Kong, and The Chinese University of Hong Kong, to enrich the conference experience with diverse perspectives and local expertise. 

For additional insights and highlights from the conference, visit Lingnan University’s or the Hang Seng University’s . 

About ChinaHE 

is a global network dedicated to exploring China’s growing influence in higher education through annual conferences, research collaboration, and knowledge-sharing. The network, based at the Ұ������ Institute of Education, has become a central hub for academics and practitioners committed to addressing the opportunities and challenges shaping higher education in China and the world. 

A recent event, “What's In Your Wardrobe? Telling & Sharing Clothing Stories”, encouraged attendees to bring items of clothing, and delve into the associations, memories, and connections these special items held. 

It explored how we use stories to understand ourselves and our relationships, encapsulating the principles of the Being Human Festival, which celebrates how the Humanities inspire and enrich our daily lives, and help us navigate a changing world. 

The event was held at Ascension Church Hall in Hulme, and featured Jolene Sheehan (community workshop lead, poet, artist, and more), Professor Sophie Woodward (from The University of Ұ������’s Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives), and Dr Benjamin Wild (Reader in Fashion Narratives at Ұ������ Fashion Institute, Ұ������ Metropolitan University). 

All three speakers incorporate storytelling into their work. For Sophie and Ben, stories are the threads that connect us to our lives, identities, and imaginations. Jolene leads the project, which aims to connect people to each other, themselves, and their memories through writing. We were delighted to have a number of participants from this project join us for the event. 

The stories behind the items of clothing were moving, engaging and uplifting. 

One woman brought a prayer dress, a loose-fitting garment with a scarf, typically worn by Muslim women during prayer. This item has gained additional significance during the Israel-Gaza conflict, as Palestinian women have taken to wearing their prayer clothes day and night, staying covered and prepared for any situation. 

Another attendee brought the dress she wore on her first date with her then-boyfriend (now husband) nearly 40 years ago. The dress has adapted with changing fashions and hemlines but has remained a constant in her life, standing in stark contrast to the fast fashion dominating our high streets. 

Such items and shared stories were deeply individual, yet they connected people within the room and beyond, highlighting important familial relationships and communities bound by empathy and solidarity. 

“Talking is important” said one attendee and I couldn’t agree more. 

To keep up-to-date with methods@manchester activities and events please here or connect via our . 

The University of Ұ������ is delighted to announce a new collaboration with English National Opera, as they announce the first wave of plans for a major new partnership between the company and the city-region of Greater Ұ������ for the next three years, enabling ENO to be firmly established within Greater Ұ������ by 2029.  

The ENO Greater Ұ������ partnership, which includes projects across the city-region, covers every aspect of opera production and celebrates new possibilities for the artform. This announcement represents the beginning of longer-term strategic partnerships with venues and organisations across Greater Ұ������. 

It will include major contemporary works, new work development in opera, presenting ENO signature classics, interdisciplinary experimentations, creating operatic experiences by, with and for communities, and developing the opera makers of today and tomorrow.

The first wave of projects and partnerships announced, include collaborative projects with The University of Ұ������, Factory International, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, The Lowry, The Bridgewater Hall, Walk the Plank, Royal Northern College of Music, and The Hallé.

The University of Ұ������ and ENO will work together on Tuning Into Opera. This invites the people of Greater Ұ������ to explore the opportunities for the artform, engage with new communities and discuss what it means to have an opera company based in the city-region. 

We will bring a range of perspectives together, including artists, local communities, researchers and the wider sector to discuss how the artform can and must continue to grow. The first of these events will take place at Ұ������ International Festival at Aviva Studios in July 2025.  

Professor John McAuliffe, Director of Creative Ұ������ at The University of Ұ������ said: “The University of Ұ������ is delighted to be working in partnership with colleagues at ENO, as part of their move to the city-region. Together, we are planning a shared programme of work, that will look at opera as part of Greater Ұ������'s cultural landscape, listening for the sound of new collaboration and creating more opportunities for our students, staff, artists and research in creative health across the music sector.”

Jenny Mollica, Chief Executive of English National Opera, said: “The projects we are announcing today mark the first wave of our developing partnership with Greater Ұ������, which will be fully implemented by 2029. Working together over the last year, we could not be more clear that Greater Ұ������ is the right place to put down roots, a place where we can develop, expand and innovate. Where, building on the region’s legendary reputation as the heart of music making in this country, we can make a difference to audiences and communities, help invest in the next generation of talent and break new ground in the future of the artform – locally, nationally and internationally.”

ENO’s Greater Ұ������ partnerships and programme will continue to develop alongside the continuation of annual seasons at the London Coliseum, and ENO’s nationwide education and health programmes.

Further information:

• Visit the .

This November, Bob Dylan performed the final concerts of his at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The tour picked up where Dylan left off just before the COVID pandemic – . But now at the age of 83, the concerts might well be Dylan’s last. 

The Rough and Rowdy Ways tour was billed as running from 2021 to 2024, but at the time of publication, there seem to be no future tour dates on the horizon. As Dylan himself wondered on his most recent album:  

Dylan has diced with death more than once – think of his infamous , or his serious – and death has preoccupied his songs increasingly in recent years. Throughout this tour, Dylan’s thoughts have been heavily focused on his own mortality and his own legacy. 

If the Albert Hall concerts this year are to be his last on the road, then it’s a fitting venue at which to bow out, having first played it nearly 60 years ago. Back then, Dylan was a restless, hungry artist, reinventing his sound, his image, his voice with every album – sometimes, within months of release.

Between 1962 and 1966, Dylan went from being a Midwest folk singer to the , via , rewriting the popular music songbook as he went. 

With each successive regeneration, he seemed determined not only to redefine rock and popular music, but to alienate his audience . He was an artist in search of answers, who didn’t give those in his wake time to catch their breath. Sixty years on, and now well into his ninth decade, things haven’t changed.

His own version 

Dylan’s final night at the Albert Hall was a summation of how he remains a defiant artist still forging new ideas. The performance contained highlights from his entire career. Eight of the 17 songs were written and released before the 1990s, while everything else was from the 2020 album after which the tour is named. But each song was radically reinvented, reworked to Dylan’s ever-changing vision, with some of the songs even being rearranged during his three-day residency at the Albert Hall.

Take (2020), Dylan’s late masterpiece about the process of creation. In the song, the narrator – a modern-day Prometheus, maybe even Dylan himself – tells of his efforts to construct his vision from “limbs and livers and brains and hearts”.

The song’s arrangement at the start of the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour was as a brooding, Tex-Mex noir. But by the tour’s end, Dylan had stripped his ode to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to its essentials, until all that was left by the final Royal Albert Hall concert was Dylan’s voice. 

He rapped the lyrics, accompanied by his own sparse piano backing and the occasional guitar flourish. It was a performance that evoked similarities to Dylan’s rapid-style solo delivery of songs like (1965) on the same stage in the 1960s. 

My Own Version of You is a song in which Dylan reflects on his own artistic and creative processes. And in its radical and stark new arrangement in this final concert, Dylan was returning to how he started: as an artist whose main tools have always been . It’s the reason he was awarded the in 2016, after all.

It’s perhaps unsurprising then that the entire concert was a reflection on the process of creation. Dylan’s process is to reshape, disassemble, reassemble and strip back. While the process is undoubtedly frustrating for some in the audience, as they struggle to guess what song Dylan is performing, it is also exhilarating to watch an artist reinventing himself and his songs in real time. 

They become assemblages of the old and the new, the found and the borrowed. (1971) is no longer an elegiac sing-along song, but instead a reggae-influenced tune via Dylan’s own down-and-dirty blues of the Time Out of Mind album (1997), with a bit of his born-again gospel thrown in for good measure.

(1968) is no longer Dylan’s homage to Jimi Hendrix’s career-defining cover version, but a fable of hell trapped on a loop from which the narrator seeks escape, with echoes of (1990). And (1981) becomes a melancholic requiem by an old man with no regrets, determined to rage against time. It conjures memories of Dylan’s version of , performed at the Royal Albert Hall in 2013. 

If this was to be Dylan’s last ever live performance, then what does it say about him and his place in music history? Well, that he remains as vital an artist as he was in the 1960s, one who continues to reinvent himself, who continues to chase that restless, hungry feeling and who doesn’t look back, but constantly forward. 

Dylan would leave behind an expansive body of work – both studio albums and live recordings – for scholars, critics and audiences alike to . And in that rediscovery, they will learn much about what it means to be an artist.

, Senior Lecturer in Creative and Cultural Industries, University of Ұ������

This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. .