The Eastern Arc Podcast: Recent Episodes
Phil Ward
The Eastern Academic Research Consortium, or Arc, brings together three radical, interdisciplinary universities on the eastern seaboard of England: the University of East Anglia, the University of Essex, and the University of Kent.
For fifty years they have been home to socially aware, radical and disruptive research and education, forged in communities built on equality, respect, and intellectual freedom.
The Eastern Arc Podcast is an opportunity to listen in on experts from across the Arc discussing ideas and issues in the news today.
Established in 2006, the NIHR has an annual budget of more than £1bn. It funds health and social care, and has been seen as the ‘research arm of the NHS’.
However, many who do research that is relevant to the funder are deterred from applying because its structure can seem confusing, its priorities obscure, and its processes unclear.
This podcast is a recording of a live event we held in March 2022, which provided a clear, straightforward overview of how the funder is structured, its 10 basic schemes, and how applications are assessed, together with insights into how you can frame your application for the best chance of success, and where you can find out more.
In December 2020 we talked to four researchers about a project that looked at volunteering in the four nations of the UK during the pandemic. At the time they had just received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council and were just beginning to get started on the research.
In this episode our Director Phil Ward talks to them a year on to see how the project went, what they learnt and where they go from here. As well as two of the original researchers we talked to others who undertook the research within each of the four nations.
In this edition of the Eastern Arc podcast series we hear about a groundbreaking £1.5m project that seeks to better understand how we can work sustainably to manage our oceans. The project, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, aims to develop a methodology that will enable us to more robustly quantify the effect that fishing has on the marine ecosystem.
This is the second special edition podcast that explores the ESRC-funded project, Mobilising Voluntary Action: Learning from Today, Prepared for Tomorrow, which involved academics from across EARC.
In the last episode EARC Director Phil Ward talked to people who worked for charities and explained how their organisations coped with having to ‘pause’ volunteering during the pandemic. This time he’s talking to those whose work actually increased during the pandemic to cope with an increase in demand for their services.
They are ‘befriending’ charities, and they provide a lifeline for those who are isolated or lonely within society. Their services had never been more important than when the pandemic first hit. We hear about the exponential rise in the number of people seeking their help, and how they were able to deal with it.
This special edition sees us stepping beyond the EARC universities to talk to charities about how the pandemic has affected their volunteering work.
What is 'natural capital'? The term has become increasingly prevalent as we try to understand the value of the natural world around us, particularly as we grapple with the challenges of the climate crisis and try to live more sustainably.
But is it possible to quantify and fully understand natural capital? When we are dealing with such complex interrelationships, can we robustly assess the effect and value of the ecosystem of which we’re part?
Our 17th podcast differs from our previous editions. Rather than having a panel of experts, we hear from Prof Alan Finlayson, Professor of Political & Social Theory at UEA,who spoke at our conference 2021 about online extremism and how political theorists need to go beyond the seminar room to understand new challenges to the liberal consensus.
This is the third and final of a short series of three podcasts that look at the decolonising the curriculum. It looks at the future of the decolonising the curriculum movement.
This is the second of a short series of three podcasts that look at the decolonising the curriculum. It asks how white is the curriculum, and how receptive are universities to change?
This is the first of a short series of three podcasts that look at the decolonising the curriculum. It looks at the background to the decolonising the curriculum movement, and the central role played by students.
In this episode we hear about a project that has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) that will look at how this sector has responded to the pandemic, and the differences in the response in each of the UK’s four nations.
The project developed from an Eastern Arc workshop that took place in 2019. We hear from four members of the team about the project, and the wider context of how the government works – or doesn’t work – with voluntary organisations in each jurisdiction. Taking part are:
Experts from Essex and UEA are joined by a colleague from the Open University of Mauritius to look at how individuals and communities develop resilience.
In the final part of our US elections mini-series, we look at the different strategies that may be used by both parties. To discuss these we have gathered three EARC experts to help us to understand the broader context: Emma Long (UEA), Royce Carroll (Essex) and Rubrick Biegon (Kent).
In Episode 9 we looked at the underlying issues which will inform the American presidential election, including coronavirus and civil unrest, as well as some more surprising concerns that voters have.
In this episode Eastern Arc experts Emma Long (UEA), Royce Carroll (Essex) and Rubrick Biegon (Kent) take a step back and look at the history that has shaped the current system, including the electoral college and issues of faith.
The forthcoming US presidential election, due to take place on 3 November, is shaping up to be one of the toughest, angriest, and most hard-fought of recent years. This is the first in a series of three podcasts looking at three key areas of the campaign. Emma Long (UEA), Joyce Carroll (Essex) and Rubrick Biegon (Kent) look at the underlying issues which will inform the election, including coronavirus and civil unrest, as well as some more surprising concerns that voters have.
In this episode we look at one of the projects we funded last year. Dr Danielle Tucker (Essex) and Dr Alison Dean (Kent) are joined by their former colleague Dr Pamela Yeow, and two research assistants, Dr Zara Babakordi and Dr Aleksandra Besevic, to look at how households manage single use plastic.
Consumers are increasingly aware of the ethical implications of the decisions they make. However, there has been relatively little research on how decisions around ethical consumer spending are made within a household, and the part that each member of the household plays in the push to reduce our environmental impact.
In Episode 6 we looked at the history of human engagement with the environment in the Americas. In this episode we follow this up by looking at the artistic and creative response to the environment. Dr Hazel Marsh (UEA), Prof Susan Oliver (Essex) and Prof Karen Jones (Kent) look at several examples of artists and projects that help us to understand our relationship with the environment.
In this podcast Dr Hazel Marsh (UEA), Prof Susan Oliver (Essex) and Prof Karen Jones (Kent) look at the relationship between humans and their environment in the Americas. They examine the exploratory voyages of the nineteenth century, the myth of ‘hyperabundance’, and how the climate crisis has focused minds and developed a new understanding and respect for the environment.
Isolation, inactivity, boredom, uncertainty and powerlessness, as well as anxiety and exhaustion from balancing work and additional pressures at home, are having an impact on our mental and physical health during lockdown. Professor Anne Marie Minihane (UEA), Dr Valerie Gladwell (Essex) and Dr Glen Davison (Kent) discuss what we mean by wellbeing, how lockdown has impacted on it, and what we can do to keep healthy and well in the current situation.
In this episode, Prof Mark Smales (Kent) explains how scientists currently test for Covid, and looks at two alternative forms of testing that are in the pipeline. He is joined by Dr Javier Andreu Perez (Essex) and Prof Carl Philpott (UEA). Javier is developing an app that analyses a patient’s cough, and Carl looks at smell loss, and explains why it has now been formally included in the WHO’s list of official symptoms for Covid-19.
Research funding calls have increasingly short deadlines, and sometimes the research that is needed is in response to pressing external events – like the Covid-19 pandemic.
But how can researchers develop collaborations quickly in order to respond to these tight timeframes? Dr Gina Reinhardt (Essex) and Dr Jeremy Rossman (Kent) talk about two networks of which they’re part: the Disaster and Emergency Research Network (DERN), and the Research-Aid Networks.
How do we return to normality after the Covid-19 lockdown? Dr Gina Reinhardt (Essex) and Dr Jeremy Rossman (Kent) discuss how different countries are currently managing, the actions that now need to be taken, and the possible timeframe for reclaiming our previous lives. Professor Diana Bell (UEA) looks at how the wild meat trade needs to be reformed if we are to avoid future zoonotic pandemics.
The coronavirus was first identified in December 2020, but where did it come from and how is it different from the Sars virus in 2002 and the avian flu virus in 2009? Professor Diana Bell (UEA), Dr Gina Reinhardt (Essex) and Dr Jeremy Rossman (Kent) look at the emergence of the virus, and explain the difference between a ‘critical event’ and a ‘disaster’, as well as looking at how such disasters are managed.