➡️ Reminder! Funding Announcement: University Internally-distributed Funding (IDF) Spring Call 2024

The Spring 2024 Call for internally-distributed funding applications is now open. The call was launched on 4th March 2024, and funding is available across a wide range of disciplines - full details are available on the website.

Please note the deadline for applications is now 11pm on Tuesday 9 April 2024.

A schedule of future calls is available on the Internally-distributed Funding webpage. 

If you have any questions please email re-internal-funding-team@york.ac.uk.

Departmental Events

There are no Departmental Seminars next week due to the Easter Vacation. Apologies for any disappointment.

Other Events

Second workshop to support interdisciplinary teaching

Date / Time: Thursday 25th April, 11:30 - 13:00

Location: TBC

The second workshop in the Developing a Toolkit for Interdisciplinary Teaching series will take place on Thursday 25th April 11:30am - 1pm and will focus on designing appropriate assessments. In this workshop, we will explore potential difficulties students might experience when doing assessments across different departments. We'll share experiences of assessments used in current interdisciplinary modules and the challenges that may be preventing students from fulfilling their potential. For example, do assessments require knowledge of discipline specific writing styles, do students lack the academic skills to be able to reach their potential in set assessments, and how can we redesign assessments to enable all students on the module to succeed? The workshop will also include presentations from a few colleagues across the university who will share their methods of assessments. This workshop is designed for colleagues currently teaching and/or developing modules taken by students from more than one department. Programme Leads of any interdisciplinary programme are also welcome to attend.

Please note, this session will be in person. The room will be confirmed nearer the time.

To register for this workshop, please complete this registration form. 

If you have any questions, please contact Dr Sally Quinn (sally.quinn@york.ac.uk).

🎫 Building interdisciplinary research culture to tackle environmental sustainability challenges: From novice to ninja (aimed at MCRs)

Dates: 9-10 and 22 May, 4, 12 and 26 June, Various locations

Unlock interdisciplinary research for environmental sustainability through a Research England-funded training program at the University of York. Gain new insights, communication skills, and confidence to tackle environmental challenges collaboratively. This 5 session training programme gives you the chance to develop a project, receive mentorship, and pitch for funding, fostering a culture of interdisciplinary excellence.

• Session 1: 9 and 10 May, coach from University 9 May at 17.00, 10 May full day training session, 09:00 - 16:30, coach return to University

• Session 2: 22 May, University of York, 09:00 - 13.30

• Session 3, 4 June, University of York, 09:00 - 13.30

• Session 4, 12 June, University of York, 09:00 - 13.30

• Session 5, 26 June, The Guildhall, York, 09:00 - 13.30: “Dragons’ Den” style pitching session with special guest Dragons to secure priming funds for your proposal  

Learn more and apply now! Apply by: Fri 19 April, 2024, to secure your spot. 

🎫 Introducing... STEMMing the Leaky Pipeline

A small group of us in chemistry have started a group called STEMMing the Leaky Pipeline, in which we hope to bring together postgrads and staff that have been affected by the Leaky Pipeline Effect to socialise and create an environment for people to feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and experiences. Through this we are also running seminars and "Coffee and Conversation with..." sessions with staff (especially those affected by the Leaky Pipeline Effect) from across the different STEMM departments to highlight their career paths and their experiences throughout. These events are run in an informal interview style with open discussion. So far these events have been a great success in Chemistry and have really built some momentum, we’re really keen to involve other departments across the University. If anyone would like to join our committee, help us spread the word across other departments or participate as a speaker we would love to have you. Feel free to drop an email to (lat531@york.ac.uk)

For further information on the leaky pipeline and some of the publications that inspired the group see links below:

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/edi/edi-blog/blog-034.aspx

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.800120/full

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.oprd.8b00378

Our Upcoming event: STEMMing the Leaky Pipeline

Date / Time: Wednesday 3rd April, 13:00 - 14:00

Location: Chemistry C/B/101

Coffee and Conversation with....

Guest: Professor Lucy Carpenter

The STEMMing the Leaky Pipeline group are pleased to announce their next event in their monthly series of "Coffee and Conversation with..." for PG students and Staff affected by the Leaky Pipeline Effect. We’re very excited to have Professor Lucy Carpenter as our guest to discuss balancing her research career with scientific leadership roles, alongside working part-time and raising children.

Any questions please feel free to drop an email to Lucy (lat531@york.ac.uk)

🎫 Webinar: producing biohydrogen for the UK transport sector

Date / Time: 25th April, 10:00 - 12:00

Location: Online

Join H2Boost partners on 25th April, 10-12pm, online as they research a commercially viable and sustainable process for producing biohydrogen. During this webinar academic and industrial partners will give an overview of ambitions and outputs. A Q&A session will provide an opportunity for participants to engage with experts and gain deeper insights into our objectives, methodologies, and potential impact. Click here to register!

Dissertation survey

Please help one of our students by filling in their dissertation survey on shark conservation.

Click here to take the short survey.

Good News and Media Engagement

⭐ Jake Spong gave a 12 minute talk at the Nordic Oikos 2024 conference on the first project of his PhD, featuring flying crochet micrarthropods and mesofauna!

⭐ Andy Dougill is a co-author on a paper in Nature Communications on 'Challenges and ways forward for sustainable weather and climate services in Africa' - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-46742-6

⭐ As a co-lead of the AFN Network, Sarah Bridle ran a two day workshop in Sheffield, facilitating sessions that brought together nearly 200 people (researchers, business leaders, policy-makers and voluntary organisations working to change in the agri-food system) to identify priorities for research in relation to agri-food's transtion towards net zero. Sarah was also interviewed on the Sustainable(ish) podcast about food and climate change. Click here to listen! And finally, Sarah chaired a panel discussion on Food Production and Consumption as part of the University of York's Sustainability Week 2024. Click here to watch!

⭐ Congratulations to Toby Carter who has had his second thesis paper published on the impact of indoor cooking and cleaning on outdoor air quality: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2024/em/d3em00512g

⭐ Congratulations to Jun Li who has had the second paper coming out of the Syngenta funded Wormeries project funded. This one reviews and evaluates existing models that estimate bio-concentration of organic chemicals in earthworms.

Got an item to share in our next newsletter?

Great! Please add it to the Research, Teaching, Outreach and Good News Spreadsheet. Please use the most relevant tab for the activity/news and ensure that the description details are written out in full as you would like it to be presented. If your item does not fit the spreadsheet, please email it to environment-pa@york.ac.uk by 12:00 next Thursday.

Thank you for your help in making the newsletter a great way to catch up on all of the Department's latest news and activities

➡️ Updated Accountability Structure 👀

Please click here to view the department's updated Accountability Structure (log-in required), which outlines the areas for which each member of our Leadership team is accountable.

Having a clear structure which divides responsibilities between the team allows us to be more efficient, agile and proactive. It also helps to ensure that the roles within EGLT are transparent and can be clearly understood by the department, by our wider UoY community and by our external partners.

Alternatively, you can click here to view a PDF version of the updated Accountability Structure.

Our Accountability Structure remains a work in progress and if you have any feedback or questions, please email environment-pa@york.ac.uk.

➡️ Semester Timetable for future years ⏲️

For those that are interested, please click here to view the semester timetable for future years.

Departmental Events

There are no Departmental Seminars next week due to the Easter Vacation. Apologies for any disappointment.

Other Events

York Science Communication Socials Returns! Wed 10 April

Date / Time: Wednesday 10th April, from 18:00

Location: House of Trembling Madness on Lendal.

Returning after a Covid-induced Hiatus the York Science Communication Socials are a relaxed environment for those with an interest in engaging the public in science to meet, make friends, and network.

This is open to both people within the university and those outside it. The next event will be held on Wednesday 10th April from 18:00 onwards at the House of Trembling Madness on Lendal.

You can use any of the following to be notified about upcoming events:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/747484712369859/ 𝕏 (Formerly Twitter): https://www.twitter.com/yorkscicomm
Event Notification Mailing List Sign-Up: https://forms.gle/JWihqyPKBoPtmTok8

For more information please contact James at James.lees@york.ac.uk

Dissertation survey

Please help one of our UG students by filling in their dissertation survey on the adoption of renewable energy.

Click here to take the short survey.

Good News and Media Engagement

Naomi Holmes is co-author of a paper titled 'Post-little ice age glacial geomorphology of contrasting topographic settings at Skálafellsjökull, southeast Iceland' led by Sheffield Hallam PhD student Sarah Walton, published in Journal of Maps. Congratulations!

⭐ Congratulations to Elaine Azzopardi whose paper published in People and Nature last year is within the top ten most downloaded of the journal! The full paper is entitled ‘What are heritage values? Integrating natural and cultural heritage into environmental valuation.'

⭐ Andy Dougill is a co-author on a review paper with authors linked to the ARUA Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Food Systems on 'Reorienting research investments toward under-researched crops for sustainable food systems'

⭐ Josh Kirshner gave a departmental seminar in the Sociology Department at UoY this week. The talk was titled 'Corridors as empty signifiers: the entanglement of Mozambique’s colonial past and present in its development corridors,' and was based on a recent paper on the topic.

⭐ Congratulations to Lindsay Stringer who is a co-author on a new paper published in PLOS One: Akhtar-Schuster M, Stringer LC, Barger N 2024. Fast-tracking action on the Sustainable Development Goals by enhancing national institutional arrangements.

⭐ Mark Hodson and colleagues have been awarded a 2 year research grant from the Leverhulme Trust that will pay for a two year PDRA at York and 1 year PDRAs at Leeds and Liverpool to investigate the impacts of increased rates of flooding on earthworm diversity. More specifically they will investigate soil water cotents at which earthworms start to avoid soil and inter-species and -population differences between earthworms and earthworm cocoons in tolerance of oxygen depletion in soil due to flooding. Outputs should include earthworm hazard maps due to climate change-related increased rates of flooding around the UK.

⭐ On 26 February, Sam Buckton and Ioan Fazey held a meeting with Colin Nott (Namibia Resource Consultants) to offer advice for a 'national regenerative program' for the three main farmers' unions in Namibia (to which Colin is technical advisor) to support a transition to regenerative agriculture in the country. Colin requested advice after reading the paper on regenerative systems by Sam and colleagues.

⭐ On 20 March, Sam Buckton gave an invited talk to the Complex Systems, Big Data and Informatics Initiative research centre at Lincoln University (New Zealand) about his research on regenerative social-ecological systems.

⭐ On 20th March, Felicia Liu gave a guest lecture at The Bartlett School of Planning on green FinTech and stewarding sustainable transitions of data centre infrastructures.

⭐ Naomi Holmes has been awarded funding by the RGS (with IBG) Ray Y Gildea Jr Award for the project 'Building inclusivity and accessibility into your fieldwork'. The project team comprises: Georgia Ramsay (UoY Education), Lynda Yorke (Bangor University) and Chloe Searle (Independent Field Studies Tutor).

Research Opportunities and Updates

Calling all Social Sciences researchers!

All researchers in the Faculty of Social Sciences are welcome to register for our upcoming partnership development workshop: 'Bridging Boundaries: Fostering Partnerships for Researchers in the Social Sciences'. Kindly supported by Professor Kiran Trehan, the workshop will bring together practitioners from education, government and industry to discuss approaches to building impactful and sustainable partnerships to support your research.

This will be a great opportunity to hear from expert speakers, develop your networks, and share best practice with colleagues across the Faculty.

The workshop is taking place on Monday 13th May between 10am - 1pm at the Guildhall, and you can register to attend here. More details about the workshop are included in our promotional video.

Please contact gul.dag@york.ac.uk if you have any queries about this workshop.

Got an item to share in our next newsletter?

Great! Please add it to the Research, Teaching, Outreach and Good News Spreadsheet. Please use the most relevant tab for the activity/news and ensure that the description details are written out in full as you would like it to be presented. If your item does not fit the spreadsheet, please email it to environment-pa@york.ac.uk by 12:00 next Thursday.

Thank you for your help in making the newsletter a great way to catch up on all of the Department's latest news and activities

Departmental Events

STEAR Easter social event! Thursday 21st March, 5 - 6:30pm 🥚

Our student reps (STEAR) are organising an Easter social event. They're incredibly keen to have more staff attend these socials so they can build a community with us. They understand that when things go out of hours it may not be possible for staff to attend, but if you do have some spare time on Thursday 21st March (5-6.30pm) please do come along to our foyer.

Our students really want to celebrate with us and build a community so please do come along if you can, even if just for part of the event! 🥚

🌲 DEG Seminar

There is no seminar this week due to cancellation by the speaker. Apologies for any disappointment.

🌲 Sustainability Education Conversation

Date / Time: Wednesday 20th March at 12:05

Location: Zoom - Zoom link

Speakers: Dr Sarah Gretton and Alice Jackson

Title: Interdisciplinary Real-world Sustainability module

The Sustainability Enterprise Partnership Project module is a 15 credit ‘work related learning module’ that was piloted in semester 1 of the 2022/23 academic year with third year undergraduate science students (from Biological Sciences, Creative Computing, Geography, and Physics) at the University of Leicester. It was developed to build on an institutional project to provide sustainability audits for local business with student auditors. In this module, students work initially in groups and laterally individually, and are partnered with a local businesses. They use raw data (previously collected), to produce two pieces of work that were then fed back to the business to use. The Written Industry Report (group) provided the business with an overview of their current sustainability performance, with reference to relevant local and national policy and legislation as well as industry benchmarking data. Suggestions for which sustainability initiatives to aim towards and how to achieve those are provided in the Detailed Implementation Plan (individual). Alongside these, students complete a Professional Reflection Portfolio which includes their Carbon Literacy Training evidence form and some reflective questions about their skill development. This presentation will review the pilot delivery of this module, and discuss lessons learnt around the delivery of real-world interdisciplinary sustainability module.

Other Events

Neurodiversity Celebration Week 2024 - Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

The University is celebrating neurodiversity week from Monday 18th to Sunday 25th March 2024.
Click here to read more!

🎫 Research Seminar 15 March - Chemistry

Date / Time: Friday 15 March, 13:00-14:00

Location: C/A/122

Prof Peter O'Connor University of Warwick

Title: 'Advanced mass spectrometry approaches to molecular analysis in polymers, biomolecules, and small molecules' 

Modern advanced mass spectrometry offers remarkable, and very useful, capabilities that are not widely known outside of the mass spectrometry community. In this lecture, we will explore some of these relatively straightforward, but uncommon approached to molecular analysis. Our research laboratory at the University of Warwick focuses primarily on FTICR mass spectrometry, which offers the highest resolution and accuracy currently possible, but FTICR mass spectrometers also offer the highest experimental flexibility in terms of a wide variety of methods to generate fragments and analyse them. In this lecture, we will show the use of high resolution tandem mass spectrometry for study of the molecular structures of polymeric materials, where we also employ modified Kendrick mass defect analysis to rapidly separate the large number of fragment ions into a few fragment series which denote the endgroups and modifications. For biomolecule and small molecule analysis, the variety of tandem mass spectrometry approaches, including CID, ExD, IRMPD, and UVPD along with 2-dimensional mass spectrometry, allow for remarkably high cleavage coverage. We will show examples for proteins, proteomics, lipid analysis, and small pharmaceutical molecule analysis.

🎫 Call for interest: “Heritage” at York - Workshop on 10th May

Several departments in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities have research and teaching that relate, in one way or another, to “heritage” – also a buzzword for certain funders, and an attraction for students. We would like to explore ways of collaborating more effectively in this area. A first step is to learn more about relevant research that is already underway in the Faculty (and, where appropriate, beyond it).

We would therefore like to invite colleagues whose research touches in any way on the idea of “heritage” (however they define that term) to participate in a workshop on 10 May 2024, 2-5pm, in the Treehouse (BS/104, Berrick Saul Buiding). We ask participants to introduce their own heritage-related research in a short presentation of no more than 5 minutes and 5 slides.

Please indicate your interest by sending a short title for your 5-minute presentation to Laura Reid in History of Art (laura.reid@york.ac.uk) by 1 May 2024. The aim is to include all relevant research, so there will be no selection process, but we will try to organise the presentations into logical (or at least interesting) groups, and send a running order before the event.

Colleagues are also welcome to attend and participate in discussion without giving a presentation, though we hope that many colleagues will feel inspired to present their research. There will be a drinks reception after the workshop (5-6pm in the Treehouse).

Please join us if you can!

Nicky Milner, Laura Stewart, and Liz Prettejohn, The Heads of Department of Archaeology, History, and History of Art

Internship Opportunity

💻 Applications open for summer vacation on-campus internships

Careers and Placements invite academic departments and Professional Services to submit expressions of interest for recruiting students through the York Internships summer programme. APP (Access and Participation) and YCEDE funding may be available. If you wish to apply for funding, please submit your expression of interest by 31 March. Find out more via the bottom 'drop-down' on the York Internships web page. 

It's a brilliant opportunity to support current students in developing their employability through internships and gives colleagues an excellent way to fund a specific project of value to the Department.

Angela Purdham, Industry Liaison Officer

Good News and Media Engagement

Luke Andrews and Oliver Wilson will be hosting the Yorkshire Palaeoecology Group meeting in our department on the afternoon of the 24th April, 2024. This hybrid meeting is for anyone with an interest in archaeological or palaeoecological research. We are currently inviting people to register their interest in attending the meeting. If you're interested, please fill in this questionnaire. We warmly welcome all to join (despite the name, your work does not have to be relevant to Yorkshire to be of interest to this group!)

⭐ Richard Friend was quoted (and joint paper with Samarthia Thankappan and Bob Doherty et al was referenced) in article published in the Diplomat about the impact of hydropower development in the Mekong on fisheries and nutrition https://thediplomat.com/2024/02/where-have-all-the-mekong-rivers-fish-gone/

⭐ Richard Friend was invited to present his work on systemic risk to the Global FEWTure Alliance programme led by the University of Maryland.

⭐ Lindsay Stringer is a co-author on a paper published in One Earth which builds on her IPCC work and identifies the key research gaps in climate mobility. The full reference is: Simpson N, Gilmore EA, Siders AR, Holden P, Anderson B, Singh C, Sabour S, Stringer LC, Sterly H, Williams PA, Meyer ALS, Cundill G, Rosengaertner S, Nunow A, Amakrane K, Trisos CH. 2024. Research priorities for climate mobility. One Earth https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2024.02.002

⭐ Sarah Bridle was invited to appear as an expert speaker at a workshop held as part of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission's Food Conversation. The Food Conversation is a UK wide project asking citizens what they want from food. This workshop was introduction for citizens to the food system.

⭐ Congratulations to Jamie Carr, Banki Chunwate, Ellie Jew, Josh Kirshner, Rob Marchant and Lindsay Stringer, who together with colleagues from Nigeria and UCL published a new paper in Regional Environmental Change linked to Lindsay's Royal Society International Collaboration award: Salisu, A.T., Barau, A.S., Carr, J.A, Chunwate B, Jew EKK, Kirshner JD, Marchant RA, Tomei J, Stringer LC 2024 The forgotten bread oven: local bakeries, forests and energy transition in Nigeria. Reg Environ Change 24, 40 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-024-02194-8

⭐ Darpan Das along with Sohail Ahmad and Josh Kirshner published an article, titled 'Opportunities and challenges associated with the uptake of residential clean fuel usage,' in Current Environmental Health Reports. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-024-00438-7

⭐ Anika Haque was invited to the AXA IM UK headquarter in London on the 7th March to give a talk on her research. It was a very well attended event where more than 100 AXA employees were present.

⭐ Angela Purdham and the Employability Team welcomed back 9 of our Alumni to our Semester 2 Employability Showcase event 'Grill our Grads' in which all 4 UG programmes were represented. Our brilliant alumni shared their experiences, career journeys so far and top tips with UG and PG students from the Department before taking their questions in the panel session. Valuable connections were made over the networking session. We will soon have some snapshot footage to use at future events and visit days thanks to Paul Drury-Bradey. Thank you to various colleagues in the Student Services Team for their help with the planning and promotion.

⭐ Christopher Lyon published a new paper, ‘Words matter: ‘enduring intolerable suffering’ and the provider-side peril of Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada’, in the Journal of Medical Ethics.  

Research Opportunities and Updates

Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) - Upcoming Webinars

The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) will be holding a series of webinars which staff at York have been invited to attend. Please see below details:

How We Fund: a deep dive into our approach to funding and our funding terms followed by Q&A When: 20th March from 14:00-15:00 GMT Led by: Antonia Jenkinson, CFO/COO; Tammy Thomas-Brown, Director of Procurement, Alexander Berry, Principal Lawyer Register here |

What We’re Working On: an introduction into ARIA’s model and our focal research areas followed by Q&A (Part I) When: 18th March from 15:00-16:00 GMT Led by: Pippy James, Director of Product and Programme Directors Suraj Bramhavar (Nature Computes Better), davidad Dalrymple (Mathematics for Safe AI), Jenny Read (Smarter Robot Bodies) and Jacques Carolan (Precisely interfacing with the human brain at scale) Register here |

What We’re Working On: an introduction into ARIA’s model and our focal research areas followed by Q&A (Part II) When: 3rd April from 15:00-16:00 BST Led by: Pippy James, Director of Product and Programme Directors Gemma Bale (Scoping Our Planet), Angie Burnett (Programmable Plants) and Mark Symes (Future-proofing Our Climate) Register here.

Ahead of the webinars, you may find the presentation on Aria's model and our opportunity spaces helpful.

If you are not able to join the live sessions, please register using the links above to be informed when the presentation recordings are available.

Should you have any questions or require further information, please contact hello@aria.org.uk.

Recruitment Announcement: Co-Leads Needed for the YESI Resilient Socio-ecological Systems Research Theme (x2)

YESI is in search of two Co-Leads for our newly named 'Resilient Socio-ecological Systems' theme as the current position holders’ three-year term is nearing its end. Successful candidates will become integral members of the YESI team, contributing to shaping the institute's strategic direction under the leadership of Professor Lindsay Stringer. Currently, the Research Theme leads are as follows:

• Environment and Health – Professor Pete Coventry and Dr. Katherine Brookfield (ongoing)

• Food, Water, and Waste - Professor James Chong and Dr. Liz Rylott (ongoing)

• Resilient Ecosystems – Professor Colin Beale and Dr. Julia Touza (See Theme Lead advert for full handover details)

You will be an internationally recognised researcher with expertise in the broad area of socio-ecological systems and/or resilience (commensurate with your career stage). You will be an inspiring, collaborative interdisciplinary leader who can harness these research strengths. Applications are welcome from permanent academic and research staff across all three Faculties, and at all career stages from lecturer to professor, including permanent research fellows at Grade 7 or above.

Applicants should upload a CV and a statement (up to 2 pages) identifying how they fit the role description and person specification and outlining both a short-term (initial 6 months) and longer-term vision for the theme. Full details about the theme lead roles can be found here.

For informal enquiries: please contact YESI Director Prof Lindsay Stringer, or the current role holders: Prof Colin Beale or Dr Julia Touza.

Apply by 14 April 2024

Spring 2024 funding: Laura Bassi Scholarship

The Laura Bassi Scholarship was established in 2018 with the aim of providing editorial assistance to postgraduates and junior academics whose research focuses on neglected topics of study, broadly construed. The scholarships are open to every discipline and the next round of funding will be awarded in Spring 2024:
Application deadline: 24 March 2024
Results: 10 April 2024

All currently enrolled master’s and doctoral candidates are eligible to apply, as are academics in the first five years of full-time employment. Applicants are required to submit a completed application form along with their CV through the application portal by the relevant deadline. Further details, including previous winners, and the application portal can be found at: https://editing.press/bassi

Got an item to share in our next newsletter?

Great! Please add it to the Research, Teaching, Outreach and Good News Spreadsheet. Please use the most relevant tab for the activity/news and ensure that the description details are written out in full as you would like it to be presented. If your item does not fit the spreadsheet, please email it to environment-pa@york.ac.uk by 12:00 next Thursday.

Thank you for your help in making the newsletter a great way to catch up on all of the Department's latest news and activities

Departmental Events

🎉 Cultural Potluck lunch TODAY, celebrating International Women’s Day! 🎉

After such a successful IWD seminar earlier this week, we are now looking forward to continuing our celebrations with a cultural potluck lunch TODAY, on International Women's Day!

Click here to sign up for our International Potluck lunch today between 12pm and 2pm in the Environment building’s foyer! Please join us and bring something delicious, either sweet or savoury, that represents you/your culture!

We would love to see as many dishes as possible but if providing a dish/drink is an obstacle for you, please still feel free to attend - we would love to see everyone there!

Please note that it is super important that you place a sign/label in front of your dish/drink on the day stating the following:

• Who made the dish / drink

• Any history / fun facts behind the dish / drink (we aim to celebrate all cultures!)

• Ingredients

• Vegan / vegetarian / gluten-free / allergens (these are typically cow's milk, eggs, peanuts, other nuts, wheat, fish, shellfish, sesame)

Please try to be as environmentally friendly as possible by bringing along your own cups etc if you can.

Even if you are only able to come to a small part of the event, we hope to see you all there!

Happy cooking/baking! 

➡️ Thank you to all those that came along to our Talk on Tuesday to celebrate International Women’s Day - “Beyond the Norm: Narratives of Academic Achievement Amidst Challenges” Click here to watch the recording of this inspiring event. Passcode: =nr73BGt

DEG Seminar

Date / Time: Tuesday 12th March at 12:05

Location: Zoom - Zoom link

Speaker: Peter Wynn

Title

Sulphur cycling within karst and speleothems

Peter Wynn is a Reader in Physical Geography and the Director of Natural Sciences at the University of Lancaster. His research in the field of isotope geoscience falls into two distinct categories of interest: 1. Archives of palaeoclimate and environmental change from speleothem records; 2. Biogeochemical cycling in glaciers. In his talk, Peter will discuss sulphur cycling within karst and speleothems. He will explore the use of speleothems (cave stalagmites and stalactites) as regional archives of sulphur pollution, and how this might serve as a potential marker for the Anthropocene. This seminar will address the whole research journey devoted to extracting and interpreting the sulphur signals contained within the speleothem palaeorecord, as well as highlighting future research avenues within the field.

SUBLIM Conference

The Department of Environment and Geography at the University of York is excited to host our annual Sustainable Business, Leadership, Innovation, and Management (SuBLIM) Sustainability Conference, "Transformational Change in Uncertain Times", on 1-2nd July 2024 at The Guildhall York. In a turbulent era of confounding poly-crises, business as usual is no longer economically viable - and transformative change is urgently needed. Innovation is at the heart of this transformational change, with industry, policy, and change makers playing vital roles in fostering a regenerative future. 

Please follow this link to our website to find the call for abstracts and expression of interest form - to be completed by 31st March. We encourage submissions from postgraduate students and early career researchers from all sustainability-related disciplines. Attendees can expect interactive and thought provoking discussions, practical workshops, and community building. We particularly encourage solution-oriented research on...

1. Sustainable business practices across industries and organisation types

1. Just and inclusive forms of alternative economies

1. Social and environmental dimensions of sustainable business

For further information, please contact the SUBLIM Sustainability Conference Team: environment-sustainability-conference@york.ac.uk

Job Opportunity

FAO Qualitative researchers interested in urban coastal adaptation to estuarine flood risk, multi-level governance who may be interested in exploring aspects of resilience, adaptation governance and implementation.

Coastal/Urban climate Change Adaptation Governance Postdoctoral position (2 years, 9 months duration). Ideally for human geographers, social scientists including law who are keen to work as part of an interdisciplinary team on transformative governance and adaptation implementation in Scotland. Part of an interdisciplinary NERC Strategic Programme ‘Gallant’ so excellent career development opportunities. Deadline: 14^th March. Advert is here.

Note: this has a short advert cycle so we can try to maximise available project length to give the candidates as long a contract as possible!

BAME PhDs: The University has a great scheme for UK BAME students, and Geography’ competition is open until 15^th March 2024 this year. We’d be delighted to receive applications.

Good News and Media Engagement

⭐ Quinn Chen, a PhD student who recently joined our department, has made a documentary with an UG English Literature student called 'A Life Unfolding' - it takes place on the Millennium Bridge, in York. It won First Prize at the annual Scott Award 2023 (run by the university), as well as the most liked by the public prize. Congratulations! Click here to watch “A Life Unfolding” on Youtube.

⭐ Congratulations to Lindsay Stringer and Andy Dougill, both of whom are coauthors on a paper published with colleagues based at the University of Namibia: Nakwaya-Jacobus D, Hipondoka M, Angombe S, Stringer LC, Dougill AJ. 2024. Good governance quality in Namibia’s EIA process. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal. Click here to read!

⭐ Josh Kirshner has an article out in the journal Space and Polity, co-authored with a colleague in human geography and spatial planning at Utrecht University. The full reference: Smith S and Kirshner J. 2024. When logics collide: Uncovering the multiple gas exportation and importation transitions in Mozambique. Space and Polity, 1-22. Click here to read! Josh was also invited to join the editorial board of a newly launched journal, Journal of Urban and Territorial Studies, with the Institute of Bolivian Urbanism (Instituto Boliviano de Urbanismo). Well done, Josh!

⭐ Simon Mair has had a policy paper "Language, Climate Change, and Cities Beyond Capitalism" published in the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy.

⭐ The team won £8,427 from the UoY L&T Fund. The project is entitled "Levelling the field? An exploration into the support and feasibility of implementing Equality Impact Assessments for fieldtrips." It builds on our DEG award last year and the sustainable and inclusive fieldtrip framework developed by Adrian. It is designed to explore the suitability of EIAs to strengthen EDI fieldtrip planning (including identification of barriers and solutions) and the drafting of a prospective governance process for EIA adoption in the department and wider institution. It will involve working with three student partners in a workshop led by Tectre, a diversity training, recruitment and consultancy specialist organisation who facilitate the development of a co-created EIA. Well done to all of the team - Adrian Gonzalez, Karen Parkhill, Daryl Stump and Michelle Barton.

Research Opportunities and Updates

Enhancing Research Culture Team - Why every lab needs a handbook

The next session of our Enhancing Research Culture project is coming up on Wednesday 20th March, 12-2.30pm (B/T/019) and it’s centred around lab handbooks.

A lab handbook is a flexible document created by all members of a lab that outlines the ethos of a research group. It can summarise the different roles within the lab, give an overview of the culture the lab would like to create, describe how the lab supports development of its members and is therefore a potentially powerful tool to create team equity.

We have invited a range of fantastic speakers across humanities and sciences that have created handbooks for their labs or larger projects. They will share thoughts and discussions that went into creating them.

Speakers in this session include: Prof Stuart Murray (School of English, University of Leeds) and Faye Robinson (Head of Research Development, Leeds) who are leading the Wellcome funded Medical Humanities Project LivingBodiesObjects. As well as Dr Stuart Higgins (School of PET, York), Dr Chris McDonald (Biology, York) and Prof David Kent (Biology, York). You can find out more about our speakers on the speaker profile document.

We’d love to invite attendees across all disciplines and career paths (academics, students, technicians, postdocs, professional services) and use this workshop as a starting point to create and share good practice across York. There will be opportunities to discuss and exchange ideas during a Q&A session and lunch.

If you would like to attend please sign up via this google form. We can then order the right amount of lunch. Hot drinks will be provided at the start of the session, please bring your own cup. Please sign up quickly if you would like to attend in-person due to limited room capacity.

If you are unable to attend in-person, we plan to live stream the talks and Q&A panel on the day and also have a recording to share after the session. Please indicate in the google form if your preference is to attend in-person or via live-stream. We will also send you a calendar invite.

🔬 Funding Announcement: University Internally-distributed Funding (IDF) Spring Call 2024 - NOW OPEN

The Spring 2024 Call for internally-distributed funding applications is now open. The call was launched on 4th March 2024, and funding is available across a wide range of disciplines - full details are available on the website. Please note the deadline for applications is now 11pm on Tuesday 9 April 2024. A schedule of future calls is available on the Internally-distributed Funding webpage. If you have any questions please email re-internal-funding-team@york.ac.uk.

Departmental Events

VC Dept Visit - 22 Feb 2024

The VC, Charlie Jeffery, visited DEG on Thursday 22nd February as part of his biennial round of dept visits. Many thanks again to those of you who submitted questions and voted on the questions, and to those of you who joined us in the Lecture Theatre for his all-staff presentation. Before his presentation, the VC had a short meeting with the E&G Leadership Team where our recent teaching, research and operational highlights were presented. This was then followed by a discussion on sustainability initiatives within the department and across UoY with a view to increasing the visibility of our in-house expertise, and consequently, our overall impact. 

There are links below for anyone who missed the all-staff presentation and would like to catch up. 

• Click here to watch the VC presentation (audio and slides only) via Panopto (if you have any trouble with Panopto, try watching via this Google Photos link).

• Click here to view the VC slides only. 

DEG Seminar - celebrating International Women’s Day! 🎉

Date / Time: Tuesday 5th March at 12:05

Location: Hybrid/in-person (ENV/005 and Zoom - Zoom link)

Chair: Prof Kiran Trehan. Speakers: Prof Sarah West and Dr Karen Parkhill

Title

A Talk to celebrate International Women’s Day - “Beyond the Norm: Narratives of Academic Achievement Amidst Challenges”

The Department of Environment & Geography invites you to a session of captivating talks featuring two remarkable speakers who have defied conventions and overcome obstacles on their path to academic success. The session will be chaired by the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Enterprise, Partnerships & Engagement, Prof Kiran Trehan.

Session Speakers

Prof Sarah West: Join Sarah as she shares her unconventional journey to becoming a professor. Gain valuable insights and top tips for navigating life's choices and discovering your true calling.

Dr Karen Parkhill: Discover Karen's inspiring story of triumph. Explore the challenges she faced and the "potholes" she encountered on her road to success. Do join us and be part of this empowering event! We look forward to seeing you there

💻 Click here to watch last week's DEG Seminar! Passcode: M^ut!b0X

⬇️ PLUS!

Click here to sign up for our International Potluck lunch next Friday 8th March between 12pm and 2pm. Please join us and bring something delicious, either sweet or savoury, that represents you/your culture!

AND….

NOW AVAILABLE TO VIEW: Our Wall of Inspirational Women is now displayed in the Environment Foyer - please take a moment to read our fantastic poster submissions next week when you are in the building

Sustainability Education Conversation - Wednesday 6th March at 12:05

Location: Zoom - Zoom link

Speaker: Rachel Coxcoon

Title

Reflecting on ideological biases in environmental communication

"Rachel will consider segmentation of the UK population’s attitude to climate change and consider how we unconsciously use normative assumptions as incontrovertible truths rather than value judgements. Within the workshop Rachel will ask the attendees to use a segmentation tool to see how ‘normal’ they are as a group and will reflect on "hidden words of woke" found in university courses"

Sustainability Week - Plant and book swap on Wednesday 6th March!

For Sustainability Week (4-8 March) the Green Impact Labs Team is bringing back the now-legendary 🌻🌱Plant Swap! Anything from house plant cuttings to vegetable seeds and seedlings! So if you’ve been over-exuberant with your planting, please bring your spares and pick up something new! We’ll be in the foyer 1-3pm on Wednesday 6th March.

Donations of plant pots are welcome anytime! 

We are also launching our 📚Non-Academic Book Swap (please save any academic texts for Nic’s charity sale later in the year). If you have any donations to start the ball rolling, please drop them off in the foyer, with a note or at the technical office.  Many thanks!

Other Events

Sustainability Week: Where Nature and Smartphones Meet!

Step away from the desk or lab for an hour during Sustainability Week to explore "Where Nature and Smartphones Meet"!

Join us from 2-3pm on Wednesday, 6th March, as we start off at the Envi/Geo building ground floor foyer and go for a very slow exploratory walk through different habitats recording wildlife! 

Sign-up here (a few spaces left!) and bring your smartphone with iNaturalist downloaded!

Best wishes, Dr. Smriti Safaya

You cannot serve from an empty glass - being a resilient activist!

Date / Time: Thursday 14th March, 12pm-1:30pm (Taking Place During the University Mental Health Day)

Location: SLB/211

Activists would typically describe themselves as motivated by high levels of social connectedness. Indeed this is strongly associated with higher levels of wellbeing. However, a core aspect of wellbeing that goes undermentioned is resilience - and the literature suggests that having low levels of resilience can undermine our wellbeing in the long run. Therefore, it is not enough just to be passionate about increasing the life opportunities of our fellow man, we need to understand how to adapt and cope well with the hurdles involved in our activism journeys. This workshop aims to explore a range of research-backed methods for becoming resilient activists, and will encourage attendees to not only be critical of their current approaches, but also leave with a deep understanding of how to become resilient in the face of challenging activist work. 

Attendees will be provided with a workbook and light refreshments.

Job Opportunity

Ph.D position - Release of heavy-metal pollutants from estuary sedimentary banks - IFREMER / University of Western Brittany.

Please find here details of an offer for a Ph.D. position we just opened at our institute.

The PhD has for goal to study the release of inherited heavy-metal pollution by the sedimentary banks of the Aulne estuary, located in western Brittany (France). We are seeking candidates with geochemistry and/or hydrogeology backgrounds, with a strong appeal to work with geosciences remote-sensing and sedimentology methods. The PhD will be based in Brest (France), and co-hosted by IFREMER (French national institute for Ocean Science, https://en.ifremer.fr) and the University of Western Brittany.

Please feel free to forward this offer to anyone you believe may be interested. For any supplementary information, please contact: jerome.goslin@ifremer.fr , matthieu.waeles@univ-brest.fr, nicolas.briant@ifremer.fr

Applications close on April 15th.

Third year Dissertation Survey on Social Media

Please help Eve Exley, a third-year Human Geography and Environmental Sciences student, by filling out her dissertation survey on consumer behaviours and crisis perception during the Covid-19 pandemic. The questionnaire should take around 15-20 minutes to complete.

Good News and Media Engagement

⭐ The synthesis paper from YESI’s Topical Collection "Accrual of Climate Change Risk in Six Vulnerable Countries" (mainly funded by BEIS) was published this week in Climatic Change. More information via the Tyndall Centre here. Congratulations to Oliver Andrews! Warren, R., Price, J., Forstenhäusler, N., Andrews, O. et al. Risks associated with global warming of 1.5 to 4 °C above pre-industrial levels in human and natural systems in six countries. Climatic Change 177, 48 (2024). Click here to read.

⭐ Sarah Bridle gave a talk to York Fabians about food and climate change.

⭐ Sam Buckton has had a blog published by FixOurFood about regenerative systems.

Research Opportunities and Updates

Funding Announcement: University Internally-distributed Funding (IDF) Spring Call 2024

The Internally-distributed Funding (IDF) Spring Call 2024 will be launched on 4 March 2024. Details of the Call and available funding are available on our website. The deadline for applications is Friday 5th April at 12 noon.

Funding will be available across a wide range of disciplines - full details will be on the website. A schedule of future calls is also available on the Internally-distributed Funding webpage. 

If you have any questions please email re-internal-funding-team@york.ac.uk.

Nature Awards for Inspiring Women in Science

The Nature Awards for Inspiring Women in Science, in partnership with the Estee Lauder companies, are now open for applications. The deadline for applications is 8th April 2024. The awards celebrate and support the achievements of women in science, and all those who work to encourage girls and young women to engage with STEM subjects and stay in STEM careers around the world.

Awards will be made in two categories:

Scientific Achievement - Applicants who have made an exceptional, demonstrable contribution to scientific discovery, and may have faced significant personal or professional challenges. The applicant should exhibit the potential for developing and leading an independent research group, and have completed their PhD or MD within the last 10 years.

Science Outreach - Initiatives that have encouraged girls or young women to engage with and study natural sciences, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEM) or increased retention of women in STEM careers, with a focus on providing tools to support women through their career progression in a STEM discipline.

Please get in touch with your research support team and the CFP team - sharon.godwin@york.ac.uk and audrey.bounaix@york.ac.uk - if you are interested in applying.

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