Staff Newsletter 10 November 2023

Annabel Jackson - PA / Admin to EGLT

Save the date! DEG Festive Potluck/Moving Feast! Thursday 14th December, 13:45 - 17:00 🎄

Where: Environment & Geography building
Who: All staff/PGRs, including BioArch and SEI-Y
What: Everyone is invited to bring in drinks and dishes from their culture/home/that they like making, to share with the rest of the department!

Details TBC!

🏆 Making the Difference Award Nominees! 🏆

The University recognises and values the hard work, commitment and achievements of all staff. The 'Making the Difference' awards are intended to provide recognition to any member of staff whose contribution on a one-off or short-term basis has been exceptional or outstanding and is worthy of particular note.

Congratulations to all nominees! Stay tuned for the announcement of the lucky winners! 

Seminars taking place next week 

DEG Seminar - In person Date / Time: Tuesday 14th November at 12:05 Location: Hybrid (ENV005 and Zoom) - click here to join Speaker name: Olivia Mason Title: Resource politics and colonial entanglements in Jordan’s nature reserves Blurb Olivia Mason is a Vice-Chancellor's Fellow at Northumbria University. Her research sits at the interface of cultural, environmental, and political geography, and explores mobility politics and resource colonialism with a focus on the Middle East. Her seminar today focuses on the consequences of a series of expeditions in the 1960s to Jordan led by UK-based ornithologists, conservationists, and biologists with the aim of establishing nature reserves. This talk begins by tracing these histories and the international trends and policies surrounding nature conservation in this time. Yet, alongside these international trends, Jordan’s nature reserves were also created in a period of (post)colonial nationalist politics and concerns over resource scarcity. In present day Jordan, these global/local relations, increasing resource scarcity, and ongoing legacies of colonialism continue to shape nature conservation. This includes the ways in which local communities are removed from these sites and their local knowledge dismissed. Nature reserves in Jordan thus demonstrate the colonial intimacies of environmentalism, how resource tensions become connected with national identity, and how communities are impacted by conservation.  Click here to watch the recording of the previous DEG Seminar entitled 'From peatlands research to peatland restoration.’ Passcode: y&nj5sFn

Sustainability Education Conversation Date / Time: Wednesday 15th November at 12:05 Location: Zoom - click here to join Speaker: Dr Smriti Safaya Title: What can I learn here, that I can learn nowhere else? Blurb The title of Smriti's talk is an adaptation from a profound question posed by Robert MacFarlane in "The Old Ways", his serpentine story about journeys and place-consciousness. Though it was posed by a travel writer a decade ago, it is THE enduring question educators can use to stimulate meaningful enquiry that sticks. Using examples from her time working with students and running professional development workshops for educators, Smriti will share some simple approaches to place-based and experiential learning that can be adapted across disciplines. She will also reveal a newly-launched community initiative to engage with biodiversity (on and off-campus), and invite opportunities for staff and student collaboration and action for sustainability. Please note that next week’s Sustainability Seminar on 22nd November will take place IN PERSON in ENV/005. Very excitingly there will also be a chance to sign up for one-on-one meetings with the speaker, Beth Eden. Details to follow next week 🙂

Tree planting for Beth Fields last week 🌳

Beth was an Environmental Geography student who had just completed her second year, when she was tragically killed during the summer break. She was an enthusiastic and committed student and popular with classmates. Beth was warm-hearted and kind, with a gift for communication. 

In her memory, Beth’s family and friends wanted to leave a lasting legacy to Beth by planting a tree in Diamond Wood on Campus East. This took place last week with both staff and Beth's family and friends attending.

💬 Click here to read Samarthia's moving speech from the morning 💬

Race Equality Events taking place in November and December

Tour of Allerton Waste Recovery Park

Friday 1st December, 09:00 - 15:00, Allerton Waste Recovery Park.

Join YESI's Food, Water and Waste research theme visit to Allerton Waste Recovery Park and find out what happens to your rubbish after you throw it away. Book early as places are very limited.

Click here to register!

Invite to YESI Community Christmas Celebration

The date for the YESI Community Christmas Celebration is fast approaching, and we're thrilled to invite you to join us on Tuesday, 5 December, starting at 2:00 pm in the Berrick Saul ground floor atrium.

It’s been a jam-packed year for everyone, so how about taking a break, catching up with your amazing colleagues, and indulging in some festive nibbles and drinks?

And here's the fun part – you can deck the halls with your favourite festive attire! Dust off that Christmas jumper, those snazzy festive socks, or even a Father Christmas hat if you're feeling extra merry!

Remember, this shindig is exclusively for University of York staff and PhD students, so do let us know you're coming by registering here. Plus, don't be a Grinch – feel free to spread the joy by passing this invite along! The more, the merrier – Ho Ho Ho!

Can't wait to share some holiday cheer with you!

Warm festive wishes, The YESI Team 🎄

Our wonderful Director for Students, Samarthia Thankappan is back with her weekly audio messages for students. Click the links below to listen to Samarthia's messages:

• S1 Week 1 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 2 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 3 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 4 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 5 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 6 Message from DfS

Last Monday (30th Oct.), the department held its first T&L away day since summer 2019. It was designed to provide an opportunity for staff to reflect on and discuss two major initiatives within the restructure; decolonising the curriculum and employability. During the morning, we were able to hear from Dr Musarrat Maisha Reza, University of Exeter who spoke about her decolonisation work in medical sciences. The activities and staff feedback will be used to refine and advance both of these initiatives (more info in due course). The day was agreat success and there is clearly an appetite to discuss DEG's T&L in an away day and draw in guest speakers to talk through best practice. Adrian Gonzalez lead on this. Huge thanks to Laura Chapman and Samarthia Thankappan on decolonisation and Angela Purdham, Felicia Liu and Jenny Pollard for their employability work.

The ‘Our World, Our Collective Future’ project, is run by the Rochdale Science Initiative and Neeli Mosque, working with 45 children from under-represented secondary schools. Sarah Bridle took part in the collaborative event which encouraged teenagers to engage with the climate emergency - the contribution made by food - and think through possible solutions. In addition, Sarah was invited to appear on a panel organised by Cambridge Global Food Security at Cambridge University discussing"How low can you go: can food production achieve net zero?". Other panellists included Dr Adam Pellegrini (Plant Sciences), Dr Emma Garnett (LEAP, Oxford University) and Sophie Attwood (World Resource Institute). Chaired by Prof. Howard Griffiths.

Congratulations to Lindsay Stringer who features in a TV newspiece on deforestation and clean cooking on Nigeria's Trust TV, following her workshop with Jamie Carr, Ellie Jew, Josh Kirshner, Banki Chunwate and their collaborators at Bayero University Kano. Click here to watch the clip! Lindsay is also a coauthor on a paper from her York-Maastricht partnership project: Taillandier C, Cörvers R, Stringer LC 2023. Growing Resilient Futures: Agroforestry as a Pathway towards Climate Resilient Development for Smallholder Farmers. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 7.

Sam Buckton has had a new paper published in the journal Cecidology: Buckton SJ (2023) Putative galls of Cenopalpus spinosus (Donnadieu, 1875) (Acari: Tetanychoidea: Tenuipalpidae) on Cornelian Cherry Cornus mas L. at the Yorkshire Arboretum. Cecidology 38(2), 101-103. These galls were only recognised in Britain as recently September 2023. The Arboretum record is the first for Yorkshire, and further research by Sam suggests that the gall has been present for at least several years elsewhere in Britain but overlooked.

Sarah West produced an op-ed on the SAMHE project for Air Quality News magazine. The release of the publication coincided with World Ventil8 Day.

On 3 November, Felicia Liu gave a guest lecture at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on the use of media analyses in studying public perceptions, debates, and denialism of transboundary haze in Southeast Asia. Her talk was open to all undergraduate students at the faculty, and she was hosted by Associate Professor Helena Varkkey, a long-term collaborator and mentor, for a one-week visit to the Universiti Malaya

On 24 October, Ioan Fazey and Sam Buckton co-facilitated a Three Horizons workshop with Natural England at Foss House to help the organisation develop a new research agenda to support a transformation towards nature recovery in farming systems. Rebecca Newman also participated.

PhD researcher Sam Buckton is co-author on a new paper published in Journal of the British Academy, in connection with his role on the Youth Advisory Board for the University of Hull's 'Youth-led adaptation to climate change challenges in Vietnam' (YACC) project (further information here and here). The full paper citation is Jones L, Parsons KJ, Halstead F, Ngoc DN, Pham HTM, Pham D-L, Allison CR, Chew M, Bird E, Meek A, Buckton SJ, Khang LN, Williams AL, Võ TT, Lê H, Nguyễn ATQ, Hackney CR, Parsons DR (2023) Conversations on grief and hope: a collaborative autoethnographic account exploring the lifeworlds of international youth engaged with climate action. Journal of the British Academy 11(s3), 69-117. 

Lauren Rawlins' first paper from her Ph.D. has just been published in the journal: 'The Cryosphere'. It is entitled: 'Seasonal evolution of the supraglacial drainage network at Humboldt Glacier, northern Greenland, between 2016 and 2020' and can be found here.

Well done everyone on your fantastic achievements 👏

Conception X programme for PGRs interested in becoming venture scientists

Are you interested in becoming a venture scientist?

Conception X helps PhD students become Venture Scientists – PhD founders who bridge the gap between academia and industry. Whether you’re already working on a startup or you’re interested in learning how to translate and commercialise your research, the programme supports you to accelerate your understanding of entrepreneurship.

Join an introductory session on 5 Dec, 12.00-13.00 (online) to learn about becoming part of Conception X Cohort 7, which will run from March to November 2024. The programme offers training sessions created specifically for STEM PGRs, access to a nationwide network of experts and funding opportunities, and the opportunity to meet fellow researchers who are exploring career pathways post-PhD.

What is Conception X?

A fully funded programme and platform that helps PhD students become Venture Scientists and commercialise their research in impactful ways. Via a 9-month programme that includes training, coaching and mentoring, PGRS are helped to launch deeptech startups based on their research, connect with leading members of the deeptech community, and become eligible for innovation grants, awards and venture capital funding.

The hour long discovery session will tell you everything you need to know about joining the programme and help you to decide if you want to apply to be part of Cohort 7. 

More information and booking

Apply to run a focused doctoral award (Centre for Doctoral Training)

The AHRC Centre for Doctoral Training pre-announcement is now live. There are two themes for this CDT: arts and humanities for creative economy and arts and humanities for a healthy planet, people and place. York can only lead on one application but can partner with as many other applications as needed. As such, there will be an internal process published soon.

The call itself goes live on November 23 and there will be a webinar on December 5.

Meanwhile, if you are interested in this call, can you please let Criag know via email to craig.m.robertson@york.ac.uk by November 22.

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 10:00 next Friday.

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