Staff Newsletter 5 July 2024
- Annabel Jackson (Deactivated)
Important Information
Top Tips: Technical edition
As promised, here is the first edition of Top Tips. These came out of the PSS Away Day back in June We hope you find them useful
Keep your bookmarks organised by creating folders. For example, “Finance”, “Staff”, “Events” etc.
To create an accessible link, highlight the descriptive text, then Ctrl K, Ctrl V.
If you want to obtain info from a large group, create a Google form with set options. Avoid free text.
If you don’t know a google spreadsheet function, just google the process.
For AI technology the University uses Copilot, which is handy for a variety of uses from comms to students to holiday itineraries!
Use the university directory to find unknown colleagues and user names.
Use Grammarly to check documents/emails!
________________________
Events
Biodiversity and Conscious Evolution Workshops & Social next week!
YorkCliConnect are delighted to share 3 free events next week:
A Biodiversity Collage workshop
Monday 8th July, 2-5pm
Fairfax Corner
Informal Community Social
Monday 8th July from 5:30 pm.
Spark
Conscious Evolution collage workshop (facilitated by the incredible Sarah Clayton)
Tuesday 9th July, 10am-1pm
Spark
You may also be interested in these upcoming events from our wider community:
York Community Energy are hosting some 'Energy Drinks' at Ye Olde Starr Inne from 7:30pm on Thursday 11th July. It's a chance to chat all about community solar power! More information here.
There'll be another climate cafe in Rowntree Park, 7pm on Wednesday 17th July. See here for more details
Save the afternoon of Sunday 21st July to march for Nature. Assemble at 1:30pm at St Helen's Square echoing the calls of 350 NGOs to protest and Restore Nature Now!
________________________
Ecoscapes - Scenarios for an uncertain world
Tuesday 16th July, 12.30 - 2.00pm
The Treehouse, First Floor, Berrick Saul Building (BS/104)
Please join us for the first in a series of interdisciplinary discussions bringing together a diversity of perspectives on changing biodiversity in the Anthropocene.
Using scenarios allows us to explore what different possible futures might look like under highly uncertain conditions. They are often used to explore how biodiversity and ecosystem services may change in the future with different socioeconomic and environmental trajectories. But how useful can they really be, and to whom?
Dr Inês Martins, LCAB and Department of Biology
Here I talk about a recent model intercomparison analysis of projections of biodiversity and ecosystem services performed at multiple spatial scales using the same set of land-use and climate change reconstructions from 1900 to 2015, and three future scenarios from 2015 to 2050. I will expand on some of the key messages of this work, as well open a discussion on the key challenges and uncertainties that remain when mobilising scenarios and models for decision-making.
Pattrawut Pusingha, Department of Environment and Geography
Envisioning the future scenarios of sustainable land management in mountain systems of Nan Province, Thailand. Human activities, including deforestation, land use changes, and unsustainable land management, combined with climate variability, result in land degradation worldwide, including in Thailand, with negative impacts in various aspects. Participatory scenario planning can tackle these complex challenges by encouraging diverse stakeholders to co-create future scenarios that support long-term inclusive sustainable land management in northern Thailand’s mountain landscapes.
Prasad Sandhor, Intelligent Games and Games Intelligence (IGGI) and Department of Computer Science
My PhD research explores the potential of games in facilitating the 'sensemaking' of climate actions. In this session, I will be sharing findings and insights about designing scenarios related to everyday climate actions for role-playing that lead to sensemaking.
The series is jointly hosted by the Department of Biology and the Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity.
________________________
SAMHE webinar: Air quality in UK schools
Wednesday 17th July, 12 - 1pm
Online (free)
Register to attend.
The SAMHE (Schools’ Air quality Monitoring for Health and Education) project aims to help researchers better understand air quality in UK schools. We have analyzed indoor air quality data received from 500+ schools across the UK during the 2023-24 schools year. Hear Sarah West (Stockholm Environment Institute) and team explain what we've learnt.
______________________
Good News
Jon Hill has an MSc student, Albert Kim, visiting from Indonesia for July. Albert is working on tsunami hazards from volcanic flank collapse using a range of modelling techniques. He's currently in room 321 (desk 7). Do pop by and say hello if you get chance.
Josh Kirshner took part in the annual meeting for the CESET project (Community Energy Systems and Sustainable Energy Transitions in Ethiopia, Malawi and Mozambique), held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in late June. CESET is a three-year a collaborative, multi-institutional research partnership funded by UKRI and the Global Challenges Research Fund, now in its final year. Josh presented in a panel on “Applying community energy systems to influence energy transitions in Africa” with project leaders and international donors. He stayed in Ethiopia several days to visit a community-led biogas project and a micro-hydro scheme in the Sidama region along with Sheffield-based filmmaker Sean Lovell. He also visited Lydetco, a solar systems designer with a PV-powered office building in central Addis Ababa.
Congratulations to Banki Chunwate for winning the Best Presentation Award (Space, Place, Environment and Liveability) in the 13th Annual Conference of the White Rose DTP (WRDTP), held on June 19, 2024, at the University of York. The theme of the Conference was "Inclusive Research Cultures and Practices". The Conference is a Partnership with the Universities of Leeds, Hull, Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam, Bradford, Manchester Metropolitan University, and the University of York, UK.
Since it was uploaded to SSRN on 26 June, a preprint of the paper 'Twelve principles for transformation-focused evaluation', authored by Sam Buckton, Ioan Fazey, Matthew Darby, Rebecca Newman and many others, has already become one of the server's most downloaded papers (as measured over the last 60 days). The paper is currently under review at PLOS Sustainability and Transformation.
Sam Buckton is a co-author on two papers published in Social Innovations Journal. The first paper is Glenn G. Page, Sam Buckton, Mark Cabaj, Ian Goldman, Kate McKegg, Mutizwa Mukute, Michael Quinn Patton & Hailey Rizzo (2023) State of the Field Panel on the Evaluation and Assessment of Transformation: A Case Study of Response to the Polycrisis. Social Innovations Journal, 22. This paper, led by several world-leading transformation-focused evaluators, summarises the results of a panel discussion at the 2023 Transformations Conference. The second paper is Bruce Evan Goldstein, Sam J. Buckton, Vicki Nichols Goldstein, Julianna Gwiszcz, Christopher D. Ives, Curtis Ogden, Carlos Alvarez Pereira, Joel Onyango, Luea Ritter, Niko Schäpke & Karen Spiller (2023) Sensemaking the Transformations Community’s Future. Social Innovations Journal, 22.
Simon Mair has published a blog with Adfree Cities as part of their Bad Publicity Series: The commodification of life itself: how advertising promotes endless growth, and how it could be otherwise.
Naomi Holmes has been elected vice-chair of CEDHE (the education committee of the Institution of Environmental Sciences)
________________________
Research Opportunities
Public Involvement in Research Module
Are you involved in teaching students about research that involves humans? Have you ever wondered how we can effectively train the next generation of researchers to innovate confidently, ethically, and productively with members of the public, be that as users, participants, advisors, or partners of interdisciplinary research? Could we do more in space and put York teaching on the map?
Supported by an award from the Inclusive Learning Team's Learning & Teaching Fund, Sue Faulds and I (both based in the Department of Health Sciences) are looking to co-design with academic colleagues, public contributors, and students a new 20-credit cross-faculty interdisciplinary teaching module about public involvement in research. By the end of July 2024 (not a typo unfortunately!), we are looking to have a module outline, ready for further development and, hopefully, rollout. To achieve this, we are seeking input from colleagues across the University to take part in up to four workshops to discuss content and delivery for the new module.
Session 1: Friday, 5th July 2024, 10am to 12noon (Zoom) - discovery session for academic staff only to identify key priorities
Session 2: Wednesday, 10th July 2024, 2pm to 5pm (in person, possibly with a hybrid option) - joint co-design session with public contributors and students to discuss module content
Session 3: Tuesday, 16th July 2024, 10 am to 1pm (in person, possibly with a hybrid option) - joint co-design session with public contributors and students to discuss module delivery
Session 4: Tuesday, 23rd July 2024, 2pm to 5pm (in person, possibly with a hybrid option) - celebration event to reflect on shared achievements and consider next steps
Ideally, we would like everyone to attend at least two out of the four sessions.
If you're keen to take part, please email jennifer.brown@york.ac.uk with your availability and any dietary requirements (refreshments will be provided for in person events). If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, equally please get in touch.
________________________
Do you have 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
_______________________