Date: Tuesday 25th April 2023
Time: 10am – 4.15pm
Venue: Global Lounge, First Floor Senate House. Tyndall Avenue. BS8 1TH
Attendance is free and open to all University of staff and students.
The programme will explore student research in the following areas:
- Wellbeing and community
- Decolonisation and wellbeing
- Sustainability and wellbeing
Join us in the Global Lounge for the full day, or simply drop in for one of our sessions!
- Free tea/coffee and snacks will be available
Full Programme
9.45am Registration and welcome teas/coffees and snack
10am Opening session
10.15am – 11.40pm Wellbeing and community session
Hoarding and wellbeing – Domi Duff
Hoarding is defined as a persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of their actual value, due to a perceived need to save items. Despite a prevailing interest from the public and the media, there is limited understanding of how to practically treat the 2-6% of the population with a hoarding disorder. It is clear that medical interventions have limited utility, the use of serotonergic medication, used to treat OCD, has been mostly unsuccessful.
This research explores how existing treatment programs in Bristol can improve wellbeing in a clinical population that has historically been ignored or exploited for entertainment by the media. There is also the opportunity to educate students, who could act as future volunteer caseworkers, about a relatively misunderstood disorder.
Assessing the wellbeing investments – Satchin Semage
Explores the work of a start-up Corus, who are currently working on a platform that can measure the wellbeing investments the companies are making in a quantitative, interactive platform.
Poverty alleviation – Abhinaya Kanakasabai
Can financial literacy narrow the gap between the rich and poor?
Poverty has taken several forms of manifestations, the most glaring form is the income gap and the wealth gap between the rich and the poor, the reason of which goes unexplained. According to the 2019 – 2021 data, about 16% of the Indian population which is roughly about 200 million people are living bellow the poverty line. This paper tries attributing the cause of the same to financial illiteracy among the poor using randomised controlled trials and comparing their expenditure and saving habits with that of the control group who were eligible, but not chosen for the program. The difference explains how crucial financial knowledge is for the alleviation of poverty.
What’s the bleeding problem? An exploration into period poverty in Bangladesh and Scotland – Puneet Bansal and Aditi Singh
It has been estimated that 500 million women and adolescent girls lack access to adequate resources for menstrual hygiene management (MHM). Our research provides empirical evidence of the inequality of access to menstrual products, delving into countries from India and Bangladesh to Scotland: the first country to make period products free. Exploring the disparities between Bangladesh and Scotland whilst employing secondary research approaches highlights the differences between the two countries. Exploring the impact of this has raised questions as to what the barriers are, and the significance of government intervention to tackle these issues.
11.40pm – 12pm networking with teas/coffee and snacks
12pm – 1.40pm Decolonisation and wellbeing session
Embedding wellbeing in decolonial movements – Patty Miranda
Patty presents her work, completed with Evelyn Miller, exploring decolonisation efforts, its impact on wellbeing and how the two issues are linked.
Panel discussion – Evelyn Miller, Japheth Monzon
The panel will explore decolonisation and work within this area from a student’s perceptive.
How Chinese general high school and international school graduates adapt to university in the UK – Zirui He
What are the differences in the experiences of students from mainland China who have graduated from international schools and general high schools to study at the University of Bristol as undergraduates? Do there different experiences lead to a gap in classroom performance and assessment between students from these two different schools? If not, how does this gap close?
The practice of the ‘Tribal Journeys’ – William Sewell
The practice of the ‘Tribal Journeys’ brings together Coast Salish peoples and other Indigenous communities in a strenuous canoe voyage, its itinerary determined by stays at locations significant to the life of the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest. I argue in this paper that this practice is not merely a celebration of material cultures but physically rewrites the boundaries imposed on the lands and waters of this region by what Nicholas Bromley calls the “scattered geography of colonization”. This paper draws on academic research and Indigenous journalism in first recognising, then critiquing, and finally developing methods to counteract, the often subtle ways in which the colonial states of Canada and the USA (in the Province of British Columbia and State of Washington, respectively) have chewed on a “bureaucratically indigestible” geography, as Bromley calls it.
Cargo – Universal City – Evelyn Miller and Charles Golding
An introduction to Universal City and a behind insight to the development process.
Opportunity to explore decolonisation with fellow delegates
In this session delegates will given the opportunity to explore decolonisation, what it means and actions.
1.40pm – 2pm networking with teas/coffees and snacks
2pm – 3.50pm Sustainability and wellbeing session
Deconstructing anthropocentrism in the sustainable development goals. Beyond the dualistic approach – Khanh Linh Ta & Phan Minh Ngoc Tran
The first part of this research examines the concept of anthropocentrism and the framing of sustainability in the context of the SDGs. The second part then shifts its focus to analyse the impacts of this strategy in order to assert whether it is misleading or necessary. This research also touches on the issue of anthropocentrism as a Western concept of development and aims to promote diversity through the decolonisation of such a concept.
How empathy and compassion can promote sustainable action? Amelia Ghanea-Hercock
This project will discuss the neurobiological basis of empathy and compassion during moral decision-making and pro-social behaviour. This will then be applied to the context of sustainability policy writing and how these understandings can be harnessed to incentivize people and organisations to act sustainably. It will also cover why consumer neuroscience-informed approaches are so effective by covering factors that influence decision-making, from risk perception, social norms and self-identity, to climate anxiety, behavioural inertia, and ambivalence. This project aims to inform the current and next generation of policymakers and drivers of change to provide a background in some key areas relevant to making effective social and political change.
Panel discussion with the SU sustainability programme.
An opportunity to learn about the work, research and impact of the SU sustainability programme.
Extending the life of iron, engaging with sustainability – Kyprianos Kythreotis
The aim of the project is to predict the fatigue life of grey cast iron for different load intensities, and try to extend its life. Case study on Clifton Suspension Bridge.
3.50pm closing session
More information: please visit the Student Research festival webpage, @BILTOnline, or email bilt-student-fellows@bristol.ac.uk.
Tag us on the day 📷#SRF23.