1. The Impact Agenda
In this podcast I discuss the impact agenda with Steve Fuller. The discussion encompasses the history of impact, its relationship to wider issues in higher education, existing academic responses to the impact agenda and strategic alternatives.
2. The Future of the University
In this podcast I discuss the future of the university system with Steve Fuller. At a time of crisis in the university, the discussion explores how academia has arrived at its present juncture and where it might go from here. It contextualises the present predicament in terms of the wider intellectual, cultural, political and economic factors which underlay these seismic shifts in academic life.
3. Making a Case for Social Science
The Campaign for Social Science was launched in January this year by the Academy of Social Sciences. It aims to raise the profile of social science with the public, media and parliament at a time of great crisis and uncertainty. In this podcast I talk to Stephen Anderson (executive director of the campaign) and Professor A D H Cook (former Pro-vice Chancellor of the University of Sheffield) about the campaign, the context within which it has emerged and the issues it seeks to confront. The interview covers a wide range of topics including the status of social science vis-a-vis natural science, public misunderstanding of it and the need for public engagement, as well as popularisation, in order to increase its visibility in wider society. Find the Campaign online through its website or twitter feed.
4. Public Universities and Public Futures
A round table session from Discourses of Dissent investigating how academic research, with a particular focus on social theory, might help us articulate and work towards a positive vision of shared futures which escape the discursive constraints which have defined the public life of the UK since the 1980s.
The session explored the practical resolution of the tensions facing the university system. What are the most pressing issues faced by universities? Is a satisfactory resolution of these tensions possible without radical reform? Is there a need to move beyond critique?
Speakers: Steve Fuller, Dan Hind and John Holmwood
5. Campaigning for the Public University
In this podcast I talk to Gurminder K. Bhambra about her experiences as an initiator of the Campaign for the Public University. We discuss the crisis in the university system and the aims of the campaign, as well as wider issues relating to impact and engagement.
6. Engaging with the media as a PhD student
Sam Lyle is a third year PhD student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick. Her doctoral research explores class and gender in graduate employment from a Bourdieusian perspective. Sam is also a feminist activist and founder of the Warwick Anti-Sexism Society (WASS). Read more on her ePortfolio. In this podcast I talk to her about her extensive work with the media over the course of her research, some of the difficulties involved and advice for other PhD students interested in getting involved in this kind of activity.
7. Making New Spaces for Learning in the University
In this podcast I talk to Kate Arnold, a 1st year student in Sociology, about Left Overs, a project setup by undergraduates across a range of departments which is trying to break down the boundaries between speaker and audience, between organisers and attendees, so as to create a new space for intellectual dailogue and discussion outside of the pressures and pitfalls of formal institutional structures. As well as being fascinating and worthwhile in its own right, projects like this represent an opportunity for academics to practice public engagement within the university.
8. The Impact Agenda in the Arts and Humanities
In this podcast I talk to Dr Nadine Lewycky, Arts Impact Officer at the University of Warwick about what her work involves and broader issues relating to the impact agenda for the arts and humanities. For more information about her work see here.
