Beyond boundaries: research worth sharing

Apr 25 2017 145

Beyond boundaries: research worth sharing Podcast artwork

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the European Research Council (ERC), set up by the European Commission in 2007. The ERC funds exceptional individual scientists to carry out high-risk, high-gain research at the frontiers of knowledge. Over the last decade, Oxford Social Sciences have shown an outstanding track record of attracting significant ERC funding. This event celebrated the world-leading research and researchers supported by these grants. Reflecting the diversity of social sciences research at Oxford, the programme of talks encompassed wide and varied topics. Each of the speakers is the Principal Investigator leading at least one ERC award and their TED-style talks focus on powerful ideas generated and explored by their projects. This event was hosted by Professor Roger Goodman, Head of the Social Sciences Division and Chair of the Academy of Social Sciences, and organised by the Social Sciences Division’s Research and Impact Team. Image credit: igorstevanovic on Shutterstock https://www.shutterstock.com/g/igorstevanovic

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You know nothing about dogs, pigs or chickens!

Apr 25 2017 8 mins

In Professor Greger Larson's short talk he unearths some new truths about the domestication of some familiar animal friends. This ERC project takes advantage of revolutionary genetic technologies to characterise the nuclear genomes from ancient animal remains. By combining the resolution of thousands of DNA markers with the time depth of archaeology, this project aims to address fu

Parenting, politics and petrol bombs: trying to reduce child abuse in Africa

Apr 18 2017 16 mins

In her talk, Prof Lucie Cluver explores: can we really improve parent-child relationships, reduce child abuse and reduce poverty? This ERC Starting Grant,Preventing Abuse of Children in the context of AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa, has developed and tested a free child abuse prevention parenting programme for low and middle income countries. The project has been in close partnership w

Ten things you wish you didn’t know about elections (and what to do about them)

Apr 18 2017 19 mins

In this talk, Prof Phil Howard explains how we are targeted and manipulated by social media and bots trying to influence voter behaviour. Since 2012, Professor Howard and team have been investigating the use of algorithms, automation and computational propaganda in public life. Political bots are manipulating public opinion over major social networking applications. This p

English landscapes and identities

Apr 18 2017 13 mins

Prof Chris Gosden explains what his research tells us about regional developments and variations in English settlement and landscape changes over time. The English Landscapes and Identities project pulled together all the major digital sources for archaeology in England into a single database from which statistical and spatial analyses were undertaken. The project combines evidence

Why immigration detention is a form of punishment

Apr 18 2017 11 mins

In this talk Prof Mary Bosworth explores the daily experiences of the people held in immigration detention. Prof Bosworth's (2012 - 2017) ERC grant, ‘Subjectivity, Identity and Penal Power’, seeks to develop new methodological and intellectual tools in understanding the global and transnational reach of penal power and to revitalize the literature on subjectivity and identity i

Sociogenomics – when nature meets nurture

Apr 11 2017 11 mins

In this short talk, Professor Melinda Mills introduces her work on the role of gene and gene-environment interaction on reproductive health Sociogenome is comprehensive study of the role of genes and gene-environment (GxE) interaction on reproductive behaviour. Until now, social science research has focussed on socio-environmental explanations, largely neglecting the role of genes.