Beckett Talks

Professor Louisa Ells and Ken Clare will discuss the critical role of public and patient involvement (PPI) in our applied obesity research at the School of Health. They discuss how they worked together with a fantastic PPI group to codevelop and run the NIHR funded Re:Mission study. Louisa and Ken provide insights from the researcher and PPI members perspective, and describe how they continue to w...

Dr Kate Dashper from the School of Events, Tourism and Hospitality Management discusses if mentoring can be an effective tool for promoting greater gender equality in organisations. Based on a longitudinal study of a women’s mentoring programme, she argues that such initiatives can be best understood as paradoxical in that they can help empower individual women in their careers, but at the same ti...

Dr Tanefa Apekey from the Nutrition and Dietetics groups talks about her current work on assessing the nutrient composition of the foods (i.e. dishes, beverages and snacks) popularly consumed by minority ethnic groups, as well as modification of the recipes of these traditional foods into healthier ones. She also talks about her current work with a local charity to produce healthy eating resources...

Dr Tom Quarmby from the Carnegie School of Sport outlines a British Academy funded research project that explored care-experienced young people’s engagement with sport and physical activity. In so doing, it highlights the innovative design and use of concept-cartoons as a means of portraying a range of equality and diversity issues and for sharing the findings with young people and adult stakehold...

Craig Downing, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager, offers some tips on becoming a more inclusive culture. He talks about enabling you to see things through an inclusive lens and being an agent of change. Being a part of creating a more diverse and inclusive workplace is certainly challenging. As an agent of change you can demonstrate your commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion by...

Ken Scott, Senior Lecturer in the Leeds School of Arts, has worked with some of the biggest names in music royalty, The Beatles and David Bowie to name a few… Listen as he shares what he has learned from a lifetime in the music industry. He also explains why in the era of endless possibilities, no-one makes decisions anymore and why modern producers should be embracing a bolder, more intuitive app...

The discourse implies that the sporting world is at war with the deadly foe of doping, but how effective is this warfare mentality at actually tackling the problem? Professor Susan Backhouse of the Carnegie School of Sport explains how a different approach that moves beyond individual blame to address the systemic pressures faced by athletes is necessary to prevent doping in sport.

By 2025, it is estimated that over 1 million people in the UK will have dementia. With any potential cure a long way off, Professor Claire Surr tells us how her research is already helping to improve quality of life for people living with dementia and their family members and why we should be investing more in care practice.

Have we completely lost trust in what our leaders tell us? For the heroes of ancient Rome, if you could speak well it was seen as impossible that you could be lying. Fast-forward 2,000 years and Dr Oliver Bray, Director of Arts at the Leeds School of Arts illuminates how oratory has been devalued by slick, media-trained politicians in a post-truth world. He also explains how he uses sound poetry t...

In this podcast by Professor Ben Jones, he shares the research being undertaken with professional sports and athletes within the Carnegie Applied Rugby Research (CARR) centre, within the Carnegie School of Sport.

Academic journals are essential for anyone studying at university. But how do they get made? From the Leeds School of Social Sciences, researchers and journal editors, Dr Chris Byrne and Dr Chris Till go behind the scenes and explain how articles are selected, reviewed and published.

Jill Gibbon from the Leeds School of Arts talks about her research drawing undercover in arms fairs to reveal the secretive world of the international arms trade.

Is it possible to recreate life inside a computer? Dr John George from the School of Health shares how mapping cell behaviour 'in silico' is improving our understanding of how life develops and providing potential breakthroughs against anti-microbial resistance.

Poetry is as much an excuse to be a creative reader as it is to be a creative writer. Conceptual writer Dr Nasser Hussain from the School of Cultural Studies and Humanities explains how playing with the raw material of language can expand our ideas of what writing and poetry is.

Public health nutritionist Dr Maria Maynard from the School of Health shares how she works across disciplines to remove the systematic barriers that make it harder for people to improve their health outcomes.

Dr Louisa Ashley, Head of Subject at Leeds Law School, is in conversation with four of her colleagues to find out more about their research. Join them as they discuss perspectives on vulnerability and sexual assault, therapeutic jurisprudence and problem solving courts, show trials and fishing.

In a country where opportunity is so tied to education, girls are frequently left behind due to their cultural and economic circumstances. Senior Lecturer at the Carnegie School of Sport, Dr Lisa O’Keeffe explains how sports programmes are providing new growth and leadership opportunities for young women in Kenya to discover and use their potential.

You've been given one life and one body, why would you ever let the anti-aging industry dictate how you feel about it?" Professsor Jayne Raisborough of the School of Cultural Studies and Humanities shares her research on the role of imagination in breaking free from harmful stereotypes, ageism and body shaming.

How do we build trust in the era of fake news? Professor Ralph Tench from Leeds Business School shares his research-based thinking on the importance of listening and how organisations can communicate more effectively in a society where trust in our media and institutions has been so undermined. Ralph also touches on how the inter-generational communication gap has been closing as a result of the C...

What has Virginia Woolf got to tell us about the way we live (and love) now? In this conversation Professor Ruth Robbins and Professor Susan Watkins discuss Woolf’s own life and loves, and think about the ways in which she rewrote history to rewrite the codes of desire in her novel Orlando .

In the final episode of this mini-series the panel examine how we can see positive personal and wider changes via writing as, hopefully, the pandemic eases or we emerge from it.

This is the third in our podcast series on Covid-19 and Culture. Today we examine how Covid 19 and lockdown have made stigma and social inequality worse, but also how we can see resistance and challenge to that in the culture around us.

This is the second in our podcast series on COVID-19 and Culture. In this episode we look at a few examples of how our lives and our engagement with culture have changed because of COVID-19. Professor Susan Watkins discusses the topic with other members of the Leeds Beckett Centre for Culture and the Arts.

This is the first in our podcast series on COVID-19 and Culture and today we are exploring what we can learn from history about coping with pandemic and lockdown. Professor Susan Watkins discusses the topic with other members of the Leeds Beckett Centre for Culture and the Arts.

Professor McKenna from Leeds Beckett's Carnegie School of Sport , shares his research on the factors that increase activity in individuals and communities.