University of Leicester Open Journals
Not a member yet
2521 research outputs found
Sort by
The Identification of Student Carers and the Burden of their Caring Responsibilities on Academic engagement and Student Life
No full textStudent carers have significant responsibilities in addition to their studies This can result in adverse effects on academic achievement and the student experience. It is unclear how many students at Kingston University and nationally have significant caring responsibilities and what impact this has on their studies and overall wellbeing. This study aimed to identify this growing population of student carers within the biosciences at Kingston University and reveal common issues they face such as motivation and quality of student experience. A self-reporting questionnaire was provided to students all years of their Undergraduate (UG) degree as well as MSc students. A total of 33 students who identify as student carers completed the questionnaire with 81% reporting that caring responsibilities have affected their course performance and 68% revealing that they have struggled to meet assessment deadlines due to caring responsibilities. Almost 50% of respondents revealed that they have considered leaving their course and 77% declared that their mental health and wellbeing was negatively impacted, suggesting the need for a clear support system to be implemented
The Ironic Sense of Syria’s War: A Feminist Lens on This Humanitarian Tragedy
No full textThe Syrian civil war has been one of the most devastating conflicts of our time, leaving in its wake a trail of destruction, displacement and loss, as well as a breakdown of basic services. It has turned the country into a stage where tragic events and actions are taking place. As the conflict unfolded, it became apparent that women and children were disproportionately affected, facing unique challenges and vulnerabilities amidst the chaos. This critical reflection aims to explore the intersection of feminism and the Syrian war, shedding light on the experiences of women and children and examining the broader implications of this crisis
P1 4 Pyramid of Geezers 2: Electric Boogaloo
No full textIn this paper, we recalculate the theoretical maximum number of tiers in a human pyramid, originally calculated in a previous PST paper, using the ultimate compressive and yield strength of cortical bone. We found the maximum number of tiers to be between 8 and 10 before the ring metacarpal bone begins to yield and 14 to 17 before breakage
A1 8 Armageddon: The Christmas Special!
No full textSanta (Bruce Willis) has lost control of his reindeer, they’re going to crash! Using the information gathered over the last four papers about Armageddon (1998), we investigate the physical consequences of the impact. Approximating Santa and his sleigh as an asteroid, we found that the transient crater diameter would be 32.18 km, with a final size of 50.83 km. Additionally, with the knowledge of the crater being complex, we found the central peak (hereafter named ‘Santa Mountain’) to have a height of 2.73 km. In another scenario, we calculated the velocity that Santa would have to travel at to knock the asteroid off of a collision course in a similar manner to the DART mission, and find it would take a speed of 4.42 × 10^11 m/s to save Christmas
A5 7 Big Mantis
No full textIn this short study we investigated the difference in energy imparted by the striking arm of aregularly sized Peacock Mantis shrimp and a hypothetical version of this shrimp that was scaledto the size of a human. The mechanical energy involved in producing a blow from the striking armwas found to be 9.3 mJ for the smaller crustacean and 13.1 kJ for the larger one
Invisible Labour in the Woodwardian Collection
No full textAs is widely known, the ‘Woodwardian Collection’ at the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge, holds the nearly 10,000 rock, mineral, and fossil specimens collected by the eccentric English natural historian John Woodward between 1688 and 1728. Less widely appreciated, however, is the extent to which Woodward’s collection depended on the ‘invisible labour’ of mineworkers, gem cutters, and other labourers. In this article, I use some of Woodward’s extant field notes to reconstruct his debts to these labourers. As I argue, the taxonomic schemes for metallic ores and gems that Woodward proposed in a scientific treatise of 1728 owed more to the intellectual, as well as physical, labour of the mineworkers and gem cutters that he encountered in the field than is suggested in the treatise itself. The Woodwardian Collection is thus an ideal case study for rendering the invisible labour behind mineral collections more visible
Exhibiting Settler Geology: The Geological Survey of Canada’s 19th Century Mineral Collections
No full textThis paper studies the Canadian mineralogical collection sent to the 1851 Great Exhibition in London. This mineralogical collection was curated by William Logan of the Geological Survey of Canada that played a key role in fossil fuel exploration, colonial expansion, and settler statecraft in Canada in the 19th century. This collection was a key moment in the development and funding of the large-scale transcontinental geological surveys that followed in the second half of the 20th century in Canada. In this paper, I argue how the 1851 exhibition initiated pathways for international investment in marking the beginning of the planetary scope of the Canadian mining industry today.
Exhibiting the Extractive: Bitumen in Fort McMurray
No full textThis article explores how bitumen is curated by the Fort McMurray Oil Sands Discovery Centre and, by extension Suncor’s recent, but no longer operational, ‘Experience the Energy’ tour. In doing so, I seek to examine the visual culture of bitumen as produced from the perspective of industry. The Fort McMurray Oil Sands Discovery Centre is a provincially-funded, industry-sponsored facility operated jointly by Alberta Culture and Tourism and the province’s Historic Sites and Museum Branch. The Centre’s central focus is education and, to enhance this focus, it incorporates entertainment and interactive exhibitions with bitumen throughout, which help to communicate its representation of the histories of the tar sands. I present Suncor’s ‘Experience the Energy’ tour as an extension of the curatorial practices at the Oil Sands Discovery Centre. To do so, I recount my own experience with tar sands tourism in Fort McMurray, framing Suncor’s industrial tourism as a curation of the physical experience of extractive sites, while connecting this to the visual tactics employed at the Centre. In the article, I emphasize how an established visual language, rooted in settler-colonial and extractive-capitalist practices, is adapted to maintain and advance the industrial operations and development of the tar sands. To better understand how visitors come to know bitumen and extraction in these spaces, I consider the sensory as a key component of visual culture to explore how the tar sands industry calls upon visual culture to advance its cause, and suggest that both the tour and the Centre are a kind of multisensory curatorial project—one based on bitumen
Understanding the Needs of Institutional Stakeholders in Participatory Cultural Heritage and Social Innovation Projects
Get PDFThis article investigates the current practices and needs of institutional actors operating at the intersection of cultural heritage and social innovation. Through a mixed-methods approach that includes a survey and in-depth interviews, responses have been collected from GLAMs (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums), social enterprises, public administration, cultural and artistic associations, and educational institutes. A key focus is given to exploring cultural-based participatory practices aimed at engaging disadvantaged communities. The article explores problems and barriers hindering quality engagement, beneficial participation, and impactful outputs, as well as collecting instances of good practice, suggestions, and lessons learnt. The overall goal of this work is to outline the lessons learnt from fields of action to develop guidelines and recommendations for facilitating participatory, collaborative, and inclusive cultural heritage initiatives, including when planning for the use and adoption of digital tools and technologies