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Exploring anti-carceral pathways to address gender-based violence in universities: a conversation
No full textThis article is an overview of a Legislative Theatre (LT) workshop that was organised by the authors at Newcastle University in June of 2024. The workshop was aimed at both rethinking and reimagining the university’s broadly defined approach to and policies around complaint handling with a specific focus on instances and reports of gender-based violence (GBV). All of the authors are committed to enacting anti-carceral feminist futures aimed at challenging structures that cause harm and perpetuate racial and colonial violence. This is expressed throughout our conversation as we shift between the political to the personal reflecting a feminist praxis. These normative commitments are also reflected in our methodological decision to draw attention to our redactions of the comments we felt uneasy about including. Despite having consent from all workshop participants, this choice reflects tensions between privacy, harm, frustration, and care that persisted far past the day itself, and which speak to the ongoing pressures feminist researchers face when talking about sexual violence in the neoliberal academy (Godden-Rasul and Serisier, 2024)
Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, Volume 16, Issue 1 (2025)
No full textTheatre, Dance and Performance Training is a very special thing. It is a rigorously peer-reviewed journal that provides a forum for practitioners, academics, creative artists and pedagogues to articulate research into performance training in all its diversity. It also lends its name to the accompanying Blog which provides a digital companion to the discussions initiated in the journal. More significantly, however, it is a community, a gathering together of people dedicated to the past, present, and future of performer training in all its forms. At its heart, it is about the people who carry these traditions and innovations forward and then set them down for others to pick up and take forward in their own ways.
This issue marks the first that Sarah Weston and I have edited, and we are incredibly aware of the precious thing that we have just picked up. However, as evidenced by the editorial board, the associate editors, the Training Grounds team, the Blog team, the team at Routledge, and the diverse and expert contributors listed, all of whom we are tremendously grateful to, we are not alone in our procession
Economic evaluation of digitally supported therapy for people with psychosis who hear distressing voices: the AVATAR2 trial
Get PDFBackground
AVATAR therapy, a digitally supported intervention, utilises avatars to promote recovery in people who experience distressing auditory hallucinations. This approach was recently evaluated in a multicentre randomised controlled trial comparing brief (AV-BRF) and extended (AV-EXT) forms of therapy with treatment as usual (TAU). There was evidence for the effectiveness of therapy, particularly for AV-EXT. However, value for money needs to be assessed.
Aims
To compare separately the cost utility of the brief and extended forms of AVATAR therapy with TAU.
Method
In a three-arm randomised controlled trial the use of health services was measured, and costs (2021/2022; pounds sterling) calculated from a health and social care perspective over a 28-week follow-up period. Quality-adjusted life years (QALYs; derived from the 5-level version of the EuroQol 5-Dimension questionnaire) were combined with costs.
Results
AV-BRF resulted in extra costs of £319 (95% CI, −£1558 to £2496), and AV-EXT in lower costs of £1965 (95% CI, −£1912 to £1519), compared with TAU. Over the follow-up, AV-BRF resulted in 0.0159 (95% CI, −0.0103 to 0.0422) and AV-EXT in 0.0173 (95% CI, −0.0049 to 0.0395) more QALYs than TAU. The cost per QALY for AV-BRF compared with TAU was £20 016, while AV-EXT dominated TAU (lower costs and more QALYs).
Conclusions
Neither version of AVATAR had a substantial impact on QALYs. However, AV-EXT did result in reduced care costs − albeit not statistically significant − and was potentially cost-effective compared with TAU. AV-BRF had an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio that indicated lower potential cost-effectiveness. These findings are uncertain, but could still inform decision-making regarding interventions in this field
The conviction and sentencing of ex-rebel, Thomas Kwoyelo, 15 years on
No full textThomas Kwoyelo was a mid-level commander in the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group notorious for its brutal tactics in Uganda. Key figures in the LRA including Kwoyelo and Dominic Ongwen, were abducted as children. Despite their initial victimisation, Kwoyelo and Ongwen rose through the ranks to become commanders, participating in and orchestrating numerous atrocities. Kwoyelo was recently convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity. His trial marked the first time an LRA commander was prosecuted by Uganda’s judiciary. This case highlights two key issues: the trial’s length and its comparison to Dominic Ongwen’s case before the International Criminal Court (ICC)
Good content for the web
Get PDFThis open educational resource addresses the pedagogical challenge of teaching effective web content creation and presentation. The resource examines the relationship between content quality and user experience, analysing visitor behaviour patterns and information-seeking strategies on the web. Drawing on established principles from Krug's usability research, the resource articulates evidence-based guidelines for producing accessible, scannable web content that serves diverse user needs. It explicates best practices for web copywriting, including the inverted pyramid structure, appropriate tone of voice, and effective use of typographic hierarchy. The resource critically evaluates text formatting and layout decisions, demonstrating how typographic choices affect legibility and accessibility. Through comparative analysis of professional web publications, the resource illustrates principles of user-centred design and content strategy. It addresses contemporary challenges including reader applications, parallax scrolling effects, and their impact on reading experience, providing students with frameworks for making informed design decisions that prioritise content accessibility and user engagement
Third-party relief against forfeiture
Get PDFThe article discusses case law on whether relief against forfeiture of a lease could be granted following a payment of rent by a third party. In particular, it considers Matthews v Dobbins [1963] 1 WLR 227 involving a payment into court of rent arrears and costs under s.191(1) of the County Courts Act 1959 and Barking and Dagenham LBC v Omokudu [2020] EWHC 2620 (Ch) on whether a payment of rent by a bankrupt tenant's solicitor was void under s.284(1) of the Insolvency Act 1986
Developing commercial-scale fresh sweetpotato root storage in tropical areas of sub-Saharan Africa
Get PDFAs food systems across sub-Saharan Africa transform and urbanise, demand for all-year-round supplies for the raw materials is increasing. This demand can be met through combinations of staggering crop production, purchasing from diverse geographical areas, and storing produce. Focusing on the increasing use of orange-fleshed sweetpotato root puree in vitamin-A-rich food products, we ran a series of storage trials in Kenya to investigate whether commercial-scale fresh orange-fleshed sweetpotato storage could provide a stable supply of roots for puree production. The trials studied storage of roots of two sweetpotato varieties (Kabode and Vita), using washed versus unwashed roots in wooden crates, and mains grid power versus off-grid solar-powered storerooms for four-months. Following curing at 30 °C, roots were stored at 20-23 °C, and quality assessed. After four months storage, 54-59 % (Kabode) and 63-83 % (Vita) of initial root weight remained suitable for processing into puree. However, weevil and sprouting problems occurred. Vita outperformed Kabode for most criteria. Neither root washing nor different storerooms had a consistent effect on root quality. Subsequent trials in a solar powered store investigated if lower temperatures of ≤15 °C and 90 % rh, with pre-harvest dehaulming could reduce weevil development, sprouting and rotting in stored roots. While control of sprouting and weevil damage was achieved and dehaulming improved stored root quality, while washing reduced it, high incidence of rotting and root weight loss occurred. Increasing store ventilation did not reduce rotting. We conclude that further trials with well controlled storage environments are required to understand how raw root quality, dehaulming, harvesting and handling practices, curing conditions, air exchange, and packaging materials affect quality during fresh root storage
Nursing students’ perceptions of inadequate nurse staffing in the clinical learning environment – a systematic narrative review
Get PDFAim: The aim of this study was to substantiate the perceptions and experiences of nursing students related to nurse understaffing in the clinical learning environment.
Background: The quality of the clinical learning environment affects students’ learning experiences, shapes their thinking about the profession and can influence their choice to stay or leave the profession. Understaffing in the clinical learning environment has an adverse impact on patient safety, quality of care outcomes and mortality. Understaffing has an impact on students’ learning by reducing the quality of supervision and mentoring.
Design: A systematic narrative review.
Methods: Databases of Academic Search Premier, MEDLINE, Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, APA PsycINFO, APA PsycArticles, CINAHL, AMED were searched systematically. The review was reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. The reviewers independently conducted study selection, quality appraisal and data extraction. Quality appraisal was performed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). Thematic analysis was used to synthesise the findings.
Results: A total of eight research papers were included. Four themes were identified: inadequate support, feeling unprotected, being seen as a cover for staff shortages on shifts and patients ultimately suffer the consequences of understaffing.
Conclusions: This review revealed that understaffing in the learning environment meant that optimum level of supervision could not be provided, making students feel vulnerable and insecure, students felt unwelcome and used as cover for staff shortages. We recommend further examination of understaffing to inform policy for improvement in student-staff ratio, supervision and facilitation of learning
Creating a co-produced strategic framework for enhancing student engagement and outcomes through addressing inequalities experienced by healthcare students
Get PDFBackground: Students experience various inequalities within higher education institutions influenced by the intersectionality between socioeconomic, ethnicity, age and gender (House of Commons,2023; Richardson, Mittelmeier and Rienties,2020). To meet the central principle of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is to Leave no one behind (UNSDG,2022).
Aims: To investigate the relationship between socio-economic status, ethnicity, age, gender and students’ educational outcomes; to inform the design and development of a framework co-created with students.
Principal research question: Is there a relationship between socio-economic status, ethnicity, age and gender in relation to students’ educational outcomes and social identification with the university culture?
Methodology: A three-phase, cross-sectional, explanatory sequential mixed-method design using a purposive sample of students on healthcare professional programmes. Phase 1 was an online survey followed by phase 2 semi-structured interviews. Survey data was analysed using descriptive statistics and triangulated with interview data using thematic analysis. Phase 3 will be completed using Nominal Group Technique workshop with students and university representatives.
Findings: Preliminary findings from survey (n=144) and interviews (n=7) indicate various barriers to student identification with university culture, namely structure of healthcare programmes requiring intensive theory blocks and extensive time on work-based learning experiences compounded by personal life demands, as age and socio-economic status. Conversely, support from staff contributed to university belonging, connection and identification.
Conclusion: Phase 3 will lead to the development of an engagement framework co-created with students to support the school Equality Diversity Inclusion strategy and manualised for adoption by other faculties to enhance student experience university wide
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