Each year the University of Brighton joins with the Bevy community pub to present a series of fascinating talks. See our current and forthcoming Brains at the Bevy events, or see below for previous events
Previous events in the Brains at the Bevy series with the most recent at the end:
Murmurations: the wonders of Brighton’s starlings and threats to their survival
4 May 2022, Dr Rachel White and Steve Geliot
Dr Rachel White shared the scientific discoveries and stories about Brighton’s ‘star bird’ the starling. She explored starlings from a global perspective, then focused in on the UK and our very own Brighton starlings - covering their behaviour, ecology, conservation and relationship with people.
Steve Geliot spoke about how the murmuration works; the science behind this dazzling phenomenon, and also revealed the starlings’ amazing senses: how they see and feel the world quite differently to us, and why they need to be able to see the stars at night.
Rachel is a Principal Lecturer at the University of Brighton. Her research encompasses avian ecology and conservation, focusing on human-nature interactions, citizen science, and extinction risk.
Steve is an artist and citizen scientist who recently had an exhibition at Phoenix Artspace called "Undercurrents" with fellow artist Louise McCurdy which was all about our fabulous starlings.
The energy crisis: why prices have escalated, how solar panels helped council tenants save money, and advice for those struggling with energy costs
1 June 2022, Dr Tim Laing, Dr Nicolette Fox and Dan Curtis
On 1 April energy prices increased by 54%, or an average of £700 per year, and industry consultants are predicting a similar rise at the next price cap review on 1 October 2022.
Dr Tim Laing discussed what has caused recent spikes in energy costs and the role that policies to fight climate change have contributed (or not) to price increases and what might happen in the near future with energy prices and the implications for the role of renewable technologies.
Dr Nicolette Fox introduced and showed Take 7, a film based on her research with BHCC social housing tenants who had been given solar panels and the difference this made to many of their lives.
Dan Curtis explained what help is available both locally and nationally to help households tackle rising energy costs this winter.
Tim is an environment, natural resource and development economist and a Senior Lecturer in the School of Business and Law at the University of Brighton.
Dan is an energy adviser with local not-for-profit company Brighton & Hove Energy Services Co-operative (BHESCo) and has been delivering front line energy advice and support since 2015.
Nicolette is the Development Manager for the University of Brighton’s Community University Partnership Programme (CUPP).
Naked and Unashamed?
5 October, Professor Annebella Pollen
The nude body and its visual depiction have always attracted attention and generated heated debate. What and who should be seen and shown, by whom and where, form the basis of the social and moral codes that shape behaviour and belief. This talk outlined nudist campaigns for bodily visibility in Britain, from the formation of the movement in the 1920s through to the legal battles of its photographers against obscenity law in the 1950s and 1960s and discussed what their parallels are today.
Professor Annebella Pollen is a Reader in the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Brighton.
Are we facing another mass extinction event?
2 November, Professor Chris Joyce and Dr Glenn Langler
According to the international environmental movement Extinction Rebellion, we are facing an unprecedented global emergency, a mass extinction of biodiversity of our own making that threatens the future of all life on the planet. This talk examined current species loss in relation to past mass extinction events by introducing the concept of biodiversity, assessing human impacts on nature, and considering whether we need a radical rethink of nature conservation.
Glenn Langler, a local Environmental Consultant, talked about some new approaches to coastal flood risk management and possible solutions to local challenges to the natural environment.
Glenn is a Principal Environmental Consultant who works at JBA Consulting. He completed a PhD in Ecotoxicology at the University of Brighton in 2003 and since then has worked as an ecological and environmental consultant.
Professor Chris Joyce is a Professor of Ecology in the School of Applied Sciences at the University of Brighton.
Creative Pause! – lived menopause experiences
7 December, Dr Jess Moriarty
Menopause is a major part of the life course, yet its wellbeing implications remain poorly understood and this leads to negative impacts on lives across the world. There is a lack of understanding of lived experience and a lack of visible stories about menopause in literary texts and the arts and so menopause as a stage in the life course remains obscured. This talk responded to a growing body of evidence that suggests that enabling people to engage in the creative arts, including storytelling, may have beneficial impacts on health and wellbeing and reports on a project at the University of Brighton that evaluated the wellbeing of women who took part in creative workshops where they were supported to tell stories about their lived experiences of menopause.
Menopause cafe - 5pm with Joanne Smith
A Menopause cafe took place before the event to talk about all things menopause.
Dr Jess Moriarty is Principal Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Brighton and Co-director of the Centre of Arts and Wellbeing.
Listening to seaside gentrification and our changing environments: How can listening and sound help us to find and tell stories about changes in our streets, neighbourhoods and cities?
1 February 2023, Dr Bethan Prosser (University of Brighton) and Bela Emerson (Music for Connection)
Bethan will talk about her research on urban injustice, in particular on seaside gentrification and displacement. She uses creative, participatory, multisensory and mobile methods to collect stories of people’s changing relationship to place.
She will be joined by Bela from Music for Connection, Brighton and Hove’s community music specialist service. Working together, they have been exploring how listening activities and sound walks can be used as a tool for both research, community engagement and wellbeing purposes. They have creative interactive listening walks and sound foraging activities for different funded projects around the city, including one that started at The Bevy.
Bethan Prosser has just completed her PhD project funded by the ESRC South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership. Her PhD project investigated urban seaside gentrification on the UK South Coast, using listening to explore residential experiences of displacement injustices. Bethan teaches undergraduate social science students on the Community Engagement: Theory into Practice module.
Where do the sarsen stones at Stonehenge come from?
3 May 2023, Professor David Nash
In this talk, Professor David Nash will present the latest research by his team on where the sarsen megaliths at Stonehenge originally came from. He will explain the development of the geochemical fingerprinting technique used to match sarsen stones to source areas, which has its roots in the analysis of Middle Stone Age tools in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana. The talk will show how the team identified West Woods, near Marlborough, as the likely source of the giant sarsens, and consider what this finding means for the construction of Stonehenge.
Professor David Nash is Professor of Physical Geography from the Centre for Earth Observation Science.
What is the Brighton Aquifer, how does it affect the water you drink and how can we protect it?
7 June 2023, Professor Martin Smith and Susie Howells
Road surface water is a major cause of pollution, carrying metals and hydrocarbons as well as particles from tyres off the road system and into the surrounding natural environment. An estimated 365,000 people rely on the aquifer of the Brighton Chalk Block for their drinking water. In this talk Professor Martin Smith presented his research on flow through the chalk aquifer, and how it influences groundwater chemistry and pollutant transport.
Professor Martin Smith of the University of Brighton and Susie Howells of The Aquifer Partnership talked about a collaborative project with the Living Coast Biosphere, with the support of UNESCO, which will explore how the Wild Park rainscape works to remove pollutants and improve water quality. This will show how well the approach works, to promote it to other urban areas, and to help improve the design of future sustainable drainage schemes.
Launched in 2016, The Aquifer Partnership (TAP) is a collaboration between Brighton & Hove City Council, the Environment Agency, South Downs National Park Authority and Southern Water to protect the aquifer of the Brighton chalk block.
Professor Martin Smith is Professor of Geochemistry, a geologist, geochemist and mineralogist, and is the Associate Dean for Research and Knowledge Exchange in the School of Applied Sciences.
Cost of energy crisis special
20 July 2023, Dr Tim Laing and Dan Curtis
In this update on a previous talk about the energy crisis, Dr Tim Laing from the University of Brighton discussed what he thinks will happen to energy costs over the next few months. Dan Curtis, an energy adviser with local not-for-profit company Brighton & Hove Energy Services Co-operative, also updated his previous talk and explained what is available both locally and nationally to help households tackle energy costs this winter. They both talked about their recent Ignite community university partnership project and responded to lots of questions in a lively Q+A session at the end of the evening.
Why do some people live to be one hundred?
4 October 2023, Professor Richard Faragher
Why do some people live to be over a hundred and remain in good health while others develop illnesses in their seventies? Is it down to genetics? How important are lifestyle decisions? In this talk Richard Faragher, Professor of Biogerontology at the University of Brighton, will discuss some of the big unanswered questions that remain in the biology of ageing. He will discuss the things that can extend a healthy life, from exercise to a good diet, but also why the experts agree that there is something special about the biology of humans who survive more than a century, despite sometimes not having led particularly healthy lives.
Professor Richard Faragher is Professor of Biogerontology, School of Applied Sciences and Centre for Stress and Age-Related Disease.
Stress and Cancer: mind/body interactions
1 November 2023, Dr Mel Flint
During the COVID-19 pandemic increased levels of stress were reported globally due to social isolation, lockdowns, and job losses. Exposure to psychological stress produces a physiologic response involving the release of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. While our bodies adapt to acute stress, prolonged exposure to stress due to chronic stressors may lead to long-term damage. These stressors generally result in an increased and prolonged release of stress hormones that may contribute to cancer initiation, progression and spread. Dr Flint discussed the evidence from her research that stress can contribute to cancer progress and what can be done to combat stress.
Dr Mel Flint is a Reader in Cancer Research and is the leader of a stress and breast cancer program and section head for Therapeutics at the University of Brighton.
Victorian Gothic, the psychology of fear and a ghost called Pipes
6 December 2023, Dr Gemma Graham and Dr Vicky Margree
Gathering around a fire to share ghost stories was a beloved tradition in the late 1880s into the early 1900s. Ghost stories and gothic literature still remain such a prominent and popular part of society, which asks the question; Why do we like being scared? In this talk Vicky Margree investigated a supernatural story, 'The Portrait', by Margaret Oliphant, to ask the questions: do men and women write ghost stories differently? Do women write in coded ways about the constraints they face in Victorian society? And are they really as subversive as they appear? And Gemma Graham explored the psychological, emotional, and cognitive responses to fear, horror films and ghost stories, ending with a look at the most controversial Ghost Haunting Hoax in the UK.
Dr Gemma Graham is Principal Lecturer in Forensic psychology and Student Engagement Lead for HSS
Dr Victoria Margree is a specialist in literary fiction and feminist theory and author of British Women's Short Supernatural Fiction, 1860-1930: Our Own Ghostliness (Palgrave, 2019)
The Mysterious Mrs Hood: writing true crime and forensic psychology
1 May 2024, Kim Donovan and Dr Gemma Graham
Kim Donovan is the author of The Mysterious Mrs Hood, a historical true crime book about the life – and death – of her great-great aunt. Kim will talk about the process of writing a true crime book from rooting around in libraries and archives to drawing on historical sources to bring stories from the past to life.
Gemma will focus on the pros and cons when it comes to the media's representation of true crime, and will critically discuss how real-world criminal cases are often sensationalised and put on trial by the media before they even enter the courtroom.
Kim Donovan is Head of Library Academic Engagement
Dr Gemma Graham is a Principal Lecturer in Forensic Psychology
Valuing Everyday Creativity
5 June 2024, Dr Helen Johnson
Creativity is something of a buzzword – it seems everyone wants to be creative, think creatively, have creative employees, colleagues and children… But what does all of this really mean? Who gets to define what is creative? What and who should creativity be for? Should we be focusing on the links between creativity and productivity, creativity and wellbeing or should we be trying to nurture the development of creativity for its own sake? Should we be funnelling money into ‘high’ art pursuits like ballet and the opera or into activities like community choirs and amateur dramatics? What about creativity within areas like science, technology, in the home or in nature?
Dr Helen Johnson is Principal Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Brighton