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 responds 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 café - 5pm

There will be a Menopause cafe before the event to talk about all things menopause. A Menopause café provides an informal supportive environment. There’s no speaker and no agenda in this group-directed discussion, just the sharing of experiences, stories, and questions about the menopause.

All ages and all genders are welcome to join in the conversation or just come and listen. Tea and biscuits will be provided.

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 Dr Bethan Prosser (University of Brighton) and Bela Emerson (Music for Connection)

How can listening and sound help us to find and tell stories about changes in our streets, neighbourhoods and cities? 

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.

What did the pandemic do for Brighton’s air pollution levels?

1 March 2023, Dr Kevin Wyche

The COVID-19 pandemic forced governments around the world to impose restrictions on daily life to prevent the spread of the virus. The result of this enforced ‘staying at home’ was a reduction in the amount of pollution we emitted from industry, businesses and transport. This was especially true for nitrogen dioxide pollution. At Brighton University we have been looking to see the impact of these lockdowns on change in air quality at both street level and in the higher atmosphere in the south-east. We found that particulate matter concentrations (released from burning fossil fuels) were affected by regional activities and that ozone pollution increased across most sites during the lockdowns, by up to 15%. Our research has found that the changes in air quality owing to the COVID-19 lockdown are more complicated than we first thought, and this is important for policy makers and government to better understand the impacts of the transport and commercial decisions that they make in the future.

Dr Kevin Wyche is a Reader in Atmospheric Science and the Director of the University of Brighton's Centre for Earth Observation Science.

Previous talks in the series

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 advisor 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.

The Bevy

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