STAMP - St Anne's MCR Podcast St Anne's College

Medic and neuroscientist Dora Markati explains how some viruses can be used as vectors – or platforms - to treat genetic disorders. Her paper on this topic, published in St Anne's Academic Review (2021), presents evidence on a range of diseases that have benefited from viral-mediated approaches. She hopes to see more efficient treatments for such diseases being made available to children across the world. 

Dora studied medicine at the University of Patras, Greece, and trained in children's medicine in London and in Cambridge. She completed a Masters in Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge and is now at Oxford undertaking a DPhil in Paediatric Neurology. Her current work involves clinical studies and trials for the treatment of rare childhood diseases affecting the nervous system, with a focus on Angelman Syndrome. 

What are emotions? Are they ingrained in the brain’s architecture, or are they socially constructed? We dive into the wonders of the human brain with Conrado Eiroa Solans, a Masters candidate in Psychological Research who studies the nature of human emotions. In his paper for St Anne's Academic Review, Conrado presents the two schools of thought – the classical biological perspective and the social-constructionist view – and he draws evidence from a lesion case study and brain scans to explain the nature of what human beings feel. 

Born and raised in urban Madrid, Conrado has lived in rural Northern California and snowy suburban Minnesota. He has a BA in Psychology from The College of St Scholastica in Duluth, and he has worked as a Research Assistant at the universities of Yale, Stanford, and Michigan. Beyond academia, Conrado enjoys spending time in the great outdoors, trekking the backcountry and hidden lands.

What is language contact? How and why does it occur? Brittany Hause, a DPhil candidate in Linguistics will explain this phenomenon through a Spanish poem 'Amor de un campestre' – A Rustic's Love – by Bolivian writer Pedro Rivas. The use of regionally specific vocabulary that characterises the piece illustrates several of the effects of language contact, which continue to distinguish the variety of Spanish spoken in Santa Cruz from other varieties heard today in Bolivia and around the world.

Brittany is preparing an article on language contact for Volume 11 of St Anne's Academic Review. Prior to Oxford, Brittany lived and worked in Bolivia, the USA, and South Korea. They hold an MPhil in Linguistics from Oxford, and a Bachelors degree in English, Italian and Spanish from Florida State University. Brittany is also an active member of the student community at St Anne’s, previously MCR Welfare Officer, and now Editor of Spark Reviews for STAAR. 

Enjoy hearing Brittany in conversation with STAAR Humanities Editor, Erin Nickalls about her article and research on language contact. 

St Anne's Academic Review's Editor-in-Chief, Ye-Ye Xu, welcomes Naomi Hoodless, a teacher of languages from Cumbria, to talk about her research paper on LGBT students' experiences in British schools. Naomi carried out her investigation during her PGCE training year at Oxford while teaching German and French at her placement school. She argues that teachers should be trained to handle LGBT students' concerns, and that schools are uniquely placed to support these students as they come to terms with who they are.

This is the first of five interviews in Fresh Academic Voices, an exclusive series produced by St Anne's Academic Review, the college's interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal edited by graduates. Guests on this series will talk about their academic papers to be published in Volume 11 of STAAR. Stay tuned for special insights on a range of topics – from human emotions and genetics, to Medieval French literature and the varieties of Spanish being spoken across the world. 

An exciting new series of conversations with five contributors to St Anne's Academic Review (STAAR) – the college's very own interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal edited and published by graduates.

STAAR Editor-in-Chief, Ye-Ye Xu launches the series by introducing Naomi Hoodless, Brittany Hause, Ramani Chandramohan, Theodora Markati, and Conrado Eiroa Solans who'll be writing for the 11th Volume. Stay tuned for special insights on a range of topics – from human emotions and genetics, to Medieval French literature and the varieties of Spanish being spoken across the world. 

Guillaume Paugam welcomes Farbod Akhlaghi, for the second time, on this episode.  Farbod is a 4th year DPhil student. He specialises in moral philosophy, metaphysics and meta-metaphysics, which respectively ask questions such as: is it morally wrong to do a given action (like smoking, a specific focus of Farbod's)? Are there any moral facts? What is it to even ask the question "are there any moral facts" in the first place? 
After having talked us through the core of his thesis work last week, Farbod takes us on a discussion of other key philosophical questions. This episode tackles, always very accessibly; issues like "do we have a duty to seek transformative experiences?" or "do third culture kids have a culture?", this last question resonating strongly with Farbod's own experience. We also discuss his interest for medieval Islamic philosophy, the need for UK philosophy curricula to include more philosophers from outside Western Europe, and how we can all, as engaged citizens, do philosophy.