Research @ OU Graduate School Research @ OU Graduate School

Macadamia is an important lucrative crop globally, especially among rural smallholder producers in Malawi. However, climate change threatens production & productivity. As such smallholders will be required to adapt and become resilience to climate change. Agroforestry provides a viable option for climate change mitigation and adaptation. In this episode we explore the benefits associated with climate smart macadamia agroforestry in Malawi. This episode has been created by Emmanuel Zuza, climate science researcher doing his PhD in the Department of Environment, Earth & Ecosystem Sciences at the Open University.

NMT - The Neno Macadamia Trust https://www.nenomacadamiatrust.org/home.html
Agroforestry for climate adaptation https://chooseliberation.com/blogs/journal/agroforestry-for-climate-adaptation
Nutcellars
https://www.nutcellars.com/blog

Emmanuel Zuza | OU people profiles https://www.open.ac.uk/people/zx789244
Emmanuel Zuza-Google Scholar https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=ItRHcXMAAAAJ&hl=en
Emmanuel Zuza-Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmanuel-junior-zuza-76028275/
Emmanuel Zuza Jnr (@EJEYZiE) / Twitter https://twitter.com/EJEYZiE

What is corporate crime? How “true” are true crime podcasts? This episode is brought to you by Jana Macfarlane Horn who tries to answer these questions to give you more insight into her research about corporate crime discourses in documentaries and podcasts. She will cover some basic concepts of Criminology, crime media research, and true crime podcasting. Jana will also discuss some of the most prominent corporate crime cases, such as the LIBOR manipulation, Deepwater Horizon, and the Rana Plaza factory collapse to give you more context to the criminological theories she will cover.

Jana’s OU profile:
https://www.open.ac.uk/people/js37449
Twitter: @JanaMH___

Suggested reading/references:
Barak, G. (1988) Newsmaking criminology: Reflections of the media, intellectuals, and crime. Justice Quarterly, 5(4), pp. 565-587.

Friedrichs, D.O. (2010) Trusted criminals: white collar crime in contemporary society. 4th Edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Tombs, S. and Whyte, D. (2015) The corporate criminal: why corporations must be abolished. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Yardley, E., Kelly, E. and Robinson-Edwards, S. (2019) “Forever trapped in the imaginary of late capitalism? The serialized true crime podcast as a wake-up call in times of criminological slumber,” Crime Media Culture, 15(3), pp. 503–521.

The OU changes lives, and is more than a place to get a degree while you work. I am an first generation LGBT scientist, and I couldn’t have got my education anywhere else. I thought I’d never achieve this due to my circumstances and the homophobia I faced growing up, but with the help of my husband James, my brilliant friends and the progressive and admirable philosophical approach to education at the OU I am now studying a PhD in butterfly conservation. In this podcast, I’m going to discuss my educational journey through a poor performance at GCSE to getting DTP funding with CENTA at the OU.

Further info:

Bradley Neal | OU people profiles https://www.open.ac.uk/people/bn925

CENTA – The Central England NERC Training Alliance http://centa.ac.uk/

In this episode, Sarah Huxley, a third year PhD student at the OU, speaks with one of her research participants, Nora Dooley, a staff member with the not for profit, Coaches Across Continents (CAC). They discuss Nora’s advice for qualitative researchers, especially those considering/ already engaged with an online ethnography. The conversation covers Nora’s ‘do’s and don’ts’ for researchers, as well as her reflections on surprises during data gathering, challenges, and ultimately if she found the research process fun? Sarah sums up the episode by reflecting upon her approach to the research process as one of ‘disciplined improvisation’ (based on the notion by RK Sawyer, 2004). As well as the possibilities that the pandemic has catalysed in relation to thinking about online embodied ethnography. Enjoy!

A special thanks to: Nora Dooley from Coaches Across Continents https://coachesacrosscontinents.org/ for contributing her ideas and voice, and to Mark Childs from Pedagodzilla https://www.pedagodzilla.com/ for providing podcasting advice and support! It was much needed.

Reference: Sawyer, R. K. (2004) ‘Creative Teaching: Collaborative Discussion as Disciplined Improvisation’, Educational Researcher, 33(2), pp. 12–20. doi: 10.3102/0013189X033002012.

Sarah's Twitter: https://twitter.com/AidHoover

What is it like to do a PhD while starting your family? How can you get practical and emotional support while writing your thesis or launching your academic career when you have small children?
Recent OU PhD graduates Dr Emilie Giles and Dr Jade Levell talk about having and raising their children during their doctorates and beyond, the trials and tribulations, how they made it work and how the ‘perfect’ thesis is a done thesis.

Further reading
Theses
Giles, Emilie (2021). E-textiles for Self-Expression: Participatory Making with Blind and Visually Impaired People. PhD thesis The Open University http://oro.open.ac.uk/77859/
Levell, Jade (2020). The Road Home: Masculinity, Vulnerability, And Violence : A Narrative Study Using Music Elicitation With Men Who Had Childhood Experience Of Domestic Violence/Abuse And On-Road/Gang-Involvement. PhD thesis The Open University http://oro.open.ac.uk/70991/

Support groups and resources
Brearley, J. (2021) Pregnant Then Screwed: The Truth About the Motherhood Penalty and How to Fix It, Simon and Schuster.
Evans, E. and Grant, C. (eds) (2008) Mama, PhD: Women Write about Motherhood and Academic Life, Rutgers University Press. Facebook group Mama, PhD https://www.facebook.com/groups/26883644770
Mother Pukka - For people who happen to be parents https://www.motherpukka.co.uk/
Doctoral Mom Life https://www.facebook.com/Doctoral-Mom-Life-1448686481853569/

Is intelligence fixed and predetermined by genes? Is fun a distraction that should just be used as a reward after learning? Learning styles aren’t really as effective as they appear to be and misconceptions are more difficult to overcome than you might think. In this podcast episode, PhD student Katherine Langford https://fass.open.ac.uk/psychology/phd-student/katherine-langford#ou-org discusses four misconceptions about learning with interviews from Emily Dowdeswell from the RUMPUS research group https://wels.open.ac.uk/rumpus and Dr Liz FitzGerald https://iet.open.ac.uk/people/elizabeth.fitzgerald.

Suggested further reading:
Brown, P.C., Roediger III, H.L. and McDaniel, M.A. (2014) Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. Belknap Press.

Dowdeswell, E. & Langford, K. (2021) Tricky Physics: What’s Fun Got to Do with It? https://blog.eera-ecer.de/author/emily-dowdeswell-katherine-langford/

Hattie, J. (2012) Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximising Impact on Learning. Routledge.

Willingham, D.T. (2009) Why Don’t Students Like School? A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom. Jossey-Bass.