Today’s guest is Professor Simon Hepburn, CEO of the Cyber Security Council.

Simon has over twenty years’ experience within the education, business and charity sectors in senior leadership and management positions and is very passionate about professional development and career opportunities that exist in the UK through mediums including university, training and apprenticeships.

He has devoted most of his working life to supporting and developing people to raise their aspirations, develop their skills and talents and to promote social mobility to be impactful and to make a positive contribution to society.

His current role as CEO of the UK Cyber Security Council involves working in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). They aim to enhance and expand the nations cyber skills at every level through a world class and diverse cyber security profession that inspires and equips future talent as outlined in the National Cyber Strategy.

As the CEO, Simon stands up and leads the organisation, ensuring it is fit for purpose to deliver on their vision, mission and values.

Simon is also a visiting professor at Aston University in the College of Business and Social Sciences. The position recognises his contribution to industry throughout his career, and to assist the University through guidance, employment support and increased representation.

Simon Hepburn 👉 https://bit.ly/404clpO

UK Cyber Security Council 👉 https://bit.ly/402isef

Cyber Security Innovation Centre 👉 https://bit.ly/42rrCm9

Aston Business School 👉 https://bit.ly/3LEat2L

#teamaston #cyber #cybersecurity

Warning: the following contains spoilers.

Magic Mike is back for one last dance in the male stripper franchise’s third and final instalment.

After Mike’s (Channing Tatum) furniture business falls into hard times post-COVID, he finds himself working as a bartender.

Dr Katy Pilcher has conducted research with male dancers and women customers in strip shows in the UK.

Dr Katy Pilcher 👉 https://bit.ly/3SPMz61

The Conversation article 👉 https://bit.ly/3EIev5M

School of Social Sciences and Humanities 👉 https://bit.ly/3JCRAd1

Aston University will be illuminating its history with materials from its archives, which will be on show at a public lecture and in a temporary exhibition.

Preserving the Histories of a Community of Makers will launch on Thursday 24 November with this special event which will be open to the public.

The Aston University Archives house materials relating to the history of Aston University (1966 onwards), as well as its predecessor institutions: the Birmingham Municipal Technical School (1895 to 1927) and the Birmingham Central Technical College (1927 to 1951).

Items on display will include records of previous students, courses and fees from as far back as the 19th century, records from the First World War period, with details about student names, occupations, classes attended, and their marks as well as maps detailing the evolution of the institution and Birmingham as a city.

The wider collection includes documents which shed light on education, politics, economics, society and culture and chronicle the development of a variety of trades and professions, with the potential to enrich both local and global narratives.

They also include newspapers, brochures and records of the popular music acts which performed in the Great Hall, together with videos and slides of the campus as it has been built up—and knocked down—as well as campus maps through the decades.

The archives contain works of art as well as notable objects, such as the Parker 51 fountain pen used by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II when she opened the Main Building in 1955.

There will be a welcome reception, followed by introductory lectures from Professor Helen Higson and Dr Ilaria Scaglia, and then the official opening of the exhibition by Aston University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Aleks Subic.

Dr Ilaria Scaglia, senior lecturer in modern history at Aston University, said:

“Conserving and making these documents available allows our own History students as well as the members of the broader academic and non-academic communities to tell previously untold stories.

“The History programme is planning to lead its students to analyse these records through both traditional and digital methods. This is useful training for a variety of professions and also a way to offer a hands-on, engaging approach to history.

“These records are not only about individual institutions but they are also about the people who made them and were influenced by them; they are a window onto the times in which they lived. Because Birmingham has long been a diverse and global city, these records, peoples, and histories are global.

“History provides a key to understand past and present as well as indispensable insights to shape the future. These records document that past.”

To book a place for this free event, click here: https://bit.ly/3UWRnX6.

If you would like to consult any of these holdings, or if you have items that you think may be of interest to the Aston University Archives, please email the Aston University Archives team ([email protected])

Today’s guest is Dawn Hands, who co-founded BMG Research back in 1988 and has gone on to build an organisation which is now one of the leading suppliers of research and insight to UK Governments.

Dawn is an alumna of Aston Business School, completing her MBA in the 1980s, before going on to set up BMG.

BMG works across government departments, informing public policy on issues ranging from health to transport - and education to housing.

Dawn Hands 👉 https://bit.ly/3BZtqr7

BMG Research 👉 https://bit.ly/3xKFr1n

Aston MBA 👉 https://bit.ly/3BAJ37c

Aston Business School 👉 https://bit.ly/3RiYUNH

#teamaston #business #businessowner

Cultivated meat is a meat produced using animal cells. It is a form of cellular agriculture, with such agricultural methods being explored in the context of increased consumer demand for protein.

Professor Claire Farrown and Dr Eirini Theodosiou, from Aston University, discuss their latest research around the subject: 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘁: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲?

Professor Claire Farrow 👉 https://bit.ly/3LhZn18

Dr Eirini Theodosiou 👉 https://bit.ly/3Li5ouF

College of Engineering and Physical Sciences 👉https://bit.ly/3UdA4kT

College of Health and Life Sciences 👉https://bit.ly/3Uj2Ssj

School of Psychology
👉https://bit.ly/3RTeoc8

School of Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering
👉https://bit.ly/3BkzetN

Applied Health Research Group 👉 https://bit.ly/3Ligtfl

Aston Institute of Materials Research 👉 https://bit.ly/3UeMcSA

Aston Institute of Health & Neurodevelopment 👉https://bit.ly/3RRIVqG

Courses related to this show:

Psychology 👉 https://bit.ly/3eUgMRg
Chemistry 👉 https://bit.ly/3eSWCHl

#teamaston #labgrownmeat #psychology

To mark International Literacy Day 2022 (08 September), Dr Marcello Giovanelli and Dr Abigail Boucher discuss literacy and its affect on society as well as a recap of their Lockdown Library Project during the height of the Coronavirus pandemic

𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗟𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘆 𝗗𝗮𝘆

International Literacy Day is celebrated on the 8th September every year. It’s been that way since the first one in 1967.

Worldwide, 775 million lack minimum literacy skills, one in five adults are still not literate and two-thirds of those are women. 60.7 million children are out-of-school and many more attend irregularly or drop out. South Asia has the lowest regional adult literacy rate (58.6%), followed by sub-Saharan Africa (59.7%). Countries with the lowest literacy rates in the world are Burkina Faso (12.8%), Niger (14.4%) and Mali (19%)

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗼𝗰𝗸𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗟𝗶𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁

The Lockdown Library Project explored the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the public’s reading habits through an online survey.

The Aston University team was interested in whether people increased or reduced their reading, chose particular books or genres to read, revisited books from the past and changed the ways they talk about books with other people since the lockdown. Nearly 900 people took part.

𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲, 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄

Dr Marcello Giovanelli 👉 https://bit.ly/3TMAu19

Dr Abigail Boucher 👉 https://bit.ly/3RD0YAv

The Lockdown Library Project 👉 https://bit.ly/3TGyOqh

Courses related to this show 👉 https://bit.ly/3enZD28

𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗠𝗲 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗠𝘆 𝗦𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗳

Save Me From My Shelf is a literature podcast hosted by friends Abigail Boucher (lecturer in English, languages and applied linguistics) and Daniel Jenkin-Smith (postdoc) and academics in Birmingham, England.

Join them as they take classic literature off its pedestal by making fun of it!

Website 👉 https://bit.ly/3cNWmsr

Spotify 👉 https://spoti.fi/3KNIAmm

Acast 👉 https://bit.ly/3RHRrYK

Apple Podcasts 👉 https://apple.co/3qy3bBX

Twitter 👉 https://bit.ly/3TEjTg2

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗶𝗲𝗴𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗼𝗻

This book presents a cognitive stylistic analysis of the writing of Siegfried Sassoon, a First World War poet who has typically been perceived as a poet of protest and irony, but whose work is in fact multi-faceted and complex in theme and shifted in style considerably throughout his lifetime.

The author starts from the premise that a more systematic account of Sassoon’s style is possible using the methodology of contemporary stylistics, in particular Cognitive Grammar.

Using this as a starting point, he revisits common ideas from Sassoon scholarship and reconfigures them through the lens of cognitive stylistics to provide a fresh perspective on Sassoon's style. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of stylistics, war poetry, twentieth-century literature, and cognitive linguistics.

Find out more 👉 https://bit.ly/3BhUPV2

#TeamAston #internationalliteracyday

Join Katie Tonkiss, senior lecturer in sociology at Aston University, for the Centre for Migration and Forced Displacement’s (CMFD) first podcast.

Listen to this podcast episode for an evening of conversation with Sivamohan Valluvan, associate professor of sociology at the University of Warwick. The discussion focuses on his recent book The Clamour of Nationalism: Race and Nation in 21st Century Britain.
In his book, Valluvan argues that a meaningful understanding of contemporary nationalism must reckon with the ideological range animating it and the deeply hostile aversion to different racial minorities that pervades it. Drawing on a variety of cultural and political themes – including the cult of Churchillism, the neoliberal fixation with a ‘point-system’ immigration policy, fears that the white working class have been abandoned, and even simply the strange appeal of Harry Potter and Game of Thrones – Valluvan provides a dazzling and detailed study of how nationalism is the politics of today only because it is the politics of everything.

https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526126146/

Sivamohan Valluvan is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick. Alongside his 2019 Clamour of Nationalism (Manchester University Press), he has written widely on debates of race and racism, nationalism and multiculture, as well as postcolonial and social theory more broadly. He is also the co-author of a British Academy research report titled: ‘Reframing the Left Behind: Race and Class in Post-Brexit Oldham’ and has contributed to Salvage, Red Pepper, The Guardian, Fabian Review, Renewal and Progressive Review.

Sivamohan Valluvan (https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/sociology/staff/valluvan/)
Katie Tonkiss (@ktonkiss)