In our latest Seminar Sessions podcast, two academics from the Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway discuss their experience of attending COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, as official observers.

Professor Dave Waltham, Professor of GeoPhysics  and Dr Rebecca Fisher, Lecturer and researcher in the Greenhouse Gas Laboratory, are both involved in teaching and research which engages with issues around Climate Change, greenhouse emissions and energy transition. In November they joined government leaders and representatives from across the world at COP26 in Glasgow,  where important measures to  address global warming were discussed and agreed, with hopes that it will lead to genuine cuts in emissions.

Course director of our MA in Immersive Storytelling, Mary Matheson, talks to us about the exciting immersive worlds of virtual reality and augmented reality, and how these emerging and fast-growing technologies can be used to tell stories in a way they’ve never been told before – allowing us to vividly experience different times, cultures, issues and places. She discusses her latest projects, including a collaborative piece exploring underground clubs for black people in nineteen-eighties London, as well as what impact covid-19 has had on virtual reality, and what the current drawbacks of the technology are.

Professor of Marketing and Consumer Research Pauline MacLaran, of the School of Business and Management, discusses the careful brand cultivation of the Royal Family, including the fine balance between their accessibility and mystique, their representation in popular culture such as the hit Netflix series The Crown, and the precarious position of the royal brand’s future. 

Dr Steve Portugal,  Reader in Animal Behaviour and Physiology, in the Department of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway, discusses his passion for birds and how they feature in his research and teaching. He also ponders why do pigeons get such a bad press,  and how important are birds in bringing us all closer to nature?

Professor Laura Sjoberg joins Summer and Greg to discuss why the study of gender is important in a conversation of politics and international relations. They talk about how marriage and sexual politics affect national borders today as well as historically and they discuss the book Professor Sjoberg is working on as well as the Gender Institute at Royal Holloway, University of London.

We’re always hearing about climate change and worries over the polar regions, but what does it all actually mean? Greg and Summer are joined by Professor Klaus Dodds and Dr Bethan Davies who discuss the physical and human concerns facing the polar regions today.

Episode 5 of the Seminar Sessions podcast is here! Dr John Sellars from the Department of Politics, International Relations, and Philosophy joins hosts Summer and Greg to discuss his work around Stoicism, his recent book Lessons in Stoicism, and how Stoic philosophy can offer a guide for living in the 21st century by reducing negative emotions and increasing our sense of wellbeing.

Episode 4 of the Seminar Sessions podcast is here! Dr Tim Summers from the Department of Music joins hosts Summer and Greg to discuss his top video game scores (musical, not points), reveals the exotic side of Tetris, and persuades them that playing a video game is not all that different from practising a musical instrument.

Episode 3 of Seminar sessions is a festive special. Greg and Summer join Royal Holloway’s science fiction duo, Stewart Boogert, Professor of Accelerator Physics and Adam Roberts, Professor of Nineteenth-century Literature  as they ponder Physics and the philosophical conundrum of Santa Claus. Hear their novel dialogue between past, present and future time travel – between the nineteenth-century world view and what we can learn from Dickens’ Christmas Carol and HG Wells, to 21st-century astrophysics and our understanding of black holes, space- time continuum and the Sci Fi of Star Wars, speculating on the all-important secret – how does Santa and his sleigh deliver presents to children across the world in just one night?

Greg and Summer are joined by Dr Hannah Platts from the Department of History explaining the role a dinner party played in Roman society, and why you wouldn’t want to be invited to one hosted by Emperor Domitian.