The Roey Grads Podcast

Aaliyah and Will are treating themselves for Aaliyah's last recording session, welcoming   Benoît André to the new studio, for him to play some of his work in progress. 
 

Benoît a PhD student in the School of Arts whose research explores the impact of flooding on local communities through the medium of electroacoustic composition. There's a one-minute precis at the top, but you may want to check out Benoît's original interview, which explain a lot more about his background and the electroacoustic form.  

Benoit tells us about his recording techniques, what he does to the sounds afterwards, and how he hopes his participants and the stories of their communities will fit within that. He plays us two works in progress, one based on the Avon, (the one upon which Shakespeare's Stratford sits) and the Swilgate, one of its much smaller tributaries. 

Chapters 

00:09 Introduction 

01:04 A recap on Benoît's research 

02:35  An update since our last interview 

02:53   Recording underwater 

05:29   Recording locations to tell a story 

07:07 Adding voices to the compositions 

10:56 A piece (in progress) about the Avon (better with headphones!🎧) 

14:53  What are those underwater sounds? 

15:48  A piece (in progress) about the Swilgate (better with headphones!🎧) 
20:42 Aaliyah’s sonic Proustian moment 

21:47 Finding and heightening tone and melody in field recordings 

23:44 Looking forward to participatory composing 

25:45 Goodbyes and credits 

The Roey Grad Podcast is a presentation of the University of Roehampton’s Graduate School.  

Our theme music is by DiamondTunes 
 
Our hosts are two PhD students at Roehampton, Charles Miller and Will Berard, who also edits and mixes the podcast. It was produced by Aaliyah Hassan. 

Comments, questions, want to appear on the show? Get in touch at [email protected] 

As an expert in the field, Dr Lisa Sainsbury says that “children’s literature is far more complex than a lot of people give it credit for”. In this week’s podcast, Dr Sainsbury talks about her passion for her subject and her roles in the university – as Research Programme Leader for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and Associate Professor of English Literature. She offers some advice to post-graduate students on managing their supervisory relationships and talks about Roehampton’s unique approach to children’s literature.  

Links mentioned 

National Year of Reading 

MA in Children’s Literature at Roehampton 

Chapters 

1.00 The job of Research Programme Leader 

2.07 Contacts before arriving at Roehampton 

3.32 The advantage of ‘milestones’ (RDComms) in post-graduate studies 

5.23 How students have changed over the years at Roehampton 

6.58 From Masters to PhD studies 

8.08 Importance of community in academic life 

9.11 Lisa’s PhD in children’s literature 

10.44 History of Roehampton’s approach to children’s literature  

12.04 Children’s literature today 

14.51 Influence of Watership Down 

16.30 What makes a good supervisory relationship? 

19.02 Research students should make use of the wider university network 

The Roey Grad Podcast is a presentation of the University of Roehampton’s Graduate School.  

Our theme music is by DiamondTunes 
 
Our hosts are two PhD students at Roehampton, Charles Miller and Will Berard, who also edits and mixes the podcast. It was produced by Aaliyah Hassan. 

Comments, questions, want to appear on the show? Get in touch at [email protected] 

In this extended episode, our guest this week make no apology for spending his study hours watching television – often Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives. Ben Keightley’s PhD subject is the representation of women during what’s known as the second Golden Age of Television. He’s challenging the conventional view of that period, which is often characterised by series featuring male anti-heroes – think Breaking Bad – with evidence that ensemble series featuring women were just as important and innovative.   

Links: 

Joel R. Campbell. Television’s Second Golden Age: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/televisions-second-golden-age-9781666947120/ 

Mick B. Brewer. And Just Like That … misogyny reigns supreme: disciplining womanhood in the critical framings of Sex and the City’s new chapter https://www-tandfonline-com.roe.idm.oclc.org/doi/full/10.1080/15295036.2023.2249541#abstract 

Bill Mesce Jr. Inside the Rise of HBO: A Personal History of the Company That Transformed Television https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inside-Rise-HBO-Transformed-Television/dp/0786497866 

Chapters 

1.00 Television’s Golden Ages 

2.40 Women in the third Golden Age 

5.40 Advertisers’ influence and subscription models 

9.10 Do you just watch TV all day? 

10.15 Male anti-heroes 

11.30 TV as an academic subject 

12.34 Impact of the streaming services 

14.00 Challenging norms vs simple representation 

The Roey Grad Podcast is a presentation of the University of Roehampton’s Graduate School.  

Our theme music is by DiamondTunes 
 
Our hosts are two PhD students at Roehampton, Charles Miller and Will Berard, who also edits and mixes the podcast. It was produced by Aaliyah Hassan. 

Comments, questions, want to appear on the show? Get in touch at [email protected] 

Ian Kinane is Reader in Literature and Popular Culture and Director of the Centre for Society, Culture, and Social Change at the University of Roehampton, London. His books include Bisexuality and Popular Culture (2026), On the Very Edge: Bidentities in Michelle Cliff’s Fiction (2024), Ian Fleming and the Politics of Ambivalence (2021), Isn’t it Ironic?: Irony in Contemporary Popular Culture (2021), Didactics and the Modern Robinsonade (2019), Theorising Literary Islands (2016), and (with Downey and Parker) Landscapes of Liminality: Between Space and Place (2016). Ian is also the general editor of the online, open-access International Journal of James Bond Studies and the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to Ian Fleming. 

Panel Bios: 

Carrie Winstanley is Professor of Pedagogy at the University of Roehampton. Her research and practice engage with challenge in education and with widening inclusion and diversity across all phases. Before Higher Education, she worked as a teacher with a range of age groups, in different types of schools, including a few years in Colombia, South America.  

Tom Callaghan is Lecturer in Mental Health Nursing at the University of Roehampton, having previously worked clinically in emergency services, community psychosis and adolescent mental health care.  

Amy Waite is Senior Lecturer in English and Creative Writing. Prior to joining Roehampton, she worked as a literary agent for several years, specialising in middle-grade and YA fiction. For her own children's writing, she is represented by Hellie Ogden at WME Books. 

Nevena Nancheva is an academic whose research focuses on migration, difference, and international relations. Her current research is on difference and diversity in food insecurity and food support systems, and she leads a project on ethnic food and urban communities of difference funded by the Greater London Authority, which featured a V&A Museum interactive exposition. 

Links mentioned: 

Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves 

Chapters 

00:09 Introduction 

00:26 Carrie on preferring reading to writing 

03:50 Amy’s industry insider take 

07:22 Tom on the tension between the escapist and grounding role of reading 

11:43 Nevena’s on reading for pleasure vs reading for resarch (not mutually exclusive!) 

15:00 Decline in literacy and decline in empathy – coincidence? 

16:05 Tom’s take 

17:39 Nevana’s 

18:39 Amy’s 

21:06 Carrie’s 

23:38 How to facilitate better reading habits 

24:26 Tom’s time travels in trains 

26:18 When “for pleasure” becomes a burdensome duty - Nevena 

28:02 Amy on reading habits 

31:06 Carrie on unlearning habits picked up in reading for study 

33:20 Instrumental reading, performative having-read 

35:11 Panel recommentations 

35:38 Nevana’s 

36:22 Carrie’s 

38:25 Amy’s 

41:23 Tom’s 

The Roey Grad Podcast is a presentation of the University of Roehampton’s Graduate School.  

Our theme music is by DiamondTunes 
 
Our hosts are two PhD students at Roehampton, Charles Miller and Will Berard, who also edits and mixes the podcast. It was produced by Aaliyah Hassan. 

Comments, questions, want to appear on the show? Get in touch at [email protected] 

Nevena Nancheva links mentioned 

Angela Hui’s Takeaway: Stories from a childhood behind the counter 

Babita Sharma’s The Cornershop 

Krishnendu Ray’s The Ethnic Restaurateur 

Cheryl Strayed’s Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail  

Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods 

Raynor Winn’s The Salt Path 

It’s another takeover episode, in which Ian Kinane (do listen to his interview earlier in the feed) hosts a (different) panel of Roehampton staff and lecturers to talk about reading for pleasure. They talk about reading in different languages, on different formats, one’s library as autobiographical archive, poetry, translations, and their intersections, from the humorous to the literary. 

These were recorded as part of #GetRoeReading, a week celebrating reading in all its forms, as part of the National Year of Reading.   

In order of mention: 

Tim Atkins’ Nothing (...) 

Tim’s Koto Y Yo 

Tim’s On Fathers < On Daughtyrs 

Ivan Illitch’s Deschooling Society 

Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed 

Rutger Bregman’s Utopia for Realists 

Gerald Durrell’s The Bafut Beagles 

Elizabeth Strout’s Tell Me Everything 

Strout’s The Things We Never Say 

Simon Van Booy’s Sipsworth 

Mrs Moneypenny’s Career Advice for Ambitious Women 

Moneypenny’s Financial Advice for Independent Women 

Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass 

Susan Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of Others 

John Berger’s Ways of Seeing 

Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings 

Poems of the Late T’ang (tr. A.C. Graham) 

Eliot Weinberger and Octavio Paz’s Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei 

Erik Didriksen’s Pop Sonnets 

Chapters: 

00:09 Introduction 

00:37 Tim Atkins on editing, reading, writing, and family 

06:34 Jo Peat on reading in different languages 

10:41 Claire Li on reading media and reading habits 

12:07 Flick Kemp on digital vs. analog and library work 

14:56 Claire on ebooks, fiction and non-fiction 

16:40 Tim on the paradoxes of reading 

18:22 Jo, Flick, then Tim on the sensory aspect of books 

20:28 One’s library as one’s archive (Flick, Tim) 

23:48 Jo’s recommendations 

25:32 Claire’s recommendations 

29:24 Tim’s recommendations 

27:26 Flick’s recommendations 

Guest Speakers 

Tim Atkins is the author of many books. He has read and performed his work in the Houses of Parliament (for Pussy Riot), in concert at the Victoria & Albert Museum, and all over North America and Europe. Tim teaches Creative Writing at the University of Roehampton and his most recent book Nothing Conclusive Has Yet Taken Place In The World The Ultimate Word Of The World And About The World Has Not Yet Been Spoken The World Is Open And Free Everything Is Still In The Future And Will Always Be was published by Crater Press in June 2022.  

Flick Kemp works as the Digital Learning Development Librarian in the Library. He is a passionate reader of everything and hopes to share the joy of reading with the people around him. Notable achievements include finishing a knitting project in 11 days (a record he has not beaten yet), publishing an article in the Think Pieces Magazine, and perfecting his grandmother's pie recipe. 

Claire Li is Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance and School Career Lead from Roehampton Business School. Her academic interests are about digital accounting and financial management. She enjoys books in different areas such as philosophy, finance, visual arts, wildlife, health, biography. She also is currently hosting a reading club in London.  

Jo Peat is Head of Educational Development at the University of Roehampton, where she works with colleagues across the institution to enhance the quality of teaching, learning, and student success. Her background is in modern languages, and she originally joined the School of Education at Roehampton after a career in teaching languages in school, before moving to the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit. 

Ian Kinane, hosts a panel with faculty and grad students on the topic of reading for pleasure. They talk about the difficulty of balancing types of reading, the impact of the reading format, the importance of recommendations and community, the cross-pollination of reading with creation, and much more... 

 National Year of Reading.  

In order of mention: 

• The National Community of Researchers in Children’s Literature (NCRCL) 

• Roehampton’s MA Children Literature (distance learning) 

• James Allen’s As a Man Thinketh 

• James Clear’s Atomic Habits 

• Charlie Mackes’s The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse 

• Benjamin Myers’s The Gallows Pool 

• MyNoise for ambient sounds - no adblocker needed (Will’s recommendation) 

• Emma Brodzinksi (of PhD Life Raft fame) has a book club 

• Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic 

• Norman Vincent Peale’s You can if you think you can 

• Ursula K. Le Guin’s Steering The Craft 

• Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia 

• R.F. Kuang’s Babel 

• Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights 

Chapters: 

00:09 – Introduction 

00:39 – Lisa Sainsbury on reading and community 

03:35 – Louistas Nyuyse on his reading journey 

05:40 - Reading on paper, on screen, in audio? (Louistas) 

06:12 - Cristina Motoca on reading habits 

09:34 - Benoît André on balancing reading with the rest 

11:40 – Crafting reading routines  

17:53 – Reading, music and sound 

18:36 – Cristina's recommendations 

21:01 – Louistas's recommendations 

22:34 – Benoit's recommendations 

25:46 – Lisa's recommendations 

27:50 - Benoît on reading as inspiration 

Host 

Ian Kinane is Reader in Literature and Popular Culture and Director of the Centre for Society, Culture, and Social Change at the University of Roehampton, London. His books include Bisexuality and Popular Culture (2026), On the Very Edge: Bidentities in Michelle Cliff’s Fiction (2024), Ian Fleming and the Politics of Ambivalence (2021), Isn’t it Ironic?: Irony in Contemporary Popular Culture (2021), Didactics and the Modern Robinsonade (2019), TheorisingLiterary Islands (2016), and (with Downey and Parker) Landscapes of Liminality: Between Space and Place (2016). Ian is also the general editor of the online, open-access International Journal of James Bond Studies and the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to Ian Fleming. 

Guest Speakers 

Lisa Sainsbury is Associate Professor of Children’s Literature in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Roehampton. She is Series Editor of Bloomsbury’s Perspectives on Children’s Literature and Chair of the National Community of Researchers in Children’s Literature. Her ongoing research focusses on the philosophical remit of children’s books, as explored in her monographs Ethics in British Children’s Literature: Unexamined Life (Bloomsbury: 2013) and Metaphysics of Children’s Literature: Climbing Fuzzy Mountains (Bloomsbury: 2021). 

Louistas Nyuyse is a UK-based healthcare lecturer, transformational career coach, and AI strategist with over two decades of experience in emergency nursing, education, and personal development. He specialises in purpose-driven careers, digital innovation in healthcare, and the application of artificial intelligence to enhance wellbeing, learning, and human potential. 

Cristina Motoca is a part-time PhD (Prof) Education research student at the University of Roehampton. Her research explores how policies on the early years workforce are developed and implemented, and whether there may be a disconnect between policy intentions and the practical realities. With over a decade of leadership experience, she represents the private and voluntary sector (PVI) in Wandsworth through the Education Advisory Strategy Group.   

Benoît André is a composer, researcher, sound designer, and audio editor based in London, UK. He is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Roehampton in the School of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. He is exploring narratives of flood-affected communities through sound. 

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The Roey Grad Podcast is a presentation of the University of Roehampton’s Graduate School.  

Our theme music is by DiamondTunes 
 
Our hosts are two PhD students at Roehampton, Charles Miller and Will Berard, who also edits and mixes the podcast. It was produced by Aaliyah Hassan. 

Comments, questions, want to appear on the show? Get in touch at [email protected] 

In the first of three special takeover episodes, Ian Kinane, whom you’ll have heard interviewed on the feed, hosts a panel with members of the University of Roehamptons’ community on the topic of reading (for pleasure). They talk about the difficulty of balancing reading for fun and pleasure, the importance of recommendations and community, the cross-pollination of reading with creation, and much more... 

These were recorded as part of #GetRoeReading, a week celebrating reading in all its forms, as part of the National Year of Reading.  

Links: 

• The National Community of Researchers in Children’s Literature (NCRCL) 

• Roehampton’s MA Children Literature (distance learning) 

• James Allen’s As a Man Thinketh 

• James Clear’s Atomic Habits 

• Charlie Mackes’s The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse 

• Benjamin Myers’s The Gallows Pool 

• Not mentioned, but Will recommends MyNoise for ambient sounds  

• Emma Brodzinksi (PhD Liferaft) has a book club 

• Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic 

• Norman Vincent Peale’s You can if you think you can 

• Ursula K. Le Guin’s Steering The Craft 

• R.F. Kuang’s Babel 

• Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights 

Host 

Ian Kinane is Reader in Literature and Popular Culture and Director of the Centre for Society, Culture, and Social Change at the University of Roehampton, London. His books include Bisexuality and Popular Culture (2026), On the Very Edge: Bidentities in Michelle Cliff’s Fiction (2024), Ian Fleming and the Politics of Ambivalence (2021), Isn’t it Ironic?: Irony in Contemporary Popular Culture (2021), Didactics and the Modern Robinsonade (2019), Theorising Literary Islands (2016), and (with Downey and Parker) Landscapes of Liminality: Between Space and Place (2016). Ian is also the general editor of the online, open-access International Journal of James Bond Studies and the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to Ian Fleming. 

Guest Speakers 

Lisa Sainsbury is Associate Professor of Children’s Literature in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Roehampton. She is Series Editor of Bloomsbury’s Perspectives on Children’s Literature and Chair of the National Community of Researchers in Children’s Literature. Her ongoing research focusses on the philosophical remit of children’s books, as explored in her monographs Ethics in British Children’s Literature: Unexamined Life (Bloomsbury: 2013) and Metaphysics of Children’s Literature: Climbing Fuzzy Mountains (Bloomsbury: 2021). 

Louistas Nyuyse is a UK-based healthcare lecturer, transformational career coach, and AI strategist with over two decades of experience in emergency nursing, education, and personal development. He specialises in purpose-driven careers, digital innovation in healthcare, and the application of artificial intelligence to enhance wellbeing, learning, and human potential. 

Cristina Motoca is a part-time PhD (Prof) Education research student at the University of Roehampton. Her research explores how policies on the early years workforce are developed and implemented, and whether there may be a disconnect between policy intentions and the practical realities. With over a decade of leadership experience, she represents the private and voluntary sector (PVI) in Wandsworth through the Education Advisory Strategy Group.   

Benoît André is a composer, researcher, sound designer, and audio editor based in London, UK. He is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Roehampton in the School of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. He is exploring narratives of flood-affected communities through sound. 

Charles, Will and Aaliyah talk to Bridget Steenkamp, Pentecostal minister, community organiser, and, relevantly for the pod, DTh student in Roehampton’s School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Bridget’s research is an interdisciplinary endeavour, combining theology and early years education.

It starts from Friedrich Fröbel’s conception of spirituality as ‘life unity’: connection to oneself, each other, the natural world, and the transcendent, to consider whether pre-school children (3-4 years old) can be co-researchers in theological enquiry.  

Links mentioned: 

More on Fröbel (Wikipedia) 

The Froebel trust  

The Godly Play foundation UK 

Ecotheology (St Andrew’s Encylopedia of Theology) 

Bridget’s Slow Workshops for Roehampton’s sustainability team (check out their episode earlier in the feed!) 

Chapters 

00:09 Introduction 

00:39 Bridget’s thesis 

02:51 Research co-led by children 

06:00 Bridget’s data collection – in practice 

08:01  Are young children closer to the divine? 

08:52 What is ecotheology? 

10:26 Presenting the children’s data 

11:35 Defining “spirituality” in this context 

15:51 Addressing the influence of the (adult) researcher 

17:59 A natural spiritual sense in children? 

20:09 Wrap-up 

The Roey Grad Podcast is a presentation of the University of Roehampton’s Graduate School.  

Our theme music is by DiamondTunes 
 
Our hosts are two PhD students at Roehampton, Charles Miller and Will Berard, who also edits and mixes the podcast. It was produced by Aaliyah Hassan. 

Comments, questions, want to appear on the show? Get in touch at [email protected] 

A longer version of Charles, Aaliyah, and Will conversation with Benoît André, PhD student in Roehampton’s School of Arts. Benoît is a composer and sound-designer, researching flooding in Gloucestershire and West London, through the medium of sound. Specifically, electro-acoustic composition - less music than sonic art.  This episode is a chance to feature, in full, Benoît’s piece Skein #7, only showcased as an excerpt in the original episode. 

We discuss this little-known art form, what it brings to an eco-sociological thesis, the impact of flooding on communities (which is not solely negative), and why, in these circumstances, it pays to have your mum own one of the few SUVs in the village.  

Find more of Benoît’s work at  https://www.benoitandre.co.uk/electro-acoustic 

Chapters 

00:09 Introductions 

00:57 Studying flooding through sound? 

02:08 Electroacoustic composition 

04:27 What does a thesis in Electroacoustic music look like? 

07:16 An excerpt from Skein #7 (HEADPHONES RECOMMENDED!) 

09:18 The Electroacoustic ‘scene’ (such as it is) 

12:57 Skein #7 – in full! 

18:20 Benoît’s other work, his background 

20:39 What does data collection look like in such a project? 

24:05 Implications for governance 

26:03 Unexpected positives of flooding 

28:35 Flooding and community impact 

35:08 Wrap-up, and Benoît’s Forest Frivolity 

The Roey Grad Podcast is a presentation of the University of Roehampton’s Graduate School.  

Our theme music is by DiamondTunes 
 
Our hosts are two PhD students at Roehampton, Charles Miller and Will Berard, who also edits and mixes the podcast. It was produced by Aaliyah Hassan. 

Comments, questions, want to appear on the show? Get in touch at [email protected]