The Teaching and Scholarship Podcast

In this one we get chatting to Hamish (a lectuer in biomedical Science at Glasgow) and Lauren,(a graduate teaching assisstent in Anatomy at Glasgow) to discuss the launch of a new MOOC on the considerations and applications of generative AI in educational settings. This has been a project led by Dr Ourania Varsou, who has been on the podcast prevsiously to discuss generative AI in higher education. We chat about why such a course is desirable, who it is for, and what it covers. Check it out!

In episode 67 we welcome Anton Muscatelli to the podcast to chat about the legacy he will leave at The Univeristy of Glasgow having served as its Principal and Vice Chancellor for 15 years. Sir Anton anounced his intentions to retire earlier this year, so we thought it would be a great idea to have him on the show and to have a reflective conversation about his time in office and to discuss some of the big changes/ challanges that he and the sector as a whole has experienced throughout that time. Since this is a teaching focused podcast, we take the opportunity to delve into Anton's approaches and attitudes to learning and scholarship and talk about aspects of the UofG education strategy. We even managed to squeeze in a brief chat about his favourite football team too, the mighty Inter Milan of course!

In episode 66 we chat to Dr Claire Fitton, who is the anatomy lead for the early years of the medical degree programme at Glasgow. She holds a BSc (Hons) in Biomedical Sciences (anatomy) from Cardiff University and an MSc in Forensic Anthropology from the University of Dundee. Claire’s PhD focused on biomechanical properties of Thiel embalmed arteries to help validate this as an endovascular research model. Since then Claire has developed some innovative teaching approaches to overcome the challanges of increased student numbers and enagagement levels in large practical anatomy classes, so this is our chance to chat about all this stuff and more - enjoy!

In epiosde 65 we catch up with British entrepreneur and former ostetrics doctor Johann Malawana. This is his second visit to the podcast, but his first in person. The Healthcare Ladership Academy was running face to face sessions from The University of Glasgow so this was the perfect opportunity to catch up with him about leadership training, and digital education, as well as finding out what he has been up to and how his initatives have developed since our previous conversation a few years ago. Since we are old pals, we also engage in a bit of banter and go off topic a few times, sorry about this, very unprofessional behaviour (sorry not sorry).

In this episode we catch up with Claire Donald who works in The School of Infection and Immunity at The University of Glasgow. Her background is in virology but she is passionate about supporting early career researchers in becoming passionate about teaching and has been part of a project that seeks out opportunities for them. We have a great chat about her interest in public engagement and discuss issues around pressures on modern academics and if aspiring to be a well balanced researcher and teacher has now become a thing of the past.

In this episode we chat to Rahaf Omran who is an Orthodontist (a what now?) a researcher, and an educator. She undertook her undergraduate and postgraduate training in Tishreen University Syria. In 2019. After that she began teaching dental students how to study dentistry in English, since Syria is the only country in the world that teaches dentistry solely in Arabic. This program became super popular among students there, and it was eventually adopted by Tishreen University as an optional subject in the curriculum. We chat about all this, her amazing success, plus her move to Glasgow and what it is like to be an educational influencer on Instagram!

In episode 62 we chat with Sadie Ryan, who completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Glasgow, graduating in English Literature and Creative Writing with first class honours. After completing her PhD, she became a Research Associate on the Manchester Voices project at Manchester Metropolitan University, before returning to the University of Glasgow’s School of Education as Lecturer in Languages and Intercultural Studies in 2022. Sadie also specialises in public engagement, and makes the award-winning linguistics podcast Accentricity [www.accentricity-podcast.com], which is aimed at a public, non-specialist audience, and aims to narrow the gap between academic knowledge about language and people’s everyday linguistic experiences. She leads the University of Glasgow Podcasting Collective, and is a member of the Young Academy of Scotland.

In this month's episode we talk to Dr Ahmad Elmansouri, who is a medical doctor working in Belfast, and also a published author with extensive experience in various hospital and health care industries. He is skilled in medicine (obviously!) and medical education research and mentorship. In this conversation we focus on undergraduate medicine, medical training within the NHS and touch on some of the political issues that affect the future of our NHS.

In episode 61 Lauren returns to continue our conversation on her recovery from anorexia and to talk about her adult diagnosis of autism and ADHD. This certainly seemed to explain a few things for her and it is interesting to hear how she manages studying/working and social experiences - an inspirational listen, mostly because Lauren is so open and honest about how she has adjusted. Her original episode on struggling with an eating disorder while growing up is number 54, so be sure to check that out first if you want to hear her full story!

It's time for episode 60 and in this one we chat to Prof Sarah Richardson who is the newly appointed Dean of Learning, Teaching and Student Experience in The College of Arts and Humanities at The University of Glasgow. Sarah is formerly of Warwick University where she won many awards for teaching and achieved a prestigious National Teaching Fellowship. Her interests are in the area of gender, history and politics and you can often hear or see her on the tv or radio, especially if there is a Royal death, wedding or scandal! There will be a general election next year so things will get busy for her again at that time, so we are glad she could make time for the T&S podcast now. Enjoy!