The University of Essex Podcast

Professor Anthony King discusses the performance of the Coalition, the likely outcome of the General Election and the challenges for the way government works in the UK. Professor King will be speaking at The General Election - What now? as part of our special week focused on our research in the social sciences: http://www.essex.ac.uk/fifty/research/government.aspx

Professor Geoff Gilbert, of our School of Law and Human Rights Centre, explains the plight of refugees and how their long-term situation could be improved if the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) were to engage with the 'rule of law' concept and other UN bodies.

Santander has not only managed to survive the crisis in UK banking, but thrive through its innovative and forward-thinking approach. Listen to Santander's Head of UK Banking, Steve Pateman, explain how in our recording of the lecture he gave at our Colchester Campus last month.

Abstract We long to connect, to be close to another, yet we also want our own space, need to do our own thing. That a fundamental tension exists between intimacy and autonomy has long been recognised by psychoanalysis, and that this tension has intensified amidst the transformations in gender and sexuality of recent decades has been acknowledged by feminism.

In this talk, Sasha Roseneil will argue that these psychosocial dynamics of togetherness and apartness are vital to an understanding of the phenomenon that is known as “living apart together”.

Research carried out by Roseneil and colleagues suggests that 9% of adults in the UK are in relationships in which they do not cohabit with their partner, and the figures seem to be similar across the industrialised world. This sizeable minority has only recently been recognized by social researchers, even though people have always had relationships outside the confines of domesticity.

Roseneil will present the findings of this UK-based study, and another four-country European study, offering an overview of the practices and values of those in non-cohabiting relationships, and then delving more deeply into their biographies and narratives to explore the complex web of personal biographical and relational factors that play a part in living apart together relationships, and that problematize the idea of “choice” in matters of intimacy. Zooming back out again, to the macro-societal level, she suggests that both the struggles and pleasures described by LAT partners speak to the wider conditions of intimate citizenship in the early twenty-first century.

AbstractIt is more than 15 years since I wrote the book Intimacy Personal Relationships in Modern Societies containing the chapter Sex and Intimacy and I’m now working on a new edition.

How much have stories of normal sex changed? Do themes of equality in sex, love and intimacy still co-exist with strong re-assertions of traditional and patriarchal versions of how things are and should be? Do radical stories from people shaping and reclaiming their own sexuality still coincide with the persistence of consequential antidotes to their accounts? Has there been a great leap forward in the aspects of sexuality and sexual behaviour that have been researched giving us better insight into the relationship between sexuality and intimacy across the whole life-course and all social groups? Are public stories and private practices in sexual relationships any more clearly indicating a trend towards equality, disclosing intimacy and mutually negotiated do-as-we-enjoy sex than they were 15 years ago?

Abstract Intimacy, as has been noted (Gabb 2008), is a slippery and multivalent concept. In this paper we explore its multiple meanings in relation to accounts of ‘closeness’ (or the lack of it) between mothers and daughters in Hong Kong and the UK, drawing on interviews with two generations of women: young adult women and their mothers.

In so doing we distinguish a number of different forms of intimacy emerging from our data: emotional, disclosing/confiding, physical, practical and companionate.

Focusing on the managing and monitoring of daughters’ sexuality I draw out some of the differences between the two societies and discuss possible explanations for such differences, locating them within the broader context of family practices and the social organisation of personal life in the two societies.

Peter Wieltschnig, President of our Human Rights Society 2014-15, explains why marking International Human Rights Day is so important to our Essex community. Find out more at: http://www.essex.ac.uk/news/event.aspx?e_id=7125

Dr John Haynes from the Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies has created a film explaining the build-up to May 1968 when student protests engulfed the University of Essex. Find out more at: www.essex.ac.uk/news/event.aspx?e_id=7116

University of Essex students and fellow game developers from Essex and Suffolk are working together on exciting new projects through the Games Hub at Parkside Office Village on the Knowledge Gateway. The Games Hub has been made possible thanks to a partnership between Essex County Council, Colchester Borough Council, Shark Infested Custard, Birketts, BDO and the University of Essex. Listen to Cllr Penny Channer, Steve Huckle from Shark Infested Custard and members of the Games Hub talk about the project.

Former mature student, Triona, explains how the Students’ Union mature students’ society and volunteering at the Students' Union Advice Centre helped her get to know others and feel part of the University.