UCL Press Play

Communication, collaboration and sharing knowledge are integral to public health campaigns and avoiding disaster.

Join Professors Judy Stephenson and Ilan Kelman, Professor of Disasters and Health, as they discuss the dangers of complacency and why 'natural disasters' are a misnomer. Plus, find out more about the event which led to the building of the Thames Barrier in London.

Learn more about Prof Kelman's work by reading Antarcticness: Inspirations and imaginaries, which he edited. The book, available as a free PDF from UCL Press, joins disciplines, communication approaches and ideas to explore meanings and depictions of Antarctica.

Join Professors Judy Stephenson and Margot Finn, FBA, Professor of Modern British History, as they discuss the importance of re-examining evidence, and how students' use of AI can limit their critical engagement. Plus, find out more about Prof Finn's surprising first publication.

Read more of Prof Finn's work in The East India Company at Home, 1757-1857, edited by Profs Margot Finn and Kate Smith. This book, available as a free PDF from UCL Press, explores imperial culture and its British legacies, focusing on how the Empire in Asia shaped British country houses, their interiors and the lives of their residents.

Prof Mantouvalou co-edited Structural Injustice and the Law with Jonathan Wolff, FBA. This book, available as a free PDF from UCL Press, presents theoretical approaches and concrete examples to show how the concept of structural injustice can aid legal analysis, and how legal reform can, in practice, reduce or even eliminate some forms of structural injustice.

The Bentham Project oversees the publication of The Collected Works of renowned philosopher and reformer Jeremy Bentham. In this episode, Professor Judy Stephenson hears more about the project from Professor Philip Schofield, Professor of the History of Legal and Political Thought, Director of the Bentham Project and General Editor of the Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham. Prof Schofield discusses Bentham’s political views, as revealed in the over 100,000 manuscript pages Bentham bequeathed to UCL upon his death, and why AI offers no help to the project.

The ripples of history are around us at all times, whether we notice them or not. In this episode, Professor Judy Stephenson is in conversation with Professor Matthew J. Smith: Professor of History, and Director of the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery. Prof Smith discusses the field of Caribbean history, and the complex history of the Caribbean as a nexus of interatlantic imperial trade.

Prof Smith will be the Principal Investigator on Valuable Lives (VL): the core research project of the UCL Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery (CSLBS). This project received a $575,000 grant from a North American funder to support the development of a publicly accessible database listing every person enslaved in the British Caribbean between 1817 and 1832.

Join Professor Judy Stephenson in conversation with Professor Dame Henrietta Moore, Professor of Culture, Philosophy and Design, and Director of the UCL Institute of Global Prosperity. In this episode, Prof Dame Moore shares her unconventional analogy for the economy, and makes impassioned arguments for keeping our focus on how people actually live, and cross-discipline collaboration.

Prof Dame Moore co-edited Prosperity in the Twenty-First Century: Concepts, models and metrics alongside Matthew Davies, Nikolay Mintchev and Saffron Woodcraft. This book, available as a free PDF from UCL Press, challenges orthodox understandings of economic models to set out a vision for how prosperity can be achieved for all.

Join Professor Judy Stephenson in conversation with Professor Ella Cockbain, Professor of Human Trafficking and Exploitation, and Research Director for UCL Department of Security and Crime Science. They discuss the limits of anti-trafficking approaches and criminal justice responses to exploitation, and Prof Cockbain shares her journey from advertising to security and crime science.

Prof Cockbain co-edited Evaluating Anti-Trafficking Interventions: Critical reflections and lessons from the field alongside Prof Aiden Sidebottom and Sheldon X. Zhang. This book, available as a free PDF from UCL Press, offers practical guidance and critical reflections on anti-trafficking interventions from cross-discipline specialists.

AI is becoming increasingly anthropomorphised and integrated into all aspects of our lives. Join Professors Judy Stephenson and Daniel Miller, Professor of Anthropology, as they discuss the different meanings and values that people assign to AI. Plus, learn more about what inspired Prof Miller to enter the field of anthropology. Daniel Miller is director of the Centre for Digital Anthropology at UCL. Most recently, he co-edited An Anthropological Approach to mHealth alongside Dr Charlotte Hawkins and Patrick Awondo. This book, available as a free PDF from UCL Press, proposes a radically different anthropological approach to the development and dissemination of mobile health (mHealth), a rapidly growing sector in healthcare.

Universities must be at the heart of climate action, and not just through research and tech. In this episode, Professor Tristan McCowan, Professor of International Education, highlights the power of community partnerships, indigenous knowledge and grassroots initiatives to drive local change. Professor McCowan argues that from resisting climate denial to modelling sustainable communities, universities have both the responsibility and the potential to help shape a just climate future.

More than just picnic pests, wasps are vital to our ecosystems, but are deeply misunderstood. Joining Professor Philip Schofield in this episode is Professor Seirian Sumner, Professor of Behavioural Ecology and avid defender of wasps. Professor Sumner dissects the evolutionary role of wasps as ancestors of bees and ants, their potential in cancer research, and their overlooked ecological value: making a case for embracing wasps as allies in biodiversity and science.