Outreach & Engagement
"The Thing Is..."
As part of Universities Week, UCL ran a stand called "The Thing Is" at the Natural History Museum of London where researchers took an object related to their research to discuss their projects with a wider audience. The Wellcome Collection kindly lent me some of their prostheses (hand and thumbs) to discuss the process of technological development and debate design with the public. What would you prefer: an anatomical prosthetic, or a functional one?
Bright Club
Bright Club is a night of stand-up comedy done by academics for a wider audience (funnier than it sounds)! I participated in a special Bright Club event in the London Transport Museum, poking fun at sociology and, above all, Bruno Latour.
"The Thing Is..." at the Natural History Museum, London. June 2014.
Drinks reception for the BSHS Postgraduate Conference took place in the Grant Museum of Zoology.
Academic activities
FemSTS Reading Group
In April 2014, I founded the FemSTS reading group at UCL STS. It is a space to discuss articles that address gender issues in science and technology studies, urging thoughts on the ways in which Science and Technology Studies and History and Philosophy of Science intersect with feminism and gender studies (either positively or negatively). I chaired these reading groups until September 2015. It continues as a fertile ground for discussions, having covered a wide range of topics, from the Ancient World to modern hacking.
BSHS Postgraduate Conference
The British Society for the History of Science (BSHS) sponsors an annual Postgraduate conference, hosted by various universities each time. UCL-STS hosted the event in 2015, for which I took the role of vice-president and treasurer of the organising committee. It was among the most well-attended postgraduate events, and included a Bright Club event and tours at London museums (the Wellcome Collection and the Science Museum).
Postgraduate Student Travel Grant
As postgraduate student representative, I organised fundraising events to help our department's postgraduate student with some additional money for conference travels. After two book sales, we collected a total of £1200, split into three bursaries for overseas travels. We also donated 10% of proceeds to conserve the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs.
UCL Festival for Digital Health
I was the events coordinator for the first UCL Festival for Digital Health in 2014, a high profile event bringing together academics, clinicans, and industry representatives to discuss the innovations in the digital health arena. The event was a great success and has been held annually since.