The Policy Pod

In this episode, collaborators Dr Erin Johnson-Williams and Dr Benjamin Oliver from the Department of Music at the University of Southampton discuss the launch of the new AHRC Hub for Public Engagement with Music Research, which they run together with a team of independent experts (external co-lead Lisa Tregale), public engagement professionals (Caz Creagh, alongside training from Southampton’s PERu), and support on policy development from Public Policy Southampton. This Hub is hosted by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and run through the Centre for Music Education and Social Justice. Over two years, the Hub will fund 4 large ‘spoke’ projects that will involve collaborations between academics and non-academics along the lines of social justice, music research and public engagement. Erin and Ben talk about their careers in music and academia, the challenges of demystifying academic funding processes, and how social justice played a role in their vision for the Hub.

In this episode, Dr Wassim Dbouk, marine and maritime policy research fellow at the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute reflects on his experience as a negotiator as part of the Lebanese delegation during COP29. He shares insights he gained from his experience and talks us through his main responsibilities and activities during this COP. He highlighted support he received on his journey from the UUCN, the Women and Gender and YOUNGO constituencies, the Youth Negotiators Academy, and individuals he collaborated with on his PPS New Things Fund project "Shaping Tomorrow: A Playbook for Coaching Leaders in Sustainable Decision-Making and Policy. You can find out more by reaching out to Wassim on [email protected]"

In this episode, Prof Ivan Haigh and postgraduate researcher Sunke Trace-Kleeberg discuss their work, which is helping storm surge barrier teams around the world better prepare for the impacts of climate change on the management, maintenance and operation of their barriers. They are joined by Andy Batchelor from the Environment Agency, who was the former operations manager of the Thames Barrier and associated gates that projects London and communities along the Thames from flooding. Andy is also the chair of I-STORM, the international storm surge barrier network. The podcast is hosted by Dr Wassim Dbouk, a policy research fellow at the University of Southampton. 

In this episode, researchers Fiona Middleton and Dr. Giulia Champion at the University of Southampton discuss their work with the Isle of Wight sea swimming community, exploring the benefits of – and barriers to – sea swimming. In a project supported by the New Things Fund, Fiona and Giulia hosted participatory workshops to identify conditions for more, safer sea swimming on the Island.  They’re joined by Sue Barker and Victoria Thorneton-Field of Swim the Wight, a community interest company that runs regular supervised swims and promote sea swimming education, to discuss their plans for an accessible, eco-friendly tidal sea pool on the Isle of Wight.  You can find out more about the sea pool at @isleofwightseapool on Instagram.