The conference committee are the third year Research Practice Course (RPC) students at Nottingham Trent University. The conference committee are responsible for the organisation and design of the conference and will host the conference in the Bonington Lecture Theatre on the city campus of Nottingham Trent University on Friday 18th May 2012. The committee are:
Jabbar Abbas, School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment.
Jabbar’s project; ‘The Effect of Collet Type and Material on the Efficiency of a Condition Monitoring System’, aims to develop an experimental investigation and computerised model to evaluate the effect of collet type and material selection on the efficiency of a condition monitoring system. Experimental results are compared with a computer model for investigating its effectiveness.
Andrew Bassett, School of Arts and Humanities.
Andrew’s project; ‘Multicultural Clinical Interactions: Mental Health Student Nurses’ Perspectives’, aims to understand from a meaning-centred and clinically applied medical anthropological paradigm, the cultural issues and the strategies used to deal with these issues that emerged in clinical placement from the perspectives of pre-registered mental health student nurses’.
Kate Blood, School of Education.
Kate’s research utilises Bourdieu’s conceptual tools habitus and forms of capital to explore the decision-making process of students (aged 14-16). The students are currently studying at Comprehensive and Academy schools and navigating their next steps beyond school while being located in various relationships and social structures.
Lorela Corbeanu, School of Arts and Humanities.
Lorela’s project; ‘The Role of the Romanian Press in Reporting High Level Political Corruption’, explores how news about high level political corruption is manufactured by the Romanian Press. It uses a discourse based approach and considers the critical economy of mass-media.
Esme Coulbert, School of Arts and Humanities.
Esme’s project; ‘Perspectives on the Road: Travel Narratives of Motoring in England, 1896-1930’, benefits from an AHRC CDA. She is Editorial Intern of the journal Studies in Travel Writing. Publications: “The Romance of the Road’: Narratives of Motoring in England 1896-1930’ in Travel Writing and Tourism in Britain and Ireland, ed. by Benjamin Colbert (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), pp. 317-342.
Jia (Michelle) Cui, School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment.
Michelle’s research focuses on the occupancy-related energy use and indoor environment of the existing domestic buildings in the UK. The major aims of this study are to develop a rational level of monitoring of real physical households; and to extract robust occupancy patterns from the obtained dataset for residential energy simulation.
Alice Dallabona, School of Art and Design.
Alice’s research explores issues related to fashion, communication and national identity, with a particular interest in Italianicity. Her project revolves around multiple case studies and is characterised by a strong interdisciplinary methodology, utilising tools from several theoretical approaches in order to provide a better understanding of the phenomena under discussion.
Nicola Donovan, School of Art and Design.
Nicola’s research uses the Nottingham lace archive at Nottingham Trent University as a starting point from which public performance with art objects, might engage diverse communities in discourses of Nottingham lace heritage.
Rachael Folds, School of Education.
Rachael’s research investigates the usefulness of Interactive Mimetic Digital Games (IMDG’s) with students with Intellectual Disabilities and task association (aged 16-24). The project is undertaken following the Action Research methodology and the results are analysed using a Mixed Method model, to promote triangulation.
Rebecca Gamble, School of Art and Design.
Rebecca’s research radically investigates interactivity and encounters in online social spaces through participatory and performative artistic practice. This practice-as-research enquiry focuses on the convivial and relational aspects of communication, to examine whether it is possible to experience an authentic encounter online.
Adam Jones, School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment.
Adam’s research is on learning and support of older people with digital technologies, such as laptops and information kiosks. The research uses a participatory methodology that includes interviews, focus groups and workshops.
Melissa Roddis, School of Arts and Humanities.
Melissa’s thesis focuses on the tensions arising between ecocritical and posthuman theoretical approaches in literature of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and the various representations of nature, technology, and the relationship(s) between them in a variety of genres and forms.
Neil Silcock, School of Arts and Humanities.
Neil’s research examines the role of collective security in the twenty-first Century, mapping its evolution as a system of international peace and security. The research is driven by a liberal institutionalist theory examining the impact of collective security in three case studies, the wars in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan.
Nishan Rasanga Wijetunge, School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment.
Nishan’s research looks into the domestic architecture of the elites in the age of nationalism in Ceylon/Sri Lanka. This foreground has a background that encompasses the areas of the island’s pre-modern elite domestic architectures – Kandyan architecture – as well as Dutch and British period architectures of the modern era.
