Associate Lecturer in Illustration, Anglia Ruskin University Becky Palmer is a practitioner-researcher in the area of illustration and visual narrative. An illustrator and author of comics and picture books, Becky's doctoral work focuses on the relationship between the two forms, and what we can learn about each from the attempt to combine them in practice. Since then, a collaboration with Dr Francesca Cavallerio at Anglia Ruskin University has taken her research interests in the direction of Creative Non-Fiction, and the contributions that drawing can make to collecting data as well as communicating findings to audiences outside the academy. More information on this work can be found here: http://beckypalmer.co.uk/research-collaboration/ Her first graphic novel was published in France by Éditions Sarbacane. In the UK, she has been commissioned by Walker Books and NoBrow.
Senior Lecturer in Economics, Bangor University Dr Rhys ap Gwilym is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at Bangor University’s Business School. He trained as a macroeconomist at Cardiff University, gaining his PhD on the “Macroeconomic Implications of Behavioural Finance Models” in 2009. His academic research has involved developing models which introduce behavioural factors into macroeconomic analysis (including DSGE models) and the analysis of financial instruments in a general equilibrium setting. He has published in journals including the Journal of Banking and Finance, Economics Letters and the Southern Economic Journal. More recently, his research interests have evolved to cover spatial economics and public finance. He is currently working on a project examining how geographical differences in access to finance influence regional economic disparities; in particular the links between the financialization of land and regional economic development. Rhys has a strong interest in regional development policy and its role in Wales in particular. He has been a principal investigator on two grant-funded research projects for the Welsh Government relating to land value tax and tourism taxes. He is a member of the Institute of Welsh Affairs’ Economic Policy Group, where he has been involved in the development of discussion papers on the Welsh economy. He recently contributed to the “expert roundtable on the Welsh tax base & implications for public policy”.
Senior Researcher at the Centre for Sustainability Transitions, Stellenbosch University Dr Ric Amansure's field of research is sustainable development, sustainability transitions, renewable energy, ESG, and smart cities. Dr Amansure has a diverse educational background. He completed his PhD, which focused on revenue management to beneficiary communities in the renewable energy sector, and has an extensive professional history, including serving as CEO of MercyShips Southern Africa and working as a corporate social responsibility consultant. He has also made notable contributions to the renewable energy sector, pioneering innovative approaches in socio-economic development, enterprise development, and public-private partnerships. He was the head of communications, fund- and business development at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, overseeing fundraising, business development initiatives, and the organisation’s media and branding efforts. He works at the Centre for Sustainability Transitions as senior researcher.
PhD Candidate, Biochemistry, University of Oxford I am a scientist who is passionate about interdisciplinary research that has the potential to benefit people’s lives. I received a BSc (Honours) in Biochemistry in my hometown at the University of Victoria in BC, Canada. While pursuing this degree, I helped establish the federally funded Substance Drug Checking Project which uses analytical chemistry to determine the composition of street drugs. This was part of an effort to mitigate the harms of the ongoing opioid overdose crisis. I also expressed and characterized novel proteins from the human gut microbiota that have potential applications in seaweed biofuel generation. I am currently a Rhodes Scholar pursuing a DPhil in Biochemistry at the University of Oxford (St. John’s College) supervised by Mark Howarth and co-supervised by Alain Townsend. Since September 2022 I have also been a visiting student in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge (Darwin College). My research focuses on using synthetic biology and protein engineering to develop new vaccine technologies that can provide effective protection against a broad range of pathogens. In this role, I have led the development of a vaccine candidate that elicits potent neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 and several evolutionarily related coronaviruses in pre-clinical models. I have also contributed to vaccine candidates against influenza, rhinovirus, mpox, and other poxviruses using a multivalent protein display system.
Professor of Anthropology, Macalester College I am a medical anthropologist and former registered nurse. My research examines the social dimensions of infectious diseases, ritual healing practices, and caregiving at the end of life. I conducted major field research in India, and I have since been working on smaller projects in Tanzania, Thailand, and the United States. Prior to becoming an academic, my clinical nursing experience was in neuro-intensive care, brain injury rehabilitation, and hospice. I also worked a year in a viral genetics laboratory studying translational regulation in bacteriophages. All of this has been driven by my passion for exploring the intersections between the cultural and biological aspects of human experience and applying these findings to important health and social problems. Books: Aghor Medicine: Pollution, Death and Healing in Northern India – University of California Press. This book concerns the ritual healing practices of a heterodox religious group known as the Aghori, their beliefs concerning mortality and prejudice, and their therapeutic interactions with patients afflicted with socially stigmatizing diseases such as leprosy (Hansen’s disease, or HD). This book was awarded the 2008 Wellcome Medal by the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. Emerging Infections: Three Epidemiological Transitions from Prehistory to the Present – Oxford University Press. I am lead author of this interdisciplinary, multi-authored book, scheduled to be released in January 2024. It explains how recent increases in new, virulent, and drug-resistant infections have resulted from human practices that can be traced back to the Neolithic. This book is a retitled, highly revised, and greatly expanded second edition of An Unnatural History of Emerging Infections (2013).
