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Institute of Advanced Study
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How to get involved – research events, training, and funding
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IAS Newsletter September 2026 – Director’s Update
In this newsletter, we're pleased to offer a report on IAS' activities during the 2025/26 academic year. Read on to find out more about the achievements and activities of our IAS fellows, whether Early Career, Eutopia SIF, P2K, Associate, or Visiting. We also give a flavour of how IAS funds have been used to support innovative interdisciplinary research across Warwick, via our Conversations and Interdisciplinary Research Development Awards. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you'd like more information about IAS funding.
We're excited to announce that IAS will be holding a 20th Anniversary Celebration on Wednesday 28 April: if you have ever received funding from IAS, or simply want to find out more about what opportunities are available for collaboration, please come along. We are hoping to welcome back some of the 750+ IAS alumni who have worked with us over the last two decades. Please see further details below about the programme and how to sign up.
Prof. Alison Cooley
IAS Director
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Celebrating two decades of interdisciplinary research
Save the date: Wednesday 28 April 2027, 10.00am–6.00pm
Join the Institute of Advanced Study as it celebrates 20 years of interdisciplinary research, collaboration and intellectual exchange at the University of Warwick.
The anniversary event will bring together members of the Warwick community, former and current IAS Fellows, partners and friends to reflect on the Institute's achievements and explore its future direction.
The IAS is delighted to welcome Professor Jens Kreisel, Rector of the University of Luxembourg, as keynote speaker. Professor Kreisel was an IAS Visiting Fellow in 2011, and his time at Warwick helped progress groundbreaking research in ferroelectric photovoltaics, culminating in a joint publication in Nature Materials.
The programme will include a panel discussion with former IAS Directors; presentations from IAS Fellows and Award-holders; an opportunity to find out more about our work with Academics at Risk; a re-launch of Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal; networking over lunch and a concluding drinks reception.
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 Faculty Thesis Prize recognises antimicrobial research
Congratulations to our Former IAS Early Career Fellow Dr Oluwatosin Orababa, who was awarded the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine Faculty Thesis Prize for 2025.
The PhD thesis, “Optimisation, antimicrobial efficacy testing and mechanism of action of a natural product cocktail inspired by a historical remedy”, explored the development of a natural-product-based antimicrobial treatment. The research transformed a combination of natural products from a historical remedy into a five-compound formulation suitable for clinical trials as an advanced antimicrobial wound-care product. It combined transcriptomics, microscopy and phenotypic assays to investigate the cellular and molecular targets of the formulation. Selection experiments also demonstrated that bacteria do not readily evolve resistance to the product. The research was supervised by Dr Freya Harrison and Professor Christophe Corre.
Dr Orababa has shared his research at interdisciplinary and microbiology events. He was invited to present at the University of Warwick Interdisciplinary Research Spotlight event,“Why Interdisciplinarity in Health Research?” He also presented at the 2026 Microbiology Society Early Career Summer Conference in Birmingham, with a talk titled “Reconstructing and redefining an ‘ancientbiotic’ into a modern treatment for chronic bacterial biofilm infections”.
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 Participatory documentary practices and Mediterranean migration
IAS Early Career Fellow Jacopo Francesco Mascoli was selected to present ‘Zavattini reloaded: participatory documentary practices in the Mediterranean migration emergency’ at the 34th International Screen Studies Conference, organised by the journal Screen at the University of Glasgow 26–28 June 2026.
Mascoli’s research examines the influence of Italian Neorealism filmmaker Cesare Zavattini on contemporary film collectives working with migrants through participatory filmmaking. The research explores how involving migrants directly in filmmaking can challenge traditional notions of authorship while creating alternative distribution networks.
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 Teachers’ attitudes towards parental engagement
The research of IAS former Early Career Fellow Dr Cat Jones has been published in the Journal of Education for Teaching. Drawing on a survey of more than 1,750 teachers, the research examined teachers’ attitudes towards parental engagement in England. The research found that more than seven in ten teachers believed that some parents at their schools “don’t care about their children’s education”. These deficit attitudes were significantly more common among teachers working with higher numbers of low-income families. Teachers were also more likely to identify barriers to parental engagement as relating to families rather than schools. The findings highlight the importance of supporting teachers to critically examine assumptions about parents and parental engagement.
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 Bangladeshi performance tradition
Congratulations to Dr Farjana Kabir, former IAS Early Career Fellow, who has co-authored her first article in Critical Stages/Scènes critiques (Issue 33), the journal of the International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC).
The article, “Different Pasts, Shared Futures: Performing Pictures (Poter Gaan) in the UK for a Better Future,” explores how the Bangladeshi performance tradition Poter Gaan has been reimagined in the UK through participatory community performance, creating spaces for dialogue, belonging and shared futures.
The research is connected to the performance Kitchen Window Diaries, which was recently featured in the Bolton News.
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 Cinematic research practices
IAS Associate Fellow Dr Hande Çayır has recently had the opportunity to present and discuss her research across several academic platforms. She shared her findings on cinematic research practices at the 14th Annual British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS) Conference, organised by the University of Bournemouth, through her presentation ‘Practice as inquiry: Relational filmmaking and the method of passing the camera’.
In June, she participated in two anthropology events at the London School of Economics (LSE). At The Anthropology of Britain conference, she presented collaborative research with Karen Atallah and Zerrin Özlem Biner titled ‘How is “Britishness” produced and contested in the “border culture” of Britain?’She was also invited to the Anthropology in London conference at LSE, where she joined Nora Wuttke, Elena Liber, Rich Thornton, Will Rollason, Luigi Monteanni and Ipiq Matay as a panellist for the roundtable ‘Pushing the boundary: Anthropological methods and epistemes’.
Dr Çayır notes that the productive exchanges with peers during these events have provided valuable contributions to her ongoing research.
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 Narratives of the future
IAS Associate Fellow Dr Emrah Atasoy presented “Walls, the Others, and Possible Futures in John Lanchester’s The Wall” at the interdisciplinary conference Speculative Narratives Beyond Consensus Reality: Navigating the Senses from Wonder to Horror, held at the University of Aveiro in Portugal from 29 June–1 July 2026.
Dr Atasoy also organised and chaired the interdisciplinary panel ‘Narratives of the Future II’ at the University of Edinburgh’s Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities. The panel brought together perspectives from literary studies, cultural studies, digital education, theology and political theory to explore how different disciplines imagine and interpret the future.
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 Enhancing Research Culture
IAS Associate Fellow Dr Yanyan Li, together with Dr Mingzhi Li, Cagla Karatepe and Xinran Gao, has co-authored an article in Times Higher Education exploring practical strategies for creating a more inclusive research culture for carers. The article draws on findings from the 2024–2025 Enhancing Research Culture Fund project, FECARE, in which Dr Li served as a Co-investigator. The research translates findings from the project into practical strategies for developing a research culture that better recognises and supports researchers with caring responsibilities.
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 New book chapter explores art biennials
Congratulations to our Former ECF Fellow Dr Claudia Di Tosto on the publication of a new book chapter in The Routledge Companion to Art Biennials, published by Routledge in 2026
The contribution appears in the edited volume The Routledge Companion to Art Biennials, edited by Panos Kompatsiaris.
This publication represents an important contribution to scholarship on contemporary art, exhibition histories, and national identity. We congratulate Claudia on this achievement and are delighted to celebrate the publication of this new work.
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Congratulations to Dr Hannah Straw
The IAS would like to congratulate Dr Hannah Straw, Early Career Programme Manager, who is getting married this month!
We wish Hannah and Dino a wonderful wedding celebration and every happiness for the future.
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New appointments for IAS fellows and alumni
IAS is delighted to announce the following appointments among our IAS fellows, past and present, and wishes everyone every success and happiness in their new roles.
Dr Ryan Arthur, Pathways to Knowledge Fellow (2024-2026) has been appointed to a post as Assistant Professor in Education at the University of Durham. He is also writing a Bristol University Press monograph on race, education and research culture.
Dr Nicola Hamer, ECTF 2025/26 will be joining Global Sustainable Development as a Teaching Fellow.
Dr Molly Harrabin, ECF 2025/26 has been appointed as Powys Roberts Postdoctoral Fellow in Modern Languages at St Hugh’s College, Oxford.
Dr Roxanne Douglas, Pathways to Knowledge Fellow (2024-2026) has joined Warwick’s English Department, where she is developing a monograph on women’s apocalyptic writing, editing a conference collection and leading the Women in World-Literature network.
Dr Dino Jakusic, Pathways to Knowledge Fellow (2024-2026) is joining Warwick’s Philosophy Department, continuing his research and teaching in early modern philosophy.
Dr Sergei Zotov, Congratulations to Dr Zotov, former IAS Early Career Fellow, who has been awarded a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship. He will be joining the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge this autumn. Reflecting on his as an ECF, Dr Zotov thanked the IAS for the support and guidance he received, describing it as “genuinely invaluable”.
We look forward to staying connected with all our Fellows as members of the wider IAS community.
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The Early Career Fellowship supports completing Warwick PhD students who wish to establish themselves in a research career. Early Career Fellows receive a bursary, training to develop their academic leadership skills and support to produce career enhancing outputs from their thesis.
We would like to welcome our new cohort of Early Career Fellows for the 2026/27 academic year.
Teruni Ahamat – Psychology Assem Aimaganova – School of Engineering Airelle Amedro – SMLC Danielle Childs – Film and Television Studies Rebekah Diski – Global Sustainable Development Smriti Dutt – SCAPVC: History of Art Shuaizhi Guo – School of Life Sciences Tingxuan Liu – English and Comparative Literary Studies Ambika Raja – Department of English and Comparative Literature Anais Walsdorf – History Department Kene Esom – School of Law Ayomikun Kade – School of Life Sciences Betty Fekade – School of Life Sciences
Find out more about the Early Career Fellowship.
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The IAS is pleased to welcome our new Associate Fellows from across Warwick.
Jessica Sutherland – Politics and International Studies
Hande Çayır – Film and Television Studies
Emrah Atasoy – English and Comparative Literary Studies
Aleksandra Bryska – Warwick Medical School
Emily Rowe – Warwick Business School
Sadia Tasnim Mowri – Warwick Manufacturing Group
Sonia Cruz Dávila – Law
Alisha Rodgers – Engineering
Rhianne Kelleher – School of Life Sciences
Rebecca Quinn – School of Life Sciences
Adil Safeer – Physics
The IAS Associate Fellowship enables postdoctoral researchers at Warwick to join the IAS community and engage with its interdisciplinary activities and development opportunities. IAS Associate Fellows are part of a campus-wide community of postdocs who are employed in various roles in departments across Warwick. We recognise that for postdocs precarity in employment is a problem and that those pursuing an academic career may not always be in a research position. Therefore, this scheme is not just for those in a postdoctoral research position at Warwick but is open to the wider postdoctoral community including Teaching Fellows and those in administrative positions Find out more about How To Apply
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During the 2025/26 academic year, the Institute supported 10 Conversations:
Brand Claims, Trade Marks and Consumer Trust
Luminita Olteanu – School of Law An Emerging Electron Microscopy Imaging Technology for Physical and Biological Sciences: 4D STEM Electron Ptychography
Peng Wang – Department of Physics Developing an Infrastructure for Community Involvement in Research at Warwick
Felicity Boardman – Warwick Medical School Drama and Language Education Research Network (DALERN)
Rachel Turner-King – Education Studies Becoming Visible: Trans Histories in Weimar Film and Culture
Molly Harrabin – School of Modern Languages and Cultures New Collaborations on Human Rights, AI and Technology
Meg Davis – Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies Surveillance, Feminism, and Safety in Everyday Life
Chi Zhang – Politics and International Studies Echoes of Violence and Trauma: Asian Memories in a Machine-Mediated World
Shaoyu Yang – School of Modern Languages and Cultures Conflicts in the Other Caribbean: Colonization from Columbus to Trump
Paola Medina-Gonzalez – Department of History Belonging in Criminology: An Interdisciplinary Conversation
Hannah Marshall – Department of Sociology
Conversations are open for applications on a rolling basis, awarded at the end of each month. Offering a meeting space and modest budget for refreshments, IAS hosts small, informal gatherings that encourage the development of new interdisciplinary research ideas. They provide a collaborative environment in which to think speculatively, explore emerging areas of interest, and build connections across disciplines and institutions. Designed as a catalyst for future academic initiatives, IAS Conversations serve as a springboard for research networks, collaborative projects, and external funding application. Find out more about How To Apply.
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The following projects were funded in 2025/26:
Dimitra Hartas – Education Studies
Establishing a Neuro-Affirmative Parenting (NAP) Network to support research, policy and advocacy
Oluwatosin Orababa – Life Sciences
Assessing the role of multidrug efflux pumps in S. aureus chronic wound infection
Modupe Jimoh – Engineering
WADECOP+: Strengthening the Water for Development Community of Practice network
Freya Verlander – SCAPVC – Theatre Studies
Performance and Medical Response: Skin, SFX, and Diagnostics
Dr Miles Postings – Department of Chemistry
Mechanistic Understanding of Antimicrobial Peptide-Emulating Metallohelices
Dr Chi Zhang – Politics and International Studies (PAIS)
Everyday Resistance and Vernacular Security in China’s Digital Governance: Feminist Activism, Censorship, and Transnational Solidarity
Dr Michela Coletta – SMLC
Morphologies: Critiques of Extractive Reason
Dr Serena Natile – School of Law
Pluralising Law and Social Reproduction: Concepts, Methods, Practices
Dr Trevor Van Damme – Classics and Ancient History
The emergence and transmission of regional artistic styles in Greece via maritime networks and human migration during the Archaic period (ca. 700–480 BCE)
Dr Kirsty Hassall – Statistics
Creating the interdisciplinary foundations of chain event graphs in ecological frameworks
Dr Marta Ajmar – SCAPVC – Theatre Studies
Regenerative Design and Craft Lab: Co-Creating a Space for Regenerative Research at Warwick
Dr Luminita Olteanu – School of Law
Towards Behavioural Science Informed Law: Consumer Perceptions of Green Trademarks
The Interdisciplinary Research Development Awards (IRDA) support researchers at Warwick to develop innovative interdisciplinary research ideas and build new collaborations across disciplinary boundaries. Find out How To Apply.
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 IRDA Project
Dr Serena Natile, whose research project Pluralising Law and Social Reproduction: Concepts, Methods, Practices was supported through an IAS Interdisciplinary Research Development Award, recently brought together an interdisciplinary group of researchers for a workshop at the University of Warwick.
Held on 9–10 September, the workshop explored different approaches to law and social reproduction through discussions on concepts, methods and practices. The programme also included a special session at Warwick’s Modern Records Centre, where participants explored archival materials relating to campaigns around unpaid and domestic labour, women’s solidarity movements and social security.
Dr Natile described the workshop as having gone “wonderfully well”, with further outputs planned, including a report of the discussions and a collaborative article on Pluralising Law and Social Reproduction.
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Visiting Fellowships enable the University to build meaningful connections with leading researchers and distinguished figures from around the world. These collaborations enrich the academic life of the institution and support the delivery of our strategic aims. The Institute of Advanced Study Visiting Fellowships play a key role in fostering these relationships and encouraging long-term international partnerships.
We are delighted to welcome an exceptional cohort of Visiting Fellows to the University of Warwick, reflecting the high calibre of scholars who continue to contribute to our academic community. We are delighted to welcome:
Dr Ana Luisa Muñoz García, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Chile Nominator: Professor Maria do Mar Pereira – Sociology
Dr Leone Mazzeo, University Campus Biomedico of Rome, Italy Nominator: Dr Davide Piaggio - School of Engineering
Prof Gustavo Hessmann Dalaqua, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Brazil
Nominator: Professor Henrique Carvalho - School of Law
Professor Christine Molliner, O.P. Jindal Global University, India Nominator: Professor Virinder S. Kalra – Sociology
Prof. Dr. Mònica González, University of Girona, Spain Nominator: Professor Thomas Hills – Department of Psychology
Professor Liv Yarrow, Brooklyn College, USA Nominator: Professor Clare Rowan – Classics & Ancient History
Professor Mohammad Sajjad, Aligarh Muslim University, India Nominator: Professor Henry Clements – Department of History
Professor Oindrila Ghosh, Diamond Harbour Women’s University, India Nominator: Dr Jen Baker – English & Comparative Literary Studies
Professor Laura Engel, Duquesne University, USA Nominator: Dr David Coates – Theatre & Performance Studies (SCAPVC)
Please keep an eye on our IAS News for events and also our Visiting Fellows community page to see when our VFs will be here.
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4th Ukrainian Summer School
Over two weeks in June, the fourth Ukrainian Summer School took place at Warwick. Participants included three postgraduate and seventeen undergraduate students from the Ukrainian Catholic University (UKU) in Lviv, as well as a prize-winning student and a staff member from the Fund of the President of Ukraine.
The interdisciplinary Summer School introduced participants to a wide range of subjects, methods, and approaches taught across the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Social Sciences, including playwriting, creative writing, peacebuilding, and reconstruction. The students also had the opportunity to share their experiences with a wider Warwick audience at a public event organised by the IAS visiting research fellow Nataliya Pratsovyta. During the Summer School, participants attended a research workshop on refugees and diasporas, featuring presentations by Olena Millienko (PAIS), Iryna Odrekhivska (University College London), and Solomiia Skvortsova, holder of a Chancellor’s International Scholarship and former participant in the second Ukrainian Summer School.
Throughout their stay in Coventry, the students immersed themselves in British life and were introduced to British heritage preservation and commemorative practices. Study visits included Coventry Cathedral, the National Trust properties of Baddesley Clinton and Packwood House, Westminster Abbey, Stratford-upon-Avon, and Kenilworth Castle.
As a tradition of the Ukrainian Summer School at the University of Warwick, UKU students present their personal stories in a public event open to the wider university community. This year, participants reflected on their hometowns, families and personal heroes, drawing on photographs, maps, personal memories and research to illustrate how Russia's full-scale invasion has reshaped everyday life while revealing remarkable resilience and hope. By sharing these deeply personal narratives, the event offers the British academic community a meaningful opportunity to engage with the human dimension of the war, promoting a deeper understanding of Ukraine's lived realities beyond media coverage. The students and UKU are deeply grateful to the University of Warwick, the Institute of Advanced Study, and everyone involved for making this remarkable opportunity possible and for their continued support of meaningful academic and intercultural exchange.
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The EUTOPIA-SIF programme supported international, interdisciplinary research and collaboration, culminating in an online event on September 10th. As the programme concludes, the IAS celebrates the achievements of its final cohort.
Dr Ishutesh Jain has shown that large macromolecules, rather than small molecules, drive pressure inside yeast cells. He is preparing the findings for publication and developing theoretical collaborations with Dr Amit Kumar.
Dr Bhagyashree Kulkarni has developed multifunctional polymeric nanomaterials for cancer therapy, combining drug delivery with imaging and therapeutic applications.
Dr Anca-Delia Smith has explored olive cultivation and the environment in early modern Tuscany through collaborations spanning history, art history and horticulture. Her fellowship has led to a Howard and Roberta Ahmanson Fellowship in Art and Religion at the National Gallery.
Dr Prach Panchakunathorn has developed research in political and moral philosophy, exploring questions of justice, risk-taking and fair substitution. During his fellowship, he completed secondments at UPF Barcelona and Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, presented his research at workshops and conferences, and developed international research collaborations. His first paper is now under review, with further publications planned.
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2 November 2026
Early Career Fellowships — 5pm |
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30 November 2026
Visiting Fellowships — 5pm |
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15 December 2026
IRDA — 5pm | PEP — 2pm CET |
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4 May 2027
Early Career Fellowships — 5pm |
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New Board Members, New CFP and More
It’s been a typically busy spring/summer at Exchanges. In May, we published our latest issue, 13.2 (Spring 2026), which will be one of the last ‘regular’ issues we publish—that is, one of the last without a specific theme. Despite this, there was an accidental explicit connection between two of the issue’s Critical Reflections, both of which directly considered autoethnography, the burgeoning practice of the self-assessment research practice (a practice that, it should be said, Critical Reflections were created to explore in the first place, proving we were ahead of the curve!). A professional beekeeper based in Ireland, author Tony Murphy explores autoethnographical practice through his doctoral research on apiculture, considering how ‘an apiary of hives and a beekeeper’s story intersect with local environmental and wider planetary challenges within the organic research process’. And in ‘Dwelling in Transition’, Devika Bahadur provides an autoethnographic reflection on researching her PhD on internal migration in India while living as an Indian migrant in the UK.
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Meet Nicole and Silvester, our newest editorial board members.
This summer we also welcomed two new members to Exchanges’ editorial board, Dr Silvester Schlebrügge and Dr Nicola Hamer. Nicola holds a PhD in English and Comparative Literary Studies from the University of Warwick; her research explores how communities throughout the United States and the Caribbean ‘use poetry to process and protest ecological grief’. Silvester’s doctorate, also from the University of Warwick, is in Politics and International Studies, and his research considers the relationship between politics and aesthetics and borders and migration control, as well as ‘practices of resistance’ to the latter. We are really pleased to have both Nicola and Silvester on our team!
A board meeting this summer elicited some fascinating conversations around the use of AI in academic publishing. We have recently updated Exchanges’ official policy on AI, which you can read on the Journal Policies page of our website.
In September we will be publishing our latest issue, Research Culture 2026. Produced in collaboration with the University of Warwick’s annual International Research Culture Conference (IRCC), the Research Culture issue has grown into its own annual tradition. This year’s special edition will be comprised entirely of Critical Reflections. (A few longer-form, peer-reviewed articles will also be published as a special section in an upcoming issue.) Look for the official issue publication announcement ahead of this year’s conference on 23 September, and if you attend, please come and say hello to Exchanges’ editor-in-chief, Michelle Devereaux, who will be there!
Finally, in August we released our latest call for papers, this one for the upcoming issue Navigating Precarity in Higher Education. Co-edited by IAS Early Career Fellow Yanyan Li, this issue couldn’t (sadly) be more timely or urgent. Our hope is that it will create a ‘collective space for discussion and reflection’ on precarious working conditions in HEIs, bringing together contributions from those experiencing employment precarity, and proposing strategies to both manage precarity and help combat it at the individual, institutional, and public policy levels. If you are interested in contributing, the deadline to submit an abstract for consideration is 19 October. Please get in touch with Michelle at exchangesjournal@warwick.ac.uk if you have any questions regarding the submissions process.
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If you would like to get involved, join the IAS community or apply for funding all information is available on the IAS website.
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