IAS News

The IAS would like to congratulate the first winners of our Outstanding Postdoctoral Researcher Award. The award has been created to recognise exceptional postdoctoral researchers who have made significant contributions both to research and to the wider postdoc community over the past year and shines a spotlight on the individuals whose work embodies the spirit of Warwick’s Research Strategy: ambitious, collaborative, impactful, and driven by a commitment to positive change.

Awardees:

Dr Sally Holloway (History)

Dr Aditya Singh (Physics)

Dr Linda Wanika (Engineering)

We very much look forward to seeing how our winners continue to represent the postdoctoral community at Warwick over the next year, and we hope that details of next year’s nomination process will follow soon.

Early Career Fellow Dr Oluwatosin Orababa was awarded the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine Faculty Thesis Prize in 2025. His PhD thesis was titled “Optimisation, antimicrobial efficacy testing and mechanism of action of a natural product cocktail inspired by a historical remedy”

Congratulations to our ECF Jacopo Francesco Mascoli, who was selected to present a paper titled 'Zavattini reloaded: participatory documentary practices in the Mediterranean migration emergency' at the 34th International Screen Studies Conference, organised by the journal Screen and held at the University of Glasgow from Friday 26 June to Sunday 28 June 2026.

The paper addresses the influences of the Italian Neorealism mastermind Cesare Zavattini on contemporary film collectives that engage in participatory modes of filmmaking with migrants. Jacopo's paper explores how involving migrants directly in the filmmaking process challenges traditional notions of authorship and creates alternative distribution networks. Ultimately, the paper demonstrates how these participatory screen practices connect local activism to wider Mediterranean networks, shifting the political stakes of contemporary screen culture from mere representation to active, collective mediation.

Here is more information on the conference screenstudiesconference.comLink opens in a new window

Our associate fellow Dr Emrah Atasoy, currently a Heritage Collections Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh's IASH, organised and hosted the interdisciplinary panel ‘Narratives of the Future II' at The University of Edinburgh's The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities on 12 June 2026. The panel was chaired by Dr Atasoy (current Fellow at IASH, University of Edinburgh), and featured presentations by Professor Siân Bayne (Moray House School of Education and Sport and Edinburgh Futures Institute, University of Edinburgh), Dr Elsa Bouet (English, Edinburgh Napier University), and Professor Dr Volker Stümke (current Fellow at IASH, University of Edinburgh).

Congratulations to Early Career Fellow Dr Cat Jones on her latest article, published in the Journal of Education for Teaching.

Drawing on a survey of over 1750 teachers in England, the research finds that:- More than 7 in 10 teachers believed that some parents at their schools "don't care about their children's education".- These deficit attitudes were significantly more likely for teachers working with more low-income families.- Teachers tended to believe that the barriers to parental engagement relate to families rather than to schools.

The findings suggests that many teachers in England currently harbour deficit attitudes towards parents. Teachers need time, training and support to re examine these attitudes, otherwise the full potential of parental engagement as a mechanism for securing positive educational outcomes will not be realised.

The full paper is freely available via the publishers:

Jones, C., & Palikara, O. (2026). Examining teachers’ attitudes towards parental engagement: findings from a national survey in England. Journal of Education for Teaching. https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2026.2682341

The chapter, 'Exhibiting the nation: framing post-Empire British identity at the Venice Art Biennale', explores the ways in which British national identity has been presented and interpreted through exhibitions at the Venice Art Biennale in the post-Empire era.

The contribution appears in the edited volume The Routledge Companion to Art BiennialsLink opens in a new window, 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.