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AIAS Summer Gathering 2019

Image: excerpt from a Husk Mit Navn painting.

Date: 21 June 2019

ACADEMIC PROGRAM

14.30-15.30: Panel talks
15.30-16.15: Panel discussion

Jessica L. Barker (The Behavioural Insights Team, London):
'Cold feet and hot desks: from academia to a 'real job''

Renee van der Sluis (AIAS):
'The challenges of effective science communication - an interactive session'

Óscar José Martín García (Complutense University of Madrid):  
'Between Social Science and Public Policy. Modernization Theory and U.S. Foreign Policy in the Cold War

In 20-minute talks AIAS Former Fellows Jessica L. Barker and Óscar José Martín García
and current Fellow Renée M. van der Sluis will discuss the role that academic research and academic researchers  play in the wider public sphere, including e.g. influence on policy and democracy. The talks are followed by a panel discussion convened by Casper Andersen, The School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University.

We invite you to join this discussion!

16.15-17.30: Refreshments and nibbles in the AIAS Hall 

SOCIAL PROGRAM

18.00- : AIAS Annual Summer Celebration: dinner and wine  (please sign up to attend)

Join the informal evening dinner of the Sixth Annual AIAS Summer Gathering by signing up and pay the fee of DKK 175,- (including dinner, wine and beverages) by 17 June 2019.

AIAS Former Fellows should sign up by sending an e-mail to info@aias.au.dk.


ABOUT THE TALKS AND SPEAKERS


Jessica Livia Barker

'Cold feet and hot desks: from academia to a 'real job''
A year ago I left AIAS to work at the Behavioural Insights Team in London (originally the UK government's 'nudge unit'). In this talk, I reflect on how academia prepared me - or otherwise - for this position, and on the relationship between academia and the public sphere.

Short bio
Jessie joined the Behavioural Insights Team in July 2018, working on the Social Capital team. She is now an Advisor on the Environment & Sustainability team. Previously, she held research fellowships at AIAS, Aarhus University, Denmark and at the University of Arizona, where she studied the evolution of cooperation in both humans and insects. Jessie has an undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences (Zoology) from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD in Behavioural Ecology from Cornell University.


Renée M. van der Sluis

'The challenges of effective science communication - an interactive session'
In this interactive session, I will tell you about some of my personal experiences with (in)effective scientific communication to the media and the public. I am a molecular biologist in health science and although I’m not a trained PR expert I feel that there is a shared responsibility from all involved – from the lab to the press – to consider the impact our communication can have on the general public and those within our social circle. 

Short bio
Renee obtained her PhD in 2013 from the University of Amsterdam and promptly moved across the world to do research in Melbourne. In 2018 Renee returned to Europe to work at AIAS and Aarhus University. Throughout her career Renee focusses her research on how HIV hides in T cells from the immune system, how the interaction of infected cells with other immune cells, particularly dendritic cells, affect virus expression and finally, how the immune system can be manipulated to ultimately eliminate all infected cells.


Óscar José Martín García 

'Between Social Science and Public Policy. Modernization Theory and U.S. Foreign Policy in the Cold War'

Can knowledge of the past help explore the multifaceted relationship between science, the State and society? In answering this question, I will present a case which sheds light, from a historical perspective, on the impact of academic research on the public political sphere. My presentation tries to show how, in the context of the Cold War, American foreign policy modeled research in social sciences and vice-versa. Specifically, I will focus on the case of the Modernization theory and the U.S. intervention in the Third World during the 1950s and 1970s.    

Short bio

Dr Óscar J. Martín García is currently a tenure track researcher at the Department of Political History, Theories and Geography of the Complutense University of Madrid. His professional career as a social and diplomatic historian began in 2003. Since then, his investigation has focused on two different lines of inquiry: social movement studies and international history. Within this second field, he has specialized on the US and UK's soft power, public diplomacy and foreign policy towards the Iberian dictatorships during the Cold War. From 2015-2017 he was a COFUND Marie Curie Fellow at AIAS.