Learning 5)

UCL Lunch Hour Lectures: Spring 2023

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.22189
https://doi.org/10.13056/acamh.22189

In this podcast, we are joined by Professor Kenneth E. Miller, Edith Lando Professor in Counselling for Refugee and Immigrant Youth and Families at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Ken is also the author of the book War Torn, Stories of Courage, Love and Resilience. He’s director of the film Unholy Ground about the impact on war on a frontline village in Sri Lanka. And he writes a blog for Psychology Today called The Refugee Experience.

Today we’ll be focusing on Ken’s work with refugees, and some of his research, including his recent JCPP paper ‘Supporting parenting among Syrian refugees in Lebanon: a randomized controlled trial of the caregiver support intervention’ (doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13668).

Discussion points include;

- Insight into what conditions are like for children and young people living in areas of armed conflict from a mental health perspective
- From experience and research, what kinds of interventions make the most difference for refugee children and their families
- Overview of his recent JCPP paper ‘Supporting parenting among Syrian refugees in Lebanon: a randomized controlled trial of the caregiver support intervention’
- Outcomes from introducing caregiver support interventions, plus defining harsh parenting
- How healing is possible for children and young people who find themselves displaced or at the centre of unrest
- Advice for parents or carers, CAMH professionals and policy makers.

The Mental Health of Children Impacted by Armed Conflict: Supporting Parenting & Wellbeing

For her New Year's resolution this year, journalist Kavita Pillay committed to learning the Finnish language. Not for the first time though. Pillay has been studying the language for a while, because she's married to a native Finnish speaker and now, they're living in Helsinki with their school-aged daughter. It's a tough one to learn for native English speakers. And in part, that's because so many Finns tend to speak English so well.

For English speakers, learning Finnish is one of the toughest foreign languages

Ana Montes was a senior analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency when she was arrested by the FBI at her office in 2001. She had been spying for Cuba for decades. Now, she's been released from prison having served a 25-year sentence. The World's Marco Werman interviews Jim Popkin, the author of the book, "Code Name Blue Wren," the most-detailed portrait of Montes to date.

Cuban spy who infiltrated US intelligence released from prison

The Pesherska Lavra cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine, is a stunning sight. It's also an important holy site for Orthodox Christians in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. On Jan. 7, for the first time, the clergy leading Christmas morning services were affiliated with the Orthodox Church of Ukrainian. Previously, it was the religious leadership affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church and its Moscow Patriarch Kirill. He's been a staunch supporter of Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine. The World's Daniel Ofman was there for Christmas service and spoke with people in attendance.

This past weekend was a historic Christmas in Kyiv

Feminist and LGBTQ activists in Indonesia say their country's new criminal code is much more than just a ban on premarital sex. It also restricts access to reproductive health care and leaves a lot up for interpretation by local authorities. The World's Bianca Hillier reports.

Indonesia's marginalized groups say the criminal code is more than just a ban on premarital sex

Date of lecture: Thursday 12 January 2023

About the Lecture:
UK science has chronic diversity issues and shortages of specialist teachers in schools. Orbyts is a multi-award-winning movement founded at UCL, and now running across the UK, that creates partnerships between scientists and schools that are proven to address these issues. The programme provides school students with relatable science role models while empowering them to conduct original research projects. This structure of regular interventions, inspirational role models and active ownership of research is proving to be transformative; dispelling harmful stereotypes and profoundly shifting perceptions of science and scientists. It is particularly impactful for groups historically excluded from science. For example, our partner schools report 100% increases in girls uptake of A-level physics, following participation in an Orbyts project at GCSE. The programme has enabled more than 220 school students to become authors of scientific papers in the last 5 years. 
This year, Orbyts researchers will partner with schools to support research projects on: medical physics, exoplanets, aurorae, AI and machine learning, plasma, space weather and quantum physics.  Dr William Dunn will showcase a whistle-stop tour through some of last year's Orbyts projects, where possible letting recorded presentations by the schools do the talking.  

A﻿bout the Speaker:
Dr. William Dunn, Ernest Rutherford Fellowship at UCL Astrophysics group

Orbyts: Research-with-Schools Projects that Transform Inclusivity in Science

Date of Lecture: Thursday 19 January 2023

About the Lecture:
After the Second World War new international rules heralded an age of human rights and self-determination. Supported by Britain, these unprecedented changes sought to end the scourge of colonialism. 
Yet in the 1960s, a secret decision was taken to offer the US a base at Diego Garcia, one of the islands of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, create a new colony (the ‘British Indian Ocean Territory’) and deport the entire local population. 
For four decades the government of Mauritius fought for the return of Chagos. In 2019, the World Court in The Hague, which ruled that Britain illegally detached Chagos, that the islands belonged to Mauritius, and that the UK must end its illegal occupation. 
For three years Britain resisted the ruling. A few weeks ago, however, it changed its mind, and began negotiations with Mauritius to return the islands and allow the Chagossians to resettle. 
Philippe Sands shares a story about the making of modern international law and the fight for justice, as told in his new book The Last Colony.

A﻿bout the speaker:
Philippe Sands QC is Professor of Law at University College London and Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard.

Lunch Hour Lecture | The Last Colony

Date of Lecture: Tuesday 24 January 2023

About the Lecture:
Ukraine’s Jewish history has come into focus in multiple ways since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Russia has abused the history of World War II and the Holocaust in justifying its aggression, while the fact that Ukraine has a wildly popular Jewish president challenges notions of the country as antisemitic. Meanwhile, Russian bombs have fallen on important Holocaust memorial sites inside Ukraine. To better understand the significance of all this, it is important to examine the long, rich, and often difficult history of Ukrainian-Jewish cultural interaction and tension that lies behind it. The lecture will outline how Ukrainian and Jewish cultures, as they struggled to assert themselves within repressive imperial contexts, grew apart, yet also managed to find surprising moments of dialogue. This history, if it is recovered with sensitivity and openness, can be a great cultural resource in forging a new Ukraine after the ongoing war.
A﻿bout the speaker:
Uilleam Blacker, Associate Professor of Ukrainian and East European Studies at UCL SSEES.

Together & apart: remembering Jewish Ukraine in the context of empire & war

Date of Lecture: 31 January 2023

About the Lecture:
The UCL Energy Transitions Modelling Lab has developed a series of energy system models over the last 20 years that have had a profound impact on UK energy policy.  The most recent model, UK TIMES, was used by the UK Government to develop scenarios for both the Clean Growth Strategy and the Net Zero Strategy.  These models straddle the boundaries between economics, engineering and the natural environment.  In this lecture, we will dissect the UK TIMES model to explore how it works, its strengths and weaknesses, and how it can be used (and misused) by policymakers and researchers.  We will then consider future developments of the model and how it could help us to plan a low-carbon transition where you live.

A﻿bout the Speaker:
Paul Dodds, Professor of Energy Systems at UCL Energy Institute

Lunch Hour Lecture | Building the foundations of the UK’s Net Zero Strategy

Date of Lecture: Thursday 15 June 2023

About the Lecture:
Several neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric circuit disorders are characterized by intermittent episodes of pathological activity. Although genetic therapies offer the ability to modulate neuronal excitability, a limiting factor is that they do not discriminate between neurons involved in circuit pathologies and ‘healthy’ surrounding/intermingled neurons. Dr Lignani will present his recent study where he described a gene therapy strategy that down-regulates the excitability of overactive neurons in closed loop and tested it in models of epilepsy as proof of principle. This novel way of thinking can be applied to many neurological diseases such as schizophrenia, autism and migraine. Activity-dependent gene therapy is a promising on-demand cell-autonomous treatment for all brain circuit disorders. 

A﻿bout the speaker:
Dr Gabriele Lignani is an Associate Professor at UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology in the Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy. He received his PhD in 2012 in Experimental Neuroscience from the University of Genoa and he did his first postdoc at the Italian Institute of Technology. Then he moved to UCL for his second postdoc and was awarded a Marie-Curie individual fellowship to develop new CRISPR-based editing tools to treat epilepsy. In 2018 he started his own lab as Epilepsy Research UK Emerging Leader to further develop novel gene therapies for epilepsy. He then obtained an MRC New Investigator Award to develop new CRISPR-based technologies and obtained several other discovery and translational grants. He is board member of several committees and Associate editor for Frontiers in Gene Editing and Contributing Editor for Epilepsy Currents; he also leads the Athena Swan initiative for gender balance in his Institute. Recently he has been awarded the Harinarayan Young Scientist Award by ILAE for his research in gene therapy for epilepsy, and the Michael Prize 2023 for the best scientific contribution to progress in the field of experimental epilepsy. The focus of his lab is to develop gene therapy and editing techniques for neurological disorders, to study the role of homeostatic plasticity in epilepsy and understand the basic epileptic mechanisms.

Novel ways to treat the brain with gene therapy

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