Together We Create is a podcast series from UCL’s Collaborative Social Science Domain in which UCL social scientists share their stories, reflections, and top tips on collaborating with engineers, scientists, health practitioners, and designers and others, and discuss the benefits and challenges of taking a collaborative interdisciplinary approach to research. 

Series 1
In Series 1 UCL's Early Career Researchers discuss their experiences of interdisciplinary partnerships from working on a wide range of projects - from the opportunities created by digital health interventions to better understanding the social lives of computer programmers.    

Series 2 
In Series 2 four UCL social scientists, who were awarded one of our Social Science Plus awards, talk about their pilot projects and what they gained from their cross-disciplinary partnerships.  We hear about the complexities of living in outer space and on other planets, the issues surrounding E-scooters, children’s experience of social media and unsolicited sexual images, and the social life of environmental data.

For the podcast transcripts, details of our other collaborative activities and how to stay in touch with us visit: tinyurl.com/mubmxu4n

Together We Create

This episode introduces the Together We Create series which explores the collaborative social research being undertaken by Early Career Researchers at UCL. 

It sets the scene for the series by highlighting how social researchers collaborate with other disciplines, organisations, and communities, showcasing the range of this work, from collaborating with deep ocean scientists and fishing communities to protect the environment, to co-creating new apps with computer scientist to better support our health, to collaborating with designers to rethink how technology can help people to communicate, and why collaborative social science matters. 

For more information and to access the transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/collaborative-social-science-domain-podcasts 

Date of episode recording: 2022-01-14
Duration: 00:09:31
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Lili Golmohammadi
Guests: Seray Ibrahim; Olga Perski; Michel Wahome; Alejandra Albuerne; Gui Heurich
Producer: Cerys Bradley

S1 E1 Introducing Together We Create

We often take for granted that collaborative research is dependent on relationships, which can mean that we understate the skill and intention required to create fruitful partnerships. Hear about how researchers can be intentional and strategic about building mutually beneficial and equitable collaborations. 

In this episode, we are joined by Dr Michel Wahome, who joined UCL in 2021 as a lecturer in the Department of Science & Technology Studies. Before becoming an academic, Michel worked as an innovation and science policy advisor in a variety of Non-Governmental Organisations, including the New York Academy of Sciences. Michel holds a MSc in science and environmental policy and she was awarded her PhD, an analysis of the practices of digital start-up entrepreneurs in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2020 from the University of Edinburgh, and she has held research positions at Oxford and Strathclyde Universities.

For more information and to access the transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/collaborative-social-science-domain-podcasts

Date of episode recording: 2021-11-19
Duration: 00:24:50
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Lili Golmohammadi 
Guests: Michel Wahome
Producer: Cerys Bradley

S1 E2 Building relationships for interdisciplinary and collaborative research

Digital health interventions are rapidly growing and offer unique advantages compared with face-to-face interventions, including their ability to deliver tailored support to users, as and when needed. The development, optimisation, evaluation, and real-world implementation of digital health interventions requires expertise from researchers, allied professionals and end-users working across diverse fields, such as behavioural science, medicine, computer science, and human-computer interaction. 

In this episode, we are joined by Dr Olga Perski a collaborative social researcher and practitioner health psychologist working in digital health. Olga was training to be a classical musician, but in 2014, following an internship in a Stockholm clinic, she joined UCL to study for a MSc in Health Psychology, then a PhD and in 2018 Olga took up a Research post in the UCL Tobacco & Alcohol research group in the department of Behavioural Science and Health.

For more information and to access the transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/collaborative-social-science-domain-podcasts

Date of episode recording: 2021-11-16
Duration: 00:23:33
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Lili Golmohammadi 
Guests: Olga Perski
Producer: Cerys Bradley

S1 E3 Towards meaningful interdisciplinary working in digital health research

In this episode, we are joined by Dr Alejandra Albuerne. Alejandra is an architectural engineer who has worked in Spain and the UK. In 2016 she completed her PhD at Oxford University across Engineering Science and Archaeology. Before this Alejandra worked for structural engineering and architectural firms for nine years. 

She joined UCL in 2017 as a Lecturer in Sustainable Heritage at the Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources, UCL. Alejandra’s work combines engineering skills and knowledge with cultural and social studies to address the complex challenge of conserving heritage and recovering after a disaster, an earth-quake for example. 

For more information and to access the transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/collaborative-social-science-domain-podcasts

Date of episode recording: 2021-11-29
Duration: 00:22:23
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Lili Golmohammadi 
Guests: Alejandra Albuerne
Producer: Cerys Bradley

S1 E4 Collaborating to ensure buildings and cities are relevant to local communities

Computer applications dominate contemporary social life, but who are the programmers who build these applications and what cultural values do they share? Combining the knowledge of programming with training in anthropology is one way of trying to understand the social life of programmers. 

In this episode, we are joined by Dr Gui Heurich. Gui studied anthropology in Brazil. In 2016 he joined UCL Social Anthropology with a British Academy Newton International Fellowship. In 2019 he retrained as a professional software engineer. But in 2020 Gui returned to UCL with a prestigious Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship.

For more information and to access the transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/collaborative-social-science-domain-podcasts

Date of episode recording: 2021-11-17
Duration: 00:21:05
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Lili Golmohammadi
Guests: Gui Heurich
Producer: Cerys Bradley

S1 E5 The social life of programmers

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