WEBINAR PANEL — Global research in the Covid-19 pandemic

18th June 2020 : 14:00 - 15:00

Seminar Abstract

 

Science and research are crucial to tackling the COVID-19 crisis. The world is witnessing a fast-growing body of research on COVID-19. Scientific evidence is constantly shaping governmental policies and public opinions. International organisations, reputable scientific journals, and funding bodies have been calling researchers around the world to collaborate and cooperate in an open manner. But meanwhile, the research communities are under substantial pressure during the COVID-19 pandemic, as a result of structural, cultural, geopolitical, and disciplinary challenges.

The webinar addresses two critical areas around global research and the COVID-19 pandemic:

(1) The global research on Covid-19: How are global research communities contributing to revolving the COVID-19 pandemic? Are we witnessing a growth in international collaboration or competition? What are the roles of humanities and social sciences research? How are the research community engaging with the policy and the public?

(2) Influences of Covid-19 on global research: What are the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on academic life and research culture? Are we witnessing a change in the research culture with more openness, kindness, inclusivity, and sustainability? Or is the globalisation of research entering a more challenging time?

The webinar brings together a panel of leading international experts on higher education and research, from UK/Europe/East Asia, zones in which the pandemic is equally transformative but has played out very differently in society and in higher education – and a participant audience from across the world.

 

About The Speakers

 

Giovanni Colavizza is Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities at the University of Amsterdam and a Visiting Researcher at The Alan Turing Institute, where he was a Co-investigator on the Living with Machines project and convenes the AI for Arts special interest group. He did his PhD at the Digital Humanities Laboratory of the EPFL in Lausanne, working on methods for text mining and citation analysis of scholarly publications, and is co-founder of Odoma, a start-up offering customised machine learning techniques in the cultural heritage domain. Giovanni is primarily working on AI for cultural heritage and on the public understanding of science. Prior to joining the Turing, Giovanni has been a researcher at Leiden University (CWTS), the Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz, and the University of Oxford. He studied computer science (BSc) and history (BA, MA) in Udine, Milan, Padua and Venice in Italy.

Gemma Derrick is a Senior Lecturer in Higher Education at the Centre for Higher Education Research & Evaluation at Lancaster University. Gemma’s research focuses on research evaluation, the dynamics of knowledge production and how researchers create, conform and participate in evaluative cultures within academia.

Xin Xu (许心) is an ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at CGHE, Department of Education, and a Junior Research Fellow at Kellogg College, University of Oxford. She completed her DPhil (PhD) in Education at Oxford Department of Education as a Clarendon Scholar. Her research expertise includes higher education, internationalisation and globalisation, and research on research.

Alis Oancea is a member of CGHE’s Research Management Committee. Alis Oancea is Professor of Philosophy of Education and Research Policy at the University of Oxford, where she is also Director of Research in the Department of Education. Her interests are in research on research and philosophy of research. Her research has focused on research policy and governance, research assessment and evaluation, incentives and criteria for worthwhile research (including openness, quality, impacts), methodological theory and research capacity building; higher education policy and reform, including the reform of teacher education in international contexts; and empirical, theoretical and philosophical exploration of different modes of research. Alis has conducted system-wide reviews and evaluations of historical trends, current patterns and future prospects for higher education research capacity, infrastructure and funding, quality, and impact. Alis is the joint editor of the Oxford Review of Education, and was founding editor of the Review of Education.