Welcome to the Walker Update, bringing you up to speed with our latest news.
Events
7 May: Climate and Cultural Heritage – Immersive session
Our Climate and Cultural Heritage Immersive session will be exploring the question of ‘Landscapes or Livelihoods?‘
What to expect: 4 snapshots from SAGES and SMPCS colleagues together with our visiting scientists from the Nepal and Senegal, will offer perspectives of different cultural contexts from Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East. This will be followed by an interactive session to explore critical climate and cultural heritage issues from stakeholders’ perspectives in the UK.
8-9 May: Colonialism, Coloniality, and Climate Science
Colonialism has widely acknowledged legacies in both the cause of the climate crisis and the inequality of the harms it is causing. But what about the links between colonialism and climate science? How does colonialism, both past and present, shape contemporary practices in climate science?
These are some of the questions that will be addressed during this two-day workshop organised by Prof. Ted Shepherd , Prof. Joy Singarayer and Dr. Rohan Deb Roy, from the University of Reading’s Departments of Meteorology and History that will be held at the Royal Society in London.
Although this session is closed, the themes and outcomes will be repeated in open talk on the 10th of May: Read more.
13 May: MCRILG (My Climate Risk Interdisciplinary Learning Group)
Join us at this month’s Interdisciplinary Learning Group session where Olga Buto will be telling us all about the state and trends in climate adaptation in 2023.
Session time: 13th of May 13:00-14:00 GMT +1
Olga Buto is a Program Manager at Pegasys Global Consulting. Olga has more than 10 years of experience in climate resilience, climate finance, and adaptation planning, working with development partners, including most notably the United Nations, international finance institutions, and the private sector.
Link to paper: Read more
Partnerships
Himalayan University Consortium From policy translation and science-policy dialogue to evidence-informed policy formulation
The Walker Institute is an active Associate Member of the Himalayan University Consortium (HUC) weblink hosted at ICIMOD in Nepal. In April, Rosalind attended and chaired a business session of the HUC Steering Committee (SC).
Walker Institute work on policy engagement, with examples of good practice ranging from Nepal, Pakistan, Jordan, and Laos PDR. This was screened at the Public Session From policy translation and science-policy dialogue to evidence-informed policy formulation for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Walker Academy – Engaging with Decision Makers Training
The Walker Academy is excited to be presenting the new course titled: ‘Engaging with Decision Makers’ and will run on 13, 15, 20 and 22 May 2024 hosting 2 sessions per day, 10:30-12:30 and 13:30-15:30.
The course encompasses a 4-day programme of facilitated training and will be capitalising on the Walker Institute’s strategic relationships. Participants will benefit from direct contact with a range of guest speakers from government agencies, NGOs and academia.
Click here for more information
Community
Walker Associate
Professor Tabarak Ballal is Professor of Construction Engineering and Management in the School of the Built Environment. Her current research interests include advancing research and knowledge in computational methodologies using AI for data-driven social value modelling particularly in relation to social value impact of built environment and infrastructure projects.
She has carried out extensive capacity building programmes in Africa including in Sudan and Ethiopia and has been involved in disaster management research in the Philippines.
If you are interested in working with the Walker Institute as an associate, please contact us on info@walker.ac.uk.
What happened across the world this week?
Prof Virginia Murray and her team at Public Health England have produced the weekly Global Hazards Weekly Bulletin, archived by Prof Richard Allan.
All the best!
The Walker Institute Team