University Of Westminster Research Articles

Viral Culture, Memes in Society and Politics: An Interview with Anastasia Denisova

<em>Internet Memes and Society: Social, Cultural, and Political Contexts</em> (Denisova, 2019) was published in 2019. Much of the book by Anastasia Denisova of the University of Westminster reflected on the roles and meanings of memes, as well as the reasons why so many memes go viral. This <em>Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture</em> interview with the author reflects on questions arising from the study. It also expands on the relationship between memes and viral media, whether brands can suffer setbacks when trying to manufacture ‘creative’ memes, global tactics for meme usage, their role in politics and the differences and similarities between meme culture in Russia and the West.

Last-mile delivery: the challenge for logistics providers

Dr Tom Cherrett, Professor of Logistics and Transport Management at the University of Southampton and Dr Julian Allen, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Westminster and the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight

Designing and Engaging Support for Comprehensive Internationalisation: Case Studies from the University of Kent to Share Good Practice with Institutions in Uzbekistan

Internationalisation of Higher Education is of key significance to universities across the globe. However, given the many ways in which comprehensive internationalisation can be manifested, challenges and opportunities can be found in encouraging and engaging staff and students, with a range of ventures which could potentially support and advance internationally-focused and meaningful activity and impact. Given global engagement with international Higher Education, it is also notable that alternative challenges and solutions emerge in different regions of the world, often through collaborative transnational education, and this can offer institutions and globally-minded academics opportunities, in line with accepted principles of knowledge diplomacy.Since internationalisation is a term which has different connotations for the various individuals and departments within any given institution, it is important to approach internationalisation activity with a clear strategy in mind. This paper presents a series of case studies which focus on the strategy, activities and projects devised by a University in the UK in order to support academic internationalisation in Higher Education. These examples are then considered in the context of transnational education with a particular focus on Uzbekistan. Examples are presented not in an attempt to suggest they offer perfect solutions from the West but rather in the ‘Silk Road’ spirit of internationalisation, to share good practice and to add to that knowledge through the experiences of others. This was very much the context at the ‘Internationalization and Innovation in Higher Education’ conference, jointly run by Westminster International University in Tashkent (WIUT) and the University of Westminster in the UK (WIUT, 2018), where the author delivered a paper on this same topic.

Designing Momentums: Site, Practice, Media as Landscape

AbstractChristina Leigh Geros believes that landscape is more than the land, and that landscape architecture is a process of designing and reconciling disparate ‘momentums’. A tutor in the MA Environmental Architecture programme at the Royal College of Art, research fellow for Monsoon Assemblages at the University of Westminster, and design research strategist for PetaBencana.id, here she explores the expanding of the definition of ‘landscape’ through wider analysis of contemporary media, site and practice.

Mobilising intersectionality as a framework to organise against inequality: A review of Mythbusting Intersectionality UK, Westminster University, 28 May 2019

Mobilising intersectionality as a framework to organise against inequality: A review of Mythbusting Intersectionality UK, Westminster University, 28 May 2019

Strategy teaching in business schools within different institutional and economic contexts: Evidence from Russia and the United Kingdom

The article addresses the problem of including the concepts and tools of strategic management demanded by managers in the curriculum of business schools. The requirements and expectations of managers regarding the content of the courses can be taken into account when developing the curriculum, while their adaptation is possible depending on those challenges that exist in various economic and institutional contexts. The purpose of this article is to identify the expectations of managers in Russia and the United Kingdom regarding the content of courses on strategy, as well as teaching methods used in the course development process. During an empirical study, a survey was conducted among students in the Master of Business Administration program at the Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg State University (Russia) and the Westminster University Business School (UK). The survey was compiled taking into account the development of basic theoretical concepts and tools of strategic management as well as the teaching methods most used in the educational process of business schools in recent decades. The results of the study show that programs participants differ in their priorities of the sources of competitive advantage the methods necessary for their identification and retention, which can determine the differences in their expectations regarding the content of courses on strategy and teaching methods. The findings provide an opportunity to look at approaches to the development of strategic management courses, with regard to the requirements and expectations of students studying in various institutional and economic contexts. The results of the study make not only a practical contribution, discovering new aspects in the development of courses on strategy in business schools, but also create a theoretical contribution through the application of institutional theory in an educational context.

Mountain Waters: Using Chinese Landscape Thought As a Frame for Architectural Practice in China

Working on many scales and types of projects in China at times of rapid change, the writer is founder of his own architectural practice Priestman Architects now based in Chongqing and is a PhD candidate at London’s University of Westminster. Environmental, socio-economic and spatial problems persist and metamorphose; the phenomenon of the burgeoning and dominant human habitat of the city is also faced with rapid change from new forms of occupation and technologies. Promoting hopeful visions of the unruly city and its interrelated fringes is a pressing need. This paper proposes an outline theoretical framework using ideas of cultural landscape in China to better frame and locate architectural work. The paper starts with Living off Landscape by Francois Jullien which discusses the potency of Chinese ideas of landscape against the limitations of European landscape thought and includes a discussion of photography as the primary media beyond painting that is extending ideas of landscape. The paper considers the use of the path in classical Chinese landscape painting as a conceptual, cultural and physical thread linking the non-urban to the urban. There, the building - heroic object or urban component - can both accommodate exterior contexts and combine resonant interiorities to constitute a fertile field where social and private domains touch.

What resources do students need in a competency‐based online business communication program? A Westminster College case study

AbstractThe authors argue in this paper that self‐directed learning is a primary competency for hybrid and online business communication students in competency‐based programs. The results of a small case study of students in two professional, project‐based and competency‐based online graduate programs reveal an incongruent profile: While students tended toward high enthusiasm and aptitude for self‐directed learning, they chose learning resources that did not promote high levels of self‐direction. Student resistance to self‐direction suggests faculty in competency‐based programs must re‐think pedagogical approaches as well as the kinds of resources business and professional communication faculty provide for students and encourage them to use.

The paradoxes of the theory of imprévision in the new French law of contract: a judicial deterrent?

Catherine Pédamon (Westminster Law School, University of Westminster) re-examines the theory and practice of hardship, frustration and impracticality in commercial contracts, in light of the new legal provision (Art 1195 CC) of the rewritten Civil code (CC) that now enshrines the theory of imprévision (unforeseeability) in French law.&#x0D; Index keywords: France, Civil code, contract law, imprévision&#x0D;

International Women’s Day 2019: In Conversation with Harriet Wistrich

This reflection item provides an edited account of human rights lawyer Harriet Wistrich’s conversation with Manvir Grewal, Visiting Lecturer and Ph.D. student, and Harriet Samuels, Reader in Law at the University of Westminster. It summarises the exchange which focused on Harriet Wistrich’s career trajectory and the many public interest law cases that she has brought on behalf her clients, mainly women, in both domestic and international forums. It also includes a condensed version of the question and answer session with the audience. Questions included the broader issues around domestic violence, rape, coercive control, sex work and the nature of feminism.

Editorial

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‘A Rose by Any Other Name Would Smell as Sweet’: Finding Beauty in the Past Century

AbstractWere ideas of beauty denied by modern architects, only to re‐emerge recently? Alan Powers, teacher of architectural history at the London School of Architecture, University of Westminster and New York University in London, looks at notions of beauty and its synonyms during the halcyon days of 20th‐century Modernism.

London Contemporary Music Festival 2019

In parallel to London's overflowing cityscape, saturated on this occasion by both a bitterly cold torrential downpour and the annual frenzied crowding of materialistic festivity, the penultimate event to the city's Contemporary Music Festival was underway just after 7pm on Saturday 15 December 2018 in the cavernous Ambika P3 venue, a 14,000 square foot performing and exhibition space located on basement level to the University of Westminster's Marylebone Campus.

Schools Council Working Paper 36, several books by Ninian Smart, and the 2019 Golden Anniversary of non-confessional, multi-faith RE

Denise CushI discovered the work of Ninian Smart and the Schools Council Project on Religious Education, both based at Lancaster University, whilst completing my PGCE at Westminster College, Oxford...

Towards a New Normal: The Blurred Landscape of Architectural Research in China

The legacy of the Soviet era and 40 years of market‐led reform have given the Chinese architectural profession a unique profile. Architect and researcher John Zhang, who teaches a China‐focused studio at the University of Westminster in London, sets out its three main strands, each of which blends domains that are largely separate in the West. From state‐owned Local Design Institutes often affiliated to universities, to commercial developers with in‐house design capabilities, to a new generation of theoretically engaged architects who use their practice as means to establish their critical positions, he investigates their genealogy and approaches, and explores their pros and cons as models of architectural practice.

PHA 2018 Conference Poster Session

The Pennsylvania Historical Association sponsors a poster session at its annual meeting for undergraduate and graduate students to present their research as emerging scholars in the field of Pennsylvania and mid-Atlantic history. Posters are divided between graduate and undergraduate levels with one prize for graduate students and first and second places at the undergraduate level. At the Fall 2018 meeting held October 11–13 in Lancaster, there were no graduate entries. The two winning undergraduate posters are reproduced on the following pages, along with their abstracts. A list of all entries follows.Special thanks goes to Jeanine Mazak-Kahne of Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Paul Fetzer of Misericordia University for organizing the posters, and very special thanks to Millersville University for their support.First Place: Arion Dominque and David Michael, Messiah College; Bernardo Michael, faculty advisor. Poster: Spaces of Fear: Race, Housing, and Travel in South Central PAABSTRACT: Our poster explores the daily experiences of African Americans and other minorities in south-central Pennsylvania in the twentieth century with regard to housing and travel. It details the various difficulties that these groups encountered in the basic pursuit of equitable housing opportunities and safe travel/temporary lodging; a pursuit mired in socially enforced and legalized segregation and arising from long-standing white anxieties about people of color. African Americans and other minorities had to learn how to navigate segregated landscapes in ways that their white counterparts were exempt from. Whites not only enjoyed a life free from racial restrictions but also actively worked to protect that privilege. The anxiety of harassment and harm while traveling, the financial disenfranchisement caused by housing restrictions such as racially restrictive covenants and redlining, and the denial of equal opportunities for housing and amenities for travel worked to create spaces of fear for immigrants and racially marginalized groups.Second Place: Dominic Boston, Westminster College; Timothy Cuff, faculty advisor. Poster: Examining the Influenza Pandemic of 1918 in Lawrence County, PennsylvaniaABSTRACT: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 was one of the most catastrophic infectious diseases to affect humankind. Pennsylvania suffered some of the highest levels of mortality in the United States. This project focuses on the mortality consequences of the 1918 influenza in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. This poster presents results of an analysis of the characteristics and timing of deaths due to influenza/pneumonia in Lawrence County and illuminates the nature of the pandemic and its impact on a mid-sized industrial town in Pennsylvania. Mortality patterns in Lawrence County show characteristics unique to pandemic influenza. These include significant mortality totals in people aged twenty-five to forty-four, higher deaths among males than females, and similarly timed peaks of mortality when compared to larger cities like Cleveland, Ohio. This project uses death certificates as a primary source for the development of mortality patterns experienced in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. Death certificates for Lawrence County residents and visitors who perished due to either influenza or pneumonia (all forms) from 1916 through 1920 were collected, digitized, and analyzed. Fields recorded include sex, color/race, marital status, birth date, occupation, death date, primary and secondary causes of death. During the second and third waves of the pandemic, 369 men and 320 women died in Lawrence County. Over a third of the people who died from September 1918 to March 1919 were aged between twenty-five and forty-four.

Ken Foster and the Development of UK Sports Law: A Reflective Interview

This interview is a discussion with Ken Foster, eminent and groundbreaking sports law scholar, currently Associate Fellow at the Centre for Law and Popular Culture at the University of Westminster. Foster is asked to reflect on the development of sports law scholarship from the 1980s and his own specific experiences as the first academic to teach sport and law in the UK during the 1980s. In his reflections on the development of the field, notable in its early days for ‘lack of materials’, Foster highlights theimportance of theory, of sporting culture and custom and the still under-researched area of ‘private adjudication systems in sport’. It concludes that ‘sport specific or national tribunals’ still offers a wealth of opportunities to explore materials still ‘waiting to be researched’. This interview forms part of ESLJ’s special collection, ‘Ken Foster and the Development of Sports Law’ which includes a new (2019) article by Ken Foster, ‘Global Sports Law Revisited’ https://doi.org/10.16997/eslj.228.The following questions were sent to Ken Foster in April 2018 and a dialogue took place over the following months clarifying some of the points made. The questions were designed by the ESLJ team.

Interpretation of particle number size distributions measured across an urban area during the FASTER campaign

Abstract. Particle number size distributions have been measured simultaneously by scanning mobility particle sizers (SMPSs) at five sites in central London for a 1 month campaign in January–February 2017. These measurements were accompanied by condensation particle counters (CPCs) to measure total particle number count at four of the sites and Aethalometers measuring black carbon (BC) at five sites. The spatial distribution and inter-relationships of the particle size distribution and SMPS total number counts with CPC total number counts and black carbon measurements have been analysed in detail as well as variations in the size distributions. One site (Marylebone Road) was in a street canyon with heavy traffic, one site (Westminster University) was on a rooftop adjacent to the Marylebone Road sampler, and a further sampler was located at Regent's University within a major park to the north of Marylebone Road. A fourth sampler was located nearby at 160 m above ground level on the BT tower and a fifth sampler was located 4 km to the west of the main sampling region at North Kensington. Consistent with earlier studies it was found that the mode in the size distribution had shifted to smaller sizes at the Regent's University (park) site, the mean particle shrinkage rate being 0.04 nm s−1 with slightly lower values at low wind speeds and some larger values at higher wind speeds. There was evidence of complete evaporation of the semi-volatile nucleation mode under certain conditions at the elevated BT Tower site. While the SMPS total count and black carbon showed typical traffic-dominated diurnal profiles, the CPC count data typically peaked during night-time as did CPC∕SMPS and CPC∕BC ratios. This is thought to be due to the presence of high concentrations of small particles (2.5–15 nm diameter) probably arising from condensational growth from traffic emissions during the cooler night-time conditions. Such behaviour was most marked at the Regent's University and Westminster University sites and less so at Marylebone Road, while at the elevated BT Tower site the ratio of particle number (CPC) to black carbon peaked during the morning rush hour and not at night-time, unlike the other sites. An elevation in nucleation mode particles associated with winds from the west and WSW sector was concluded to result from emissions from London Heathrow Airport, despite a distance of 22 km from the central London sites.

Trace: Translating Bankside Air Raid Shelter through Material and Spatial Tracings

This project explores spaces of tolerance by using the University of Westminster as a place for casting concrete architectural models and setting them in a dialogue with faculty members. The project’s site of study was the underground air raid shelter built during World War II in the garden of the Hopton Street Almshouses in London’s Bankside district. Bankside is in the Borough of Southwark, located on the southern bank of the River Thames. It runs just west of Blackfriar’s Bridge to St Mary Overie Dock in the east. In recent decades, Bankside has been subject to regeneration, most notably the conversion of the former power station into the Tate Modern art gallery, which has turned Bankside into a global tourist destination. In the accelerated process of development, the underground presence of the air raid shelter has been tolerated, but has become somewhat lost.

Chantal Akerman in London

Chantal Akerman in London This essay tracks the development and production of a series of interconnected projects revolving around the work of Chantal Akerman between 2013 and 2016 in London involving retrospective screenings, in-person presentations, symposiums, a major exhibition, an international conference, and a publication currently in production. This Akerman project, which grew spontaneously, was initiated by A Nos Amours (curators and filmmakers Adam Roberts and Joanna Hogg), who presented an exhaustive retrospective of Akerman's film and video works over a two-year period, Ambika P3 who presented a major exhibition Chantal Akerman: NOW, the conference ‘After Chantal’ presented by the Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media at the University of Westminster and the upcoming publication dedicated to Akerman by the Moving Image Review & Art Journal (MIRAJ). This essay aims to reveal the collaborative nature of the working processes behind this project and the organic manner in which it developed as well as the challenges it posed at a critical time in the artists’ life. In its totality the project and indeed its process, with its multiplicity of outputs and the collaborative dedication of the partners, has become a fitting testament to the strength of the work of Chantal Akerman.