Our research is empowering individuals, transforming communities, and driving progress across South East England and beyond. Read on for your monthly insight into how our community is contributing to a healthier, more sustainable and socially just world.
Health and Social Care
Why our urban green spaces deserve celebration
Canterbury celebrates its transformed public spaces this month, with many of its parks and gardens having been upgraded as part of the city’s Levelling Up Fund work. But what is it that made these worth investing in? Karen Jones, Professor of Environmental and Cultural History in School of Humanities, has been researching the history of city parks and their role in health, civic memory and how we engage with nature in the urban landscape. Through a recent collaboration with the Medway Climate Response team and English heritage, she’s discovered that parks and gardens are hugely valuable as health resources and as hubs of community memory.
Read more about what makes parks special.
One step closer to better treatments for Chagas disease
Approximately 8 million people worldwide, mostly in Latin America, are estimated to be infected with the parasite that causes Chagas disease, which can lead to severe complications affecting the heart, digestive and nervous systems if left untreated. Dr Felipe Fantuzzi and fellow scientists in the School of Natural Sciences have been using computational chemistry to make the drug discovery process more efficient, bringing more effective treatments closer to reality.
Read more about what they did.
Are programmes for young offenders really working?
Rather than formally charging young people found in possession of Class B/C illicit substances, police in Kent, Sefton, Wigan and Cornwall can refer them to ‘Re-Frame’, a diversion programme designed to help them manage their substance use and avoid the negative impact of criminalisation. But does it work? Dr Simon Coulton from the Centre for Health Services Studies has been evaluating the programme with surprising results which indicate that those on the programme were slightly more likely to offend than those who weren’t.
Read the report to find out why.
Environment and Sustainability
Wild meat consumption is becoming unsustainable in Central Africa
According to new analysis supported by researchers in the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent, the amount of wild meat being eaten across Central Africa is on the rise, driven largely by urban populations. If this increase continues, it’s likely to become unsustainable, putting animal and human lives at risk.
Explore the reasons behind this.
Reducing the risk of extinction among Amur Tigers
Amur tigers are already endangered, but with Canine Distemper Virus having been observed in wild populations of tigers since 2003, it has been suggested that the disease could increase their 50-year extinction probability by 65%. Researchers in the School of Natural Sciences, including Master’s students Grace Lelliott and Charlotte Dalzell, are working with Wild Cats Conservation Alliance and the University of Cornell to create rapid diagnostic devices – similar to the lateral flow tests used during the Covid-19 pandemic – to enable detection and control of the disease in the field.
Read more about their progress.
Future Society
Making old age more affordable
Population ageing and changing family dynamics are putting mounting pressure on the pension, healthcare and long-term care systems we rely on for quality of life and wellbeing in old age. But what can be done to reverse this? Previous Government attempts to solve one system have often jeopardised the affordability of the others and penalised certain groups, so researchers led by Olena Nizalova in the Care and Outcomes Research Centre are taking a different tack and examining these systems all together. It’s hoped the outcomes will encourage policy debate that does the same, leading to more equitable and sustainable decision-making.
Can synthetic biology provide food security in a changing climate?
As climate change worsens and the global population heads towards nine billion people, scientists are looking to synthetic biology to future-proof food supplies. This application of science to design and construct new biological parts, devices, and systems could be considered contraversial, but focus groups led by sociologist Professor Joy Zhang ang in Kent suggest society could be more open to it than expected. Speaking to Nature about her ARIA-funded project examining public perceptions of its use in agriculture, she argued that if we’re to restore trust in science, we need to move public perception towards science as a tool that can be used to help us.
Exploring freedom through the eyes of refugees
How can the visual arts help us see the world from a someone else’s perspective? Kent alumni and Artistic Director of Unity Arts Collective, Surya Dev C., explored this by bringing together refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, students and other community members to examine the meaning of freedom through creative expression. The resulting programme created space for voices that are often unheard, encouraging dialogue, empathy, and a deeper understanding of the human experiences behind migration.
Learn more about the FREEDOM project.
Meet the researcher: Katrine Callander
‘As neurodivergent woman, I am especially interested in how autistic women’s distress is frequently misunderstood, dismissed or reframed as personal deficit, and what this means for recognition, support and justice.’
My research explores how autistic women experience, narrate and make sense of cumulative and severe trauma, and how these experiences are shaped (and often compounded) by misrecognition within social, institutional and clinical systems. I use interdisciplinary, participatory and narrative approaches, and examine trauma as relational and political experiences, produced through power, stigma and failures of care.
Katrine Callander is completing a PhD in Social Policy in the School of Social Sciences at Kent.