Prof. Adrienne Evans Publishes Postdigital Intimacies 

Professor Adrienne Evans, along with co-editors Dr Jamie Hakim (Kings College), Professor Jessica Ringrose (UCL), Dr Amy Shields-Dobson (Curtin University), and Professor Shaka McGlotten (Purchase College), has published the collection Postdigital Intimacies: Relational Lives in the Networked Public-Private with UCL Press. The collection explores the normalisation of the digital in our intimate lives, and the social, political and cultural consequences of a blurry public-private. Building on feminist, anti-racist, and queer theory, the contributions emerged through the AHRC project Postdigital Intimacies and the Networked Public-Private and work towards more socially just ways of imagining the entanglement of intimacies and technology. The book is fully open access and can be downloaded here

All are invited to celebrate the launch 4th June, 6 pm - 8 pm, Kings College Anatomy Lecture Theater and Museum . The launch will include contributions from each section of the book, covering the main themes of Postdigital Feelings; Postdigital Connections and Collectivities; Postdigital Violences and Vulnerabilities; and Postdigital Kinship, Domesticity and Hospitality. 

Image: How to better navigate online discourses

'Beyond the Manosphere' panel discussion convened by Kate Babin and Dr. Marcus Maloney

Last year, ArCC’s Kate Babin and Dr. Marcus Maloney convened the panel discussion, ‘Beyond the Manosphere’, featuring experts in the field, Professor Debbie Ging, and Drs Craig Haslop, Saba Hussain and Joshua Thorburn. Recently published in Journal of Gender Studies, this panel addressed the digital conditions that have allowed male supremacist discourse to proliferate and imagines what could lie beyond the vitriol for men online through imagining alternative spaces and thought.

Image:  Meeting at Oficina de Arte 

UK–Mexico Researchers Discuss Urban Culture in Mexico City

Professor Mel Jordan met with Mexican scholars and students at Oficina de Arte as part of a wider series of meetings across the city.  Oficina de Arte is a downtown Mexico City artists’ studio project initiated by architect Lorenzo Rocha. Originally classified as storage spaces, the units were carefully adapted to allow artists to sit, work, and modify artworks on site, transforming a logistical constraint into a flexible environment for artistic production.

Discussions focused on CRUX (Cultural Research and Exchange for Changing Publics), a Marie Skłodowska‑Curie Actions (MSCA) staff exchange proposal exploring urban culture and public space. The visit  included sessions at UNAM’s Faculty of Architecture and the Museo Experimental El Eco, extending dialogue on collaborative, place‑based urban research. Mel was joined by Daniela Aguilar and Dr. Lorenzo Rocha (FA‑UNAM)

Dr. Melissa Tanti 'In Conversation' at Manchester Poetry Library

ArCC Research Fellow, Dr. Melissa Tanti,  spoke 'In Conversation' with poet and translator Brian Sneeden about her new book, The Translating Subject, exploring multilingual poetics in queer and feminist writing. The talk was part of Manchester Translation Series 2026 -- a two-day series of events featuring readings, music and conversations by award-winning poets and translators representing over 15 languages, as well as editors from major presses and journals in the UK & US. The annual event was held 25-26 March at Manchester Poetry Library.

Image: The PlayAI game

PlayAI: A Co-Designed Board Game Advancing AI Literacy in Education

PlayAI is an analogue game funded by an ESRC IAA Follow-on Funding that was conceived not merely as a learning resource, but as a dual-purpose artefact that integrates pedagogy, research, and practice. Through structured co-design workshops with primary and secondary school educators in Coventry, the project engaged participants in shaping the game’s mechanics, scenarios, and learning dynamics. This ensured that the resulting design reflects authentic classroom challenges, including lesson planning with AI, assessment and feedback generation, and ethical considerations in AI use.

Image: AI-Generated News Headlines for the Playful learning Activities

Playful Learning Pilot Uses LEGO & AI-Generated Scenarios in Project Management

Led by Prof. Sylvester Arnab with Neil O’Shea and Dr. Safaa Sindi, a recent pilot under the ESRC RE:PLAY Project at Coventry University is contributing to national research investigating playful learning across UK higher education. In an engineering project management module, students used LEGO-based design and AI-generated scenarios to address real-world challenges. Findings show enhanced creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving. A larger rollout is planned for June 2026 to inform module redesign and wider adoption.

Image: Poet Lisa Kelly performing in BSL

The Disfluencies CoLab Leads Workshop for International Mother Languages Day

As part of her ongoing research on Disfluency Poetics, Dr. Melissa Tanti organised two public events for the International Mother Language Day Festival 2026 – a month-long city-wide program of events hosted by Manchester-UNESCO City of Literature (26 January - 10 March). 

The workshop was a production of the Disfluencies CoLab co-founded by Melissa in 2025. The CoLab seeks creative, radically accessible ways to explore and develop approaches to expand thinking around linguistic diversity to embrace marginalised vocal differences, multilingualism, and forms of non-normative communication.

 The workshops were led by CoLab members: poet and editor Lisa Kelly, artist and  researcher Louise Adkins from CU's School of Arts & Creative Industries, and transdisciplinary researcher Cathy Soreny whose work cuts across filmmaking, nursing, and disability. Workshops took place on 21 February at Manchester University sponsored by the Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies and 7 March at Altogether Otherwise -- an art, culture, and community hub in Manchester. 

Journal of Early Modern Studies Edited by Dr. Chloe Fairbanks

Leverhulme ECF Dr. Chloe Fairbanks has co-edited volume 15 of the open access Journal of Early Modern studies with Catherine Jenkinson (Oxford), on the theme of Material Space and Literary Production in Early Modern Europe.

Image: David, Catherine, Latiefa Behardien (Woolworths Food chief technology and sustainability officer) & Kobus Pienaar (Technical Manager Regenerative Agriculture)

ArCC Researchers in South Africa 

Professor David Bek and PGR Catherine Mazhandu enjoyed a fruitful week partaking in events with South African retailer Woolworths in March, sharing the results of Catherine's research into the Woolworths' Farming for the Future programme. There were sessions with various members of Woolworths management and a press event focusing on the South African agricultural media. Catherine ended the week with the prefix 'Dr' added to her name following a successful Viva.

On the same trip, David & Professor Sylvester Arnab represented ArCC, supported by ODA funding, as part of the Coventry University delegation marking the 10th anniversary of the Coventry–Stellenbosch dual award PhD programme on 20th March. Both contributed to the panel session, sharing insights on international collaboration and research partnerships. Sylvester also participated in a strategic interdisciplinary co-creation workshop on 23rd March. The visit coincided with their funded research activities in South Africa, where Sylvester leads the Ludic Design Lab collaboration, while, David leads research on South Africa’s green economy and sustainable development pathways. Learn more about David's work promoting sustainable wild harvesting in South Africa here

David visited the Western Cape  to begin the implementation of an assurance programme for the harvesting of flowers and foliage from wild landscapes. By 2030 all such wild products need to be traceable and harvested ethically in order to trade into European markets. Assurance body, FairWild, have been chosen to manage the certification process. David is co-ordinating the delivery of the programme on behalf of the Floriculture Sustainability Initiative.

Image: Wild harvesting landscapes of the Western Cape

Image: Prof. Neil Forbes welcoming attendees 

Prof. Neil Forbes Co-hosts International Research Event 

On Friday 27th March Prof. Neil Forbes welcomed academics and practitioners in London to discuss historic and contemporary tensions in business taxation. This was the final event of the Volkswagen Foundation funded international research project "Historical Tensions between International Business and National Taxation: A Challenge for Europe Today". An edited collection will be published with contributions from international authors, edited by the project leads.

Dr. Alice Leonard Publishes Special Issue of HLQ 

Dr. Alice Leonard has published a special issue of the leading journal 'Huntington Library Quarterly', entitled 'Error and the History of Imperfect Reading' co-edited with Prof. Abigail Williams (KCL), Dr Michael Edson (Wyoming). This also contains her peer-reviewed article, ‘Reading Imperfection'. Her article ‘Opening the Chest: The Neglected Role of Chests in Early Modern Book Use’ has been accepted and is in press with the world-leading historical journal, The English Historical Review (OUP).

Prof. Adrienne Evans publishes Special Issue on Postdigital Feminisms & Takes on New Role as Assoc. Editor of  Sexuality and Culture

Working with Dr Zoe Hurley (American University of Sharjah), Professor Adrienne Evans has co-edited a Special Issue of Postdigital Science and Education on Postdigital Feminisms: Platformed-Lives, Labour, Intimacies, and Activism. Informed by feminist theories of social justice, intersectionality, and technologies, contributions consider the complexities, exploitation, and imaginaries of the acutely gendered postdigital condition. It includes two commentaries on the ‘mirror worlds’ and ‘circuses of distraction’ facilitating forms of patriarchy in an age of crisis, written by the co-editors.

Adrienne has been appointed Associate Editor of the journal Sexuality and Culture, along with new Editor in Chief Professor Mark McCormack (Aston University), and co-Associate Editors Drs Richard Vytniorgu (University of Hertfordshire) and Patricio Simonetto (University of Leeds). The new team are planning updates to the style and content of the journal, including new aims and scope and a forum for emerging ideas in the field.

Image: Group photo of attendees at the Copim Conference 2026 © Hollis Photography UK

Dr. Janneke Adema gives invited talks for OIPA,  ICI Berlin & the MORPHSS Catalogue 

On the 9^th of March Dr. Janneke Adema gave an invited talk on ‘Versioning and Iterative Publishing’ at The Open Institutional Publishing Association (OIPA) Skills Working Group seminar on Experimental and Enhanced Publishing. 

On 16 March, she gave an invited talk on ‘The Prefigurative Temporalities of Experimental Publishing’ for the symposium What Kind of Experiment is Experimental Publishing Today? A Hundred Years of the Future of Books at The Institute for Cultural Inquiry (ICI) in Berlin.  

Janneke was also an invited speaker at the MORPHSS Catalogue launch event and panel discussion, which took place on 19 March chaired by Samuel Moore.

Retreat & conference participants at the Seven Sisters

Dr. Janneke Adema celebrates Book Pilots, Open Book Futures & a Special Issue

Copim’s Experimental Publishing Group  (consisting of Dr Janneke Adema, Dr Rebekka Kiesewetter, and Dr Julien McHardy) organised a retreat and online conference from 7-10 April on Practicing Experimental Books: Celebrating Copim's Book Pilots to showcase the 3 Experimental Book Pilot projects supported through the Open Book Futures project on which Janneke is a Co-Investigator. The conference was organised around three themed sessions: Infrastructuring, Open Peer Reviewing, and Binding. Recordings of the sessions and short video introductions to the pilot projects are available here.

A special issue of Journal of Electronic Publishing (JEP) on Open Research for the Humanities and Social Sciences co-edited by Janneke with Dr. Alyssa Arbuckle features articles by ArCC members Adeola Eze, Dr Judith Fathallah, and Dr Rebekka Kiesewetter.