Newnham College’s past programme of Pudding Seminars, focusing on new research by members of the College, includes:
Programme for Lent Term 2023
27 January 2023: Esme Ashe-Jepson (MCR), ‘Thermoregulatory ability versus thermal tolerance in tropical butterflies: alternative strategies to cope with climate change’
3 February 2023: Tasnuva Ferdous Ming Khan (MCR), ‘Under the sea: Ecosystem structure of Antarctic seafloor invertebrates in the modern oceans and in the fossil record’
10 February 2023: Mahera Sarkar (JCR), ‘Should a different approach be permitted for people who do not recognise brainstem death as death for religious reasons?’
17 February: Keir Hesse and Jude Taylor (JCR), ‘Spaces within Spaces: Gender Non-Conformity at a Women’s College’
24 February 2023: Karinder Brar (PhD, UK Dementia Institute), Mechanisms to Medicines in Neurodegeneration
3 March 2023: Florence Harry (MCR), “Anthropology and Theology: an ‘Awkward’ – or ‘Transformative’ – Relationship?”
10 March 2023: Shaaroni Wong (PhD), ‘Nothing and Everything: Turning to the Void as Research Methodology’
Programme for Michaelmas Term 20222
21 October 2022: Laura Dennis (Curator), on Newnham’s Portrait Collection
28 October 2022: Milena Ivanova (Special Supervisor), ‘What makes an experiment beautiful?’
4 November 2022, Margarida Dias Rodrigues (Special Supervisor), on new tools for the early diagnosis of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s
11 November 2022, Rose Frith (JCR), on Charlotte Salomon’s Leben? Oder Theater?
18 November 2022: Mollie Etheridge (MCR), ‘Feminist refusal in the care-full obfuscations of UK-based doctoral students’ [CANCELLED]
Programme for Easter Term 2022
29th April 2022: Ricarda Beckmann (SCR), ‘The mystery of the first supermassive black holes’
6th May 2022: Sam Lucy (SCR) , ‘How to analyse a cemetery – exploring early medieval identity and burial practice’
13th May 2022: Carol Atack (SCR), ‘Ai Weiwei’s ‘The Liberty of Doubt’ between past and present’
20th May 2022: Anna Schroeder (PRA), ‘ Longer green times, lower emissions? How changes in traffic signal timings affect air pollution’
Programme for Lent Term 2022
4 Feb: Ella Nowicki (JCR), ‘If I did not know prison life’: Ben Shahn’s rejected murals for Rikers Island Penitentiary (1935)
11 Feb: Klea Ramaj (MCR), Researching domestic violence, maternal wellbeing, and early childhood development in middle-income countries: The case of Albania.
18 Feb: Imogen Cornish (JCR) – ‘Blue as Hel’: The Colour Blue in the Icelandic Family Sagas.’
25 Feb: Sheila Watts (SCR) – ‘More different to one another as you might think’: Comparing and contrasting in English and German.
4 March: Bethan Holloway-Strong (JCR) – Going off at the deep end: swimming and coming of age in contemporary American novels
Programme for Michaelmas Term 2021
29 Oct: Claire Riordan (MCR), Self-Healing Cementitious Systems: How can we engineer safe and sustainable structures using capsule-based self-healing?
5 November: Jerome Viard (Newnham Gardener), Rat tales: The success story of a rodent eradication on the subantarctic island of South Georgia.
12th November: Emily Kinder (JCR), “Righteous Vaccine Nationalism? The case for nuance in the vaccine distribution debate”
19th November: Asma Ibrahim (JCR), Taiwan: Renegade Province or Independent Country?
26th November: Laura Dennis (Newnham Curator), Curating the Art Collections at Newnham.
Programme for Easter Term 2021
7 May: Anne Hewitt (alumna), ‘From Working Women to Working Wives to Working Mothers: The Progression of Female Employment in the Mid-Twentieth Century United States
14 May: Hannah Kahn (MPhil), ‘Biblical Exegesis and the Legitimation of Power in Bishop Fisher’s Funeral Sermon for Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby’
21 May: Nazia Jassim (PhD), ‘How do autistic individuals process sensory information? Findings from cognitive neuroscience’
Programme for Lent Term 2021
12 February: Isabel Hernández-Gil (JCR) ‘Thinking as a Moral Concept: Hannah Arendt and Socratic Dialogue’
19 February: Gea T. van de Kerkhof (MCR), ‘Beautiful bacteria: how the structural organisation of cells can create iridescent colours’
26 February: Ranjini (MCR): ‘The aesthetic as a politico-cultural choice: What does Indian classical dance perform?’
5 March: Daisy Coombs (JCR), ‘Foreignness in the works of Charlote Brontë’
12 March: Mariam Makramalla (MCR), ‘The arts as a medium for advocacy, debate and awareness raising’
Programme for Michaelmas 2020
23 October: Josephine Holt (alumna), ‘The global mental health burden of COVID-19 on critical care staff’
30 October: Mariam Makramalla (MCR), ‘Why do we learn ? A public engagement initiative in Egypt’
POSTPONED 6 November: Mala Virdee (MCR), ‘Monitoring whales by satellite using deep learning’
13 November: Yasmin Sheamur (MCR), ‘British immigration policymaking and European integration, 1973-1985’
20 November: Helena McBurney (JCR), ‘Siren Song: The Invention of the Diva in 19th Century Literature’
27 November: Leah Brainerd (MCR), ‘Investigating the Introduction of Agriculture in Japan during the Jomon-Yayoi Transition’
Programme for Easter Term Seminars 2020
24 April: Hannah Marshall (MCR), ‘Child Criminal Exploitation in the UK’s Illicit Drug Distribution Networks’
1 May: Zsofia Szlamka (alumna), ”Why are we special? We are supposed to be the same!’ Empowerment of families with developmental disorders in Ethiopia’
8 May: Caitlin Power (MCR), ‘Considering the policy interventions required to reduce gendered inequalities in Australia’s superannuation (retirement income) system’
15 May: Josie Gaynord (MCR), ‘Where do our antibiotics come from?’
Programme for Lent Term Seminars 2020
31 January: Laura Dennis, Curator of Fine and Decorative Art Collections on Newnham’s bronze sculpture ‘Carmen’ (1949) by artist Dora Gordine.
7 February: Yan-Yi Lee (MCR), ‘Do Different Languages Train Our Brain in Different Ways?: Revisiting Bilingualism and Cognitive Development’
14 February: R. Ranjini (MCR), ”Whose Dance is it Anyway? Indian Classical Dance as a mirror to the Nation’
21 February: Jess Sharpe (MCR), ‘A Partnership in Science and Suffrage: Dr Ethel Williams and Frances Hardcastle ‘
28 February: Namera Tanjeem (JCR), on the novels of Georgette Heyer
Programme for Michaelmas Term 2019
1 November: Rianna Davis (JCR), ‘“Historias Ineditas”: Historiographies of Spanish Hispaniola and Dominican Dissent’
8 November: Jiaqi Li (JCR), ”Engineering Natural Killer cells for Cancer Immunotherapy’
15 November: Christopher Moncrieff (Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow) and Emily Carrington Freeman (illustrator), ‘Poetry, painting and the X chromosome’
22 November: Namera Tanjeem (JCR), ‘What’s in a Name? A Discussion of English Naming Conventions and Genealogy.’
29 November: Laura Dennis, Curator of Fine and Decorative Art Collections, on the Painting of Lettice Ramsey by Francis Baker
Programme for Easter Term 2019
3 May: Alice Roberts (MCR), ‘Images and Objectification’
10 May: Erika Teichert (MCR), ‘”Que sea ley”: Fighting to Legalise Abortion in Argentina Today’
17 May: Laura Dennis (Curator of Valuable Possessions), on the Arts Council Collection and its loan to Newnham
Programme for Lent Term 2019
1 February: Robyn Bellinger (JCR), ‘Molière’s deus ex machina and its (in)significance today’
8 February: Rowan Cookson (JCR), ‘Class, feminism, housework, motherhood, paid employment: working-class women’s work in early 20th-Century England’
15 February: Isabel Hernandez-Gil-Crespo (JCR), ‘Losing our ‘Pagan Innocence: Female Objectification through the Lens of Dance’
22 February: Bao Nguyen Nguyen Thi (PhD), ‘Phase Transfer of Thermal Responsive Capsule and its Cargo’
1 March: Elise Burton (SCR), ‘Religious Minorities and Human Genetics in the Middle East’
Programme for Michaelmas Term 2018
26 October: Mariam Makramalla (PhD), ‘Problem Solving in the Classroom: The power dynamics between teacher beliefs and the cultural context’
9 November: Jenna DiRito (PhD), ‘Exploring the future of renal transplantation: reconditioning, repairing, and assessing human kidneys outside of the body’
16 November: Tugba Basaran (Bye Fellow), ‘Global Labour and the Migrant Premium: The Cost of Working Abroad’
23 November: Susan Imrie (JRF), ‘Modern families: are the kids alright?’
Programme for Easter Term 2018
27 April: Bijun Tang (MPhil), ‘Seeing Plant Hormone in Action’
4 May: Chrystel Papi (MPhil), ‘‘Tracing the roots of a Globalisation backlash in American political outcomes of the early interwar period (1919–30)’
11 May: Tanya Paes (MCR) will present her research on the relation between play and children’s development
18 May: Erika Teichert (PhD), ‘Difficult Histories: Representing Memory and Human Rights in Argentina’
Programme for Lent Term 2018
9 February: Bao Nguyen Nguyen Thi (PhD), ‘Supramolecular Cages as Membranes for Chemical Separations’
16 February: Samatha Leggett (PhD), ‘Food and Faith in Anglo-Saxon England, the challenges of multi-disciplinary research’
23 February: Artricia Rasyid (MCR), ‘Anthropologist, Quo Vadis? Deriving Private-Public Sector Knowledge from Multi-Modal Ethnography in Indonesia’s Chinese Mosque (2018), Bali “Aga” Village (2017) and Urban Slums (2015)’
2 March: Elizabeth Campion (LLM) on her experience advocating in disability benefits tribunals pro bono.
Programme for Michaelmas Term 2017
27 October: Dr Emma Wild-Wood (SCR), ‘Mobile Religion and a Holy City: Refashioning Sacred Space in West Africa’
3 November: Zsofia Szlamka, ‘Interning with the World Health Organisation’
10 November: Panayiota Katsamba (MCR), ‘A tale of spaceship-looking viruses: Migration of phages along bacterial flagella’
17 November: Constanza Toro-Valdivieso, ‘Conservation genetics: The microbiome as an indicator of population stability in fur seals populations’
24 November: Juliette Losq, Newnham alumna and artist
Programme for Easter term 2017
28 April: Dror Sharon (MPhil in Political thought and Intellectual History)
5 May: Vera Chapiro (JCR, Sociology), ‘The Musée de l’Histoire de l’Immigration: a museum for immigrants?’
12 May: Holly Corfield Carr (PhD English), ‘Readings in depth: Thomas Hardy’s ‘doubleeyed’ vision’
19 May: Artist Cathy de Moncheaux will talk about her new public art works for Newnham
Programme for Lent Term 2017
27 January: ‘Extraordinary’ Pudding Seminar with Mike Levy, ‘We must save the children’.
10 February: Dr Alexandra Vukovich, ‘Demystifying the Land of Darkness’
17 February: ‘Form and Place’, A Poetry Reading by John Greening (RLF Fellow)
24 February: Jessie Fyfe (PhD, Architecture), ‘Legacies of witness testimony on physical and memorial landscapes in Croatia’
3 March: Henrietta McBurney Ryan (Advisor on Valuable Possessions)‘Hidden Treasures from the Newnham College Collections’
Programme for Michaelmas Term 2016
28 October, ‘Extraordinary Pudding Seminar’: Professor Michael. H. Allen (Harvey Wexler Chair in Political Science at Bryn Mawr College), ‘Reluctant Consent: Changing Postures of Obligation in International Law within the Globalizing World Economy’
4 November: Dr Úna Monaghan (SCR), ‘Contemporary Irish Traditional Music: New Technologies, Improvisation and Experimental Practices’
11 November: Natasha Crosby (JCR), ‘The Divine Woman: Visualising Beatrice in Dante’s Vita Nuova‘
18 November: Callie Vandewiele (MCR), ‘Our Grandmothers’ looms: Q’eqchi’ weavers, museum textiles and the repatriation of lost knowledge’
25 November: Dr Maria Matos (SCR), ‘Developing cancer therapeutics: modification of a unique lysine residue on native proteins and antibodies’
Programme for Michaelmas Term 2015
6 November 2015: Lydia Hamlett (SCR, Art History), ‘Pandora and her pithos at Petworth House’
13 November 2015: Amanda Aldercotte (MCR, Psychology)
20 November 2015: EXTRAORDINARY PUDDING SEMINAR given by invited speaker Paul Mylrea, the University’s Director of Communications
27 November 2015: Becky Kershaw (MCR, Nanoscience), ‘Nanomedicine in diagnostics: a ‘plastic antibody’ for preclinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease? ‘
Programme for Easter Term 2015
24 April 2015: Professor Terence Doyle,’Thinking in Pictures; Leonardo da Vinci as a Physiologist’
1 May 2015: Veronica Wong (MCR): ‘Chemistry Sugar Rush: The chemistry behind wrinkling and ageing’
8 May 2015: Kaylan Schwartz (MCR): ‘Authenticity and the international volunteer excursion: What constitutes a ‘real’ Kenyan experience?’
15 May 2015: Katherine Olley (MCR): ‘The End in the Beginning: Continuing Without Closure in the Hildr Legend’
Programme for Lent Term 2015
Programme for Michaelmas Term 2014
31 October 2014: Christina Koning (Royal Literary Fund Fellow) ‘Getting the past in your sights’: some thoughts on writing and research’
7 November 2014: Riamsara Kuyakanon Knapp (MCR) ‘Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tunnelling through to Sustainable Development? Examining the bonds of conservation-culture-development in the Bhutan Himalaya’
14 November 2014: Emma Troop (JCR) ‘An innovative approach to tackling education poverty in Kenya: Impact investing and social entrepreneurship’
21 November 2014: Dr Kumar Aniket (SCR) ‘Microfinance: The Economics of buying a buffalo’
28 November 2014: Professor Rae Langton (SCR) ‘Authority in sexual speech’
Programme for Easter Term 2014
Friday 25 April 2014: Peng Zhang (MCR), ‘A Tale of Two Classes: Intergenerational Occupational Choice in Contemporary China’
Friday 2 May 2014: Susan Haines (SCR), ‘Where has all the antimatter gone? Probing matter-antimatter asymmetries at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider’
Friday 9 May 2014: Birgitta Olofsson (SCR), ‘From metabolism to behaviour: what a tiny worm can tell us about foraging decisions’
Friday 16 May 2014: Jenna Dittmar (MCR), ‘A microscopic analysis of human dissection techniques across England from 1700-1900’
Programme for Lent 2014
Friday 7 February 2014: Magali Krasny (MCR), ‘Sharing economic knowledge after 2008: case studies in France’
Friday 14 February 2014: Sertaç Sehlikoglu (MCR), ‘Becoming fit in “Men-Free” Spaces: Desirious Subjects in Istanbul’
Friday 21 February 2014: Grace Copplestone (JCR), ‘Learn to code – An insight into the workings of the world wide web with tips about how to make a website of your own’
Friday 28 February 2014: Alex Da Costa (SCR), ‘Impairment and Disability in Medieval Literature’
Friday 7 March 2014: Claire Nichols (JCR), ‘Magnetism of Meteorites: Clues to Planetary Formation in the Early Solar System
Programme for Michaelmas 2013
1 November 2013: Zoe Wyatt (JCR) – Network Analysis: Facebook graph search and making sense of Big Data
8 November 2013: Hannah Marshall (JCR) – Absenteeism in rural Ugandan schools
15 November 2013: Jenny Reid (Alumna; NC 2007) – Therapeutic hypothermia for traumatic brain injury, too cool to be true?
22 November 2013: Jennifer Bishop (MCR) – Silver mining projects in mid-16th-century England and Ireland: foreign expertise and the early modern state
29 November 2013: Professor Dame Carol Black (Principal) -Sickness absence: policy into practice
