STAMP - St Anne's MCR Podcast

After a very long hiatus, St Anne's Academic Review (STAAR) and STAMP welcome back Ramani Chandramohan, an alumna of the College, who wrote about Medieval French fabliaux in St Anne's Academic Review, Volume 11. The fabliaux were comic tales written in the 12th and 13th centuries performed by travelling minstrels. Ramani talks about the theatricality of fabliaux in live performance and the unique role of jongleurs who entertained the audiences.    Ramani Chandramohan completed her master's in French Literature and bachelor's in French and Classics at St Anne's, and was very active in the graduate community as a Welfare and Academic Affairs Officer. She’s now at The Queen’s College, Oxford reading for a DPhil in Medieval French literature. Her interests include depictions of religious conversion, interfaith interactions and Classical reception within Old French texts, and the manuscript transmission of the global narrative cycle, the Seven Sages of Rome.    This interview marks the fifth and final episode of the Fresh Academic Voices series, which featured five contributors to Volume 11 of STAAR, published in Michaelmas 2021. 

Medic and neuroscientist Dora Markati explains how some viruses can be used as vectors – or platforms - to treat genetic disorders. Her paper on this topic, published in St Anne's Academic Review (2021), presents evidence on a range of diseases that have benefited from viral-mediated approaches. She hopes to see more efficient treatments for such diseases being made available to children across the world.  Dora studied medicine at the University of Patras, Greece, and trained in children's medicine in London and in Cambridge. She completed a Masters in Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge and is now at Oxford undertaking a DPhil in Paediatric Neurology. Her current work involves clinical studies and trials for the treatment of rare childhood diseases affecting the nervous system, with a focus on Angelman Syndrome. 

What are emotions? Are they ingrained in the brain’s architecture, or are they socially constructed? We dive into the wonders of the human brain with Conrado Eiroa Solans, a Masters candidate in Psychological Research who studies the nature of human emotions. In his paper for St Anne's Academic Review, Conrado presents the two schools of thought – the classical biological perspective and the social-constructionist view – and he draws evidence from a lesion case study and brain scans to explain the nature of what human beings feel. Born and raised in urban Madrid, Conrado has lived in rural Northern California and snowy suburban Minnesota. He has a BA in Psychology from The College of St Scholastica in Duluth, and he has worked as a Research Assistant at the universities of Yale, Stanford, and Michigan. Beyond academia, Conrado enjoys spending time in the great outdoors, trekking the backcountry and hidden lands.

What is language contact? How and why does it occur? Brittany Hause, a DPhil candidate in Linguistics will explain this phenomenon through a Spanish poem 'Amor de un campestre' – A Rustic's Love – by Bolivian writer Pedro Rivas. The use of regionally specific vocabulary that characterises the piece illustrates several of the effects of language contact, which continue to distinguish the variety of Spanish spoken in Santa Cruz from other varieties heard today in Bolivia and around the world. Brittany is preparing an article on language contact for Volume 11 of St Anne's Academic Review. Prior to Oxford, Brittany lived and worked in Bolivia, the USA, and South Korea. They hold an MPhil in Linguistics from Oxford, and a Bachelors degree in English, Italian and Spanish from Florida State University. Brittany is also an active member of the student community at St Anne’s, previously MCR Welfare Officer, and now Editor of Spark Reviews for STAAR. Enjoy hearing Brittany in conversation with STAAR Humanities Editor, Erin Nickalls about her article and research on language contact. 

St Anne's Academic Review's Editor-in-Chief, Ye-Ye Xu, welcomes Naomi Hoodless, a teacher of languages from Cumbria, to talk about her research paper on LGBT students' experiences in British schools. Naomi carried out her investigation during her PGCE training year at Oxford while teaching German and French at her placement school. She argues that teachers should be trained to handle LGBT students' concerns, and that schools are uniquely placed to support these students as they come to terms with who they are. This is the first of five interviews in Fresh Academic Voices, an exclusive series produced by St Anne's Academic Review, the college's interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal edited by graduates. Guests on this series will talk about their academic papers to be published in Volume 11 of STAAR. Stay tuned for special insights on a range of topics – from human emotions and genetics, to Medieval French literature and the varieties of Spanish being spoken across the world. 

An exciting new series of conversations with five contributors to St Anne's Academic Review (STAAR) – the college's very own interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal edited and published by graduates.STAAR Editor-in-Chief, Ye-Ye Xu launches the series by introducing Naomi Hoodless, Brittany Hause, Ramani Chandramohan, Theodora Markati, and Conrado Eiroa Solans who'll be writing for the 11th Volume. Stay tuned for special insights on a range of topics – from human emotions and genetics, to Medieval French literature and the varieties of Spanish being spoken across the world. 

Guillaume Paugam welcomes Farbod Akhlaghi, for the second time, on this episode.  Farbod is a 4th year DPhil student. He specialises in moral philosophy, metaphysics and meta-metaphysics, which respectively ask questions such as: is it morally wrong to do a given action (like smoking, a specific focus of Farbod's)? Are there any moral facts? What is it to even ask the question "are there any moral facts" in the first place? After having talked us through the core of his thesis work last week, Farbod takes us on a discussion of other key philosophical questions. This episode tackles, always very accessibly; issues like "do we have a duty to seek transformative experiences?" or "do third culture kids have a culture?", this last question resonating strongly with Farbod's own experience. We also discuss his interest for medieval Islamic philosophy, the need for UK philosophy curricula to include more philosophers from outside Western Europe, and how we can all, as engaged citizens, do philosophy. 

In this episode, Guillaume Paugam welcomes Farbod Akhlaghi for the first of two episodes with him. Farbod is a 4th year DPhil student. He specialises in moral philosophy, metaphysics and meta-metaphysics, which respectively ask questions such as: is it morally wrong to do a given action (like smoking, a specific focus of Farbod's)? Are there any moral facts? What is it to even ask the question "are there any moral facts" in the first place? Farbod takes the time to explain clearly and in detail the philosophical concepts underpinning his work. He eloquently shows that the questions he tackles, far from being only relevant for hyper-specialised academics as it is sometimes thought, are extremely pertinent to our daily lives. This first episode centres around the core of his thesis work. Next week we discuss other crucial questions he reflects on, around culture, identity and transformative experiences, as well as the influence of Islamic Medieval Philosophy on his work, and the need to diversify philosophy curricula in the UK to include more thinkers from outside Western Europe. 

Guillaume Paugam welcomes Karina Darbinian on the pod today, for the second of two episodes with her. Karina is a doctor from Russia, where she completed all her medical studies. She now studies for an MSc in International Health and Tropical Medicine at Oxford, a multidisciplinary degree focusing on the delivery of healthcare in low to middle-income countries. As a doctor, Karina specialised in infectious diseases, a passion she discovered late in her studies. On today's episode, she discusses how she left her first job as a doctor in Moscow's largest hospital (discussed last week), to go volunteer in a rural clinic in Guatemala! She tells us all about rural medicine, the challenges and differences compared to urban hospital medicine, and talks at length about the links between the social and the medical in this remote part of Guatemala. 

Guillaume Paugam welcomes Karina Darbinian on the pod today, for the first of a series of two episodes. Karina is a doctor from Russia, where she completed all her medical studies. She now studies for an MSc in International Health and Tropical Medicine at Oxford, a multidisciplinary degree focusing on the delivery of healthcare in low to middle-income countries. As a doctor, Karina specialised in infectious diseases, a passion she discovered late in her studies. On today's episode, in addition to presenting her current degree, Karina tells us all about one of her jobs before coming to Oxford - working as an infectious disease specialist in Moscow's largest hospital, mostly with people with HIV and addictions. In next week's episode, she discusses how she left this position to go volunteer in a rural clinic in Guatemala, and how that influenced her path to Oxford! 

Guillaume Paugam welcome Ye-Ye Xu in this episode. Ye-Ye is studying for a PGCE in European Languages and Mandarin, a choice she made after reading law during her undergraduate degree. She talks about training to be a teacher in British secondary schools, the challenges and rewards of classroom teaching, and how the Covid pandemic has affected her time in schools. She also links her passion for teaching languages with her passion for music, which materialised in a year abroad in France during which Ye-Ye was involved in founding El Sistema Alsace, a charity that seeks to give children from disadvantaged backgrounds tools to succeed in life via music teaching. 

No episode this week, as it is the festive season and we all need a break! Instead, just a short message to say thank you to everyone who listened, shared, gave feedback, and to people who helped me with the podcast, as well as to preview some of the topics we cover in the New Year! 

Guillaume Paugam welcomes Brad Young on the podcast this week, to talk all things relating to his DPhil in Materials. Brad explains what Materials Science is about, before talking in depth but always in a very accessible way about his research interests. He works on novel materials to be used in a fusion environnement. Fusion is an exciting, promising and debated new way of producing electricity using nuclear technology. The advantages of fusion compared to the currently used nuclear fission technology could be massive - safer, using a much more abundant fuel than Uranium, and with a waste that would be easier to manage. But it is very expensive, and still unsure whether scientists will be able to reach a technology that can be used to power our homes. That, Brad's trip to Fukushima and much more on STAMP Episode #3! 

Guillaume Paugam welcomes Lise Cazzoli on the podcast this week, to talk about her DPhil in International Development. Lise focuses on how people living in areas hit by natural disasters can access healthcare, with a special interest in Haiti and Puerto Rico. In addition to healthcare access for physical illnesses, she also studies how people can get treated for chronic mental health conditions, prompting a more general discussion of mental health issues in research and for researchers. She also talks us through her fascinating field trip to coastal Guyana, and how that proved a defining moment in her DPhil research. 

Guillaume Paugam welcomes Ramani Chandramohan on the podcast this week, to talk about her Master's degree in Modern Languages and her research interest in French medieval literature. Many of the questions she tackles resonate a lot with contemporary issues: social and national identity, interaction between different religions and cultures. Ramani is particularly interested in the presence of Saracens, the muslim population of the countries around the Mediterranean in the middle ages, in French medieval literature. She also talks us through the fascinating process of research in medieval literature, old manuscripts and medieval languages.