Host Andy Spinoza is joined by Professor Alejandro Frangi, Director of the Christabel Pankhurst Institute and the Bicentennial Turing Chair in Computational Medicine at The University of Manchester; Dr Louise Hunter, a Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology Gastroenterology; and Raluca-Elena Valcescu, Executive Officer for the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health at The University of Manchester Students’ Union.

The group discuss Manchester’s storied history of medical and health-related breakthroughs and how these led to the city remaining at the forefront of medical innovations for over two centuries, and consider the University’s role today in advancing medical knowledge, driving positive healthcare and tackling global health challenges.

They also look to what the future might bring – and what impact digital technologies, AI and advanced materials could have on positive healthcare outcomes.

This podcast episode was recorded on 27 June 2024.

Further information

Find out more on:

• The University’s Healthier Futures research platform
• Our Cancer research beacon
• One in Two: a Manchester cancer research podcast
• The Christabel Pankhurst Institute for health technology research and innovation
• The Christabel Pankhurst Institute’s podcast Health Tech Matters
• Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB)
• Health Innovation Manchester
• Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health

Find out more on our Talk 200 webpage or discover more about our wider bicentenary celebrations.

Joining host Andy Spinoza are Professor Colette Fagan, the University’s Vice-President for Research and responsible for leading our research and doctoral training strategy; Aisha Akram, University of Manchester Students’ Union Wellbeing and Liberation Officer; and George Obolo, a final year MBChB Medicine student at Manchester and award-winning social entrepreneur, leader, builder and public speaker.

They discuss fairness, equality, equity and the role of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) action plans in higher education for students and staff, and more widely in society. They highlight how the University has advanced equality and fairness through the impact of its research – from the past, through to the present and into the future.

From Manchester’s role in the Industrial Revolution and its ties to the global cotton trade, through to key figures in the University’s radical history, such as Christabel Pankhurst, Alan Turing and Arthur Lewis, the group chart the University’s EDI journey, examine our institutional commitment to EDI, and discuss how our research produces evidence and solutions to advance equality and fairness across the globe, as well as in our local community.

Further information

Find out more on:

• The University’s global inequalities research beacon
• Our EDI strategy
• Our EDI accreditations
• Creating a more equal world – case studies
• Cotton Capital: Slavery and The University of Manchester
• Healthier Futures platform
• Global Development Institute
• Work and Equalities Institute
• Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE)
• Manchester Urban Institute

Find out more on our Talk 200 webpage or discover more about our wider bicentenary celebrations.

In this panel discussion to accompany the second lecture of our Talk 200 series, Nazir Afzal is joined by Tom Hedges, sub-postmaster at Hogsthorpe Post Office near Skegness from 1994 until he was unjustly sacked in 2010, aged 57, after being wrongfully accused of false accounting; barrister and advocate Thalia Maragh; and Suzanne Gower, PhD researcher, lecturer in Law and former Managing Director of legal charity APPEAL.

The panel was chaired by Claire McGourlay, Professor of Legal Education at Manchester and a National and Principal Fellow of the HEA. Against the backdrop of recent injustices both in the UK and globally, including the ongoing Post Office scandal, they considered the disparities in access to justice and how we might chart a path towards fairer treatment within the legal sphere.

Further information

Find out more about:

• The University’s research in global inequalities
• The University of Manchester Justice Hub
• Manchester Innocence Project
• The Innocence Podcast series
• Prosecuting Rap research
• Racial Bias and the Bench report
• Policy@Manchester article on the Westminster Commission on Miscarriages of Justice report

Find out more on our Talk 200 webpage or discover more about our wider bicentenary celebrations.