Join us for a brand new episode to bring in the new year!

This month, we sit down with Shivanka Gautam to discuss her research on ecological grief.  Shivanka recently completed her MSc in Global Mental Health and Society from the University of Edinburgh. Her research focused on experiences of ecological grief and the politics of mourning beyond the human.

She is interested and passionate about the climate change - mental health nexus as well biodiversity conservation, climate resilience and justice.

In this episode we cover the definitions of ecological grief; how ecological grief differs from regular grief; anticipatory grief in relation to climate change; mourning and how it manifests; ‘othering’ nature as non-mournable & colonialism and capitalism in regards to climate change and nature.

Resources:

Aldo Leopold Quote

Val Plumwood:-Feminism and the Mastery of Nature

Amitav Ghosh- The Nutmeg’s Curse

Sidney W. Mintz- Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History

Shivanka's LinkedIn Profile

This month, we delve into the unsettling evolution of 'incel' philosophy with Dr. Filipa Melo Lopes, a respected lecturer of Sociology and Political Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. Filipa grew up in Portugal and received her B.A. from Simon Fraser University, in Canada.

She completed her PhD at the University of Michigan and joined the University of Edinburgh as a lecturer in 2019. Filipa’s areas of research include feminist philosophy, social theory, sexual ethics and the work of French philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir. 

'Incel’, short for 'involuntary celibate', refers to an online subculture of predominantly men, who desire a romantic or sexual female partner but claim to be unable to find one. Their vitriolic language in online forums has fuelled a series of violent acts against women in recent years, including the 2014 shooting carried out by Elliott Rodger in Isla Vista, California.

In this episode, we chat with Filipa about how she came to study incel ideology and what fascinates her about its portrayal of modern masculinity. We explore Filipa’s in-depth analysis of Elliot Rodger’s misogynistic manifesto, Kristen Roupenian’s sensational piece Cat Person, modern misogyny and how lives in digital spaces, critical compassion for ‘difficult’ groups, processes of ‘othering’, victimisation and male fragility, and more!

References:
 My Twisted World: The Story of Elliot Rodger

'Half victim, half accomplice’ : Cat Person and Narcissism (2021)

Incel violence and Beauvoirian otherness (2023)

Cat Person -Kristen Roupenian (2017)

The Second Sex- Simone de Beauvoir

Filipa Melo Lopes' Website

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Hannah Allen, an Assistant Professor at the University of Mississippi, in the Department of Health, Exercise Science, and Recreation Management. Dr. Allen is also Director of the Substance Use & Mental Health Research Lab. 
We discuss her research which is broadly focused on substance use in a developmental context, examining the relationship between substance use and both mental health and achievement throughout college and young adulthood. She looks at a range of sedatives and stimulants, and their impact on graduate (postgraduate) wellbeing.

Dr. Allen received her PhD in Behavioural and Community Health from the University of Maryland and completed a National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded postdoctoral fellowship at Penn State University. 

Resources:

Graduate student burnout: Substance use, mental health, and the moderating role of advisor satisfaction (2022).

Substance use and mental health problems among graduate students: Individual and program-level correlates (2022).