Research
University of Cumbria lecturer Dr Ian Convery’s powerful account of the 2001 Foot & Mouth outbreak was described by the Veterinary Times as a powerful “healing force” that gives voice to the human victims.
Animal Disease and Human Trauma– Emotional Geographies of Disaster drew on the weekly diaries of 54 people in North Cumbria living through the epidemic. The Veterinary Times said it was a “text that exercises a cathartic effect on its readership and even now reawakens emotional and very personal experiences.”
Ian, a senior lecturer in forestry at the Newton Rigg campus of the University of Cumbria, is delighted that his book has been so well received.
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The book drew on the diaries of farm workers, community nurses and local residents over an 18-month period,” he explained. “They contain unique insights into living through a disaster and recovering from its impact.”
More than 3,000 narrative entries from personal diaries opened a window on a county characterised for a while by horrific funeral pyres and choking spirals of smoke. Dr Convery suggests that the book’s recognition of the bond that exists between farmers and their livestock–so often overlooked–struck a powerful chord.
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Farming is much more than a job or even a way of life and for many farmers their farm and their livestock represent a fundamental element of their identity,” he says.
The book, co-written with fellow academics Maggie Mort, Josephine Baxter and Cathy Bailey, also places the Cumbrian event within an international context and looks at ways in which other global communities survive disaster.
Dr Convery added: “Disasters tend to be approached by planners and policymakers as if they have a clear beginning, middle and end, but the experience of being in a disaster is often very different.”
For many victims or survivors, part of what makes particular events so harrowing is a sense that the past, the present and the future are all affected by what has happened. “I hope that the book offers new ways of thinking about disasters from which policy and practice improvements may be drawn.”
The University of Cumbria is representing the UK in a pan-European campaign to tackle child and adolescent obesity.
The project, “In Form: campaign against child and adolescent obesity”, will take place over the next three years and has received funding from the European Union’s Public Health Programme.
The University is engaging with local communities in the North West and working with health, education and community professionals to implement projects to improve diet and fitness.
The University’s first task is to create a library of research findings, policies, therapies and preventative actions to tackle obesity.
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The information will be gathered during the first phase of the project and will help shape the design and development of an accredited training programme for twenty professional ‘obesity’ trainers.
The project will include a pilot summer camp for children from eight partner countries and a ‘social’ marketing initiative aimed at encouraging children and adolescents to change dietary and activity patterns.
The University of Cumbria team hopes to recruit children and adolescents to a pilot project that will stimulate them to create their own campaign to target peers.
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Obesity is a major challenge not just for the UK, but worldwide,” said Vincent O’Brien, Principal Lecturer in Public Health at the University of Cumbria.
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The EU has set objectives to reduce obesity and has turned to public health experts to create a wining strategy that will help educate and inform. This project is truly unique in that part of the awareness campaign will be developed by those we are trying to reach. The aim is to connect with children and teenagers by speaking to them in their own vernacular, and what better way to do that than enlist young people to create the campaign for us? The programme is a pan-European project and is a prestigious addition to our public health credentials, and we hope that it will be rolled out with great success.”
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