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Interdisciplinary maritime colloquium organised by Humanities postgraduates

Published: 25 September 2014

On the 18 September 2014 the University’s Southampton Marine and Maritime Postgraduate Group (SMMPG) held the interdisciplinary colloquium ‘Sea Lines of Communication’. The day was a huge success, bringing together an international and multidisciplinary range of researchers and their work.

SMMPG, headed by Humanities postgraduate students Brenna Gibson (History), Minke Jonk (English) and Joel Found (English) organised the multidisciplinary maritime colloquium to create a dialogue between researchers and students who otherwise would not have had an opportunity to share their research with each other. Speakers and delegates representing almost all faculties from within and outside the University attended the event, which was organised around the four themes the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute (SMMI) operates around: Climate and Environment, Energy and Resources, Society and Government, and Trade and Transport. These themes served as the basis for the colloquium’s four sessions. Postgraduate and early-career researchers, as well as four established academics, from the University of Southampton, Griffith University Brisbane and Queen Mary University London delivered talks covering the wide area of research that is the maritime environment. The talks covered topics ranging from: increasing energy efficiency in river shipping, maritime horror fiction, sustainable development in maritime law, and changes in town topography by maritime trade. Engineering and the Environment’s Professor Robert Nicholls posed the day’s key question to NOC’s Professor John Shepherd: “What will make people wake up to changes in the ocean?” – a question debated in many forms throughout the day. The event’s title ‘Sea Lines of Communication’ reflects this emphasis on conversation and debate, witnessed in the discussions flowing from the sessions all the way through the delicious lunch and wine reception.

Southampton Marine and Maritime Postgraduate Group (established October 2013) organises fortnightly interdisciplinary meetings throughout the academic year.

For updates, join https://www.facebook.com/groups/pgmaritimestudents/ or follow @SMMPG on Twitter.

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