Nowadays as researchers we are increasingly expected to communicate our science to a wider audience, to engage in dialogue with citizens and other actors, or pitch our research for funding to a non-specialist audience. Science communication is an integral part of our responsibility to society. As with any skill, practice makes perfect—and progress is faster when we share our experiences. This is what we do at the Science Communication Club!
The next Science Communication Club will take place on Thursday 19 March 2026 (12:30 – 13:30h) in Langezijds 2405.
Speakers
Lorraine Trento Oliveira, PhD student in the SPACE4ALL project (ITC), will share unexpected insights during fieldwork in six African cities and how valuable it was to integrate Citizen Science in flood exposure assessments. She reports on how much the conventional assessments of flood impacts oppose the lived experiences of residents in deprived settlements. She also discusses about unforeseen developments of the capacity training activities in one community that, with the digital tools provided, managed to completely avoid evictions after 2024 floods.
Elinor Meredith, a postdoctoral researcher at ITC, will discuss ethical communication in disaster settings. What happens when you show up in a disaster-prone or disaster-affected community with a research question and a notebook? In this talk, she shares experiences from working in volcanic regions before and after eruptions, where timing, sensitivity, and ethics become as important as data collection. Drawing on fieldwork in Mexico and Hawai‘i, she explores best practices in disaster communication, from avoiding alarm during vulnerability surveys to approaching impact assessment without exploiting locals. She also explores the value of involving locals in research and, away from the slopes, how to communicate these topics to wider audiences, like at Pint of Science, without sensationalisation, including how to handle and publish sensitive damage data.
PhD students can earn a certificate of 0.5 EC by attending 5 meetings and presenting / discussing an own example. Subscribe to Teams and put the dates in your agenda.
Dates in 2026:
- Thursday 19 March 2026, venue Langezijds, LA 2405
- Thursday 28 May 2026, venue Ravelijn VIP room RA1315
- Thursday 25 June 2026, venue Ravelijn VIP room RA1315
- Thursday 17 September 2026, venue tbc
- Thursday 29 October 2026, venue tbc
- Thursday 26 November 2026, venue tbc
