News and Blog

WISERD colleagues were delighted to welcome Professor Grigori Kliucharev from the Institute of Sociology at the Russian Academy of Science last month, as part of the WISERD Civil Society seminar series. Professor Kliucharev’s presentation, ‘Social and political participation in building democracy in Russia: The role of literacy programmes and educational reforms’, is based on research data…

This week, the Learned Society of Wales awarded the inaugural Hugh Owen Medal, funded by the Welsh government, to WISERD’s Co-Director, Professor Chris Taylor in recognition of his outstanding contribution to educational research. The ceremony took place at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. This year, for the first time, the…

On Tuesday 2nd May, WISERD Director, Professor Ian Rees Jones gave an assembly briefing on the IDEAL study, which explores factors that influence the possibility of living well with dementia. The project, which started in 2014, seeks to identify changes that could result in improved well-being and quality of life for both individuals with dementia, and…

Two WISERD colleagues, Professor Sally Power and Professor Mike Woods, are among the newly elected fellows of The Learned Society of Wales. The Learned Society of Wales was established in 2010 in the absence of a national society of learning in Wales. Its aims are to contribute to advancing and promoting excellence in all scholarly…

WISERD welcomes the news that Cardiff has been chosen as one of the locations for the UK’s largest dementia research initiative. The £13m investment at Cardiff University is the biggest Wales has received for scientific study into dementia. The research will provide new ways to diagnose, treat, prevent and care for people with dementia. Social…

Last Friday evening, Dr Ceryn Evans presented her research on higher education and civil society at Public Uni’s 15th event at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff. Public Uni is an event organised by Cardiff University and aims to provide researchers with an opportunity to communicate their research in engaging, bite-sized ‘chunks’ to a ‘lay audience’….

A WISERD PhD student from Aberystwyth University was one of twelve finalists in this year’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) writing competition, ‘Making Sense of Society’. Siobhan Maderson is studying the environmental knowledge of beekeepers and is funded by the ESRC. Siobhan, who is based at Aberystwyth University’s Department of Geography and Earth Sciences,…

WISERD has recently been awarded ESRC funding to carry out a new interdisciplinary study into how young people in the UK feel about, and are responding to, the most significant policy issue of this Parliament: the UK’s exit from the European Union. Young People and Brexit will include new and existing WISERD research, employing a variety…

Poverty and the rise of food banks in Wales were the focus of research shared at WISERD’s latest Civil Society seminar, held at Cardiff last night. PhD student, David Beck and Dr Hefin Gwilym from Bangor University’s School of Social Sciences presented findings from their research exploring the experience of food poverty in Wales. Representatives…

Research by WISERD Co-Director, Professor Paul Chaney, reveals the institutionalised ableism of parliament. In his recent article on The Conversation, he emphasises that without the EU’s help, the situation for disabled people could become even worse than it already is. “The representation of disabled people in government has never been more important. In 2014, 19%…