EUTOPIA-SIF Monthly Fellow Seminar - April 2023

Within the framework of the EUTOPIA Science and Innovation Fellowship Programme, monthly fellows seminars will take place, in which the 35 researchers enrolled in the two cohorts will in turn present their research projects.

We are therefore delighted to invite you to the upcoming EUTOPIA-SIF Monthly Fellow Seminar, on Thursday 13 April 2023, 13:00-14:30 CET.

The seminar will be held on Zoom: https://cyu-fr.zoom.us/j/98134095633

Fore more information and testimonials from a few researchers from the Second Cohort of SIF Fellows, click here.

Event schedule: 

• 13:00-13:05: Introduction
   
• Cohort 1
• 13:05-13:15: Fellow Presentation: Akshyeta Suryanarayan (Pompeu Fabra University Barcelona)
  • Project Title: Ancient food and its connections to the present: a case study from the Indus Civilisation, north-west India and Pakistan
  • Abstract: Studies on South Asian cuisine suggest that specific culinary preferences manifested in ancient periods, and continue to be evident in the cuisine and taste choice of contemporary Indian populations. To what extent can these trends be observed in the culinary choices of populations of the Indus Civilisation (c. 3000-1800 B.C), the first urban civilisation of South Asia? This talk will present results of my research on organic residue analysis of ancient cooking vessels from settlements of the Indus Civilisation. The direct detection of organic products absorbed within ancient vessels reveal animal and plant products that were a part of everyday food practice, and provide insights into continuities and changes in South Asian cuisine across time.
• 13:15-13:25: Q&A
   
• Cohort 2
• 13:25-13:45: Fellow Presentation: Nena Mocnik (Pompeu Fabra University Barcelona)
  • Project Title: Providing sexual health support to ‘a third world woman’ in forced displacement: From Theory to Practice
  • Abstract: In recent years, humanitarian workers increasingly have come to recognize that women refugees have unique needs beyond what traditionally have been considered basic aid in relief programs. (Scarce) clinical treatments, support and information in sexual-reproductive health related trauma (war rape, forced marriage, trafficking FGM etc.) within organized or improvised refugee settlements in the countries of European Union, are often driven by the understanding that this support is necessary in empowering refugee women to have greater control over their lives and over the services provided to them. But by adopting a culturally sensitive approach, many services provided in the European Union, further construct race and culture as taken for granted categories to locate non-European women (or a 'third world woman', Mohantys 1997) as essentialized, inferior and subordinate Others. In this presentation I will address certain discrepancies between theoretical understandings and practical applications of the universal human (reproductive) rights, and challenges posed by cultural relativism, transcultural and transnormative mobility, and neocolonial discursive practice surrounding some of the most controversial, culturally relative sexual behaviors, taboos and stigmas, like war rapes, female genital mutilations and child marriages. With this, the author aims to propose approach to the humanitarian care service within the territory of European Union that minimizes neocolonial tendencies while adopting sexual rights and multiculturally inclusive sexual health care.
• 13:45-13:55: Q&A
   
• 13:55-14:15: Fellow Presentation: Arkadiusz Jędrzejewski (CY Cergy Paris University)
  • Project Title: Coupling the physical and social world
  • Abstract: Social norms are rules that guide and shape social behaviors. Rather than stated explicitly and enforced by laws, they are self-enforcing and derived by conformity. The formation of social norms is commonly modelled as arising from social influence and homophily without consideration of the interactions with the background. However, the society is coupled with the physical environment where it develops. The change of social norm is frequently connected with some economical or behavioral costs, which may vary in time or may depend on the numbers of adopters. In the project, we are going to study agent-based models of social norms with feedback loops between the social world and the physical world that imposes such varying costs and barriers. Our aim is to understand under what conditions the norm adaptation can be achieved smoothly or abruptly, through a discontinuous crisis.
• 14:15-14:30: Q&A