Birkbeck and NYU London’s new exchange scheme spearheads new research
A partnership established in January 2019 is encouraging new research and teaching collaborations across disciplines.
The scheme has seen a number of projects receive funding across a range of academic disciplines, with Birkbeck’s five schools involved. Earlier this year, Dr Jasmine Gideon, Senior Lecturer in Development Studies at Birkbeck, collaborated with the Centre for Global Studies at NYU focusing on how private sector organisations in developing and conflict areas promote or constrain women’s rights. In June, Dr Hasia Diner, Paul and Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History and a Professor of Hebrew at New York University, delivered a presentation to Birkbeck students on the practice of Jewish peddling (traders who sell an array of items, travelling as they trade); how it has changed over centuries and its impact on the Jewish migrations out of Europe. In a recent visit to NYU, Dr Phil Hopley, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Dr Tim Reynolds, Senior Lecturer in the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology, discussed overlapping research interests in studying humans and their environments in the geologic past, technological advancement in the Palaeolithic Period (Old Stone Age), and field-based research.
Professor Julian Swann, Pro-Vice Master for Research and Professor of Early Modern History, commented: “We are proud to have a number of strategically important partnerships with some of the world’s leading universities. Our new partnership with NYU is proving hugely successful, and we have already seen a broad range of research related activities begin across all our schools. I am excited to see what the future holds for the partnership.”
Several projects are set to start in 2020, with philosophers from NYU and Birkbeck coming together to deliver theme based workshops, rotating between New York and London annually. Additionally, Professor George Roussos, Professor of Pervasive Computing, will work with collaborators at the NYU Center for Data Science to develop novel data science methods and techniques which aim to improve the efficiency of metropolitan ambulance services when responding to high-priority emergencies by incorporating a variety of data sources including traffic, weather, demographic and social media.
The partnership is being funded by $50,000 annually, in the first instance for three years.