CRE Seminar series
The CRE launched a Seminar series in 2024-2025. External speakers are invited to present their latest research on topics connected to the CRE research interests.
26 January 2026
The first two seminars were organised in collaboration with the department of Sociology in GPS, with Professor Ruth McAreavey chairing both sessions. On 18th November 2024, Prof Thoroddur Bjarnason from University of Iceland presented on Hi-tech and higher expectations: Reflections on the potential impacts of technological wizardry on regional development. On 7th May 2025 Dr Ricard Morén-Alegret, Tenured Associate Professor at the Department of Geography of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, presented his research on Exploring immigration and sustainability in small towns and villages in Europe: population diversity and glocalisation? This seminar presented rural immigration research outcomes from fieldworks carried out from 2018 to 2024 in villages of France, Ireland, and Spain as well as some preliminary findings from exploratory fieldwork from the Northeast of England.
The third CRE Seminar saw Betty-Ann Bryce, Senior Policy Analyst and Rural Policy Coordinator at the OECD, presenting her policy experience on Crafting more effective rural policies: Lessons from OECD countries. The seminar explored how the effectiveness of policies affecting rural areas does not rest solely on their design—it depends equally on how they are implemented.
On 23rd October 2025 Professor Joy Y. Zhang, Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent and Founding Director of the Centre for Global Science and Epistemic Justice, presented her new research on Futuring Biological Commons: Engagement and the Cosmopolitics of Science, proposing an alternative approach that treats ethics as a socio-political vision and emphasises cultivating ethical social relations across borders. This perspective is developed in Futuring Biological Commons, a research programme funded by ARIA.
The CRE Seminars provide an opportunity to engage with external speakers, to discuss their research in depth, and to explore possibilities of further research development. A networking moment is part of the CRE Seminars through the refreshments.
