Analysing Livingstone’s life and legacy through contradiction, complexity and controversy

LSE’s Joanna Lewis was one of the organisers of the recent Imperial Obsessions conference and in this post, she says that LSE’s international conference to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of one of the major and singularly influential figures in the history of Africa’s early encounter with the west – the explorer, missionary, scientist and humanitarian Dr David Livingstone – was unique in its organisation, events and findings

Book review: ivory: power and poaching in Africa by KeithSomerville

LSE’s Joanna Lewis describes this book as the best academic account to date of the history of the supply side of ivory trade

Zambia conference celebrates the life and legacy of Scottish explorer David Livingstone

Joanna Lewis is one of the organisers of the international conference, Imperial Obsessions: David Livingstone, Africa and world history: a life and legacy considered which takes place in Livingstone from 19th to 21st April

Scholars explore #Livingstone’s legacy and memory in conference to mark his bicentenary

On the bicentenary of the birth of the Scottish explorer, Dr David Livingstone, LSE’s Joanna Lewis is one of the organisers of a conference celebrating his life

An organic lesson for life – transforming food culture in schools

This presentation aims to discuss a successful partnership and approach which, in the absence of a government led drive, has nonetheless succeeded in increasing organic food procurement by the public sector. This initiative is the Food for Life Partnership; an attempt to transform food culture and improve public health and wellbeing through organic food and principles

Common Challenge, Collaborative Response: A Roadmap for U.S.-China Cooperation on Energy and Climate Change

Outlines the climate change and energy security issues both nations face and proposes a comprehensive program of sustained, high-level collaboration to build low-carbon economies and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Lists priority areas and first steps

Somali experiences of first wave Caabuqa-corona: an analysis of high COVID-19 mortality and infection levels in London’s East End, 2020

This article focuses on the experiences of a minoritised black Muslim community in London during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020. It shows that many Somali families, living in a high-density area of the East End, experienced acutely high infection and death rates from late March. The reasons for this were found to be late lockdown, a top-down community-insensitive public health approach, and the way that many of the work force were in highly vulnerable occupations. However, high rates were then prolonged due to the legacy of historic poverty, housing density and institutional racism. Culture and locally specific responses were less significant factors but overall had a positive impact in mitigation. However, the situation with regard to mental health remains bleak. This research suggests more trained Somali health experts, community sensitive data, trauma informed care, and use of local networks could help reduce future vulnerabilities and health poverty

Assessing the Connotative Strengths of Random Shapes

After sets of mutually equally discriminable random shapes, all generated from a single prototype, had been identified, the members of the several sets were immediately recognized as differing in associativeness or meaningfulness. The meaningfulness (m) of each shape was determined through an application of the production method. The computed values of m did not, in many cases, coincide with the meaningfulness of the shapes as judged by several trained observers. Satisfactory indices of the heterogeneity (and, conversely, the homogeneity) of the verbal responses to each of the shapes seemed impossible to obtain. Thereupon, the degree of appropriateness of each verbal response (word or short phrase) for describing its corresponding shape was determined through an interval scaling procedure. The mean of 22 scale values-descriptive appropriateness values-for each shape was taken to be the connotative strength (cs) of the shape. The Pearson r for the m and cs values was an insignificant .09. The tentative, but fairly firm, conclusion was that values of cs were more clearly indicative, than were values of m, of what the shapes signified when seen by groups of untrained observers

Do stiffness and asymmetries predict change of direction performance?

Change of direction speed (CODS) underpins performance in a wide range of sports but little is known about how stiffness and asymmetries affect CODS. Eighteen healthy males performed unilateral drop jumps to determine vertical, ankle, knee and hip stiffness, and a CODS test to evaluate left and right leg cutting performance during which ground reaction force data were sampled. A step-wise regression analysis was performed to ascertain the determinants of CODS time. A two-variable regression model explained 63% (R-2 = 0.63; P = 0.001) of CODS performance. The model included the mean vertical stiffness and jump height asymmetry determined during the drop jump. Faster athletes (n = 9) exhibited greater vertical stiffness (F = 12.40; P = 0.001) and less asymmetry in drop jump height (F = 6.02; P = 0.026) than slower athletes (n = 9); effect sizes were both "large" in magnitude. Results suggest that overall vertical stiffness and drop jump height asymmetry are the strongest predictors of CODS in a healthy, non-athletic population