This blogpost was authored by Dr Ralph Evins. Dr Evins is an Associate Professor in Civil Engineering at the University of Victoria, Canada. He visited the University of Bristol as a Next Generation Visiting Researcher in Summer 2024 to collaborate with Professor Peter Flach the School of Computer Science.

I recently visited the University of Bristol to deepen collaborations between engineering and artificial intelligence (AI), aiming to accelerate low-energy building design. I am an Associate Professor on sabbatical from the University of Victoria, BC, Canada, where I run the Energy in Cities group.

Since this initial work in 2019, I have focused on “surrogate models”—Machine learning (ML) algorithms that quickly approximate complex engineering simulations. These models offer a groundbreaking solution to one of the most time-consuming aspects of engineering: evaluating design scenarios. By providing accurate, fast estimations of outcomes, surrogate models allow architects, engineers, and policymakers to explore design options in real-time, reshaping the decision-making process for sustainable buildings. For instance, dashboards equipped with these models enable users to interactively test scenarios and assess building performance—an invaluable tool for promoting energy-efficient designs. This work has attracted considerable attention, both within academia and from industry professionals and policy-makers eager to leverage AI in sustainable construction. This growing interest reflects the urgency of climate challenges that require innovative tools to create efficient, low-energy buildings at scale. 

During my visit, I collaborated with the Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Interactive AI, the City Futures group from the Cabot Institute and the Engineering Systems, Design and Innovation group. My thanks go to Professor Peter Flach and Professor Theo Tryfonas for supporting my visit, and to Dr Patrick Tully for help with logistics. I also had very fruitful exchanges that will lead to future collaborations with Dr Ges Rosenberg and Dr Neil Carhart. I attended an excellent workshop “Systems Thinking & Systems Change in the Built Environment” hosted by Mark Enzer from the Institution of Civil Engineers, and also visited Buro Happold Ltd at their headquarters in Bath. These cross-disciplinary exchanges will help in enabling further advances in this emerging field and lay the groundwork for the next generation of energy-efficient building design tools.

 

This blogpost was authored by Professor Vanessa Northington Gamble. Prof. Gamble is based at George Washington University, USA, where she is the first woman and first African American to hold their prestigious faculty position of University Professor of Medical Humanities. Prof. Gamble is an internationally recognized expert on the history of race and American medicine, health equity, and bioethics, and she works to promote equity and justice in American medicine and public health. Prof. Gamble visited the University of Bristol as a Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professor in February and March 2024 to collaborate with Dr. Stephen Mawdsley in the Department of History.

I spent six weeks (February 2024- March 2024) at the University of Bristol as a Bristol Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professor working on the project, “Historical Implications of American Race and Medicine.” My host and collaborator was Dr. Stephen Mawdsley, Senior Lecturer in Modern American History. The goals of the project included assisting with efforts to strengthen the American Studies Research Group and to collaborate with faculty and students on themes of race, medicine, and bioethics. There is a small, but growing, number of scholars with research interests in the history of race and American medicine and Stephen is one of the most prominent in the UK. We had been friends and colleagues for several years and had frequently discussed working together and this Benjamin Meaker award gave us the opportunity to do so. (On a more personal note, Professor Susan L. Smith, Stephen’s master’s advisor, had been my graduate student and I often jokingly call him my grand mentee). I had never been to Bristol before and did not quite know what to expect. What I found was intellectual growth, engaging colleagueship, cutting-edge scholarship, a welcoming community, and professional and personal rejuvenation.

As part of the project, I gave two keynote lectures. In the first, “At the Fault Lines of Racial Inequity: African Americans and the 1918 Influenza Epidemic,” I examined the impact of this pandemic on African Americans during a time of increased anti-Black violence, disenfranchisement, and legally enforced segregation, including medical facilities. For the second keynote, “Educated in a White Space: African American Graduates of Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1850-1925,” I analyzed how “sisters of a darker race” navigated medical careers through racist and sexist obstacles. Both lectures attracted audiences from across campus and beyond the university.

I also gave two graduate seminars. In “Historical Perspectives on Health Inequities: Trust, Trustworthiness, and ‘Tuskegee’,” I examined the history and legacy of the United States Public Health Syphilis Study (USPHS) at Tuskegee (more frequently called the Tuskegee Syphilis Study). This was a forty-year study conducted by the USPHS in which 400 Black men from Macon County Alabama went untreated, unbeknownst to them, for syphilis. I argued that African American attitudes toward medicine and public health have been inaccurately attributed to the study. I found the second graduate seminar, “Advancing a More Complex History of African American Medical History,” particularly productive. I conducted it with Dr Stephen Kenny  an expert on the history of American medicine and slavery at the University of Liverpool. His participation in the seminar underscored the need for international collaborations on the study of race, medicine, and public health. During my stay in Bristol, Stephen Mawdsley and I began preliminary discussions as to how we could develop such a project. Stephen Kenny also offered me the opportunity to take my Benjamin Meaker award on the road. He invited me to give a talk in Liverpool on my upcoming biography of Dr. Virginia M. Alexander, a Black woman physician-activist who was a pioneer in health equity.  

When I got to Bristol, I was exhausted but left physically rejuvenated and intellectually invigorated. Much of my healing began in the small group and one-on-one conversations (often over coffee, meals, and, yes, pints) that I had with faculty and students from across campus but especially with those affiliated with the American Studies Research Group. We shared intellectually rich discussions that focused on our research, teaching, and contemporary racial politics. These wide-ranging conversations helped me come out of my doldrums – I felt more intellectually energized and engaged than I had for quite a while and began to think that my retirement might be later, not sooner.  The Benjamin Meaker award also gave me time to work on my biography. My lovely flat in Principal’s House was especially conducive to writing.

I spent much time getting acquainted with Bristol and came to love it (the cold and damp weather did not deter me). I began most mornings with the short walk from Principal’s House to Rolling Italy where the always cheerful James would make my usual order (Americano with three shots and a little milk). I enjoyed exploring the city’s streets and neighborhoods – I even got used to walking up the hills. What I did not expected was the number of great restaurants and, as the scales made plain when I returned home, I patronized quite a few of them. 

There were several people who made my visit as a Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professor so successful, and I thank them all. I would be remiss, however, if I did not name a few. Laina Barnett was my savior. She found my passport and wallet after I had dropped them and tracked me down even before I realized that the items were missing. Matimba Swana was my guide to understanding race and bioethics in the UK and to discovering the vital multiracial neighborhood of Stokes Croft. Stephen and Helen Mawdsley were generous and caring hosts. They vigorously worked to ensure that I would be part of a community in Bristol and that I would not be alone, but thrive, in an initially unfamiliar city. 

During my Benjamin Meaker award, I visited the statue of slave trader Edward Colston’s at the M Shed. I teach a course at George Washington University on the history of race, American medicine, and public health. One of the classes focuses on Dr. James Marion Sims, an enslaver and surgeon, who conducted several painful experimental surgeries on enslaved women. There are several statues throughout the United States commemorating Sims primarily as the “father of modern gynecology.” I ask my students what should be done with these statues? Destroy them? Move them? Add statues of Betsey, Anarcha, and Lucy, three of the enslaved women on whom he operated? I discovered that display of Colston at the M Shed provides a model that I think should be considered in the United States. The statue was not destroyed. It was exhibited laying down off its plinth and placed among displays highlighting historical efforts to battle oppression, including racism. My visit to M Shed and several discussions that I had while I was a Benjamin Meaker Visiting Professor underscore the connected legacies of slavery between the United Kingdom and the United States and the continued need to fight them.

 

This blogpost was authored by Professor Mark Paterson. Prof. Paterson is based at the University of Pittsburgh, USA, and specialises in history and science of bodily sensation, and technologies of the senses. He visited the University of Bristol as a Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professor in Summer 2024 to collaborate with Dr. Andy Flack in the Department of History.

The visit from June 21 to July 31, 2024, as a Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professor, turned out to be a highlight of my recent career. I had studied for my Ph.D. at the University of Bristol just over twenty years ago, and a return to the leafy streets and distinctive Victorian buildings was never part of my plan. There was a big difference this time, however. The area of interdisciplinary research that I was involved in back then, the history and philosophy of the senses, was not taken so seriously. Studying this felt like ploughing a lonely furrow, trying to make intellectual allies from people in institutions around the world along the way. It was a chance meeting at a conference in Montreal in 2023 with a History Ph.D. student from the University of Bristol, Lena Ferriday, that revealed quite how much research is now happening across a number of different departments in the group she helps to run (among others) with Dr. Andy Flack, Senior Lecturer in History and my excellent academic host. The ‘Senses and Sensations’ Research Group includes people from across the humanities, social sciences, and the medical school. My six-week visit, co-organized by Lena and Andy, was a chance to meet other group members and start collaborations.  

In our plans for the visit, Andy, Lena and I wanted especially to help early-career researchers and Ph.D. students, and set up a series of scheduled Work-in-Progress sessions. We also carried out two workshops with the research group. The first was a collaborative effort to plan and coordinate a journal article publication. The second was a half-day grant-writing workshop, focused on identifying potential funding to expand and strengthen our international network, with members from other institutions including Professor David Howes from Concordia University Montreal, a leading figure in sensory research, and Dr. Will Tullett, a sensory history scholar, from the University of York. We settled on a particular funding opportunity, the AHRC Curiosity Award, and Andy and I have subsequently had a number of meetings to develop the proposal, and we will submit the application this academic year. 

Our public event was titled “Sensing the World – An Animal’s Perspective.” It featured Dr. Nathan Morehouse from the University of Cincinnati, one of our proposed research grant collaborators, who presented on ‘The Evolution of Looking and Seeing: New Insights from Colorful Jumping Spiders’. My talk was designed to provide some wider, more-than–human sensory context for Nate’s talk, inspired by the ethologist Jacob von Uexküll, ‘A Wander Through the Perceptual Worlds of Animals and Humans: More-than-Human Sensing’. This event drew over fifty participants joining from all over the world.

While the Distinguished Visiting Professor visit was full of planned activities with members of the research group, there were other enriching opportunities as well. For example, after the initial welcome lecture and reception, I was invited to speak at the Bristol Interaction Group (BIG) in the Queen’s Building, and several of their members are researching the role of touch in human-computer interfaces. Other highlights included meeting with Professor of Philosophy James Ladyman to discuss AI, robots, and complex systems, as well as Professor of Robotics Nathan Lepora, whose work on touch and dexterity led to a guided tour of the Bristol Robotics Lab with Dr. Ben Ward-Cherrier, a member of Lepora’s Dextrous Robotics team (see picture). 

The work started during the visit this summer is continuing through grant applications and through publication, and I am sincerely grateful for the opportunity to spend time with such excellent and inspiring people in Bristol. 

This blogpost was authored by Dr. Santiago Alonso Palmas Pérez.  Dr. Palmas Pérez is based at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Lerma, Mexico, and specialises in mathematical education for diverse learners. He visited the University of Bristol as a Next Generation Visiting Researcher in Spring 2024 to collaborate with Professor Alf Coles in the School of Education.

During a few transformative weeks in April and May 2024, I had the incredible opportunity to spend my sabbatical at the University of Bristol. The project that brought me there was titled “Development and Evaluation of a Technological Tool for Early Algebra Teaching,” and I had the privilege of working under the mentorship of Professor Alf Coles at the School of Education. 

Setting the Stage: Project Goals and Early Steps

The primary goal of my sabbatical was to create an interactive digital tool based on Cuisenaire rods, specifically designed to teach algebraic concepts before arithmetic. Drawing inspiration from the educational theories of Caleb Gattegno and Vasily Davydov, I aimed to address some of the key challenges in early algebra education. My plan involved developing a digital application, conducting experimental studies in real educational settings, and eventually publishing the results. 

Collaboration and Unexpected Innovations 

Working with Alf Coles was not only productive but also deeply enjoyable. We encountered some initial delays with the app development, but this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. These delays allowed us to dive deeper into the design process, ultimately leading to the creation of a tool that is far more impactful than we initially envisioned. This pedagogically meaningful tool is now on the brink of being tested with users. 

One of the exciting innovations we’re currently writing about is how different educational resources can invoke various metaphors for numbers—such as understanding numbers as lengths or objects. This insight has led us to emphasize the importance of maintaining coherence in these metaphors when using educational tools.

A Time of Growth and Friendship 

Over the course of my sabbatical, we made significant strides: 

1. App Development and Testing: We designed a specialized digital tool to utilize Cuisenaire rods, allowing for more dynamic manipulation and exploration of algebraic concepts.
2. Publications and Presentations: We are currently drafting two articles, including “Metaphors of Numbers: Where Do We Get Coherence?” which will explore the philosophical and pedagogical implications of our work.
3. Building Connections: My time in Bristol wasn’t just about work. Alf was an exceptional host, and we’ve developed a strong friendship over the course of this experience. We even managed to squeeze in some baseball games, which was a fantastic way to unwind and bond outside of our academic pursuits.

Impact and Looking Ahead 

The work we’ve done has already made a noticeable impact on advancing early algebra education through innovative digital tools. As we move forward, I plan to continue refining the application, publishing our findings, and exploring larger-scale studies to evaluate its effectiveness in various educational contexts. 

This sabbatical has been an enriching experience in every sense—professionally, academically, and personally. I’m eager to bring the knowledge and experiences I’ve gained back to UAM Lerma, where I can further develop and share these insights with my colleagues and students.

Wrapping Up 

 My sabbatical at the University of Bristol has been a truly rewarding experience, filled with collaboration, innovation, and new friendships. I’m looking forward to the next steps in this journey and to applying everything I’ve learned to make a meaningful difference in the field of education. 

This blogpost was authored by Professor Nick Huggett.  Prof. Huggett is based at the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA, and specialises in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of physics. He returned to the University of Bristol as a Benjamin Meaker Follow-on Fund Visiting Researcher in Spring 2024 to continue working with Professor James Ladyman in the Department of Philosophy.

I was fortunate enough to return to Principal’s House for May 2024, as a follow-up visit to a Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Professor Fellowship in Fall 2022. During my first visit I worked with James Ladyman of the Philosophy Department, and his (then) student Nadia Blackshaw on the interpretation of quantum theory (specifically on the spread of ‘branches’ formed in decoherence). I also completed a paper with Karim Thébault (Philosophy) on the emergence of classical time in quantum cosmology. In the treatments we investigated, a formal analogy is drawn between the physics of the universe and that of molecules; it turns out that the equations are relevantly similar, allowing the use of the ‘Born-Oppenheimer approximation’, developed to describe the latter, to solve either. (If you saw the recent eponymous movie, then you will have seen several of the characters praise Oppenheimer for this work with Born.) 

During the recent visit Ladyman, Thébault and I wrote a paper explicating the use of Born-Oppenheimer in its home setting, to calculate the physical properties of molecules: spectra, electron configurations, scattering, and so on. We found that the existing philosophical literature is unwarrantedly skeptical about the power of quantum theory to explain these things. Hopefully this will set straight some misconceptions in the philosophy of chemistry, and open the way for future work by the field. 

Principal’s House accommodation is not just a fantastic base for working, it also gave me the opportunity to meet and learn about the work of others. I had many interesting conversations in the communal kitchen, but especially had the opportunity to talk at greater length with the physicist and Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Professor Lev Vaidman. I also enjoyed Bristol again: had some great bike rides, saw some good music, went for walks on the Downs, and of course enjoyed a few pints in the local pubs! 

 Thank you again!

This blogpost was authored by Professor Elisabeth Cooper.  Prof. Cooper is based at UiT-The Arctic University of Norway, in Tromsø and is an ecologist with expertise in arctic plants and ecosystems and their response to herbivory and climate change. She visited the University of Bristol in December 2023-January 2024 as a Next Generation Visiting Researcher  to collaborate with Dr Christopher Williamson in the School of Geography.

I am grateful for support from the International Research Development Team as a Next Generation Visiting Researcher  and to my host, Dr Chris Williamson from the Glaciology Group in the School of Geography to enable me to visit the University of Bristol in December 2023 – January 2024. The theme for this visit was ‘Arctic snow-microbial-plant interactions in a changing climate’, which describes the overlap of Chris’ and my research interests. 

I used this opportunity to develop contacts in several parts of the University, notably within the Schools of Geography, Earth Sciences, and Biological Sciences as well as the Bristol University Botanic Garden, with the aim of developing some joint projects and enabling student exchange. 

I presented a research seminar to post-graduate students and staff in the Geography Department on 19 Jan 2024, to show how long-term increases in snow depth can induce physical changes in the tundra including ice-lens collapse, and the knock-on effect that has for hydrology, carbon and nutrient loss from the system. 

Together with my host Chris Williamson, and also Casey Bryce from the School of Earth Sciences Department, we outlined a Master’s project to be placed within the Cabot Institute, with a named student due to start in Bristol in September 2024, to examine the Biogeochemical consequences of enhanced high-arctic permafrost thaw. Our student will be eligible to apply for fieldwork funding from Norway and will carry out fieldwork in my experiment on Svalbard in Summer 2025. Other projects were discussed with grant applications to be developed later. 

I visited the gardens several times throughout my stay in Bristol with productive conversations with the curators and other staff about the living collection of plants, and the use of the gardens (especially the Evolutionary Dell) for teaching Botany and Ecology. I also gave an open lecture to the general public in the Bristol Botanic Garden in conjunction with the Cabot Institute on 17 Jan 2024, entitled ‘Challenges facing Arctic plant and ecosystems’. This was well attended by the public, friends of the Botanic Garden, UoB students and staff, with a lively discussion afterwards. 

I lived in in Principal’s House for six weeks. It was very comfortable accommodation, close to the University and the centre of town, with several parks and gardens nearby for short walks and fresh air. It was also interesting to meet several other visiting researchers from a variety of cultures and academic backgrounds staying there at the same time. 

In summary, this stay in Bristol was very valuable and has already led to increased collaboration between myself and my host, and we hope to develop further projects and student exchange between Bristol and Tromsø in the future. 

This blogpost was authored by Professor Sharynne McLeod. Prof. McLeod is a speech-language pathologist and professor of speech and language acquisition at Charles Sturt University, Australia. She visited the University of Bristol as a Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professor April-May 2024 and collaborated with Professor Yvonne Wren in the Bristol Dental School on the project ‘Children born with cleft palate: Intelligibility and participation’.

As a Bristol Benjamin Meaker Visiting Distinguished Professor, Prof. McLeod collaborated with colleagues in the Bristol Dental School, the Faculty of Health Sciences, and the wider University of Bristol community to advocate for communication for all, acknowledging the untapped potential of those who are underrepresented in society’s conversations. Prof. McLeod was hosted by Prof. Yvonne Wren, who leads the Cleft Collective Cohort Study, a national longitudinal cohort study with over 11,000 participants from over 4000 families in the United Kingdom. The Cleft Collective uses the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS), an outcome measure developed by Prof. McLeod and team, that is also recommended in the International Consortium of Health Outcome Measures (ICHOM) Set of Patient-Centered Outcome Measures for Cleft Lip & Palate. During this visit, Prof McLeod worked with the Cleft Collective team to generate reference data at ages 3 and 5 years and found significant differences based on cleft type and whether a syndrome was present. Despite being available in over 70 languages, this is the first time the ICS has been studied longitudinally. In addition to her well-received lectures, Prof. McLeod undertook capacity building workshops and mentoring to support students and staff across the wider University of Bristol community.

You can read more about Prof. McLeod’s experiences on her blog: Speaking my languages.

This blogpost was authored by Dr Joseph Keating, from the School of Earth Sciences. In May 2024, Dr Keating and Professor Mike Benton from the University of Bristol and Dr Bethany Allen from ETH Zürich were awarded Bristol International Research Collaboration Activities (BIRCA) funding to collaborate on writing activities at Bristol.

Dr Bethany Allen is a rising star in the field of computational palaeobiology. Bethany’s cutting edge work harnesses computational tools and statistical models to understand the fossil record and the evolution of life through time. Bethany has applied her expertise to a broad range of problems, including understanding the future distribution of plant species due to  climate change, investigating whether dinosaurs were already in decline before their extinction and elucidating the spatial pattern of  invertebrate evolution. Bethany has a long affiliation with the University of Bristol. She is a Bristol alumnus, having completed her Masters degree here in 2017. She then completed a PhD at the University of Leeds, supervised by fellow University of Bristol alumnus, Dr Alex Dunhill.  

I first met Bethany during the Palaeontological Association Annual Meeting 2023 in Cambridge. Bethany was presenting her latest research looking at how fossils impact our ability to estimate the ancestral condition of a trait. As I was working in a similar field, I immediately saw an opportunity to collaborate. Eventually I managed to pin her down and we discussed potential collaboration ideas. We settled on writing a review paper outlining the theory, methods and pitfalls of ancestral state estimation using fossils. This was largely born out of a shared frustration (as I imagine a lot of review papers are) that very few people in our field use these methods, and those that do often interpret their results incorrectly!

Bethany’s visit, supported by the BIRCA award, was for one week. Within that week we aimed to plan and write a manuscript draft intended for submission to Trends in Ecology and Evolution. On top of this, we would also jointly deliver a tutorial on ancestral state estimation, which would be free to attend for interested postgraduates and postdocs in Earth Sciences, Geographical Sciences or Biological Sciences. Bethany would also deliver a 1hr seminar to the Palaeobiology Research Group and an informal presentation to the lab group of Professor Mike Benton. This was a lot to squeeze in over one week, but we would rise to the challenge.

Bethany’s seminar and presentation were both excellent and well attended. During her seminar, she showcased her work on skyline models applied to macroevolutionary problems. In her presentation to Professor Benton’s lab group, she discussed some of her past projects and fielded questions from lab members. The tutorial we conducted together was also a great success, attracting many PhD students and postdocs who were actively engaged and asked relevant questions. In hindsight, I believe extending the workshop by an extra hour would have been beneficial, as it felt a bit rushed towards the end. We live and learn.

For my part, the biggest revelation was the collaborative writing sessions. As a postdoc, opportunities for collaborative work are rare, since postdoc research is typically independent. Therefore, working with Bethany was incredibly refreshing. We were able to exchange ideas, quickly develop a cohesive plan for the manuscript, and draft substantial portions of text. As an added benefit, I found working collaboratively helped keep me focussed and engaged. By the end of the week, we had written close to 10 pages of the manuscript.

Bethany’s visit was a great success and honestly one of the most fun weeks I have had at Bristol. I cannot emphasise how reinvigorating it was to undertake such an intensive collaborative project with someone passionate about your specialist subject. Please give it a try! We are now in the process of finishing off the manuscript and catching up over regular zoom meetings. We hope to get our manuscript submitted this summer. Watch this space!

This blog was authored by Dr Shu Minakuchi and Dr Vincent Maes. Dr Minakuchi is currently Associate Professor and runs his own lab within the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at The University of Tokyo. He visited the University of Bristol as a Next Generation Visiting Researcher in March 2024 and was hosted by Dr Vincent K. Maes, Dr Neha Chandarana, and Dr James Kratz, who are part of the Bristol Composites Institute. 

Composite manufacturing is a growing business around the world. Across all industries, companies struggle with parts not coming out of the manufacturing process as desired. The underlying issue being that consolidation, the process by which the base materials are turned into finished parts is highly dynamic and complex. While many models have been developed to analyse the process and help optimize it, validating them has been difficult due to the limited experimental tools available to monitor and inspect the consolidation behaviour in real parts. 

To resolve this, Dr Minakuchi and his hosts as the Bristol Composites Institute (BCI) have combined their research developments to achieve “Enhanced Consolidation Monitoring”. Dr Minakuchi brought across his expertise and novel strip-sensor, which leverages fibre optic cables to allow shape sensing of the composite part throughout the manufacturing process. This was then combined with pressure sensor mats and thermocouple sensors, which the BCI has been using to capture the consolidation conditions. Together these provide a more complete picture that can elucidate the consolidation behaviour. 

During the visit, successful experiments were carried out, the results of which will be published in a joint journal paper. The experiments and subsequent discussions have also allowed further research activities to be identified for future collaborations. 

Further, Dr Minakuchi delivered 2 seminar sessions to present his broad research activities and 1 demonstration workshop to allow BCI researchers to get hands on experience with the novel shape sensors and evaluate where they may be valuable in their own activities. A visit to Southampton, which included tours of their facilities, enabled Dr Minakuchi to further expand his network in the UK.

This blog post was authored by Dr Eleanor Fleming. Dr Fleming is a Clinical Associate Professor of Dental Public Health and Assistant Dean for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry in West Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Dr Fleming visited the University of Bristol as a Next Generation Visiting Researcher January-February 2024 to collaborate with Dr Patricia Neville on several research activities focused on decolinizing dentistry.

Dr. Patricia Neville and I collaborated on a manuscript exploring the diversity of women’s identities in dentistry in 2021 (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cdoe.12796). From the success of our collaboration and based on our shared intersectional and interdisciplinary lens of approaching oral health, Dr. Neville invited me to Bristol. My visit had a two-fold purpose: first, Patricia and I explored opportunities for our continued scholarly collaborations, and second, I supported her work at the Bristol Dental School as its Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Lead, as an outside consultant. 

Over the course of my six-week visit, I gave three lectures: one, to the dental students on justice-centered approach to clinical practice; a second to dental school faculty and staff on transforming dental education; and the final, a university talk on decolonising dentistry to centre health justice. The university talk was co-sponsored with the Centre for Black Humanities and the Black and Brown Bioethics Network. There was a reception afterwards which facilitated rich conversation and relationship building. I am grateful to Dr Elizabeth Robles, Dr Harleen Johal and Dr Matimba Swama for their hospitality and support of my university lecture. Because of the success of the university lecture, Patricia and I submitted an abstract to The First Black and Brown in Bioethics conference 2024 “Engaging Diversity in Bioethics Theory and Practice”. Our abstract was accepted, and our presentation entitled, “A Critical Retelling of Dental Ethics Told Through “George Washington’s Complete Denture” won first place. 

In addition to my collaboration with Dr. Neville, my time at Bristol was well-spent and supported by other colleagues at Bristol Dental School. In particular, Dr. Nilu Ahmed shared her work on antiracism and inclusive pedagogy. As a result of conversations, personally, my approach to teaching is elevated and I am grateful that I was able to grow in both my critical scholarship and pedagogy. To have this opportunity to enrichen my perspective and also to connect with preeminent scholars like Professor Kehinde Andrews made this a trip of a lifetime. 

In consultation with faculty, staff, and students, I offered feedback on Bristol Dental School’s decolonising efforts. I was also able to learn more about the General Dental Council’s Standards for Education. In observing the focus on communication and the use of standardised actors to assess student learning and to provide them with timely feedback as they progress in developing their competency for clinical practice, I have brought my observations back to support my home institution. In curriculum innovation work at my home institution, I have shared what I learned, and we are working to apply these best practices for dental education. In this regard, my time at Bristol has led to cross-pollination of best practices to support student learning and clinical practice. 

My six-week experience at the University of Bristol was truly life changing. For someone like me (Black scholar focused on anti-racism and practicing in dentistry), opportunities like this rarely happen. I am grateful to have spent time reading, thinking, reflecting, building relationships, and collaborating with new colleagues on work that is so needed in oral health and academic dentistry. I loved staying at the Principal’s House, and everyone I interacted with in preparing for the visit and getting settled were warm, generous, and kind people. I also enjoyed being on a university campus (my home institution is a professional campus in the middle of West Baltimore). It was nice to have access to the Royal Fort Garden and to explore, even in the winter, the beauty of the campus. The university events that I attended, the conversations that I had with leading UK scholars and scientists, and the warm reception to my ideas have truly changed how I think about my professional work.  

To say that I flew back to Baltimore rejuvenated is an understatement. In Bristol, I was able to reconnect to my professional and personal purpose, nurture my curiosity, pause and reflect on structural questions, expand my scholarly breadth and depth, and make new friends (across the university, not just at Bristol Dental School). I look forward to looking back in five or so years and seeing the fruits of all the seeds planted during my visit. I hope that my relationship with Bristol and the University of Bristol continues to grow.