#MadeAtUCL Season 3 - New Beginnings: UCL East

This month, the team has stories from an anthropologist who believes in the power of immersive storytelling, a social researcher trying to improve the health opportunities of young people, and a PhD student whose research is bringing greater access to green spaces.

Act 1

Prof Dinah Lammiman

In Act 1, hear Taqwa Sadiq's converstation with Prof Dinah Lammiman.

Dinah Lammiman is Professor of Immersive Factual Storytelling in UCL Anthropology. She leads UCL’s MA course In Immersive Factual Storytelling. Previously ImFaS was a studio within the Ethnographic Documentary Film making MA. Since the studio was introduced in 2017, many of our alumni have gone on to senior positions in the VR and AR industry.

She is also co founder of immersive storytelling company PastPorte. PastPorte creates stunning and thought-provoking installations bringing to life historic stories for national and international attractions. Clients include Hampton Court Palace, the National Trust for Scotland, ss Great Britain.

From 2017 -2019 she was also part of the team at the BBC VR incubation project producing and distributing award-winning VR content, particularly noted for its compelling narratives and popular appeal. Dinah also led a widescale project to push VR out to over 170 public libraries around the UK, thereby introducing a large new audience to VR and its possibilities. Previously Dinah Lammiman had a long and successful career as a producer and reporter for BBC News and Current Affairs – majoring in parliamentary stories.

Act 2

Dr Alexandra Albert

In Act 2, Maria Bunyun speaks with Dr Alexandra Albert.

Dr Alexandra Albert is a social researcher based across the Thomas Coram Research Institute, in the Social Research Institute at University College London (UCL), and the Extreme Citizen Science (ExCiteS) research group in the Geography Department at UCL. She is currently a post-doctoral research fellow on the ActEarly UK Preventative Research Programme (UKPRP), supporting the Healthy Livelihoods, Healthy Learning and Co-production and Citizen Science themes, in the London site of the project, in Tower Hamlets. ActEarly seeks to improve the health and opportunities for families in Bradford, West Yorkshire and Tower Hamlets, East London.

Prior to ActEarly, she worked on the EU H2020 funded Coordination and Support Action: Doing It Together Science (DITOS), helping to organise and deliver citizen science activities across Europe. She completed her PhD in citizen social science in 2019, taking a critical investigatory approach to the practices and processes of citizen social science – namely how people can be mobilised to engage in conducting social research, and the challenges and opportunities of using the data generated to tackle social issues. Her research interests include citizen science, participatory inventive methods, public sociology, and inclusive development.

Act 3

Maryam Bandukda

In Act 3, hear Katie Davies' conversation with Maryam Bandukda.

Maryam’s PhD research explores agency and participation of blind and partially sighted people in open space leisure activities and the impact of orientation and mobility training on self-efficacy and participation in leisure activities. She is supervised by Prof. Catherine Holloway, Prof. Nadia Berthouse, and Dr. Aneesha Singh.

Maryam's background is in Human-Computer Interaction and Computer Science. Prior to joining GDI Hub as a PhD student, Maryam has worked as a Business Analyst and Project Manager for over 10 years in the United Kingdom and Pakistan.