Student launches podcast during final summer at Catz

In her final days as an undergraduate at St Catharine’s, Ellie House (2017, History) was busy preparing to launch a new podcast series that would explore and celebrate the research taking place at an undergraduate level in UK universities.

Launched in July, each epsiode of Lockdown Lectures shines a light on the research interests of a specific student, who Ellie speaks to about their dissertations and research projects over a chilled cup of coffee.

Ellie comments, “I started Lockdown Lectures for two reasons. One was to learn how to record and produce audio content and expand my portfolio. The other, more importantly, was to shine a light on the amazing research going on at an undergraduate level across the UK. It has been a fun and educational project so far and I am really pleased by how well it has been received.”

Anyone interested can listen to the podcast using Sounder.fm, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. There are now nine episodes in total, and the Catz community may particularly want to check out the episodes featuring a few familiar voices:

• Episode 1: Featuring Bryony Warnock-Horn (2017, Natural Sciences) and her research on soft contact lenses
• Episode 2: Featuring Rohan Montgomery (2017, History) on Men and immigration at the turn of the twentieth century
• Episode 6: Featuring Norbert Toth (2017, Natural Sciences) and his research using machine learning algorithms to improve the analysis of volcanic rocks
• Episode 8: Featuring Lena Riecke (2017, Law) discussing economic power, lethal autonomous weapons systems, and inequality in customary international law

Further episodes are expected over the summer, although Ellie admits that her schedule may change when she starts her MA in Investigative Journalism at City, University of London in the autumn:

“It's quite time-consuming but there's scope for me to do one-off episodes every now and again alongside my postgraduate studies. The series has proven to be quite popular and the more new people I meet, the more new topics I can discuss.”

Find out more about studying at St Catharine's as an undergraduate.