Doctoral and Researcher College at University of Reading

👏 Congratulations to researcher Helen Norris who is through to the VITAE National 3 Minute Thesis Finals on 1 October! We wish you the very best of luck Helen! 🤩

Helen is a final-year interdisciplinary PhD researcher at Institute of Education, University of Reading. Following a 15-year marketing career and a role as a Research Assistant in Oxford University’s Department of Experimental Psychology, Helen channelled her interest in language, cognitive development, and mental health into doctoral research, using a blend of corpus linguistics and psychology.

Holding a Classics degree from Oxford University and an MSc in Psychology from Oxford Brookes, her thesis, ‘Fiction and Emotion in Adolescence’, investigates how adolescent fiction acts as a socio-emotional training ground using a 2.4-million-word corpus curated from fiction titles read by 684 teenagers.

For more details about the 3MT Competition Finals see https://vitae.ac.uk/support-services/vitae-three-minute-thesis-3mt-competition/vitae-3mt-2026/

💡 Research from Andrea Mobbs PhD researcher (Archaeology at the University of Reading) is featured in this article on a recently discovered high-status burial which offers rare insights into ancient funerary practices and Colchester's later Roman past
https://the-past.com/feature/the-lexden-ladyand-examining-a-rare-lead-coffin-burial-from-roman-colchester/

The Lexden Ladyand: Examining a rare lead coffin burial from Roman Colchester A recently discovered high-status burial offers rare insights into ancient funerary practices and Colchester’s late Roman past. Carly Hilts spoke to Laura Pooley at a new exhibition about the finds.

PhD students and academic staff recently showcased the Department of Sustainable Land Management’s research in pollinators at the Bee’s Needs Science Festival at RHS Garden Wisley, Surrey. Organised by the Royal Horticultural Society and the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, the annual event highlights the importance of bees and other pollinators in supporting our environment and food systems.

PhD candidate Joris Rockx said: “We displayed insect specimens to demonstrate the diversity of pollinating insects and showcased our Bumblearium, which contains flowering plants and a live bumblebee colony, allowing visitors to observe bee behaviour up close. We also ran the pollinator shopping game, where visitors used barcode scanners to discover how much everyday foods rely on insect pollination.”

📽️ 🏆 This informative reel made by Typography PhD researcher Hanny Imania was the Judges' Choice for the Your Research as a Reel Competition at the Doctoral Research Conference 2026. Well done Hanny! 👏

💡 Hanny's research explores the adaptation of Javanese script in the transition to movable type during the nineteenth century. The script is complex and structural reconfiguration was required. Hanny is investigating how such compromises were negotiated to function within the constraints of movable type and how their effects continue to inform subsequent typographic practices.

🔤 The Department of Typography and Graphic Communication holds collections of Javanese movable type, which proved to be a crucial resource for examining the technical constraints faced by early type foundries in adapting the script to typographic technology.

ℹ️ For more information about PhD study in the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication: https://www.reading.ac.uk/typography/phd

https://youtube.com/shorts/CHiZsAHwPno

Hanny Imania - Lost in Type - Judges' Choice Winner to Your research as a Reel Competition 2026 This short film made by Typography PhD researcher Hanny Imania was ...

Reading PhD researcher Piyali Goswami (Meteorology) is quoted in this article about new Met Office and University of Reading research investigating how more frequent marine heatwaves may increase the likelihood of destructive storms like Storm Babet

👉 https://uk.news.yahoo.com/why-storm-babet-could-repeated-060000579.html

🎓 Huge congratulations to all! 🎉 🥳 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏

What happens when today's researchers gain access to centuries of evidence and entirely new ways to interrogate it?

On 7 August, 'From Fossils to Futures' brings together expertise spanning museums and collections, archaeology, evolutionary biology, climate science and research innovation.

Chaired by Professor Parveen Yaqoob, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation at the University of Reading, our global panel event will bring together perspectives from the Natural History Museum, London, the British Museum, the Network of European Museum Organisations and Reading's own research and collections community.

Together, they'll explore how AI and digitisation can reveal new insights from historic collections, what becomes possible when knowledge is connected across institutions, and how evidence gathered over centuries can help us understand our changing world.

Meet the people joining the conversation. Then join us live.

📆 7 August | 14:00 BST | Global registration now open

Book now 🔗 https://rdg.ac/fossilstofutureslive

🏆 Congratulations to Helen Norris, PhD researcher in the Institute of Education, University of Reading!

Her presentation, The literacy of feeling: How fiction prepares teens for the real world was the Judges' Winner of the Three Minute Thesis Competition at Doctoral Research Conference 2026. 👏

ℹ️ An ever-popular part of the Conference, the Three Minute Thesis Competition challenges doctoral students to communicate their research in a way which can be clearly understood by a non-specialist audience in just a few minutes.

📽️ Watch Helen's winning presentation 👇
https://youtu.be/T7Jhx0STl94?si=svIwCeQP2Taksn9J

3 Minute Thesis Winner 2026: The literacy of feeling: How fiction prepares teens for the real world Helen Norris, PhD researcher from the Institute of Education presen...