Back Some twenty UPF undergraduate students, under the umbrella of the Eutopia network, present their research at an online conference

Some twenty UPF undergraduate students, under the umbrella of the Eutopia network, present their research at an online conference

It was precisely the ICUR 2022 international conference, in which the students of the University gave oral presentations focusing on matters related to the United Nations SDGs and various current issues, dealt with from a global and interdisciplinary perspective.

30.09.2022

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A total of 21 undergraduate students from Pompeu Fabra University, through the Eutopia network of European universities of which UPF is a member, participated, between 27 and 29 September, in the tenth edition of The International Conference of Undergraduate Research (ICUR).

UPF students discussed issues related to the application of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in different countries and environments.

ICUR is an annual academic research conference designed exclusively for participation by undergraduate students, organized by the University of Warwick (United Kingdom), in collaboration with Monash University (Australia), which this 2022 involved the participation of higher education institutions and university networks from around the world. The meeting offers this student body the opportunity to present their research orally to an international audience, through videoconferences and in real time.

The UPF students dealt with issues related to the application of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in different countries and environments, or aspects such as geopolitics, global governance, inequalities, gender, the welfare state, and culture and the media, among others. They are doing their third and fourth years (some of them presented topics related to their degree final project), mainly related to the bachelor’s degrees in Global Studies; Philosophy, Politics and Economics; Political and Administration Sciences; Journalism; the double bachelor’s degree in Law and Economics/ADE and Humanities.

What was the research presented by UPF students like and what did it consist of?

Following the respective ten-minute oral presentations framed in broader panels that grouped together presentations concerning the same area, some of the UPF students answered questions from the rest of the attendees of the virtual meeting. All of them received short prior training, by Sergi Lostao, an associate professor at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, with which they were able to prepare their presentation, rehearse it and answer possible questions.

The research prepared by UPF students was very broad in nature. For example, we find artistic creation in virtual reality format to explore human identity, with a narrative based on “The Odyssey”; the impact of time zones on travel and cooperation in the field of patents; imperialism in textbooks through a gender lens; the influence of China in the Western Balkans and the implications of the region in the European Union, or co-housing and welfare.

An important block of interventions focused on the application of different sections of the United Nations SDGs in different countries and settings: SDG number 16 (regarding the Israeli judicial and legal system and Palestinian prisoners); number 10 (in Russia, regarding inequality through the welfare state; in Chile, concerning the legacy of Pinochet’s economic policies, and in Belgium, with intercultural mediation in healthcare for Roma communities); number 4 (in Hong Kong, with youth identity and political expression through art); number 5 (in Poland, with abortion, reproductive justice and the church in Polish post-communist society), or the interest of European companies in the different SDGs over time.

On the other hand, a large part of these topics presented in the framework of the ICUR 2022 congress coincide with the projects that some of the students of the Pompeu Fabra University have worked on that have participated in the 2022 edition of the EUTOPIA Undergraduate Research Support Scheme (EURSS), a program that offers scholarships to make a short stay (of weeks) at one of the universities of the alliance in order to develop a research work with professors of the same university where they travel.

Interdisciplinarity to address a global research dialogue, without leaving the campus

The ICUR provides a rigorous forum for students to engage in a global research dialogue, discuss ideas, and receive feedback from peers. Interdisciplinarity is inherent in the conference, which is committed to cooperation and collaboration between different fields as a way to find solutions to the most urgent concerns.

Through this meeting, undergraduate students have the unique opportunity to experience an international conference without leaving their home campus and participate in sessions with students from other institutions using the latest in high-definition digital video conferencing technologies.

 

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