The British Academy Early Career Researcher Network brings together ECRs across the humanities and social sciences disciplines, regardless of their funding source or background.

Event Organiser: Dr Joe Parslow, Dr Phoebe Patey-Ferguson

Friday 20^th September, 10:00-16:00

The Forum, Institute of Advanced Studies, University College London (G11, South Wing, UCL, WC1E 6BT) 

Map link

This event brings Early Career Researchers across the arts and performance, social sciences, business, economics and policy to discuss nightlife and nightlife performance in an increasingly precarious time for the nightlife creative industries. Aiming to build opportunities for collaboration between researchers from different fields in this area as well as other stakeholders, through panel discussion, networking and mapping exercises this event aims to be the first step in connecting researchers, understanding the needs of this field of research, and allowing Early Career Researchers to identify areas for further development in this field.

At a time of increased challenges for the nightlife industry and nightlife performance in London and across the UK, preceding and following the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, tightening of licensing laws and the cost of living crisis, this event aims to begin to harness the skills and energy of ECRs in this field to address these areas. As policy across the UK turns towards enabling so-called ‘24 hour cities’ the event will also consider what role researchers can have in developing and sustaining diverse nightlife economies.

The event seeks to build collaborations across disparate fields; from queer performance studies and urban geographies to economic policy and business and enterprise, this event aims to start a conversation that can lead to the creation of new networks with collaborations across disciplines.

This event starts from an understanding that these popular forms of entertainment and engagement are vital to society and its futures, and engaging in an emergent network allows for collective affinities across research forms and discipline to emerge.

This event will lead towards the formation of a Nightlife Research Network which attendees will be invited to join.

Event Programme:

• 10-10:15am: Welcome 10:15-11:15am
• Session 1 - Opening Panel : Key Challenges for Nightlife Creative Industries 
• 11:15am-11:30am: Break 
• 11:30am-12:30pm: Session 2 - Who’s In The Room? Networking and Planning Exercise 
• 12:30pm-2pm: Lunch
• 2pm-3pm: Session 3 – Where, what and who of Nightlife Creative Industries: Mapping and Planning Exercise 
• 3pm-3:15pm: Break 
• 3:15pm-4pm: Session 4 - Futures: Discussions and Next Steps for the Network
• Evening: attending a performance at the Soho Theatre (optional)

Event Speakers

Cassie Leon

Cassie Leon is a cabaret & performance producer whose practice centres on ensuring the representation, inclusion, and participation of marginalised people within arts and culture. She is interested in creating viable and sustainable opportunities, facilitating creative action, and developing culturally rich experiences through live performance and documentation.

Being witness to the closure of queer-focused venues has reinforced her interest in carving out spaces to centre the experience of queer Black people and people of colour.

Dr Ben Walters

Dr Ben Walters: As “Dr Duckie”, Ben’s academic research on queer fun and homemade mutant hope machines has been shared through peer-reviewed publications, international conferences, lectures and workshops for Routledge, Bloomsbury, UCL Press, Queen Mary University of London, Goldsmiths, Central School of Speech and Drama, University of Brighton, AHRC-funded projects Performance Matters and Staging Decadence, Live Art Development Agency, Folkestone Fringe, HIV Prevention England, Night Spaces: Migration, Culture and Integration in Europe, Utopian Studies Society (Europe) and others.

Ben was cabaret editor of Time Out London and producer-presenter of live events including The Prime of Ms David Hoyle (Chelsea Theatre), Dr Duckie’s Magazine (Royal Vauxhall Tavern) and BURN: Moving Images by Cabaret Artists (BFI Flare, MIX NYC). He has campaigned to protect queer spaces, including writing the 10,000-word application that made the Royal Vauxhall Tavern the country’s first LGBTQ+ listed building. As a critic, he has worked for the Guardian, Observer, Independent, Scotsman, Evening Standard, Daily Telegraph, Sight & Sound, Film Quarterly, Hollywood Reporter, BBC Radio, BFI Southbank, Barbican Centre, Battersea Arts Centre, Rambert, Southbank Centre, Tate, Wellcome and others, and blogs at NotTelevision.net.

Badge Cafe is rooted in care, fun, creativity, collaboration and hope. It sees badgemaking as a refuge, a playground, a laboratory and a launchpad – a place where self-care, social connection, analogue crafting, artistic exploration and progressive civics meet. It’s based in re-use, finding beauty and use in discarded, donated and found materials.

Ben Campkin

Ben Campkin (he/him) is the author of Queer Premises: LGBTQ+ Venues in London Since the 1980s (Bloomsbury Academic, 2023) and Remaking London: Decline and Regeneration in Urban Culture (2013), which won the Urban Communication Foundation Jane Jacobs Award (2015) and was commended in the Royal Institute of British Architects President’s Awards for Research (2014). Ben is Professor of Urbanism and Urban History at The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, and Vice-Dean for Public and City Engagement, The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment.

Lo Marshall

Lo Marshall (they/them) is a Tutor and Ethics Co-Director at the Bartlett School of Architecture and Senior Research Fellow in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion within the Built Environment at The Bartlett, UCL. Their research and teaching is interdisciplinary and intersectional, with a focus on LGBTQIA+ nightlife and space of community in London. Lo was named an Emerging Voice in Architecture by the London Festival of Architecture in 2020 and won UCL’s Intersectional Inclusion Award in 2024. They are a co-founder of Queer Community College.

Thank you for your interest. We understand that plans may change. If you sign up and can no longer attend let us know by emailing ecr_network@thebritishacademy.ac.uk and your ticket can be offered to someone else

ABOUT THE BRITISH ACADEMY

The British Academy is the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences. We mobilise these disciplines to understand the world and shape a brighter future.

From artificial intelligence to climate change, from building prosperity to improving well-being – today’s complex challenges can only be resolved by deepening our insight into people, cultures and societies.

We invest in researchers and projects across the UK and overseas, engage the public with fresh thinking and debates, and bring together scholars, government, business and civil society to influence policy for the benefit of everyone.

Booking form privacy notice: The personal data you provide to us on the event booking form is being collected so that we can administer the event efficiently, contact you with important updates about the event (where required), ensure that your accessibility requirements are accommodated, notify event partners or individuals shaping the event about the event guest list (N.B. only your name and job title/organisation will be shared with relevant partners and individuals. Your contact details will never be shared) and to pass on an evaluation survey after the event. It will only be used by the British Academy for this purpose and it will be securely deleted within six weeks of the event ending. This privacy information does not apply to the processing of your personal data by Zoom which will be governed by Zoom’s terms and conditions. If you choose to donate to the British Academy, your personal data will be used for the purpose of administering your donation, both by the British Academy and the financial services company Stripe, who will process your card payment. This privacy information does not apply to the processing of your personal data by Stripe which will be governed by the terms outlined in their privacy policy. If you have any questions or concerns about how we use your personal data, please contact the British Academy’s Data Protection Officer at dpo@thebritishacademy.ac.uk.