| Episode | Description | People | Date |
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Attitudes to Meat-eating in China
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China is now the greatest meat producer and consumer by total volume in the world today. Within a single generation, meat has shifted from an occasional treat to an everyday staple, marking a significant nutritional shift tied to rising incomes. Yet animal agriculture accounts for the largest share of food-production emissions and so rising meat consumption complicates climate action. Will China’s meat consumption keep rising?
Dr Tracey Fallon from the School of International Studies joins Mary and Derek in the lab to discuss Tracey’s publication “Meating Global China at Home” published in the Routledge Handbook of Global China. Listen as we discuss some of the issues and cultural currents around meat consumption and its reduction in China today.
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Dr Tracey Fallon
Dr Mary Jane Ainslie
Professor Derek Irwin
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22 September 2026 |
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The Music Industry in the Digital Age
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It’s not often that we get a genuine rockstar joining us in the lab, but Dr Richard Frenneaux is the real deal! Practice-based research is a particularly valuable approach in academic today, and Richard has been there from the beginning as a performer, song writer and adept user of music technology. Now an Assistant Professor in the School of International Communications at FHSS, Richard’s new book 'The Music Industry in the Digital Age' charts the radical changes enacted upon the music industry by digital technology since the early 2000s. Join Mary and Derek as they discuss Richard’s research and learn about the numerous digital platforms that have challenged the way that we make, consume and market music. Listen to Richard talk about his experience as a musician turned academic and discusses where he thinks the industry is heading and why this is worth studying.
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Dr Richard Frenneaux
Dr Mary Jane Ainslie
Professor Derek Irwin
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10 August 2026 |
Historical Rice Farming and Cooperative Behavior
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Suqin Ge is Professor of Economics and has come all the way from Virginia Tech in the USA. Taking time out from running the Center for Future Work Places and Practices, Prof. Suqin Ge joins us to discuss her article “Reaping What You Sow: Historical Rice Farming and Contemporary Cooperative Behavior in China” published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.
While China is often described as a collective society, Prof. Suqin Ge explains how such practices can be traced to the cooperative behavior demanded by intensive agricultural labour. In particular, Prof. Suqin’s data explores how historic rice-farming communities engendered cooperation and kinship, traits that have continued and evolved long after such farming practices ended. She explains how it is often through studying these historical economic practices that we can explain the social organisation of today.
Join us to learn about the historical economic formation of modern China.
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Professor Suqin Ge
Dr Mary Jane Ainslie
Professor Derek Irwin
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3 June 2026 |
| The Diplomacy of Whataboutism and US Foreign Policy Attitudes |
Many high-level political debates today tend to include the words “but, what about…?”, now a favorite phrase by leading political actors around the globe. Known as “whataboutism”, this recognized phenomenon is often the cause of many explanations, justifications, clarifications and reasoning, and continues to be a key part of political discourse. Dr Wilfred Chow joins us from the School of International Studies to discuss his publication "The Diplomacy of Whataboutism and US Foreign Policy Attitudes" in the journal ‘International Organization’. Join Mary and Derek as they discuss “whataboutism” and its important, yet also problematic, role in international relations.
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Dr Wilfred Chow
Dr Mary Jane Ainslie
Professor Derek Irwin
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27 April 2026 |
Disability and Identity in Modern China
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In today’s modern China, disabled people have much to teach us about how to face challenges in everyday life. This unique perspective has been explored by Professor Sarah Dauncey, our first guest from the University of Nottingham, UK. Sarah has been visiting and studying China for over 30 years and has pioneered a new field relating to disability in modern Chinese culture. An underexplored area of study, Sarah’s work has focused on the development of new ways of understanding disability in a non-Western context.
In this episode, Sarah joins us to discuss her project entitled 'Disabled but not Useless: Disability and Identity in Modern Chinese Literature and Culture', which focuses on key figures whose lives and works have influenced the way in which disabled people are viewed and view themselves in the post-reform era. The results of this project were published in her 2020 groundbreaking monograph ‘Disability in China: Citizenship, Identity and Culture’, by Cambridge University Press.
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Professor Sarah Dauncey
Dr Mary Jane Ainslie
Professor Derek Irwin
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5 March 2026 |
| Clean Energy Investment – how to do it properly |
The movement towards clean energy is gaining momentum as countries and companies strive to create a safer, more livable planet. While encouraging investment and legislation is vital, these policies often vary widely across regions, leading to uncoordinated efforts that can hinder progress. In this episode, Dr Jingong Huang from the School of Economics discusses his research into clean energy policies around the world. Jingong demonstrates how ad hoc policies may be ineffective at lessening global emissions, and argues that a coordinated international policy framework is required to stop pollution.
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Dr Jingong Huang
Dr Mary Jane Ainslie
Professor Derek Irwin
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26 January 2026 |
Exploring our Distant Ancestors through Paleoanthropology
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This week, Beyond the Books is visited by an academic heavyweight! Professor Laura Bishop has a wealth of experience exploring ancient sites around the world. One of these sites is at Nyayanga in modern day Kenya, where there is evidence of an early Hominid presence from between 2 and 3 million years ago. Laura cautions that we can never be too sure about life so far back in time and explains how her research is part of putting together a wider puzzle to explain the lives of our distant ancestors. Through better understanding such a past, we can draw new conclusions about our own existence and what it means to be human. Join us to hear about Laura's research in the published article Expanded geographic distribution and dietary strategies of the earliest Oldowan hominins and Paranthropus in the journal Science.
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Professor Laura Bishop
Dr Mary Jane Ainslie
Professor Derek Irwin
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18 December 2025 |
| Ethnic Identity and Social Media in China |
As one of the largest nations on earth by population, China is also one of the most diverse. For the various minorities around China, being digitally connected is an extremely important part of forming both ethnic identity and asserting agency. Dr Lei Hao from the School of International Communications visits the lab to discuss his book "Minzu as Technology: Ethnic Identity and Social Media in Post-2000s China". Lei discusses how the technological dynamics of social media affect the materialisation of ethnic identities in China today and discusses his own experience as part of a minority group. Join us as we explore the importance of the digital space to the unique and fascinating communities that make up contemporary China.
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Dr Lei Hao
Dr Mary Jane Ainslie
Professor Derek Irwin
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25 November 2025 |
| Multilingual Education in China Today |
Professor Anwei Feng has been awarded four times in a row since 2021 the Elsevier Certificate for the Highly Cited Researcher in China. He was a key Founder and Chief Consultant of the Chinese Society of Multilingualism and Multilingual Education (CSMME). Anwei has devoted the last 16 years to a nationwide project on trilingualism and trilingual education, playing a leading role in a national network now numbering more than 250 researchers and enthusiasts from 11 minority regions in China. Join Mary and Derek in the lab as they discuss Anwei’s publication "Multilingualism in Education in the People’s Republic of China" in The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Learn about the impact and position of Multilingualism in Chinese Education from one of the world’s foremost experts!
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Professor Anwei Feng
Dr Mary Jane Ainslie
Professor Derek Irwin
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29 October 2025 |
| Researcher effects in survey-based research: Insights from research in South Sudan |
Conducting research is difficult, messy and challenging, and this holds even more true if fieldwork is conducted in conflict-affected environments. Data collection happens within a social relationship – and this always affects the data. Dr Kerstin Tomiak, Assistant Professor in our School of International Studies join us to discuss her research in South Sudan. Kerstin is probably the most well-travelled of all our interviewees, and has had an incredibly versatile career, all of which makes her well equipped to design methodology for radically different contexts. Listen to Kerstin discuss her paper "Researcher effects in survey-based research: Insights from research in South Sudan” published in the journal 'Development Policy Review'.
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Dr Kerstin Tomiak
Dr Mary Jane Ainslie
Professor Derek Irwin
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25 September 2025 |