Student Spotlight 23 June 2026 - Henna Chumber

Global Research Dialogues: Inclusive Knowledge Across Research and Contexts

Hi, my name’s Henna, I’m a part-time PhD Psychology student approaching the end of my first year. My research focuses on therapeutic relationships in clinical mental health settings, and how we can better measure this to improve clinical outcomes. I recently ran a LES-funded event – Global Research Dialogues: Inclusive Knowledge Across Research and Contexts, which saw students and researchers discuss global and cultural contexts and barriers within research.

I’m a strong advocate for inclusivity across all disciplines, but being asked to run an event which included the whole of LES felt like a challenge initially, as I was only familiar with my own experience as a Psychology student. The event was intended to pull together people across LES disciplines to explore the importance of considering global contexts within research, which felt particularly vital in subjects like Biosciences, where that thinking can reach as deep as the cellular and genetic level. In this blog I’d like to delve into the event a little bit further. Spoiler, I was hugely overwhelmed by the cross-discipline conversations and relatability that everyone experienced!

The day opened with four talks from academics in Psychology, Sports & Exercise Science, GEES, and Biosciences, followed by PGR flashtalks from researchers at the University of Birmingham, Leeds, and Wolverhampton. These flashtalks took a highly interdisciplinary approach and gave students an opportunity to speak about their own research in that context. Prior to the event, I was slightly anxious as to whether the day would fully cater to all audiences, but I was pleasantly surprised that attendees across all disciplines felt the day was relevant and valuable to them.

The afternoon shifted into a workshop built around research scenarios from each field, where attendees were encouraged to reflect on how research could be better designed to account for global and cultural contexts, while also considering real-world barriers such as prejudices and funding. It was also fantastic to welcome attendees from beyond the University, including a Health Policy Researcher from the NHS!

I have wanted to make an event like this happen for a while now. I am deeply passionate about the inclusivity of cultures and global perspectives in research and application, shaped by barriers, discrepancies, and prejudices I have encountered both clinically and academically, so it meant so much to me to be able to see it come to life. I am hugely grateful for the opportunity and to the College for providing the funding to make it possible.

I also give a huge thank you to everyone who contributed to and attended the event. By the end of the day, I felt overwhelmed with support, and I hope to run something like this again in future, on a larger scale, and open to the public if possible. Please do feel free to reach out to me (hxc825@student.bham.ac.uk) if you feel this is something you would like to explore more, or would like a chat about!

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