Dr Maria Luiza Tanure Alves - Critical Perspectives on Disability and Inclusion in Physical Education

Professor Giuseppe Saccomandi - Constitutive Modeling in Nonlinear Elasticity: History, Pitfalls, and Perspectives

IAS Residential Fellow Professor Giuseppe Saccomandi [https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias/fellows/2025-26/saccomandi-giuseppe/] delivers a seminar on their research - We present a critical overview of constitutive modeling in nonlinear elasticity, with particular emphasis on isotropic incompressible materials. Starting from the historical foundations and the seminal contributions of Rivlin, the talk revisits the motivations behind invariant-based strain-energy functions and their experimental interpretation. The widespread proliferation of constitutive models is discussed in relation to several recurring pitfalls, including over-parameterization, identifiability issues, and an excessive reliance on analyticity. Special attention is devoted to Ogden-type models, whose remarkable descriptive capabilities are contrasted with their well-known limitations in predictive reliability. By reconsidering classical experimental data and multiscale arguments, alternative modeling perspectives are outlined, with the aim of clarifying the principles that should guide constitutive choices in nonlinear elasticity and their applications to soft materials, biomechanics, and wave propagation issues. For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias [https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias]

Integrated Research on Disaster Risk Centre of Excellence Launch and Workshop

Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) is an international scientific programme co-sponsored by the International Science Council (ISC) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). IRDR International Centres of Excellence (ICoEs) are established to make direct contributions to IRDR’s mission in advancing research and capacity building, supporting the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Sustainable Development Goals. The International Centre of Excellence in Informatics and Disaster Resilience (ICEIDR) is one of the most recently approved IRDR ICoEs. It brings together six world-leading institutions — Loughborough University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Delft University of Technology, Kyoto University, RWTH Aachen University, and Zhengzhou University — to address pressing global challenges in disaster risk reduction through advanced smart informatics approaches. This event will mark the official launch of ICEIDR. It will be followed by presentations from the six partner institutions and discussion to shape the future direction of ICEIDR, including its role in advancing informatics for disaster risk reduction, building global capacity, and influencing international research agendas and policy.

Professor Asha Banu Soletti - Co-constructing Well-being in Ecologically Marginalized Tribal Landscapes in rural Maharashtra

IAS Visiting Fellow Professor Asha Banu Soletti delivers a seminar on their research, fully titled "Co-constructing Well-being in Ecologically Marginalized Tribal Landscapes in rural Maharashtra" - Situated within the reserved forest, nearby the Thansa Lake reservoir in Maharashtra, tribal communities continue to live amidst layered ecological and social vulnerabilities despite their proximity to vital natural resources. Chronic water crisis, climate stress, precarious livelihoods, seasonal migration profoundly shape community health and well-being. Women bear disproportionate burdens of care often walking miles for water while navigating fragile household economies and disrupted support systems. The Pragati initiative emerged from the realization that health cannot be understood outside the ecological and social realities within which communities live. Moving beyond fragmented biomedical responses, the project re-envisioned community health through participatory, context-sensitive, and equity-oriented approaches grounded in lived experiences and collective resilience. This presentation is a reflection on Pragati’s evolving praxis and argues for community well-being frameworks that foreground ecological realities, structural inequities, and community agency in shaping sustainable and socially just health futures. In this co-construction process, the journeys and stories of resilience within communities become central to understanding health and well-being, while digital storytelling emerges as a meaningful approach to documenting lived realities, amplifying community voices, and fostering collective reflection and engagement. For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias [https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias]

Dr Maria Luiza Tanure Alves - Critical Perspectives on Disability and Inclusion in Physical Education

IAS Visiting Fellow Dr Maria Luiza Tanure Alves delivers a seminar on their research, fully titled "Critical Perspectives on Disability and Inclusion in Physical Education" - Physical Education (PE), as part of the fundamental right to education, should be understood as the first setting in which children and young people systematically learn about their possibilities within physical activity and sport. However, research developed over recent years has highlighted a reality permeated by ableist assumptions, resulting in the exclusion and silencing of disabled students in PE and, subsequently, their distancing from sport. The theoretical recognition of ableism has shed light on the power relations that shape practices and, consequently, determine rights to exist within PE and later within sport. As an evolving field supported by critical theories such as Black feminism, current research has increasingly questioned the meaning of inclusion and the ways in which this fundamental right is also constituted through relations of domination and power among social groups. Transforming the reality of disabled people in PE requires a transformation in how we understand PE and how we define inclusion within it. The starting point for this transformation is the recognition of the intersectional identity of disabled people in PE and sport, grounded in the understanding that a reality can only be transformed once its existence is recognized. For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias [https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias]

Professor Desmond Kharmawphlang - Tales that Trees Tell: A Khasi Ecocritical Perspective

IAS Guest Speaker Professor Desmond Kharmawphlang delivers a seminar on their research - The slopes of the Khasi and Jaintia hills in the state of Meghalaya in India are home to swaths of rainforests. The forests are dominated by ficus elastica, such as banyan, Indian rubber and ficus Khasiana named after the Khasi tribe of Meghalaya. While these trees with aerial roots grow profusely in the wild, they are also grown and nurtured by the people for multiple reasons. A tree is planted to mark the naming ceremony of a child. The trees are also believed to protect villages from the plague, from storms and flash floods, a frequent occurrence in the area which experiences the heaviest rainfall on earth. These trees also serve as bridges. The talk will centre around the trees as part of the community of flora and fauna and the stories they engender and embody. For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias [https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias]