The 2nd UK research conference on food and poverty: Evidence for change ConferenceAbout the conferenceTuesday, June 23, 2020 to Wednesday, June 24, 2020Bush House, King’s College London Following on from our inaugural research conference on UK food insecurity in 2018, we are hosting a second conference in June 2020. The conference theme is ‘Evidence for Change’, and the conference will focus on highlighting both the evidence base which demonstrates the need for change but also on how and what research evidence can be change-making. The aim of the conference is to build understanding on how household food insecurity research can make a difference to policy, practice, and lived experience. It will do this through showcasing research findings to a varied audience and exploring how to enhance the usability of evidence from the perspective of stakeholders including policy makers and practitioners. The objectives of the conference are: To provide a forum for the presentation of recent multidisciplinary research on food and poverty that is being conducted across the UK. To facilitate knowledge exchange and discussions of research practice between researchers and third sector organisations, policymakers and other research users. To provide a forum for discussion on key research priorities to inform policy and practice going forward. The conference will have at its heart the importance of excellent research, collaboration and building relationships with research stakeholders. Academic paper streams will feature as part of a varied programme of panel sessions, workshops and plenaries. Panel sessions will include voices from within central, devolved, and local government, and civil society organisations. There will also be workshops on conducting academic research in partnership with non-academic stakeholders and methods for doing so. The conference will also be an opportunity to showcase primary research from across the UK in numerous paper sessions throughout the conference. Our calls for papers and workshop proposals are now open. Please see above tabs to be taken to submission instructions and forms. Please make your submissions before 5pm on the 28th of February. Watch this space as more details on registration, accommodation, and the programme become available. Any questions, don’t hesitate to be in touch: connect@enuf.org.uk Speakers Keynote speaker: Professor Colleen Heflin Working from the basis that having too little money underlies food insecurity in the UK, a question arises about the usefulness of conducting research focused on food insecurity rather than poverty more broadly. Aren’t we just talking about poverty? And yet, research from other countries highlights that experiences of not having enough food impact health, social interactions, and educational attainment over and above associations found for income-based poverty measures, suggesting measuring this specific manifestation of poverty is important. So too, using food insecurity outcomes to monitor the impacts of policy and practice interventions on food insecurity suggest it is sensitive to some, but not all, poverty-reduction policy interventions, which suggest that the designs of these interventions matter—who is targeted, how, and in what context? To open the conference, this year’s keynote speaker, Prof Colleen Heflin, will address these topics, drawing from over 15 years experience of applied policy research on food insecurity in the U.S. context. Biography Colleen M. Heflin is a Professor of Public Administration and International Affairs and a Senior Research Associate in the Center for Policy Research. Dr. Heflin conducts policy-relevant research that sits at the boundaries of sociology, economics, public health, public administration, and women’s studies. Dr. Heflin is regarded as a national expert on food insecurity, food assistance and welfare policy, and the well-being of vulnerable populations. Dr. Heflin’s research has helped document the causes and consequences of food insecurity, identify the barriers and consequences of participation in nutrition programs, and understand the changing role of the public safety net in the lives of low-income Americans. Dr. Heflin’s research has appeared in leading journals such as the American Sociological Review, Social Problems, the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, and the Journal of Policy Analysis & Management. In 2014, her paper on community social capital was awarded the W. Richard Scott Award for Distinguished Scholarship from the American Sociological Association. Dr. Heflin’s research has been funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, among others. Dr. Heflin participated in the 2013 National Academies Workshop on Research Gaps and Opportunities in Child Hunger and Food Insecurity, and was an invited speaker at the 2014 Congressional Briefing on the War on Poverty that was hosted by the Population Association of America. Dr. Heflin holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan and an MPP from the Gerald Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Abstract submissionTo meet our conference aims, we are inviting academics, students, third-sector organisations and other applied or policy researchers conducting research on intersections of food and poverty in the UK to submit abstracts for consideration into the conference programme. Papers will be grouped according to how they fit with the following themes, though papers that fall outside these themes are also welcome to be submitted. Measuring and conceptualising the relationship between poverty and food experiences, including ‘food insecurity’ Lived experiences of food and poverty in the UK Determinants of household food insecurity and food bank usage in the UK Debates and dilemmas in the provision of charitable food assistance Public policy, welfare reform, and food insecurity Faith and food provision Evaluations of food insecurity interventions Health and nutritional impacts of food insecurity in the UK Social and emotional impacts of food insecurity in the UK Economic impacts of food insecurity in the UK UK food insecurity in comparative perspective Please use the form to submit your abstract. If you have any difficulties, please get in touch with connect@enuf.org.uk. Please note, that if you and collaborators/colleagues would like to submit a group of papers on a specific theme or research study, you may want to consider a group submission through the workshop proposal submission page. Please see tab above. Loading… Workshop submissionIf you and a group of collaborators or colleagues have conducted research and/or research dissemination activities on a particular topic or theme, you are invited to submit a proposal for workshop for consideration for the conference programme. Please outline an idea for a 1 to 1 ½ hour long session, structured however you’d like. Please provide details on how the session will run, who will speak, and on what topics. Ideas might be: presenting a multi-method piece of research or convening a panel of researchers to present research on common topic. Loading… RegistrationRegistration will open on 1st February 2020. Accommodation & travelComing soon.
