The activities of the Science Communication Group span both academic research and professional media practice. Staff research interests include the media coverage of science, the exhibition as a medium of communication, and science-art collaborations.

The Silences of Science

The Silences of Science was an AHRC-funded reearch network, running from July 2013 to June 2014, which examined different aspects of the paradox that science depends both on prolixity and on reticence. We sought to interrogate the assumption that open and efficient channels of communication are always of greatest benefit to science and to society. The project aimed to remind the research community of the creative importance of silence, of interruptions in communication, of isolation and of ‘stuckness’.

Through a series of three workshops and conferences, the research network brought together a range of scholars – from literary studies, anthropology, legal studies, religious studies, as well as from the history and philosophy of science and science communication studies – to draw on insights from their disciplines in order to examine the role of silence within the sciences. Details of the conferences can be found below.

As part of the project, audio producer Ed Prosser created 'The Sound in Silence, the Silence in Sound' audio installation.

Recent PhD Projects

Sarah Davies. 2007. Scientists and the public: studies in discourse and dialogue.

Alice Bell. 2008. Science communication as pantomime: explorations in contemporary children’s non-fiction books.

Sally Hancock. 2012. Political scientists?  The UK knowledge economy and young scientists.

Anna Lesher-Trevino. 2015. Community museums as potential instruments for social change and sustainable development in rural Mexico.

Jared R. Keller. 2018. A scientific impresario: Archie Clow, science communication and BBC Radio, 1945–1970

Geraldine Satre Buisson. 2022. Strategic Narratives and Climate Policy