News Story

School of Engineering and Innovation International Women’s Day

Friday 26 Feb 2021

Monday, 8 March 2021 from 20:00 to 21:00 (GMT)

Online event:

Four academics from the Open University introduce four women in the field of engineering and innovation who chose to challenge with their innovative practice or research.

Nicole Lotz will discuss the work of Zaha Mohammad Hadid, an influential and multi-award winning British Iraqi architect famed for her grand and visionary designs using curvatures or odd angles. Hadid’s iconic and daring building projects cleverly combine aesthetic qualities with parametric design.

Miguel Valdez will introduce the work of Flor Avelino who was recently appointed as Associate Professor at the Erasmus School of Social & Behavioural Sciences. This presentation discusses how her contributions to ongoing debates about sustainability transitions challenge an often techno-centric field by drawing attention to current power structures of inequality, exclusion, oppression and extractivism.

Fiona Gleed talks about Professor Dina D’Ayala, an expert in conservation, resilience and design of structures, with a project portfolio stretching from understanding the dynamics of lighthouses lashed by waves in UK coastal waters to establishing the vulnerability of heritage structures in the Phillipines.

Chris Corcoran introduces Doreen Massey, a very influential academic in the field of geography who finished her career as a Professor at the Open University. Her key contribution was to the field of human geography, but her iconic work related to space, place and gender.

The event will take place on Microsoft Teams. Use the Eventbrite to sign up to join our Teams event space to receive information and reminders. OU students will need to do this using a non-OU email address. The link to join will be send out on the day of the event.