University of Warwick: Warwick Law School researcher is British Science Festival 2021 Award Lecture Winner for Social Sciences
Dr Laura LammasniemiDr Laura Lammasniemi of Warwick Law School has been chosen to deliver the 2021 British Science Association Social Sciences Award Lecture, in recognition of her innovative research and commitment to public engagement.
The Award Lectures have been presented at the British Science Festival since 1990. They celebrate and promote front line research being carried out in the UK by early-career scientists, and have become a springboard for many successful science communicators such as Professor Brian Cox (2006) and Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock (2008).
Dr Lammasniemi will speak about her research into legal history and how looking at the past can help us understand modern legal attitudes towards sexual autonomy.
Her Award Lecture, “Sexual Consent – Looking back at the law” is now available on YouTube
She will also be doing a Q&A session on her research at the British Science Festival on 9th September 2021. This will take place on the Chelmsford campus of Anglia Ruskin University, as part of an ambitious in-person festival programme modified to take account of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Dr Lammasniemi said: “Contributing to public history of women and the law is really important to me so I am thrilled to have been given this award and to be part of the British Science Festival alumni. I hope that my talk on history of sexual consent will spark some interest in women’s legal history and allow the audiences to reflect and question their own thoughts and assumptions about sexual consent.”
Antonio Benitez, Director of the British Science Festival said: “I am delighted with this year’s cohort of Award Lectures and I am looking forward welcoming them to the British Science Festival in Chelmsford this September. The Award Lectures aim to promote open and informed discussions on issues involving science. The events will actively encourage these top UK early career scientists and Festival audiences to explore together the social aspects of their research.”