On April 4 winners were announced in the year’s ESRC Writing Competition, in which PhD students who have received money from the ESRC write short essays about how their research leads too better lives. Today we posting the shortlisted and winning essays with Bobby Beaumont, a PhD research at the University of Birmingham, and his essay titled “Playtime in the camps.” Beaumont, whose research focuses on how circus, play and arts-based interventions play out in refugee camps and temporary settlements.

As details emerged on March 11 about the president’s fiscal year 2020 budget, it became increasingly clear that science funding would once again be targeted for significant spending cuts. But a new target also emerged – federal spending on education.

You and a body of like-minded people want to reform a wretched regime, or perhaps just break away from it and create an independent state. Are you more likely to achieve your goals by a campaign of bombings, assassinations and riots, or by mass protests which are avowedly peaceful? Your first step should be to schedule a sit-down with Erica Chenoweth, who has been studying that question since 2006.