Academics and Artists addressing Social Challenges

Academics can spend their entire careers working on big social problems, but often struggle to communicate their work to everyone else, whilst artists often engage the general public in topical issues, but without access to the latest research.

This initiative was co-organised by The Open University, King’s College London and Pitik Bulag cartoon collective with the generous support of the Open Societal Challenges Fund, Kings College London and the British Association for the Study of Religions. Its aim was to see what could be achieved by academics and artists working together.”

Meet the organisers

Precious Chatterje-Doody

Precious Chatterje-Doody is a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Studies at The Open University and Co-Lead of the Democracy, Disinformation and Religion project.

Dr Paul-François Tremlett

Dr Paul-François Tremlett is a Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at The Open University and Co-Lead of the Democracy, Disinformation and Religion project.

Victoria Hudson

Victoria Hudson is a researcher in the Department of War Studies at King's College London. She is currently working on a project about how Russian mercenaries use images to influence their social media followers, with a particular interest in how seemingly simple images can convey highly political topics.

Zach

Zach is an editorial cartoonist from the Philippines. He is a member of DAKILA - Philippine Collective for Modern Heroism, and is also the co-founder of Pitik Bulag, a Philippines cartoonists’ collective. In 2022, Pitik Bulag collaborated with #FactsFirstPH in making cartoons that promote truth and fight against disinformation.

Following an intensely competitive international competition, six pairings of academics and editorial cartoonists were matched together to collaborate on a series of images bringing to life the latest research on pressing social challenges.