In July, NAMRIP members attended Camp Bestival with the University鈥檚 Public Engagement Roadshow Team, to talk to families about AMR and some of the research taking place at Southampton. Among the team were Emma Roe and Paul Hurley, who are currently working on the 鈥楩ighting superbugs on the home front: becoming an ecological citizen in your bathroom鈥 project.
Over the course of the weekend they helped hundreds of children decorate masks of different microbes and to take 鈥榗ell-fies鈥 in their 鈥楳icrobe Masquerade鈥 photo booth.
This led to great conversations with children and parents about the diversity of the microbiome, and about AMR. Emma and Paul also used these chats as an opportunity to inform their current research, listening to attitudes towards domestic microbes (variously described as 鈥済erms鈥, 鈥渘asties鈥, 鈥済ood / bad bacteria鈥) as well as what antimicrobial cleaning products families use and why. This will feed directly into their current project, and into creative research methods and activities that they鈥檒l employing with families in Southampton in the coming month. You can read more on the 鈥楩ighting superbugs on the home front' project web page .