midsummer meditations
Midsummer Meditations in the Melting Metropolis
Urban heat is making its presence felt in ever more dramatic ways. But the image of Britain as a cold and wet country makes it harder to take seriously. This event brings researchers, artists, policy makers and community groups to think creatively about new approaches to heat, health, and cities.
In partnership with Orleans House Gallery, Melting Metropolis invites you to participate in a half-day multi-disciplinary conversation exploring how academia, community organisations, creatives and government can better collaborate as we seek to support our cities to adapt to extreme heat. Together, we will map different ways of sensing and understanding past and present experiences of the urban heat island effect.
In the spirit of Cultural Reforesting, the symposium will be opened and shaped by a workshop led by the renowned environmental artist Harun Morrison, with a panel discussion to follow, during which you will be invited to share reflections on the challenges and opportunities of multi-disciplinary collaboration in relation to the problem of heat in our cities. It will close with an optional presentation by Melting Metropolis’ Research Artist Bryony Ella on her current installation My Body is a Sundial and live performance of Stand of the Sun: A solstice ritual for the melting metropolis.
Panel discussions will focus on London and New York, two cities studied by Melting Metropolis. Hearing from environmental and urban historians, ethnographers, artist-researchers, community activists and policy makers, the day will seek to generate deeper understandings of the approaches and needs of stakeholders with wide ranging perspectives.
We anticipate the day will offer a rich experience whereby we all leave with new understandings of how to better align our efforts to support urbanites effectively during this age of global warming. While reaffirming the value of addressing challenges from multiple perspectives, the day will also pragmatically explore methods to integrate diverse voices, experiences and expertise into real-world systems and solutions.
About the event organisers:
Melting Metropolis is a Wellcome Discovery Award environmental history project at the University of Liverpool, researching everyday histories of heat and health in London, New York and Paris since 1945. Read more about the research here.
Cultural Reforesting is a ten year research programme at Orleans House Gallery, within the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It explores the question of how we can renew our relationship to nature through collaborations with artists, cross-cultural voices, transdisciplinary pioneers and the more-than-human world.
Programme:
13:15: Registration
13:30: Creative activity led by artist Harun Morrison
14:45: Coffee break
15:15: Round table, chaired by Dr Eleanor Barraclough, with Dr Kara Schlichting and Dr Daniel Cumming (Queens College, CUNY), Dr Jon Winder and Dr Rosie Knowles (University of Liverpool), Deepika Kanthavara Madhava (Somers Town Community Association), and Nicola Wheeler, Policy and Programme Lead (Climate Change and Sustainability) at Richmond and Wandsworth Council.
(Bios below RSVP details)
16:45: Reflections
17:00-17:30: Optional Artist’s talk with Research Artist Bryony Ella and Dr Kara Schlichting: ‘My Body is a Sundial’ installation
Evening invitation:
20:30: Optional presentation of ‘Stand of the Sun’ live performance
Join us for the performance Stand of the Sun: A summer ritual for the melting metropolis by award-winning musicians and dancers, directed by Bryony Ella. The performance will run from 20:45-21:45.
Pictured below: My Body is a Sundial by Bryony Ella at Orleans House Gallery, credit: Ewelina Ruminska, 2025
rsvp
Please RSVP to: julia.DeFabo@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk, notifying us of any access or dietary requirements.
Speaker biographies
Eleanor Barraclough
Eleanor Barraclough is a historian, writer and broadcaster based at Bath Spa University where she has just wrapped up an AHRC Leadership Fellowship on the environmental history of trees. Her latest book, Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age, was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction. A former BBC New Generation Thinker, she presents BBC documentaries on everything from apocalypses to zombies.
Dr rosie knowles
Rosie Knowles is a geography Postdoc on the Melting Metropolis project. She is a health and cultural geographer exploring the health impacts of urban heat in underserved communities in Bristol and London. She uses a combination of creative methods to amplify embodied experiences of heat and health.
Dr Kara Schlichting
Kara Murphy Schlichting is an Associate Professor of History at Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. An urban-environmental historian, she is the author of New York Recentered: Building the Metropolis from the Shore (2019).
Dr Daniel Cumming
Daniel Cumming is a postdoctoral fellow in Queens College’s History Department. He is an urban historian who studies environmentalism, capitalism, and inequality in the 20th century. In addition to his work with Melting Metropolis, he is writing a history of health inequality in postindustrial Baltimore.
Deepika Kanthavara Madhava
An overseas architect in training and practice, Deepika currently serves as Built Environment Project Lead at Somers Town Community Association. She fosters community-led approaches to urban design, sustainability, and climate resilience, empowering residents to shape inclusive, equitable built environment transformations. She is also a trustee of the Heritage Alliance.
nicola wheeler
Bio coming soon
Camilla Tham
Camilla is Head of International Partnerships at the Natural History Museum. She is responsible for building collaborative relationships with organisations and individuals across the world to extend the Museum's mission and advocacy programmes internationally and representing the Museum at global events.
harun morrison
Harun Morrison is an artist and writer and an associate artist with Greenpeace UK on the project Bad Taste. He is currently showing research on darkness in urban space, developed with Kim Coleman at Orleans House Gallery. Harun is Visiting Fellow at Goldsmiths University, London and part of the Art and Ecology Research Centre. He is also part of the faculty of the Dutch Art Institute, MA Art Praxis and Conditions in Croydon, London.
Dr Jon Winder
Jon Winder is an urban environmental historian at the University of Liverpool. His research explores the diverse ways in which we have tried to create more liveable and humane urban environments in the present and the past. He is currently using oral histories to explore everyday experiences of urban heat.