Congratulations to Jessica Armitage for winning both available prizes awarded by the University of Bristol’s School of Psychological Science to those graduating from their MSc in Neuropsychology and MSc in Research Methods programmes.
Taught Component Prize is awared to the student with the best taught component average mark across the Neuropsychology and Research Methods programmes.
Research Project Prize is awarded to the best research project across the Neuropsychology and Research Methods programs.
In April 2019 Kalyan Kumar was invited to San Francisco to attend the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) conference themed on ‘Education for Sustainability’.
This was in order for him to present his paper, “Effects of Decentralisation in School Management on Student Learning: Empirical Analysis of Young Lives Survey Data Using Multi-Level Modelling”, to the international audience
His research was chosen from the many presenters to win the Outstanding Early Career Paper Award, an award that comes with a £500 prize fund!
His paper is currently in the submission process and should be published soon!
Celia Robbins entry “Tilting at windmills in a climate-changed world”, delves into the polarising opinions caused by wind turbines and how important it is to look into the causes of these attitudes with the need for renewable energy becoming more pressing.
Niall McLoughlins article “How psychology can help communities cope in a changing climate” deals with the effects that flooding has on its victims from a psychological perspective and how the levels of public engagement could help people to cope with the trauma.
Utilising the SWDTP Impact Fund, Chloe Asker organised a very successful 8 week mindfulness course. The sessions were run together as a group. allowing for bespoke classes that suited the needs of all of the members perectly. Throughout the course, the importance of group dynamics were heavily focused on, leading to strong sense of community.
This lead them to creating a zine based around the themes of acceptance, compassion, suffering and gratitude, a reminder of the work that they had done together.
Read more about Chloe’s experience and what she learned and read the completed zine in our news post, New ways of being together.
Congratulations to University of Bristol Politics PhD student Rosie Walters! Working with the Gender and Development journal, she organised and ran an amazing event on “Young Feminisms”!
The event featured representatives from:
Oxfam
Integrate UK
The Association for Women’s Rights in Development
The talk attracted over 90 staff and students from the universities of Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Oxford and UWE. On top of that, hundreds more have watched the video of the event on the Gender and Development journal Facebook page!
Congratulations again Rosie, keep up the great work!
In what can only be described as a feat of endurance, Nasrul Ismail (Health and Welbeing, UWE) conducted 11 interviews across 6 countries in 2 weeks during March 2018. Nasrul used his Overseas Fieldwork Allowance to “undertake primary, in-depth, qualitative research interviews” essential to his PhD- which considers the effects of austerity on prisoners. He met with representatives from multiple different organisations, including the World Health Organisation; the European Court of Human Rights and the Irish Probation Service. Nasrul also met with three stakeholders in-between conducting interviews.
The OFA funding allowed Nasrul to realise his ambition to conduct all 11 interviews face-to-face and in thecities in which the interviewees were located.
Nasrul’s work is a perfect example of the fantastic opportunities presented by OFA. He received manyoffers for future collaboration, including: the offer of an internship in Vienna; offers to present guest lectures and an invitation to deliver a keynote speech at the 2nd International Correctional Research Symposium, Prague, in May 2018.
It looks like Nasrul is going to be kept pretty busy!
University of Bath Psychology student Hope Christie won the Ede and Ravenscroft Best Research Student Prize at the University of Bath!
Hope delivered a presentation about her research at an open event at the university of Bath. The competition was fierce as Hope reported that the other finalists had also delivered “amazing presentations”.
As well as a fantastic experience and prestigious title, Hope’s victory will be reported to the University of Bath Senate. Well done Hope!
In order to win the award, Tamsyn had to demonstrate multiple skills. First, she had to give evidence of her unique approach to her research questions. This includes her study utilising biomarkers of stress- you can read more about Tamsyn’s trip to Spit Camp further down the Student Showcase page. Then, she had to demonstrate the long-term impact of her research on the field and identify personal characteristics that have helped her to overcome personal adversities and research difficulties. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the stress researcher chose resilience as the focus of her personal characteristics. Finally, her supervisor- Professor Julie Turner-Cobb- wrote a supporting statement.
Tamsyn said: “I’m feeling really delighted to have received the award. It feels like a really nice way to have my achievements thus far recognised. It also comes at a very good time in terms of motivation, as I approach the final stage of my PhD this award has given me a real boost to believe in myself and the work I do.”
As part of the prize, Tamsyn has been invited to talk about her research at the PsyPAG conference in July, where she will talk more in depth about how her resilience has supported her research. If you can’t wait till July, don’t forget to check out Tamsyn’s blog today!
Sam Whewall (Education, University of Bath) and his supervisor- Dr Michael Donnelly– have developed a new method of mapping individuals’ geographical imaginaries. They use this participatory research method to study the role that geography and geographical perception play in Higher-Education decision-making.
They asked participants to colour-code a blank map of the UK according to where they might like to live whilst at university. Then, the participants were interviewed and asked to explain how they constructed their map. The exercise highlighted participants’ beliefs, misconceptions, feelings and perceptions.
An article about the participatory research method was published in the NCRM‘s newsletter- Methods News.The article goes into more detail about the mapping tool. You can read it here.
Sam is also a new addition to our Student Blogs page as he has started his own blog – a journal of his research, his daily life and- hopefully- his travels too.
We’re proud to report that Exeter Psychology researcher Miriam Cohen had a very successful Overseas Institutional Visit to the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
Miriam worked on the launch of a new project, delivered a talk; attended a workshop on gang violence; tutored a Masters student and more! She made some fantastic contacts with PGRs and academic experts and hopes to continue the collaborative work and the friendships that bloomed in SA.
