In Episode 2 of our podcast, recorded at the SWDTP’s Collaboration and Connectivity Conference in 2022, Rachael Pryor from the University of the West of England discusses her PhD research looking at the education of children in care and their transition from primary school to secondary school.
Author: Brendan Walsh
-
Let’s Collaborate with Rachael on the education of children in care.
In Episode 2 of our podcast, recorded at the SWDTP’s Collaboration and Connectivity Conference in 2022, Rachael Pryor from the University of the West of England discusses her PhD research looking at the education of children in care and their transition from primary school to secondary school.
-
Let’s Collaborate with Stefan on financial systems that are contributing to the climate crisis.
In Episode 1 of our podcast, recorded at the SWDTP Collaboration and Connectivity Conference in 2022, PhD student Stefan Zylinski from the University of Bristol talks about his research investigating how financial systems contribute to the climate crisis.
-
The 8th edition of TOR is here!
We are pleased to announce the online publication of the our latest edition to our contributors and readers of The Open Review Journal.
Collaboration, diversity, and inclusion are critical to our 8th Edition. Therefore, an interesting demonstration of the breadth of inclusive research under the theme of Collaboration encompasses the spectrum of TOR’s 8th Edition. Research sites are diverse; research questions are both theoretical and practical; a range of quantitative and qualitative research methods are used, including questionnaires, interviews, reflective short essays and a poem dedicated to our theme.
We are grateful to our authors for their contributions, and to our editorial board for their commitment to providing our authors with their rigorous reviewer feedback and helpful editorial assistance as well as other people working in other ways for the journal, for their trust and support. http://theopenreview.com/edition8-2023
-
Congratulations to Dr Pamela Buchan for winning the ESRC Impact Prize!
Dr Pamela Buchan from Exeter is the fantastic winner of the #ImpactPrize in the ‘Outstanding Impact in Early Career’ category. Learn more about her achievement here .
-
The SWDTP’s First Summer School at Bailbrook House
On a quiet Wednesday morning in Bath, the first SWDTP summer school began. Students travelled from across the South West to Bailbrook House in Bath for a three day immersive experience in collaboration, employability and wellbeing that aimed to provide insights and techniques to use now and in the future. We had 44 students in total, including 14 PGRs not funded by the SWDTP, with every stage of the PhD journey represented from MRes to writing up.
The aim of the event was to guide students through the three themes while also having the opportunity for networking and quiet moments for reflection.
Mind the Gap wellbeing session
Close the wellbeing knowing-doing gap with solution focused reflection with Abi Boughton-Thomas, Wellbeing Coach
- Abi Boughton-Thomas helped students theorise wellbeing and encouraged attendees to discuss with others how it impacts yourself as a researcher.
- Abi used a compassion-based approach to explain why we need self-compassion and how this changes under stress. One question that regularly came up was: Is our perfectionism being directed in the wrong way? How do we find a happy medium between attention to detail and *obsessive* attention to detail?
- At the end of the session, students were asked to identify key learnings from the session and stick to the board. There were many common points, showing how the PhD journey is universal despite feeling isolating.
Top tips from a former SWDTP student
We also heard from Nasrul Ismail, Lecturer in Criminology, University of Bristol and former SWDTP student talking about his tips for making the most out of your PhD and beyond. His top tips included:
- When considering how to forge your own path, the best places to focus on are collaboration and your own branding
- Resilience takes practice so it’s important to remember that just like Formula1, you need pit stops – and not just when you’re burnt out! Finding a work life balance that works for you will stop you from being consumed by your research – try and find a hobby outside of your PhD. Most importantly, ask for help when you need it – sometimes it can be the best thing for you.
- When it comes to publishing during your PhD, focus on quality over quantity
- Nasrul also gave some insight into his viva: Because he had published work on some of his chapters during his PhD, his viva questions were much more focused and easier to manage
What our students said
The SWDTP summer school was a brilliant networking opportunity, that also helped me develop my skills and identity as a researcher
Hannah cowdell
This summer school made me realise how wonderful and supportive the SWDTP community is
Ella Barclay
This was a fantastic summer school at a great venue and has given me plenty to think about when working with other disciplines and managing my wellbeing
Josh Tenn
I found a great community of doctoral researchers from whom I learnt so much in a supportive environment. The summer school promoted these fantastic experiences through creative methodologies in a great location.
Silvia Espinal Meza -
Greg Stride reflecting on the UKRI Policy Internship Scheme
Greg Stride spent three months in the House of Commons with the Foreign Affairs Committee through the UKRI Policy Internship Scheme. Read what he got up to below.
What were you involved with on your placement?
“I was placed on the Foreign Affairs Committee, where it was my job to support the work of the committee. A short list of a few of the major tasks:
- Worked on the development of the ‘Committee Corridor Podcast,’ a new podcast for Select Committees. This included meeting with and shortlisting podcast production companies, filling out procurement forms, working on lists of potential guests. The podcast can be found here.
- I worked on briefings for diverse topics: Afghanistan, the South China Sea, the Baltic states and a timeline of the Ukraine crisis as it unfolded. I was also asked to write briefings as fast as possible on the impact of sanctions on the Russian economy, and the impact of the crisis on global food and energy.
- I wrote a computer programme to compare sanctions regimes across the EU, UK, and USA. This was only possible with the programming knowledge I have picked up in my PhD.
- I was asked to contribute to a brief for the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee when they questioned Michael Gove about the Elections Bill, this being my area of PhD research. Information I provided made it into both the questioning session (transcript here) and a letter to the Secretary of State (which you can read here).
- I organised a series of expert roundtables about the future of the Ukraine crises. This involved inviting academics from across universities and think tanks to give their views on elements of the crisis: the Russian domestic situation, Belarus, chemical and nuclear weapons, NATO and more.“
Did the placement meet your expectations?
“The placement met and exceeded all of my expectations. I wanted to work in a fast-paced environment with a varied set of challenges where I could operate as part of a team. The work, particular after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, was certainly fast paced. The challenges could hardly have been more varied.”
“And it was an exceptional privilege to work with the team during this extremely difficult time. It is very easy to imagine that the team might have left me out of the work after the invasion, considering how busy everyone was, but I found the complete opposite. They made sure I was included, for which I am immensely grateful.”
How has the placement developed your insight into collaborating with non-academic partners?
“The placement showed me how academics can contribute to the workings of parliament. I was able to use a few skills I picked up in academia, particularly the programming elements, to solve problems that otherwise would have been very difficult.”
“I also worked with academics to give up-to-date information on the Ukraine crisis to the committee staff through expert roundtables.”
“Finally, an academic was involved in setting up the policy simulation, which proved again how their expertise, gained throughout their research, is invaluable for parliamentary work.”
Would you recommend a placement to other students? What advice would you give?
“Yes I would. The placement showed me how skills I think of as academic skills – summarising and communicating complicated topics – for example, can be used outside of academia for the benefit of any groups.”
“My advice: your PhD will probably give you a different perspective and set of tools from the other people working at your placement company. Use these.”
About placement funding
The SWDTP Placement Scheme offers you the opportunity to get work experience of up to six months in a relevant UK based partner organisation. This can benefit your research as well as helping to enhance your CV and future employment prospects. All SWDTP-funded doctoral students are eligible to take part. It is not usually possible to arrange a placement during an MRes year.
If you are interested in doing a placement, it is best to speak to your supervisor in the first instance, and arrange an informal discussion with the SWDTP Collaboration Facilitator, the Collaboration Facilitator Conisbee. (more information on the scheme can also be found here).
-
Stirring up new ideas: Harriet Hand’s RTSG Project
By using her Research Training Support Grant, Harriet Hand, an SWDTP student, organised and facilitated a workshop to bring her research to life.
The project’s aim
Harriet’s research project aims to further our understanding of how creative thinking can be nurtured in the classroom. Over six weeks in March and April 2022, she held a series of workshops as a research event with a group of post-16 learners in Bristol.
The aim was to experiment with mapping as a method of making space for, and activating, creative thinking. Engaging with Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy and the concept of the rhizome, the group explored how mapping techniques mobilised properties such as connectivity, multiplicity, open-endedness and disruption as a way of making sense of ourselves in relation to the world around us.
Paper marbling
To mark the end of the event, the Suminagashi artist Sarah Amatt ran a workshop in Japanese paper marbling. Suminagashi means ink (sumi) floating (nagashi) on water and is a paper marbling practice that can be traced back to the 800s. The workshop became a way of intensifying the some of the feelings of movement, chance and open-endedness that had been experienced over the course of the research event.
As the swirling inky papers were gathered at the end of the workshop, students shared what they thought of as the ‘rules’ of Suminigashi: the beauty in things we thought had been ‘mistakes’, the unpredictability, the endless possibilities, of taking time, pausing, allowing the mixing of things to do its work.
Harriet also produced a video to bring together documentation of the artist workshop with traces of her theoretical and practice-based explorations of creative thinking. Watch it below:
This workshop was made possible by the SWDTP and RTSG funding. Bristol + Bath Creative R + D provided the workshop space in Bristol’s Watershed. The students were Aalia, Charles, Lul and Ramla from North Bristol Post-16 Centre (Cotham). Sarah Amatt’s work can be found at https://www.sarahamatt.com/
-
Tom Avery’s OIV to University of Pennsylvania, USA
Education researcher, Tom Avery was awarded Overseas Institutional Visit funding to travel to the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) for two weeks in March 2022.
Purpose of the trip
Tom’s research investigates the experiences refugees have of school in the UK. He is investigating this from a language policy perspective, exploring the presence and effects of raciolinguistic and colonial ideologies in school curricula, school policy, and teacher practice. Effectively asking how refugees navigate a school system designed for white, British speakers of English.
The purpose of Tom’s OIV is to meet with Nelson Flores (an eminent scholar on raciolinguistics) and his PhD students at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) in order to develop long-term professional networks, engage in knowledge exchange, and take part in a doctoral symposium.
In the run up to his visit, Tom was also granted a Graduate Student Award by AAAL for his upcoming presentation at the AAAL 2022 conference. The award is merit-based award that supports the attendance of outstanding AAAL graduate student members at the conference.
Tom presenting at the AAAL conference
Do you think your visit made an impact to your PhD research?
“This trip was an excellent chance to meet and talk with some of the major voices in my field, which I would not have had a chance to do otherwise. I was able to participate in seven lectures at an Ivy League school (UPenn) and listen to over 40 speakers during the two conferences I attended.“
“I was also able to get some of their feedback on my work and present my work to groups of scholars who are working on the cutting edge of the field. Being in the USA in person also gave me a chance to engage in and grapple with current debates and controversies in my field, some of which will form a key part of my doctoral writing (e.g. is Academic English a tool of colonial domination or a requirement for emancipation).”
Would you recommend the OIV Scheme to other students?
“Absolutely – and for all the reasons above! The process was quite simple and the SWDTP team were very helpful.“
Photo of Tom Avery with the other GSA awardees and Patsy Duff, the AAAL president
About the OIV funding
The Overseas Institutional Visit (OIV) scheme is a funding opportunity available to ESRC funded students (more information on the scheme can be found here). The scheme aims to provide the opportunity for postgraduate researchers to study at an overseas research institution for up to 13 weeks, in order to network with academics and researchers by participating in departmental seminars, events, and training activities.
-
Journeys with Mindfulness
Chloe Asker writes about her experience putting together a zine based on her doctoral research
My doctoral research (funded by the SWDTP) was based on the lived experiences of and ‘journeys’ with mindfulness. As part of the research I worked with a group of participants, tracing their experiences of mindfulness as both a meditation practice but also as a way of living. Over the course of two mindfulness courses and follow up interviews I witnessed the transformative effect that mindfulness had on their lives. Giving my participants a space in which to recount their relationship with the practice offered an opportunity to reflect on their journey, which in turn prompted them to realise the deep effects mindfulness had on their life.
One participant was nervous to meet with me, she thought she had nothing to say about her relationship with mindfulness:
“I said to [my partner] “oh Chloe’s coming to see me, but I don’t think I’m going to be much of a project, to write about! I’m not that interesting, because I haven’t done anything else, any of the things!” But actually it’s been a revelation for me to talk to you cos I [laughs}….”
“Yeah, so it’s another blessing really that you’ve come, and I’ve been able to find inside me the things that mindfulness has done for me that I didn’t know.”
[Transcript from interview with a participant 5/6/2019]As she spoke it became clear that her journey, although at times challenging, had certainly been transformative.
Frustrated with the unreadability of a 100,000 word PhD thesis, I wanted to create an output from the research that would be short, enjoyable to read, interactive and easy to share. I was keen to create something accessible that could communicate the transformative experiences that my participants had shared with me. I also wanted to gently push back against the overwhelming and overarching critiques of mindfulness as ‘McMindfulness’ (Purser, 2019), to show that the practice could be life changing for those involved. I decided to write a zine based on a chapter of my thesis that explores their journeys.
Zines are ‘cheaply made printed forms of expression on any subject’ (Todd and Watson, 2006, p. 12) and are bolstered as the ‘ultimate expression of the do-it-yourself ethic’ (Brent and Biel, 2014, p. 15). Zines are open and diverse in their format, structure, and content. The DIY philosophy at the heart of zines means that they are ‘inherently democratic’ (Bagelman and Bagelman, 2016, p. 366). You do not necessarily need specific resources or artistic competencies. Furthermore, the ability to self-publish means that there are few barriers to production. Throughout my doctoral research I experimented with the zine format – finding the open format and structure useful to creative and participatory research. I was inspired by geographical work that uses zines as a critical-creative methodology and output (Bagelman and Bagelman, 2016; Marie Hall, 2017). However, lacking in artist competency myself, I worked with an illustrator, Isabel Mae Abrams, to design the zine together.
To fund the project I used a top-up to my Research and Training Grant (SWDTP, ESRC) to fund the illustration and publication of the zine. I would highly recommend applying to the SWDTP for an RTSG top-up – it allowed me to complete this project alongside writing my thesis. Originally, the top-up was intended for conferences and in-person events. Due to the pandemic these opportunities were cancelled, with the support from the SWDTP I re-routed the funding to complete this project.
The zine stories several journeys with mindfulness based on the participants’ stories (including my own). To make the booklet interactive and mindful in its format, we worked on a colouring page in the centre fold, along with pauses and a body scan meditation at the end. The zine also comes with three illustrated postcards – you can use these however you’d like. But one option is to write your experiences with mindfulness/meditation and send them back to us in order to continue the conversation on the benefits (or frustrations with) the practice (if you’d like to do this use our contact page to request more information).
Journeys with mindfulness is free to download here as a pdf, or you can read it on issu here. You can also request a printed copy of the zine and postcards here (these are free but I am asking for a postage contribution).
We would love to know what you think of the zine! Get in contact with us here.
References
Bagelman, J., and Bagelman, C. (2016) ZINES: Crafting Change and Repurposing the Neoliberal University. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies 15(2).
Marie Hall, S. (2017) Everyday Austerity. https://everydayausterity.wordpress.com/zine/
Purser, R. (2019) McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality. Watkins Media.
Todd, M., and Watson, E. (2006) Whatcha Mean, What’s a Zine?: The Art of Making Zines and Minicomics. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.