North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership
Social History Conference in Durham University
Amy Stanning, Economic & Social History, Lancaster University (2021 Cohort) with Louise Bell from Leeds University
I have been a PGR rep on the SHS committee for a year now and this was my first conference as a rep.
Louise and I organised a welcome desk at the start of the conference and welcomed lots of lovely PGRs and shared all the wonderful things we had in store.
On the first night we organised a post-dinner quiz of five rounds in the bar at Collingwood College where we all stayed. The quiz was great fun and the winners enjoyed their chocolate!
On day two we organised a meet-up and lots of PGRs came along to discuss PGR life and how we as reps could support the PGR community – we got lots of great ideas!
My paper was also on day two and it was a big milestone for me as it was my first paper at a learned society conference, quite nerve-wracking but it seemed to go well!
I am grateful to the NWSSDTP for funding my place at the conference and enabling me to get involved!
Surviving my first conference presentation
Luke Parkinson, CSPSW, Lancaster University (2021 Cohort)
After speaking with other PhD students about our conference experiences, I decided to write this blog. Instead of writing about my research directly, I want to acknowledge and share the difficult experience of undertaking a professional activity for the first time through the everyday story of attending my first conference in September 2023. Anxiety around conference presenting is sometimes reduced to the idea of stage fright and public speaking. Although this resonated with me, several other challenges came before and during the conference. Conference presentations, at least for me, are not a straightforward and linear task, just as my research has so far proved not to be.
Read MoreMore than a packet of biscuits: The art of giving – Lessons in the Yorkshire landscape
Shelan Holden, Sociology, Lancaster University (2021 Cohort)
My research is on the impact that the 1984/85 miners’ strike had on children and young people at the time in a former mining village in South Yorkshire. This has involved a lot of travelling from Lancaster to Yorkshire, for both archive and interview work. Because I am disabled there was no way I could make that journey every day, and my ethnographic fieldwork relied on me immersing myself for stretches of time in the area. Throughout my studies, and more so since conducting my research, I have found the RTSG support funds crucial in me being able to conduct my research so thoroughly.
Read MoreAttending the Wageningen Political Ecology PhD Spring School in the Netherlands.
Natalie York, Development and Humanitarianism in an Unequal World, University of Manchester (2021 Cohort)
Last month, thanks to the NWSSDTP conference fund, I had the chance to attend the Wageningen Political Ecology PhD Spring School in the Netherlands. It was a 5-day intensive workshop exploring vibrant environmental conservation debates on extinction struggles, neoliberal natures, and new visions for how we can do conservation in more convivial ways. My own PhD research takes a political ecology perspective to explore how different conservation approaches protect biocultural diversity, so as soon as I read the description for this year’s Spring School, I knew I had to go. I was therefore very excited when the DTP approved my application!
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North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership 