North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership
Presenting around the world: new spaces for virtual conferences
Michael Greenhough, Social Studies of Science, Technology and Medicine, Lancaster University, (2019 Cohort)
Amidst the pandemic, conference organisers have been tasked with reconfiguring the format of the academic conference to move into the virtual sphere. I have been lucky enough to present at two international conferences virtually over the past 12 months with RTSG funds. One in particular stands out when I presented at the 2nd annual Temporal Belongings conference. The conference was originally planned for 2019, however it was delayed in order to consider how the event could take place as ‘carbon neutral’ as possible. Moving the conference online was the logical solution, and the unfortunate effects of the pandemic resulted in plans not being disrupted as the online format was already being developed.
Read MoreExperience of doing online training courses
Gabrielle Humphreys, Psychology, University of Liverpool, (2019 Cohort)
Originally when lockdown hit I decided to wait it out before completing training courses. I have always learned better in person than through videos. Because of this, I debated whether an online training course would be worth their typically high prices in this format, and, I can’t lie, was a little bit miffed about the lack of a day out with complimentary biscuits and a buffet-style lunch.
Read MoreEmbodied Geographies Reading Group
Poppy Budworth, Geography and Environment, University of Liverpool (2020 Cohort) and Olivia Fletcher, Geography and Environment, University of Manchester (2020 Cohort)
As first-year PhD students in Human Geography, we decided to start an Embodied Geographies reading group in February, as a way to bring people together from different disciplines and universities. The group has created a space for open and exploratory discussions about all things embodiment. Each month we encourage reading recommendations from group members to ensure we cover a wider range of topics; so far this has included readings on Covid-19 and data, imposter syndrome and auto-ethnography.
We’ve had some really positive feedback from members of the reading group, who have been grateful to us for creating both a social and an academic space for discussions. Members have commented on how it has made meeting people with similar research interests from different disciplines and across different universities easier, allowing them to network with others in a time when facilitating this offline is not possible. Members have also been enjoying reading literature that they had not encountered previously and has thus encouraged them to explore new areas for their research. In addition, the reading group has inspired another first-year Postgraduate Researcher from the University of Manchester to start their own reading group on Urban Futures.
Establishing the group has also helped us both personally. It has not only enabled us to gain some experience organising events, it has also helped us with our own confidence around speaking in front of new groups of people, which will help us greatly when presenting at upcoming conferences. In needing to facilitate a discussion around the readings, we have also improved our critical thinking skills, whereby we have reflected on the readings and developed our own interpretations and thoughts about the texts. Moreover, the group has not only enabled us to network with other members of the group, it has also facilitated conversations via Twitter with authors of the papers we have been discussing, whereby we have been able to feedback the discussions of the group. The group has also helped us both develop a friendship, which has been really helpful at a time when we have both started our PhD’s virtually.
The reading group is on the third Tuesday of every month (4-5pm). If you would like to join the reading group mailing list, please contact either of us via email: O.A.Fletcher@liverpool.ac.uk / poppy.budworth@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk or Twitter: @livAfletcher / @budworthpopppy
DataCamp’ing during Lockdown
Kaori Narita, Economics, University of Liverpool (2017 Cohort)
A few months in during the first lockdown, I finally started finding myself comfortable with the “new normal,” which is quite different from my old working environment, since I was never a working-from-home person and enjoyed the company of my colleagues in our PhD office.
Thanks to the financial support given by NWSSDTP, however, I have developed necessary skills as a quantitative researcher over the past three years of my PhD journey, and this has remained unchanged amidst the global pandemic.
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