Nottingham ESRC Doctoral Training Programmes

Student report: ESRC DTC Student Conference 2016

2016-conf

Picture with thanks to North West DTC

On the 16-17 June 2016, the North West Doctoral Training Centre and the ESRC held the first ESRC PGR Conference for all ESRC-funded students. It took place at ACC Liverpool, on the former Kings Dock in Liverpool. Here, Nottingham ESRC DTC student shares her experience with us:

Day One

Despite June being a busy month in my PhD calendar, I jumped at the chance to attend the ESRC conference hosted by the North West DTC in Liverpool.  I hadn’t been to Liverpool for many years, which in my opinion was the perfect city for a social science conference with plenty of social history and culture to indulge in.  Unlike previous years this conference was aimed at all cohorts, this was reflected in a diverse and broad range of seminars and presentations.  The conference opened on Thursday evening with a keynote speech by Professor Sylvia Walby from Lancaster University, who inspired us with her ESRC funded work on new methodologies for measuring domestic violence.  Her work has challenged the ONS data that suggests all violent crime has been decreasing in the UK, rather by using different statistical techniques she has been able to show an increase in domestic violence against women since the financial crisis of 2008.  After which a  reception overlooking the Mersey from the impressive glass balcony of the City’s ACC was held. In need of food and evening culture, I wandered into the city centre with some colleagues to a fabulous tapas restaurant!

Day Two

One of the highlights of the second day for me was the research case studies presented by Teela Saunders and Ruth Patrick on impact.  Ruth explained how she had gained lottery funding to create an animation of her work with benefit claimants called ‘dole animators’ (@doleanimators) giving them a much needed voice and challenging negative media representations of their lives.  I attended a workshop on ‘writers block’ where there were plenty of practical and academic tips on how to overcome it by writing every day!  There was a range of workshops on leadership, writing for a journal, data, social media, presenting a conference paper and using theory.   I attended symposia on ‘writing for a journal’ and ‘presenting a conference paper’ where academics from a variety of disciplines shared their helpful advice and experiences.  Throughout the day there was plenty of opportunity to mix with colleagues from other DTCs and find out about the exciting work of other universities.  Students were able to showcase their work in the three-minute thesis video and the poster competitions – these really were excellent.  On the Friday evening train journey home I reflected on what a fantastic opportunity being an ESRC funded student is and how I can use this to facilitate my career beyond the PhD. 

 

Rebecca Suart is an ESRC (1+3) candidate in Education in the first year of her PhD at the University of Nottingham.  Rebecca’s research focuses on adult women learners in the FE sector.

Twitter: @suart_rebecca
Email: ttxrmsu@nottingham.ac.uk

Posted on Tuesday 21st June 2016

Nottingham ESRC Doctoral Training Programmes

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