Category: workshop

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Postgraduate Workshop Resources

 

In November 2017 DARG ran a postgraduate workshop focusing on developing a communications and impact strategy for your work. For those who were unable to attend we have included some useful resources below and a communication and impact plan template available to use here.

 

 

Useful resources

  • INASP does a lot of work with development policy-makers and can provide useful advice on Policy Influence Plans. In addition, they have some great resources for those working in developing countries, and information about communicating research with academics and practitioners in other countries. (Follow them on Twitter: @INASPinfo)

 

  • Research to Action has a huge number of resources on making sure your research is accessible and used by development practitioners and policymakers. Specifically, there are loads of useful guides and templates available here. (Follow them on Twitter: @Research2Action)

 

  • Communications & Impact strategy guides: In addition to our basic template, ESRC has a useful guide here, and a list of alternatives can be found here.

 

  • If you’re interested in creative methods of communication, check out PositiveNegatives, which produces some fantastic comics and animations on humanitarian and development issues. (Follow them on Twitter: @PosNegOrg) If you think a creative medium could be a great way to share your work/research “story” with particular groups, why not check out the Arts-based courses taught at your university – producing a film, animation, comic, podcast etc. linked to your research could be a great project for an undergraduate or Masters-level student, either as part of their course or to develop their portfolio…

 

 

  • Remember to check out courses offered by your institution. Most have training or resources on publishing, working with the media, using social media as an academic etc. And if they don’t, make a request for them to start offering such support! It’s also worth making sure you are always letting someone from your university or research centre know if you are trying to promote a publication/blog post/presentation etc. so they can help you to share it widely and offer you communications support.

 

  • Lastly, if you are thinking of trying out Twitter as an academic, start off by ‘following’ some DARG-related profiles:
    – DARG: @DARG_RGS
    – RGS Postgraduate Forum: @PGF_RGSIBG
    – RGS Postgrad Forum for Masters students: @PGFmasters
    – RGS Higher Education: @RGS_IBGhe
    – Prof Dorothea Kleine: @dorotheakleine
    – Gemma Pearson: @GemKPea
    – Hannah Smith: @hannahesmith_13
    … and check out who they follow.
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DARG PGR Workshop- 14th November

PGR Workshop: Developing a communications and impact strategy for your research

 

Organisers: Developing Areas Research Group (DARG), Royal Geographical Society
Date and time: Tuesday 14th November 2017, 12-4pm
Location: Meeting room 1, The Octagon Centre, Sheffield, S10 2TQ

 

Workshop description: This workshop will guide postgraduate researchers to develop a communications and impact strategy for their research. The focus will be on varied and innovative ways of communicating research with audiences and stakeholders outside of academia. The workshop will include case studies and examples from external speakers, followed by group discussion and time to draft your own strategy and seek feedback from your peers.

Target audience: The workshop is open to all postgraduate researchers, but is primarily designed for Masters and PhD students from Geography (Physical and Human), International Development and Social Science backgrounds.

 

Tickets: £5, available here

For more information, please contact Hannah Smith at smithh39@coventry.ac.uk

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DARG Postgraduate Workshop- 25th May 2016

We are holding a one day event to explore the application of academic research and research skills to different sectors beyond academia. The event will be held at Senate House, London on 25th May 2016 and will include speakers from public, private and non-profit sectors.

The day will include panel discussions on the relevance of research for impact, policy and programming with a focus on how the skills you have learned during your PhD can be adapted to these areas.

Additionally, there will be the follwoing expert speakers presenting on how to effectively communicate your PhD research outside of academia.

  • Stacey Davies │ Managing Director at Practical Action Publishing
  • Jenny Cann │Head of Research, Migration & Borders Analysis at the Home Office (TBC)
  • Natalie Neil │ Senior Research & Impact Manager at the Fairtrade Foundation
  • Mark Henderson │Policy Officer – DG Trade European Commission
  • Tim Uwin │UNESCO Chair in ICT4D, and Emeritus Professor of Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is also an Honorary Professor at Lanzhou Univeristy in China.
  • Dr Jay Mistry │ Reader at Royal Holloway, University of London │ Jay was the Coordinator of Project COBRA – Future Challenges, Local Solutions, an EU-funded project working with Indigenous groups in the Guiana Shield of South America.
  • Lydia Tanner │Consultant at Jigsaw Consult specialising in evaluation work relating to primary healthcare, education, community resilience and local responses to emergencies and conflict.
  • John King │Post Graduate Student at Royal Holloway researching the relationships between social science and public policy making, and how social scientists work to translate their ideas so that they can be used by policy makers.
  • Nelly Ali │Post Graduate Student at Birkberk conducting an ethnographic study with street girls and young street mothers in Cairo, Egypt. Nelly has a large blog and twitter following and will discuss the ethics of publishing PhD work online.

To book and to see updates on the confirmed speakers, please see our Eventbrite page here

Postgraduate Workshop 2016

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DARG Undergraduate Development Dissertation Workshop January 2016

The Developing Areas Research Group (DARG) Undergraduate Development Dissertation Workshop is perfect for undergraduate students who are commencing, preparing or thinking about doing a dissertation on development. The workshop will cover practical issues such as fieldwork and logistics, as well as in depth sessions on methodologies including participatory research methods, documentary analysis, visual methods, and interviews and focus groups. Sessions are held by experts in the field, and graduates in development will also be there to share their experiences.

Tickets are £10 for members, or £12 for non-members, which will include a year’s DARG membership.

Saturday, 16 January 2016 from 10:00 to 17:00 (GMT)

University College London – Gower Street London, Gt Lon WC1E 6BT GB

Tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/2016-darg-undergraduate-development-dissertation-workshop-tickets-19495211703?aff=ebrowse

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DARG Event- Careers in Academia- June 2015

On the 5th June 2015 the annual postgraduate DARG careers workshop took place at the University of Manchester with a focus on pursuing a career in academia. It was a really fantastic and rewarding day with many inspirational and incredibly knowledgeable speakers. Here is what some of the attendees had to say about the event:

“I think one of the best things about the day was that you were able to ‘historically’ track the way the speakers were able to shape their own career direction, and the way they overcame the challenges facing anybody considering an academic job post PhD. The informal nature of the event also allowed for a deeper discussion about work-life balances and how to juggle the different types of roles you have to fulfil to progress in academia.”

“I think the workshop was really good. It got me thinking about the future… the openness of the speakers about the realities, struggles and success of the PhD process and life after was really good to hear. I think more workshops like these need to be organised.”

“I think it was an interesting workshop specially in the context that I got a first hand insight to the struggles/possibilities/flexibilities that an early career researcher can face and how to cope with them. First hand accounts are always immensely useful. Not many conferences talks about such personal journeys.”

We at DARG are really looking forward to organising next years event so please stay tuned if you would be interested in attending.

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Development Geography Careers Workshop- 5th June 2015, Manchester

The upcoming DARG workshop ‘Navigating a Career in Academia: Survival Tips for Development Geographers’ will be held on Friday, June 5th 2015, at the University of Manchester.
This one-day workshop is aimed at postgraduate students thinking about how to pursue a career in academia and will cover topics such as publishing from your PhD and how to find the right position for you.
Tickets cost £15 includes lunch. Tickets can be bought HERE
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DARG Undergraduate Development Dissertation Workshop- March 21st 2015

The upcoming DARG Undergraduate Development Dissertation Workshop will be held on Saturday, March 21st 2015, at UCL London.
This one-day workshop is aimed at undergraduate students considering doing their final year dissertation on a topic related to Development Geography while being based abroad or in the UK. It’s a great chance for students to get information and advice on planning and designing their projects, choosing methods and going on fieldwork.
It is £10 for members, £12 to join DARG & attend and includes lunch. Tickets can be bought HERE
A taster of what past workshops have covered can be found HERE
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Call for abstracts: The Third University of Leeds Researchers in Development Network (RiDNet) conference

Call for abstracts: The Third University of Leeds Researchers in Development Network (RiDNet) conference will be taking place on the 12th November 2014. The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Does Research Make a Difference in Development? Bridging the gaps between research, policy and practice’ and we are very excited to open up the Calls for Abstracts (attached) to all PhD students and early career researchers across the UK. Deadline for submission for presentation and poster abstracts is 31st August 2014.

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Cultural Geographies of Development: Politics, Approaches and Methods for Teaching Geography Undergraduates

Date: Monday 30th June 2014, 9.45-1.00

Venue: Room 311, Geography Building, School of School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT

This half-day event is organised by Dr Pat Noxolo, University of Birmingham, and is funded by the University of Birmingham Excellence in Teaching Fund, with postgraduate travel bursaries funded by the Developing Areas Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society

Description: There was a time in development theory and practice when ‘culture’ was seen as a collection of inconvenient local traditions that would be swept away by modernisation.  But culture has proved remarkably adaptable, so that globalisation has only increased cultural diversity and the awareness of difference.

This half-day event is for established, new and potential lecturers in development geography.  It is an opportunity to explore, through discussion, why, what and how we can teach students about what is meant by culture, its geographies, and its changing relationships with the spaces and places of development.  How can students understand processes of cultural change in relation to a range of development practices, and the challenges of living and working with cultural difference in an increasingly interconnected but still highly unequal world?  And what are the possible implications of the increasingly diverse cultures of development practitioners, organisations and institutions, for students’ future roles and responsibilities in addressing global inequality?

The timetable for the event is as follows:

9.45 Welcome and opening thoughts (Dr Pat Noxolo, University of Birmingham)

10.00 Discussions and experiences 1 (facilitator: Pat Noxolo): Cultural geographies of development: opportunities and dangers?

10.45 Break

11.00 Discussions and experiences 2 (facilitators: Drs Clare Madge and Jen Dickinson, University of Leicester): Curricular movements: whose geographies, what culture, which developments?

11.45 Discussions and experiences 3 (facilitators: Dr Susan Mains, University of Dundee, and Clare Newstead, Nottingham Trent University): Changing teaching and learning methods: changing geographers?

12.45 Closing thoughts (facilitator: Pat Noxolo)

1.00 Close and buffet lunch

The event is intended as an informal opportunity for discussion based on teaching and learning experiences, so please come prepared to share your thoughts and practices.

Participation is free, but please email Dr Pat Noxolo by Monday 23rd June for catering purposes.  To apply for a postgraduate travel bursary to contribute to travel within the UK only, please email Dr Pat Noxolo by Monday 23rd June, giving details of your postgraduate research, and with a short statement (up to 150 words) saying why your research and teaching/future career make this a relevant event for you.

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CFP: Food Justice: knowing food/securing the future

University of Reading, UK, 16th-17th July 2014 Sponsored by the Norma Wilkinson Trust, the Geographies of Justice Research Group, the RGS-IBG and the University of Reading. http://foodjustice2014.wordpress.com/

Organizers: Agatha Herman, Mike Goodman & Sally Lloyd-Evans (University of Reading)

From farmers’ markets to food deserts, food banks to community allotments, the concept of food justice engages with the contemporary global challenges of food access, sovereignty and security through the lens of social and spatial inclusion/exclusion. This two-day conference aims to make space for otherwise marginalised stories and relations with food by creating an opportunity for academics, civil society and policy professionals to work together to discuss and address some of these issues. The conference focus on justice and inclusion/exclusion connects into broader social debates on inequality, race, gender, class, identity, livelihoods and agency and we welcome anyone interested in these issues to come along and participate.

Depending on the quality and volume of papers received, we plan to produce either a special themed journal issue or an edited volume in the Ashgate Critical Food Studies series alongside an overview report to be disseminated to civil society and policy organisations.

 

Confirmed speakers include Nik Heynen (University of Georgia), Liz Dowler (University of Warwick), Mike Goodman (University of Reading) and David McAuley(The Trussell Trust).

We invite you to submit papers on, but not limited to, the following topics:

  • Concepts of justice in the context of food
  • Food access and exclusions
  • Austerity, access and diets
  • Food banks and alternative food supplies
  • Civic Food
  • Food, identity and body image
  • Food and family
  • Community gardening/production
  • Food activism
  • Food policy and policy contexts
  • Conventional and alternative food networks
  • Sustainability/resilience of food systems
  • Changing food geographies
  • How to practise food justice

Contributions are welcome from a range of areas across and beyond geography, including engagements from outside academia.

Please send abstracts of 200-300 words to Agatha Herman (a.l.herman@reading.ac.uk) ASAP!