Sam Whewall (Education, University of Bath) and his supervisor- Dr Michael Donnelly– have developed a new method of mapping individuals’ geographical imaginaries. They use this participatory research method to study the role that geography and geographical perception play in Higher-Education decision-making.
They asked participants to colour-code a blank map of the UK according to where they might like to live whilst at university. Then, the participants were interviewed and asked to explain how they constructed their map. The exercise highlighted participants’ beliefs, misconceptions, feelings and perceptions.
An article about the participatory research method was published in the NCRM‘s newsletter- Methods News.The article goes into more detail about the mapping tool. You can read it here.
Sam is also a new addition to our Student Blogs page as he has started his own blog – a journal of his research, his daily life and- hopefully- his travels too.
We’re proud to report that Exeter Psychology researcher Miriam Cohen had a very successful Overseas Institutional Visit to the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
Miriam worked on the launch of a new project, delivered a talk; attended a workshop on gang violence; tutored a Masters student and more! She made some fantastic contacts with PGRs and academic experts and hopes to continue the collaborative work and the friendships that bloomed in SA.
Max Taylor (Political Science and International Studies, University of Bath) visited Brussels and Beijing to conduct EU research fieldwork. He completed 45 interviews; attended the EU-China Dialogue and has been asked to present his research at a future high-profile event!
Max has written two informative blog posts about his visits, in which he offers advice to other researchers conducting Overseas Fieldwork and shares his experiences of being abroad.
Alice Venn (Environment, Energy and Resilience, University of Bristol) appeared on The Cabot Institute’s podcast- CabotCast- to discuss the effectiveness of the Paris Agreement and the potential effects of President Trump’s withdrawal from it.
She made some great observations, so if you’ve got fifteen minutes, give it a listen:
Dan Godshaw (Sociology, University of Bristol) went to Westminster to present his research to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees (APPG). His talk was attended by parliamentarians including Paul Blomfield (Shadow Brexit Secretary), Thangam Debbonaire (MP for Bristol West), Afzal Khan (Shadow Immigration Minister) and Stuart McDonald (MP).
As part of his placement, Dan collaborated with the Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group (GDWG) to produce a report which calls on the Home Office to implement its own guidance on detaining vulnerable people properly and without delay.
Congratulations to Cameron Hunter (Political Science and International Studies, University of Bristol) who, following a successful placement, has been made a Fellow of the Schumacher Institute!
Racial inequality is a prominent issue in the UK, and this extends into education.
We can see this gap at an undergraduate level, with a 22.6% difference between white and black African-Caribbean students receiving a 2:1 degree or above.
We also see this gap at postgraduate level, with black and minority ethnic students being far less likely to go on to higher research degrees, such as PhDs and professional doctorates, than white students. In fact, in 2020, only 18.1% of research postgraduate students identified as black or minority ethnic.
Despite these statistics, there is a growing community of black students pursuing doctorates in the UK. To increase our visibility and celebrate our achievements, Black Future Dr has been developed.
Black Future Dr is an upcoming podcast, funded by the SWDTP’s Impact Fund and dedicated to showcasing the experiences of black doctoral students in the UK. This includes PhD students, as well as students doing professional and medical doctorates. There will be 12 episodes in total, with each focusing on a different student studying a different subject at a different institution. Each episode will be 20 minutes long and will be hosted by Nina Higson-Sweeney (@n_higsonsweeney), a SWDTP-funded PhD student at the University of Bath. We will be discussing a variety of topics, including supervision, motivation, mentorship and non-traditional pathways.
Episodes will be released weekly starting from Monday 3rd May 2021 and can be listened to via Acast as well as on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Deezer.
Current guest speakers for the podcast include:
Lateesha Osbourne, a final-year PhD student in Psychology at the University of Bath
Rees Johnson, a third-year PhD student in Law at the University of Manchester
Adewale Kukoyi, a second-year student studying for a professional doctorate in medicine at the University of Bristol
Alanah Mortlock, a second-year PhD student in Gender Studies at the London School of Economics
Emmanuel Johnson, a third-year PhD student in Education at Coventry University
Louisa Brotherson, a third-year PhD student in Earth Sciences at the University of Liverpool
Dave Mankhokwe Namusanya, a second-year PhD student in Sociology at Abertay University
With 5 more guests to be announced!
To keep up to date with the podcast, follow @BlackFutureDr on Twitter or subscribe to the podcast on your chosen platform.
If you are moving to a new country, grasping the language is one of the best ways to find your way into their world.
At lære dansk
(Learning Danish)
Danish has nine official vowel sounds but depending on the position of the vowel in a word, there are actually up to forty different vowel sounds. Combine this with D’s that sound like L’s and R’s that erupt from the back of your throat and you have a notoriously guttural language where words fall out of the mouth in a drawl that is typically described as speaking with a potato in your mouth. As an Irish person, this should be second nature.
I am an ESRC funded (1+3) PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Exeter. I am currently on fieldwork in Denmark where I am studying the role, significance and impact of transparency in the production of meat and the management of zoo animal populations.
Thanks to the ESRC Difficult Language Training funding, I moved to Denmark in Spring of last year to commence a language course. However, I started learning Danish two months earlier on a fantastic website called ITalki. This connects language learners from all over the world with professional language teachers to facilitate language learning via Skype. With the help of my Danish teacher Lirón, my Danish competency advanced rapidly. It was possible to pay for these classes using my ESRC Research Training Support Grant and it wasn’t until I moved to Denmark that I realised how vital it was that I had started learning online.
Flytter til Danmark
(Moving to Denmark)
Whilst English is widely-spoken in Denmark, competency in Danish from the beginning made navigating public transport and rental contracts a whole lot easier. Furthermore, I am not ashamed to admit that the first few weeks of the move were very difficult due to self-inflicted pressure to speak Danish well and find a place to live. However, I persisted with the ITalki classes and developed my confidence. After only two months of one-to-one intensive classes prior to my DLT, I was able to skip six months of the language course in Denmark so that I was now learning at an advanced level. Starting at this advanced level laid the foundations for engaging with my participants primarily through their mother-tongue from the very beginning of the fieldwork.
The difficult language training funded group classes in Danish at a high level. These classes encouraged you to write and speak about Danish history and culture as well as discuss environmental, societal and political issues in contemporary Denmark. I began to build my confidence and would use Danish at the shop, the café and the library. Every interaction I had with a Dane, I would labour over the sprawling vowels and gulping diphthongs. Seeing a non-Dane struggle with the language is a common occurrence for a Dane and they would politely offer; ‘you can speak English if that is easier.’ But my stubborn determination to ‘snakke på dansk’ would take over and I would respond, ‘Nej tak! Jeg foretrækker at snakke på dansk!’
Ølens kraft!
(The power of beer!)
It is also important to note that alcohol improves language ability… so they say… I remember I was in a bar in Copenhagen and went to order a drink. I had practiced my sentence several times in my head before pronouncing;
’Hej. Kan jeg få Tuborg, tak!’
The sharply-dressed Danish barman smiled and responded, ‘På fad?’ (on draught?)
I reply ‘Selvfølgelig!’ That is the Danish for ‘of course’ and is pronounced like ‘se -fewww -lee’. It is one of the more enjoyable Danish words to say as it has an inbuilt lyricality; it rises and falls like a good Irish accent would. It is rare to find such lyricality in Danish.
As he pulled the pint, he then added in English, ‘Are you from Ireland?’
Somehow, I had managed to speak Danish with an Irish accent! However that was two months into my stay and nowadays, it is more common that people think I am Danish and speak freely to me pådansk which can present another set of difficulties!
Vigtigheden af sprogindlæring
(The importance of language learning)
Language learning was not a choice for my research, it was a necessity! So if you are going to a country where English is not the primary language, take the time and make the effort to learn the language, regardless of whether you are social anthropologist like me or not. If you are moving to a new country, grasping the language is one of the best ways to find your way into their world. By developing my Danish, I could immediately interact with participants and at a very basic level, it was a conversation starter. When I started my fieldwork in one of two field-sites, I would open with Danish and eventually switch to English. Today, almost a year after moving to Denmark, I speak primarily through Danish.
If you are learning a new language for your doctoral fieldwork and thinking about applying for the DLT funding, here is what I would recommend. It is important to remember that it is actually a prerequisite of the DLT funding that you have already commenced language training so that the DLT funding can be as effective as possible so start now!
Tips til at lære et sprog
(Tips for learning a language)
Grib Muligheden!
(Seize the opportunity!)
I no longer attend group classes but as an independent student, I have an exam next month which, if successful, I will be at the highest level of the Common European Framework in European Languages in Danish. Furthermore, with this qualification, I am eligible to work in the Danish university system. The DLT afforded me the opportunity to learn the language while being fully immersed in the culture and has enhanced my career prospects. During my DLT placement, I was awarded a Carlsberg grant to participate in a PhD Masterclass at the University of Copenhagen. I also developed my research network during this period by being associated with the University of Copenhagen as a visiting researcher.
I organised the three month DLT placement to extend into my fieldwork in Denmark which is recommended by ESRC and also increases the likelihood of your application being successful. The SWDTP were very supportive throughout the application process so that the likelihood of being successful is high if you make a good case, demonstrate the effort made to learn the language prior to the DLT and have the support of your supervisor. Also, one final point to remember is that the DLT is an extension, so this means I have an extension of three months added to my PhD completion date. I’m sure I will be grateful for this when the time comes!
It was wonderful, as usual. I always feel so, so much better when I finish these sessions, it’s lovely
(Flora1, participant during a workshop, 15/11/2018)
What the project entailed
The SWDTP’s Impact Fund provided me with the resource to
develop a grassroots impact project that brought direct benefits to those
involved. The project was an 8-week co-produced and participatory mindfulness
course developed with a group of participants, out of which we collated a
book/zine2 entitled ‘a little book of wisdom’. I combined money
awarded from the Impact Fund along with my RTSG, this suited the intention for
it to be a research-led form of impact inspired by Pain et al.’s (2016) work on ‘Mapping Alternative
Impact’. By offering reflections on the project, I hope to demonstrate the
importance of this impact work in developing ‘new ways of being together’ (Conradson, 2011, p. 454) orientated around care,
emotional reciprocity and community.
Undertaking the project
During May and June 2018 I undertook some autoethnographic
research on an 8-week mindfulness course, where I met a group of people who,
once the course had concluded, were eager to continue their exploration into
mindfulness. Our group was unique because many mindfulness courses do not
facilitate sustainable group dynamics post the 8-week course (Shannon, 2010). Often this can lead to
individuals not maintaining regular practice as it is no longer supported by
others or by a community. The project was an opportunity for us then to
maintain our relationship in order to support each other with our practice, and
our lives more generally.
The sessions ran once-a-week for 8 weeks, beginning in
October, for 2 hours on a Thursday evening at St. David’s Community Centre in
Exeter. We designed the course using a participatory framework, meaning that
the workshops were to be designed and run together. We felt it was useful to
have the sessions combine themes that were important to us – to create a
bespoke course that spoke directly to our needs. Although, logistically, I took
charge on the booking of the rooms at the Community Centre and liaising with
the mindfulness teacher.
Initial Challenges
In the beginning session we found the participatory framework challenging, participants were not sure about what they wanted from the sessions and felt like they needed to be given a structure. There was a shared feeling that they were still fairly new to the subject and practice, and therefore did not have the competency to make these decisions. However, they did identify themes that they found interesting – especially delving deeper into Buddhist understandings of mindfulness and meditation. Something which secular 8-week courses do not tend to touch on.
The first four sessions were fairly tricky, the group was going through a process of transformation – each assuming new roles, including myself. And this became apparent particularly when I led a couple of the sessions, something that felt somewhat uncomfortable! In addition to this, a member of the group was no longer able to attend the sessions due to difficult travel arrangements. This event caused a lot of worry for everyone involved; we were concerned for their wellbeing but also for the future sustainability of the group.
The Zine
However, by the fourth session, people began to find their voice. From this point we planned the remaining sessions around the themes of acceptance, compassion, suffering and gratitude. This was around the time that we began the zine.
One of the members of the group had been coming across ‘little bits of wisdom’, as she put it: quotes, poems and messages from books, YouTube videos and podcasts. We decided to collectively collate these resources together – providing a reminder of the work we had done together. This process was mindful in its fruition, as the etymology of mindful is to remember, to take care. And through this process of documentation we were reminding ourselves of our practice and the importance of care, both for ourselves and the people around us.
The zine was organised together: we laid out the materials on
the floor, arranged them thematically and ordered them to be collated into the book.
Making the zine was emotional and visceral, provoking reflection and meditation
on relationships both past and present. One poem in particular made a participant
weep, symbolising the relationship between herself and her daughter:
We agreed that I would go away and type them up. I formatted
the booklet on a design website called Canva, and sent it off to be printed. We
met again as a group in the New Year where I handed out the book. Upon
receiving the printed copy there were gasps of delight and surprise – the group
was overwhelmed by the work, requesting more copies be printed, they wanted to
hand them to friends, colleagues, relatives, loved ones.
I learned valuable lessons about the challenges and messiness of participatory ways of working, but also found how fulfilling and surprising it can be. I discovered how much it meant to my participants that they had this space to come to, and experienced first-hand the importance of benefice in research. The project enabled us to strengthen the group bond and dynamic through cultivating our inter-personal relationships as well as our relationship to mindfulness practice. We were thus challenging the ‘cookie-cutter’, stand-alone mindfulness 8-week programmes, which have little sense of community or sustainability. Those that are often dubbed as ‘McMindfulness’ (Hyland, 2017; Neale, 2011; Purser and Loy, 2013), complicit in the commoditised therapeutics of late capitalism.
Our time together demonstrated how
research and impact are not separate from people’s lives but intimately
entangled within them, and thus become extremely meaningful to them. This was
evident throughout, but particularly at the end of the workshops when one
participant handed out gifts to the group: a mindfulness mug. It was a memento
for our time together, she said: “I want you to have a cup of whatever you
have, and just remember our mind[fulness], [and] all our sort of things we’ve
talked about and have been so helpful, and just have your cup of tea. As I say
I’ve got one too!”
The kindness of this gift caused waves of gratitude to wash over me. Our time together had taught me a lot about the porosity of emotional life when we’re imbricated with others. Particularly when stories participants told caused me to be overcome with emotion, and when conversations with them sparked forgotten memories, thoughts and dreams. It is clear that emotions matter in research and impact.
This work highlighted the importance of an ethics of care, and practices of caring-with (Askins and Blazek, 2017) – both outside the University and during fieldwork, but also within our institutions – that facilitate ‘new ways of being together’ (Conradson, 2011, p. 454). Overall, the Impact Fund was a fantastic way to experiment with and to explore further social/community mindfulness as a new way of being together.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to the wonderful participants who took part in this
research and impact. Also a big thank you to the SWDTP student representatives
who supported the funding application.
Notes
1 Participants have been given pseudonyms to
maintain their anonymity.
2 The idea of producing a zine/book was inspired
by Jen Bagelman’s (Bagelman et
al., 2017; Bagelman and Bagelman, 2016)
activist cookbook zines.
References
Askins, K., Blazek, M., 2017. Feeling our way:
academia, emotions and a politics of care. Social & Cultural Geography 18,
1086–1105.
Conradson, D., 2011. Care
and Caring, in: Del Casino, V.J. (Ed.), A Companion to Social Geography,
Wiley-Blackwell Companions to Geography. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, pp. 454–471.
Hyland, T., 2017.
McDonaldizing Spirituality: Mindfulness, Education, and Consumerism. Journal of
Transformative Education 15, 334–356.
Neale, M., 2011.
McMindfulness and Frozen Yoga: Rediscovering the Essential Teachings of Ethics
and Wisdom [WWW Document]. URL
http://www.milesneale.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/McMindfulness.pdf
(accessed 9.11.17).
Pain, R., Askins, K., Banks,
S., Cook, T., Crawford, G., Crookes, L., Darby, S., Heslop, J., Holden, A.,
Houston, M., Jeffes, J., 2016. Mapping Alternative Impact: Alternative
approaches to impact from co-produced research (Project Report). Durham
University, Durham.
Purser, R., Loy, D., 2013.
Beyond McMindfulness [WWW Document]. Huffington Post. URL
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ron-purser/beyond-mcmindfulness_b_3519289.html (accessed 11.9.17).
Shannon, H.W., 2010.
Meditation as Medicine: A Critique. CrossCurrents 60, 168–184.
Congratulations to University of Bristol Politics PhD student Rosie Walters! Working with the Gender and Development journal, she organised and ran an amazing event on “Young Feminisms”!
The event featured representatives from:
Oxfam
Integrate UK
The Association for Women’s Rights in Development
The talk attracted over 90 staff and students from the universities of Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Oxford and UWE. On top of that, hundreds more have watched the video of the event on the Gender and Development journal Facebook page!
Congratulations again Rosie, keep up the great work!
