Getting Your Foot on the Funding Ladder - Opportunities for Methods North West
Increasingly academic researchers are expected to demonstrate funding success. Methods North West has schemes specifically designed to encourage researchers within NWSSDTP institutions to come together and apply for funding to deliver sessions and work together on projects and methodologies. Join Stuart and Methods NW researchers to discuss these opportunities as well as a general discussion about the challenges and opportunities around applying for funding, particularly at an early stage in your career.
Dr. Stuart Shields is Reader in International Political Economy for The University of Manchester's School of Social Sciences. Stuart also serves as Deputy Associate Dean for Postgraduate Research and Director of Methods North West.
Participatory Research using Lego Serious Play (LSP)
Participants will explore LSP's "build-share-reflect" protocol to model complex research questions, from qualitative data elicitation to strategy mapping. The session covers practical applications like metaphor modelling for interviews, participatory design in multidisciplinary teams, and visualizing research frameworks with bricks. Hands-on exercises demonstrate LSP for phenomenological inquiry, stakeholder engagement, and creative problem-solving in research methodology. Attendees build models addressing real challenges that are often difficult to address while collecting qualitative data (in participatory research).
Dr. Abhishek Behl and Dr Swati Garg, Keele University
'Draw your Research' Group
This interactive workshop invites researchers to explore drawing and illustration as a creative tool for understanding, analysing, and communicating their work. No art skills needed, just your ideas, your data, and a willingness to experiment. In the first half of the workshop, we will discuss how drawing can help you familiarise yourself with your findings, reveal patterns, explore meanings, and share your work with wider audiences. We will look at examples of how drawings have been used in previous research and what we can learn from other disciplines and practices such as fine art and graphic design. The second half will give you space and support to engage with your own research through drawing or in other creative, expressive and embodied ways. This may be around how you visualise theories or your own research questions, ways that you can display your data, or how you might communicate your findings and recommendations to both academic and non-academic audiences. This workshop is suitable for researchers at any level who are curious about drawing-based data collection, analysis, or dissemination. If you can, please come with research questions, concepts, or findings in mind to work with.
Mark Shtanov, University of Manchester and Zoe Cox, Manchester Metropolitan University
Lost and Found In Translation Series: which language/s?
The Who: of cross-language research, or the questions of who decides what is included – and what is not included - in a cross-language interview is as multi-faceted as the many cross-language research projects happening at any one time. Who makes the decisions of what is – and what is not- ethical cross-language practice? How does individual researcher positionality impact on the presentation of cross-language at different stages in a project? After all, while English (academese) is a language/script in which many choose to write and share research, it is not the only language language/ script involved in cross-language work, each language/script bringing its challenges. If what could be perceived extractive in one setting may be perceived otherwise elsewhere, how can we reflect on ethical considerations when much could be unknowingly missed? This workshop will provide space and resources on the impact of carry out cross-languages work in diverse inter-disciplinary settings. We also debate the massive impact of language and the many explicit and implicit expectations coming with this. Throughout this workshop, we explore and debate why one singular clarity of ethical approach may still to be lacking or still in emergence, despite the importance of clarity looming large.
Facilitators: Dylan Bradbury (Manchester) Daniel Baldin Machado (Manchester) Putri Kristimanta (Manchester) Bulbul Prakash (Manchester) Guest speaker: Rebecca Tipton Centre for Translation & Intercultural Studies, MLC (Manchester) Academic Support Lead: Ruth Abou Rached Arabic & Middle Eastern Studies, MLC (Manchester)
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Created with an image by aaabbc - "Thank You"