Programme | Maps | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday
Welcome to the Durham PGR Development Conference
Wednesday 21 – Friday 23 June 2023
Teaching & Learning Centre, Durham University
Each day begins with a keynote session exploring different aspects of the PGR experience, before moving on to parallel sessions. Due to room capacities, we cannot guarantee a space in particular sessions – so if there are particular sessions of interest – book early at the registration desk to avoid disappointment. The room capacities are as follows: TLC113 is 100, TLC220 is 25, TLC205 is 30. All sessions this year are held in the Teaching and Learning Centre (TLC) mainly on the top (2nd) floor, we have also reserved the large area behind the conference reception desk for networking, eating lunch and catching up on your emails. We ask you to respect the workshop presenters and other delegates by not moving between sessions once they have started.
We are not providing lunch over the three days, so we would suggest that you bring a packed lunch or visit one of the on-campus eateries in the Bill Bryson Library (campus card required for access), the Palatine Centre and the Calman Learning Centre – which are all close by (see map). You are welcome to bring your food back to the TLC building. We will be providing coffee, tea, pastries and biscuits in the morning and afternoon each day. In line with the University’s Environmental Sustainability Strategy, we are trying to reduce waste, so please bring your own reusable cup with you. There are also water stations and vending machines positioned around the TLC building.
Programme
If you are viewing on a mobile, you may need to rotate your device to see the programme by day.
| WEDNESDAY 21ST JUNE | THURSDAY 22ND JUNE | FRIDAY 23RD JUNE | |||||||
| Morning | 9.30 – 10.00: Registration and coffee | 9.30 – 10.00: Registration and coffee | 9.30 – 10.00: Registration and coffee | ||||||
| 10.00 – 10.30: (TLC113) Keynote: Professor Simon Rees | 10.00 – 10.30: (TLC113) Keynote: Professor Debbie Riby | 10.00 – 10.30: (TLC113) Keynote: Dr Steve Hutchinson | |||||||
| 10.40 – 12.40: PowerPoint and Data Duncan Yellowlees (TLC113) | 10.40 – 12.40: Using Ethnographic approaches Eirini Tzouma (TLC205) | 10.40 – 12.40: Podcasting for researchers Paul Finley (TLC220, TLC221, TLC222) | 10.40 – 12.40: 8 Tensions workshop Dr Natalie Lancer (TLC113) | 10.40 – 12.40: Rhyme your research Dr Sam Illingworth (TLC205) | 10.40 – 12.40: Mapping your methodology (part 1) Dr Pete Whitton (TLC220) | 10.40 – 12.40: Speed Reading Dr Steve Hutchinson (TLC113) | 10.40 – 12.40: Thematic Analysis Dr Matt Wood (TLC205) | 10.40 – 12.40: Career planning and next steps David Henderson (TLC220) | |
| Lunch | Lunchtime session: Networking (Open Area) | Lunchtime session: Three Minute thesis showcase – People’s Choice Awards (TLC205) | Lunchtime session: Poster Competition winners awards (Open Area) | ||||||
| Afternoon | 13.30 – 15.00: Thesis clinic Sarah Dodds (TLC204) | 13.30 – 15.00: EDI panel 1: Decoloniality Eirini Tzouma (chair) (TLC205) | 13.30 – 15.00: Preparing for your Viva Professor Simon Rees (TLC113) | 13.30 – 15.00: Preparing yourself and your voice for presenting with clarity and confidence Martina Diehl (TLC205) | 13.30 – 15.00: EDI panel 2: Neurodiversity Eirini Tzouma (chair) (TLC220) | 13.30 – 15.00: Game your Research Dr Sam Illingworth (TLC113) | 13.30 – 15.00: Thinking: Creativity and Problem Solving Dr Steve Hutchinson (TLC113) | 13.30 – 15.00: EDI panel 3: LGBTQIA+ identities and spaces Eirini Tzouma (chair) (TLC220) | 13.30 – 15.00: Managing your literature review with NVivo Candace Nolan Grant (TLC205) |
| COFFEE BREAK | COFFEE BREAK | COFFEE BREAK | |||||||
| 15.15 – 16.45: Data visualisation Sarah Dodds (TLC205) | 15.15 – 16.45: Networking café Martina Diehl (TLC220) | 15.15 – 16.45: 8 Tensions talk Dr Natalie Lancer (TLC113) | 15.15 – 16.45: ChatGPT and the Researcher Paul Finley (TLC113) | 15.15 – 16.45: Critical Statistics for Social Scientists Professor Nicola Whitton (TLC205) | 15.15 – 16.45: Mapping your methodology (part 2) Dr Pete Whitton (TLC220) | 15.15 – 16.45: Communicating your research with language play: using playful techniques to write an introduction Martina Diehl (TLC113) | 15.15 – 16.45: Zines and scrapbooks for wellbeing Sarah Dodds and Eirini Tzouma (TLC205) | 15.15 – 16.45: Escape to Durham Professor Simon Rees | |
Maps
Wednesday 21st June
MORNING
9.30 – 10.00: Registration and coffee
Join us for coffee and pastries, have a look around the Teaching and Learning Centre, and chat to other PhD students. Don’t forget to collect your badge and programme!
10.00 – 10.30: Keynote: What does a PhD stand for?
Professor Simon Rees
Room: TLC113
In a world of superfast technology, superficial social media and superfluous rewards, Simon will explore what a PhD stands for in modern times. He will make the case that the opportunities afforded by undertaking a PhD remain relevant and are more important than ever to individuals, organisations and society.
10.40 – 12.40: PowerPoint and Data
Duncan Yellowlees
Room: TLC113
We’ve all sat through awful presentations where the slides were terrible… but do you know why they were rubbish? Or how to make your own better? This session is all about that. How to present data and design your slides so that they captivate your audience. Come along to make sure you never subject your audiences to death by PowerPoint. By the end participants will; understand why bad slides are bad, know how to present data, know how to visually focus an audience, some cool slide hacks and have a different perspective on data.
10.40 – 12.40: Using Ethnographic approaches
Eirini Tzouma
Room: TLC205
In this workshop we will discuss ethnography as a method and a written account. In doing so we will examine the new perspectives that it can enable, alongside outlining its strengths and weaknesses. We will finish with an exercise that invites ethnographic reflection in order for participants to leave with a tangible piece of work that will be of use if they want to explore the topic further. This will be a highly interactive session and will promote community knowledge production alongside networking opportunities.
10.40 – 12.40: Podcasting for researchers
Paul Finley
Rooms: TLC220, TLC221 and TLC222
This session looking at podcasts will first take participants through the different formats that can be used and how they can be used to promote your research and career. Secondly the session will show participants how they can record their podcast and discuss the equipment and software needed and then complete a hands-on exercise to record their own introduction to a podcast. Please bring a laptop to this session.
12.40 – 13.25: LUNCH
Bring a packed lunch or buy a lunch from one of the many on-site cafés (see map). Bring your lunch up to the networking and social space on the top floor of the TLC building chat with the other delegates, look at the poster competition entries and leave feedback or (if you are a Durham student) use this time to go to the Bill Bryson Library or meet up with your supervisor.
AFTERNOON
13.30 – 15.00: Thesis clinic
Sarah Dodds
Room: TLC204
Are you starting to write and are not sure how to go about using Word to structure your thesis? Are you getting ready to submit your chapters or complete draft and have layout problems? Then come along to the Thesis Clinic for some guidance. The most common problems include multi-level lists, combining chapters into one document, page numbering and putting section breaks in the right place. This is a drop-in session for specific Microsoft Word problems, it is not a taught class (For DU students, Creating Long Document in Word can be booked through Oracle Learn as normal).
13.30 – 15.00: EDI panel 1: Decoloniality
Eirini Tzouma (chair)
Room: TLC205
In this panel we will discuss the various challenges that doctoral students are facing in Higher Education. In doing so, we will also touch upon the different ways in which, people, teams and institutions, address these barriers, alongside imagining new pathways moving forwards. The panel will end with a 15-minute Q&A section.
13.30 – 15.00: Preparing for your Viva
Professor Simon Rees
Room: TLC113
This workshop will explore the processes and procedures of the PhD viva. There will be the opportunity to discuss approaches to preparing effectively for the viva as well as engaging with the viva itself. Participants on this workshop will: (1) develop a better understanding of the viva processes and procedures (2) explore effective preparation strategies (3) explore approaches to the viva including online.
15.00 – 15.15: COFFEE BREAK
15.15 – 16.45: Data visualisation
Sarah Dodds
Room: TLC205
Data can be presented in different ways, using charts and diagrams, including tables of data in academic posters and infographics and by being more creative and using arts and crafts to present data to wider audiences. This session will introduce a range of data visualisations which have been developed using different forms of arts and crafts. The session will end with a practical activity which will enable you to create your own piece of data craft. No art skills are necessary.
15.15 – 16.45: Networking café
Martina Diehl
Room: TLC220
DCAD promotes a strong community amongst PGRs from all disciplines. The networking café provides you with an informal space to get to know your peers through talk and reflection on a range of topics. There will be boardgames available too for a bit of fun, everyone is welcome.
15.15 – 16.45: The Psychology of Writing: The Eight Tensions Writing Framework for PhD students (talk)
Dr Natalie Lancer
Room: TLC113
Do you need to rethink your relationship to writing? In this talk, Dr Lancer discusses the Psychology of Writing from an existential perspective, a fruitful way of looking at writing and our relationship to it. She will explain how this approach contrasts with behavioural, cognitive and social approaches. The Eight Tensions Writing Framework creates awareness of our choices between the tensions inherent in writing. Sign up to this interactive lecture to gain more control over your writing and be empowered to own your creative process.
Thursday 22nd June
MORNING
9.30 – 10.00: Registration and coffee
Join us for coffee and pastries, have a look around the Teaching and Learning Centre, and chat to other PhD students. Don’t forget to collect your badge and programme!
10.00 – 10.30: Keynote: A PhD is more than a thesis
Professor Debbie Riby
Room: TLC113
Debbie is Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Postgraduate Research Students and a Professor of Developmental Psychology in the Centre for Neurodiversity & Development at Durham. Every PhD student is different, and every PhD thesis is different … PhD students are hugely diverse in their experiences at the start of their doctoral journey and will be equally diverse in the research conducted and their career paths post-doctorate. How can we best ensure we are catering to the diversity of experiences and skills of the postgraduate research community? Furthermore, how can PhD students ensure they are best placed to utilise the opportunities available to them to be ready for their chosen career at the end of the doctorate? This presentation will focus on doctoral studies and doctoral training and the importance of recognising the diversity within the system in order to inform our research culture and research environment.
10.40 – 12.40: The Psychology of Writing: The Eight Tensions Writing Framework for PhD students (workshop)
Dr Natalie Lancer
Room: TLC113
Following on from yesterday’s interactive lecture, this workshop helps you situate the Eight Tensions into your context using creative and motivational exercises. The workshop will reconnect you to your research and writing with levity and joy, helping you remember what you bring to your own work. The exercises are deeply reflective and reflexive, which will result in your writing becoming more vibrant. The exercises will allow you to tap into creative pathways and allow new perspectives on your work to surface, giving you a way forward to think about your work in alternative directions. As one previous delegate said, “They move you out of ‘head down’ mode into ‘head up’ mode”.
10.40 – 12.40: Rhyme your research
Dr Sam Illingworth
Room: TLC205
Poetry is an extremely powerful tool to help communicate research to different audiences and to think about how to develop dialogue to create meaningful impact from your work. In this fully interactive session, you will learn how to read, analyse, and write poetry to communicate your research, facilitate discussions, and even problem solve through creativity.
10.40 – 12.40: Mapping your methodology (part 1)
Dr Pete Whitton
Room: TLC220
This session is aimed at Social Scientists new to methodology and aims to systematically guide new researchers through high level epistemological and ontological concerns before looking at ideas such as reflexivity. The session will allow participants to explore the pros and cons of potential research methods and data gathering techniques while mapping these against their research questions to assess whether these are a “good fit”.
12.40 – 13.25: LUNCH
Bring a packed lunch or buy a lunch from one of the many on-site cafés (see map). Bring your lunch up to the networking and social space on the top floor of the TLC building chat with the other delegates, look at the poster competition entries and leave feedback or (if you are a Durham student) use this time to go to the Bill Bryson Library or meet up with your supervisor.
AFTERNOON
13.30 – 15.00: Preparing yourself and your voice for presenting with clarity and confidence
Martina Diehl
Room: TLC205
This workshop aims to help build confidence in speaking through playing with rhythm, sound production, intonation and breathing to allow students to become engaging, confident and empowered speakers at conferences and elsewhere. There is often a thought that we need to speak in a particular academic way. However, if we flip it and think about what kind of speakers you enjoy listening to, it might not be the kind of speaking you do. In this workshop we’ll consider our bodies and voices as tools for clear and effective communication.
13.30- 15.00: EDI panel 2: Neurodiversity
Eirini Tzouma (chair)
Room: TLC220
In this panel we will discuss inclusion from the perspective of neurodiversity. In doing so we will identify common challenges that neurodiverse PGRs face in their H.E. journey. We will then explore the ways in which, on both an individual and an institutional level, these barriers are and can be addressed. The panel will end with a 15-minute Q&A section.
13.30 – 15.00: Game your Research
Dr Sam Illingworth
Room: TLC113
Games are an extremely powerful way of developing dialogue between different audiences, facilitating difficult conversations that are hard to have away from the gaming table. In this fully interactive workshop, you will learn about the fundamentals of analogue game design and come away with a prototype to develop further and start conversations about your research.
15.00 – 15.15: COFFEE BREAK
15.15 – 16.45: ChatGPT and the Researcher
Paul Finley
Room: TLC113
This session aims to introduce the world of AI/LLMs such as ChatGPT and how they can be used to aid PGRs in their studies. Please note you should bring a laptop to this session.
15.15 – 16.45: Critical Statistics for Social Scientists
Professor Nicola Whitton
Room: TLC205
This session will provide a critical overview of statistical approaches, exploring the limitations of quantitative methods and showing ways in which statistics can be used, either purposefully or accidentally, to misrepresent data and relationships. The workshop is intended for those without a statistical background as a starting point for engaging with statistics in the media and academic writing in a critical way. After taking part in the session, participants will be able to:
- appreciate the different ways in which statistics can be used to analyse and manipulate data;
- recognise common ways in which statistics can be used to misrepresent information;
- critically analyse the use of statistics in the media and in academic writing.
15.15 – 16.45: Mapping your methodology (part 2)
Dr Pete Whitton
Room: TLC220
This session continues to unpick methodology. Designed with social scientists and arts and humanities students in mind. By the end of this workshop you will have: recapped the basic methodological stances and jargon covered in Mapping your Methodology (part 1), examined some of the common approaches to examining text data (thematic analysis, discourse analysis, content analysis), considered how you might examine non text data (e.g. images) and compared example Methodology chapters to examine a variety of approaches.
Friday 23rd June
MORNING
9.30 – 10.00: Registration and coffee
Join us for coffee and pastries, have a look around the Teaching and Learning Centre, and chat to other PhD students. Don’t forget to collect your badge and programme!
10.00 – 10.30: Keynote: The Inner Game – Thoughts on Intellectual Resilience and Self-Belief
Dr Steve Hutchinson
Room: TLC113
The academic community prides itself on its critical ability. But constant criticism has a cost. Moreover, research is fraught with knockbacks from journals, job applications and funding rejections. How we build confidence and retain our self-belief is pivotal to our success, since failure to do so leads to the so-called ‘imposter syndrome’ that talented and high-performing professionals frequently feel. In this opening session, Dr Steve Hutchinson shares some thoughts about the ‘inner game’ of being a researcher and some approaches for playing it well.
10.40 – 12.40: (Academically Effective) Rapid Reading
Dr Steve Hutchinson
Room: TLC113
Improve the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Your Reading and Processing. Reading is one of the most important professional skills that you have. But when was the last time that you actually stopped and thought about the effectiveness and efficiency of your reading? During the session we’ll consider and practice four areas of reading – that can be deployed in a professional setting.
- Increasing speed – Learn simple techniques to build your information intake rate
- Developing habitual consistency – knowing thyself and increase reading efficiency by deploying more robust professional habits
- Building strategic focus – choosing the information on which you wish to focus and retain
- Honing criticism and comprehension – developing tools to aid your critical processing of content
There will be elements of practice, discussion and interactive tuition during the session, and there will be plenty of opportunity to try out techniques, ask questions and contextualise the session to fit your needs.
10.40 – 12.40: Thematic Analysis
Dr Matt Wood
Room: TLC205
This practical workshop will introduce participants through the process of a thematic analysis as a foundational method of qualitative data analysis. Participants will engage with some real-world qualitative data and begin the process of familiarisation, coding and working towards identifying themes as patterns of meaning within the data. This workshop is suitable for postgraduate students who will engage in some form of qualitative data analysis as part of their postgraduate studies. By the end of the session you will:
- Understand the principles of thematic analysis and how it fits within the broader landscape of qualitative research
- Start developing practical skills in coding and theme generation
10.40 – 12.40: Career planning and next steps
David Henderson
Room: TLC220
Managing the transition from PhD to a career outside of academia can be challenging. There are many options to consider but how do you navigate this? This workshop will give you an opportunity to think about what you want from a future career and to begin reflecting on the experience and skills you have gained that will be of value to a future employer. The session can be used as a starting point to consider your skills and career priorities and the challenges and opportunities presented by moving from academic research to the wider job market.
12.40 – 13.25: LUNCH
Bring a packed lunch or buy a lunch from one of the many on-site cafés (see map). Bring your lunch up to the networking and social space on the top floor of the TLC building chat with the other delegates, look at the poster competition entries and leave feedback or (if you are a Durham student) use this time to go to the Bill Bryson Library or meet up with your supervisor.
AFTERNOON
13.30 – 15.00: Thinking: Creativity and Problem Solving
Dr Steve Hutchinson
Room: TLC113
Our ability to think is the lifeblood of academia. Remember, that for post-graduate researchers you are undertaking a Doctor of Philosophy. This requires a blend of criticality and creativity – of interrogating the ‘what is?’ and at the same time contemplating the ‘what might be?’. In this session we’ll introduce a toolkit of widely applicable models and approaches to help you to think critically and creatively. Specifically, we’ll examine
- How to examine and interrogate challenges and problems from an analytical and creative stance
- How to build both a critical and creative mindset and environment
- Critical frameworks (albeit not discipline-specific) that may help your research thinking
13.30 – 15.00: EDI panel 3: LGBTQIA+ identities and spaces
Eirini Tzouma (chair)
Room: TLC220
In this panel we will consider the challenges that LGBTQIA+ PGRs face in H.E. We will also analyse various ways in which people and groups address these barriers and imagine new pathways for more inclusive pedagogical environments on the level of gender and sexuality. The panel will end with a 15-minute Q&A section.
13.30 – 15.00: Managing your literature review with NVivo
Candace Nolan-Grant
Room: TLC205
Organising a literature review can be challenging, from finding a logical way to store and retrieve texts, to managing your reading workload, to finding exactly what you want when writing up. This workshop will introduce one approach to this process, using referencing software and NVivo qualitative analysis software. While the methods explained here may be of particular use to part-time students and those with extensive literature reviews, many of the key ideas should be helpful to anyone—whether ultimately choosing to use NVivo or not. By the end of this session, you will have
- Considered different approaches to managing digital texts, from download to referencing
- Used NVivo to manage digital texts
- Used NVivo to code texts effectively
- Identified methods that might work for you in managing your literature review
Please bring a laptop with NVivo.
15.00 – 15.15: COFFEE BREAK
15.15 – 16.45: Communicating your research with language play: using playful techniques to write an introduction
Martina Diehl
Room: TLC113
Writing introductions can be a daunting task… you want it to be clear and engaging at the same time, without giving everything away. This workshop allows you to play with language to create a robust, rich and engaging introduction. We’ll be using poetic techniques to explore language for writing introductions and using dialogue to ensure clarity and engagement. During this session you will work on:
- Improving writing style
- Engaging creatively and critically in academic writing
- Communicating your research to your intended audience
- Using poetic techniques to improve clarity and to consider different perspectives.
15.15 – 16.45: Zines and scrapbooks for wellbeing
Sarah Dodds and Eirini Tzouma
Room: TLC205
Throughout your research journey you will be keeping records, this often takes the form of a journal. This session will introduce you to other creative methods of recording your journey and presenting ideas in the form of zines, ezines, collages and junk journals. So, whether you want to go hi-tec or low-tec, come along and find out about these alternatives.
15.15 – 16.45: Escape to Durham
Professor Simon Rees
Takes place in and around Durham city centre
Do you enjoy solving puzzles? If so, then why not come and try our very own “Escape Room” inspired challenge? Designed by PGRs for PGRs, you will have 60 minutes to solve a series of puzzles and navigate your way around Durham in order to “Escape to Durham”! This is a great way to develop your creative thinking, problem solving and teamwork skills as well as meet some new people and explore Durham.
To take part, register at the registration desk where you will be given your first clue!