Forthcoming events

The next event in our programme will be ...

A Summer Breather: Workshop Sessions on Creativity within the Research Process

Wednesday 5 and 12 August 2009 - 11:00 - 12:30 and 13:30 - 15:00

Adam Smith Research Foundation, Seminar Room and Garden 66 Oakfield Avenue University of Glasgow G12 8LS

Over the summer the Adam Smith Research Foundation jointly with the Research Development Network of the Education Faculty will be holding four sessions that will explore creativity within research:

• What creativity means within our research context

• How creativity can be a source of inspiration, problem solving and regeneration within the competing demands of teaching, research and other commitments

• How we can develop our own creativity within research

• How we can work creatively with others

Workshop activities will use creative techniques to explore the question of creative research itself, drawing on developments within Arts Based Research and Participatory Research. Places are limited but the approach of the sessions will be open and flexible. Participants are invited to lunch between sessions in the garden - weather permitting. Please register your interest by e-mail with Beth Cross (b.cross@educ.gla.ac.uk) by the 28th of July.

Session One: Textual and Tactile Approaches to Research Literature

Using the inspiration of Jane Speedy's Mr. Gingey in Narrative Inquiry and Psychotherapy, this session will explore creative approaches to engaging with research literature. Jane draws on a childhood imaginary friend, Mr Gingey who has a penchant for nicking biscuits and hanging upside down in trees to explore different approaches one can take to reading and assimilating research literature. In the session we will explore our own alter egos and how they are present in our engagement with 'the literature'.

Session Two: Inspiration and Creative Research Strategies

Drawing on the work of the Arts Based Education Research Consortium of Ireland, the session will give participants the opportunity to explore sound, images and texts that resonate with participants' own creative strategies and resources. The session will give participants time to explore the resources individually and within small groups and to represent the inter-linkages with each others' approaches creatively.

Session Three: Exploring the Interior and Exterior of Research Identity Creatively

This session will use collage techniques developed within Participatory Research to explore participants' perceptions of how they view their researh and how it is viewed by others, the tensions that exist between these different perspectives and creative ways to manage them.

Session Four: A Creative Carousel

This session will use a group brainstorming activity widely used within participatory research to examine the themes that have arisen in the other sessions. The activity will identify new ideas that have emerged, important questions and challenges, and participants' aspirations for further creative development both individually and collaboratively.

'Away Day' in Autumn 2009

This event has very specific aims for the members and may involve a series of meetings, with advice from experienced academics, Research and Enterprise, and other key individuals.

• Identifying the funder and developing the proposal idea
• Drafting the key sections of the proposal, FEC and costing
• Writing successful research proposals