‘HOW CRITICAL IS RESEARCH IMPACT?’
GRADUATE CONFERENCE FOR NEW AND EMERGING HUMAN GEOGRAPHERS
December 6th and 7th, 2017
Hosted by the
Human Geography Research Group
School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, East Quadrangle, University of Glasgow
Purpose
This two-day PGR conference, hosted by the Human Geography Research Group and School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, offers a dedicated forum for consideration of questions that are crucial to an emerging, aspiring generation of graduate researchers:
- What does the production of impactful research mean for a current generation of UK graduate students in human geography?
- How is impact to be variously understood, appreciated, approached and subject to critique?
- How does the prefiguring of impact affect PhD research design and project direction?
- What place exists for disciplinary traditions of critical and creative praxis in an evolving impact agenda?
- Is intellectual integrity a victim of “impact-instrumentalism”, or, is impact the trigger necessary to ensure that research makes a real difference beyond the academy?
- Can the future shape of impact actually be defined by new and emerging researchers, rather than simply becoming another expectation that they must meet?
- Are adaptive strategies or radical responses necessary to prise open (even to ‘Occupy’) impact?
The conference programme will comprise a series of case study-led commentaries based on recent/ongoing “impact experiences”. Commentaries will be intercut with dedicated workshops sessions for small-group conversation and experience sharing, and a panel session leading into an open debate.
Commentators and panelists include: Kye Askins, Ian Shaw, Cheryl McGeachan, Simon Naylor, David Featherstone, Hayden Lorimer, Hester Parr, Chris Philo, Lazaros Karaliotas, Deborah Dixon and Jo Sharp and others.
Conference contributors will have differing levels of research experience (academic staff; ESRC ‘Future Research Leader’; recently completed and current PhD), and in projects involving international and national collaborations, and interdisciplinary links with the biological sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities.
Presentations will combine critical reflection with practical guidance, exploring the tensions that exist between impact ideals and impact realities.
Student-led breakout workshops will offer advice and seek opinion on partnership building, evidence gathering, narrating and communicating impact, the use of impact to advance careers (in academia and beyond), and existing mechanisms/media available to offer individual opinions and collective responses to the emerging impact agenda.
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Registration now open! Please sign up here