CREST Research Symposium, 6th September
The CREST (Consortium for Research Excellence Support & Training) Research Symposium was inspiring and stimulating, with an array of extremely thought-provoking and diverse research; an opportunity to reflect on research practice and methodology across disciplines. Some thoughts from the day:
- In describing the Kultivate project to researchers at the event I found the terminology of ‘online research environment’ helpful.
- Gail Rowntree, Senior Lecturer in HR Management, Buckinghamshire New University, spoke about deploying welfare teams to work with victims’ families in mass disasters (more than 14 victims in an incident). The complexities of recording the experience of these personnel, ethical issues, and legal and insurance issues.
- It was really interesting and useful to experience a different event approach. There were three poster presentation sessions; each session included around 4-5 researchers. The researchers/presenters had brought a poster and were each based on small tables; the audience in groups of about 5-6 spent about 10-15 minutes at each table. This may have been tiring for the presenters but it was excellent for the audience as in such small groups the conversations were really interesting and diverse; it encouraged questions and discussion easily.
- ‘Speaking truth to power – or just another story? The possibilities and limits of narrative research’, Sue Lea, University College Plymouth St Mark & St John. The session covered research approaches and the validity of narrative research in recording learning relationships in the classroom especially when dealing with excluded students, and with issues of power and inequality.
- Unfortunately Lucy Leake was unable to present, but her abstract is very interesting: Making ‘Sense’ of Digitality in HE Teaching
- ‘Participatory research into street based youth work interventions on violence’, Mike Seal, Newman University College. It was very interesting to hear about this research approach, for example building relationships and trust through an outward bound course.
- ‘Textile as a vehicle for trans-cultural and interdisciplinary research: A magic carpet ride crossing boundaries, borders and thresholds’ Lesley Millar, Professor of Textile Culture & Director, Anglo Japanese Textile Research Centre, University for the Creative Arts. Professor Millar presented a beautiful visual narrative of cloth and human experience including the cross-cultural stories of cloth such as gingham (Reference: Yvonne Dröge Wendel’s Universal Pattern project). More information and project news is available from: http://www.transitionandinfluence.com/
- ‘Between production and display: On teaching curating to fine art students’, James Brown, Plymouth College of Art. The concept of ‘curation’ is a loaded word for artistic research so I was really interested to learn about this project. This teaching module gave students an experiential approach to understand the concept of curation, before they were presented with the theory. They also practised the theory by working in a dedicated space at the Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery. The students were empowered to control the meaning of their artworks and the audience’s interpretation of them, providing a structure to their practice beyond the studio environment.
- Critical Commentary, ‘an interdisciplinary academic journal’ produced by Newman University College, Birmingham
Links
- CREST Research Symposium programme, abstracts and posters
- CREST Research Network website
- ‘EPrints and Mahara: sustainable approaches to conserving Art/Design/Media/Performing Arts outputs using a consortia model’
CREST case study for the Kultivate project (PDF)
The bamboo CREST USB stick which included instructions for joining CREST Collaborate, details of CREST events and resources, and instructions for contributing to the Critical Commentary journal.
With thanks to Dr Alisa Miller, CREST Research Network Co-ordinator, for organising the Symposium.
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