ONLINE WRDTP 9th Annual Conference

Kate Reed
Ian Bache
Laura Towers
Julian Dobson
Ruth Boycott-Garnett

This session opens our ninth WRDTP Annual Conference. This year’s conference is taking
place under unprecedented circumstances as the Covid-19 lockdown prevents us being
together in a physical space. A key issue for many staff and students is how to maintain
individual well-being in these challenging times – so we have made well-being a key theme
of the conference and this session focuses upon Well-Being and Research.

The subject of wellbeing has long been a focus of academic enquiry and is also an important
consideration when carrying out research both to ensure self-care but also to protect
research subjects when doing sensitive research. This panel introduce our annual
conference by bringing together leading researchers on well-being (Ian Bache and Julian
Dobson) with researchers on sensitive topics (Kate Reed and Laura Towers) and a current
student, Ruth Boycott-Granett (MMU) who will offer her insights on keeping well during
lockdown. Short presentations will be followed by a Q&A.

Rob Macmillan & Sue Caton

A remarkable feature of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the rapid growth of community-level responses to the crisis, including the establishment of local mutual-aid support groups, community fundraising and the mobilisation of volunteers. The immediate solidarity and consensus of being ‘all in this together’ has arguably begun to fragment in moves towards easing the lockdown and in the realisation that specific groups and communities are affected far more than others. But how might we carry out research in such circumstances?

Drawing from the early learning from a study examining community responses to COVID-19 in 25 neighbourhoods in England, this session has two aims:

• to explore and critically assess the concepts of community resilience and resourcefulness in the current crisis, and
• to reflect on the experiences, challenges and unexpected delight of research interaction during lockdown.

The session will last an hour in total and will consist of two short presentations each followed by facilitated discussion amongst participants. The session will include a 5-minute comfort-break.

Ana Vasconcelos, Chris Anderson & Stefania Vicari

2.00 – 3.00 Data journalism, Covid-19, and digital methods: Chris Anderson

3.00 – 3.50 Group discussion

We will discuss challenges currently faced while doing research during the pandemic and how these may inform the planning of activities in the forthcoming year

Daryl Martin & William Eadson

Can care be designed into, or facilitated by, our buildings and cities? How is care conceptualised by architects and planners as they plan those buildings and cities? In this session, Daryl introduces sociological debates about the role of the built environment in care and wellbeing. He draws on his experience of a number of research projects that explored the intersection of architecture, health and social care, often working across disciplinary boundaries. His talk will last 15 minutes, before inviting questions and discussion about this area of research, including discussion around the implications for planning and designing post-Covid cities.

Catriona Ryan, Scriptor Cube Ltd

Catriona Ryan has delivered some highly popular PGR well-being workshops for the WRDTP and will be visiting this years Annual Conference to deliver yet another highly anticipated workshop. If you are currently thinking of or attempting to write up your research for forthcoming publication, this workshop will be of great interest.

Matt Bishop & Edward Newman

An open conversation about wellbeing issues.

Ana Manzano

This session will help PGRs reflect on the everyday uncertainties surrounding fieldwork practices and how Covid-19  has magnified these. This session will examine the concept and context of “fieldwork” and it will reflect on key issues related to decision-making under uncertainty. A practical tool called “Your PhD and Covid-19: Your decision” will be offered to support PGRs progressing with their research design decisions.

ECY Pathway Directors and Deputies

1.00 – Welcome and online etiquette

1.10 – 1.25 – Presentation 1: Social and Emotional Wellbeing: Dusana Dorjee

1.25 – Presentation 2: ‘Sticky objects’ and pathways to well-being and resilience: Siân Etherington, Judith Hanks, Eman Al-Shehri

1.45 – Questions from students

1.55 – Comfort break

2.00 – Intro to breakout room activities

2.05 – 2.45 – Breakout room discussions – Students to respond to questions asked by Judith, Siân and Eman; share their own ‘sticky objects’ and sense of wellbeing at this time – affordances and challenges of the new context; fears and hopes for an unknown future: Abi Hackett, Richard O’Connor, Judith Hanks, Chris Winter, Gill Adams, Louise Tracey, Rachel Holmes

2.45 – 2.55 – Whole group discussion and feedback

2.55 – Comfort break 

3.00 – 3.30 – Reflections – Planning for keeping well in the next academic year; training ideas, needs, preferences; ideas for keeping in touch: Gill Adams

3.30 – Thank you and Finish

Simon Mollan/ SMP Pathway Deputy Directors

1.00 – 2.30 Adapting research projects in SMP related topics during the Covid-19 restrictions
This interactive workshop will be led by the SMP pathway team. In advance of the workshop students will prepare a short description of their PhD, including a brief outline of their methodology, and a short summary of how the Covid-19 lockdown has affected the research project. Participants should expect to discuss their research project in the workshop. The workshop will focus on discussing potential strategies for adapting the research project to the current circumstances. In particular the workshop will discuss the challenges of undertaking desk-based research, and moving data-collection online.

2.45 – 3.45 Reflecting on interdisciplinary research in SMP
This session will be an open discussion facilitated by the SMP pathway team. The focus of the event will be to discuss the different forms of interdisciplinarity that are used in research in the disciplines and fields covered by SMP, including within participants’ doctoral projects. The discussion will also reflect on previous White Rose training events attended by students, and will provide an opportunity for students to input into the planning of future events in the SMP pathway.

Hugh Kearns, IThinkWell

Being a researcher can be the best job in the world. You get to follow your passions. You have the luxury of exploring areas you’re interested in. You can satisfy your curiosity. You might even make a difference in the world. Most researchers I meet love doing research. But research is also challenging. Despite all the attractions of a research career, the reality is that many researchers get worn down by the system, the setbacks and the challenges. Even more so in these difficult days.
So if you want to stay well and be productive, don’t leave it to chance. You need to look after yourself. I’ve worked with thousands of researchers across the world, and I’m going to highlight some key strategies that people have used to be productive researchers and stay well during their PhD, post-doc or research career.

Catriona McDaid

Maximum 12 participants

11.00 – 11.30 Systematic reviews as a research method on wellbeing
One of the advantages of systematic reviews in the current COVID-19 situation is that they do not require fieldwork and some of you may now be considering using this method as part of your research plan. This 90-minute session will provide an introduction to this method in the context of well-being.
In this workshop we will:

• Identify the key methodological characteristics of systematic reviews and where they fit in relation to other review methods such as scoping reviews and rapid reviews
• Explore the types of research questions they can be used to address
• Explore the methods and findings of a systematic review undertaken by an interdisciplinary team (spanning the humanities and social sciences) on music and singing interventions for well-being.

Prior work: In advance of the session you will need to read the following paper as the group discussion will be based on this.
Daykin, N. et al. What Works for Wellbeing: A systematic review of wellbeing outcomes for music and singing in adults. Perspectives in Public Health 2018:138(1); 39-46 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1757913917740391

11.30 – 12.15 – Group discussion on the Daykin et al. review

12.15 – 12.30 – Q&A session 
(bring along any general questions about reviews you would like to discuss or submit them in advance to catriona.mcdaid@york.ac.uk)

Dr Dylan Kerrigan, Ashley Kilgallon & Katucha Bento

Following the death of George Floyd on 25 May 2020, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) Protest Movement (re)gained popular momentum through a wave of protests around the world. Beyond the issue of policing and police brutality, this raises broad questions about systemic racism and inequality, the right to protest, and historical injustices, not just in the US but in many societies including the UK, as well as how we memorialize histories of conflict and incivility. These broader issues are relevant to academia in a number of ways, if we are to seriously engage with the BLM goals. The low number of BME professors and senior university managers in the UK is just one illustration of this and raises concerns about opportunity, representation, and access. There have also been debates about the colonial and ethnocentric baggage of teaching and approaches to research. For example, before the BLM protests erupted, controversy emerged around the key security studies concept of ‘securitization’, claimed to be racist in an article in a high-profile security studies journal. The ensuing debate suggests fundamental differences regarding our duty to acknowledge uncomfortable legacies and challenge contemporary violence at the heart of the fields of study many of us work in.

This seminar will facilitate a discussion on a range of questions related to these themes, including but not restricted to:

• Does the outrage over the treatment of George Floyd represent a watershed in policing? Do accusations of further police excessiveness in response to protests demonstrate the difficulties of reform? What alternative models of policing might – or should – emerge from the BLM protests in the US and UK?
• Why has the BLM movement resonated so widely now, and what does this mean for genuine prospects of structural change in future?
• How and why are some forms of protest, including tactics and targets, framed as legitimate or illegitimate?
• How do statues and other sites of memory become targets of contestation?   How do the meanings attached to public monuments change through processes of contestation?
• How can the ethnocentric and racist foundations which underpin a lot of academic constructions and traditions be challenged?
• Is your own research, field and discipline marked by absences of certain voices and biases, and how might this be overcome?

WRDTP Staff and Pathway Directors

This year we have several students who will be presenting their research in an online forum. Barring unforeseen connectivity issues the presenting students are as follows (in no current order):

Aimee Felstead (CEL): Adapting to remote methods during lockdown: A place-based study of residents’ participation in cohousing landscapes.

Isabelle Huning (ECY): A comparative perspective on the evolution of skill formation systems in Germany and England within their social and cultural context.

Kirsty-Louise Toone (SCJ): A longitudinal study into the views of alleged perpetrators of anti-social behaviour on the definition of anti-social behaviour and the success or otherwise of related interventions

Dimitria Pilichou (WHC): Does living in an eco-community make you happier? Critical evaluation of case studies from Greece and Spain as potential alternative development pathways

Ruth Churchill-Dower (ECY): Spaces of Difference – attuning through immersive dance with children who sometimes don’t speak

Amy Ross (CEL): Opportunities for shared infrastructure in the UK – towards inclusive infrastructure for net zero lifestyles

K Wrathall (CDD): Lived Experience v. Stereotypes of Masculinity

Richard Remelie (ECY): Why does education matter? Exploring the values and reflexivity of students in a modern university.

Please note: a representative from each Pathway (Pathway Director or Deputy Director) will be present during this session.

Crissie Harney & Michelle Ulor. Supported by: Dr Jelena Havelka

This workshop aims to provide an evidence-based, theory driven approach in optimising music libraries to improve mood, through applying Juslin & Vastjfall’s (2008) Multiple Mechanism Model of emotional responses to music.
Michelle and Crissie co-host a monthly music and wellbeing radio show called Brain Beats, where they discuss topics surrounding music psychology. The show airs on Sable Radio, a local online radio station based in Leeds.
You can find out more about Brain Beats on Instagram – @_brainbeats

WRDTP Student Forum members

Speak to current members of the Student Forum about what you would like to see from the WRDTP in the coming months. Have a suggestion for an event? Want to become a Student Forum representative? Need to speak to your peers about any issues you are experiencing? Please drop in to speak to us.

WRDTP Staff and Pathway Directors

This year we have several students who will be presenting their research in an online forum. Barring unforeseen connectivity issues the presenting students are as follows (in no current order):
Unusah Aziz (SCJ): Understanding the nexus between forced migration and transferred prisoners
Jihad Al Wahshi (DCT): The role of information governance in mitigating the risks of money laundering: A case study from the perspective of Omani banking industry
Phoebe Kelly (WHC): Exploring the role of social housing associations in providing mental health support for residents
Liam Wrigley (ECY): A narrative study of NEET young people’s social networks in Greater Manchester
Temitayo Isaac Odeyemi (CDD): Subnational Legislature and Public Engagement in the Lagos State House of Assembly, Nigeria
Tha’er Abdalla (CEL): Stochastic Building Stock Model of Indoor Air Quality Across University Buildings

Please note: There will be a representative from each Pathway (Director or Deputy Director) present throughout this session.

IF YOU HAVE REGISTERED TO ATTEND THE PRESENTATION SESSION ON THURSDAY YOU WILL AUTOMATICALLY BE SENT THE LINK TO ATTEND THIS SESSION AS WELL