Category / BU research

Beijing and Hong Kong with the Fusion Investment Fund Study Leave Strand. Dr. Rick Fisher, HSC/BUDI

BU research, Fusion, Research themes

I applied to be seconded to the BU Dementia Institute, with the objective of raising the profile of the Institute on an international stage. This activity builds on  my current role as chair of the HSC International Strategy Group. The Fusion Fund award was granted to enable me to be released from some of my work commitment within HSC to spend two days per week with BUDI over a period of six months. Contributing to the Fusion Strand ‘Mental health and wellbeing across the lifespan’ the intention was to proactively seek academic and research collaboration with colleagues overseas.

Serendipity?

The intended strategy for this undertaking was to identify overseas areas where there was an opportunity for such collaboration to take place. This would be achieved by undertaking a targeted literature review of existing research centres. An initial reading of primary literature identified that dementia is a growing concern in China. At this time, through my role as a member of BU’s International Task Force, I was aware of a delegation visiting Beijing. A leading light in gerontology, Professor Du Peng, who I had identified through my reading, is Professor of Psychology at Renmin University in Beijing. A small flurry of email exchanges resulted in Dr Biao Zeng from BU’s Psychology department being able to meet with Professor Du, paving the way for a visit to take place later in the year.

I also, with the aid of Professor Anthea Innes, identified Professor Timothy Kwok, of the Jockey Club Centre for Positive Ageing (JCCPA) as a potential collaborator. Timothy and Anthea have previously explored comparative research opportunities. The JCCPA is located in Hong Kong; I could have a ‘free’ stop over with my chosen airline, thereby maximizing the funding. Initial email exchanges with Prof Kwok resulted in an agreement to meet during my trip.The meetings were scheduled for the week beginning September 9th. In the meantime I was introduced to Prof Junqi Yan, who was able to arrange for me to visit a neuro-rehabilitation centre in Beijing, thus adding another opportunity to the visit.

 Visit to Renmin University, Beijing.

Situated in the North of Beijing, Renmin University, (formerly the People’s University of China) is a high-ranking educational establishment and is branded as China’s flagship for Social Sciences and Humanities education.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Students relax on campus

 

 

                      Views of Freshers’ Week

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

On a bright, warm Monday morning Biao Zeng and I met with Prof Du,  Prof James Sun, Chair of the Department of Psychology and Associate Dean of the School of Sciences and also Pro Hu Ping who is Associate Dean in the Department of Psychology. Besides his role as head of Population Studies focusing on Gerontology,  Professor Du is also  Director of Academic research for the entire university.

 

     L-R  Prof Sun, Prof Du, Prof Hu, Dr. Rick Fisher, Dr. Biao Zeng

 We had a very positive meeting in which we discussed a number of opportunities. Prof Du and I discussed possibilities of a bid to a recently announced ESRC call for collaborative research between China and the EU.  He is also in the process of setting up a multidisciplinary centre for the study of ageing and has a sociology/social policy background. Prof Du also demonstrated a project, funded by Samsung, in which it is possible to simulate the difficulties older people and those with a physical disability experience as a result of poor building design. This project appears to have some parallels with research being conducted at BUDI.

Prof Sun, who is also Deputy Director of Leadership Studies, is very positive about collaborative ventures. He is keen to foster PhD studentships and a variety of models of faculty exchange. Our meeting was followed by what Prof Sun described as a ‘simple’ lunch, served in the university private dining room, with exquisite presentation.

In all, this was a very positive visit and I am developing a proposal to maintain the keen interest shown in the ESRC bid.

 Visit to Beijing United Family Rehabilitation Hospital

 On the following day I met with Prof Yan and three of his PhD students. We discussed some of their research projects, which included a study into the pressures and health risks being experienced by the fledgling middle management in China’s burgeoning industrial landscape. We travelled through (very slow) Beijing traffic to visit the newly-established Beijing United Family Rehabilitation Hospital. Privately funded and catering for Beijing’s upper strata, this is dedicated to the rehabilitation of those who have neurological impairment. We were met by Dr Jason Zhou, Assistant Chief Medical Officer and Director of Neuro-rehabilitation. Dr Zhou was enthusiastic about the excellent facilities in the hospital which include hydrotherapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy and he is keen to explore collaborative opportunities for both research and education.

 

                                       Beijing United Family Rehabilitation Hospital.

  Dr Jason Zhu (left) and Prof Junqi Yan next to the hydrotherapy pool.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club Centre for Positive Ageing

 The following day was spent travelling to Hong Kong. Here I was to meet Professor Timothy Kwok. Besides his work as Director of the Jockey Club Centre for Positive Ageing  he is Professor in Medicine and Therapeutics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His primary research interests centre around the prevention of cognitive decline in elderly people. On arrival I was shown around the Centre by Research Officer, Bel Wong Pui Sze . The centre is arranged  over three floors with good access for wheelchair users throughout. It comprises two levels of day centres; people attend according to the degree of their dementia. There is also a residential facility offering respite care. A major feature of the Centre is in the ways in which it seeks to support those with dementia and those who care for them at home. These include a variety of literature, short courses and a telephone support line. It also aims to raise awareness of dementia within the general public of Hong Kong.

 

 With Prof Timothy Kwok, at the Jockey Club Centre for Positive Ageing

 

   Respite room at the Jockey Club Centre for Positive Ageing

Prof Kwok has numerous interests focused on elderly care and dementia. We had positive discussions regarding a number of ventures and he expressed considerable interest in collaborating on a Chinese language version of the Dementia Educational Game being developed with Fusion Investment Fund monies, by myself, Dr Christos Gatzidis (DEC) and Jonathan Ferraris.

 

                     Goodnight to Hong Kong

In all, this was a positive experience  that has the potential to deliver collaboration across both China and Hong Kong. The next step is to translate some of this bonhomie into measurable outputs.

I would like to thank the BU Fusion Investment Fund for giving me the opportunity to undertake this venture.

rfisher@bournemouth.ac.uk


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turning Research into Film published in Qualitative Research text

BU research

 Just published! A chapter entitled, ‘Turning Research into Film’, by Kip Jones and Trevor Hearing has just been published in Sage’s Qualitative Research for the Social Sciences edited by Marilyn Lichtman. The full title of the Chapter: Turning Research into Film: Trevor Hearing speaks with Kip Jones about the process of creating the short research-based film, Rufus Stone.

Lichtman’s books on qualitative research are well-known and adopted for courses internationally.

The Chapter is an an expansion on an earlier interview conducted by the Media School’s Trevor Hearing. HSC’s Kip Jones illuminates several of his responses with excerpts from the story development for the award-winning, research based short film, RUFUS STONE. Hearing and Jones also collaborated on creating the trailer for RUFUS STONE. 

The film was recently purchased by the Alzheimer’s Society for use in its trainings nationally.  In addition, it will be screened locally for Dorset Healthcare Trust nurses and staff. The film has been keynoted at events at Cambridge, LSE, Birkbeck and Durham Universities over the past year and featured in both the ESRC Festival of Social Science and BU Festival of Learning.

The unique collaboration forged in making the film has been reported in the New York Times and Times Higher Education as well as in academic journals and other book chapters and featured as ‘inspirational’ in the BU’s Annual Report. The film has been screened in academic settings, for social and health service providers and general audiences in several cinemas. Rufus Stone won two awards for short film at the prestigious Rhode Island International Film Festival.

The film will be screened on the Lansdowne campus in December for staff and students.

Monday, 9 December, 1 pm

Wollstonecraft Theatre (BG10)

Bournemouth House

All are welcome!

Just a few reactions to Rufus Stone from audience members attending screenings:

“Critically the authenticity of the film shone through – the characters were real and genuine”.

    •   “emotionally gripping”
    •   “technically innovative and striking”
    •   “a brilliant way to portray research”
    •   “beautiful and very intense”
    •   “a quite remarkable film”
    •   “a brilliant film, beautifully crafted and full of empathy”

Cinematographer Annika Summerson and crew set up shot with Harry Kershaw (centre) who plays young RUFUS STONE

Research Professional – all you need to know

BU research, Funding opportunities

Every BU academic has a Research Professional account which delivers weekly emails detailing funding opportunities in their broad subject area. To really make the most of your Research Professional account, you should tailor it further by establishing additional alerts based on your specific area of expertise.

Research Professional have created several guides to help introduce users to ResearchProfessional. These can be downloaded here.

Quick Start Guide: Explains to users their first steps with the website, from creating an account to searching for content and setting up email alerts, all in the space of a single page.

User Guide: More detailed information covering all the key aspects of using ResearchProfessional.

Administrator Guide: A detailed description of the administrator functionality.

In addition to the above, there are a set of 2-3 minute videos online, designed to take a user through all the key features of ResearchProfessional.  To access the videos, please use the following link: http://www.youtube.com/researchprofessional

Research Professional are running a series of online training broadcasts aimed at introducing users to the basics of creating and configuring their accounts on ResearchProfessional.  They are holding monthly sessions, covering everything you need to get started with ResearchProfessional.  The broadcast sessions will run for no more than 60 minutes, with the opportunity to ask questions via text chat.  Each session will cover:

  • Self registration and logging in
  • Building searches
  • Setting personalised alerts
  • Saving and bookmarking items
  • Subscribing to news alerts
  • Configuring your personal profile

Each session will run between 10.00am and 11.00am (UK) on the fourth Tuesday of each month.  You can register here for your preferred date:

22nd October 2013

26th November 2013

28th January 2014

25th February 2014

25th March 2014

These are free and comprehensive training sessions and so this is a good opportunity to get to grips with how Research Professional can work for you.

Change of venue for eBU drop in session

BU research, PG research, Publishing

The venue has changed for the first drop in session for prospective authors and those interested in eBU: Online Journal.

I had advertised sessions on Talbot on Monday 7th and Tuesday 8th – both in PG30d. However, the Monday session will now take place in TAG01. I shall place a sign on the door of PG30d in order to redirect people!

The revised eBU drop in sessions are now as follows:

Monday 7th October 11am – 2pm TAG01

Tuesday 8th October 11am – 2pm PG30d

And on the Lansdowne:

Wednesday 9th 11am – 2pm EBC ground floor cafe

BU PhD Studentship Competition 2014 – Call for Project Proposals

BU research

 The Graduate School is delighted to announce the launch of the 2014 BU PhD Studentship Competition. Potentially, there will be up to 50 studentships available across two parallel strands: (1) Matched Funded and (2) Fully Funded.

At this stage, Academic Staff are invited to submit proposals for studentship projects which, if successful, will be advertised to recruit PhD candidates for an October 2014 start.

Full details can be found on the Graduate School Staff Intranet.

 Support for Academic Staff:

Staff Development are running a one day workshop “Funding your Studentship: engaging effectively with business and industry” on Tuesday 15 October 2013 for academic staff considering submitting a proposal(s). Full details of the event and how to book are available here.

Submission Deadline:

Applications should be submitted on the Studentship Proposal form to the Graduate School; email: phdstudentshipcompetition@bournemouth.ac.uk) no later than 5pm on Monday 6 January 2014. Funding decisions will be made in line with the Studentship Policy within 3 weeks of the deadline.

CEMP Research & Innovation

BU research, Funding opportunities, Publishing, Uncategorized

      At the open forum last week, we agreed the following actions for the coming year:

Research & Innovation Bulletin – to continue for information only, once a fortnight, via the research blog, from October 10th;
CEMP meetings – for CEMP staff only, once a month, to include bidding and income monitoring;
CEMP Coffee Mornings – once a month, ‘drop in’ for anyone in the MS who wants to talk to us about funding applications or other research / innovation opportunities. The first of these will be Thursday October 17th;
CEMP workshops – a series of supportive events to help people get started with research, bid writing, publishing, networking;
CEMP Associates – a proposal will be submitted to facilitate more experienced colleagues working with CEMP in a more structured fashion – to collaborate on bid writing, projects and making connections across academic groups.

Fusion: Sports Academic Group and School of Tourism to Advance Partnerships with US East Coast Universities

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Fusion, REF Subjects, Research themes

As part of the overall internationalisation dynamics spreading through the School of Tourism – especially concerned with creating opportunities for students – Dr Tim Breitbarth, Senior Lecturer in Sports Management, will travel to South Carolina and Florida end of October.

The project is funded through the BU Fusion Investment Fund, based on the trips’ three impact-focused objectives of, firstly and mainly, advancing partnership development for the sports academic group as well as the School of Tourism and potentially other Schools as well; secondly, Tim will collect further sets of empirical data for an established and awarded international collaborative research project on CSR and sport; and thirdly, develop and foster industry and research contacts aiming towards strengthening BU’s golf/sport management programmes and editing a first book on global golf business.

Main contacts and places to go are the University of South Carolina, which has the largest undergraduate sports and entertainment management programme of its kind in the USA, with more than 1000 majors and minors (recently been listed in the Top25 in the 2013 SportBusiness Global Postgraduate Ranking), and the University of Central Florida, where a university partnership agreement covering many subject areas is already well underway.

“My experience with the Fusion fund and the way it is managed is that coherent applications focusing on wider impact and multiple outcomes are very welcome,” says Tim, who already was successful with staff mobility and networking applications in the past. Please feel free to contact Tim (tbreitbarth@bournemouth.ac.uk) if you like to learn more about his upcoming trip.

Co-producing and co-creating with eBU

BU research, Fusion, PG research, Publishing

As I’m sure you are all aware of, co-production and co-creation are key facets of Fusion. What better way of engaging in co-production and co-creation than through pursuing publications with students?

eBU is well placed to help academics co-produce and co-create outputs with students for peer review publications. eBU is encouraging academics to act as gatekeepers who, upon marking or seeing high quality student work, will approach students with the view to asking them if they wish to take this further and publish.

Putting your work ‘out there’ is daunting enough for anyone, let alone an early career scholar or student. Primarily as a publishing forum for internal peer review, eBU is a place where these types of outputs can be constructively critiqued in a safe internal environment. This provides students and/or early career scholars with some valuable experience of opening his/her work up to review internally, before doing so in the wider world.

eBU works on the basis of immediate publication (subject to an initial quality check) and open peer review. Once published on the internal site, we aim to upload reviews within 3 weeks. Authors are then encouraged to use the comments to aid publication in an external journal. Alternatively, authors also have the option of publishing on the external eBU site. Please note that only using eBU as a forum for internal peer review (with the intention to publish externally – which we encourage!) WILL NOT ENDANGER FURTHER PUBLICATION.

With the academic year only just underway it may not be the right time to identify high quality student output and enquire if they wish to make changes and reformat any output for publication. However, can I ask staff to make all students aware of eBU. It’s a win-win situation – engaging with eBU will boost your publication rate and give students something positive to put on their CV for their chosen career path.

To access eBU, when on campus simply type ‘ebu’ into your web browser address bar.

BRAD can help you to develop your research career

BU research

What is the aim of BRAD?  The BU Researcher/Academic Development (BRAD) programme is a tailor made framework of development sessions for you, our BU researchers, based on the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF). This holistic framework provides professional and personal development in the key areas of:

A. Knowledge & Intellectual Abilities

B. Personal Effectiveness

C. Research Governance & Organization

D. Engagement, Influence & Impact

How did we consult you in creating BRAD ? A poll was posted on our blog to explore which training areas you would like us to host and this was followed by an online survey to explore the training needs of early career researchers (ECRs) in particular. The results concluded you would like training in a wide range of development areas from specific methodology to an academic career path. Feedback also clearly said sessions should be about two hours and that Wednesdays were the preferred date for sessions and the framework follows this structure. There are a few sessions which run for longer than two hours and this is because of the subject matter.

What kind of sessions are we running? The programme comprises of a wide range of facilitated development sessions held on campus (by internal and external presenters), online research modules from Epigeum (so you can learn in your own time) and the Vitae’s RDF. The facilitated sessions cover everything from research skills to personal effectiveness, from using SPSS to creating impact through your research. The online training covers a range of topics from getting published to managing your research career which you can undertake at your own time. You can identify which sessions to attend by undertaking the simple ‘My Academic Development Needs: Self-Assessment’ (MADNSA) or use Vitae’s jazzy Excel version which is more detailed.  You can read case studies of real academics to see how using the planner based on this assessment has helped transform their careers if you still need a little convincing to complete this and also the top 10 tipsfrom researchers on using the framework.All academic staff at BU have access to this programme and you can attend whichever sessions you are interested in; you don’t have to attend the whole programme. For facilitated sessions, just book through the Staff Development webpages and for online modules, simply log into myBU  and search the BRAD community to view all courses and to get started!

Who can be part of BRAD? Any BU academic member of staff can sign up to the BRAD programme; there is no commitment required as to the number of sessions you undertake. We simply want to keep a record of those who are taking part in some of the BRAD facilitated and online sessions, so we can get your feedback on how useful they were.  You will be automatically added to the list when you sign up for a session with Staff Development.

Bournemouth University represented at the Launch of International Sport Coaching Framework in Durban, South Africa

BU research, REF Subjects, Research themes, Uncategorized

Lecturer in Sport Psychology and Coaching Sciences, Emma Kavanagh was recently present at the launch of the International Sport Coaching Framework at the International Council for Coaching Excellence (ICCE) 9th global coaching conference in Durban, South Africa.  This marked a worldwide initiative to launch the ICCE global coaching strategy and standardise the practice of sports coaching across the world.

 

Whilst attending the conference as a delegate, Emma also presented a research paper in collaboration with Dr Abbe Brady from the University of Gloucestershire entitled “Humanization in High Performance Sport: Introducing a Value-based Framework for Coaches and Practitioners”.  This paper provided a vocabulary for articulating one of the foundations of the international coaching framework; creating an athlete centred coaching environment.

 

The paper was well received by both national and international delegates including some of the world’s leading experts in the field of sport and coaching sciences.  The paper was described as an area of fruitful and exciting opportunity for future research in coaching and performance. This has further enhanced Bournemouth Universities reputation as an emerging centre of innovative research in sport and coaching sciences.  In addition the conference has provided opportunity for further external collaborations with a number of national and international partners.

eBU PGT & PGR drop in sessions

BU research, PG research, Publishing, Research news

Publishing should be high on the agenda of any early career scholar, and PGTs and PGRs should feel no different. For those who are concerned or intimidated by the harsh academic publishing world, eBU is here to help.

eBU: Online Journal is the new online working paper journal for the BU community. Putting your work ‘out there’ can be daunting. eBU is particularly useful for early career scholars, PGTs and PGRs who may wish and have something to publish, but have not yet dipped their toes into the world of academic peer reviewed publishing.

eBU works on the basis of immediate publication (subject to an initial quality check) and open peer review. Once published on the internal site, we aim to upload reviews within 3 weeks. Authors are then encouraged to use the comments to aid publication in an external journal. Alternatively, authors also have the option of publishing on the external eBU site. Please note that only using eBU as a forum for internal peer review (with the intention to publish externally – which we encourage!) WILL NOT ENDANGER FURTHER PUBLICATION.

I am holding drop in sessions (aimed at PGTs and PGRs – but anyone is welcome!) for anyone who wishes to discuss eBU further. These will be held on Talbot Campus:

Monday 7th October 11am – 2pm PG30d

Tuesday 8th October 11am – 2pm PG30d

And on the Lansdowne:

Wednesday 9th 11am – 2pm EBC ground floor cafe

To access eBU, when on campus simply type ‘ebu’ into your web browser address bar.

 

Reminder – CEMP open meeting this Thursday

BU research, Uncategorized

    Reminder about this Thursday’s meeting which is an open invitation for people to come along, have a coffee and tell us how we can support collaborative approaches to pedagogic research & innovation.

The background:

This academic year CEMP will continue to publish a fortnightly research & innovation funding bulletin via this blog, like so:  CEMP bulletin 26.9.13

The Research & Innovation meetings will also continue, but we want to invite colleagues from the rest of the Media School and across BU to tell us how we can increase engagement and collaboration in all aspects of pedagogic / educational research and innovation related to media / technology.

Previously, the model has been like this –

The bulletin is posted on a Thursday – this contains information about funding calls and also monitors live projects and reports on the outcomes of all bids.

The next Thursday, we meet to discuss the calls in the bulletin and report on bids in progress.

The next Thursday, the updated bulletin is posted

….and so on.

So far, we’ve been successful in one of our two key objectives – increasing CEMP bidding activity, but less successful in the other – developing collaboration with other people in BU, either in response to the funding calls in the bulletin or to try to match peoples’ ideas for projects / innovation to funding opportunities. This second objective is a service / function CEMP can offer to the University, and we’d like more colleagues to access this.

So – we’d like to review how we do this, in order to get better at the second objective, and to this end the first R&I meeting of this year is an open forum and everyone is invited to either come along and contribute to the discussion or to add a comment to this post if you have ideas but can’t make the meeting.

Meeting details:

Thursday 26th September 10-12

CEMP’s new office (CAGO2) – with tea, coffee and pastries!!!

Key issues for discussion:

  • How can CEMP support people in developing research / innovation projects?
  • What are the structural obstacles and how can we overcome them?

When we’ve got everyone’s ideas / requests for how to proceed, we’ll decide how to go ahead.

I hope we’ll see you there or read your ideas on the blog.

Julian

Desperate for uninterrupted quality time on your grant application? Come to the Residential Research Retreat!

BU research

The Research Design Service South West (RDS SW) is offering a unique opportunity to researchers in health and social care across the South West of England.

The Residential Research Retreat provides an opportunity for research teams to develop high quality research proposals suitable for submission to national peer-reviewed funding schemes. The aim of the Retreat is to provide the environment and support to promote rapid progress in developing proposals over a relatively short time period. The Retreat is open to health professionals and academic partners working within the South West. 

At the Retreat you will be supported by a range of academic experts while developing your research proposal. Away from the workplace, you will work intensively on your proposal, while learning how to maximise its chances for successfully securing a grant. You will learn how to develop your idea into a viable and first class research proposal and experience research project planning at a professional level.

A delegate from this year’s Retreat said, “This has been an extremely valuable exercise and has really helped build an understanding of what is expected from NIHR funded projects. In order to ensure that new researchers are able to make feasible, rigorous, well-designed bids for funding, this week is essential.”

The Retreat will be held at the Ammerdown Conference Centre, near Bath in Somerset from 1 June to 6 June 2014 inclusive. To win a place on the Retreat, applications should be submitted by 1pm on Friday 17th January 2014.  Applications will be reviewed competitively and places awarded to the most promising team proposals. The application and further information is available at http://www.rds-sw.nihr.ac.uk/rrr.htm.

Don’t forget, your local branch of the Research Design Service is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) on the 5th floor of Royal London House. Feel free to pop in and see us or send us an email.

CEMP Fellows? A Proposal for Fostering Innovative Education Research at BU

BU Challenges, BU research, Fusion

Many media studies professionals engaged in learning innovation first get introduced to Bournemouth University through CEMP, the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice. From attending annual summits to publishing in the Media Education Research Journal, before joining BU I was already connected to this unique community characterised by creativity, sharing and mentorship. Once I started working at BU I quickly realised that educational researchers interested in media and technology were not just in CEMP. From the School of Tourism to DEC, inspiring educational research can be found across BU.

As the Fusion vision expands and EdD programme grows, the time seems ripe to further foster innovative education research at BU, to use CEMP to bring our educational researchers together. Yet, as any of us who’ve scampered around to meet a grant deadline knows all too well, network building and collaborative bidding requires workload time and institutional support. This got some of us thinking about ways we might be able to foster educational research through CEMP. Borrowing a best practice employed at many research centres around the world, we asked ourselves: What if CEMP had internal fellows?

These CEMP Fellows could be culled from BU’s existing educational research community. Provided dedicated time in their schedules to meet together, they could share their previous scholarship and develop new collaborative projects. CEMP could create annual or bi-annual themes to guide this knowledge exchange and facilitate initiatives, offering a programmed series of meetings and events. For example, CEMP might run a Fellow programme on a topic like ‘Games and Education,’ bringing together researchers exploring the use of educational gaming across all schools.  As evidence that these fellows already exist amongst us, just two weeks ago at the VS Games conference hosted at BU by Dr. Christos Gatzidis and Dr. Jian Zhang of DEC, we saw BU participants from Tourism, the Centre for Digital Entertainment, Animation, Corporate Communication and more. Together we shared innovations in educational gaming.  Could CEMP Fellows be a way forward for fostering fusion?

Dissent and protest – new directions for public relations

BU research

Dissent and Protest Public Relations is an initiative by the PR Research Group in the Media School which aims to help develop new directions for exploring both practice and theory.

A series of seminars launched this initiative in late 2012, and the global PR Conversations website has now published papers from three of the four contributors (including myself) who approached the topic from different perspectives.

The papers (click here for pdf) have been published to stimulate discussion around the terms dissent PR and protest PR, and whether they can, and should, be applied to current, recent and past PR happenings.

We are hoping to hear thoughts about whether or not the concepts should be developed further and views on considering a wider perspective on public relations than the normal idea that it is employed primarily within organisations and so is often critiqued as a right-wing, or at least, establishment, method of communications.

Please comment here or join the conversation at PR Conversations: http://www.prconversations.com/index.php/2013/09/dissent-and-protest-new-directions-for-public-relations/

BU Sport Students and Academic Succeed at European Association for Sport Management Conference in Istanbul

BU research, EU, REF Subjects, Research news, Research themes

As part of its internationalisation activities the Sports group within the School of Tourism had four students and a scholar significantly contributing at the Student Seminar and the main conference of the European Association for Sport Management (EASM) in Turkey from 7 to 14 September.

The 4.5-full-day Student Seminar saw 60 students from 13 countries working in mixed international groups along management cases. Keynotes on those topics of current special interest were given by the NBA Europe Marketing Director, a recently retired UNICEF Programme Director, Professor March Krotee from North Carolina State University and Dr Tim Breitbarth, Senior Lecturer at Bournemouth University.

BU students John Bryson, Stefan Ferencz and Oliver Johnson won their case competitions with their respective teams, and therefor had the chance to present at the 21st EASM conference. After the four winning groups’ presentations in front of a large audience, the jury decided on Oliver Johnson and his team as the overall winner of the management game. They were awarded during the conference’s closing banquet, which took place during a nightlong boot trip on the Bosporus.

Students present dissertation research to academic community

Beyond all four students’ great work as BU ambassadors during the Student Seminar, Luke Frary and John Bryson presented their dissertation research to the interested academic community, guided by Tim and Dr Andrew Adams, Senior Lecturer in Sport Management. Before his presentation, Luke had the chance to personally discuss his work on leadership over breakfast with 86-year old Professor Packianathan Chelladurai, arguably the most globally renown sport management and leadership scholar. John was asked by NBA Europe Marketing Director Naci Cansun to send his research results on the impact of CSR in professional sport and thoughts on managerial implications.

All students had to go through a very competitive application process and a good proportion of the overall trip was funded because of the students’ very strong applications to the BU Global Horizon Fund and the School of Tourism internal funding scheme. Besides their successes related to the conference, all students generally benefitted from the process of actively engaging and working with the large intercultural sports and business community.

Dr Tim Breitbarth workshop Lead Convenor at EASM conference

Despite its small presence at the world’s largest sport management conference, the BU Sports group made a big impact also due to Tim’s role as Lead Convenor of a very well-attended 1.5-day workshop on social responsibility management in professional sport, which for the first time brought most of the key researchers on the topic from North America, Australia and Europe together. In addition, experienced practitioners from Euroleague Basketball and German Society for International Cooperation were invited as keynote speakers and added to the discussion.

The workshop is part of the process which will lead to a special issue on the topic in Corporate Governance – The International Journal of Business in Society, with Tim leading a the guest editor team, which also features three colleagues from England, Germany and The Netherlands (www.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/call_for_papers.htm?id=4564).

Luke Frary with Andrés Guerrero, International Development Cooperation Expert and recently retired UNICEF Programme Director
Oliver Johnson (third from left) with his team from Finland, Germany and The Netherlands, which won the EASM 2013 Student Management Game.

Stefan Ferencz during group work

John Bryson with two of his team members from Germany and The Netherlands

Dr Tim Breitbarth, Senior Lecturer in Sport Management, with Professor Birol Cotuk, Dean Marmara University School of PE and Sport and Chair of the 21st EASM Conference, Istanbul/Turkey

BUDI works for Internationalising Dementia Education and Research

BU research, Featured, Research news

By Mariela Gaete-Reyes

 Thanks to the Fusion Investment Fund, SMN Strand Santander Scholarships 2012-13, I was able to visit Chile and Colombia as a BUDI ambassador this summer. The objective of the visits was to undertake collaborative work with two institutions and to develop networks with other institutions and academics in both countries to explore the possibilities of working collaboratively with them in the future.

In Santiago I did scoping interviews with 8 key actors working in dementia, which explored the social-economic and political situation of people living with dementia in Chile and their families. These interviews are the basis of a research grant proposal for a comparative study (underway), in which I worked with Dr Paulina Osorio at Universidad de Chile; she is an anthropologist with a PhD in Sociology. What was evident from the interviews was the absence of public policy relating to dementia in Chile, and consequently, the scarcity of state support. Although this can be expected in a country where there is not welfare state, it means that families have to arrange, do and/or pay for all the care. Connected to this is the prevalence of a medicalised view of dementia in Chile which is reflected, in part, in the lack of social research around dementia.

I visited Hospital Clínico Universidad de Chile, and had a meeting with Dr Patricio Fuentes. He is a consultant neurologist and has 20 years of experience working with people with dementia. Dr Fuentes is part of the medical and scientific advisory panel (MSAP) of Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI). In his role, he provides expert advice and acts as the Chilean ambassador for ADI. Dr Fuentes expressed his interest in working collaboratively with us in research.

I got in contact with Corporación Profesional Alzheimer y otras Demencias COPRAD. This is a multidisciplinary organisation constituted by professionals that seek to contribute to the preservation of mental health and the improvement of the quality of life for people living with Alzheimer and other types of dementia, and also their family carers. I had a meeting with the vice-president of this association, Andrea Slachevsky, who is a consultant neurologist and has a PhD in Neuroscience (Paris). Her interests are in public policy and she, together with the corporation and other actors, has been working to put forward a National plan for dementia, this is called: Plan Nacional de Enfermedad de Alzheimer y Otras Demencias.

I had two meetings with the director of Corporación Alzheimer Chile, Nubia Alvarado. This organisation was created by family members of people with dementia and they have several services for individuals with dementia and their families. This organisation subscribes to ADI. Nubia Alvarado also expressed interest in working with us. I also visited the Instituto Nacional de Geriatria, a geriatric hospital, and had a meeting with the Director of the Hospital, Dr. Juana Silva. They have different levels of care for older people: ambulatory, daytime hospitalisation (four hours), this service is provided when somebody needs to be seen by different specialists; the objective is preventing longer periods of hospitalisations; and hospitalisation. Instituto Nacional de Geriatría has a unit which focuses on training, research, dissemination and extension. When I visited they were about to start a course on dementia care. Dr. Juana Silva manifested her interest in working with BUDI.

 

Instituto Nacional de Geriatría. Photos: Courtesy Instituto Nacional de Geriatría.

 
There were at least three people who expressed interest in coming to BUDI as visiting scholars at some point. Jean Gajardo, OT, MSc in Social Gerontology, who is doing a PhD in Public Health at Universidad de Chile. Javier Nuñez, who is a GP and works in matters relating to Dementia, and Agnieszka Bozanic a neuropsychologist who has worked with individuals with dementia and their families. Carolina Perez who works at Instituto Nacional de Geriatría is thinking about undertaking a postgraduate course (MSc or PhD) and was interested in hearing what we could offer.

After being in Chile, I went to Colombia and met a colleague from BUDI, Ben Hicks, to undertake an academic exchange in collaboration with Universidad del Rosario. We had a four day activity programme in Bogota and Nocaima. Our activities in Bogota included giving lectures/presentations at the University and MEDERI hospital to medical and OT students about the work we do at BUDI and other dementia related themes. We also participated in discussion panels. We visited Hospital Universitario de Barrios Unidos to observe a session of the programme PERMEA (Programa de Estimulación y Rehabilitación de la Memoria y la Atención), for the stimulation and rehabilitation of the memory for people with dementia and other memory problems.

Mariela Gaete-Reyes giving a talk at Universidad del Rosario.

 

Ben Hicks giving a talk at Universidad del Rosario.

As part of our academic visit we went to Nocaima a rural community close to Bogota. In Nocaima we were introduced to the Healthy Municipality project and had the opportunity to interact with Semillas de Amor, a group of elderly people. We also visited a care home which depends on the church and on donations of the local community. The care home has 33 residents and only one carer and she manages to do all the care and take them to the GP when needed. Finally, we visited Universidad Nacional de Colombia and held a meeting with the Faculty of Nursing to explore collaborative work in ‘Care for carers’, which is a training programme offered to carers of people with chronic illnesses.   

Hopefully from this visit we will be able to continue working in collaboration with the institutions we visited in Chile and Colombia in dementia research and education. So, many thanks again to the Santander Scholarship.

 
Institutions visited:

Santiago, Chile

  • Instituto Nacional de Geriatría.
  • Hospital Clínico Universidad de Chile, Geriatric section.                                 
  • Corporación Profesional Alzheimer y otras Demencias COPRAD.    
  • Corporación Alzheimer Chile.
  • Universidad de Chile, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales.  

 

Bogotá, Colombia

  • Universidad del Rosario, Facultad de Medicina y Ciencias de la Salud (Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences) and Facultad de Jurisprudencia (Faculty of Law).
  • Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Facultad de enfermería (Faculty of Nursing).