BU Research Blog

The deadline for proposals for the Festival of Learning is Tuesday 31st July. We want to be able to showcase the best of what we do here at BU, which means we are looking for proposals from as many colleagues as possible. If you have not submitted a proposal as yet, there is still time – just! The Festival of Learning Proposal Form is relatively brief, but it is crucial that we are aware of your ideas now so we can incorporate your activity into the planning of the Festival.

If you are looking for some sources of inspiration, a good place to start can be the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement website, which has a useful how to do it section featuring many case studies. You may also find it useful to consider the outputs from some of  the Beacons for Public Engagement, including UCL, the Beacon for Wales and Beacon North East.

It could also be useful to reflect on your short courses that you have run in the past or training that could be adapted to be part of the Festival.

If have any further queries or would like to talk through your proposal, please do not hesitate to contact Becca on 61206 / 01202 961206.

The deadline for Festival of Learning  proposals is Tuesday 31st July, leaving just a few more days to develop your proposals. You may be thinking, why do I have to put something in so early for an event that takes place between 3rd-14th June, 2013? This deadline has been set in order that we can ensure we can make the Festival of Learning the best possible showcase of activity at BU which means planning space, marketing and engaging the appropriate audiences now, rather than in 6 months time!

If you would like to be part of the Festival of Learning, but find yourself stuck for ideas or would like some further help with your proposal, please do call Becca on 61206/01202 961206 to talk it through.

The Festival of Learning Proposal Form is relatively brief, but we do need these details to ensure that your activity is captured in the planning for the event.

When I talk about public engagement to colleagues, one of the first activities that often springs to mind is to give a public lecture, which can be a fantastic way of engaging a large number of people and promoting a lively debate. However, I am sure that we have all experienced (or endured?) public talks that have left us feeling a little deflated. So what can we do to avoid the latter scenario?

Writing this post feels slightly patronising; after all as HE professionals the chances are that a significant proportion of your working life is spent giving lectures and talks of some sort. However, devising a lecture that appeals to an often unknown public can present particular challenges, which several colleagues have asked me to provide advice so, so here goes:

The National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement has developed a handy guide, which can be found here. The guidance, I am sure, will not be of great surprise to many readers of this blog, but could be a useful reminder when preparing a public lecture.

I’ve reviewed some of the other sources of information about the ingredients of a great public lecture, which you may find help to consider to preparing your proposal for the Festival of Learning:

• Remember that most people’s optimum concentration span is about 20 minutes, so ensure that you bear this in-mind when planning your event.
• Interactive props can be a great way of ensuring that your audience stays engaged, especially those which stimulate different senses. This could include short sound or video clips, food tasting or interjections from, for example, a beneficiary of your research.
• Ensure that you have plenty of time for lively discussion
• To maximise the discussion, this carefully about who will chair the event and the techniques they will use to facilitate discussion.
• Keep the topic broader than you might if you were giving a presentation at an academic conference.
• Look to use tools such as twitter to add an extra dimension to your event, and give participants that are not confident at speaking in-front of the whole audience an opportunity to get involved in discussion.

Just a couple of examples of public lectures can be found here and here – there are many more, so please contact me if you would like some more examples.

There are lots of other areas of guidance on how to develop a great public lecture which are more topic specific, so please do not hesitate to contact Becca on redwards@bournemouth.ac.uk or 01202 961206.

Regular readers of this blog may have already been alerted to the ESRC Seven Days of Social Science, but in case you have missed it, I would recommend having a look at the videos and accompanying documents

The reason that I am highlighting these resources is to demonstrate the value of research and how it can be made accessible to a much wider audience. Conversations that I have had with colleagues over the past week or so (mainly ECRs, but not exclusively so!) have reminded me that sometimes it is hard to believe that your research will be of interest beyond your own academic peers. I recall some of my own research, for example, on New Labour’s public space policy – which on the surface sounds like a fairly dry topic (and I can assure you that the associated policy documents are classic examples of New Labour rhetoric, and fairly turgid reading) – however, this research has relevance to any of us wondering why our traditional high street has been placed by a shopping mall, why you can no longer sleep on a park bench or why trees are disappearing from London’s parks. It is, after all, hard to get through a day without encountering some kind of public space.

One of the best parts of my job, is learning about all the fantastic research that is going on across BU, which at times is nothing short of awe-inspiring. This makes me very excited to be helping develop the Festival of Learning and ensuring we engage a far wider public with the value of what we do.

The ESRC Seven Days of Social Science series is a great reminder of why research in the social sciences is fundamental in understanding and shaping the world in which we live, and inherently fascinating. It also is a reminder that if you have received public funding to conduct research, that we have a shared responsibility of engaging the public with the value of that research.

If you are interested in developing a proposal for the Festival of Learning and would like some helping in brainstorming ideas or support completing the proposal form, please do not hesitate to contact Becca on redwards@bournemouth.ac.uk or 01202 961206.

Do you remember when museums were full of dusty exhibits that you were not allowed to touch, or am I just showing my age? Fortunately those days are long gone and now as a nation we are blessed with many interactive museums that facilitate all generations to get involved to learn more about the fascinating world in which we live. Examples include Techniquest, the Natural History Museum or the National Museum Wales (amongst many, many others).

As a University, the creation of exhibits is not our primary purpose, however pop-up interactive exhibitions are a great way to get a much wider public really excited about the research areas we live and breathe each day. One example, local to Bournemouth, is University of Southampton’s (award wining) Science and Engineering Day which showcases a fantastic array of activities. Don’t just take my word for it, have a look here to get a feel for this.

This example is focused around STEM subjects, but I believe there is huge potential to develop this sort of activity around all subject areas. Are there objects that you collect that are related to your research? Have you got audio or visual clips that are integral to your research? Have you taken photographs that give an insight into what you do? If you would like to brainstorm some ideas about how you could create and interactive exhibit around your research, please contact Becca on redwards@bournemouth.ac.uk / 01202 961206.

Don’t forget, the deadline for proposals for the Festival of Learning is the 31st July. You can find out some more information and download the proposal form here.

Next up in my series of public engagement activities that you could include in the Festival of Learning is the humble cafe – otherwise known as a Science Cafe, Cafe Scientifique or a Philosophy Cafe.

The basic premise of this activity is for academics to give a short talk on their subject area (in a way that is both accessible, but also sometimes provocative) before informal discussion takes place amongst participants.

Key to this (the clue is in the name) is to encourage convivial discussion in an non-academic environment, typically a cafe or bar, to allow people to relax and contribute to discussion. Crucial to making this format work is to ensure that the initial talk is thought provoking, provides a starting point for discussion and encourages the audience to contribute to the debate. To do this, it can be fruitful to move away from the traditional lecture format – which normally means no powerpoint, stages or lecterns!

For more details, it is worth looking at the Cafe Scientifique and the Philosophy Cafe websites.

If you would like to talk more about ideas that you have for the Festival of Learning, please contact Becca on redwards@bournemouth.ac.uk or 01202 961206.