BU Research Blog

April 4, 2018

CQR Wed Seminar: The Personal Stories of a Methodology Study Group

The Personal Stories of a Methodology Study Group: An independent learning and support mechanism for postgrads

Come along and join in the conversation with the “Gang of Four”: Karen Cooper, Louise Oliver, Mandy Podee, and Jo Thurston.

The result was an enhanced depth of understanding of specific interpretive research methodologies as well as an unexpected support mechanism.

The group’s primary function was to support development of its understanding of methodologies and methods, but an unexpected secondary function was the reduction of a sense of isolation.

United through the fundamental overarching field of narrative research, four doctoral candidates with distinct topic areas were able to collaborate. They not only enhanced their depth of understanding of specific interpretive research methodologies, but also provided support and encouragement to each other within the potentially isolating experience of postgraduate research study.

Centre for Qualitative Research

“In Conversation” Seminar Series

February 5, 2018

CQR ‘In Conversation’ Michele Board & Karen Cooper: “Ephemera”

Centre for Excellence in Learning, PG research Kip Jones

CQR “In Conversation” Seminar

This Wednesday 1 p.m. RLH 201

Michele Board and Karen Cooper present the use of ephemera to uncover life stories in qualitative research.

What is ”ephemera”? It consists of objects of little or no monetary value that represent moments in our past. They can include pamphlets, railroad tickets, stamps, old letters or photographs, a food stained recipe card, a small piece of clothing, an accessory like a ribbon or a badge, sheet music, keys, post cards, used concert or theatre tickets, a self‐penned poem or a song, or a drawing. They all have a story to tell if we are willing to listen.

The CQR Seminar series consists of a 20 minute conversation between two presenters, then lots of time for discussion with the audience. Come along and join in the conversation!

Bring along some of your own ephemera if you’d like!

October 12, 2016

A Personal Invitation from Kip Jones

PG research, Public engagement Kip Jones

I personally invite you (and your students) to join me for the Gala Celebration of the 5^th Anniversary of the Premiere of RUFUS STONE. The event will take place at the historic Shelley Theatre in Boscombe (Bournemouth) on the 7^th of November, from 3 p.m. until 5 p.m. as part of ESRC’s Festival of Social Science.

A special guest at the screening will be the actor Lin Blakley who played “Abigail” as an adult in RUFUS STONE, and who has lately been seen as Pam Coker, a major role, in EastEnders.

Harry Kershaw, who played young “Rufus”, will also try to join us if he can. He has been very busy since filming with us with roles in the West End and on film, and has a performance that very night. Fingers crossed.

Watching the film with theatre projection is a special treat, if you’ve never experienced it this way before. The Shelley is atmospheric and exciting as well. Mary Shelley watched performances from her deathbed through a window in the theatre that still exists today!

After the half hour screening, there will be short Q&A with the audience. Then, as Joni Mitchell penned it so well, “If you want me, I’ll be in the bar”. We will retire to the renovated bar area for drinks and nibbles. It is here that you will have the chance to meet and chat with some of the representatives of educational, statutory and community organisations who have made an impact on their communities with their own screenings of RUFUS STONE over the past five years.

And this is in no way a swan song! RUFUS STONE will then move on to the University of Tampere in Finland on the 25^th of November as the Keynote at their Social Psychology Conference.

It is important that you book soon for the Shelley, as places are limited.

The Event is FREE but you must

Register at: https://rufusstonefilm.eventbrite.co.uk

Directions to the Shelley Theatre on the Eventbrite site.

Watch the Trailer for RUFUS STONE: https://vimeo.com/43395306

Thanks and looking forward to seeing you at the screening,

Kip

From a scholar in Vienna:

October 19, 2014

RUFUS STONE goes LIVE and FREE on the Internet

Post-award, Public engagement Kip Jones

Bournemouth University is pleased to announce that the research-based, award-winning short film, RUFUS STONE, goes live and can be viewed for FREE on the Internet from 25th October.

The University has championed the film as ‘an outstanding example of public engagement at BU’ and as ‘inspirational’ in the University’s Annual Report.

RUFUS STONE is based on three years of a Research Council UK funded study of the lives of older lesbians and gay men in south west England and Wales, a part of the national New Dynamics of Ageing Programme of research.

Winner of two awards at the prestigious Rhode Island International Film Festival in 2012, the film has gone on to be screened at film festivals, other universities in the UK, USA and Canada and by organisations such as Alzheimer’s Society UK, LGBT groups, and health, social and ageing support networks.

The film has been reported in the press widely, including in the New York Times, Times Higher Education, The Independent, BBC Radio 4 and local media.

RUFUS STONE was directed by Josh Appignanesi (The Infidel) and produced by Parkville Pictures, London. The film stars William Gaunt and Harry Kershaw, sharing the title role of “Rufus”. Niall Buggy and Tom Kane take on the part of Rufus’ love interest, “Flip”. Tattletale “Abigail”, a role shared by Lin Blakley and Martha Myers-Lowe, completes the triangle. The film cleverly interweaves each of the three main characters’ younger selves with their older selves. Gaunt commented: “It’s a sad and touching story, but also one about age and what it’s like to fall in love when you’re very young, and how that remains with you.”

Award-winning author and educator, Patricia Leavy, describes the plot in her review of the film for The Qualitative Report:

The film tells the story of a young man in rural England who, while developing an attraction to another young man, is viciously outed by small-minded village people. He flees to London and returns home 50 years later and is forced confront the people from his past and larger issues of identity and time.

Leavy sums up: “This film is as good as most Oscar-nominated shorts, and vastly superior to many. In my opinion, it is just about as good as a short film gets.”

Author and Executive Producer of RUFUS STONE, Dr, Kip Jones, has written widely in the academic press and elsewhere on the process of collecting the biographic material and subsequently his writing the story for the film. He has presented the film with follow-up Question and Answer sessions at prestigious institutions such as Cambridge, Birkbeck, Durham and Keele Universities in the UK.

Jones explains the process of creating composite characters based in the research and, indeed, in his own experience:

The naïveté of same-sex attraction and young love, too often forbidden and misunderstood love, was a story reported over and over again in our study and. therefore, became central to the plot of the film. By compositing these stories in RUFUS STONE, at last we remember them together, finally gaining strength in each other for something misunderstood and condemned from our isolated youthful experiences.

Jones is available by arrangement for Q&A discussions by Skype following screenings for larger audiences. Contact: Kip Jones mailto:kipworld@gmail.com

Trailer for the film: https://vimeo.com/43395306

Background on the research and making of the film: http://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/rufus-stone/

Screenings of the film would be appropriate for a wide variety of audiences, including in undergraduate and graduate teaching, community groups, and LGBT and ageing support organisations. Length: 30 minutes.

View RUFUS STONE here:

https://vimeo.com/109360805

LIVE and FREE from 25 October!

September 7, 2014

ARTS in Research (AiR) Collaborative: Two days of creative scholarship

Fusion, PG research, Training Kip Jones

Shared objects/stories of a past (click on photo to enlarge)

“I can’t remember ever attending such an inspiring ‘in house’ event “.

The newly formed ARTS in Research Collaborative recently held two days of exploration of biography and ways and means of expressing the stories of others creatively and ethically. The workshop was entitled, “A Past/A Present” ARTS in Research (AiR) Workshop.

Using shared objects representing a time or event in each participant’s life, a ‘partner’ then created a five minute presentation of and from the storied materials. Participants in the two-days of exploration came from HSC, the Media School and DEC. Both faculty and postgrad students took part.

The brief was kept simple and instruction to a minimum. Organiser Kip Jones shared examples from his own work of finding ways and means of responding creatively to detailed data as well as time and material constraints. Other than that, participants engaged in a learning process through participation itself and the sharing of their experiences. The group has agreed to write up the encounter for a journal article.

“Thank you all for the incredible willingness to be inventive, creative and think/be outside ‘the box'”.
“An illuminating two days of deep sharing. I was honoured to be there and look forward to more creative adventures together”.
“Inspiring. An artful and generative suspension of ‘normal’ activity”.

The ARTS in Research Collaborative’s next workshop is planned for November at The Lighthouse in Poole. Details to follow. It will be open to a wider audience and there will be a charge to attend, but BU faculty and students are encouraged to apply for training and/or development funding within their Schools.

ARTS in Research (AiR) still accepting new members!

AiR Workshop: telling stories (click on photo to enlarge)

Tagged / biography

CQR Wed Seminar: The Personal Stories of a Methodology Study Group

The Personal Stories of a Methodology Study Group: An independent learning and support mechanism for postgrads