BU Research Blog

The LGBTQ+ Digital Lives project at Bournemouth University is exploring the online safety experiences of young people in the LGBTQ+ community.

Could you spare a few minutes to share your thoughts on this important issue?

The content and ideas shared from this survey will contribute to the ‘Our Digital Lives’ art exhibition, which will be on display during the ESRC Festival of Social Science (October – November 2024) with plans to also display during LGBTQ+ History Month (February 2025) and Pride Month (June 2025).

Your participation in this survey is greatly appreciated. Please be assured that all responses will remain completely anonymous with no personal identifiers collected. Your answers will be used solely to support the ‘Our Digital Lives’ art exhibition.

Please submit your responses by Friday 4 October

Share you thoughts here

May 10, 2024

Funded Public Engagement Opportunity – ESRC Festival of Social Science 2024 -Deadline for Applications Thursday 16 May

Funding opportunities, Knowledge Exchange, Public engagement ballen

Funding of up to £1,000 per event is available, and BU’s Public Engagement with Research team offers continuing advice and support on all areas of event development, planning, delivery and evaluation.

The 22nd annual ESRC Festival of Social Science will take place this year Saturday 19 October – Saturday 9 November, with the theme ‘Our Digital Lives’

This national festival offers the chance to create an inspiring event to connect your research in an engaging way with a broad public audience and take your research off campus.

For the second year, BU is partnering with the University of Southampton (UoS) and we are particularly keen to hear from researchers who have already established collaborations with UoS colleagues and may wish to run a joint event. This collaboration enables us to run an extended programme of events, broadening our impact reach and expanding our networks across Dorset and Hampshire.

About the Festival of Social Science

The Festival of Social Science is an annual celebration of research and knowledge about humans and society. It is an opportunity for anyone to explore topics relating to social science – from health and wellbeing to crime, equality, education and identity – through events run by researchers from UK universities. There’s no cost to attend, and most are open to everyone, though some are aimed at specific groups.

What if I’ve never done public engagement before?

Everyone has to start somewhere, and this is the ideal place. You’ll have access to support, advice and training throughout. If you’re unsure, seek out a more experienced colleague to collaborate with.

Explore previous events from BU and examples from around the country
Start brushing up on how to make public engagement work for you. A great place to start is BU’s own video guide to getting started in public engagement with research (Brightspace). You can also browse guidance and case studies from the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE)

Can I apply if I’m not a social scientist?

The ESRC says that events must “feature social science (ideally with a social scientist involved in the event)”. If this doesn’t clearly apply to you, consider these options;

Does your research have clear implications for society that could be explored from a social science perspective?
Could you collaborate with a social scientist, combining your resources and creativity to explore the impact of your research? If you’re looking for a collaborator, the Research Blog or BU website are great places to start or contact us for help

What support will I get?

Being part of this festival means a higher level of support and reach than we usually provide.

Before applying, you’ll have access to:

Advice on request from BU’s Public Engagement Team
The ESRC’s Festival Event Leader pack

When your application is successful, you’ll get:

Funding of up to £1,000 managed by RDS
Training provided by the ESRC Festival of Social Science
Continuing advice and support from BU’s public engagement team on all areas of planning, delivering, evaluating your activity
Wide-scale promotion and marketing of your event by BU, UoS and the ESRC

How to Apply

Apply to take part in the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2024 by completing the online application form,

Deadline for applications: midnight at the end of Thursday 16 May 2024.

ESRC’s Festival Event Leader pack

Apply here

Should you require any more information, or if you would like to arrange a chat with the Public Engagement Team to discuss your application, please contact: publicengagement@bournemouth.ac.uk.

May 2, 2024

Apply for up to £1,000 to deliver an event and take part in a national festival of public engagement with research

Funding of up to £1,000 per event is available, and BU’s Public Engagement with Research team offers continuing advice and support on all areas of event development, planning, delivery and evaluation.

The 22nd annual ESRC Festival of Social Science will take place this year Saturday 19 October – Saturday 9 November, with the theme ‘Our Digital Lives’

This national festival offers the chance to create an inspiring event to connect your research in an engaging way with a broad public audience and take your research off campus.

For the second year, BU is partnering with the University of Southampton (UoS) and we are particularly keen to hear from researchers who have already established collaborations with UoS colleagues and may wish to run a joint event. This collaboration enables us to run an extended programme of events, broadening our impact reach and expanding our networks across Dorset and Hampshire.

About the Festival of Social Science

The Festival of Social Science is an annual celebration of research and knowledge about humans and society. It is an opportunity for anyone to explore topics relating to social science – from health and wellbeing to crime, equality, education and identity – through events run by researchers from UK universities. There’s no cost to attend, and most are open to everyone, though some are aimed at specific groups.

What if I’ve never done public engagement before?

Everyone has to start somewhere, and this is the ideal place. You’ll have access to support, advice and training throughout. If you’re unsure, seek out a more experienced colleague to collaborate with.

Explore previous events from BU and examples from around the country
Start brushing up on how to make public engagement work for you. A great place to start is BU’s own video guide to getting started in public engagement with research (Brightspace). You can also browse guidance and case studies from the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE)

Can I apply if I’m not a social scientist?

The ESRC says that events must “feature social science (ideally with a social scientist involved in the event)”. If this doesn’t clearly apply to you, consider these options;

Does your research have clear implications for society that could be explored from a social science perspective?
Could you collaborate with a social scientist, combining your resources and creativity to explore the impact of your research? If you’re looking for a collaborator, the Research Blog or BU website are great places to start or contact us for help

What support will I get?

Being part of this festival means a higher level of support and reach than we usually provide.

Before applying, you’ll have access to:

Advice on request from BU’s Public Engagement Team
The ESRC’s Festival Event Leader pack

When your application is successful, you’ll get:

Funding of up to £1,000 managed by RDS
Training provided by the ESRC Festival of Social Science
Continuing advice and support from BU’s public engagement team on all areas of planning, delivering, evaluating your activity
Wide-scale promotion and marketing of your event by BU, UoS and the ESRC

How to Apply

Apply to take part in the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2024 by completing the online application form,

Deadline for applications: midnight at the end of Thursday 16 May 2024.

ESRC’s Festival Event Leader pack

Apply here

Should you require any more information, or if you would like to arrange a chat with the Public Engagement Team to discuss your application, please contact: publicengagement@bournemouth.ac.uk.

November 10, 2022

ESRC Festival of Social Science 2022 – Medical monsters: reducing medical anxiety through play and gamification. Saturday 12 November

ESRC Festival of Social Science 2022

Using gamification and play to reduce anxiety related to patient medical appointments and hospital admissions

What’s on offer?

A playful workshop aimed at children aged 7-11 and their guardians, to explore strategies to reduce patient (children) anxiety around medical appointments and admissions. Featuring specially designed sessions of Jenga, LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and virtual reality experiences to explore and address personal anxieties around medical appointments.

What is it about?

Anxiety around medical appointments and admissions can affect children in different ways, from preventing them from seeking the medical attention they need to causing distress and worry. It can be difficult to know how to help these anxieties.

Evidence shows that structured play can empower people to discuss and examine their feelings, to help understand and address them. Virtual reality can help ease anxiety through providing an immersive distraction, or by creating a virtual ‘practice run’ for appointments. In this session, you and your child/ren will try out these fun techniques, led by expert facilitators and hopefully leave with a few new tricks and strategies.

Participants will receive a bag of LEGO® to take away with them, along with a google cardboard headset.

Please note, this is an opportunity to explore new techniques for managing mild anxiety, this is not a medical or psychiatric intervention or treatment.

Who is leading the event?

Dr Holly Henderson, Lecturer and LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® facilitator
Dr Heidi Singleton, Lecturer in Children and Young Peoples Nursing
Professor Debbie Holley, Professor of Learning Innovation

Who is this event open to?

Children aged 7-11 years to be accompanied by an adult (parent or carer) at all times.

Event details

Saturday 12 November, 10am

Bournemouth University Gateway Building

Book your free place here

For enquiries about the activities and ‘medical monsters’ project please contact: medicalmonsters@bournemouth.ac.uk

If you have any questions about the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2022 series, please contact the Public Engagement with Research Team: email the public engagement team.

November 3, 2022

ESRC Festival of Social Science 2022: Demystifying NFTs: Understanding the law and technology

ESRC Festival of Social Science 2022

What is an NFT, what does it mean to ‘own’ one? Join this online talk as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2022 to learn about technology, law of ownership & how they’re being used

NFTs or non-fungible tokens have captured the public imagination over the past year. But what are they and what does it mean to ‘own’ one?

Join this online talk to learn more about this new frontier from experts on their underlying technology, the law of ownership and how they’re being used. We’ll also explain how a limited edition NFT collection was created, that you’ll have the chance to win and own.

Who is leading the event?

Professor Dinusha Mendis, Professor of Intellectual Property and Innovation Law

Book your free place here

If you have any questions about this event, or any of the other events in the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2022 series, please contact the Public Engagement with Research Team: email the public engagement team.

October 20, 2022

ESRC Festival of Social Science 2022: How to become a young entrepreneur 25-27 October

ESRC Festival of Social Science 2022

Not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, but entrepreneurial skills can not only help young people to start their own businesses, they can also help boost their employability. This exhibition and set of activities look at how a new project can help young people to build an entrepreneurial mindset to open up diverse career opportunities.

This event is an audio-visual exhibition to showcase a project to develop entrepreneurial skills in young people. It will share the work and voices of young people who have taken part in the project in communities similar to Boscombe across 4 countries. It will also share the experiences of people in business or local organisations who set up the project.

The exhibition is on for 3 days, you can drop in to look around the exhibition at any time while it’s open or join activities such as talks, tours and workshops held each day. Please register even if you just want to pop in for 5 minutes, or you will be asked to do so on arrival.

Activities

Tuesday 25 October – young people can join us for a taster workshop session of the entrepreneurship skills project.

Wednesday 26 October – we’ll welcome local organisations and business to discover the potential of the scheme for their future.

Thursday 27 October – we will invite local policymakers and education representatives to learn how the project might be supported more widely.

Book your free place here

If you have any questions about this event, or any of the other events in the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2022 series, please contact the Public Engagement with Research Team: email the public engagement team.

October 20, 2022

ESRC Festival of Social Science 2022: Find out more about our fascinating programme of events

What can research tell us about our society? We’ll be holding free events for the public featuring discussions on how young people can build an entrepreneurial mindset and discover how play and gamification can reduce anxiety in children around medical appointments.

The ESRC Festival of Social Science 2022

Which one of us is human?
Saturday 22 October
Bournemouth Library, Bournemouth

Imagine a future where robots and humans looked identical: how would you know who is human? Join this interactive event to identify the ‘robot’ from live performers. Discuss your tactics and explore the mystery behind the experience.

How to become a young entrepreneur
Tuesday 25-Thursday 27 October
The Old School House, Boscombe

Not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, but entrepreneurial skills can not only help young people to start their own businesses, but they can also help boost their employability. Join this event to find out how young people can build an entrepreneurial mindset.

Demystifying NFTs: Understanding the law and technology
Tuesday 8 November
Online

NFTs or non-fungible tokens have captured the public imagination over the past year. But what are they and what does it mean to ‘own’ one? Join this online talk to learn more about this new frontier from experts on their underlying technology, the law of ownership and how they’re being used. You’ll discover how a limited edition NFT collection was created and have the chance to win and own it.

Medical monsters: reducing medical anxiety through play and gamification
Saturday 12 November
Bournemouth Gateway Building, Bournemouth

Anxiety around medical appointments and admissions can affect people in different ways, from causing distress and worry to preventing people seeking the medical help they need. Join this interactive session to explore how play and gamification strategies can reduce patient anxiety in children. Featuring specially designed sessions of Jenga, LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and virtual reality experiences.

Closed-group activities as part of the Festival of Social Science

Some activities are organised with partner organisations or particular groups and are not open for general registration.

Are drones the future of delivery?

If predictions about the future of deliveries are correct, we might start seeing a lot more drones in our skies. But how do you feel about this? How much do you actually know about drones and how they will be used?

Join us to learn more and play a custom-designed board game, to explore how we’ll make decisions about drones in our future.

Youth in nature: escaping to the outdoors

Social science evidence suggests nature exposure benefits mental and physical health, yet teenagers have low rates of access to nature and levels of nature connectedness. Research shows youth nature engagement requires a sense of purpose; therefore, this event invites young people to experience activities centred on ‘being’ or ‘doing’ in outdoor space.

Don’t get scammed online

Being scammed online is often seen as a problem for older people, but young people can fall victim to scams too. This workshop helps young people think about their online experience and learn how to avoid being scammed.

If you have any questions about these events, or if you would like to know how you can get involved in one of our Public Engagement with Research events, please email the public engagement team.

October 14, 2022

ESRC Festival of Social Science 2022: Which one of us is human? Saturday 22 October

ESRC Festival of Social Science 2022

Imagine a future where robots and humans looked identical: how would you know who is human? In this 30-minute interactive session, as a group you will enter a space that will act as a time tunnel into the future. There you will meet two actors and face the challenge of making this very decision (the ‘Turing test’), choosing from a set of questions to help you identify the ‘robot’.

You should be wary: not all responses are as they might seem, and there are many kinds of human minds.

What’s on offer? An interactive challenge in which, as a team, you will attempt to identify the ‘robot’ from live performers, using a few questions. This is followed by a ‘debrief’ with Bournemouth University researchers, where you’ll discuss your tactics and explore the mystery behind the experience and what it implies about different kinds of minds.

Who is leading the event? Dr Maxine Gee and Dr Rachel Moseley

Who is this event open to? Adults and children over 12. Particularly for those with an interest in psychology, how we communicate with each other, neurodiversity and autism, artificial intelligence and the future.

Where is this event? Bournemouth Library

Book your free place here

If you have any questions about this event, or any of the other events in the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2022 series, please contact the Public Engagement with Research Team: email the public engagement team.

November 25, 2020

“Reading the room”: A successful ESRC Festival of Social Science event

Public engagement Xun He

On 14 November 2020, Dr Xun He (Psychology), Dr Fred Charles (Creative Technology), and Prof Changhong Liu (Psychology) hosted an online event as part of ESRC Festival of Social Science 2020 (FoSS). Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is one of the main research funding bodies in the UK supporting social science research. This public event series is an annual celebration of the social sciences disseminating findings to the general public. In this event named “reading the room: how your brain judges the mood of a crowd”, Changhong, Xun, and Fred used interesting examples and demonstrations to showcase some interesting phenomena of face perception and research findings.

This collaboration between the three speakers is an interdisciplinary one, targeting a very interesting and important question of how human brains perceive the average emotion from a crowd, especially in realistic virtual environments. Changhong has decades of research experience on face processing; Xun is an expert on the electroencephalography (EEG) technique (also known as “brainwaves” to the general public) and neuroscience; Fred has expertise in affective interactive storytelling, virtual reality (VR) and Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI). The three speakers, using their expertise in these various topics, took turns to cover different aspects of ensemble face perception, or in other words, how humans process the average perception of multiple faces. EEG and VR equipment were demonstrated and highlighted in the context of our research project (funded by British Academy).

This was the first public event I did online. To be honest, I was a bit anxious because there could be so many potential technical glitches during the event, not to mention that it would feel so different without being able to talk face-to-face to the audience in this unusual time. There were also technical considerations to take on board to run an engaging public event. The Public Engagement team of BU (particularly Adam Morris) helped us a lot in this process and made things much simpler – such a relief!

I planned to make use of some daylight in the morning of that Saturday. But alas – it was a gloomy day. I ended up using three lamps to make sure my face was well illuminated (picture below). Thanks for the great effort in the preparation for this event, everything went smoothly. About 120 people turned up to the event – this was quite a high number for ESRC FoSS events, particularly for a Saturday morning. The audience showed very enthusiastic engagements. For example, the audience asked us about 40 questions, some highly interesting and intriguing, not to mention the comments they produced in the chat panel. The event was planned for two hours, but eventually ended up lasting three hours beca use of the interest the audience showed towards the discreussion. Overall, this was one of my best public event experiences I have ever had.

The talk part of the event was recorded. If you missed the event and would like to give it a try, you can access it via this link (access passcode: +MZx686&). I hope you would enjoy it!

November 13, 2020

ESRC Festival of Social Science 2020 – Hidden stories of online gamblers: Experience art and research

Public engagement ebolat

This year as part of ESRC Festival of Social Science BU’s Responsible Gambling Research Group is running the 2^nd edition of “Hidden stories of online gamblers” art exhibition. The subject is quite sensitive and causes a lot of disputes especially if you or your family were affected by it.

Online gambling is accessible to many today. Persuasive tech design and excessive marketing are adding to the problem as opposed to minimising harm.

BU’s Responsible Gambling research group works on ensuring technology and data usage practices are empowering customers not the industry.

This year we partnered up with Stuart Lee who through his unique aesthetic was able to share his personal story and communicate our research in a different way.

Please do visit our website and share amongst your connections: https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/projects/digital-addiction-research/hidden-stories-online-gamblers

November 27, 2019

ESRC Festival of Social Science – Part 5

We’re continuing our look back at the ESRC Festival of Social Science with this final instalment, you can catch up on our coverage so far on the Research Blog.

On Saturday, Dr Ann Luce drew the Festival to a close with a comprehensive look at ‘Suicide in the media’, bringing her own research into ethical reporting, along with Gifty Markey from the NHS, and Joy and Nigel Ford, who shared their story and offered peer counselling.

Dr Ann Luce, BU

Gifty Markey, NHS

Ann led an in-depth workshop into how real-life stories of suicide had been reported in the media, encouraging plenty of thoughtful discussion.

The Festival displayed the breadth and quality of social science research at BU, demonstrating its relevance to everyday life and power to bring about social change. These events opened up academic research to a wider audience, bringing in external partners and contributors, as well as varied public audiences. As a result, both academics and the wider public felt the benefits of two-way engagement with research.

Calls for future iterations of the ESRC Festival of Social Science will be advertised on this Research Blog. In the meantime, if you’ve been inspired to do your own public engagement activity then please contact the Public Engagement with Research team at publicengagement@bournemouth.ac.uk, who can provide advice and support.

November 26, 2019

ESRC Festival of Social Science – Part 4

We’re continuing our look back at the ESRC Festival of Social Science, you can catch up on our coverage so far on the Research Blog.

Friday night featured two concurrent events. Professor Edwin van Teijlingen visited Poole Hospital to consider ‘How We Think about Pregnancy and Childbirth’, comparing different perspectives on pregnancy – from the social model of pregnancy, which accepts childbirth as a normal event in a woman’s life to the medical model, which portrays childbirth as potentially dangerous to health.

Dr Alison Taylor discussed infant feeding and shared research in the form of video diaries from first-time breastfeeding mothers.

At South Coast Roast café, we explored the idea of ‘Influencers for good’; can social media influencers be more than their media image as drivers of overspending, overconsumption and low self-confidence?

A team of BU academics (Dr Elvira Bolat, Dr Parisa Gilani, Samreen Ashraf & Dr Nasiru Taura) covered every angle, including the trust-relationship between influencers and us, how influencers make us feel and a positive vision for the future, where influencers are an ethical economic force for good.

Guest speaker Sarah Ali Choudhury shared the story of her rise to fame, while talent agent Laura Edwards showed us the other side of the influencer industry.

This series will conclude with Part 5 tomorrow.

November 25, 2019

ESRC Festival of Social Science – Part 3

We’re continuing our look back at the ESRC Festival of Social Science, you can catch up on our coverage so far on the Research Blog.

‘Stress and Wellbeing in the Workplace’ followed on Wednesday, with Professor Lee-Ann Fenge introducing the topic of how researching sensitive topics can have an emotional impact on academics and practitioners, mainly in social work but with wide-reaching relevance.

Tilia Lenz, Stevie Corbin-Clarke and Emily Rosenorn-Lanng then led a series of workshops teaching techniques to de-stress, including origami, meditation and yoga.

Dr Jeff Bray delivered a ‘Rainbow of Vegetable Literacy’ at a local primary school, with Natalia Lavrushkina, Dr Fiona Cownie and Professor Katherine Appleton. Designed to increase children’s familiarity with vegetables, and encourage them to eat more vegetables, the event featured a quiz, tasting vegetables cooked in a variety of ways, and planting a broad bean seed in the school ‘allotment’.

Find out more about this project in a post by one of the organisers.

Members of the Global Festival of Learning team reprised activities last run in Vietnam, this time training teachers, tutors and others who work with young adults in a series a workshops aimed at ‘Preparing Generation Z for the Global Workplace’.

Dr Debbie Sadd, Rebecca Hindley and Dr Milena Bobeva provided a grounding in workshops including ‘Stranded on a Mountain’, Belbin personality assessments and interactive quiz technology, designed to develop teamwork skills and awareness.

This series will continue with Part 4 tomorrow.

November 22, 2019

ESRC Festival of Social Science – Part 2