Tagged / international collaboration

Representations of PR – online resource

REF Subjects, Research communication, Uncategorized

Representation of professions and employment takes many forms and is often shaped by books and visual and aural media.

In the public relations field, characters such as Edina in Absolutely Fabulous and the foul-mouthed spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It are well known, as are terms like “PR success” and “PR disaster”, even though the events may have little to do with public relations practices or activities.

Apart from one US researcher, Professor Joe Saltzman of the University of Southern California, there has been little investigation of representations of public relations in books and entertainment media.

Working with colleagues in Australia, Sweden and the US, Professor Tom Watson of the Faculty of Media & Communication developed the PRDepiction blog:  https://prdepiction.wordpress.com/​ in 2012.

“We wanted to create a resource that would offer a catalogue of books, films, TV and radio, as well as articles, and encourage interdisciplinary research,” said Professor Watson.

As the blog has a relatively simple structure, additions and amendments can be made quickly. It has just been overhauled with a new look and revisions and more entries.

“PRDepiction has grown over the years and become more international. The latest additions include TV series in Australia and the UK, and a three-book series on a fashion PR guru from Australia,” said Professor Watson.

Additions can be sent to PR Depiction as blog Comments or to twatson@bournemouth.ac.uk. The blog also has a Twitter address, @PRDepiction.

PRDepiction's Twitter logo

Third time lucky in Bangkok

Post-award, Research news, Uncategorized

 

Group photo of the delegates at the opening of the Researcher Links Workshop in Bangkok on November 2

Working with partners at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, a team from BU led and participated in a British Council Researcher Links Workshop in Bangkok from November 2 to 4.

For Professor Tom Watson of the Media School and Associate Professor Jirayudh Sinthuphan of Chula’s Faculty of Communication Arts, it was ‘mission accomplished’, as the Workshop had been postponed twice in February and May because of Thailand’s febrile politics.

“This time, there were no problems as Bangkok was about as quiet as it will ever be,” said Professor Watson. “As a result, the Workshop was attended by representatives of four UK and seven Thai universities who worked very well together”.

From the three days of collaborative working, four projects related the Workshop theme of ‘the impact of social media upon corporate and marketing communication in Thailand and UK’ emerged. They will be developed over the coming months into research actions, bids for funding and publications.

With Professor Watson were Associate Professor John Oliver (Senior Researcher), Dr Ana Adi (Deputy Workshop Coordinator), Dr Tauheed Ramjaun and Mona Esfahani, all from the Corporate & Marketing Communications academic group. Among the Thai participants was Dr Waraporn Chatratichart of the University of the Thailand Chamber of Commerce, who is a PhD alumna from the Media School.

“The Workshop also reinforced the existing relationship between BU and Chulalongkorn University as the Dean of the Faculty of Communication Arts, Dr Duangkamol Chartprasert, and Professor Parichart Sthapitanonda both took part as Senior Researchers,” said Professor Watson. “The BU-Chula relationship has great potential for research collaboration and staff exchanges. I hope that other BU staff will follow the opportunity that the Workshop has opened up.”

 

Funding Success Stories: Sport Academic Group Strengthens Dutch-German-British Collaboration

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, EU, Funding opportunities, Fusion, PG research, Publishing

Dr Tim Breitbarth (Sport Academic Group) has been successful with his recent bid for Fusion/EU funding for teaching exchange visits to partner institutions in Groningen, The Netherlands, and Cologne.

At German Sport University Cologne Tim – who is also Programme Leader MSc Sport Management and Coordinator Internationalisation Sport at BU – will teach at their high-profile Masters in Sport Management over four days. The Masters attracts about 200 applications per year from within and outside Germany, but only 30 students are allowed into the course. The visit to Sport’s Erasmus partner institution Hanzehogeschool Groningen will include tutoring of international groups of students who participate in a multi-day management game.

Besides teaching commitments, the trips will help to move along joint research and publication projects with his European colleagues, such as editing the Special Issue on sport and social responsibility of Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society. In addition, they have been cooperating on conference and workshop organization and will once again co-lead a track at this year’s European Association for Sport Management conference.

Also, Tim and his BU colleagues were successful in securing internal funding for the first time in order to take the Sport Management and Sport Management Golf final year cohorts to a four-day intense international student management game in Cologne in late March, which he co-organises.

Hence, collaboration with, arguably, the world’s largest and renown sport university, has been in full swing with also two BU students on study exchange in Germany in semester 2 and PhD student Emma Mosley receiving training at their specialised Institute for Sport Psychology thanks to a Santander award.

Sport PhD Student Emma Mosley To Be Trained At Top International Research Institute

BU research, EU, Fusion, PG research, Research news, Training, Uncategorized

Congratulations to Emma Mosley, a ST PhD student in Sport, who has been successful in gaining a substantial Santander Mobility Award. Emma will be venturing to Germany for one month in spring to research at the prestigious German Sport University Cologne within the Institute of Psychology.

Emma’s thesis, supervised by Dr Ian Jones and Dr Jo Mayoh, aims to discover the psychophysiological effects of approaching athletic competition stress in a positive manner through the use of heart rate variability (HRV).

In Germany, she will be researching under the supervision of Dr Sylvain Laborde who is an expert in the area of psychophysiology and HRV and works in a large team of internationally renowned sports psychologists.

Whilst at the University Emma will gain experience in HRV data collection, data analysis and the writing of scientific papers in relation to HRV. She will have the opportunity to join on-going research projects as well as conducting her own research.

Dr Tim Breitbarth, the Coordinator for Internationalisation of Sport at BU, said, “The visit offers Emma the chance to start engaging with leading and well-connected experts in her field while receiving first-class training in the most modern equipment at the same time. Also, her visit will help to deepen our established international research, teaching and student exchange partnerships from which BU benefits in terms of reach and reputation.”

For details about her research and international endeavour contact Emma at Emma.Mosley@bournemouth.ac.uk

The Teaching Exchange Workshop Goes International

BU research, Featured academics, Training

Developed by Bournemouth University’s Dr. Anna Feigenbaum alongside Dr. Mehita Iqani, the Teaching Exchange Workshop was designed to foster a space for collegiate interaction and sharing experiences of the challenges and opportunities involved in teaching. Piloted at five Universities across the country in 2010-2011 through support from the Higher Education Academy, the Teaching Exchange Workshop offers colleagues a chance to work through departmental issues including curriculum development, diverse student expectations, and teaching time management.

Participating institution, the London School of Economics and Politics, said the workshop activities “got colleagues thinking creatively and learning from each other. These could be applied by any department wanting to improve teaching practice and make best use of their staff’s experience and knowledge.”

On November 8, 2013 Dr. Feigenbaum was invited to South Africa to facilitate the first international Teaching Exchange Workshop at Wits University in Johannesburg. Drawing on successes of the pilot workshops in the UK, the Wits workshop featured new participatory exercises for generating innovative assignments that bridge practice and theory, and for problem-solving challenges associated with teaching in a time of 24/7 email and social media access.

As a low-cost and high productivity model for teaching quality enhancement, Dr. Feigenbaum and Dr. Iqani are keen to see the TE Workshop continue to grow both nationally and internationally. To learn more about the Teaching Exchange Workshop, you can download a free TE Workshop handbook. You can also read a sample of pilot study results published in the Journal of Further and Higher Education.

Sport Students Learn About Employability Of Their European Peers – And More

EU

Once again, beginning of October the Sports group hosted senior academics from some of its European partner universities in order to provide students with international insights into topics of their study and future career. In addition, the visitors worked with BU staff on progressing international research agendas and teaching models, such as intercultural mixed-group student management games partly facilitated via online conferencing.

Dr Stefan Walzel (German Sport University Cologne) and Gerco van Dalfsen (Hanzehogeschool Groningen and Secretary General European Association for Sport Management) presented and discussed with students of all UG/PG levels and all Sport pathways topics of neuromarketing, sport city strategies, leadership and provided insights into the employability and career prospects of their own respective graduates. Both visitors stressed the need for their universities to include an array of international activities and learning experiences into their students’ curriculum in order to lift their competitiveness on an increasingly international job market.

Together with BU sport management colleague Dr Tim Breitbarth, they also progressed a collaborative international study on community perceptions of professional sport clubs’ social responsibility initiatives by collecting further data in Bournemouth. A fourth set of data was collected in the USA end of October.

Gerco and Stefan were also very interested to meet with BU sport students who will study in Cologne and Groningen in semester 2, and receive feedback from the Sport group’s ever-first incoming Erasmus exchange student in order to manage expectations and processes for future exchanges, such as the four students arriving in Bournemouth for semester 2.

 

Dr Stefan Walzel presenting on sport, neuroscience and marketing

Sport students of all levels and Sport pathways during Dr Walzel’s presentation in the Fusion Seminar Series

Gerco van Dalfsen with Level I students of all Sport pathways

Gerco van Dalfsen with sport management Masters student Andreas Stylianides and Philip Smith (from left to right)

European visitors and incoming/outgoing Sport students get-together.

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

Flying through Mexico – a reconnaissance tour

BU research, Fusion

 

I visited Mexico for 2 weeks earlier this month (6-20 June) to assess the potential for future research collaboration and to establish links between Bournemouth University (BU) and Mexican organisations. As I have the role of School of Applied Sciences (ApSci) Academic Lead for Students Placements, one of my objectives was to find potential hosts for our students and also opportunities for staff and student exchange. The talks I gave (5 in total!) allowed me to disseminate some of the work I do, the wider teaching and research at ApSci and to promote BU overall. After the talks there was always a good interaction with students and staff and I think there is a good chance that this was the start of long-lasting partnerships between BU and at least some of the organisations I visited:

  • Instituto de Investigaciones Oceanologicas, Universidad Autonoma de Baja California, Ensenada – researchers from other departments and also from CICESE (Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education) also attended the talk, what was very good. Many thanks to Dr Amaia Ruiz de Alegria Arzaburu for organising everything. It was great to catch up with you and hopefully we will be doing something together soon.
  • Instituto de Ingenieria, Universidad National Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City -attendance to the talk was very good and there was also an interview and material will be added to their website, so quite good dissemination. Dr Rodolfo Silva Casarin is a star, brilliant head of a very interesting group, it was great to have met him after so many emails we have exchanged in the recent past. Many thanks!
  • CINVESTAV (Center for Research and Advanced Studies), National Polytechnic Institute, Merida – here I had a closer contact with research conducted by staff and PhD students and also with coordinators of relevant programme, including some clear demonstration of will for visiting BU and start collaboration. Thanks to Dr Ismael Marino Tapia for the invitation and for being such a great host. Very interesting research are being conducted in CINVESTAV.
  • Laboratorio de Ingeniería y Procesos Costeros, Universidad National Autonoma de Mexico, Sisal – this people are so lucky, they have brand new facilities right at the beach, beautiful settings and they are building new labs, which I’m sure will host great quality research. The talk was well attended and hopefully we will be able to keep in touch with colleagues that were very interested in staff and student exchange. Many thanks to Dr Ernesto Tonatiuh Mendoza Ponce and Dr Cecilia Enriquez for the opportunity to visit your facilities – I look forward to working with you.
  • Instituto EPOMEX (Instituto de Ecología, Pesquerías y Oceanografía del Golfo de México), Universidad Autonoma de Campeche – Thanks to Dr Gregorio Posada Vanegas for introducing the research conducted at EPOMEX and for facilitating the contact with students and other staff. The interactions  after the talk were very informative and hopefully we will continue our collaboration in the future.

This was my first time in Mexico and I had the opportunity to see a bit of very different parts of the country, talk to researchers and students and learn about their work, culture and life style. I call it a tour because in two weeks I visited Ensenada in Baja California, Mexico City and a number of locations in the Yucatan Peninsula, including Merida, Sisal, Campeche and also part of the coast of Quintana Roo. So every other day I was packing and unpacking, which was very tiring. But all worth it for the people I met and the things I learned.

Many thanks to BU’s EUADS (EU Academic Development Scheme) funds for allowing me to engage in this reconnaissance tour.

I will keep you posted of further developments from this initiative.

Internationalisation and the research process

BU research

Dr Sara Ashencaen Crabtree and Professor Jonathan Parker from the School of Health and Social Care discuss some of their recent research that explores the experiences of exchange students.

Although internationalisation is much wider in reach than student exchanges it is recognised that such exchanges can play a critical part in enhancing students’ appreciation and understanding of global issues.  In this blog we describe some of our research exploring the experiences and perceptions of students undertaking an exchange and their ensuing culture shock. Accordingly, a three-year British Council PM1 2 funded research study into student mobility has provided a wealth of data on student learning in international social work placements; although this also provides some important implications for other types of international student exchanges.

BU students at a dinner hosted by Universiti Sains Penang

In respect of these particular student opportunities, the sustainable development of the placements was created through the forging of Memoranda of Understanding with two participating universities: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) in East Malaysia; and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in Penang. The history of the two universities differ; where like BU, UNIMAS is a new university, but with a lively social science faculty, which has been home to a thriving social work programme from the institution’s inception.  USM, by contrast, is a long established, APEX status, research-intensive university, boasting the oldest academic social work provision in the country, and where social work programmes are offered at undergraduate, masters and doctoral level.

Consequently, BU social work students on international placements were able to benefit from an international support network of experienced academics working in concert for the duration of the placements, as well as receiving day-to-day support from local agency staff at the placement settings. The research element of the placements focused on the process of student learning in an unfamiliar cultural context, in which the writing of a daily log and a critical incident analysis formed the raw data collected by the students.

An analysis of data indicates that the concept of liminality – a process of moving through experiences from a status-less position to one of becoming – is useful in understanding the transitions experienced by the students and their confrontation with professional and personal values, often markedly different from their own.  These are duly reflected on in terms of the mediation of the domains of familiar and unfamiliar ‘cultures’ and disciplinary practice. Liminality was also demonstrated by an awareness, new for some, of minority status and how this was perceived in the local context. Exposure to unfamiliar norms relating to gender, religion and culture, were also experienced, where, for example, previously unquestioned assumptions relating to Islam and women were re-examined upon encountering ‘strong’ Muslim feminists.

BU Student, Gatrine Muldoon, with the indigenous family who 'adopted' her.

Other aspects of liminality were constituted through the experience of encountering alternative ideological constructs, such as that of meritocracy as opposed to equal opportunities, ‘triage’ welfare provision as opposed to universal rights, or the strongly promoted Confucian values of family self-reliance wherever possible, even under the circumstances of absolute poverty. These experiences bring the students into sharp relief with their own, often, ethnocentric values, challenging notions of diversity, acceptance and cultural norms which, when worked through, can provide a depth of cultural sensitivity important in working in the contemporary global world.

While analysis of the data continues and the nexus of collaboration has widened over time to encompass other programmes in HSC, such as the new BA Sociology and Social Policy, dilemmas of how such partnerships may be fostered for mutual benefit in terms of expectation and reciprocation are raised. This has relevance for international partnerships between institutions where, for example, significant socio-economic differentials may exist, or where institutional research and resource capacity are unequal.

The outcome of this study, however, indicates a need to theorise teaching and learning in order to more comprehensively address global and internationalisation issues within and beyond the classroom setting. This also requires ways to address ethnocentricity effectively, so often implicit in the perspectives and assumptions of individuals, even those with insight into cultural relativity. Finally, the conclusion of this study will lead to practical outcomes in terms of follow-up research to examine whether international placements enhance employment opportunities for graduates.

AHRC survey on International Collaboration

EU, Research news

The AHRC is currently carrying out a survey to gather vital information about International collaborations in order gain a greater understanding. The 10 minute survey provides an opportunity to inform the AHRC of your experience in International collaboration and feed into the on-going development of the AHRC’s international activities- including  FP7 participation.  The deadline for submission is 10th July 2011.