Tagged / narrative research

Academic Targeted Research Scheme (Health & Science Communication): Interactive Digital Narratives for Health and Science Education

Portrait - Lyle SkainsI’m the last of the Academic Targeted Research Scheme appointments; I took up my post last month (September) in Health & Science Communication. My home base is in the Faculty of Media & Communication, though my project will span numerous departments across arts and science disciplines.

My research is centred in an interdisciplinary and ubiquitous communication method that can be employed for multiple UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals: interactive digital narrative (IDN). IDNs can be used in schools, GP waiting rooms, on tablets and smartphones; interactivity significantly increases retention, particularly when incorporated into media that audiences voluntarily and eagerly devote attention to. As a practice-based practitioner/researcher composing IDNs and evaluating their efficacy on multiple projects, I aim to develop a model for health and science communication through reading and writing IDNs that can be implemented in a wide array of scenarios and topic areas.

I came to this work through a serendipitous process, as I earned an undergraduate degree in science and did some postgrad study in evolutionary biology. I quickly discovered, however, that I’m more interested in reading and writing about science than I am in doing it (it was a lot of pipetting DNA!), so I changed tack. Amongst various professional endeavours, I started over, culminating in a PhD in Creative Writing and Digital Media.

You and CO2

My research is largely practice-based, as I compose various creative writing experiments in order to explore how new technologies such as hypertext, scripting, and multimodality affect the creative act and artefact. More recently, I have engaged in two Welsh Crucible-supported projects that brought me back to my science roots, combining interactive storytelling and science communication. You and CO2 examines using interactive digital narratives as bibliotherapy and expressive writing to effect positive attitude and behaviour change regarding the current climate crisis.

Likewise, the Infectious Storytelling project explores the efficacy of interactive digital narratives as persuasive media for educating the public about behaviours that lead to antibiotic microbial resistance. This project incorporates practice-based research, medical humanities, archive research, media analysis, ethnographic research in focus groups, and literary and art criticism, and is based on the historical treatment of tuberculosis in art, media, and literature, using insights Cover image from IDN "Only Always Never"gained from archival research and textual analysis to inform approaches to communicating the importance of proper antibiotic use to patients, farmers, and the general public.

Here at Bournemouth, I’m excited to expand these experiences into a wider “IDNs for SciComm” project. I’m going to be reaching out to colleagues across arts and sciences disciplines at BU, fostering collaborations and new avenues to explore the use of interactive narratives for health and science communication. The aim of this research is to identify and address a number of science and health communication needs through the increasingly ubiquitous digital technology in our lives, including the possibility of ongoing communication about the current COVID-19 pandemic.

If you’re interested in collaborating with me or with others on interdisciplinary arts-science health and science communication, please get in touch!

CQR Seminar: Creative Writing Taster Session

PG research

Wednesday, 5 Dec 1pm for an hour in RLH 409, experiment with the delights of

Creative Writing for Academics, a taster session, with Kip Jones.

“We passionately believe that as narrative researchers & storytellers we must promote narrative in the content & styles of our publications.

Publication or presentation that is counter to this does a disservice to our commitments as narrativists”.

…and if  you enjoy the session and want more, there will be a two-day workshop 11 & 12 January.

You will be able to sign up for the workshop at the  CQR seminar taster session!

The two-day workshop will be FREE! But you must commit to participating for the two full days. Places are limited and will fill up quickly.

Come along to the Taster Session on Wed 5 Dec at 1 pm, RLH 409, and have a go! It’s fun and you won’t be disappointed!

 

CQR “IN CONVERSATION” SEMINAR 1 PM THIS WED!

“Phenomenology or Narrative Method? Choosing one for my study”

Andrea Lacy ”In Conversation”

Wednesday, 10 January, 1 p.m.

Studand 217 (note change in location!)

A short discussion about two qualitative methods, followed by lots of conversation with you, the audience!

Staff and students welcome!

Coming up in the New Year:

Save the dates now!

FHSS Post-grads score with their story of a study group for Sociological Imagination blog

PG research

(l. to r.) Louise Oliver, Jo Thurston, Karen Cooper & Mandy Podee

Four  Health & Social Sciences post-grads (Karen Cooper, Louise Oliver, Mananya Podee & Joanna Thurston), Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, have just published an article in the Sociological Imagination blog.  All at similar stages in the PhD process, they have banded together to form a Methodological Study Group, at the recommendation of their supervisor. In their article for the Sociological Imagination, the four report on:

  1. How the idea for the Methodology Study came about? Had they been involved in any projects like this previously?
  2. Are there elements of method that they share in common? How does this help the group to move forward?
  3. One particularly interesting aspect of the project is their relationship between each other, each other’s work and their own thesis. Have links developed?
  4. What advice would they give to social scientists interested in using a similar study group? How can this format help postgrad students particularly to develop methodology?
  5. How has working in a study group made in easier to return to working alone and in isolation? Or have they found an answer to this in the group process itself?

Supervisor, Dr Kip Jones said, “All four are involved in one way or another under the broad umbrella of Narrative Research. This has been key to providing a platform and common interest to hold the group together and make it a productive one in a very short time.  My job was to suggest the Study Group and format, then stay out of the way. This format has proved successful”.

Read the article here.

Innovative narrative concept now available across several platforms

PG research

FHSS’ Prof Lee-Ann Fenge & Dr. Kip Jones

FHSS’ Kip Jones and Lee-Ann Fenge are pleased to announce that their article , “Gift Stories How Do We Retell the Stories that Research Participants Give Us?” is now available across several platforms.  Along with the open-access version from Creative Approaches to Research now being available, it can be downloaded on Academia.edu and BRIAN.

Jones and Fenge comment: “We can no longer afford to ignore the great advances made in representation of qualitative data. These have been overwhelmingly demonstrated by the successes achieved in auto-ethnography, poetic enquiry, ethno-drama, film, Performative Social Science and/or other arts-based efforts in research and dissemination”.

Narrative methods contribute greatly to the advances made in qualitative research. A narrative style should also be promoted in publications and presentations. This study on older LGBT citizens in rural Britain highlights this by means of a report on one part of that study—a Focus Group.

Narrative researchers are natural storytellers and need to foreground this when reporting studies for publication. Qualitative research is always about story reporting and story making, and narrative research (listening to and retelling stories) is a key democratising factor in qualitative social science research.

Ground-breaking article by Jones and Fenge

PG research

Kip Jones and Lee-Ann Fenge are pleased to announce that our article to appear shortly in Creative Approaches to Research, a peer-reviewed open-access journal, “Gift Stories How Do We Retell the Stories that Research Participants Give Us?” is now available on BRIAN.

We passionately believe that as narrative researchers and storytellers we must promote narrative in the content and styles of our publications. To revert to a style of publication or presentation that is counter to this does a disservice to our commitments as narrativists.

We can no longer afford to ignore the great advances made in representation of qualitative data. These have been overwhelmingly demonstrated by the successes achieved in auto-ethnography, poetic enquiry, ethno-drama, film, Performative Social Science and/or other arts-based efforts in research and dissemination.

 

CQR Narrative Group Welcomes a Student Research Assistant

cof

Figure 1 Guste Kalanaviciute, Lee-Ann Fenge, Anne Quinney, Jen Leamon & Kip Jones

The Centre for Qualitative Research (CQR) Narrative group, a centre of the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS) is an interprofessional group, with representation from across social work, nursing, midwifery, physiotherapy, education practice and media production. We have an interest in how stories and dialogue can be used to create meaning and understanding, and in particular how novel and creative methods can be used to support both the collection of data and the dissemination of findings. This includes the use of film as a method of sharing findings as well as public engagement

 

Over the last few years we have run numerous seminars, and public engagement events (as part of the HEA workshop series, Festival of Social Science and BU’s own Festival of Learning https://vimeo.com/174549052).

 

We are delighted to have a student research assistant, Guste, join us to help explore the mountains of narrative data we have accumulated over several years of community activities. As part of her work with us, we hope to develop a digital story around the meanings attached to health and well-being as well exploring opportunities for a publication.

 

Guste reports:

 

I am very grateful for this amazing opportunity to join such a friendly group of people and gain invaluable experience for my future career. At first I felt a bit overwhelmed with all the new information as I am only a first year Psychology student and do not yet have experience with qualitative data. However, Lee-Ann was very supportive, assured me that with time the skills will come and set me off to start my journey by reading around qualitative data and themes of health and well-being. So far I have read some papers around these topics, a few of Lee-Ann’s and Kip’s publications, watched clips of their past projects (Seen but Seldom Heard; Rufus Stone) and met the team in person to discuss our next steps. Everything is going well now, will start looking into some of the data they have collected, try to find emerging themes and report it for the feedback.

 

Emotion, Power and Politics in Richard III, 8 July, 6.30pm, BU at the Freud Museum – Tickets now available

BRIAN

‘The Psycho-Cultural Dynamics of

Emotion, Power and Politics in

Richard III’

 

Friday 8th July 2016,

6.30-8pm

Venue:

The Freud Museum, 20 Maresfield Gardens, London NW3 5SX

Tickets:

https://freud.org.uk/events/76491/the-psycho-cultural-dynamics-of-emotion-power-and-politics-in-richard-iii/

Richard

The Freud Museum in association with Bournemouth University and the Media and Inner World research network present a special panel discussion on the themes of Shakespeare’s Richard III and the motivations of its characters and the play’s relevance for contemporary understandings of emotion and politics. The event includes the performance of some key speeches from the play as performed by actors from the award-winning theatre ensemble, The Faction.

Panel speakers include:

Michael Rustin (University of East London), Margaret Rustin (Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust), Rachel Valentine Smith and Mark Leipacher (The Faction) Chair: Candida Yates (Bournemouth University).

 

Followed by a drinks reception 8-9pm

& celebration of Candida Yates’ latest book,

The Play of Political Culture, Emotion and Identity, Palgrave Macmillan

 

 

Creative Writing for Academics with Kip Jones

Creative writing

Summary: The Creative Writing workshop will be a unique event in that it will not be a typical ‘writing retreat’ (with trees to hug and lots of time to ruminate), but rather a very active experience with lots of exercises, suggestions and supportive feedback on participants’ work from Kip Jones and other participants.  The point is to encourage both students and academics who would like to include more creative writing in their outputs, particularly those whose writing includes reporting on narrative and other qualitative methods of research.  It also helps immensely in the move to publishing in the wider world of blogs and online outlets, moving work to media and film, auto-ethnography and even fiction.

Justification: The important point of Creative Writing for Academics is to help academics and students achieve the goal of achieving more of their work read by wider audiences; in other words, impact. By providing an intense two-day experience for participants to engage in developing writing skills, the playing field is levelled and opportunities for facilitated learning developed. By engaging in creative writing, it becomes possible for all to write more clearly, more simply, even more creatively, when writing not only for academic publications, but also for outlets previously unimagined.

Methods: The workshop will present opportunities to work with academic material and expand its means of production and dissemination to new and creative levels through interfaces with techniques from the arts and humanities, including blog and magazine writing, film treatments and scripts, and poetry and fictional exercises. These intellectual exchanges encourage joint exploration of how researchers can engage with principles and tools from the arts in order to expand and extend the possibilities of dissemination of research data. Concepts of creativity itself will evolve and be transformed by participants’ outlooks and willingness to engage with unfamiliar territory. These processes comprise a ‘facilitated learning’—in that knowledge will be gained as a secondary goal through a process of developing new relationships through small group problem-solving and self examination, grounded in personal past experience and knowledge.

12115534_10153710964944855_4944742169117744163_nKip Jones BA MSc PhD is Reader in Performative Social Science and Qualitative Research in the Faculties of Media & Communication and Health & Social Sciences at Bournemouth University. Jones has produced films, videos and audio productions and has written many articles for academic journals and authored Chapters in books on topics such as masculinity, ageing and rurality, and older LGBT citizens. His groundbreaking use of qualitative methods, including biography and auto-ethnography, and the use of tools from the arts in social science research and dissemination, are distinguished internationally.

Workshop Price: £120. for two days. £90. for students/BU staff

Academics and students at all levels welcome!

Register online at: 

http://creative-writing-workshop.eventbrite.co.uk

Centre for Qualitative Research (CQR) Refreshes Its Web Presence

Research themes

The Centre for Qualitative Research (CQR), a long-standing resource for research practice and postgraduate learning at BU, has recently undergone a ‘refit’ of its web pages.  Content from the old site has been moved over to the new platform for Bournemouth University groups and centres. The new format now makes it possible to link with work taking place in other Schools and research sites. In addition, Impact, Public Engagement and Postgraduate Research links feature on every page.

CQR is held in high esteem globally for its innovative work and commitment to qualitative research. The refreshed web pages provide an international ‘shop window’ for CQR, School of Health & Social Care and BU more generally in regards to cutting-edge qualitative work. CQR has always engaged across Schools at BU and welcomes new opportunities for collaborate efforts.

The new CQR pages include information, resources and links organised around the following areas of research:

In addition, areas such as Biographic Narrative Interpretive Research, Cut-up Technique and Appreciative Inquiry are covered. A new page outlining the ‘Gay and Pleasant Land? Project and Rufus Stone’ has been added. The recently organised, cross-Schools ARTS in RESEARCH (AiR) collaboration is also featured.

The new web pages include new information and resources, links to further information and even videos for viewing pleasure! Last but not least, a photo has been added as a ‘Featured Image’ highlighting the essence of each page.

Have a look around this interesting site!