Welcome to our weekly update highlighting news and upcoming events for the PGR community for the week ending 9 October 2020.
This week it has been great to welcome our new PGR students at the Doctoral School October online Induction.
In our email this week:
1. Research Ethics & Researcher Development Framework sessions for new SHU PGR students
2. Library Research Support Webinars – October-December schedule
3. Events and opportunities from the SHU Students’ Union PGR Society
4. Volunteers Sought to join a Panel to Develop Hallam Values
5. Disability Research Forum: Call for contributors
6. Transmission Fine Art Lecture Series
7. COVID Customs Research
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1. Research Ethics & Researcher Development Framework sessions for new SHU PGR students
As part of a rolling induction approach for new SHU PGRs, the Doctoral School will be running sessions devoted to research ethics and the researcher development framework in October. These sessions will be aimed primarily at new PGR students in preparation for the RF1 Approval of Research Programme stage of the doctorate. Further details will be circulated to all new SHU PGR students.
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2. Library Research Support Webinars – October-December schedule
The Library Research Support Team have published their schedule for upcoming Webinars aimed at Doctoral students. You can find further information and the Unihub booking links on the Doctoral School blog via https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/doctoralschool/webinars-from-the-library-research-support-team-and-skills-centre/
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3. Events and opportunities from the SHU Students’ Union PGR Society
Pod-Club – Do you like the idea of a book club but don’t have enough time to read?
The SHU PGR Society is launching its new Pod-Club on Wednesday 14 October 5:30 – 6:30 pm GMT – Read all about the event here: https://www.hallamstudentsunion.com/events/11578/4913/
If you are interested in joining in with the Pod-Club initiative, a selection of podcasts, fiction and non-fiction will be suggested in a poll on Twitter for you to vote on. Follow: @shsuprss
The podcast receiving the winning vote will be the theme of a fortnightly Pod-Club-chat over Zoom. The first Pod-Club event will highlight Black History Month and you will be asked to vote for the event to focus on an episode from Black History Year on racial depictions in Hollywood OR a short story by Toni Morrison, “Recitatif”. Please see the URL link above for further details.
Weekly Focus Thursday
Join other SHU PGR students via Zoom on a Thursday 9:30-11:30 am GMT!
Every Thursday the SHU PGR Society meets on Zoom to work in 30-minute blocks interspersed with opportunities for quick chats/short conversations. Thirty minutes is a good time frame to keep focused. You can spend the time reading, writing, or thinking, and chatting with fellow students in the break can be a great way to acknowledge your progress or get tips on how to ‘get out of a rut’ or shift ‘writer’s block’. Peer motivation can make a massive difference to our study practices.
The Focus Thursday initiative offers a means of supporting your productivity in a social setting. You can attend as often or as little as you wish. Here is the Zoom link: https://shu.zoom.us/j/97681862115 Meeting ID: 976 8186 2115
You can keep up to date with SHU PGR Society events by becoming a member of the society: https://www.hallamstudentsunion.com/organisation/prss/ and there is an opportunity to connect with the group on Twitter: https://twitter.com/shsuprss
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4. Volunteers Sought to join a Panel to Develop Hallam Values
Message sent on behalf of Sally Jackson, Chief People Officer, SHU
We want to invite you to be part of a pivotal and exciting next step for Hallam, the creation of the Hallam Values. Values are a clear and agreed set of qualities that will transform Hallam’s mission and vision into a reality. And as we now face a fundamentally different environment it is essential we work together as an organisation to manage the challenges ahead.
We have already recruited several hundred staff to participate in the project and now we want to ensure students are also represented. Over the next three months, we’ll be holding a series of virtual conversations across the University. These will uncover, test, and ultimately decide our organisational values, with a launch in early 2021. Each encounter will take around an hour, so we hope you’ll be able to fit this in around your other commitments.
Adjusting to new ways of working and thinking over this year has shown just how important clear and agreed values are. If you would like to be part of a group representing PGR students then please send an email containing your name, student number and Research Institute/Department to doctoralschool@shu.ac.uk by 4pm GMT next Friday (16 October).
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5. Disability Research Forum: Call for contributors
If you would like to present your current research on disability/disability studies, SHU’s Disability Research Forum (DRF) is looking for presenters for the DRF online seminar series. To take part or ask questions, please email Steph at s.r.hannam-swain@shu.ac.uk
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6. Transmission Fine Art Lecture Series
The Transmission Fine Art lecture series offers an opportunity to “come together, to consider what contribution works and acts of art might make to undoing, unsettling, producing different forms; what we might pass on to each other and what we might learn from those around us, from our cultural contexts of stories and symbols.”
The first Transmission Lecture of 2020/21 hosted by Michelle Atherton with Sharon Kivland as Respondent will take place from 16:30 –18:00 GMT on Tuesday 13 October. The focus will be multidisciplinary artist Ashley Holmes. Please join via the Zoom link and passcode below:
https://shu.zoom.us/j/7135799909?pwd=aXZoT1gxMHFwdEVVN0Jiay94dkM4Zz09 Passcode: 180439
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7. COVID Customs Research
Creative writing and folklore PhD student Sophie Parkes-Nield, based in CCRI, has published in The Conversation on COVID customs that emerged during lockdown. See: https://theconversation.com/five-covid-customs-which-emerged-during-lockdown-146130
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If you would like to share any good news stories, highlight any events that might be of interest to the SHU PGR community or wish to request any specific development sessions that would appeal to cross-disciplinary PGR students or supervisors, please get in touch via doctoralschool@shu.ac.uk We’re always pleased to hear from you.
Please refer to the Coronavirus Information tab on the RESEARCH DEGREES Blackboard site to keep up to date with amendments to, and support for, PGR study during the coronavirus situation.
Looking after our welfare remains important. You can find help and information about supporting your wellbeing via the University website on https://www.shu.ac.uk/wellbeing
Also, don’t forget that we run a Friday morning Drop-in PGR Virtual Café every week, so please join us from 10 – 11 am BST (GMT+1) via https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/89bfd7f66eec43798d8286d9ef0830c3
Best wishes,
Nicola, Elizabeth and Liz