Annual SIPS Doctoral Student Poster Competition
Now in its third year, the annual Doctoral Student Poster Competition took place on 10 April. Jointly internally sponsored by the Sheffield Institute for Policy Studies (SIPS) and the Graduate School, this event is collaboratively organised by staff and students from the Department of Law & Criminology, SIPS and the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR).
In preparation for the event, doctoral students from across the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities were invited to submit abstracts, and eleven doctoral students were selected to take part. These students are completing their doctorates in a range of disciplines, including: law, criminology, education, sociology and psychology.
Both Professor Paul Hickman, a Co-Director of SIPS, and Jill Dickinson, a SIPS Fellow, welcomed everyone to the event, and Professor Christina Beatty and Professor Tony Taylor judged the posters. Tony noted that there were ‘some really excellent posters on display. Great to see such arresting and innovative work that has real policy applications. Two really engaged presentations as well. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.’ Paul commented: ‘What a fantastic event! The quality of posters was really high and the judges had an incredibly difficult job. Well done and thanks to Jill Dickinson and team (Phil Whitby, Tracey Holland, Joe McMullan, Sophie Negus, and Ed Noon) for organising the event!’
The winning students were:
- Ruth Squire – Impact
- Katarzyna Fleming – Academic significance
- Benjamin Archer and Thomas Price – Delegates’ choice
All of the students received certificates and the winning students were presented with book vouchers from the event’s sponsors: Oxford University Press, Palgrave and Blackwells.
One of the winners, Katarzyna Fleming noted how: ‘taking part in [the poster event’] exceeded my expectations. The event provided a very supportive and encouraging platform to disseminate my project and to learn about other students’ work… I feel very privileged to have been able to present there and would highly recommend it to all doctoral students as a very positive, enriching and friendly networking event.’ Another winner, Benjamin Archer reflected how ‘competing has given me great valuable feedback that I can use in my research going forward and given me confidence in my presenting skills’. The winner of the Impact prize, Ruth Squire, recognised how “the SIPS poster event came just at the right time for me to think about how I want to communicate my research and helped me refine my ideas. Getting to talk to other PhD students at various stages and academics from different disciplines was so helpful! It gave me new ideas about my methods and what others see as particularly useful or interesting about my research. The event had a great positive and supportive atmosphere, which made it easy to discuss challenges and get critical feedback. I’ll definitely be recommending it to PhD students at all stages.’
Following the poster competition, 2 of the students also volunteered to do formal presentations of their research. Benjamin Archer (SIPS) focused on public spaces protection orders and Rebecca Denniss (Psychology Sociology and Politics) discussed traumatic brain injury.
The event was attended by over 30 people across the afternoon, and both the organisers and the SIPS Co-Directors were really pleased with how the event went. Professor Colin McCaig commented that: ‘this is a really supportive and developmental event, allowing our doctoral students to showcase their work and learn the ever-useful skill of succinctly describing their work and its impact to diverse audiences’. Tracey Holland noted how ‘it was fantastic to see the broad range of subjects and areas our students are researching, all of which have real world application and impact. It’s a truly inspiring event that SIPS is proud to have supported for the last 3 years.’
Planning has already begun for next year’s event! For more information, please contact Jill Dickinson (jill.dickinson@shu.ac.uk).
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