Meeting the Needs of... Postgraduate Taught Students

15^th April 2010 

De Montfort University

http://www.ukcge.ac.uk/events/eventsarea/mtnpgt10

UKCGE are pleased to announce the launch of the programme for the forthcoming workshop on Meeting the Needs of... Postgraduate Taught Students.  A copy of the programme is attached but for further details and bookings, please visit: http://www.ukcge.ac.uk/events/eventsarea/mtnpgt10

Whilst taught postgraduate student numbers have increased by over 70% in the past decade, taught postgraduate degrees are still regarded as something of a ‘fringe activity’ in the UK, all too often falling in the gap between undergraduate and research degree provision. Where do taught postgraduates fit in and how much do we know about their experiences? This event interrogates the taught postgraduate student experience from a number of perspectives to share information and good practice, and as well as gauge diverse experiences across the sector through guided discussions.

Topics will include what postgraduate students are telling us about their experiences, the QAA consultation on draft new master's degree characteristics reference point, the challenges in offering premium fee/distance-learning/non-standard masters programmes, and meeting the needs of international and part-time postgraduate taught students. In addition to a series of interactive workshop sessions and presentations, delegates will also have the opportunity to discuss the issues with colleagues from other institutions in order to understand and develop good-practice within the sector.

This programme has been designed for academic staff and administrative staff involved with or managing, supporting or supervising postgraduate taught students including: Graduate Deans, Academic Staff, Research Managers and Administrative and Staff Development personnel.

The cost of the workshop is £175 for UKCGE Members and £225 for non-members. This price includes lunch, refreshments and a delegate pack.

For the latest information about the event and to book your place please go to: http://www.ukcge.ac.uk/events/eventsarea/mtnpgt10

In this episode we are pleased to welcome Patricia Hill Collins, Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland (USA); and Charles Phelps Taft Emeritus Professor of African American studies at the University of Cincinnati (USA).  She was also the first African American woman to be elected President of the American Sociological Association (ASA) (2008-2009). 

Her groundbreaking work in social thoery Black Feminist Thought - Knowledge, Power and the Politics of Empowerment received the C Wright Mills Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems; and the Jesse Bernard award of the ASA for significant scholarship in the field of gender.

Patricia Hill Collins took time out following her plenary address to the 2009 British Sociological Association Annual Conference to speak to Kie Andrews, PhD researcher at the University of Birmingham.  The topics of the discussion include;

*The politics of community

*PG student activism

*Local and global community membership

*Current research by PG students (supervised by Patricia Hill Collins)

Kie Andrews's work focuses on the interplay between black power discourses and the notion of community, which he is examining in relation to community inititatives such as 'Saturday School' clubs in Birmingham.

This episode was produced, edited and hosted by Mike Bracher for the BSA PG Forum.

A transcript of this episode can be downloaded here

Loïc Wacquant, Plenary Speaker at the BSA 2010 Annual Conference, will be offering a session, ‘Author meets critics’ on Wednesday 7th November 15.30-17.00 in the Govan Mbeki Room A526C  

Loïc will discuss the empirical basis, methodological rationale, and theoretical aims, as well as the analytic linkages between, his investigations into the body, the ghetto, and the penal state, as anchored by his three books Body and Soul (2004), Urban Outcasts (2008), and Punishing the Poor (2009).

The format of this session is direct discussion between the author and the audience (especially doctoral students and early career researchers in search of practical guidance to design and implement their own research projects).

For details of the full conference, please go here

Welcome to the fifth and final episode in our special series of BSA PG Focus podcasts from the recent 2010 BSA Presidential Event - 'How to put society into Climate Change'. This special run of episodes brings together contributors from the event in order to explore themes related to climate change and society, and to explore the implications that this might have for postgraduate research.

In this episode we are pleased to welcome Les Levidow, who made significant contributions to the debate on biofuels and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in response to the questions and topics raised in the speech by Malcolm Wicks MP.

Les Levidow is a Senior Research Fellow at the Open University, UK, where he has been studying agri-environmental issues since the 1980s.  His research now encompasses a broader range of issues, especially agri-innovation priorities and biofuels, within an EC-funded research project (www.crepeweb.net), as well as alternative agro-food networks in another project (www.faanweb.eu).

Co-author of Governing the Transatlantic Conflict over Agricultural Biotechnology: Contending Coalitions, Trade Liberalisation and Standard Setting (Routledge, 2006),

http://technology.open.ac.uk/cts/tup/GovTransConflict.pdf

Co-author of GM Food on Trial: Testing European Democracy (Routledge, 2009).

Editor of the journal Science as Culture, http://www.informaworld.com/csac

A transcript of this episode can be downloaded here

This episode was produced, edited and hosted by Mike Bracher for the British Sociological Association.

Finland, 19-23 July 2010

Publishing journal articles in peer reviewed journals in English has been an increasing trend in the academia, and is nowadays a requirement for anyone wishing to have a serious career in Sociology. The skill of article writing is however not always a part of the PhD training, furthermore, there are diverse myths on what makes a good manuscript, and how to internationalize one’s research in a meaningful way.

This ESA Summer School wishes to provide a platform for both learning about this specific form of writing, and a creative and supportive environment to finalize a manuscript during the course. 

The Summer School is aimed to work as an aid for PhD students struggling with an article manuscript in progress. You are welcome to apply if you currently work with a manuscript. The text can be a manuscript in the finalizing stage before initial submission, or after a review process, working with the final editing. The requirement is that you have a full text in English to work on, a draft that can be circulated among participants by June 28th 2010.

The Summer School is co-organized by the Sociology Departments of University of Turku and University of Helsinki, and the ESA. The Summer School takes place in a beautiful setting in the archipelago of Finland, the Archipelago Research Institute of University of Turku in Seili, Nauvo. The venue provides a peaceful historic environment for writing and discussions, with sea, nature, and the midnight sun. http://www.seili.utu.fi/en/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sj%C3%A4l%C3%B6).  

ESA covers all costs for the course, the accommodation and all meals. Students will need to cover their own travel to Turku. There are low budget flights to Turku (SAS, AirBaltic, WizzAir) and Helsinki (all major companies, 2 hours by train or bus from Turku), and a ferry connection from Stockholm. Students must bring their own computers.

The deadline for applications is April 30, 2010. 20 students will be selected. In the application include following documents, all compiled to one attachment, and email it to esassseili@gmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it :

• a brief cover letter with a short description of yourself, your PhD project, and where in the process you are right now,
• a CV,
• a maximum 500 word abstract of your manuscript, with an indication of which journal you intend to submit it or have already submitted,
• If you can submit a full draft of a manuscript please do so.  

Quality of application, yet diversity in terms of gender, university, nationality and sociological themes will be addressed. The list of participants will be announced within May 2010. For further information email Elina Oinas, Director of the ESA Summer School 2010, at elina.oinas@utu.fi This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it 

Saturday 8th May 2010

Venue: Lecture Theatre Cottesbrooke 101, University of Northampton, Park Campus, Northampton NN2 7AL, UK

This conference gathers academics, journalists, researchers, policy makers and civil society organisations to discuss youth use of new media and the implication this has on identity construction, on public opinion and social change. Although their development is a recent phenomenon, new media have not only opened up new opportunities for journalism but also empowered audiences and civil society organisations with unprecedented platforms for 'free' expression and social activism around the world. New technologies are said to have reinvigorated a sense of a 'transnational public sphere' and strengthened marginalized communities and provided a platform for the voiceless. The possible consequences of such rapid developments on social and political change are not hard to imagine. The sweeping victory of US president elect Barak Obama characterised by the unprecedented outreach to marginalised communities including the youth through YouTube, Facebook, and other internet platforms is a case in point.

Aims:

This conference aims to map out the role of new media in the perceived social changes. It looks at how audiences, users, civil society organisations, political/social groups and subcultures have understood and found in these technologies the right tools and strategies to power their work sustainably.

Conference themes:

This conference covers the following areas of enquiry:

- Blogging and bloggers as citizen journalists; are bloggers making a social difference? - Satellite TV and the internet as cites of resistance/alternative media or sets of 'censored national enclosures' -E-campaigning and political/social groups - How are  activists/the youth interacting with platforms like 'YouTube', 'MySpace', 'Flicker', 'Faithtube', 'Facebook' and 'Blogging' to pursue their objectives? - Challenges of the Internet in war zones - The new media and women empowerment amongst ethnic minorities. - Youth subcultures and new media, what is going on? - In the absence of real democracy in some parts of the Arab and Muslim world is new media creating a new form of social/political capital: e-democracy? - What functions are the internet and satellite TV playing in mobilising public opinion? - What expectations and perceptions are there regarding changes in cultural and political values?

Attendance:

Participation in this conference will be open to academics, researchers, policy makers, government agencies, youth workers, students, parents and other members of the public.

Fees: £35 waged; £10 non-waged and students

To register or for any other information please contact: Ms Karin Ferngren Marketing Officer School of Social Sciences 01604 892067 Email: karin.ferngren@northampton.ac.uk Or: Dr Noureddine Miladi (Conference Coordinator) Senior Lecturer in Media & Sociology Tel: +44 (0) 1604892104 E-mail: noureddine.miladi@northampton.ac.uk

Hello and welcome to the second in our special series of BSA PG Focus podcasts from the recent 2010 BSA Presidential Event - 'How to put society into Climate Change'. This special run of episodes brings together contributors from the event in order to explore themes related to climate change and society, and to explore the implications that this might have for postgraduate research.

In this episode we welcome Malcolm Wicks MP, who contributed a speech entitled 'Climate Change - what is the question?'.

Malcolm Wicks has been Labour MP for Croydon North since 1992.  He is a Sociology graduate from the Polytechnic of North London and the London School of Economics; and also a former Minister of Science and Minister for Energy. His academic background includes tenures as a Research Fellow in the Department of Social Administration at York University; lecturer in Social Policy at Brunel University and the Civil Service College; Director of the Family Studies Centre. He has long-standing interests in family policy, poverty and the elderly, and also in fuel poverty.

This episode was produced, edited and hosted by Mike Bracher for the BSA PG Forum.

A transcript of this interview can be downloaded here

Saturday 20 March 2010, 09.30 AM until 6.00 PM, Goodenough College

A one day satellite conference of the Battle of Ideas festival: a pre-election public summit. Organised by the Institute of Ideas.

Venue: Goodenough College, Mecklenburgh Square, London WC1N 2AB.

Produced by: Dolan Cummings, convenor of the Battle for Politics and Claire Fox, director of the Institute of Ideas.

With: Dave Bowden, Joel Cohen, Timandra Harkness, Craig Fairnington, Patrick Hayes, Luke Gittos, Kevin Rooney, Geoff Kidder, Robin Walsh and Kirk Leech.

Tickets: Standard £20 waged/£15 concession; IoI members £15 waged/£10 concession; Goodenough College students/alumni £10. Tickets are available here…

Bookshop: A range of books on the themes of the conference and by speakers will be available thanks to Newham Bookshop.

Sessions: View sessions listing.

Party politics no longer seems to be about clear ideological differences, or indeed any kind of substantial debate reflecting competing visions for a better society. Nonetheless, many pressing issues remain unresolved. So though it might be tempting to write off mainstream politics as irrelevant, and to take a ‘none of the above’ position in the coming election, this can only feed the pervasive cynicism about the possibility of social change and progress. History has not gone on standby, but continues to throw up new challenges.

The institute of Ideas wants to take the opportunity of this election to re-enfranchise the electorate and put each candidate on the spot by asking them to declare where they stand on a range of key questions.  The summit will launch the IoI’s POLITICAL PLEDGE CARD and ask candidates in the 2010 UK general election if they are prepared to argue and campaign around issues of:

• FREEDOM & CIVIL LIBERTIES
• ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & INNOVATION
• ARTS, ACADEMIC RESEARCH, EDUCATION AND HEALTH-CARE AS PUBLIC GOODS