Do Better Research

In the first of a two-part episode 5, I speak to Diana Tremayne (https://twitter.com/dianatremayne) about her research, where we focused on the doing of a PhD. We talk about the process of doing and writing, and discuss some of the challenges that PhD researchers need to overcome to be successful. 

Diana is a lecturer at the Carnegie School of Education at Leeds Beckett University, and she has recently completed her doctoral research into online teacher learning communities.

You can find her blog here: https://anotherfeblog.wordpress.com/

Credit: Music: https://www.purple-planet.com 

In this episode, I talk to David Carpenter (https://arma.ac.uk/speaker/david-carpenter/) who works as a trainer for the Health Research Authority, the UK Research Integrity Office (https://ukrio.org/) and the Association of Research Managers and Administrators. We talk about the paradigm of virtue ethics, what it is, and what it means to researchers and participants. David comes to this episode with a wealth of knowledge and experience of what ethics means to research, and how we can embed ethical practices to become better researchers.  

If you are interested in reading further, check out this article:

Morris, M. C. and Morris, J. Z. (2016) ‘The importance of virtue ethics in the IRB’, Research Ethics, 12(4), pp. 201–216. doi: 10.1177/1747016116656023.

And if you missed it, check out the first Do Better Research podcast on Conducting Ethical Research: https://anchor.fm/suzanne-albary/episodes/Do-Better-Research-S1-E2-Conducting-Ethical-Research-ejvceq 

Credit: Music: https://www.purple-planet.com 

In this episode Dr Angelika Strohmayer (https://twitter.com/tripsandflips_), a Senior Lecturer in Northumbia University’s School of Design (https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/our-staff/s/angelika-strohmayer/), explains and explores feminist research paradigms, and we discuss what being a feminist researcher really means. 

Throughout the episode, we talk about a range of resources you can use and read to learn more about feminist research (skip to 23:00 to hear Angelika outline some key readings), including:

Bardzell (2010) 'Feminist HCI: taking stock and outlining an agenda for design'. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1301–1310. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/1753326.1753521

Phippes (2020) Me, Not You: The Trouble with Mainstream Feminism. Manchester University Press. (Other work by Dr Alison Phipps: https://profiles.sussex.ac.uk/p188060-alison-phipps/publications)

Vergès (2019) A Decolonial Feminism. Pluto Press. 

Credit: Music: https://www.purple-planet.com 

In this episode, I talk to Dr Sarah Warnes (https://www.mgmt.ucl.ac.uk/people/sarahwarnes), Associate Professor in Education at the UCL School of Management. 

We talk about what methodology actually means, how to understand and write about it, and how to explore your methodology as part of a research project. 

In this episode, we talk about the 'research onion' from Saunders et al (2012) - an open access version can be found here: https://research-methodology.net/research-philosophy/

Warnes, Sarah (2015) Exploring the Lived Dimension of Organisational Space: An Ethnographic Study of an English Cathedral. PhD thesis, University of Essex. Available here: http://repository.essex.ac.uk/15224/ 

In this episode I speak to Dr Javiera Atenas (https://twitter.com/jatenas), Senior Lecturer in Learning and Teaching Enhancement at the University of Suffolk (https://www.uos.ac.uk/people/dr-javiera-atenas). Javiera currently works in developing critical data literacies amongst academics and supporting institutions in developing open education and science policies. We talk about data activism – what it is and the impact it has on research and researchers.  

Javiera has some fantastic resources available on 'Understanding critical data literacy beyond data skills' here: https://zenodo.org/record/5155667#.YSZbR45KiUl

And her latest research can be found: Atenas, Javiera. (2021). The Datafied Present and Future. In Understanding Data: Praxis and politics. UK: HDI - Data, Praxis and Politics. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4698609

You can find out more about Data Activism here: https://data-activism.net/ 

Credit: Music: https://www.purple-planet.com 

In this episode, Dr Katherine Allen presents her research: "We need to hold the hope for this: feminist epistemology, patriarchal realise and the uses of utopianism" as part of the knowledge exchange talks organised by the University of Suffolk Gender and Sexuality Research Interest Group (https://www.uos.ac.uk/content/gender-and-sexualities-research-interest-group).   

Find Dr Katherine Allen online (https://www.uos.ac.uk/people/katherine-allen) and on twitter (https://twitter.com/alwaysalreadyun)

Credit: Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

In this episode, I’m talking to Dr Christopher Huggins (https://www.uos.ac.uk/people/dr-christopher-huggins), Associate Dean for Learning, Teaching and Student Experience and Associate Professor in Politics at the University of Suffolk. Chris is a mixed methods researcher whose profile focuses on subnational politics in Europe and the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union. In our interview, we talk about accessible quantitative and secondary research with a focus on his published short article entitled “Did EU regional spending affect the Brexit referendum?” (https://doi.org/10.1080/21681376.2018.1544852).

Credit: Music: https://www.purple-planet.com 

In this episode, I interview Andreea Tocca (https://www.uos.ac.uk/people/andreea-tocca), Research Development Manager at the University of Suffolk. Andreea is a multidisciplinary Academic with 20 years of experience in higher education and practical practice in the healthcare sector. 

In this episode we talk research funding - how to plan research projects, how to find funding, and how to be successful in funding bid writing. 

Credit: Music: https://www.purple-planet.com 

In this episode, I interview Dr Helen Kara (https://helenkara.com/). Helen is an independent researcher and prolific writer, with a background in research methods, health, social care, and the third sector. 

Her two latest books are available from Bristol University Press: Creative Research Methods in Education, co-authored with Narelle Lemon, Dawn Mannay and Megan McPherson (https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/creative-research-methods-in-education), and Creative Writing for Social Research, a practical guide, co-authored with Richard Phillips (https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/creative-writing-for-social-research).

In this episode we talk about how fundamental writing is to our research practice, and how we can consider it part of our methods. Helen offers some fantastic advice for making our writing better, and how to work with feedback from supervisors and reviewers.

We discuss dialects and language in academic writing; you may be interested in Young (2010) 'Should writers used they own English?' Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies 12(1) pp. 110-117 (https://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1095&context=ijcs) 

Credit: Music: https://www.purple-planet.com 

In this episode, I interview Dr Kat Duffy (https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/business/staff/katherineduffy/), Lecturer in Marketing at the Adam Smith Business School, at the University of Glasgow. Kat is a researcher of consumer culture with a particular interest in the digitalisation of consumption. Her work is published in international journals including Consumption, Markets and Culture, Journal of Marketing Management, and Gender, Work and Organisation. She is an interpretivist researcher whose approach is and broadly ethnographic, using methods such as semi-structured interviews, wardrobe audits, videography and netnography.

Show Notes

In this episode, we talk about a range of fantastic resources. Here are a few:

Hall, S.M. & Holmes, H. (2020) Mundane methods: innovative ways to research the everyday, Manchester University Press, Manchester. (https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526139719/) 

Shaw, D. and Duffy, K. (2020) Save Your Wardrobe: Digitalising Sustainable Consumption: Further Insights. Documentation. University of Glasgow, Glasgow.(URL: http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/227237/1/227237.pdf) 

Shaw, D. and Duffy, K. (2019) Save Your Wardrobe: Digitalising Sustainable Clothing Consumption. Project Report. University of Glasgow, Glasgow. (URL: http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/188107/1/188107.pdf) 

Credit: Music: https://www.purple-planet.com