Festivalling - Week One

by Keely Blanch
 
Otago Uni has been buzzing lately with all the events for the Graduate Research festival. There has been so much on offer thanks to the wonderful team at GRS, and I'm not sure it's humanly possible to make it to everything available! Here's a quick rundown of my festival experiences so far.

Supervisor of the Year Awards

 

First up in my festivalling was the OU Supervisor of the Year awards. The awards themselves were a swanky affair - several of the presenters even breaking out suits for the event! (I'll admit that fact impresses me, because as a PhD student some days the only thing stopping me from a life in track-pants is having to go into the office - and even then it can be close.) We all assembled in the Staff Club, and partook of delicious food - especially those truffles! Mmmmm......

Competition for these awards is fierce. Students nominate supervisors, sing their praises, and wax lyrical. This wealth of data is then passed on to a hard-working judging panel, who have the difficult task of working through the glowing accolades and making the ultimate decision. Awards are made for Divisional Supervisors, and New Supervisor of the Year, as well as the supreme award. This year saw Associate Professor Ruth Fitzgerald, of Social Anthropology, crowned the OUSA Supervisor of the Year for 2014. Details of all the winners are on the Otago Bulletin Board. 

Otago Day of the Girl Symposium 

 

                    

The first week of the festival ended, for me, with a hectic, but very enjoyable day of symposiums and workshops. Although not part of the official festival programme, the Otago Day of the Girl symposium on Friday morning was a fabulous celebration of 'girlhood', with presentations from a wide range of 'girls'. There were films, pecha kucha talks, games, music, delicious food, and animated conversations throughout the morning. This event was put on by several hard-working UOCE postgrads - Kim Brown, Tracy Rogers, Lara Sanderson, as well as Assoc. Prof Karen Nairn, and a raft of helpers. All credit to the entire team for such a wonderful event!

Pointing the way to the comfortable venue at Executive Programmes, in the Commerce building.

Kicking the celebrations off with music from the Global Sounds Ukelele Group

NZARE Student Caucus Workshops 

 

Immediately after the Day of the Girl celebrations, we rushed (literally!) down to the College of Education for the NZARE Student workshops (also organised by UOCE postgrads led by Megan Anakin - we're a motivated group). It was heartening to see that these workshops drew a range of postgrads from across the campus. Much thanks to the four great presenters who agreed to generously give their time to talk us through various aspects of the postgraduate research journey. 

Dr Clinton Golding of HEDC was up first and presented  'Strategies for a successful research journey'. 

Key point  - it is your thesis, your research journey, your responsibility to do the work and get it finished. Clinton's analogy is that supervisors are like doctors - they can provide advice, but they can't do it for you.

Other points Dr Golding offered:

• Academic work/research is about being part of a community, communicating and sharing ideas with peers etc - Conveniently, there was a Networking seminar offered in the second week ;)
• you need to 'manage' your supervisor. That may fill some people with dread, but essentially it's about figuring out what works for both of you and negotiating. Tips are to consider using an agenda before the meeting to set tone, and follow that with a summary email [this tip also came up in a later seminar by The Thesis Whisperer, coming soon].
• supervisors give advice - you do not have to take it, but they are experts in their field, so ignore it at your peril.
• don't be scared to ask other researchers in your field for advice - just email them.
• Thesis writing is a roller coaster. Figure out what support you need and get it. 
• Plan, plan, plan - for the next ten years. Keep your eye on the end goal. Set micro-goals to get a sense of achievement which will help with motivation.
• write write, write - submit when you're 95% happy because you are never going to be 100% happy

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Our second workshop was 'Experimenting with our Academic Writing' presented by Assoc. Prof Karen Nairn. During this very interactive workshop, we worked in pairs to analyse a paragraph of our writing and try to improve it using the techniques offered by Williams, J. & Bizup, J. (2013). Style: Lessons in clarity and grace (11th edition). Boston: Longman. This book is available though the University Bookshop - and don't forget uni students get a discount. 

Key points are to concentrate on Subjects and Characters; Verbs and Actions; and Nominalisations. Our writing group has been using this book this year. Personally, I've found that focusing on the techniques can inhibit my first draft writing, but they are a useful tool at the re-write/editing stage. 

Dr Nairn is also offering a course for postgraduates in 2015. The aim of this course is to have a journal article ready for submission by the end of the course. More details are available at the GRS blog, or through the UO College of Education. 

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After a brief afternoon tea break with delicious food (there's a theme developing here....) we returned for the afternoon sessions.

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Assoc. Prof Martin Tolich from the Dept. of Sociology, Gender and Social Work introduced the topic of 'Planning ethically responsible research' and the need for the ethical review process. MA student Amber Chambers then talked about her MA findings, issues of gate-keeping and negotiating access, issues of confidentiality, and the need to expect the unexpected during the entire research process. This generated a discussion on the ways terminology such as 'gate-keeper' may construct the process of researching as adversarial. The topic of researching in schools drew particular attention, with some of the audience noting that principals have a duty of care to protect their busy staff from intrusions and distractions, although a counterargument offered is that teachers should be responsible for their own time management. 

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We rounded off the afternoon with an engaging talk from Dr Vivienne Anderson about her journey to 'Becoming an academic'.  Dr Anderson offered examples from her own roundabout route to academia to show that what may seem a left-field diversion can often turn out to lead you where you want to go. Good advice was to be strategic in your academic decisions, acknowledge all the skills you develop during your many twists and turns, and don't forget there is nothing to lose by applying! Although exhausted after our busy day, it was good to finish on a positive and inspiring note.

The UOCE postgrads and all who attended would like to thank all those who so generously and willingly gave their time to help make the day a great success. 

What was your key take home point from the day? Did you feel inspired? Did somebody say something that resonated with you? I'm sure there is so much more that I've missed from these brief notes, so add away in the comments.