Reflecting on the 2019 ESRC Manchester Festival of Social Science

by | Jun 16, 2020 | Events | 0 comments

As we look ahead to a virtual ESRC Festival of Social Science in November 2020, we asked for some reflections from those who took part last year.

The annual ESRC Festival of Social Science is a national celebration of the social sciences. It enables researchers to engage with non-academics and increase awareness of the contributions the social sciences make to society.

Here in Manchester, we join up with our neighbours at the University of Salford and Manchester Metropolitan University to host a city-wide festival. Together, we ran 35 free events at venues across the city in 2019. Venues included the Museum of Science and Industry, Z-Arts, the International Anthony Burgess Foundation and Brunswick Parish Church – engaging new partners and audiences with our research. Take a look at the 2019 programme of events  and the SoSS Making a Difference webpages for a short video clip.

We spoke to four of last years’ event organisers for some insights and advice:

 

The Fall and Rise of Fatal Violence in Greater Manchester – Dr Caroline Miles, Criminology

This event was held at the Friends Meeting House in central Manchester, involving policy-makers, third sector actors and other members of the public. Participants were encouraged to consider the fundamental role of local communities in shaping responses to fatal violence.

On hosting: “Hosting an event was a highly rewarding experience. It was great to bring together academics with policy makers, practitioners and community members for an interactive discussion. The event facilitated the sharing of research with those working in the field of or directly impacted by fatal violence. This enabled me to make numerous new connections and inspired me to continue engaging with communities in my ongoing research.”

 

Getting women’s voices into policymaking – Prof Francesca Gains, Politics

Hosted on the University campus, this workshop explored ways to get women’s voices into the policy making process in Greater Manchester.

On collaborating: “The workshop provided the opportunity for academics in the School of Social Sciences to have an extended and engaged conversation with campaigners and policy makers from Greater Manchester about how to ensure women’s voices get into policy making.  Our workshop was attended by over 30 people and was a really productive and creative event. It generated a sharing of ideas, energy and a determination to capture and bottle the insights.”

On next steps: “We have since been able to follow up with participants to bring together a publication online – ‘Mind the Gap – Getting Women’s Voices into Policy Making’. It provides a very practical but methodologically engaged guide to the different kinds of approaches policy makers can use to ensure women and girls, in all their diversity, can input into policy decisions”.

 

Speaking of Belonging: Language, Community and the Visual Politics of Inclusion – Prof Stephen Hutchings, Language Based Area Studies

Taking place at Number 70 Oxford Rd (the old Cornerhouse), this mini film festival showcased 5 highly innovative short films made by former Visual Anthropology MA students. It built on an inter-disciplinary collaboration between researchers in SALC and the Granada Centre in SoSS. The event took the form of film showings with after-film short talks from film-makers and academics, discussion and questions from the audience.

On hosting a mini-film festival: “Hosting a festival event made the outputs from one of the most experimental and creative components in our AHRC project accessible to a wider public audience. It also prompted valuable feedback on the films we funded and their contribution to our project agenda.”

On unexpected outcomes: “This was the second year we ran an event as part of the festival (which was not originally planned), and this time we were more ambitious. We had not envisaged including sign language within our scope until this collaboration, but it proved to be one of the most successful elements. We are now entering one of the films in the AHRC research film competition and some of the film-makers have gone on to make other films for project team members. The relationship established between SALC and the Granada Centre in SoSS also has great potential for further exploitation by other researchers in both schools.”

 

Reaching Out to All Learners: Using Research to Improve the Achievement of Students from Disadvantaged Backgrounds – Dr Paul Armstrong, Education

This event brought academics and practitioners together to share the findings of a project focused on finding ways of improving the achievement of students from low-income backgrounds. It was held at Chancellors Conference Centre, and welcomed over 70 people to question, discuss and reflect upon the implications of the research.

On new possibilities: “The event allowed the research team to expand their professional network and connect with practitioners across Greater Manchester. As the research enters a new phase, these connections have been important in recruiting new participants/partners to the research. They have also helped us to continue to share good practice  to as wide an audience as possible. The festival has also made me aware of a number of fantastic and important research projects currently being undertaken across the University that I would otherwise have been unaware of. I will endeavour to reach out to colleagues from different disciplines in the future and consider more cross-disciplinary research.”

On practical advice: “The University team were an invaluable source of support and guidance throughout. From developing the original proposal to advertising and then running and hosting the event. I would advise future hosts to take advantage of this wonderful resource and the knowledge they are happy to share.”

 

The Festival in 2020 – Watch this space!

We’ll soon issue a call with more details on how to apply to run an event as part of this year’s virtual festival, taking place between 7th and 15th November 2020. If you’d like to request further information, please contact esrciaa@manchester.ac.uk.

 

0 Comments