All Schools of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences courses

Cambridge ESRC DTP is pleased to offer a training session with our annual lecture speaker Professor Pete Fussey Training will take place on Thursday 10th November at 2pm in the Nihon Room at Pembroke College. We are delighted that prior to his talk at 5pm (in the Old Library at Pembroke College), Professor Fussey will be running a workshop focusing on working in challenging research environments. Drawing on his experience of researching in difficult to access environments – including among organised criminal actors in London, senior security practitioners and in conducting ethnographies of covert surveillance practices – Professor Fussey will lead this interactive workshop to support doctoral students facing some of these issues. In doing so, this session will cover a range of relevant issues including sensitivities, ethics, responsibilities to participants and strategies for engagement. Students are also encouraged to contribute their own experiences to the workshop and a reflection of the challenges they have faced.

Professor Fussey’s research focuses on surveillance, digital sociology, algorithmic justice, human rights, intelligence oversight, technology and policing, and urban studies. He has published widely across these areas. He is a director of the Centre for Research into Information, Surveillance and Privacy (CRISP). Professor Fussey is a regular commentator in national and international media and he has worked with and advised central and regional governments in the UK, Europe and Asia on a number of issues including the regulation of surveillance, public order policing and the security and social implications of urban mega-events.

This is a supported group for PhD students who are returning to study after an extended time away from study, for example, after being in the workplace for a long period of time. It will be co-facilitated by the Inclusive Learning and Development Manager and a current 2nd year PhD who returned to study after working for a long period of time.

Objectives of this group:

• An opportunity to share experiences, both challenges and positive

• A space to recognise the challenges of this transition and an opportunity to explore the support that is currently in place and if it is enough or if there is other support that could be provided.

Outcomes for this group:

• Connect with other PhDs and provide peer-support – hopefully meeting up outside this termly meet up

Dr Pallawi Sinha focuses on reflection in research. By sharing some of her own experiences working with some of the most vulnerable communities in India, Dr Sinha explains how central reflexivity is in research. The workshop considers how deeply invested we each are in our research questions and the very individual ‘toolkits’ we bring to our research, grounded in our life histories, to build understanding of how reflection and researcher-reflexivity confront and overcome incongruities, disparities and barriers that underscore research.

Dr Pallawi Sinha will deliver a 45 minute seminar for all students. There will then be an opportunity for a 30 minute group session at which we invite students who wish to engage and actively participate.

Questions, (a lack of) Answers, and Navigating a Persistently Changeable Field

Being a PhD student means you will probably spend around three or four years managing changes and adjusting research and funding, which can be a stressful and difficult time. If you remain in academia, this could continue. Professor Michelle Ellefson addresses these difficulties from a range of perspectives and aims to provide you with ways to cope living within an uncertain structure during your doctoral studies.

This webinar is aimed at all ESRC DTP cohorts. The information and advice will be focused around managing your studentship in relation to time planning, managing your health, and understanding how your ESRC funding works. In particular, UKRI research councils are limited in their flexibility around extensions and it is important that all DTP PhD researchers are aware of these limitations but also know about the other resources they can potentially utilise at Cambridge to help them through the three years of their doctorate.

We encourage everyone to attend. In addition, anyone who has health difficulties should come along to understand how this could impact on their PhD timeline and how planning at an early stage could be helpful.