scholarly journals Developing researchers in the arts and humanities: lessons from a pilot programme to develop discipline‐specific research skills

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Saunders

Although increasing emphasis is placed on the provision of research training for doctoral students, much of the support currently available is generic in nature, rather than tailored to the student’s particular field(s) of study. In this paper, I briefly review UK graduate education for arts and humanities research students, and some of the ways in which the distinctive demands of their discipline(s) shape the research student experience and hence their development needs. I describe the design and delivery of a pilot programme of discipline‐specific research skills development, co‐ordinated by the Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies, which aims to address such needs; and I evaluate its success. I conclude with some recommendations for future practice; in particular, I argue that doctoral training provision is more effective when it involves a subject‐specific approach in which practising academics from the discipline(s) play a significant role – both in terms of fostering an improved level of student engagement with the programme, and of delivering training and development opportunities which are tailored to the student’s particular context and needs.

Author(s):  
Steve Bruce

Basic questions about religion in the modern world (such as whether it is becoming more or less popular and who believes what) can be answered only with the perspectives and methods of social science. While the arts and humanities can help us understand religious beliefs and behaviour, only social science can provide us with the evidence that will allow us to discern and explain the social patterns, causes, and consequences of religious belief. Only through the statistical examination of big data can we be confident of what any case study represents. In a text described by one reviewer as ‘brilliantly accessible’, an internationally renowned sociologist addresses the major problems of theory and methods in the study of religion. Important topics in religious studies such as conversion, the relative durability of different types of religion and spirituality, and the social circumstances that strengthen or undermine shared beliefs are used to demonstrate the importance of social science and to address methodological issues such as bias, partisanship, and research ethics. Bruce presents a robust defence of a conventionally scientific view of value-neutral social science against its partisan and postmodern critics.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 90-103
Author(s):  
Christopher Coady ◽  
◽  
Kathleen Nelson ◽  

Although there is a clear body of evidence supporting the idea that undergraduate students benefit from participation in original research projects, many units of study – particularly in the creative arts and humanities – have been slow to embrace curriculum renewal along these lines. In this paper, we detail a pragmatic approach to meeting this curriculum challenge in a music faculty through an extra-curricular initiative that embraces, rather than challenges organisational structures already in place. The writing workshop associated with the Sydney Undergraduate Journal of Musicology provides a pathway for students looking to develop papers they have written for class assignments into original research projects. The design of the workshop uses the Madeline Hunter Direct Instruction Model as a vehicle for introducing students to the central tenets of the Willison and O’Regan Research Skills Development Framework – an increasingly popular tool for the development of original research skills. The effect of the workshop on students’ engagement with the requirements of original research and their eagerness to engage in original research projects is then explored through the presentation of data derived from a focus group comprised of workshop participants that took place one year later.


2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Trudgett ◽  
Susan Page ◽  
Neil Harrison

Drawing on demographic data collected from interviews with 50 Indigenous Australians with a doctoral qualification and 33 of their supervisors, this paper provides the first detailed picture of Indigenous doctoral education in Australia, with the focus on study modes, age of candidates, completion times and employment. It also analyses data produced through interviews with supervisors including age, employment levels and academic background. The study confronts a number of common perceptions in the higher education sector, to find that many Indigenous Australians are awarded their doctoral qualification in the middle stages of their career. This particular cohort is more likely to be studying in the arts and humanities, employed in higher education and enrolled on a full-time basis. This Australian Research Council (ARC) funded research provides new and important data to inform government policy, and to allow universities to implement strategies and recommendations arising from the Behrendt Report of 2012.


Author(s):  
Simon Keegan-Phipps ◽  
Lucy Wright

This chapter considers the role of social media (broadly conceived) in the learning experiences of folk musicians in the Anglophone West. The chapter draws on the findings of the Digital Folk project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK), and begins by summarizing and problematizing the nature of learning as a concept in the folk music context. It briefly explicates the instructive, appropriative, and locative impacts of digital media for folk music learning before exploring in detail two case studies of folk-oriented social media: (1) the phenomenon of abc notation as a transmissive media and (2) the Mudcat Café website as an example of the folk-oriented discussion forum. These case studies are shown to exemplify and illuminate the constructs of traditional transmission and vernacularism as significant influences on the social shaping and deployment of folk-related media technologies. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the need to understand the musical learning process as a culturally performative act and to recognize online learning mechanisms as sites for the (re)negotiation of musical, cultural, local, and personal identities.


2021 ◽  
pp. 095042222110126
Author(s):  
Stella Xu ◽  
Zimu Xu ◽  
Fujia Li ◽  
Arun Sukumar

Entrepreneurship-related modules have become increasingly popular over the years, not only among business school students but also among those from other disciplines, including engineering and the arts and humanities. In some circumstances, they are offered as optional modules for students across different faculties and disciplines. While it is beneficial to mix students with different backgrounds, bringing in a wide range of perspectives, there are also challenges relating to course design and student engagement. With these challenges in mind, the authors trialled a new approach in the hope of motivating students from diverse academic and socio-cultural backgrounds to engage more fully in the classroom by utilising student entrepreneurs as guest speakers. The student-centric approach has proved effective in enhancing student engagement, as evidenced by both informal and formal feedback.


2021 ◽  
pp. 204382062098639
Author(s):  
Aya Nassar

In this engagement with Eric Magrane’s article, ‘Climate Geopolitics (The Earth is a Composted Poem)’, I follow two provocations: first, geopoetics as travelling through disciplinary turfs, and second, geopoetics as storytelling. Coming from a disciplinary trajectory that spent a long stop at international relations (IR), these provocations attach me to geopoetics as practice and a growing field. My engagement here is oriented to geopoetics not only at the threshold of geography and the arts and humanities, but also the intersections of geography and politics. I primarily propose that viewing geopoetics as an open space for experimenting allows for disrupting masterful understandings of the academic self and counters a univocal, universal narrative of the world.


2010 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 8-12
Author(s):  
Monica Maria Angeli ◽  
Rossella Todros

The Biblioteca Marucelliana in Florence is a library specialising in the arts and humanities that has been open to the general public since the middle of the 18th century. Its founder, Francesco Marucelli, willed his large collection of books to the library. In 1783, the last member of the Marucelli family, Francesco di Roberto Marucelli, left the library around 2500 drawings and 30,000 engravings, and these are now being re-catalogued. The first volume of the engravings can already be consulted on a CD called PRISMA, and the records for the drawings, accompanied by digital images, will be put on a database which it is hoped will be available to scholars worldwide in 2010.


1996 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 417-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Hemlin ◽  
M. Gustafsson

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