RESEARCH STUDENT INDUCTION 2011

Monday 26 September Friday 30th September

Monday, 26 September

10.00am-11.10am Room NAB LG02 New Academic Building

Welcome and introduction to postgraduate research Professor Les Back, Ms Lesley Hewings, An overview of postgraduate research programmes; of training opportunities; and the College regulations and procedures that you will need to know. Followed by: Vanessa Freeman, Careers Adviser for PhD students A brief introduction to the help we provide and information about the new PhD careers workshops. James Haywood President, Goldsmiths Student Union An introduction to the Student Union.

11.10am-11.30

BREAK

11.30am-1.00pm Room NAB LG02 New Academic Building

Dancing and Wrestling with Scholarship Professor Les Back This session explores the major organisational and planning aspects of a research degree including organising your time, approaching reading, generic approaches to research, structuring a thesis and common pitfalls. The session will introduce you to the main stages of doctoral research, and the kinds of activities, objectives and difficulties that are encountered at each stage. After an overview of the main phases of the research, from the definition of the research question to the writing, submission and viva examination, the session will focus on the first phase of the research. We will look at research strategies, the role of literature, the need for project planning and the establishing of a feasible timescale and milestones, and the kinds of difficulties likely to arise and ways of addressing them. We will also discuss how to organise your reading and note taking now that you will be working with a much greater range and quantity of literature than at earlier stages in your academic career. By the end of the session you should have a clear grasp of the overall structure and timescale of the development of a doctoral thesis and the main phases, and be able to make plans for the management of your research for the first year in the light of this overall structure.

Induction Programme for Postgraduate Research Students 26 September 30 September 2011

1.00pm-3.00pm

LUNCH

3.00pm-5.00pm

Departmental Activities/BREAK

Induction Programme for Postgraduate Research Students 26 September 30 September 2011

Tuesday, 27 September

10.00am-12.00pm Room RHB 342 Richard Hoggart Building 12.00pm-1.30pm

Becoming part of the Goldsmiths research community Mary Claire Halvorson

LUNCH

1.30pm3.00pm Small Hall, Cinema Richard Hoggart Building

The ethical and political dimensions of research Professor Catherine Alexander

3.00pm-3.30pm 3.30pm5.00pm Small Hall, Cinema Richard Hoggart Building

BREAK Enhanced Library Services and Resources for Research Students Dr Jacqueline Cooke, Ms Sally Houston and Ms Elizabeth Williams

Induction Programme for Postgraduate Research Students 26 September 30 September 2011

Wednesday, 28 September

10.00am-12.30pm Room NAB LG01 New Academic Building

The quality and nature of PhD supervision Professor Les Back This session will introduce you to various issues around supervision h0w it is organised, what support to expect, how to get the feedback. It also explores what qualities make for a good supervisor but equally what qualities make for a good doctoral student.

12.30pm-2.00pm

LUNCH

2.00pm-5.00pm Room NAB LG01 New Academic Building

Software for research Mr Duncan Branley, IT Services This session will be an extended demonstration of most of the IT components of the programme to whet your appetite. The session will include finding information and bibliographic references on the web, using the College email system and discussion lists, analysing the data using NVivo, organising the references using EndNote, writing a paper using Word and preparing a presentation using PowerPoint. It will enable you to make informed decisions about which IT courses you enrol on during your first year. The course-booking system will be shown too.

Induction Programme for Postgraduate Research Students 26 September 30 September 2011

Thursday, 29 September

10.00am-12.00pm

Research Design: Introduction

Room RHB 137 Richard Hoggart Building

Arts and Humanities Dr Michael Simpson This session is devoted to central issues in the construction and planning of a research project in subjects commonly understood as the Arts and Humanities. We shall consider the essential components of a research dissertation, including its thesis (proposition), its scope, its corpus, its approach or method, and its structure, along with the challenges posed by the need for coherent evidence-based exposition.

Room NAB LG01 New Academic Building

Social Sciences Professor Les Back The research questions what you are trying to find out is fundamental to research design. Before you can work out how to go about your research, you need to be clear about what (broadly) you are trying to find out. In this session we will focus on how to develop a set of research questions out of the broad area of interest with which most students initially come to doctoral research. We will consider how research questions are constructed, how they change over time and how to adapt to and reformulate you project as it evolves. In the session we will do a series of writing exercise to help you think about the focus of your project, defining aims and objectives and the importance of cultivating the skill of making leaps of imagination.

Room RHB 256 Richard Hoggart Building

Practice-Based Professor Janis Jefferies, Dr Gavin Butt and Dr Andrea Phillips One of the fastest growth areas in the arts and humanities is practice research. In practice research, creative practice, for example, in the making of visual, sonic, performative, conceptual or installation works constitutes the principal method and outcome of the research. Are the outcomes any different for artists specialising in net art, multimedia, and electronic sounds?

Induction Programme for Postgraduate Research Students 26 September 30 September 2011

Thursday, 29 September
Cont/. Questions to be explored include:
What do we mean by research when we mean practice research (and when we do not)? What impact has computer-mediated culture had on practice research and within a higher education environment? Can the traditional expectations and expectations of academic research be applied to practice, and, if not, how they are evaluated? What is the role of discourse in practice research (must the results of practice always be made explicit)? Can practice research be expected to renew or erode traditional academic research? What changes might practice research require in the understanding of ideas like originality, discovery, innovation and invention? Might research end up formalising and therefore restraining artistic practice?

Afternoon 5.30pm-8.00pm Staff Dining Room Richard Hoggart Building

Departmental Induction
Induction Week Reception New research students will have the opportunity to meet the ProWardens, Heads of Department and Departmental Postgraduate Officers as well as supervisors.

Induction Programme for Postgraduate Research Students 26 September 30 September 2011

Friday, 30 September

10.00am-12.00pm Room RHB 342 Richard Hoggart Building

Introduction to learning and teaching in higher education Mary Claire Halvorson

12.00pm-1.30pm

LUNCH

1.30pm2.30pm Room RHB 309 Richard Hoggart Building

Information session for Research Council funded students Lesley Hewings

This session is for students who have been awarded AHRC or ESRC studentships. The session will include an overview of Research Council requirements and will provide Research Council students with an opportunity to raise any queries they may have.

Induction Programme for Postgraduate Research Students 26 September 30 September 2011