Past Events
The below is just some of the events that have been run at Methods North West and our associated teams at our partner Universities.
You can find new events on our upcoming events page.
2011/12 to 2014/15
- Managing Qualitative Research – Lancaster University, 17 March 2015
- Annual NWDTC Doctoral Student Event: Transformative Social Science – University of Liverpool, 17 October 2014
- Methodological Innovation in Child and Infant Research Conference – Lancaster University, 29 September 2014
- Master Classes Series: Freedom of Information and Transformative Research – University of Liverpool, 5 March 2014
- Researching Work and Family: Methods across disciplines – Lancaster University, 19 June 2013
- Live Data: Research in Real-Time – University of Liverpool, 24 January 2013
- Ketso-based workshop for Methodology Review and Development – The University of Manchester, 9 July 2012
- Attitudes Symposium – The University of Manchester, 26 June 2012
- Visualisation and Visual Data: Beyond the Quantitative Qualitative – Lancaster University, 30 September 2011
Managing Qualitative Research
Tuesday 17 March 2015 – Venue: Lancaster University
‘Writing by Numbers: a ‘proforma’ for doing and writing up qualitative research’ Professor John Burgoyne. 10:30am-12pm
This practical and interactive session helps you map out your research issues and shows how writing and the research process are inter-related.
Personal challenges in aligning research paradigms and methods Professor Caroline Gatrell 12.45pm – 1 pm
Personal experience of achieving your PhD: a reflection on perspectives Dr Valerie Bevan 1pm – 1.45pm
In this session Caroline first introduces the question of managing relationships between methodology (theoretical underpinnings of your thesis) and method (your research design). Valerie then shares her personal experience of aligning her data analysis and findings with theoretical perspectives in her PhD thesis.
Managing Emotion in Qualitative Research Interviews Professor Caroline Gatrell 1.45pm – 2.30pm
This session explores the challenges of managing emotion in qualitative interviews
Group work: questions and answers 2.45pm – 4 pm.
Space for participants to consider and discuss their own dilemmas in managing qualitative research.
Transformative Social Science
Friday 17 October 2014 – Venue: University of Liverpool
Speakers: Professor Sandra Walklate, Professor Fernand Gobet, Professor Peter Wade, Dr Mark Elliot, Professor Michael Hughes, Professor Chris May
The third annual NWDTC Doctoral Student event will take place on the 18th June 2014 and will be centred on the subject of transformative social science. As such, the event will examine the development of ideas, discoveries or tools that radically change our understanding of existing concepts or practices, both within and beyond fields of academic research. The event will be organised around a panel discussion and series of workshops led by prominent researchers from Liverpool, Lancaster and Manchester in Politics, Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, Economics/Business and History. Open to all current DTC students.
Further details available on the University of Liverpool website.
Methodological Innovation in Child and Infant Research Conference
29 September 2014 – Venue: University of Lancaster
This is a Methods North West conference focusing on the challenges and issues that arise when conducting research that involves children and infants. A range of eminent speakers will talk about their experiences using a range of methodological approaches (qualitative and quantitative) that cover child engagement through stories and play, video, drama and music, creation of measurement tools (eg questionnaires), coding complex information, and treating children as research partners and citizens.
Master Classes Series: Freedom of Information and Transformative Research
Wednesday 5 March, 1 – 4pm
Venue: The Chandler Room, The Foresight Centre, University of Liverpool
Organised by engage@liverpool and co-sponsored by Methods North West.
Speakers
- Harmit Athwal, Campaign Against Racism and Fascism
- Graham Smith, Deputy Commissioner and Director of Freedom of Information, Information Commissioner’s Office
- David Whyte, University of Liverpool
- Stuart Wilks-Heeg, University of Liverpool
- Shiar Youseff, Corporate Watch
- Ian Shannon, former Deputy Chief Constable of North Wales Police
The third in our Master Classes series for 2013-14 brings together some of Britain’s most prominent experts on the use of freedom of information requests. The Master Class will hear those speakers discuss the research opportunities and the limitations presented by the freedom of information requests. This session will offer expert advice on how to make use of the sources of data held by public bodies. Participants will also have a chance to discuss their own research approaches and problems and to engage face-to-face with our speakers in an extended workshop.
Lunch will be provided. This Master Class is open to all staff and to postgraduate students in the UK. Attendance is free but places are limited so please ensure you book in advance.
Researching Work and Family: Methods across disciplines
A one day Conference
Wednesday 19 June 2013 – Venue: Lancaster University Management School
Hosted by: Lancaster Methods. Convenor: Dr Caroline Gatrell, Doctoral Director, Lancaster University Management School
This workshop examines work and family research across disciplines (organizational psychology, sociology, management studies) from the viewpoint of the doctoral researcher. Leading scholars in the work-family field will talk about work-family research methods and our keynote speakers will be Professor David Morgan, University of Manchester and Professor Gary Powell, visiting from Connecticut University USA. Invited speakers also include Dr Eleanor Hamilton and Dr Caroline Gatrell (Lancaster University) and Dr Simon Burnett (Prudential plc).
This conference is aimed primarily at PhD students, however Masters students with a particular interest in these topic areas are also welcome. Limited places are available for students from outside the NWDTC.
For info we attach a link to a recent review of research on work, family and work-life balance (by Gatrell, Burnett, Cooper and Sparrow 2012) which you might find useful (pdf available from s.read@lancaster.ac.uk if you cannot access the link).
Further information
This conference will be hosted by Lancaster University Management School for the benefit of students who are part of both the Lancaster/Liverpool/Manchester Doctoral Training Centre and Methods North West. The purpose of the conference will be to offer to research students new perspectives on work and family research across disciplines (organizational psychology, sociology, management studies). These will be considered from the viewpoint of the researcher.
David Morgan
The Morgan Centre at Manchester is named after David Morgan in order to celebrate his life-long commitment and contribution to the sociology of families and relationships. David taught in the Sociology department at the University of Manchester for almost 35 years. Since retiring he holds an Emeritus Professorship at Manchester together with visiting Professorships at Keele University and NTNU, Trondheim. His main interests have been family sociology (with a particular emphasis on family theory), gender and especially men and masculinities and auto/biographical studies.
Gary Powell
Professor Powell is an internationally renowned scholar on work and family, and gender and diversity issues in the workplace. He has extensively published over many years on the topics of work and family and women and men/gender and diversity in management.
All PhD students from Manchester, Liverpool and Lancaster and across disciplines are welcome. Up to 100 places may be booked on a first come first served basis.
Live Data: Research in Real-Time
Thursday 24 January 2013 – University of Liverpool
The ubiquity of advanced information systems, the growth of social media and the emergence of new forms of data has pushed the problem of working with and managing real-time information to centre stage in various domains of social life: finance, economics, government, business, the workplace and more. The purpose of this one-day event is to bring together postgraduates, researchers and practitioners whose work involves tracking and analysing practices, processes and data in real-time. It will focus on two broad areas of research where ‘live data’ is a particular focus: first, quantitative approaches to handling and analysing new data sources, including real-time open, administrative, transactional, citizen-produced and event data; and, second, ethnomethodological studies of real-time information work. It will be of particular interest to researchers in a range of fields (from the social sciences through to computer science) with an interest in the study of new technologies, information infrastructures and practices. All speakers work with ‘live data’ but in different ways. The morning session deals with quantitative and computer science research methods while the afternoon shifts to detailed studies of information-using practices.
This one day symposium was hosted by Engage@liverpool in association with Methods NorthWest. For more details on the event, please see the engage@liverpool website.
Ketso-based workshop for Methodology Review and Development
Monday 9 July 2012
Room 2.16, Arthur Lewis Building, University of Manchester
This Ketso based workshop is designed to support students moving towards the end of the first year of their PhD. The focus of the session will be to help you to clarify the (details of) methods that you will be using in your PhD research; identify problems and issues that need to be address in applying those methods and to develop a road map through your PhD research.
The session will naturally complement formal end of year review review processes.
Aims of the day
- To provide students with an opportunity to review their progress, identify areas of challenge and enable the sharing of ideas for solutions and strategies.
- To support students in developing their methodologies and clarifying their action plans for their thesis research.
- To facilitate connections between students to foster and encourage networking and peer support, both during the event and on an ongoing basis.
Attitudes Symposium
Attitudes: Ontology, Methodology, Impact – A One Day Symposium
Tuesday 26th June 2012 – Humanities Bridgeford Street Building, University of Manchester
What are attitudes? How do we know about them? How should we measure them? How are attitudes used in research to explain and describe other phenomena? How is an understanding of attitudes useful for policy makers? These are some of the questions that we hope to cover in this one day symposium, hosted by the new Attitudes Research Group at the University of Manchester.
The attitude as an explanatory and descriptive concept has been with us for nearly a century and yet we still know relatively little about what attitudes really are. Originally a subject of psychological investigation they have taken on a research life of their own within quantitative social science. The use of the concept has now spread throughout the Humanities and this is reflected in the disciplinary breadth of the speakers at this symposium.
Visualisation and Visual Data: Beyond the Quantitative Qualitative Divide
Friday 30th September 2011, 10am to 4pm – Postgraduate Statistics Centre, Lancaster University
Launch Event for Methods North West, research training element of the new North West Doctoral Training Centre. Co-sponsored by ESRC National Centre for Research Methods Lancaster-Warwick-Stirling Node.
Speakers include
- Dr Ruth Allen of Lancaster University – ‘Visualising learning space’
- Dr Les Humphreys of Lancaster University – ‘Using web-based material in visual sociology’
- Dr Julia Hallam of University of Liverpool – ‘Mapping the City in Film: A Geohistorical Analysis’
- Prof Chris Brunsdon of University of Liverpool – ‘Spatial statistical analysis and geographical information systems’
- Prof Martin Everett of University of Manchester – ‘Visualising Social Networks’
- Dr Andrew Irving of University of Manchester – ‘Visual Anthropology’
Events
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