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.

2023/24 – Now

Using Mixed Methods in Logistics and Supply Chain Management Research: Current State and Future Directions

Thursday 11 December
12 – 1pm, online
Speaker: Dr Witold Bahr (Keele University)

In this Methods North West Lunchtime Seminar, Witold will present a review of mixed methods research across ten years in LSCM to determine their usage, identify benefits and inhibitors, and provide suggestions for LSCM researchers to realise the benefits from using mixed methods.

Dr. Witold Bahr is a Lecturer in Operations Management at Keele Business School. His current research focuses on exploring new and disruptive technologies for supply chains, sustainability, and addressing the gap between theory and practice.

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Writing and Researching Differently through Fictocriticism

Thursday 4 December
12 – 1pm, online
Speaker: Dr Mark Gatto (Northumbria University)

In this Methods North West Lunchtime Seminar, Mark Gatto will be exploring gender, work & care through dystopian fictocriticism to challenge patriarchal norms and inspire inclusive change.

In recent years, more scholarship has turned to embodied writing, embracing messiness and blurring lines between empirical and personal data. This session will provide one such personal narrative of undertaking and pursuing a form of research/writing that aspires to a critical and boundary blurring writing, grounded in masculinities theory and empirical data, while also developing a style that aligns with fictions that move and inspire us.

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MethodsLab: Listening to the non-speaking experience

Friday, 7 November
11am – 4:30pm
Speakers: Dr Holly Sutherland, Dr Verity Ward, Dr Jill Bradshaw, Freddie Jones

This MethodsLab is a full-day event at the University of Manchester focused on developing ethical and effective qualitative methods for including non-speaking neurodiverse young people in research. Bringing together academics, practitioners, parents, and autistic young adults (18+), it will feature talks, posters, and hands-on activities to explore and test different approaches.

Co-created with neurodiverse participants, the event will produce inclusive research guidelines and foster a collaborative community of practice. 

Sign up here.

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Visualising Multivariate Data with Topological Data Analysis Ball Mapper

A Methods North West Seminar

Thursday 9 October
12 – 1pm, online
Speaker: Simon Rudkin

Data visualisation is a core component of the empirical process, from data exploration to the evaluation of models. However, visualising datasets with many continuous variables is challenging. To see the shape of data, scatter plots (and their derivatives) are the go-to graphics. Considering each variable as a dimension on the page, we are limited to two directions, with other variables needing to be captured in size or colour. Many solutions to viewing multi-dimensional data involve loss of information in dimensionality reduction, or combine many plots of subsets of variables.

Topological Data Analysis Ball Mapper is a means to create an abstract two-dimensional visualisation of multivariate data without loss of information. A motivation for the method, outline of the algorithm, and look at the research agenda developing the method are provided. This seminar explains why we all need to consider the structure of our data and place data visualisation at the core of our empirical analyses.

This is a precursor to a methods@manchester workshop on Topological Data Analysis Ball Mapper, which will run later in the Autumn.

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Stitching at the End of the World – MNW

Wednesday 12 September
10am – 4pm, Manchester Museum
Speaker: Lydia Donohue

A one-day workshop to carry out a collaborative stitching programme. Inspired by the art project Kill Your Phone an open workshop format.

The day will involve the hands-on sewing of phone pouches using EMS fabric (a Faraday material) that shields devices from electromagnetic signals. During the workshop, participants will engage with notions of cybersecurity, personal privacy, the future of digital technology, and the application of ‘smart textiles’.

The workshop will open dialogues about the implications of future fabrics, the possibilities they offer and possible other applications in our digital world. This event will promote the application of craft-making as a methodological device for participants to engage with contemporary and pressing discourses within academia and current affairs.

Materialising the interdisciplinary collaboration between material sciences, craft and anthropology, it will explore how seemingly intangible topics such as radio signals, technological and cellular eavesdropping, voice recognition, and GPS tracking can be engaged with creatively through making practices.

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