Conference season

In the midst of data collection, conference season at the Open University has saved me from inverting into myself and my PhD project.

Starting with the student organised Spring Postgraduate Researcher (PGR) conference in March, at which I was the first presenter in the first session (eek), it has been incredibly refreshing to have both in person and online conferences or knowledge sharing events in my diary almost every month, including:

• A faculty PGR conference, with the topic “Shaping and displaying our researcher identities.” I presented the challenges of my own route into academia ‘Inside out: From insider to outsider (and back again?)’ and learnt I was not as unique as I thought in being a practitioner moving into academia. It was lovely to hear from and identify with my PGR peers.
• The OU PGR Summer Conference – this came in the peak of my data collection in June, and it was wonderful to pull myself away from my own work for a while. I was inspired by the collective, cross-faculty passion for topics such as gravitational lenses, south Indian martial arts, recruiting female tactical and firearms officers, national socialist leisure in 1930’s Britain, creative participatory methods with children, invective in modern British politics, ecocide, online engineering labs… the list goes on. I came away from the on-campus two day conference with renewed pride in my place as a PGR.
• The Computer and Learning Research Group (CALRG) Conference – I presented here last year, but didn’t quite feel I’d made enough progress (results) to submit an abstract this time. Again I was inspired by fellow PGRs at the Doctoral Consortium (self-efficacy in CPD for healthcare professionals and predicting drop-out in toastmasters were particular highlights for me) and the work being done by Institute of Educational Technology (IET) colleagues in supporting learners and use of Artificial Intelligence, Extended Reality and Learning Analytics. Watching my supervisors present their work gave some great insights into what they ultimately expect of me, and I’ll certainly be submitting an abstract for consideration in 2024.
• The Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (WELS) Research day – another faculty event, showcasing the work completed over the year. I was particularly fascinated by an ethics session, where first a 3rd year PGR and then a WELS staff lecturer shared ongoing ethical conundrums they were facing in their research. The honesty and openness of these sessions, with a genuine wish to do the right thing by research participants and the creation of knowledge will stay with me, and be a standard to which I hold myself. Again I was able to attend most of these sessions in person on campus, a lovely way to free myself from my own project briefly, and come away feeling refreshed.

It would have been easy NOT to attend these conferences – to be focused on my project and ignore everything else. But for my own well-being I am so glad to be part of such a welcoming research community here at the OU, and whilst I will enjoy the quieter summer period (a holiday is certainly due), I look forward to the next event.