FLaG Postgraduate Research Forum

We are restarting a postgraduate support and research discussion forum. This is being organised by the Families, Life Course and Generations Research Group, which has long organised events and workshops with a methodological focus. For PhD students, sharing experiences and research concerns is often particularly important. We are proposing a session in which we take issues of analysis as a focus as this is something which is relevant across the doing of a PhD – from research design, working out how to operationalise concepts, and working in the field, as well as in the conventional ‘analysis phase’.

We would therefore like to invite you to an event for PhD students:

“From the Office to the Field and Back Again: Analysis throughout the Research Process”

Our aim is to facilitate informal and supportive discussion about data analysis. This will include the opportunity to present ideas and to think creatively about data in a workshop setting. PhD students working across the social sciences or related disciplines, and wanting to engage with these methodological issues are all welcome.

We are inviting contributions of two different kinds:

• Presentations of around 15 minutes (and which can be very informal) will describe work in progress, thoughts, issues or concerns about any aspect of analysis. You might simply explore some puzzle you are grappling with and seeking ideas on.
• Offering an example of anonymised data for small group work (say 1-2 pages of transcript) where we can discuss different possible approaches to and interpretations of this data. This is an artificial but often very interesting exercise. You would work in very small groups (say of 2-4), reading your data and sharing ideas about aspects of analysis).

If you are interested in contributing to this event, please get in touch with Liz Bridger (jhs5eab@leeds.ac.uk) or Lynley Aldridge (sslja@leeds.ac.uk) by Tuesday 18th December at the latest. Please send a brief description of what you would like to present, or a brief description of the data you would like to share. If there is anything else you may like to contribute, the format is flexible and we are open to input and suggestions. PhD students are all welcome to this event however – you do not need to present, but can just come along and take part. We will provide lunchtime coffee and cake. Please feel free to bring your own sandwiches so we may continue networking and informal discussions after the event!