You can be part of the audience for this year’s Three Minute Thesis Competition. On Thursday 16 June, an expert panel of judges will decide which Birkbeck student has presented the most compelling, convincing, and concise summary of their thesis. There’s a lot at stake: not only the prestige of winning and the confidence that goes with it, but also –
£500 to the overall winner
£250 to the runner-up
As part of the audience you will have a vote to decide who is the People’s Choice. You can also join the Birkbeck postgraduate community in celebrating the diversity of research interests undertaken here, and raise a glass to that with a drinks reception after the winners have been announced.
The BGRS is pleased to announce the 2022 Birkbeck 3 Minute Thesis Competition, which will take place on Thursday 16 June from 6pm. Please mark this date in your diaries! This will be the first competition to have taken place in person since 2019.
Birkbeck 3MT: Thursday 16 June 2022
Join a selection of Birkbeck PhD students as they compete to communicate their compelling thesis topics in just three minutes. This event is a fantastic opportunity to share and celebrate the interests and successes of PhD researchers from across the College and we invite all current Birkbeck PhD students to take part. The winner of the Birkbeck competition will be chosen by an expert panel of judges who will award:
£500 to the overall winner
£250 to the runner up
The audience will also have their say by picking a people’s choice winner who’ll win a special prize.
Training Sessions
As part of our support for the competition, a free programme of training sessions has been arranged. All potential 3MT competitors should attend these sessions. However, any or all of them are open to any doctoral researcher at Birkbeck who would like to gain skills in these areas:
As a result of the current situation we have had to postpone the BGRS Conference which will no longer take place on 22-23 April. However, we do intend to find an alternative date for the event later in the year and will confirm this once available.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank all who had helped to shape the conference through contributions by email, discussion off line, by attending any of the BGRS conference meetings, or by volunteering to take part in the student sessions on methods/ disciplines or the poster competition. Many thanks too to speakers who had agreed to take part.
Thanks in particular to those of you who have been active in the conference steering group and who had until recently been choosing and inviting speakers and helping to set things in place. I’m hopeful that we will be able to build on the work done so far and deliver an exciting event later in the year.
All current Birkbeck PhD students are invited to enter the BGRS Conference Poster Competition which will provide a fantastic opportunity to share your research interests and successes with doctoral students from across the College.
How to take part
If you are a current Birkbeck PhD student and would like to take part in this Poster Competition please complete this brief form by 31 March. All those who enter will be able to claim back up to £30 for poster printing costs from the BGRS.
Prizes
Judging of the posters will take place on day 2 of the conference (23 April) and you will be asked to attend your poster in order to answer questions while judging takes place. The following prizes will be awarded:
We hope you will have
seen that as part of the BGRS Conference
(22-23 April) there will be a session where PhD students are invited to give
brief presentations (around 10 minutes each) about a methodological aspect of
their research project. The aim of this session is to provide opportunities for
attendees and contributors to find out about methodology they are not currently
familiar with, or to hear from doctoral researchers who have an interest in a
similar or related methodology.
We would like to
encourage all current Birkbeck PhD students to contribute to this session in
order to make it a success. We think this session will be both useful and
interesting for the following reasons:
You will have the opportunity to present your work to your fellow students and to respond to questions in a supportive environment.
If you haven’t yet given a presentation on your research this would be a great opportunity to do so.
If you have previously given a presentation on your methodology in another setting you are welcome to use that as the basis of your talk or repeat it.
The session will provide the chance to engage with doctoral researchers from across Birkbeck and to receive useful feedback.
You would be contributing to the success of the conference and helping to build connections between research students across departments at Birkbeck.
Please do use this brief form by 24 March if you would like to take
part in this session.
PhD
student members of the BGRS Steering Committee
We are excited to announce that
registration for the Birkbeck Graduate Research School Conference, ‘A celebration of 100 years of the Birkbeck PhD: Past, Present and
Future‘ on 22-23
April, is now open. This exciting event will bring together doctoral researchers
and PhD alumni from across the research student community at Birkbeck. Further
details will be announced over the coming weeks including a poster competition
with prizes.
As part of the conference we are opening a call for current PhD students to contribute – we are looking for volunteers to describe their research focus and methodological approach, with an aim of exposing the range of approaches available, and facilitating discussion on the ways that methodology could be viewed from an interdisciplinary perspective. If you are willing to give a talk please complete this brief form by 24 March. We will endeavour to provide as many opportunities to present as we can but please note we may need to select speakers in order to represent the range of methods.
A celebration of 100 years of the Birkbeck PhD: Past, Present and Future
DAY 1 – Wednesday 22 April (18.00 – 21.00)
OPENING NIGHT: The Birkbeck PhD – Past, Present and Future
A history of the Birkbeck PhD
Joanna Bourke is Professor of History in the Department of
History, Classics and Archaeology at Birkbeck, where she has taught since 1992.
She is a Fellow of the British Academy. Joanna will speak about the history of
the first doctoral research at Birkbeck.
Dr
Stephen Hill, Director of Research at Research England, will speak about
the future of PhDs in the UK.
Paulette Williams, Founder & Managing Director of Leading Routes, will talk
about the ‘Broken Pipeline’ report into representation and diversity
at PhD level study, and the implications for doctoral research and beyond.
Drinks Reception
Talks will be followed by a drinks reception to celebrate the opening night of the conference.
DAY 2 – Thursday 23 April (09.30 – 19.00)
On the
second day you will be able to attend a range of panels and other sessions
organised by the conference steering group, which is made up of current PhD
students. Sessions will involve Birkbeck staff, alumni and current research
students.
SESSION THEMES
Methods and Disciplines
This
theme will provide the chance to find out more about research methods and
disciplines and will include PhD students giving brief presentations on their
research methodology or an aspect of it. PhD students willing to give a talk should complete this brief form by 24 March.
Research impact
Discover
about research impact in the context of doctoral studies and continuing
research after a PhD.
The PhD and Beyond
This
session will provide the chance to hear from former Birkbeck PhD students and
staff who will speak about their careers and work beyond their PhD.
A steering group has identified themes for the sessions but we are asking for additional help in organising the second day of the conference. We are looking for volunteers to help identify suitable contributors (academic staff, current Birkbeck doctoral researchers or alumni) and to organise for them to take part in each theme.
By taking part in this way you will have the chance to meet other PhD students and contribute to this exciting event. If you are willing to take part we will put you in contact with members of the steering group or others who would like to volunteer and you would be asked to work together on the theme you are interested in.
We invite you to let us know by
the end of Tuesday 4 February if you are willing to help in this way.
BGRS Postgraduate Research Conference: 22-23 April 2020
2020 will mark the 100th anniversary of Birkbeck joining the University of London, and also the 100th anniversary of our first PhD. To celebrate these milestones as we approach the College’s 200th year, the BGRS is organising a centenary conference, led by current PhD students and doctoral alumni.
Provisionally
entitled #BBKConversations, it will be a great opportunity for the whole Birkbeck
postgraduate research community to engage with the big issues of the day. The
steering committee are in the early stages of planning the conference, but we
need your help to shape it.
Over the course of
two days, we hope to arrange lectures, workshops and maybe an exhibition, using
our current research as well as the work of alumni to frame some big
#BBKConversations.
Below are some
themes the committee has come up with, but we would really like your input. What
do you want to discuss and focus on? We are looking for exciting and
innovative ways to bring together researchers in business, humanities, social
sciences, STEM, and everything in between.
Whether or not you want to take an active role in the conference, please put the 22nd and 23rd of April in your diary. If you would like to join the committee, propose a theme or participate in one of the #BBKConversations, please contact the BGRS Manager Tim Hoe (t.hoe@bbk.ac.uk). Get in touch with any and every idea no matter how big or small, and let’s make this a great conference. Please let Tim have your ideas by the 2nd of December so we can discuss them at our planning workshop.
The conference committee will hold a workshop on the 4th of December from 15:00 to 17:00 in Clore 101 – this will be open to anyone who would like to contribute to planning and organisation of the conference.
Suggested themes
If Birkbeck did not exist would we need to invent it? What is the relevance of Birkbeck’s mission and its particular character in relation to society today?
What have Birkbeck’s contributions to society and to research been? The conference could showcase this in relation to alumni. What should Birkbeck’s future research focus be?
What are the historic and current roles for Birkbeck in terms of activism and research? Birkbeck has a radical history but should a university be radical?
Is London a global city-state? If so, is that good or bad for the UK? It was agreed that the relationship between education, social mobility and migration could be explored in the context of London and the rest of the UK.
Access and engagement. What is the future of the university in relation to race and migration, borders and decolonisation of the curriculum? What does a modern doctoral graduate look like and what journeys have led to our research students coming to Birkbeck? It would be interesting to explore some of the different stories and the role of a PhD in different cultures, with opportunities to interact and to explore these issues further at the conference.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of quantitative and qualitative research? This could work as a debate – with representatives from both sides.
What role does objectivity play in research? How does storytelling and narrative relate to research? What is reality – and what are the consequences of choices made when framing research?
What relevance do issues of privacy and digital data have in research? This could include discussion of artificial intelligence, deep learning, big data and ethics.
The BGRS is pleased to announce a call for current Birkbeck research students to seek funding and support to pilot training initiatives in 2019/20. This call offers current Birkbeck PhD students the chance to propose training that will benefit themselves and their peers and to develop and deliver them with support from the BGRS. Funding awarded will be used to support well-defined initiatives which will deliver training accessible to all Birkbeck PhD students.
Submit an expression of interest
Current PhD students are invited to submit a brief expression of interest by 27 September. If you think of a training idea after this date you can still submit an application but we suggest that you contact the BGRS so that we can provide advice and support.
Develop a proposal
BGRS support in October will give you the chance to consider your ideas in more detail and will provide you with the support needed for you to prepare and submit a full proposal by 15 November.
In developing their own training initiatives those awarded funding will be able to build professional relationships with other research students and staff, improve their organisational skills and meet the training needs they identified.
If you have any queries about this call for student-led training proposals please do contact the BGRS in the first instance
When considering your training ideas it is recommended that you look at previous events listed on the BGRS and BPSN timetables to see whether any similar training has been run before and to get ideas about the format and type of training that you think would be useful.
Further information and how to apply
Further information about this call and the expression of interest form are available below:
Dr Sarah Lee announcing the winner of the inaugural Gwynne-Vaughan Medal at the BGRS Summer Party, 1 July 2019.
Celebrating Birkbeck PhD student successes
On Monday 1 July the BGRS held a Summer Party in the Keynes Library which was attended by around 50 Birkbeck PhD students from across the College. During the event the winner of the inaugural Gwynne-Vaughan Medal was announced. This medal was awarded to the student best able to demonstrate the most notable contribution to their field while undertaking their PhD.
Entries were judged by members of the Research Student Sub-Committee who agreed that the quality was extremely high and demonstrated successes for a diverse range of researchers who had entered the competition. The winners were announced by Dr Sarah Lee..
Gwynne-Vaughan medal awarded to Aren Roukema
Aren Roukema was announced as the winner of the inaugural Gwynne-Vaughan medal. Aren is a full time PhD student in the Department of English & Humanities, School of Arts. Judges agreed that Aren had made a significant contribution to his field through his monograph, “Esotericism and Narrative: The Occult Fiction of Charles Williams (Brill, 2018)” and his chapter “Naturalists in Ghost Land: Victorian Occultism and Science Fiction,” which is included in The Occult Imagination in Britain, 1875–1947 (Routledge, 2018).
While carrying out his PhD Aren has also acted as Editor of Correspondences: Journal for the Study of Esotericism and had contributed to published research from leading scholars in the field as well as providing opportunities for researchers who were at an earlier stage in their careers.
Aren co-founded the London Science Fiction Research Community (LSFRC) in 2014. This community which is based at Birkbeck has been successful in hosting conferences and events including evening lectures and reading groups. The most recent conference drew 40 speakers and 100 delegates from 11 different countries. Aren wasn’t able to attend in person and the medal was received in his absence by Dr Joe Brooker, Assistant Dean for PGR in the School of Arts.
Our congratulations and thanks to Aren who receives the Gwynne-Vaughan Medal, a certificate and a prize of £200.
Runner Up: Ilaria Bucci
The runner up prize was awarded to Ilaria Bucci, a first year PhD student from the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology (School of Social Sciences, History and Philosophy).
During the first year of her PhD studies Ilaria had begun working on a publication with Marco Moriggi, professor in Semitic Philology at the University of Catania . The resulting work “Aramaic Graffiti from Hatra”, was published in May 2019 and is the first study on Hatra’s textual graffiti. The publication provides insight into the linguistic, social and cultural environment of the city and how it was experienced by its inhabitants and visitors. Ilaria receives a certificate and a prize of £100.
Highly commended: Alex Cook and Natalie Phillips (Lancer)
A further 2 PhD students, both from the School of Science, were highly commended.
Alex Cook is a PhD student within the Department of Biological Sciences whose research objective has been to characterise a component of the cell division machinery of Plasmodium falciparum, the most deadly species of malaria. Alex has been an invited speaker at 2 international conferences and an author on 3 publications. His mechanistic insights and methodologies have made notable contributions to the field.
Natalie Lancer (Phillips) is a PhD Psychology student who has foregrounded undergraduate professional one-to-one coaching as part of a pre-emptive strategy for mental health provision for university students. Natalie has published a highly cited textbook for coaching (as first author) as well as presenting her research at conferences and acting as a committee representative and secretary for the British Psychological Society’s Special Group in Coaching Psychology.
The
Birkbeck Graduate Research School (BGRS) aims to highlight the activities and
successes of our research student community. We are pleased to announce the inaugural
Gwynne-Vaughan Medal which will be awarded to a Birkbeck PhD student able to
demonstrate the most notable contribution to their field while undertaking
their PhD.
The
winner will be awarded a £200 prize and a medal at the BGRS Summer
party
on Monday 1 July 2019 and will also be featured on the BGRS blog.
Eligibility
This
competition is open to all part time and full time PhD students at Birkbeck
Any
achievements you include must have taken place while you were registered as a
Birkbeck PhD student
Consideration of
entries
All entries will be considered by the Research Student
Sub-Committee (RSSC)
Deadline for entries: Friday 21st June
If you would like to be considered for this prize please submit a completed entry form, including brief student and supervisor statements by the end of Friday 21st June 2019.
