Category: Bloomsbury Postgraduate Skills Network (BPSN)

BPSN Bulletin

ISSUE 6
This bulletin aims to keep postgraduate researchers informed of upcoming courses, events and opportunities in the Bloomsbury area.

  • In the spotlight – Bloomsbury Festival
  • What’s new? Voice, Presence and Impact
  • Book now! June courses available

In the spotlight

Bloomsbury FESTIVAL
Taking place over 10 days from 11 – 20 October 2019 across Bloomsbury’s major venues and hidden spaces, the festival aims to amplify creative development in Bloomsbury, give a platform to its emerging talent and create interesting collaborations across arts and science.

For more information visit the Bloomsbury Festival website here

Book now! Courses with places still available

8 June 2019: IMLR Saturday Research Training Workshop: Before, during and after the PhDSAS
This course covers publishing in the modern languages; the PhD viva, before, during and after; organising a conference and giving a conference paper; applying for an academic job, writing CVs, interviews.

11 June 2019: Publication Workshop 1: Writing a Paper, Authorship Issues and Getting PublishedLSHTM
This workshop will cover what journal editors are looking for; authorship issues; conflict of interest. Input from journal editorial staff and academic staff.

12 June 2019: Conducting sensitive interviewsLSE
Sensitive interviews include interviews about emotionally difficult topics or deeply personal issues, interviews with vulnerable populations or research that could have negative consequences for participants.

12 June 2019: Wickedness in Academic Research: How to Avoid Becoming an Innocent VictimLSHTM
To introduce students to some of the complexities around publication ethics and research misconduct and how these can be navigated.

13 June 2019: Your PhDilemmas: One-to-One Sessions for Research StudentsUCL
PhDilemmas can help with work blocks, loss of direction, feelings of isolation, lack of motivation and time and project management.

15 June 2019: Meeting the Challenge of the Part-Time DoctorateUCL
An introductory presentation highlighting the aims and objectives of the session will be followed by group work and plenary discussions on specific challenges and solutions.

17 June 2019: Visualising Data (Level 2): Creating Charts, Dashboards and MapsLSHTM
To guide research colleagues on how they can visually convey their research data via charts, geographic data and dashboards.

20 June 2019: Animal Research: Critical, Challenging & Creative ThinkingUCL
We will consider how animals are used in research both within the UK and at UCL, as well as the broad spectrum of societal opinions regarding animal use in research and how research is communicated to society.

20 June 2019: Overcoming Writer’s Block for Research StudentsUCL
This full-day workshop is designed to provide an awareness of writer’s block for PhD students. It includes strategies to both prevent and unblock.

26 June 2019: How to get Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistance with your researchLSHTM
To provide staff involved in research activities with guidance on how to set up and use an Artificial Intelligence (AI) research assistant.

BPSN Bulletin

bpsn logo

The following bulletin is provided by the Bloomsbury Postgraduate Skills Network (BPSN) of which Birkbeck is a member. Our membership of the BPSN provides Birkbeck PhD students with an expanded range of training and development opportunities.

This Issue:

  • Opportunities – First Mondays: Networking for Entrepreneurs
  • Book now! May courses available
  • June courses

OPPORTUNITIES

First Mondays: Networking for Entrepreneurs
3 June 2019

Everyone is welcome at our monthly networking evenings. Be inspired by successful entrepreneurs and form lasting connections with peers that could help you start or grow your business.Visit UCL Innovation & Enterprise for more information: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/enterprise/events/2019/jun/first-mondays-networking-entrepreneurs-june

Places Still Available in May!

8 May 2019: Public Engagement: Developing Your Own Activity KCL
This half-day workshop will allow you to share your public engagement ideas and work with other participants to critique and improve them. Focus will be on the practicalities of public engagement.

8 May 2019: Format your Thesis UCL
Bring your own laptop or Mac to this hands-on session and learn the essential skills to format and edit your content in Word.

9 May 2019: Organising Successful Academic Events SAS
This session runs through the key areas of organising a successful academic event. We will discuss the different event types, public engagement, impact, timing, venues, audiences, speakers and finance.

15 May 2019: Ethical issues: The use of deception in research LSE *NEW*
Deception is a common feature of some social science research approaches yet absent or even forbidden by professional norms in other closely related social sciences. What is deception?

16 May 2019: Translation and Interpreting – IMLR Graduate Forum SAS
Forum members meet once a month during term-time to share and discuss their work in an informal setting, and invites students to present their research and host film screenings, reading groups and workshops.

16 May 2019: Manage Your PhD Research Data (Data series: 2 of 3) LSE *NEW*
In this practical workshop the LSE Research Data Librarian will give you essential tips for collecting and organising your PhD data so you can locate what you need with ease.

18 May 2019: IMLR Saturday Research Training Workshop: Researching Multilingually. Possibilities and Complexities SAS
The workshop aims to support developing researcher awareness with regard to practices of researching multilingually and in this way, work towards a more clearly articulated ‘researching multilingually’ methodology.

20 May 2019: Cross Purposes: Networking with ease UCL
The workshop is designed to be an event that leads a group though ideas, models and conversations resulting in a greater sense of rapport within a group.

28 May 2019: Specific Heat Capacity – Voice training UCL
Specific Heat Capacity is a three-hour voice workshop based on theatrical as well as practical experience, and aimed towards anyone wishing to develop their vocal ability.

30 May 2019: The PhD Viva in the Humanities and Social Sciences SAS
This session will look at a range of practical matters including choosing examiners, and the roles and strategies of the student, the examiners and the supervisor.

June courses

3 Jun 2019: Scientific classification and scientific realism – Key Concepts in Science and Technology Studies UCL
In this session we will take a look at an important and ongoing debate in contemporary philosophy of science: are we justified in accepting the most secure findings of scientists “at face value”?

3 Jun 2019: Publishing and Archiving Research Data (Data series: 3 of 3) LSE
This workshop will give an introduction to the current and quickly developing data publishing and archiving landscape and why it matters to researchers (including funder requirements).

3 Jun 2019: IMLR Saturday Research Training Workshop: Before, during and after the PhD SAS
This session covers publishing in the modern languages; the PhD viva, before, during and after; organising a conference and giving a conference paper; applying for an academic job, writing CVs, interviews.

12 Jun 2019: Critical Thinking and the Researcher: An Exploration UCL
Critical thinking is one of the higher abilities looked for in the research degree candidate. The greater understanding and application of critical thinking, the better the researcher.

13 Jun 2019: Your PhDilemmas: One-to-One Sessions for Research Students UCL
You are the manager of your PhD. If you want to explore ways of re-gaining control, come along and chat to Dr Louise Baron on a private and confidential one-to-one basis.

Bloomsbury Postgraduate Skills Network (BPSN) Bulletin

bpsn logo

The following bulletin is provided by the Bloomsbury Postgraduate Skills Network (BPSN) of which Birkbeck is a member. Our membership of the BPSN provides Birkbeck PhD students with an expanded range of training and development opportunities.

GrantCraft Research Engagement Grant

GrantCraft are excited to announce the launch of their annual Research Engagement Grant. This is open to PhD students and is designed to support activities that will develop and enhance the grant recipient’s research engagement profile.
The award is for up to £1,000 to cover full or partial costs. The grant can be used for activities such as: Public engagement; for example, the production of an exhibition that engages the public in the research process or research findings or visiting another research group; for example, to deliver a seminar and interact with other researchers. Communicating and engaging with other researchers; for example, through presenting a paper/poster at a conference. Apply here

Cumberland Lodge Scholarships

Cumberland Lodge has been providing transformative experiences for students for over 70 years. From our base in the heart of Windsor Great Park, we challenge silo thinking and inspire people to think creatively about pressing issues that threaten to divide society. 
Our two-year scholarships are designed to fit around, and enhance, your doctoral studies. They provide a unique opportunity to develop the communications, public engagement and interdisciplinary skills that will really set you apart.

Applications deadline: Friday 29 March 2019.

March training opportunities

16 Mar 2019: History, Ethnography and Memory SAS
This course is designed for students in modern languages and related disciplines only. It covers historical methods and archives; introduction to oral history, fieldwork and collections; theories of cultural memory.

18 Mar 2019: Neoliberalism and science – Key Concepts in Science and Technology Studies UCL
In this workshop we see that neoliberalism is far more than a set of policy prescriptions but is a coherent worldview that has at its root a novel epistemological outlook.

21 Mar 2019: Creating and editing screencasts: Getting started with ScreenCastoMatic and Panopto LSHTM
This course will cover using different internet browsers, needs analysis, accessing ScreenCastoMatic (onsite licence) and uploading a ScreenCastoMatic video to a Moodle course.

21 Mar 2019: Media, Economics, Education – IMLR Graduate Forum SAS
Forum members meet once a month during term-time to share and discuss their work in an informal setting, and invites students to present their research and host film screenings, reading groups and workshops.

23 Mar 2019: Meeting the Challenge of the Part-Time Doctorate UCL
An introductory presentation highlighting the aims and objectives of the session will be followed by group work and plenary discussions on specific challenges and solutions.

23 Mar 2019: Essentials of Viva Preparations and Generating Grant Funding – Saturday symposia for part-time researchers UCL
This course will cover understanding the viva process, what examiners are really looking for, tips for how to pass and avoid common mistakes, experience a mock mini-viva (optional).

25 Mar 2019: Research ethics workshop UCL
This course uses case studies and group discussion to help you explore ethics related to research. It will help you articulate your own ethical framework and understand and appreciate alternate views.

28 Mar 2019: Postgraduate Funding: Considering the Alternatives UCL
This workshop explores alternative methods of funding postgraduate study- raising money for fees, maintenance, or research and conference costs.

28 Mar 2019: Giving a Seminar or Conference Paper in the Humanities or Social Sciences SAS
This session, for humanities and social science research students only, will cover the preparation and delivery of a paper for a seminar, or specialist conference audience.

29 Mar 2019: Symbolic Maths: doing maths without knowing mathematics – Bitesize Programming UCL
The course will benefit from examples of real scenarios and projects that are easy to relate for students with wide range of interests.

April training opportunities

5 Apr 2019: Symbolic Maths: doing maths without knowing mathematics – Bitesize Programming UCL
The course will benefit from examples of real scenarios and projects that are easy to relate for students with wide range of interests.

8 Apr 2019: Potential Energy – Effective Presentations UCL
By exploring and exposing what we do intellectually, emotionally and physically when we communicate effectively in more familiar and less threatening situations, the course brings to life five fundamental principles of live communication.

11 Apr 2019: Philosophy and Literary Theory – IMLR Graduate Forum SAS
Forum members meet once a month during term-time to share and discuss their work in an informal setting, and invites students to present their research and host film screenings, reading groups and workshops.

29 Apr 2019: Science and entertainment media – Key Concepts in Science and Technology Studies UCL
Forum members meet once a month during term-time to share and discuss their work in an informal setting, and invites students to present their research and host film screenings, reading groups and workshops.

BPSN Bulletin

bpsn logo

The following bulletin is provided by the Bloomsbury Postgraduate Skills Network (BPSN) of which Birkbeck is a member. Our membership of the BPSN provides Birkbeck PhD students with an expanded range of training and development opportunities.

In this issue:
  • What’s New? Artificial Intelligence and First Mondays
  • Book Now! Courses Available
  • Did you know? Open Access Week
What’s new?

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Artificial Intelligence and Automation – Implications for researchers in the social sciences

11th October at King’s College London, Strand Campus (free to attend and open to all)

There is little doubt that artificial intelligence and automation pose major economic, political and societal implications. Join us for an interdisciplinary workshop featuring six presentations by researchers from a diverse range of backgrounds who will share their thoughts and findings on what these disruptive forces mean for democracy, political preferences, ethics, healthcare, public attitudes and social justice.

For more information click here

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First Mondays: Networking for Entrepreneurs

5 November 2018
UCL BaseKX, 103c Camley Street, London, N1C 4PF

Everyone is welcome at our monthly networking evenings. Be inspired by successful entrepreneurs and form lasting connections with peers that could help you start or grow your business.

Visit UCL Innovation & Enterprise for more information

Book now! Courses with places still available

9 Oct 2018: PhD Academic Career Planning – UCL Careers Workshops
By attending this workshop you will gain an overview of the process of academic career progression and develop an awareness of the personal qualities, experience and achievements needed to be successful.

9 Oct 2018: Facilitation: how to get the most out of your PPI activities
In this module, attendees will become familiar with skills and techniques that will help them involve patients and the public in their research in a meaningful way. These skills can be applied to any field of research.

9 Oct 2018: How to complete the PPI section of a grant form
This modules aims to give you the tools and knowledge to complete the PPI section of application forms to increase the likelihood of a successful applications. These skills can be applied to any field of research.

10 Oct 2018: Assessing student understanding with PollEverywhere
To provide digital options for tutors to assess the formative understanding of students following the transfer of information.

10 Oct 2018: A Beginner’s Guide to Negotiating – Careers researcher skills (employer-led)
The session will include and / highlight introductions to some important concepts in negotiation as well as conflict styles and why they matter.

11 Oct 2018: Data Protection and Research Data
This modules aims to give you the tools and knowledge to complete the PPI section of application forms to increase the likelihood of a successful applications. These skills can be applied to any field of research.

11 Oct 2018: Insight into Quant Finance, Banking forum with Barclays, Citi and more
Have you ever wondered about the Quantitative (Quant), Finance and Banking industry? If the answer is yes, then come along to this panel session where we will be quizzing a number of PhD holders who work in this industry.

12 Oct 2018: How to find patient partners, and keep them involved
This module is focused on finding patients/members of the public to involve in your research, and how to keep them engaged.

18 Oct 2018: IMLR Graduate Forum
This forum is run by and for graduate students from the Colleges and Institutes in and around London, working on any cultural aspect of those parts of the world where Germanic or Romance languages are spoken.

18 Oct 2018: Assessing student understanding with Moodle quiz or Microsoft Forms
This course will cover finding the Moodle Quiz creator inside Moodle creating simple surface level learning formative quizzes with instant feedback and developing Question banks.

20 Oct 2018: Research Projects in Modern Languages
An introduction to MOOCs, training guides, and resources online that can be useful for researchers. This session also looks at offerings from SAS and IMLR on the PORT website.

25 Oct 2018: Introduction to Public Engagement
his session will provide an overview of some of the pathways through which you can start to take part in public engagement activity, and the benefits that can be derived from doing so.

30 Oct 2018: Photography Workshop
This workshop will look at all aspects of a reportage-style photo shoot: making the most of shooting real people in real life scenarios.

1 Nov 2018: Using Social Media
We will discuss the benefits as well as the challenges of using social media when developing a professional online profile and communicating research as a PhD student.

5 Nov 2018: Writing Applications for Funding
Improve your knowledge and understanding of how to write a grant application, and maximise chances of obtaining research project funding.

This Bulletin provides course updates for all members of the Bloomsbury Postgraduate Skills Network.

Highlighted training opportunities via the Bloomsbury Postgraduate Skills Network (BPSN)

Current Birkbeck research students are able to access a wide range of training opportunities beyond Birkbeck through the Bloomsbury Postgraduate Skills Network (BPSN). The following opportunities are available via the BPSN in June and July.

27 Jun 2018: Finishing your PhD. What Next? Developing skills for your new step
The overall aim of this course is to help participants in the preparation for the inevitable recruitment interviews and to enable them to gain recognition as a productive and valued employee

28 Jun 2018: RLI – The art of conversation: tricks of the trade navigating the sciences
This afternoon workshop calls on post-graduate research students in the sciences and those collaborating with scientific fields looking to improve their networking and relationship building skills.

28 Jun 2018: Fieldwork Safety & Security Training  
This training session will teach you to recognise potential safety threats, so that you can reduce your personal range of travel risks.

2 Jul 2018: Communicating & Presenting without Stress!
This is a dynamic interactive one-day workshop course, delivered by Professor Jo Tomalin, that will help participants learn how to communicate and present with joy – and without stress.

3 Jul 2018: Essentials of Academic Leadership  
This one-day course aims to provide postgraduate researchers with the foundations and summary of current leadership theory as well as focussing on their application within the University PhD research context.

3 Jul 2018: RLI – Women in Science
This event is designed to build on the recent finding by MIT economist Esther Duflo that the gender gap in education goals disappears in locales with long-serving female leaders in Government

4 Jul 2018: How to create your own luck
This course will introduce you to a wealth of recent academic research on the subject of luck and help you apply the resultant behaviours and principles to your research and career.

9 Jul 2018: Using Posters to Communicate your Research
The course aims to provide a practical introduction to academic posters. The course will cover context and audience, and will be framed around preparation, design and presentations

14 Jul 2018: Meeting the Challenge of the Part-Time Doctorate
An introductory presentation highlighting the aims and objectives of the session will be followed by group work and plenary discussions on specific challenges and solutions.

16 Jul 2018: Creativity, Spontaneity & Confidence in Presentations 
This is an interactive one-day workshop for all graduate research students who want to build confidence, and want to be more spontaneous when speaking, teaching or presenting.

18 Jul 2018: The Art of Teaching: Theatre Techniques for the Classroom
Theatre training is not only for actors, but it is also of great value to everyone – especially to those who require effective communication skills in order to give presentations, lectures, or speeches.

24 Jul 2018: Storytelling Skills for Teachers & Presenters
The workshop comprises a combination of short lecture, demonstration, and hands on activity.

30 Jul 2018: Good Habits for Life
This full day workshop is aimed at any doctoral student who is so busy with no time to slow down and evaluate their work practice and life balance.