Open House for Research
November, 2023
Our first Open House for Research session was held in November, and it was a fantastic start to the academic year! All three presenters excelled in telling their research stories on vastly different topics and the attendees thoroughly enjoyed chatting afterwards.
Prof. Iolo Madoc-Jones provided insight into and enticed people to attend his upcoming Wrexham Talks Research public lecture on how well North Wales Police are enforcing the ban on hunting foxes with hounds in North Wales. He introduced the audience to the parties involved in the research and some of the themes that were identified from the study, such as Class and Power.
Overall, Iolo surveyed 107 people and conducted 33 interviews with police officers, hunters, and saboteurs in Wales; Iolo also accessed the North Wales Police database to analyse responses to reports of illegal hunting. This contentious topic benefited from having an impartial researcher who did not side with any of the key groups involved. If you want to learn more, sign up for Iolo’s Wrexham Talks Research public lecture in June.
Next, Jess Achilleos outlined The Conversation: a project that aims to bring students, academics and professional services staff together to talk about race, gender, sexuality, and disability/ableism. The aim is to provide a space to talk and consider what action we can take to address unintended discrimination and oppression across the University. Jess talked about how the sessions bring a variety of people together to have these often difficult conversations using youth work methodology of “radical pedagogy”, critical thinking, reflecting, and raising critical consciousness. You can read Jess and the team’s paper surrounding raising critical consciousness on issues of race.
Last but not least, Emma Preece talked about the 48 Hour Berlin Arts festival, 48 Stunden Neukolln. The theme this year was Play(ground), which aligned with their research. Emma described the proposal process, the journey there and the outcomes of the whole experience, as well as passing around props for the audience (including the famous Bricky!). Emma’s research project is focused on the Public Arts Programme at Theatr Clwyd, and is a practice-based study surrounding sustainability, community engagement, and playfulness as part of the huge Theatr Clywyd redevelopment that is currently underway.
If you missed this session, make sure you’ve got the next one in your calendar, which is on January 23, Room B15, or on Teams if you can’t make it onto campus. We hope to see you there!