Common Ground Discussions: Practice Research Culture at Leeds
Common Ground Discussions: Practice Research Culture at Leeds
As part of the Research Culture Crucible programme, Scott McLaughlin (Music/CePRA) & Peter Petkovsek (PCI) are running a series of five discussion sessions around practice research in the arts at Leeds. The aim is to find common ground across the disciplines to better support each other in what is still a relatively new (and sometimes confusing) area. Ultimately these discussions will start an ongoing process of building a library of good practice examples here at Leeds that can benefit everyone, from PGRs and ECRs new to the area.
While it’s vital that practice research remains flexible to fit the needs of artists who, by their nature, are always slipping away from methodological mainstreams, there is still significant confusion among institutions and researchers about what constitutes good practice in this area, and how best to ensure our research is widely visible and discoverable. The recent publication of the Bulley/Şahin report on practice research (Research England 2021) has provided a much-needed set of common approaches and language around what is a disparate research community (both within and across disciplines); but the report needs an active programme of discussion to bring its proposals to the community. Much of the problems in the sector lie in the culture of how practice researchers work across their professional arts careers and their academic careers, and how this impacts the perception of research in these communities. Ultimately, there is a real lack of good models and examples to work with, especially for ECRs and PGRs. These discussions are a space to find out where good models are most needed, what Leeds can do, and to see what works best for everyone and for individual disciplines and sub-disciplines.
Please sign up with this single Eventbrite event where you can specify which sessions you'll attend (in-person or virtual). Sessions will be hybrid, with food/drink provided.
The session dates and topics are:
- 13th June 11–1pm: Conference room (School of Music)
- ‘Practice research is for life not for REF’. Our research is ongoing all the time, whether we’re explicitly presenting it that way or not. What can be done to improve the culture of making our research discoverable and shareable all the time, not just in REF season?
- 16th June 11–1pm PGR ONLY: School of Performance and Cultural Industries / Stage @ Leeds (Dance Studio):
- What does practice RESEARCH at Leeds look like for you? What is the research culture around practice for you? What can be done to better support you?
- 20th June 11–1pm (School of English, alumni room)
- Narratives: Practice research is not alchemy. How do we make clear the research aspects of our practice? We’re not ‘turning practice into research’, but we can use ‘research narratives’ (not necessarily text-based) to make clear what the research perspective is, and to make it easier for other researchers to find our work. The Bulley/Şahin report proposes ‘research narratives’ (p. 27) as a useful way to conceptualise the practice/research links, but what could/should that look like?
- 22nd June 11–1pm (School of Music, Seminar Room: rm 2.17)
- Navigating the language of research as practitioners. What do ‘research insights’ mean for you in practice? This is a key term in the REF definition of research, and insights are also the key part of a final PhD submission and viva discussion: i.e. what is your contribution to the research field? What do data and metadata look like in your research?
- 27th June 11–1pm (School of Performance and Cultural Industries, floor 1 meeting room)
- Sharing: Getting it out there, and making it findable. What does ‘effective sharing’ mean for you: who are your stakeholders and how do you reach them? Again, a key term in the REF definition, but also relevant for defining the ‘field’ to which a PhD will contribute.
- What next? what concrete plans should we commit to?