1. education
2. school

2014–15
online and
face-to-face
training
A GUIDE TO
RESEARCH
TRAINING
WORKSHOPS, SUMMER SCHOOLS
AND ONLINE TRAINING
available to postgraduate
students in the humanities
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Contents
Introduction02
Research skills workshops
04
Thursday workshops
05
Applying for research funding
07
PORT online training
08
Institute-specific training and fora
09
Bloomsbury Postgraduate Skills Network
10
School contacts
12
About the School
The School of Advanced Study (SAS), University
of London is the UK’s national centre
for the promotion and facilitation of research
in the humanities.
SAS brings together the specialised scholarship
and resources of 10 prestigious research institutes
in Bloomsbury to provide an unrivalled scholarly
environment dedicated to the support, evaluation
and pursuit of research which is accessible to all
higher education institutions in the UK and the
rest of the world.
Member Institutes of the School
Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
Institute of Classical Studies
Institute of Commonwealth Studies
Institute of English Studies
Institute of Historical Research
Institute of Latin American Studies
Institute of Modern Languages Research
Institute of Musical Research
Institute of Philosophy
The Warburg Institute
www.sas.ac.uk
SAS also hosts a cross-disciplinary centre.
The Human Rights Consortium brings together
the multidisciplinary expertise found in the
institutes, as well as collaborating with individuals
and organisations worldwide, to support,
promote and disseminate academic and
policy work on human rights.
01
Introduction
The School of Advanced Study draws on its
extensive research and teaching expertise in the
humanities to provide a programme of disciplinespecific and transferable research training, both
face-to-face and online.
Most of the School’s training is available to
postgraduate students across the UK as well as
our own students, much of it free of charge.
We take the development of early-career
researchers seriously, too: our workshops provide
the transferable and employability skills necessary
for preparation for careers in academia and
elsewhere, and all our researchers, at whatever
level, are welcome to attend.
We offer well-established training for humanities
postgraduate students (most notably in history,
law, English, modern languages, music) as well
as in specialist areas (palaeography, book history,
Renaissance culture, medieval manuscript
studies), together with a programme of workshops
in generic research and transferable skills, plus
training in essential research software and
management information tools.
Rachel Stickland
Registrar
+44 (0)20 7862 8662
[email protected]
www.sas.ac.uk/support-research/
research-training
02
Introduction
‘The School’s
extensive and varied
range of training
programmes are
designed to meet the
needs of 21st-century
researchers, offering
programmes which
enable scholars in the
humanities to develop
their skills and pursue
their studies to
maximum effect.’
www.sas.ac.uk
Rachel Stickland, Registrar
03
Research skills workshops
This programme of workshops and seminars
provides transferable research training for
MPhil and PhD students in the humanities and
social sciences, complementing the specialised
programmes provided by the institutes for their
students. It is expected that most School students
will be able to take part in all sessions of the
programme at an appropriate time in their doctoral
study.
in the humanities and social sciences based
in the UK. Those based in the Bloomsbury
colleges (Birkbeck, Institute of Education,
SOAS, UCL etc.) may register through the
Bloomsbury Postgraduate Skills Network (BPSN).
Students at non-BPSN institutions should
register direct, by contacting Christine Weir,
Postgraduate Student Officer (Research Training),
[email protected].
The workshops are taught largely by the School’s
academic staff, drawing on the expertise available
in the wider University of London.
School students should ensure that they let
Christine Weir ([email protected]) know
in advance that they expect to attend. This is to
make sure that they can be kept informed if there
are last-minute changes to the programme or
venue.
The programme is freely available – to School
students, of course, who do not need to register,
and also to all registered research students
04
Project organisation and management
Thursday 30 October 2014, 14.00-16.00
Room 243, Senate House
This workshop is designed to help students
complete their PhD successfully by planning
and organising their research and time, using
project management techniques to take them
from research idea to delivery of the thesis.
The session will look at defining the project and
its goals, timetabling, milestones, resources,
responsibilities, risks, and how to review the
plan when the project changes. Basic use of
the software MS Project will be touched on. The
session will allow students the opportunity to start
putting together their own project plan; consider
the structure and processes that are essential for
a successful project, and discuss issues such as
estimating inputs, quality management, working
with others, and identifying the critical path to
delivering the PhD within schedule.
Presenter: Staff Development Team (University of London)
encouraged to come to the session prepared to talk
and raise questions about their own experiences.
Presenters: Mr Richard Temple (Senate House Library);
Dr Elizabeth Danbury (Institute of English Studies)
Research skills workshops
Thursday workshops
Giving a seminar or conference paper
Thursday 27 November 2014, 14.00-16.00
Athlone Room / Room 102, Senate House
This session will cover the preparation and delivery
of a paper for a seminar, or specialist conference
audience. The session will include hints on how to
give effective presentations at seminars, and large
and small conferences, the use of visual aids, and
discussion of different presentation styles.
Presenter: Dr Julian Burger (Institute of Commonwealth
Studies)
Data protection and research data
Thursday 4 December 2014, 14.00-16.00
Torrington Room / Room 104, Senate House
Working in archives
Thursday 20 November 2014, 14.00-16.00
Room 243, Senate House
This session explores the importance of data
protection for you and your research.
Presenter: Dr Kit Good (Vice-Chancellor’s Office)
Organising successful academic events
Thursday 15 January 2015, 14.00-16.00
Room 243, Senate House
Organising an academic event can offer students
career-changing opportunities and be rewarding
and enjoyable. 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, finance, collaborations, technical issues,
hospitality, programming, the night before, the day
itself, post-event issues and potential pitfalls.
Presenters: Karen Hunte (Institute of Commonwealth
Studies PhD); Ikani Agabi (Institute of Legal Studies PhD)
05
www.sas.ac.uk
The session is for those who have recently begun,
or are about to begin, to use archives in their
research. An overriding aim is to help researchers
develop effective strategies for exploring their
subjects. Archives are not simply passive
repositories of information but bear the imprint of
historical process and accident. Thinking about
the nature of the archive itself can throw light on
the cultural and historical context of the topic
being investigated. A number of questions can be
explored. What is an ‘archive’? How does it differ
from ‘records’ or ‘documents’? Is there a wider
view of materials from the past which might be
comprehended by the term ‘archive’? Why were
certain archives created? How have they survived?
How do you formulate a strategy for finding the
information that you think you need? What role
can random exploration play? Participants are
Thursday workshops
The PhD viva
Thursday 22 January 2015, 14.00-16.00
Room 243, Senate House
The session is intended to help students prepare
for the viva examination. It will look at a range of
practical matters including choosing the external
examiners, and the roles and strategies of the
student, the supervisors, and the examiners.
It will review the regulations and guidelines for
examiners and candidates, and discuss common
practice. It will also discuss practical questions
such as what to bring to the examination, and
what happens after the examination.
Presenters: Professor Philip Murphy (Institute of
Commonwealth Studies); Professor Catherine Davies
(Institute of Modern Languages Research)
Getting research published
Thursday 29 January 2015, 14.00-16.00
Room 243, Senate House
This session will address the process of
publication in a variety of academic/professional
outlets including digital publication; preparing
articles for submission to academic journals, the
process of editing, writing book proposals, and
(from the perspective of the publisher) turning a
thesis into a non-academic book.
Presenter: Dr Jane Winters (Institute of Historical
Research)
Conducting interviews: oral history
Thursday 5 February 2015, 14.00-16.00
Room 243, Senate House
This session offers guidance and practical advice
on how to conduct and transcribe interviews. The
starting point will be group interviewing and witness
seminars. The session will consider issues around
objectivity and subjectivity; how to determine the
usefulness of information gathered, and to make the
06
most effective use of the information for the research
project; to distinguish between fact and opinion,
and the place of secondary sources. The session
will look at sensitivity and cultural awareness, and
address issues of ethical interviewing.
Presenter: Dr Sue Onslow (Institute of Commonwealth
Studies)
Using social media
Thursday 12 February 2015, 14.00-16.00
Room 243, Senate House
Social media (from blogs, Twitter, YouTube and
Vimeo to Facebook, Google+, Flickr, Instagram,
LinkedIn and Academia.edu) can be a powerful
tool supporting a PhD student’s research and
career. This workshop will give an overview
of social media platforms, why you use them,
what you share and which tool you use for what
purpose. 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.
Presenter: Dr Matt Phillpott (SAS-Space Manager / SAS
Digital Project Officer)
Teaching skills for the PhD student
Thursday 19 February 2015, 14.00-16.00
Room 243, Senate House
This session will explore the issues for the doctoral
student engaged in teaching seminars or classes
in their own department or external institution.
It will examine the skills that are necessary, and
identify strategies for the researcher as teacher:
how to manage research with teaching; planning
a class; managing assessment; identifying and
dealing with student needs; organising material,
and keeping records; team-teaching; moving to
the first academic position.
Presenter: Dr Richard Freeman (Institute of Education)
Applying for research funding
Date TBC
Further details of all training
offered are available from our
website at:
www.sas.ac.uk/supportresearch/research-training
Research skills workshops
Applying for research
funding
This half-day session will explore funding
options for research projects. Presentations will
cover where to find information about funders,
how to pitch your research project, how to
write a research proposal, and how to prepare
a proposal budget. It will also consider the
long-term management of a funded project.
The workshop will address ways of building
contacts with funding councils and prospective
funding organisations as well as approaches to
developing collaborative research opportunities.
The date for this session will be announced on
the School of Advanced Study Research Training
page on our website. Please consult this for
details: www.sas.ac.uk/support-research/
research-training
The date for this session will be announced on
the School of Advanced Study Research Training
page on our website. Please consult this for
details: www.sas.ac.uk
www.sas.ac.uk
This half-day session will explore funding options
for research projects. Presentations will cover
where to find information about funders, how
to pitch your research project, how to write
a research proposal, and how to prepare a
proposal budget. It will also consider the longterm management of a funded project. The
workshop will address ways of building contacts
with funding councils and prospective funding
organisations as well as approaches to developing
collaborative research opportunities.
PORT online training
New for 2014–15 from SAS is the PORT website
(Postgraduate Online Research Training). This
website provides online research skills training for
postgraduate researchers in the humanities as
part of the School’s national remit to facilitate and
promote research.
involved, so courses can be undertaken whenever
students wish and followed at a pace that suits
them. Most courses include advice, exercises,
and quizzes to help students develop. Alongside
these, PORT contains videos, training guides and
various other useful materials.
The idea of PORT is to enable postgraduate
researchers to gain or enhance their knowledge
in basic and advanced research skills that are
particularly applicable to, or provide the building
blocks for, research in the humanities and to
individual disciplines. A variety of courses and
training materials are already available – including
applying for a PhD, managing your data,
databases, and developing basic palaeography
skills. There is much more to come as well.
This is an exciting new direction for the School.
Whereas previously individual institutes had
developed online training content themselves,
now, for the first time, these can all be found in the
same place. This enables us to strengthen and
widen the provision and ensure that it becomes
more cohesive and useful to postgraduate
researchers across the UK.
Almost all of these courses and training materials
can be accessed for free. There is no tutor
08
You can access PORT via the SAS website
or from the research training pages on each
institute’s site.
port.modernlanguages.sas.ac.uk
Institute-specific training and fora
Institute-specific training
and fora
The individual institutes at SAS
offer discipline-specific research
training, ranging from afternoon
sessions and training days
to summer schools. Some of
the training on offer includes:
the London International
Palaeography Summer School
(Institute of English Studies);
National Training Days for PhDs
in Law (Institute of Advanced
Legal Studies); Before, During
and After the PhD (Institute of
Modern Languages Research);
and Resources and Techniques
for the Study of Renaissance
and Early Modern Culture (the
Warburg Institute).
Several institutes also run
postgraduate discussion fora,
which aim to meet social,
research training and intellectual
needs of postgraduate students
in specific disciplines. The
History Lab (Institute of Historical
Research), the Graduate Forum
(Institute of Modern Languages
Research) and the National
Postgraduate Colloquium in
German Studies (Institute of
Modern Languages Research)
are examples of these.
www.sas.ac.uk
Details of institute-based training
and fora can be found on the
School of Advanced Study
Research Training page on
our website: www.sas.ac.uk/
support-research/researchtraining
Renaissance culture is one of the
specialist areas in which training is
offered. Sandro Botticelli, A Young
Man Being Introduced to the Seven
Liberal Arts (c. 1483–6).
09
Bloomsbury Postgraduate
Skills Network
courses.grad.ucl.ac.uk/bloomsbury
The BPSN shared skills training programme
allows research students in participating
institutions to improve general research skills and
personal transferable skills, through attending
training courses and workshops at other member
institutions.
For information on courses available and how to
register, see the Network website:
courses.grad.ucl.ac.uk/bloomsbury
10
School contacts
Further details of all training offered can be found on our
website:
www.sas.ac.uk/support-research/research-training
Please contact Christine Weir with any enquiries:
Christine Weir, Postgraduate Student Officer
(Research Training)
[email protected]
School of Advanced Study Registry
Room 211, South Block
Senate House, Malet Street
London WC1E 7HU
Tel: +44 (0)20 7862 8663
[email protected]
Rachel Stickland, Registrar
[email protected]
Kalinda Hughes, Assistant Registrar
[email protected]
Leo Baldwin-Ramult, Admissions Officer
[email protected]
Christian Otta, Postgraduate Student Officer
[email protected]
12
Produced by
SAS Communications and External Relations
SAS Publications
Printed by
Circle Services Group
Cover image
Page 2
Page 4
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
© Lloyd Sturdy/University of London
© Brian Maudsley / Shutterstock
© RTimages / Shutterstock
Old illustration of Palais Bourbon library, Paris. Created by Fichot and Cosson-Smeeton, published on L’Illustration, Journal Universel, Paris, 1868, © Marzolino / Shutterstock
Bloomsbury Festival image, © Lloyd Sturdy/University of London
Sandro Botticelli, A Young Man Being Introduced to the Seven Liberal Arts (c. 1483–6), public domain via Wikimedia Commons
‘How a British woman dresses in wartime: utility clothing in Britain, 1943’ with Senate House in the background, Ministry of Information Official Collection (Imperial War Musem).
© Lloyd Sturdy/University of London
School of Advanced Study Registry
Senate House
Malet Street
London WC1E 7HU
United Kingdom
Email [email protected]
Telephone +44 (0)20 7862 8663
www.sas.ac.uk/support-research/
research-training
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– School of Advanced Study
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