Arts and Humanities PhD Researchers are invited to attend and participate in an online Summer School organised by the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities (SGSAH). The event will provide a space to learn, share and make new connections.

This year the annual SGSAH Summer School is taking place online from 22^nd-26^th June 2020. A series of live discipline-focused, thematic and transferable skills-based workshops and seminars will be delivered across these five days. More than 30 free sessions are scheduled, many of which will give researchers the knowledge, practical tools and confidence to communicate their research and engage in new ways. For example, the hands-on session ‘Introduction to Broadcasting: From Idea to Successful Pitch’ will take participants through the process of what is required to mould a simple idea into a proposition for a programme, which in turn they will present to a BBC Scotland programme commissioner. There will also be sessions exploring how to navigate PhD research in the current pandemic, such as ‘Fieldwork with cultural and creative practitioners under COVID-19', which will discuss how to adapt research designs and methods to yield valid, insightful and generalisable data in the COVID-19 context.

In addition, there will be short daily keynotes from Val McDermid and Professor Jo Sharp (on their edited volume Imagine a Country), Professor Tanja Bueltmann (on ‘Historical diasporas, associational activism and EU citizen advocacy: How historical research can inform current debates and policy’), Dr Kieran Fenby-Hulse (a critical cabaret focusing on ‘Dismantling the Ivory Tower’, Dr Priyamvada Gopal (on ‘A more demanding relationship to history: British Universities and the 'Decolonize' Imperative’, and a guerrilla plenary featuring 9 of our SGSAH PhD researchers.

View the full programme here.

Professor Claire Squires, SGSAH Director, says: “This year our Summer School is taking a different format from the one we’d anticipated, but this has created a fantastic opportunity for PhD researchers from across our community to come together in a series of workshops, seminars and interactive discussions, in association with colleagues across our member HEIs and with external partners such as BBC Scotland.”

Attendees from previous years have said: “I had a fantastic time at the Summer School – everything I went to was very useful in very different ways so was an excellent all-round experience”.

“The Summer School was, as usual, a brilliant few days. The conversations with other researchers before and after the sessions were of real value to the experience”.

“I’ve found the Summer School to be a safe space where I could learn and network with others without being submitted to any pressures”.

The event is free and open to anyone in the Arts and Humanities researcher community. Some sessions have limited spaces; registrations are on a first-come, first-served basis.

Online registration is now open. Follow this link to register.

First published: 5 June 2020