Collaborative Research in the Arts and Humanities

Thursday 24th of June

10am - 12.45pm

Dr David Stevenson, Queen Margaret University 

About this Session

In line with a dominant discourse about the necessity for research to be ‘useful’ ‘innovative’ and generate ‘impact’ researchers are increasingly encouraged and rewarded for conducting research in ‘collaboration’ with institutions and organisations beyond academia. However, it is rarely acknowledged that this is a methodological choice and one that is more aligned with certain disciplines (and methods) than others. In particular it can cause challenges for some arts and humanities scholars who find they are collaborating with an organisation whose representatives’ expectations of research are heavily skewed towards the social sciences.   

This half-day training session, as part of the annual SGSAH summer school, will reflect on the challenges of conducting collaborative research. Drawing on insights from a range of guest speakers the workshop will be divided into three parts, focusing on designing, conducting, and presenting the findings from these types of research projects.

Throughout the course of the session participants will be encouraged to discuss and reflect on some key questions, including:    

• How can you find a collaborator and bring them on board?  
• Whose question is it anyway? Negotiating the research focus and managing collaborators’ expectations.  
• How can you manage the tension between researcher objectivity and organisational expectations of advocacy?  
• How can you balance your identity as both an insider and outsider when working in close collaboration with an organisation?  
• How critical can you be when your object of study is also your collaborator?  
• What sort of ethical issues can arise when working on collaborative research?   
• What value do more traditional arts and humanities methods have in collaborative research and how can we convince the sceptical?

Speakers will include academics and PhD candidates who have undertaken this type of research as well as representatives from a number of organisations who have acted as a collaborator in such projects.  

Click Here to Register (Please note that places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis) 

First published: 28 May 2021