Minority ethno-faith communities and social inclusion through collaborative research

With alarming suicide rates and a negative identity, Alevi youth felt invisible at school where no one knew about their faith. Through collaboration between the Alevi community, Highbury Grove secondary school and the University of Westminster, we produced lessons on Alevism for the RE curriculum. Alevi pupils helped to design and deliver this successful, inclusive curriculum project, generating considerable interest from peers and the wider school community. Consequently they report a greater sense of belonging and pride in their identity.

Engaging with the public in public engagement with research

Though there is now growing commitment to publicly engaged research, the role and definition of the public in such processes is wide-ranging, contested, and often rather vague. This article addresses this problem by showing that, although there is no single agreed upon theory or way of being public, it is still possible and very important to develop clear, public-centric, understandings of engaged research practice. The article introduces a multi-dimensional framework based on the theoretical literature on the ‘public’, and demonstrates – in the context of a recent engaged research project – how it possible to conceptualise, design and evaluate context-specific formations of the public. Starting from an understanding of publics as mediated and dynamic entities, the article seeks to illuminate some of the choices that researchers face and how the framework can help them navigate these. This article is for all those interested in what it means to address, support and account for an engaged public in contemporary settings.

Moments of Collusion? Close readings of affective, hidden moments within feminist research

This paper addresses affective ‘moments of collusion’ present in feminist research relationships, and contextualises these seemingly personal encounters within a wider systematic framework of the early career researcher and the increasingly neoliberal climate of academia. Focusing on the temporal transition from doctoral research to postdoctorate research positions immediately post-PhD, this paper questions the concept of collusion within (immersive) fieldwork, and examines the delicate and complex question of who is colluding with whom, and for what purpose at different times within the early career academic journey. Specifically, this paper focuses on how the increasing pressures of the neoliberal university play out on our emotions and bodies during fieldwork, an area which still requires attention within the growing critiques of the affects of neo-liberalism in Higher Education. Using personal case studies as springboard for a far wider and important discussion, this paper situates such methodological dilemmas within a broader temporal framework of the increasingly precarious nature of early career academics, where ‘moments of collusion’ may be the only way to keep your head above water.