During the week commencing 15th of September, we held the second annual Centre for Care PhD Summer School. Building on the success of the previous year’s event, the expanded Summer School included various high-quality presentations from the students, in addition to contributions from Centre for Care staff and PhD students, and from scholars beyond the Centre.
The programme for the week included presentations by the Summer School students on a wide range of topics related to care, with feedback provided by their Centre for Care mentors and peers. The presentations covered national and international issues in care, used diverse methodological approaches and generated interesting and varied discussions. We learned a lot from the students. Alongside these, various interactive sessions were organised, covering key theories and methods in care research, guidance on publishing, ethical practice in care research, Open Science and developing digital communications, as well as ‘talks’ showcasing the work underway across the Centre for Care.
Thank you!
All the logistics would have been impossible without the impeccable support of Centre Manager, Dr Kelly Davidge, and Administrator, Sarah Givans. Kelly worked incredibly hard to develop such a comprehensive and informative programme of both academic sessions as well as evening activities, and Sarah’s management of the travel arrangements and bookings were integral in the smooth operation of the school.
We’d like to offer a thank you to all the fantastic mentors from across the Centre for Care who provided really constructive personalised feedback. Also, we really appreciated wider Centre colleagues and PhD students for coming together on the Tuesday for our in-person day and being so welcoming to the summer school students.
Our gratitude also goes to all our speakers: Dr Caleb Johnston (Reader in Human Geography at Newcastle University) – who provided an inspirational keynote on Outsourcing to Augmentation: Responses to a shared care crisis, as well as a fantastic student-focused workshop on testimonial play; Dr Diane Burns for her insightful workshop on ethical care research; Professor Matt Bennett, Professor Gwilym Price and Dr Jingwen Zhang for their activities on measuring unmet need; Dan Williamson for a behind the scenes look at how he creates such engaging content for the Centre and insights on raising your profile through digital content; Millie Hind and Ella Monkcom for a fascinating reading group; Professor Charlie Rahal for a really insightful session on Open Science; and Dr Obert Tawodzera, Dr Preeti Raghunath and Dr Greg Hollin for a really informative session on academic publishing which included some useful hints and tips.
And last but certainly not least, we would like to thank the summer school students who provided so much energy, as well as valuable insights and perspectives on care from around the globe. We were impressed by the level of engagement throughout a busy Summer School Programme. We genuinely look forward to keeping in touch and seeing your careers develop!
About the Authors
Professor Liam Foster is a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and Social Work at the University of Sheffield, England, who specializes in pensions, extending working lives, gender inequalities and theories of ageing. Professor Foster has developed a national and international profile in ageing and pensions.
Majella holds a PhD in Social Policy from the University of York, and has worked at the University of Sheffield, in the Department of Sociological Studies, since 2011. She co-established the Migration Research Group at Sheffield in 2014, and co-directed it until 2022. In 2022, Majella became Director of the newly-established Centre for Doctoral Training in New Horizons in Borders and Bordering.
