Postgraduate Advice Day 2010

Don't miss our Post Graduate Advice Day on March 3rd

The School, across its various disciplines, has inherited a long and impressive history of research. It is of note, for instance, that there are more members of the University's Professoriate in the School of Arts, Media and Education than in any other school.  The School intends to build on its privileged position, exploiting the synergy offered by its current configuration. 

Now established at Deane Campus, we are well underway in developing the School's research profile. This involves a number of initiatives. 

  • In terms of courses, we are extending our range of postgraduate Masters and PhD provision. Masters are either taught or research-based, whereas the PhD is now attainable via different routes: by a traditional thesis, by professional practice (involving a work-based portfolio of evidence or a collection of creative outputs – e.g. poems, short stories, plays, films, photography, graphic or fine artwork, exhibition material, etc), or, finally, by publication, either retrospectively (assembling a number of already published items, etc), or prospectively (agreeing to publish a number of items in recognised publications).  Currently, there are two bursaries being offered for research students in the area of Philosophy.
     
  • We are also seeking to support staff in gaining higher level qualifications and developing their research track records.  The University Repository is helping us to showcase this, with a number of staff outputs available through SAME's webpages (see http://digitalcommons.bolton.ac.uk/ame/ ).
     
  • We are making our presence known through hosting conferences, attracting delegates at national level. On Friday 28th- Saturday 29th May 2010 we are involved in organising a 'Bill Naughton Centenary Celebration', together with Bolton Museum & Archive Service and the Octagon Theatre. On the Saturday there will be a conference held at Bolton Museum's Lecture Theatre, with keynote speakers Neil Sinyard (Professor of Film Studies, University of Hull) and Stephen Lacey (Professor of Drama, Film and Television at the University of Glamorgan). (see http://www.bolton.ac.uk/Conferences/BillNaughton/Home.aspx ).
  • At a more local level, AME's Research Conference is now an annual event, coming up to its third year. The initial one featured our first Visiting Professor, the poet and broadcaster Ian McMillan. A video of his performance, together with photographs from the day, can be found at the bottom of the Seminars page .  The second School Conference was held at Deane campus, where it was a pleasure to have our second Visiting Professor, David Thacker, give the keynote address (for details of the 2009 Conference, see http://www.bolton.ac.uk/AME/Research/Conference%2025th%20March%202009.aspx .). The School level conference feeds, in turn, into the University-wide 'Research & Innovation' Conference.  
  • There are also Research Seminars clearly established in certain areas (e.g. Cultural & Creative Studies ), with more sporadic events in Education and Art & Design. A series of forums/workshops will run in the second semester, 2009-10, where researchers can discuss work in progress, research techniques, supervision, etc. This latter venue should bring together both staff and research students. 
     
  • The School has a room dedicated to Research Students, T4-042, with desks, filing cabinets and computers. The room can be used either for private study or for group activities, seminars, or meetings related to research. The key to the room is held in the General Office.
     
  • The School's research reputation has been enhanced by the appointment of two Visiting Professors. First, the celebrated poet and broadcaster, Ian McMillan. He gave his inaugural lecture at the School's first Research Conference in 2008, where he premiered his verse autobiography, Talking Myself Home. As Visiting Professor, Ian McMillan is undertaking a project on coalmining, with Ian Beesley, course leader for the MA Photography. Aside from this particular project, Ian is also involved in running three workshops a year across the three main areas of the School. Our second Visiting Professor, appointed in 2009, is David Thacker, current Artistic Director of the Octagon, but with an illustrious background in theatre (Director of the Young Vic, Director-in-Residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company, freelance work for the National Theatre) and TV. He has worked with many of today's most celebrated actors. His appointment has made our links with the Octagon far closer, both at undergraduate and research levels.
  •  The development of Research within the School is overseen by a Research Committee, which has its own working groups taking forward specific initiatives, such as running the annual School Conference, external conferences, and in developing the research culture of the School. The Committee also has a Research Ethics sub-committee, which considers all research involving human participants that is undertaken within the School. The current School Research Ethics officer is Dr. David Kitchener (dak1@bolton.ac.uk).