Highlights of the Engage Research Conference 2019

Over 100 researchers took part in this year’s hugely successful annual research conference

THE School of Human and Health Sciences held their annual postgraduate research conference on 27^th June 2019, with over 100 researchers attending.  

The 2019 Engage Research Conference began with a stimulating keynote by Dr Chris Street about the possibilities and pratfalls of being a postgraduate research student. Dr Street reflected on his own experiences and provided some valuable insights into how to traverse the postgraduate research journey.  

The main part of the conference saw a range of panel presentations from the School’s postgraduate community on a wide range of topics, such as caring relationships, research in education, experimental health, and crime and victimisation, which certainly had an inspiring effect among attendants. 

A postgraduate poster competition saw a variety of research topics displayed, from life coaching to sexual violence to the detection of fake online consumer reviews, with presenters engaging with those wanting to find out more. 

The afternoon of the conference saw a second keynote provided by Gemma Ware from the academic blogsite The Conversation, who discussed how postgraduate researchers could publish research articles on their site. 

One of the highlights of the conference was The Big Engage Conference Quiz, which challenged participants with questions about being a postgraduate researcher and studying at the University.   

The conference closed with a drinks reception and the Dean of the School, Professor Paul Bissell, presented prizes for the best poster and panel presentations and there were celebrations for the success of PGR student, Chinny Sam-Okerenta and her competition-winning 3M Thesis. 

The conference was organised by postgraduate students from the School, with support from Dr Andy Mycock and Dr Chris Street. They would like to thank all of the PGR presenters who shared their research, academic staff who chaired and judged the panel sessions as well as posters, and conference attendees who contributed so much the day.