Events 2024/25

Where: Online via Teams

When: 15th January 2025, 14:00-15:30

How to register: https://forms.office.com/e/4JLG8nUmBn

In this session a panel of recent graduates from the PhD/ DPhil will talk about their immediate post-doctoral role as an ESRC Fellow, how they progressed from student to work place and the transferable skills gained during doctoral study. 

The Panel will be chaired by Professor Steve Pile (Associate Director GUDTP and Professor of Human Geography, Open University) and our speakers are current ESRC Postdoctoral Fellows from the GUDTP Partner Institutions: 

• Dr Elena Boukouvala: an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow in Human Geography, Open University. Elena's Participatory Action research looks at borders and belongings, creating stages among refugee, local young people and publics through creative methods. Starting in Lesvos, Greece and developing across Europe, the research investigates creative acts, affects and politics instigated in response to the refugee policy crisis. Elena’s academic background crosses the disciplines of Psychology, Sociology and Dramatherapy. She is the founder and director of the interdisciplinary conference series 'Play Perform Learn Grow' which brings together academics, artists and activists including people with lived experiences of forced migration. She has been working with young people as a researcher, therapist, artist and performance activist since 2004.
• Dr Alex Midlen: an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow in Development Policy and Practice (Open University). More details coming soon.
• Dr Ben Platt: an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Geography and Environment, University of Oxford. Ben is a cultural geographer whose research centres the aesthetic complexity of landscape as it is enrolled as both a means of responding and adapting to pressing social and environmental challenges. In 2023 he completed his PhD in Geography at the University of Cambridge, with an AHRC funded project that explored the socio-ecological complexity of contemporary landscape design interventions in London. His work has won multiple awards, including the Vice-chancellors award (University of Cambridge), and nomination as a scholar of the Cambridge Trust.

There will be an opportunity for questions and discussion. We will finish with some advice from Professor Steve Pile on compiling a post-doctoral fellowship application. 

The Teams link will be distributed to valid University email addresses on the morning of the event. 

This event is open to PhD students at Brunel University, the Open University, and Oxford University. Please use your University email to register interest, we will not distribute the Teams link to personal email addresses.

Where: Online via Zoom

When: 30th January 2025, 10:00-12:15

How to register: https://forms.office.com/e/sg6YjAN7QS

Run by Dr Sabina Strachan (how2glu), this graphically facilitated workshop will help you understand the relationship between ‘soft’ skills, attitudes, behaviours and ‘hard skills’, what skills and behaviours are sought after by employers, clients or funders and how to build these into your PhD experience and evidence them. We will also look at skills relevant to academic and non-academic career paths and understand commonalities and differences.

You’ll work through glucard™ activities, share experiences and identify your own strengths and employability skills. We’ll identify challenges that might affect your transition from PG research and discuss strategies and actions to overcome them.

We’ll look at different kinds of opportunities that would enable you to develop desirable skills, how to access those opportunities, and how to evidence your skills and strengths to potential employers, etc. We’ll also work through specific steps that will allow you to practise one of these strategies as individuals and in small groups, looking at the ‘managing expectations’ skill using a glucard™ tool.

Sabina will illustrate concepts, demonstrate tools by sharing live visualisations and respond to your particular experiences, questions and objectives.

This event is only open to Grand Union DTP Scholars at Brunel University, the Open University, and Oxford University. Please register your interest via the booking form by 24th January 2025, using your University email address and we will then inform those who have been allocated a place on the programme.

There are limited spaces available for these sessions and the DTP is paying for external trainers to facilitate, so please only register your interest if you are certain you would attend if offered a place.

Where: Online via Zoom

When: 6th February 2025, 10:00-12:15

How to register: https://forms.office.com/e/RynPmTBux1

Run by Dr Sabina Strachan (how2glu), this workshop will help you understand how to develop relevant experience and demonstrate competencies by working through individual and group activities to identify approaches for different careers paths, explore different kinds of CV and how to find helpful resources. (Note: this session is a good follow on from the ‘employability skills’ workshop).

We’ll look at examples of chronological, skills-based, academic, project-based and portfolio CVs and talk through what options are going to work best for you. You’ll then capture your career goals in terms of values, motivations and working environment. And then we’ll then look at five sought-after transferable skills – communication, confidence, expectation management, flexibility and optimism – and ways you can enhance, develop and evidence them through your PhD experience.

You will create a glucard™ CV builder to capture your transferable skills, experience and examples. We’ll work through common issues and barriers and Sabina will share examples of different career journeys and modes of presentation, graphically facilitate the session, demonstrating key learning and tools and link further resources.

This event is only open to Grand Union DTP Scholars at Brunel University, the Open University, and Oxford University. Please register your interest via the booking form by 31st January 2024, using your University email address and we will then inform those who have been allocated a place on the programme.

There are limited spaces available for these sessions and the DTP is paying for external trainers to facilitate, so please only register your interest if you are certain you would attend if offered a place. 

Where: ESRC Grand Union DTP Hub Space, Manor Road Building, Oxford

When: 4th February 2025, 10:00-12:00

How to Register: https://forms.office.com/e/H5TY0Vm4Z8 

We would like to invite you to join us for refreshments in the ESRC GUDTP Hub Space with the opportunity to meet one to one with one of the DTP Directors for a 5-10 minute catchup. In the registration form, please do indicate if you would like to meet with a Director, and if so, which 30 minute slots would best suite you.

Please note these will be offered on a first come, first serve, basis and we will do our best to try and fit you into your preferred slot, but we cannot guarantee this. Please note, online capabilities are being put in place for Open University and Brunel University London students. 

Please do come along for tea, coffee and biscuits - we hope to see you there!

This event is only open to ESRC Grand Union DTP Scholars at Brunel University, the Open University, and Oxford University. Please register using your University email address.

Where: ESRC Grand Union DTP Hub Space, Manor Road Building, Oxford

When: 7th March 2025

How to register: https://forms.office.com/e/vAsLYjMYab

We would like to invite you to join us for refreshments in the ESRC GUDTP Hub Space for an informal meeting and catch up with your colleagues in the cohort and members of the DTP Management team who will be available to answer queries about the support schemes, your plans, and anything else relating to your studentship. 

Please do come along for tea, coffee and biscuits - we hope to see you there!

This event is only open to ESRC Grand Union DTP Scholars at Brunel University, the Open University, and Oxford University. Please register using your University email address.