Here you will find a selection of the student-staff research collaborations that we have supported over recent years, all with the aim of inspiring students to be part of the University research community and valuing their contribution.
Faculty
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Projects 2022-2023
Towards Sustainability: Investigating patterns of use in Stockwell Street Academic Building
David Waterworth with Sarah Antosi and Melissa Holeva
As part of a wider ongoing project exploring dynamical relationships between the occupants of the Stockwell Street Academic building and the systems that regulate their use and habitation of it, students from the Media and Communications and Film Studies programmes investigated some of the front-facing aspects of the building's waste disposal systems and policies. There are two projects; the first, by Sarah Antosi (Film Studies BA, Yr3) who evaluated the effectiveness of the university's segregated bins; and the second, by Melissa Holeva (BA Media and Communications YR2) putting policies aimed at minimising the use of disposable coffee cups under the spotlight. In both cases the projects ask whether these policies are understood by the building users they are aimed at, and to the extent they are not, propose creative solutions to resolve this.
Project exhibition, UGR Hub Symposium, 5th July 2023
Learning from the print shop: collaborative design research, making and publishing
Guglielmo Rossi and Kam Rehal
Six level 5 students participated in a cross-cultural project between the School of Design and the letterpress printing studio in Ahvaland, Finland. The aim was to develop first-hand knowledge of traditional print-making processes that shaped graphic design’s history, and that more broadly define past and present modes of knowledge production, circulation, and exchange.
The week- long exchange enabled students to expand their understanding of practice-oriented research methods by engaging with letterpress and intaglio printing making (tools and technologies). Through engaging with analogue workflow (design, typesetting, printing and binding by hand), students were able to deepen their understanding of graphic design practice and question contemporary visual communication tools, methods, and their function. The outcome is a collaborative publication and a growing community of practitioners.
Project exhibition, UGR Hub Symposium, 5th July 2023
Measuring criminology students' attitudes towards offenders with mental health needs
Dr Sarah Kilbane & Dr Jack Tomlin, with Janika Keraenen, Alzbeta Tumova
Patients in forensic settings live with numerous stereotyped and stigmatised identities: mentally ill, substance user and offender. In order to challenge and attempt to reduce this stigma, it is important to understand what individual factors may be predictive of such stereotyped attitudes. This is especially true for criminal justice students who will work with this population in the future.
This student-staff collaboration investigated the perceptions of University of Greenwich criminology students towards persons involved in the criminal justice system who have a mental disorder. Key findings were discussed in the presentation. Some of the challenges encountered when conducting this research, implications of this work and potential directions for future studies were also considered.
Janika Keraenen presenting at the UGR Hub Symposium, 5th July 2023
Drama in dementia care in the community
Dr Natasha Oxley, Pam Schweitzer and Ben Whitmarsh
The project focused on the ways in which older people’s memories can be turned into performance and used to support older people with dementia. This project was co-facilitated by Dr Pam Schweitzer, director of the European Reminiscence Network and an associate of the University. For over 25 years, Pam has led her 'Remembering Yesterday, Caring Today' groups, bringing together older couples in which one person has dementia and the other is their main carer. In ten weekly themed sessions, trained session leaders presented a range of activities including drama and body-based activities, helping older people to access and express memories. The students and lecturer joined a selection of these weekly sessions at the Greenwich Carers' Centre, observing the methods and hearing a rich variety of stories, which they used as the basis for creating a short piece of drama to perform for the group.
Pam Schweitzer and Ben Whitmarsh presenting at the UGR Hub Symposium, 5th July 2023
Analysis of Career Paths and barriers in the Animation Industry: Storytelling Associated with Movement using Different Animation Techniques
Min Young Oh with Margrethe Fredriksen and Eleanor Bater
Seven motivated animation students created a joint piece of research/short animation, aiming to deliver a sense of “extraordinary movement”. Students decided on marine life as their subject to show contrasts between a smooth and expected path, and sudden unpredictable movements. Students attended the Manchester Animation Festival 2022, where they met and interviewed directors and animators about their work and careers, making connections with industry. This project strengthened students’ vocational training, enhanced their presentation skills as well as expanded their professional network.
Min Young Oh, Margrethe Fredriksen and Eleanor Bater at the animation exhibition, UGR Hub Symposium, 5th July 2023
Research placement module in action
Prof. Maria J. Arche, Dr Louise Hewitt, Danielle James and Sarah Clifford
Prof. Maria Arche and Dr Hewitt are developing a research placement module for academic programmes of study in FLAS. In this presentation, Danielle James described the key features of the research placement module in action and spoke about the project they have been working on in collaboration with a team of researchers, teachers and speech and language therapists from the specialist school and college for children and young people with language disorders, Moor House School & College. The work has established the basis for a state of the art regarding the role that development of language structure may play in the comprehension of maths problems and for a corpus study mapping the GCSE exams’ instructions with specific structures. Both strands should contribute empirical evidence to understand the issues many kids encounter.
Danielle James presenting at the UGR Hub Symposium, 5th July 2023
Projects 2021-2022
‘LIVIN’ OUR BEST LIVES’ AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL REFLECTIONS OF LIFE IN CURRENT TIMES
Project Lead: Dr. Louise Owusu-Kwarteng and Dr Ewa Sidorenko
‘Livin Our Best Lives’ Autobiographical Reflections of Life in Current Times was a symposium hosted by the Applied Sociology Research Group, on 24th May 2019. Students from the Hons Sociology and Combined Honours and Community Studies and Education degrees shared autobiographies through spoken word, conference papers, enactments and posters, which they worked closely with Dr. Louise Owusu-Kwarteng (Associate Professor in Applied Sociology) and Dr Ewa Sidorenko (Senior Lecturer in Education and Community Studies) to develop. These papers explored the increased pressures to navigate our lives in a more or less ‘linear’ fashion, achieve academic and socio-economic success in the face of increasing competition and social and political chaos. They also considered issues associated with making life look like it is a smooth journey, which is further enhanced by the social-media gaze, how they developed understandings of themselves and ‘live their best lives’. The autobiographies will form the basis of an autobiographical publication also entitled ‘Livin our best lives’’ Autobiographical Reflections of Life in Current Times.
“WHAT ABOUT US, EMPOWERING COMMUNITY VOICES PROJECT “
Project lead: David Hockham
Universities should serve the community in which they sit, and theatres should engage with the people outside of its doors.” A mantra at the heat of this project. But how do you serve a community when you do not know what they want? This is a co-led project, working with Galeforce Productions Universal Ltd, The ROMEL Foundation and Dead Rabbits Theatre Company with performance outputs supported by Greenwich Theatre. Community is a difficult word to engage with because we are not talking about a singular entity. Woolwich has multiple community groups who identify through nationality. The Indian elder’s group, Caribbean social forum, Chinese and polish communities. This project begins to think about how we engage with individual voices from different social backgrounds, pair people with others from across groups and find ways to help navigate the local social-political scene whilst joining them with experts from within the university. It joins teaching, research and knowledge exchange whilst allowing us to navigate multiple voices, construct narratives and speak these backs to as wide an audience as possible.
David Hockham presenting at the ‘Otherness’ workshop
“BEYOND STUDENT EXPERIENCE: EXPLORING THE BIGGER PICTURE WITH UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS”
Project lead: Dr Elena Vacchelli
School of Humanities & Social Sciences Student Experience Project
The student experience project facilitated by Dr. Elena Vacchelli consisted of focus groups with students from across the school of Humanities and Social Sciences. A key aim of this work was to enable students to critically reflect upon their academic experiences and what it means to be a student within an active teaching and learning community. Selected students in each programme within the School were asked to discuss what they value as part of their university experience, and to identify areas for improvement. This was a useful exercise in that it made it possible to acknowledge what works well in specific programmes in view of sharing in other programmes. The focus group recording was transcribed professionally and the Sociology and Psychology student Ms Liliana Schiffbauer was supported by Dr. Elena Vacchelli in producing a thematic analysis of the focus group data. The second step of this process consisted in a participatory workshop where data from the Focus Group was shared with the same group and students were asked to rank the emerging themes in order of importance using the technique of photo elicitation. This step represented a further opportunity for reflection and engagement for the students involved. Discussions have been started with the PVC to see how this work can be extended beyond the School and eventually feed into to University Student Experience strategy.
“BUILDING ON BEACON – ENHANCING EMPLOYABILITY FOR ALL THROUGH STAFF-STUDENT PARTNERSHIPS”
Project lead: Dr Mary McAlinden
This project sought to develop and run an employability event for final year Mathematics students, specifically designed to raise employability aspirations across the full spectrum of ethnicity, with a particular focus on BAME students. The event was planned and designed by a Staff Working Group, working in partnership with a Student Steering Group which acted in an advisory capacity. The event was timed to coincide with the end point of students’ undergraduate studies, and as such it was deliberately designed to be an end of study celebratory event. The invited keynote speaker was Dr Nira Chamberlain, the President Elect of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, who has given his public lecture, The Black Heroes of Mathematics, across the UK and as part of Black History Month. In a highly inspirational talk, he raised awareness of the massive impact that can be achieved through a career in Mathematics. Other speakers included five alumni who willingly gave up their time to contribute to the event, through round table sessions and more formal talks. FDM also attended as employers. The event closed with a group photograph which was subsequently made available to students.
Dr Mary McAlinden with the Working Groups
“POWDERED EGGS AND CAMP COFFEE: PRACTICAL ENGAGEMENTS WITH WW2”
Project lead: Dr Victoria Carolan
The Make Do and Learn project was set up to add a practical element to the level 5 course ‘The People’s War’. The reasons behind this were, first to improve student engagement, second for me as a tutor to work more collaboratively with the students and third to use primary sources in a more imaginative way in the classroom. Students were required to choose an aspect of the Homefront that interested them and devise a practical project such as living on war time rations or knitting comforters for the troops. The work was assessed through a critical reflection on their experience and on the use of practical history experiences on television or in museums. This all led to a huge effort on behalf of the students and they had a highly successful presentation day to which other staff members were invited. A small group also joined me to give a Lunch and Learn talk about the project. The next step is hoped to be a symposium with other institutions who have also used practical elements in their history programmes.
Theatre installation proposal
AURAL HISTORIES – ST ALFEGE
Project lead: Dr Andrew Knight-Hill and Kam Rehal
This interdisciplinary collaborative oral history project opens up the archive at St Alfege Church – a major asset of Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site – connecting it to the community.
Installed in a shop unit at Greenwich market, the project presents evocative soundscapes, and visual designs which respond to oral histories from the local community. The space also invites local residents and members of the public to leave their own oral history document.
The team looks forward to continued collaboration with the Heritage Engagement and Interpretation leads at St Alfege Church to explore how they can further share this project and future outcomes in the Greenwich community as well as within the physical setting of the church.
LINKS TO SOUND WORKS: