Early Careers Forum Inaugural Event
28 July 2009
Avenues of Support: What is out there for EC sociologists?
British Library (Conference Centre), Euston Road, London
We were delighted to have 51 attendees at our inaugural event. The evening consisted of four presentations covering various avenues of support for early career sociologists.
Jude England, Head of Social Science Collections and Research at the British Library, kicked off the proceedings with a broad overview of the unique and varied resources available at the British Library for EC sociologists. She drew particular attention to the vast array of data sources, including parliamentary papers, sound recordings and digitised newspapers. View Jude England's presentation here.
Dr Ian Fairweather (C-SAP) followed with a detailed exploration of the resources and funding opportunities provided by C-SAP (The Subject Network for Sociology, Anthropology and Politics). These resources are designed specifically to support those seeking to develop their teaching skills and professional development within sociology. Full details of these resources can be found on the C-SAP website, which Ian encouraged us to visit.
Shifting attention slightly, Professor John Scott (University of Plymouth) then proceeded to offer his ‘top tips’ for approaching the postdoctoral application process. He discussed what makes for a good/poor postdoctoral grant application and outlined common mistakes made by EC sociologists in this process.
Dr Nicola Gale (University of Birmingham) concluded the event with a reflective talk about her experiences of being an EC sociologist and some of the pitfalls she has encountered in negotiating the post-PhD terrain. The Q&A session included some fruitful discussion about some of the issues facing early career sociologists and attendees were able to share their own experiences, queries, solutions and strategies with the group. The evening concluded with many of the attendees continuing their discussions over food in the local O’Neill’s. View Dr Gale's presentation here.
Evaluation Responses
The evaluation form completed by attendees has provided some really useful feedback for planning future events and taking the group forward. Via this feedback we have been able to identify several of the key strengths (variety of talks, informal atmosphere, Q/A session, networking opportunities) and weaknesses (quality of refreshments, pitching of the event) of the event and we will work very hard to address these when organising and hosting future events. We have summarised the key issues arising from the feedback below and have attempted to ‘answer’ some of the questions posed by those who attended the event. We hope this is helpful!
Q. What do we mean by ‘early career’?
We recognise early career as a broad term, which encompasses different stages and sectors of employment. While we hope to be inclusive in following a self-identification model, we appreciate that some events may be more usefully targeted at specific groups e.g. transitions from PhD to post-doctoral; lecturers within first few years of employment; contract researchers; researchers who do not have and are not studying for a PhD; early career sociologists working in non-academic settings etc. While all ECF members are welcome to attend any of our events, we aim to be more explicit in ‘pitching’ future events at each of these sectors.
Q. How did you arrive at this event?
Since we started the group earlier this year, we have constantly asked for our members’ ideas for events. Many of the suggestions we received related to a perceived lack of information about sources of support for early career sociologists. In response to these requests, we put this panel together to provide information on sources of support relating to teaching (C-SAP), research (British Library) and advice on applying for funding (John Scott and Nicola Gale). We are currently thinking about future events and are keen to hear your suggestions so please get in touch, either via email, or via our Facebook group (search for us under BSA Early Career).
Q. Can we improve the refreshments offered at the events?
Given that this was our inaugural event we hoped to keep costs down so that we would not have to charge a fee for attendance. In light of the feedback provided, we will consider introducing a nominal fee to cover the cost of providing more substantial refreshments. We will work hard to ensure that this fee will not be prohibitive and restrict your ability to attend the events.
Suggestions for Future Events
We received several suggestions for future events including, guidance on writing academic CV’s, submitting job applications and a more detailed examination of funding bodies and the grant application process. We are working hard to organise events/workshops around these topics and will be in touch soon! Any further suggestions please do not hesitate to contact us.
We hope all those who attended the event found it useful and worthwhile and we look forward to seeing you at future events.
Lara Killick & Ruth Lewis
ECF convenors
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