All entries for June 2023

New Episode: Orwell & Modern Political Speech

Writing about web page https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/podcast

Podcast episodes are like buses, all of sudden two come along at once! After our last recent Exchanges Discourse episode, we are pleased to be able to bring you a chat with another of our recent authors. This episode I’m in conversation with past journal author Imogen Birkett. Our conversation is framed around her paper: Literature in Politics: The Appropriation of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four in contemporary British parliamentary debate, which appeared in the most recent (V10.3) of Exchanges.

Taking as its core theme, Imogen’s work around contemporary British parliamentary speech we consider her findings, and the avenues for future work, particularly within the realm of social media. Naturally, as with every episode of the podcast we also touch on words of advice for graduate and early career researchers approaching their first journal articles.

Orwell & Modern Political Speech: In Conversation with Imogen Birkett

Listen in via either of the following links:

• https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/exchangesias/episodes/Crossing-the-Creative-Frontier-In-Conversation-with-Sonakshi-Srivastava-e25va0h
• https://open.spotify.com/episode/1EO7zB57rxUvgJXOnsxLmz?si=KYF2I5-lTyaFYqrRe4dIzQ

For those looking to jump directly to the key points, here are the main episode signposts.

• 0:00 Opening
• 1:59 Paper
• 8:08 Public awareness of Orwellian concepts
• 10:43 Why Orwellian speech matters
• 13:26 Developing further research themes
• 15:16 Orwellian social media discourse
• 16:48 Advice for authors
• 20:26 Closing

Gareth Johnson : 22 Jun 2023 09:00 |  Tags: Episode Orwell Parliament Podcast Speech |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

New Episode: Crossing the Creative Frontier

Writing about web page https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/ias/exchanges/podcasting/

A new episode of the podcast discusses creative and academic writing, and the role inspirational novels play in shaping our thinking and research.

Once more it’s time to announce the release of another new episode of the Exchanges Discourse podcast. This time I’m in conversation with Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University based scholar Sonakshi (Sona) Srivastava about her writing and research work.

Naturally, we discuss the paper she authored entitled Res(crip)ting the Gaze: Agency and the aesthetics of disability in ‘Animal’s People’. This paper appeared in our special issue on the Anthropocene and examined the writing of author Indra Sinha around the Bhopal Gas Tragedy.

Alongside this we talk about the crossover between creative and academic writing, and the related roles novels and languages can play in shaping thinking and perceptions. Naturally, Sona also offers a range of advice on approaches towards publication especially for early career scholars and first-time authors.

Listen in here:

Crossing the Creative Frontier: In Conversation with Sonakshi Srivastava [34:35]

• https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/exchangesias/episodes/Crossing-the-Creative-Frontier-In-Conversation-with-Sonakshi-Srivastava-e25va0h
• https://open.spotify.com/episode/3SC4BRGDLV3cM06rldXK7I?si=b6y6F6PWQEmEvjaClVk7_g

And to help you jump right to the key points - here's the episode index:

• 0:00 Opening
• 0:43 Introductions
• 4:26 Exploring Sona’s paper
• 9:10 Other publications & creative writing
• 19:20 Positive publishing experiences
• 23:58 Advice for authors
• 33:41 Closing

As I’ve already got the next episode recorded, we will hopefully be back before too long with our next instalment of the Exchanges Discourse!

Gareth Johnson : 20 Jun 2023 16:12 |  Tags: Bhopal Creative Discussion India Novels Podcasting Writing |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Planning Peer–Reviewer Development & Future Training

Discussions and planning point towards a potentially exciting new endeavour in peer-review training for active researchers.

Yesterday, on a sunny drenched forecourt of Warwick’s fabulous arts building I had the pleasure of a lengthy and exploratory chat with my sometime collaborator – and collage as research expert – Dr Harriet Richmond. Over the last year I’ve co-facilitated a session for Harriet’s early stage researcher programme, around the areas of peer-review and editing, and it is always a pleasure to talk over professional matters with her. Albeit with the occasional segue into tangentially related topics too! I should note, each of the sessions this year was a wonderful and eye-opening opportunity to exchange insights with the delegates around their own publishing experiences – and my thanks to them all for their contributions.

Yesterday’s meeting arose on the back of these sessions, but more broadly is looking towards something which is loosely or even more directly aligned with Warwick’s increasing focus on developing effective research cultures [1]. What we were discussing was in fact our plans for future publishing related training – and specifically that relating to the topic of peer-review. One thing that’s been evident in our discussions with delegates this past year around peer-review is how clearly there is a need to offer some form of development or training for researchers, especially those earlier in their careers. However, that doesn’t mean they’re the sole potential audience!

Most of we scholars, when we perform peer-review early in our career, and are especially lucky will find a friendly editor willing to spare a few moments to offer some guidance. More likely many of us will be left reading a journal’s online reviewers’ guide and simply conducting ourselves as professionally as we can. I can say as a journal editor over the years the variance between practices I’ve witnessed from peer-reviewers has been considerable, although virtually everyone who’s contributed to the journal has risen to the challenge admirably.

What Harriet and I are thinking about here is producing a training session – or sessions – which takes a broader look at the wider realm [2] of peer-review. I should add, that currently the whole enterprise is very embryonic at best, and the focus of our discussions yesterday was to find if such an enterprise would be worthwhile, and what elements we’d both like to explore within it. Hence, yesterday's meeting saw us bounce around our outline ideas, explore a bit about how we might seek to formulate an effective session and especially identify those key areas we think would comprise a valuable, impactful and interesting session. Thus, while currently absolutely nothing is set in stone – not even how I’m writing peer-review [3] –as I said in my note to Harriet this morning the session clearly has ‘legs’. That is to say, a strong potential to be well-received by our researcher community.

Thankfully though, we’re looking to develop this session – as part of a broader envisaged developmental programme – over the next year rather than rush to present it after the summer. Partly, this is because as reflexive practitioner scholars, Harriet and I want to let the content develop organically – something which requires time, introspection and internal debate. Additionally, it also gives us both space and time to perform some background research into the literature and praxis of peer-review. As this is something I’ve been meaning to give over some serious time to for a while, it is nice to have some greater motivation now!

I anticipate too I may well ‘field-test’ some elements of the potential session within my own anticipated [4] training schedule over the next 12 months. This will be useful in using live subjects – sorry, delegates – to help refine, refocus and augment the content and emphasis of the session to better meet scholar’s authentic needs.

As always, watch this space – and elsewhere – for more news on this exciting and I interesting proposal as it develops. Naturally, if anyone reading wants to share their thoughts on peer-review training, related dynamics and normative practices, you are warmly invited to use the comments below. Alternatively, if you prefer, drop me a line and arrange a chat as I am always happy to hear from those reviewers on the front line about their experiences: especially those reviewing for titles which aren’t Exchanges…

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Endnotes

[1] Watch out for something exciting relating to this in an announcement next week.

[2] Dare I say field, in a Bourdieulian sense? Yes, I probably can.

[3] Peer-review or peer review? Is it a personal preference or should I be following strict grammatical rules? Your answers on a postcard too…

[4] My event, workshop and teaching diary for academic year 23/24 is looking very spartan currently – I’ve only one event fixed. So, I’m open to offers or requests…

Gareth Johnson : 15 Jun 2023 09:09 |  Tags: Collaboration Culture Peer-Review Programme Research Training |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

New Episode – Environmental Humanities & Transdisciplinary Research

Writing about web page https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v10i2.979

Following on from last time, here’s another episode of the Exchanges Discourse in discussion with a past author. This episode I talk with past journal author, Julian Westgate, about the paper he authored entitled Corals, Geo-Sociality, and Anthropocene Dwelling, which appeared in our Anthropocene special issue back in March.

During our chat we discuss the challenges of publishing as a ‘transdisciplinary scholar’ and also Justin’s reflections on conducting fieldwork around the Great Barrier Reef. There’s also an interesting segue looking at his work in the ‘exo’ field, touching on ecologies and life-potential on other worlds too. As always we touch on experiences of publication and publishing, especially with an eye for advice for first time authors and early career scholars.

Listen in here via the following links:

• https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/exchangesias/episodes/Environmental-Humanities--Transdisciplinary-Research-In-Conversation-with-Justin-Westgate-e25ctuk
• https://open.spotify.com/episode/2jG0x720JL6WJTvvzmAdzJ?si=zDPEbct0RQCiXiEFekbDwg

Episode Index

• 0:00 Opening
• 0:42 Introduction
• 4:28 Paper overview
• 13:34 Other research & work
• 17:28 Positive publishing experiences
• 21:21 Publication challenges
• 24:10 Advice for authors
• 30:45 Closing

Gareth Johnson : 07 Jun 2023 15:25 |  Tags: Anthropocene Author Coral Episode Interview Podcast Publishing Reefs |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem