Women in science: the challenge – an evening with Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock

Posted on June 30, 2014 by Hazel Hall

Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock

After an afternoon spent training PhD students in Glasgow last Wednesday I was popped along to an evening presentation by space scientist and The sky at night presenter Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock. This was last event of Strathclyde University’s Researcher Development Programme in 2013/14. The talk was entitled “Women in science: the challenge”. Its main theme was public engagement work related to attracting greater numbers, particularly of women, into science careers. This theme is of particular interest to me as Edinburgh Napier University’s Academic Champion for the Athena SWAN charter.

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Blaise Cronin to deliver guest lecture at Edinburgh Napier University, 24 June 2014

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Hazel Hall

Professor Blaise Cronin

Dr Blaise Cronin, Rudy Professor of Information Science, Indiana University is Visiting Professor to the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University. Next week he will be on our Merchiston campus to deliver a presentation entitled “Beethoven vs. Bieber: On the meaningfulness of (alt)metrics” (abstract below) as part of the School of Computing/Institute for Informatics and Digital Innovation Tech Talk series.

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Two events for research students in Information Science: research methods training, and iDocQ 2014

Posted on June 9, 2014 by Hazel Hall

From Wednesday 25th to Friday 27th June the Information Science pathway of ESRC Scottish Graduate School of Social Science information science pathway is hosting three days of activities offered free of charge to PhD students in Information Science and related disciplines (with travel bursaries available to students registered at Scottish universities that are members of the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science).

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ESRC Final Year Conference 2014 reviewed

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Hazel Hall

Conference dinner at the National Museum of Scotland by Kate Cowan, @katecowan

This year’s ESRC final year conference was hosted by the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science. I was pleased join the delegates at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) on Friday 25th April as one of the presenters.

The heavy emphasis on research impact, career pathways, and sources of future funding at the conference was well-suited to the needs of the delegates, the majority of whom were doctoral students approaching their final submission dates. I also enjoyed talking to the students about their research and career aspirations in the breaks between sessions, and during the poster display at the drinks reception immediately prior to the conference dinner.

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Using social media for impact

Posted on April 24, 2014 by Hazel Hall

Tomorrow I’m presenting a workshop on using social media for impact at the Economic and Social Research Council’s (ESRC) 2014 Final Year Conference (hash tag #esrcphd). This takes place at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC), and is hosted by the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science.

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A professorial lecture on poverty, privacy and the press

Posted on April 3, 2014 by Hazel Hall

8 members of the Centre for Social Informatics tweeted the talk – including Frances Ryan, Christine Irving, Leo Appleton & Jan Auernhammer pictured here

It’s rare that all the members of the Centre for Social Informatics (CSI) manage to gather together at the same place at the same time. However, we almost managed it last Thursday when we attended the inaugural professorial lecture of our CSI colleague Dr Alistair Duff. Apart from one PhD student and one researcher (who was at a conference in Finland presenting two papers, including one that I co-authored), there was a full turn-out of the academic staff, researchers, and research students of CSI at the event, all eager to hear what Alistair had to say about The information society and its challenges. Two PhD students made special journeys to attend the event from afar: Leo Appleton caught the train up from Liverpool and Nicole Van Deursen flew in from Spain.

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Between exhibition and contemplation: considering everyday routines on Blipfoto

Posted on March 28, 2014 by Hazel Hall

This week my colleague Dr Eve Forrest has been participating at the Helsinki Photomedia conference in Finland. Today Eve is presenting our co-authored paper Between exhibition and contemplation: considering everyday routines on Blipfoto in a session entitled “Non-professional photography: practices and power”.

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Social media and public libraries: a doctoral defence in Finland

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Hazel Hall

Finland experienced a fresh covering of snow last week

I have examined quite a few PhDs over the course of my career, both in English and in French, but until last week I had not had the opportunity to participate in a doctoral defence at a Nordic university. Last week I travelled to Åbo Akademi University in the Finnish city of Turku to serve as the opponent at the PhD defence of a thesis (in English) entitled Social media and public libraries: exploring information activities of library professionals and users.

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