The 2021 Career Development Institute Student Conference Scotland takes place (online) today. Organised collaboratively by the Career Development Institute, Edinburgh Napier University, University of the West of Scotland, and Skills Development Scotland (SDS), the conference theme is ‘Responding to COVID-19: changing labour markets, changing practice’. The Conference Chair is Dr Pete Robertson of Edinburgh Napier University. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Katherine Stephen
RIVAL network members gather (online) for event 4
Today the members of the Royal Society of Edinburgh-funded RIVAL network are meeting formally for the penultimate time at part 1 of RIVAL Event 4. As has been the case for so many professional activities since mid-March 2020, Dr Bruce Ryan, Rachel Salzano, Katherine Stephen and I are not hosting this event as originally envisaged. Rather than gathering face-to-face, at Edinburgh Napier University’s Sighthill campus for a full day on July 9th 2020, the RIVAL network members will be logging onto Teams for two half day meetings, the first of which is this afternoon, with the second on the morning of Friday 12th February. Continue reading
Farewell 2020

The way we were, December 2019. L to R: John Marshall, Peter Cruickshank, Lyndsey Middleton (now graduated with PhD), Katherine Stephen, Rachel Salzano, Marina Milosheva, Laura Muir (now retired), Hazel Hall, Leo Appleton (now graduated with PhD), Ella Taylor-Smith, David Haynes, David Brazier, Frances Ryan (now Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen), Colin Smith, Wegene Demeke, and Bruce Ryan.
Just over a year ago, on 22nd December 2019, I summarised the the previous six months of activities of the members of the Centre for Social Informatics. I illustrated this account with a jolly photograph of us all bunched closely together around the table a few days earlier in room C34a of Edinburgh Napier University’s Merchiston campus. Continue reading
Congratulations to Marina Milosheva: awarded a distinction for her MSc(R)
Many congratulations to Centre for Social Informatics PhD student Marina Milosheva. Marina has achieved a distinction in the Masters degree that she undertook in 2019/20 in first year of her four year 1+3 doctoral programme.
Marina is the fourth of our six Skills Development Scotland (SDS)/ESRC funded PhD students, and the second to be awarded the MSc by Research (MScR) in Science and Technology Studies from the University of Edinburgh. This Masters year is offered to all students who win an Edinburgh Napier SDS/ESRC doctoral studentship to study with us for a PhD at Napier, but who do not already hold a Masters degree that incorporates 60 credits of research methods training. Continue reading
RIVAL network event 3: preview
After two postponements and a decision to move to virtual delivery, we (myself, Dr Bruce Ryan and our Edinburgh Napier PhD student helpers Rachel Salzano and Katherine Stephen) will (finally) be hosting the third RIVAL network event next week on Thursday 19th November 2020. Continue reading
Newly published: version 11.2 of the Centre for Social Informatics flyer (autumn 2020)
The Centre for Social Informatics flyer (version 11.2) has just been updated for the new academic year. Follow the link to read about the work of our group, including details of research expertise, funders, recent PhD completions, and recent publications. The flyer includes profiles of the group’s academic and research staff: Continue reading
Congratulations Dr Iris Buunk!
Congratulations to our Centre for Social Informatics colleague Dr Iris Buunk on the award of her PhD yesterday. Normally we would have celebrated with Iris at the Edinburgh Napier University graduation ceremony at the Usher Hall. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, however, we had to find an alternative way to mark Iris’s achievement: a jolly drinks party on Zoom. Continue reading
All set for #isic2020
The 2020 Information Seeking in Context (ISIC) conference is hosted this week by our colleagues at the Department of Information Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Had circumstances been different, several members of the Centre for Social Informatics would be in South Africa now. The PhD students would be joining today’s doctoral workshop in person, and everyone preparing to present their papers and posters face-to-face over the course of the main conference from Tuesday to Thursday this week (as has been the case at past ISIC conferences, e.g. 2018 in Kraków, Poland, 2016 in Zadar, Croatia, 2014 in Leeds) . Continue reading
An award for PhD student Katherine Stephen
Congratulations to Centre for Social Informatics PhD student Katherine Stephen, winner of the PhD award in the Skills Development Scotland (SDS) 2020 Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition. The entries were judged in August by a panel of three: Patrick Watt, Head of the Evaluation Team at SDS; Diane Gill, Manager of the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science; and Dr Pauline Anderson, Chancellor’s Fellow, University of Strathclyde.
The title of Katherine’s award-winning entry is ‘Meta-skills maturity in the workplace’. The video of Katherine’s talk can viewed by clicking on the image below.
Katherine Stephen and Marina Milosheva present in the SDS 2020 virtual 3MT® competition
Skills Development Scotland (SDS) has just launched its 2020 Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition. Seven PhD students currently on the SDS PhD Programme have risen to the challenge of explaining the complexity and relevance of their doctoral research in a concise and engaging way for a non-specialist audience. Continue reading