Engaging through making: exploring the crafted geographies of policy, creative practice and the politics of engaged research Seminar

Event details

In this seminar, Dr Nicola Thomas (University of Exeter) will reflect on her 'craft geographies' research in the context of the wider engagement and impact agendas. She will highlight the ways in which her research around the policy and practice of the creative economy has led to increasingly specialist sub-sector engagements within the craft sector. The seminar will focus on the subtle ways in which the current research and engagement agendas are shaping the delivery and planning of her research projects, showcasing current AHRC funded 'Follow on Fund for Impact and Engagement' activities. This work brings Nicola's longer term research around the geographies of craft networks within the creative economy to new audiences. The development of the Craft Shelf web-app, Craft Shelf and Two Make exhibitions, community history project and 'Researcher in Residency' roles within the Crafts Council will be placed under the spotlight. Questions of designing engagement to deepen the reach and significance of the research will be addressed, whist reflecting on the challenge that this brings to maintaining a balanced engagement across the spheres of teaching, research and administration within an academic job role. The tensions of engaged research will be addressed, and the iterative way in which engagement might feed back into a more ethical research practice, and the development of new research agendas. The seminar will ask what 'playing the game' does to our research practice.