New Initiatives Bid Form 2009
Title of project
Radical Geographies Reading Group – Guest Speaker (Tom
Hodgkinson)
Contact person /
email address
Andrew Wilbur (Andrew.wilbur@ges.gla.ac.uk)
Funding required
£ 450
Target Audience (please tick all that apply)
X
X
PhD Researchers
Postdocs
Other (please state) Others welcome… The Reading
Group has always been open to anyone who wants to attend. I would advertise the event widely,
hoping to attract students from other disciplines as well as other members of the community.
X
Engineering □
All Faculties
IBLS
FIMS
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Physical Sci □
Medicine
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Education □
Arts/ Humanties
Vet med
LBSS
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Provide a brief description of the project. Include the project aim, key
deliverables and why you think it is important to the development of researchers at
Glasgow (max 600 words)
I currently convene an informal association, primarily comprised of postgraduate
researchers in the Department of Geographical and Earth Sciences, called the
Radical Geographies Reading Group (RG2). The group was originally founded to
introduce texts of the convenor’s choosing for discussion at a later date. The format
has changed somewhat since I took over, with more of an emphasis on nonacademic texts and the regular appearance of guest speakers, the idea being that we
can relate issues in the international news or local community to insights from our
research. In 2009, we’ve had a campaigner from the No2ID campaign, discussing
issues of identity and data collection, and a writer for Variant magazine who
discussed the impact on the 2014 Commonwealth Games on regeneration in
Glasgow’s East End.
I have invited another guest speaker, Tom Hodgkinson, to speak to the group. Mr.
Hodgkinson would represent the most high-profile speaker so far, and efforts would
be made to assemble the largest possible audience. He is the editor of the
internationally syndicated periodical The Idler, author of 3 popular books, a regular
contributor to The Guardian and a columnist for The Daily Telegraph. He has made
regular public speaking engagements, many of which have addressed alternative
economic strategies and creative responses to the current financial crisis. Mr.
Hodgkinson has confirmed that he can attend a guest lecture on 8 October.
The handling of the event would be coordinated by me and another postgrad
researcher involved with RG2. Although my main motivation is to provide a
stimulating, entertaining talk as part of our ongoing Reading Group programme,
putting on an event of this scale would require enhanced skills in organisation. We
will be responsible for finding a suitable venue, advertising the event, providing
hospitality for our guest, budget management, giving an introductory talk and chairing
the Q&A session that would follow. This would be the first time that I have
undertaken an event organisation of this size, and I would like to develop these skills
as soon as possible. As someone committed to the idea of ‘participatory
geographies’, I’d like to use this as a test-case for promoting university-based work
that has a broad appeal across disciplines and in the community.
Please return bids to the Researcher Development Initiative at No 10 The Square
(e.adams@admin.gla.ac.uk)
Which areas of the Joint Skills Statement does this project align to? (see
Appendix 1)
A
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B
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C
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D
X
E
X
F
X
G
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Monitoring and Evaluation, please describe how you will evaluate this project
It will be difficult to measure any quantitative outcomes of this kind of project, though
I would be willing to report back after the event how well certain expectations were
met and what kind of impacts were achieved. As an exercise that I think would be
valuable in any case, I would like to invite attendees to share their responses to the
talk. These responses can be passed on to the Researcher Development unit if
requested.
What is the intended timeframe for the project (include any key dates, project
start and end dates? Is it a one-off or likely to become an ongoing activity?)
The 8th of October, 2009 has already been confirmed as suitable for the guest
speaker. Prior to that, work on the event’s organisation will begin as soon as support
from New Initiatives support has been offered.
Please provide a breakdown of costs
£200 – Speaker fee
£100 – Travel expenses
£150 – Hospitality and accommodation
Please return bids to the Researcher Development Initiative at No 10 The Square
(e.adams@admin.gla.ac.uk)