The Emerging Researchers Network is a forum in which emerging researchers can support each other through the process of developing research pathways and 'finding a niche' in the social sciences in Aotearoa New Zealand. This includes  postgraduate researchers, post-doctoral researchers, and early career academic staff. 

We use the Access Grid video conferencing system to hold round table discussions, workshops, seminars, and discussion around topics such as: 

• The personal processes of developing research topics, style and context.
  
• Working within an institution – understanding the research culture and expectations of the university
• The institutional dimensions of funding (and understanding the funding environment) and publication – how to position research in a way that opens up more opportunities
• Developing relationships with research colleagues, collaborations, advice, and peer support
• Keeping it interesting! To feel comfortable with taking chances, having confidence in yourself, maintaining an appropriate level of reflexivity, and find the excitement in opening up new areas of interest.

For further information about this network please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . To register for workshops and seminars, please email Melanie, stating which workshops/seminars you would like to attend and which Access Grid node you would like to access from. Access Grid Seminar Room locations.

Workshops for Early-Career Researchers.

The BRCSS Emerging Researchers Network presents a series of workshops aimed at learning to research and write effectively while working in an academic or other research environment.  The workshops are open for all early career academics and/or researchers in the social sciences in New Zealand. We particularly want to encourage new academic staff in the first 5 or so years of full time teaching, and anyone else who is still trying to create space for their own PBRF research amongst other teaching and work commitments.

These sessions will be held on the Access Grid system, and will be run by Dr Keith Comer of the University of Canterbury's Centre for Teaching and Learning. They will focus on issues such as managing time and competing commitments, and working out effective strategies for planning and preparing conference presentations and publication. An additional seminar addresses connection between science and social science in New Zealand. To register for workshops and seminars, please email Melanie, stating which workshops/seminars you would like to attend and which Access Grid node you would like to access from. Access Grid Seminar Room locations. A full list of workshop topics and their dates follows.

• Friday 6 August, 9-11am – Academic Time Management – Not an Oxymoron 
  T. S. Eliot wrote and every academic hopes, “There will be time…And time yet for a hundred indecisions....” This session focuses on addressing internal and external commitments, email, the black hole of the internet, common ‘time wasters’, and the drive for perfection in the search for free time for research....  
  
  
• Friday 13 August, 9 - 11am - Planning Articles and Selecting Journals - 'Constructive alignment' applies to more than teaching
  In this meeting we focus on backward planning: selecting and surveying journals and shaping the writing process to meet our own intended outcomes. We explore the scoping of articles, finding and evaluating relevant journals, matching your writing with suitable publications, and query letters to editors.
  
  
• Rescheduled - Friday 1 October, 9 - 11am - Teaching, Research and Service - Balancing Act(ions)
  40% Teaching, 40% Research, 20% Service sounds reasonable, but how can we get beyond it feeling like 80/80/80? We'll explore some ways to address administrative tasks and workload requirements, 'GTF', software that helps and software that hurts, where to write, how to write, and multitasking practices and cognitive load realities.
  
  
• Rescheduled - Friday 15 October, 9 - 11am - Conference as Waypoint, not Endpoint
  Here we examine ways to use conferences as springboards to writing and publication, not ends in themselves. Whatever our motivations for choosing to attend and present at specific conferences, this session explores how to keep the focus on eventual publication rather than the immediate tasks of a conference.
  
  
• Friday 8 October, 9-11am - Co-inquiry: how knowledge is being produced across science and social science in NZ
  Alison Greenaway and Shona Russell from University of Auckland, Landcare Research invite emerging researchers to share their experiences of working across science and social science in NZ as a way of navigating pathways of ongoing research inquiry.  Experiences could include working as part of an interdisciplinary team; making transitions in your lecturing or research career; engaging with diverse knowledges in your PhD; developing policy or solving problems for specific communities. The workshop, as a collaborative space, is an opportunity to map the landscape where science and social science meet. We are interested to explore how science and social science shape each other, and the way we understand life in NZ
  

These two seminars will be scheduled for next year:

• TBC (Oct) – Writing for Specific Journals – What Editors and Reviewers Want 
  This meeting will offer a panel discussion with a range of academics or researchers who have served on editorial boards and as reviewers for academic publications.  We want to address how to best target your work, what particular needs reviewers and editors have and are expecting you to address, and how your work is examined following submission. More details on this event to be announced.
  
  
• TBC (Oct/Nov) – From Presentation To Publication   
  Too many of us have that conference paper or presentation sitting on the harddrive or, worse, back in the filing cabinet. This meeting extends the work from session four and explores how the material or document presented at a conference should be revised, possibly expanded, and redirected towards publication.  
  
  

 Meetings

•  Friday 4 June, 2010
  Inaugural Meeting of the Emerging Researchers Network - 10 - 10.45 on the Access Grid
  Thesis Writers Workshop - Publishing - 10.45 - 11.30 on the Access Grid