Student-led Training

Compassion science offers a promising new framework for social science researchers navigating emotionally-demanding fieldwork. Join us as we explore embodied, evidence-based techniques for cultivating compassion in an interview setting. You’ll come away with an in-depth, interdisciplinary understanding of compassion and its pertinence for the social sciences, plus concrete tools for methodological application.

Fieldwork can be fraught with challenges to researchers’ mental health and emotional wellbeing.  Reflexivity is an increasingly common practice for researchers considering the impact their…

Many problems in social science and public health that we are interested in studying involve high complexity. Traditional statistical models are often not suitable to…

This workshop equips postgraduate students with the knowledge required to navigate the challenges of interdisciplinary research. Delivered in two parts, the discussion offers a comprehensive look at interdisciplinary approaches, from early-stage considerations such as methodologies and supervision, to writing, dissemination, and career advice.

Are there methods that are intrinsically better for researching with children? What does ‘creative’ mean when talking about methods? These are the types of questions this session will explore as attendees are supported to explore methods in depth, paying particular attention to planning, ethics, data generation, analysis and participant representation.

The events explore the benefits of bringing mindfulness to Postgraduate research, for the benefit of the researcher and the research. Through group discussions, writing exercises and mindfulness practices, the attendees will consider the “emotional labour” of research, such as supervision relationships, reflexivity, presence in the field, procrastination and imposter syndrome.

This workshop, led by the University of St Andrews’ doctoral researcher Ann Gillian Chu, will be a discussion on using apps and software to facilitate social science-related PhD research, particularly in the stages of planning, data collection and analysis, writing, and networking.

Being reflexive is a core skill required of social researchers. However, beyond when we are prompted to discuss reflexively in ethics applications and other bureaucratic…

This series is made up of two half-day workshops, led by the University of St Andrews’ doctoral researcher Ann Gillian Chu. The first workshop focuses…

This series is made up of two half-day workshops, led by the University of St Andrews’ doctoral researcher Ann Gillian Chu. The first workshop focuses…

Building rapport is essential to ethical and methodologically-sound research. This workshop will explore practical techniques for effective verbal and non-verbal communication with research participants. Whether conducting research online or in-person, participants will come away with evidence-based strategies for building trust and setting boundaries to safeguard their own well being and that of participants.

Climate-related mental health challenges are increasingly widespread, and researchers are at higher risk of negative well being outcomes. This interactive, virtual workshop aims to address diverse experiences of climate-related distress, exploring theoretical frameworks and practical tools for cultivating emotional resilience in the face of a warming planet.

Corpus analytical software are versatile tools that provide users with an easy-to-use means for analysing qualitative and quantitative data. In this two-part session, first, an overview of Corpus Linguistics and its applications in Social Sciences will be presented. Then, an opportunity to gain practical experience using corpus tools is provided.

This is a 2-day workshop event on “Working with Survey Data: Creating and Analysing Survey Instrument”. The workshop will combine lectures, group practice, whole-class discussion, and QnA. This workshop focuses on how to turn research questions into a set of survey instrument and why analysing survey instrument is important when working with survey data.

A three-part interactive workshop series to introduce and compare agent-based modelling and system dynamics modelling, focusing on their applications in social science and public health.

This training will introduce time series analysis for associative studies using distributed lag non-linear models and how to conduct it in R/RStudio. This method provides an elegant framework to study the 3-dimensional relationships between the predictor, its lags and their effects on the outcome.

The overall aim of this training event is to provide a comprehensive overview of the application of the classic version of grounded theory methodology.

I plan to record 3 x 30 mins to an hour podcasts with a guest and then teach 3 x 30 mins to an hour interactive session with students where I will invite them to ponder on some questions and use the podcast as a point of reflection.

This interactive training will cover a range of trauma-informed theories and approaches to research. Activities will be specifically focused on developing trauma informed research tools to promote the safety and collaboration of both participants and researchers.

This event aims to share the experience of cross-countries data collection under the influence of Covid-19. Many aspects are involved, including different fieldwork methods used by these two ongoing research projects and challenges of data collection in terms of in-person fieldwork and online research.

In a two-part workshop on R (Studio), you will create your personalized character in the virtual space of Gather town and start from the very basics of setting up R, continue to explore ways to upload and sort data, dive into eye-pleasing plots, and learn about the best practices in data analysis.

This event is a 2.5-hour training session on some of the key benefits and challenging issues when implementing a mixed-methods design in social research.

Are you going to collect your own data using in-depth interviews, surveys, and/or focus group discussion? Wondering how to plan and monitor your data collection progress? This is a 2-hour webinar event on “Managing data collection: Preparation and monitoring”. The webinar will combine presentation, small-group discussion, and whole-class reflection. This workshop focuses on how to plan, organise, manage, and monitor data collection.

The event explores the benefits of bringing mindfulness to postgraduate research, for the benefit of the researcher and the research project. Through group discussions, writing exercises, and mindfulness practices, the attendees will consider the “emotional labour” of research, such as writer’s block, procrastination, perfectionism, and imposter syndrome.

This training focuses on designing and conducting efficient interviews. Attendees are expected to: 1) understand the nature of conducting various interviews; 2) know how to design interviews; 3) share and discuss their interview plans; 3) understand the key factors of engaging various interviewees; and 4) conduct mock interviews in different circumstances.