AD3047 - Public Humanities: Academic Research in the Wider World

From week one, students will be assigned a group and will be encouraged to work as a team throughout the module. The final assignment (worth 100%) will be undertaken as a group project.

The seminar tutor will attend all sessions, providing consistency and support throughout the learning experience of the module.

The module will comprise of an introductory week, followed by a series of case study weeks in which Humanities academic staff will each lead on a case study (lecture + workshop) detailing the ways in which they work with external companies, groups and institutions. The case study sessions will provide first-hand examples that get students thinking about how Humanities research connects with a huge range of wider concerns and initiatives beyond academic life. Each lecture will be followed by a Q&A session, chaired by the seminar tutor and in which students will be encouraged to formulate relevant questions to help broaden and grow their own interests and approaches to collaborative project work. The students will then undertake a workshop task, set by that week’s lecturer and supported by the seminar leader.

The final weeks of teaching will be dedicated to supporting students through the group assessment project. Detailed guidance and support will be provided for the assessment, and students will start workshopping their ideas in the class time of these final weeks, receiving feedback and support from their peers and seminar tutor.

You will be supported by a seminar tutor who attends all workshops and ensures join up across the individual topics taught each week. Lectures will be accompanied by workshops allowing students to explore and test their ideas, and assignments will be supported through in-class learning, presentations (to pitch assignment ideas and receive feedback) and time in class to work on assignments in a supported manner. Students will also be encouraged to work in groups, fostering a sense of peer support and team collaboration.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:
• Understand how traditional academic research informs, and is applied in, the wider world

• Ability to identify specific beneficiaries for research and its applications beyond academia

• Awareness of the varied ways in which we can measure and evaluate the value and impact of expert knowledge in the wider world

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
• Ability to identify connectivity between academic study and wider world

• Demonstrate an ability to develop and extend existing research, showing how it can be further applied to wider concerns and challenges

• Pitching and presenting ideas in oral and written professional contexts

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
• Collaborative team work
• Development of individual curiosity and interests
• Resilience to respond to new challenges
• Careers awareness about the wide range of employment options open to Humanities graduates
• Cultural awareness of the importance of Humanities subjects for the UK workplace and society

Students will work in groups to develop and write a simulated project proposal that connects outside groups with existing Humanities research.

This will be assessed through:

1. Group pitch (formative): Project Proposal
2. Group project (summative), worth 100%, of Portfolio of work to include:
(a) ‘Project Proposal’ template adhering to word counts for each section (2,500 words)
(a) Reflective personal statement assessing individual input and experience of group work (500 words).

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This module explores the public role of Humanities research and considers its uses in the wider world, outside of universities. Over the course of a semester, it explores a number of different case studies in which academics reveal how their own research engages with external groups and organisations, using this to reflect on the particular challenges and approaches this entails. Students draw on this teaching to undertake an assessed group project in which they design an outward-facing research project that is connected to existing Humanities research. This will give students a better sense of the importance and relevance of their own studies to diverse groups and professional sectors, and to consider how their degree is preparing them for a wide range of exciting careers beyond university.