The Society for Theatre Research’s New Researchers’ Network (NRN) is delighted to announce that registration is now open for our next event, Getting the Word Out: Public Engagement and Impact in Theatre and Performance Research, due to take place on Saturday 6^th April 2019 at the University of Birmingham (Murray Learning Centre, Room UG10).

‘Engagement’ and ‘impact’ are increasingly common buzzwords in relation to academic research. Public engagement is often used as a way of demonstrating the impact and value of undertaking research; ‘impact’ plays a key role in assessment frameworks such as the REF, resulting in mounting pressure from universities and funding bodies on researchers to engage the public with their research processes and findings. Sharing your research with a wider public can also be incredibly rewarding, exciting, and important for reasons that extend beyond box-ticking.

Navigating requirements for demonstrating ‘impact’ and understanding how best to engage a wider public with your research can be a particular challenge for new researchers. Getting the Word Out offers early career researchers working in theatre, performance and related fields the opportunity to hear from a range of experts, working both in and outside of academia, who will share their experiences of engaging the public with theatre and performance research. The schedule for the day is:

Click ‘Book’ to register – this will add the ticket to your basket, you will be asked to enter your details at the checkout. Attendance costs £5 (free for STR members – you must be signed in to access the discount when registering) and includes lunch. Please let us know on the registration form if you have any dietary requirements. A number of small grants will be available to help cover the costs of travel to Birmingham – please write in the ‘additional information’ section when registering if you would like to be considered for a travel grant, indicating where you will be travelling from.

Spaces are limited and we ask people to inform us if they reserve a ticket but find they can no longer attend so that someone on the waiting list can take the place. If you can no longer attend please notify us at nrn@str.org.uk. If there are no spaces left, please email us to be added to the waiting list.

Note: This event is for PGRs and ECRs – our definition of early career researcher is broad and we do not restrict places to our events based on time from PhD award. If you feel you would benefit from the event please come along. If you have any questions contact us as nrn@str.org.uk.

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