Institute of Advanced Study

Postgraduate Participation

One of the core aims of the Institute of Advanced Study is to encourage Durham's research postgraduate community to engage with the work sponsored by the IAS. The Institute provides research postgraduates with a unique opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with some of the most distinguished scholars from across the world and to access to a wide range of events that allows them to examine for themselves the benefits and challenges of multi- and interdisciplinary research.

The IAS established in February 2007 a Research Postgraduate Steering Committee, whose purpose is to encourage research postgraduate participation in the activities of the IAS, and engagement with its themes and Fellows. More broadly, the committee wishes to support those postgraduates interested in engaging in multi-disciplinary work at Durham. The scope of the committee is very much open ended, thereby encouraging and welcoming new ideas brought to it by members of the research postgraduate community.

The committee is comprised of an IAS Director as chair (Professor Stuart Elden), a senior academic representative from each Faculty (Professor Sarah Banks, Professor Douglas Halliday and Professor Stephen Regan), the Dean of the Graduate School (Professor Tim Clark), the Principal of Ustinov College (Professor Maggie O'Neill), four research postgraduate representatives, a post-doctoral researcher, and the Chief Editor of Kaleidoscope, the interdisciplinary postgraduate journal run by Durham postgraduates under the auspices of the IAS.

Encouraging postgraduate involvement in the Institute's annual theme (for 2012-13 'Time') is a major ambition of the IAS. The Institute has established a small fund to support research postgraduates organising events of a multi-disciplinary nature (details below). This year the Institute has agreed to support a number of activities including:-

  • Memory and Time research symposium and workshop (English Studies)

  • The Apocalypse of John: Precedents and Antecedents - Workshop (Theology and Religion)

  • Efface the Traces: Modernism and Influence - Conference (English Studies)

  • Rebuilding Destroyed Imaginaries - Conference (Anthropology)

IAS-badged seminars as part of the Ustinov seminar series

Once a term the IAS sponsors a Ustinov Seminar, which takes the Institute's annual theme as the focus for its papers.

IAS Research Postgraduate Group

Working within the IAS is a postgraduate research group that meets regularly (roughly once every 4 - 6 weeks), to hold discussions about topics that interest them and will benefit from multi-disciplinary perspectives. The group is an excellent opportunity to engage with the leading edge research of the IAS, and to network constructively with other postgraduates approaching similar ideas from different disciplinary angles. The group also receives invitations to the weekly in-house IAS Fellows' seminars, as well as advance notice of IAS lectures and future IAS activities.

IAS Research Postgraduate Seminars

The IAS Research Postgraduate Group also organises a number of seminars specifically for the research postgraduate community at Durham. Papers for these seminars are drawn from academics (both Durham and external), postgraduates, and IAS Fellows and the seminars are open to all postgraduate researchers. Details of these seminars can be found at: www.dur.ac.uk/ias/postgraduates/seminars/

Kaleidoscope

In 2007/08, the IAS Research Postgraduate group, under the auspices of the IAS, established an online interdisciplinary journal called Kaleidoscope. The journal is designed to foster communication between postgraduates in different disciplines and to promote excellence in interdisciplinary research. Volume five has recently been published.

IAS Research Postgraduate Fund

The Institute has a small fund available to support the activities outlined above. In addition the IAS can provide seminar space for research postgraduate groups who have a multi-disciplinary remit (i.e. comprises researchers from more than one department) and small sums of funding for postgraduate researchers who are organising multi-disciplinary events such as conferences or workshops.

How to Engage with the Activities at the IAS

To participate in the IAS-badged Ustinov seminar, email: ustinov.seminar@durham.ac.uk

To participate in the IAS Research Postgraduate Group, email Linda Crowe with a request to be added to the group's mailing list.

If you are interested in attending one of the postgraduate seminars organised by the IAS Research Postgraduate Group, email Audrey Bowron to reserve your place.

To submit a paper to Kaleidoscope, email the Chief Editor at: editor.kaleidoscope@durham.ac.uk

If you are a member of a multi-disciplinary research group that would like access to the seminar room at the IAS to hold a seminar or meeting, email Linda Crowe with your request.

If you a postgraduate researcher organising a multi-disciplinary postgraduate conference or workshop then you may consider applying to the IAS for funding. The maximum award available is £500. To apply to this fund, email Linda Crowe with your request, which should include the following details:

  • A description of the event, including aims and objectives and intended outcomes (e.g. journal articles)
  • The date(s) your event will be taking place
  • The disciplines from which postgraduate participants will be drawn
  • A breakdown of your overall budget, including how much you require from the IAS and for what purpose
  • Details of any other sources of funding to which you have applied

Essentially the IAS is a space and resource to explore ideas. If you are a postgraduate researcher keen to explore ideas through a multi-disciplinary lens with other postgraduate researchers at Durham then make contact with the IAS.