FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES - ANNUAL STUDENT RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Wednesday 27th April 2016 13.00-16.00
CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
13.00 - 13.30
Lunch & Information Stalls (301, Blackwells, Careers, Library, SURE Scheme)
Location: ICOSS Foyer
13.30 - 14.15
Welcome & Keynote
Location: ICOSS Conference Room
Speaker: Dr Alisdair Rae, Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies & Planning
101 maps, or thereabouts: why data visualisation is only part of the story
In this talk I discuss four recent data-driven projects, covering housing markets, commuting, internet search and
neighbourhood deprivation. These projects involve collaboration with partners or funders such as Rightmove,
Google, the Bank of England, the Department for Transport and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. What they
all have in common is that I was seeking to find answers in data and communicate the results in visually
meaningful ways, in order to make some kind of contribution to policy, practice or understanding. This kind of
approach often helps capture the attention of policymakers and draw attention to important issues. In this
sense, then, it takes numbers out of the domain of data and towards information and knowledge and, it is
hoped, wisdom (i.e. 'what should we do?'). But such normative questions cannot be answered by analysing or
visualising data, no matter how captivating or illuminating it may be. At the same time, it doesn't mean that we
should stop doing it. Rather, I argue that we need to think carefully about maps, data and other forms of
information and their contribution to knowledge. I look forward to hearing your views on the topic.
Alasdair Rae is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies and Planning, who specialises in data analysis, mapping,
and neighbourhood inequalities. He tweets at @undertheraedar, blogs at www.statsmapsnpix.com and is a
regular media contributor to outlets such as The Guardian, The Conversation, Huffington Post, CityMetric and
WIRED. He believes in sharing his research with the 'real world' beyond academic and is delighted when he
gets the opportunity to speak to students.
14.15 - 14.45
Parallel Session 1
Session A1
Session B1
Session C1
Session D1
Session E1
SMI Posters
Location: ICOSS
Foyer
Student Posters
Location: ICOSS
Foyer
Research Q&A
Location: ICOSS
Boardroom
Student
Presentation
Panel
(x3 papers)
Location:
ICOSS
Conference
Room
Presenting
Statistical Data
Location: SMI
Teaching Room
(2nd Floor,
ICOSS)
Students on the
SMI107: Introductory
Research Project in
Quantitative Social
Science module will be
presenting a poster as
part of their
assessment for this
module.
They will present a
project of their choice,
covering a range of
social science
disciplines, across
Geography, Politics,
Sociology and
Economics. All will use
one of two large
secondary datasets:
Understanding Society
and the British Election
Study.
Students from all
levels across the
faculty will be
presenting their
research in poster
format.
A panel of
postgraduate
students will be
available to answer
your questions on all
things research.
Please come along
and see this excellent
work, there will be an
opportunity to speak to
the students and ask
questions.
Please see below
for further
information on the
panel members.
Students from
all levels across
the faculty will
be presenting
their research in
the form of a five
minute
presentation and
question/answer
session.
There will be a
number of
papers per
panel session
and further
details on these
can be found
below.
Dr Todd Hartman
of The Sheffield
Methods Institute
(based in the
Faculty of Social
Sciences) is
offering drop-in
sessions to help
groups to analyse
large datasets
and visualise the
results.
14.45 - 15.00
Coffee Break
Location: ICOSS Foyer
15.00 - 15.45
Parallel Session 2
Session A2
Session B2
Session C2
Session D2
SURE Posters
Location: ICOSS
Foyer
Research Q&A
Location: ICOSS
Boardroom
Student
Presentation Panel
(x4 papers)
Location: ICOSS
Conference Room
SURE offers The
University of Sheffield's
undergraduate
students an opportunity
to become directly
involved in the
research activity of the
University, take part in
"real life" research
projects in subject
areas that are of
special interest, and
experience what it's
like to work in
partnership with
academic staff or
collaboratively in a
research group.
A panel of
postgraduate students
will be available to
answer your questions
on all things research.
Global
Leadership
Initiative
Location:
ICOSS Glass
Meeting Room
Please note
this session
will run 3.15 to
3.45pm
Students who took part
in the scheme in
summer 2015 will be
presenting their
research outputs
during this session.
15.45 - 16.00
Please see below for
further information on
the panel members.
Students from all
levels across the
faculty will be
presenting their
research in the form
of a five minute
presentation and
question and
answer session.
There will be a
number of papers
per panel session
and further details
on these can be
found below.
Professor Hugo
Dobson will
speak about The
Global
Leadership
Initiative (GLI).
This initiative
offers
undergraduate
and
postgraduate
taught students
in FSS the
opportunity to
attend major
international
summits taking
place during the
academic year.
Come along to
find out more or
to get answers
to questions you
may have about
the initiative.
Plenary & Prize giving
Location: ICOSS Conference Room
Please join Professor Jackie Marsh (Faculty Director of Learning & Teaching) for the closing plenary and prizegiving.
Judging duties will be performed by the Student Ambassadors for Learning & Teaching and prizes awarded for
Best SMI Poster, Best SURE poster and 2 x Best Student Presentations.
A further prize for Best Student Poster will be decided by public vote.
16.00
Networking Session (presenters only)
Location: ICOSS Foyer
This is an opportunity for student presenters to network with other presenters and staff. Refreshments will be
provided.
Student Presentation Abstracts
Session A1 – Q-Step Student Posters
Niloufar Bahraini – Does gender affect workers income?
Isobel Bochel - How does political ideology effect employment sector?
Niall Carson - Has Scotland become more left-wing since the independence referendum?
Thomas Grier - Whether being raised by a single parent affects the earnings of a child in comparison to children who have been
raised by both parents.
Alexander Ma - How does race, ethnicity, and birth place affect politics?
Morris Moorhouse – Are older generations more religious?
Nicola Rhodes - How does having a Higher Education affect Gross Personal Income, and are there disparities between men and
women when considering a British cohort?
Edward Yardley - Investigation into the Relationship Between Age and Income
Session B1 – Student Posters
Elina Helavuori - From team leader to business manager - Creating a leadership development programme for Plusnet
Lauren White - That Girls Got Guts: Relationships and Everyday Life with Women with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
Rhi Williams - University of Sheffield - Restorative Green Spaces on Campus
Session D1 – Student Presentation Panel
Dawn Fletcher/Ruth Beresford - Sheffield Journal for the Sociology of the Everyday
Leyla Gayibova - Online Defamation: Unravelling Digital Citizens' Rights and Responsibilities
The increasing importance of cyber space has created great opportunities and significant legal challenges and threats for the
generation of digital natives. Given the unique transnational character of the internet, it is crucial to address legal issues by means
of accurately applying relevant legislation.
This presentation will focus on the phenomenon of 'online defamation'. The concept of defamation in media law will be briefly
outlined. Importantly, the rights and responsibilities of digital citizens on social media will be analysed in light of recent primary
legislation (i.e. Case law and legislation) and secondary legislation (i.e., opinions, journal articles). The following questions will be
addressed and critically discussed: To what extent is your freedom of expression protected on the internet? How is it feasible to
strike a balance between the right to freedom of expression and the right to reputation?
Carly Sze Wing Li - The London Airport Hub Environment Issues
The proposed Third Runway addition in Heathrow has been argued for years, why? What are the impacts worse than local
environmental pollutions? Official reports are used to introduce the expansion proposal whilst scientific journals are cited prove the
potential impacts of airport expansions.
Session A2 - SURE Posters
Ivy Ho-Yan Fok - Using GIS and Historical Traffic Data to Understand Commuting Patterns in London
Ellen Yardley - The effects of Acid Mine Drainage at the Parys Mountains, Anglesey
Jasmine Chong - The Taxonomy Of Eco-Housing in Britain
Session C2 - Student Presentation Panel
Yani Wu – Possibilities and Limitations of Chinese Collaborative Planning Practices: Case Study of Beijing – Tianjin –
Hebei (BTH) Regional Integrated Development, China
In recent years, most of Chinese collaborative planning theories and practices have remained to be rooted in approaches
appropriate to the neighbourhood or even smaller scale, focusing on urban gentrification cases or community redevelopment
projects. However, questions about how collaborative planning can effectively work at the regional scale and how it influences the
governance of environmental issues have made the researcher be interested in academic research.
The core research question I want to explore is in what ways collaborative planning approaches can effectively influence the
environmental governance. That is, this PhD research project aims to find out what are the possibilities and limitations of Chinese
regional collaborative planning practices by using the case study of Beijing – Tianjin – Hebei regional integrated development,
focusing on the urgent environmental pollution issues within these three localities.
Elliot Booth - A Meeting of Minds; Denouncing Parasitic Liability
This research formed part of a winning submission to the Law Commission's 'Proposals for Reform' competition. We researched
the social, legal and economic impacts of the then-current law of joint enterprise in criminal law and the impacts of our intended
reform.
We used our experiences with real-life cases on the Miscarriages of Justice Review Centre and studies done in other jurisdictions,
applying these to our research.
Winfred Syombua - Beneficial Ownership Declarations in the Extractive Industry
I attended a GLI conference in Peru where I did research on beneficial ownership declarations by extractive industries. This is
where companies make publicly known who the real owner or people who benefit from profits made by multi-corporations in the
extractive industry are. I undertook desktop research, did a literature review on work previously done by others on the subject and
conducted interviews during the conference.
Dom Keogh - Presentation of findings from the Global Entrepreneurship Congress 2016.
Whilst at the GEC I produced a range of publications based on the sessions I attended and the people I was able to network with.
This presentation will present these findings as well as my thoughts on some of the topics discussed. The publications were
produced in (near) real-time at the Congress and I also had the chance to interview speakers which will also be included in the
presentation.
Session C1 - Research Q&A Panel Biographies
2.15-2.45pm
Chair – Dr Jo Padmore, University Teacher in Quantitative Methods
Jo graduated from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne with a BSc in Maths and gained her MSc and PhD in Statistics from the
University of Sheffield. More recently Jo was awarded an MEd by the University of Sheffield. She now teaches Business Statistics
and Quantitative Methods for Management Research at the Management School. She supports colleagues undertaking research
requiring quantitative input in a variety of areas, at the moment she is working closely with colleagues exploring issues related to
sustainable consumption. Other areas of research include the issue of undeclared work within EU-27 countries and performance
measurement in SMEs.
Christopher Musgrave
Christopher Musgrave is currently a postgraduate student studying the Corporate and Commercial Law LL. M. at the University of
Sheffield, as an undergraduate he studied Law with a particular focus on miscarriages of justice and criminal process. In his final
semester of undergraduate study Christopher wrote a research paper comparing the causes of miscarriages of justice in the UK
and the USA and has spent four years reviewing an alleged miscarriage of justice and has also been co-manager of the
Miscarriages of Justice Review Centre for the past two years. At postgraduate level, his main research focus has been on
intellectual property law and at present he is planning to write a dissertation on the music industry's relationship with copyright law.
Notwithstanding, Christopher has a broad interest in intellectual property and is currently writing papers on trade mark law,
copyright, intellectual property and human rights, as well as the implications of e-commerce law on intellectual property rights.
Melissa Kenny
Melissa Kenny is now studying MA Cities and Global Development, in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. For her
undergraduate degree she studied BA Urban Studies and Planning also at The University of Sheffield. Melissa’s research focus is
on urban violence, and she is currently using a mixed methods approach to research how urban design and public participation can
be used to mitigate urban violence within two townships in Cape Town, South Africa.
Winona Shaw
Winona Shaw is currently studying for an MA in Social Research as part of the ESRC White Rose Doctoral Training Centre (social
policy pathway). Her main academic interests relate to employment, workers with caring responsibilities, family policy and
European labour market and welfare state trends. She favours a mixed methods approach to research. Her undergraduate
dissertation explored the transferability of Nordic social policies to Scotland through a quantitative analysis of national survey data.
Session B2 - Research Q&A Panel Biographies
3.00pm - 3.45pm
Chair - Dr Jolian McHardy, Senior Lecturer in Economics
Jolian graduated from the University of Sheffield with a BA Economics degree in 1992 and gained his MSc in Economics at the
University of Warwick in 1993. He studied for his PhD at the University of Sheffield and was appointed to a lectureship at the
University of Hull in 1997. His research interests lie primarily in the area of theoretical economics. He is currently working on
oligopoly theory especially with applications in networks, corruption, regulation, uncertainty and welfare. He is also interested in
international and regional migration and has written a number of papers in this area.
Sean Wallace
Sean Wallace is currently studying for a Masters in Social Research in the Department of Sociological Studies, here at the
University of Sheffield. Prior to beginning his masters, he studied for a degree in Sociology graduating with a 2.1, again from the
Department of Sociological Studies here at the University of Sheffield. Sean is particularly interested in sociological debates and
discussions existing within the fields of gender, intimacies and personal relationships and sexuality (particularly LGBT+ identities).
His current research seeks to extend work which has explored ‘coming out’ (as LGBT+) as a form of storytelling and apply a
relational lens in order to theorise the role of ‘coming out’ stories in the lives of LGBT+ people’s kin.
Anna Karaan
Anna Karaan is currently taking up MA Cities and Global Development under the Department of Urban Studies and Planning where
she is fully funded under the Allan & Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust. Anna studied BS Architecture in the University of the
Philippines and graduated with honors in April 2012. Before starting her postgraduate degree, she worked in her country's top
architectural firm for 3 years and was involved in various architectural design and master-planning projects. Anna has been a
licensed architect since February 2014 after taking the Architecture Licensure Examination wherein she was the topnotcher. Anna’s
research interests revolve around urban development, planning and design in the global south and her current dissertation topic is
about Planned Unit Developments (PUDs) in Metro Manila in an effort to understand how different actors and their interactions
create and are affected by this rapidly multiplying type of urban enclaves
Lauren White
Lauren is currently completing her Masters in Social Research after receiving a university scholarship through the widening
participation scheme. She completed her undergraduate degree in 2015 in Sociology with a first class honours and has recently
secured a PhD place and ESRC funding to begin her PhD in Sociology at the end of this year. Lauren’s research interests are the
sociology of health and illness, gender, ageing, and disability and her research includes insights into irritable bowel syndrome and
taboo conditions, she has co-produced research with the national charity for IBS, and continues to work with them. Lauren also
works in community care, having worked with Age UK Sheffield, and is currently doing a postgraduate advantage scheme, this
involves 100 hours, to which she is conducting research with the Sheffield City Council into the impact of lunch clubs for older
people in Sheffield. Lauren has a passion for research, integrating with the community and everyday social life.