Knowledge is not yet research; to utilize this knowledge for research one must organise the information into a useable form and, ultimately, analyse what that information means. In other words, moving from a recognition that ‘the public’ has knowledge that can substantially advance research to producing actual innovative research with ‘the public’ requires the knowledge, analytical framework, and critical thinking that academics are highly trained not just to conduct but also to teach to others to do.
The academy has not yet generated an epistemology and definition of research that explains how the experiential, embodied, communal and dispersed nature of knowledge changes the role of researcher. The rationale behind public engagement is explained in terms of external measurement, reputational benefit and citizenship but to access the trove of knowledge held by ‘the public’ is not just advantageous, but is essential for researchers in all disciplines to engage and collaborate with groups and individuals outside the academy.
With this in mind, proposals are invited for provocations from academics and those within
Universities who support public engagement to stimulate a day of discussion on public engagement as method and how the role of researchers in identifying and creating knowledge places public engagement within the core of our job.
The following questions are intended as suggestions for provocations, but are not exhaustive:
● Is public engagement research?
● How do we explain that public engagement is more than activism beneath a veneer of academic jargon?
● What skills, knowledge or key function do you, as a researcher, possess that makes public engagement core to your job, or impossible to do without you?
● What does it mean to be a researcher?
● Why public engagement?
● What is an academic?
● Is public engagement a core function of being an academic?
● How is knowledge valued?
Provocations are intended to be short discussion pieces (10 minutes maximum), highlighting key issues and providing participants with a starting point from which to respond.
Short abstracts should be sent to:
Amy Ryall (External Engagement Projects Manager, Faculty of Arts and Humanities) a.ryall@sheffield.ac.uk
by Wednesday 13 April 2016