2001 Group Study Day 28 Feb 2001report1

2001 Group first Study Day (28 Feb 2001)report by NS

11 March 2001

[key to initials used herein: see end]

1Advance organisation

Organisation of the SD was begun by NS and completed by HT (who was unable to be there on the day due to illness). Nearly all of this went very well, including the coffee, food (fantastic: this caterer is a find!), distribution of badges and user-names, ably administered by MG and AH. Alistair also prepared very attractive ‘posters’ and put thm up around the FLSS building.

Despite the unavoidable absence of HT and MB, many colleagues were around all day (NS and FlS throughout, plus AK, JF, PSN, WDR at various points), and as far as I could tell, no one got lost or confused.

For next time:

Ensure technician ready for any IT use

2Attendance* denotes taking an active role: giving presentation or paper

UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL

Prof Tim Unwin

Jamie Andrews, *Vera Castiglione, *Andrew Watts

NB Bristol have now left the group, having other collaboration commitments

OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY

*Prof Valerie Worth-Stylianou, *Barry Russell (PD Research Assistant)

*Cathy Jones, *Hugh Roberts

UNIVERSITY OF READING

*Prof Naomi Segal, [Prof Hugo Tucker], Prof Peter Noble, Prof Walter Redfern , [Dr Mary Bryden], Dr Joël Félix, Dr Andy Knapp, Dr Françoise le Saux

Guillaume Bergeron, *Sue Birley, [Pascale Feuillée-Kendall], Susan Hopkins, Diane Lüscher-Morata, *Helen Roberts, *Peter Turberfield

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON

No staff attended

*Rada Getova, *Richard Moncrieff, Erica Press

UNIVERSITY OF SURREY

Prof Carol Sanders

*Kate Beeching

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON

No attendance by either staff or students.

UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK

No staff attended

*Douglas Morrey

Conclusions on attendance/commitment

Because we are applying for £10,000 x 3 years from HEFCE, under the UCML umbrella, we need to have a definitive list of fully committed HEIs asap, in order to secure HoD signatures from all by 19 March, when the refined application goes in. There is no absolute number of either HEIs or RSs needed to run the group, tho the sums we can bid for will obviously drop if the numbers do.

NS emailed all HoDs on 6 March to ask for assurance of full commitment before redrafting of HEFCE bid; replies so far (on 11 March) from: Reading, Surrey, Warwick.

Possible additions

Acting on suggestions made at the SD and on the fact that Reading is setting up higher-level collaborative arrangements with Surrey and RHUL, NS contacted RHUL (who had refused when approached in July 2000) and Oxford. No replies yet as of 11 March.

3Aspects of the Study Day

a)Welcome: coffeeother than a change of room number, this went fine

b)Barry Russell talksome technological problems, otherwise excellent

c)Valerie Worth talkheld in MB’s room, attended by all students present in the

morning + FlS, NS, TU. A very successful session, in which RSs

in groups role-played supervisors suggesting requirements of a

good RS and the staff the opposite.

d)Lunchgreat: see above

e)Meeting of HoDsNS held this during the latter part of the ‘lunch-hour’. Carol

Sanders (Surrey) and Valerie W-S (Brookes) attended. We

discussed future strategy, etc.

f)Meeting of allchaired by NS, this was to ask what RSs would like, discuss future

SDs etc. A number of suggestions emerged:

  • TU: publish proceedings of future SDs via in-house publication: this wd enable RSs to get started; warmly received;
  • VWS: have future SDs ‘themed’? this was also agreed, see plan for next SD below;
  • VWS: invite Guest Speakers eg. from France, for the plenary part + lunch; this was greeted with less unanimity but thought worth pursuing;
  • CS: in connection to themed SDs, suggest splitting into SDs for particular areas, eg 20c or language;
  • It was decided to have the next SD on linguistics/language teaching (CS to lead + A.N.Other c/o VWS)
  • NS: though UCML is not backing the Paris libraries trips (and I am increasingly doubtful, having had no reply at all from Christophe Campos of the BIP on leading these), are RSs still interested in going? A lot of enthusiasm – including the Bristol RSs! – but I confirmed that HEIs wd have to fund these;
  • Someone suggested looking into the Entente cordiale scheme run by the French Institute;
  • NS: webpage, for RSs, mainly to exchange ideas etc (though it is not clear who would run it or whether it cd be included in HEFCE bid; NS to consult DR).
  • Date and details of next Study Day – see end.

g)Afternoon sessionsThese were divided into three, run as follows:

  • Group 1 pre-modern/linguistics (convenor FlS; other staff [HT] and CS) in room 209
  • Group 2 20c history/society (convenor AK; other staff JF) in room 211
  • Group 3 19c/20c lit & culutre (convenor NS; other staff TU & WDR) in room 214

I can only report on my own group (though I’ve heard the other

two went well too), but this went fine, with 4 very different papers

and students relaxing as the afternoon went on; next time it might

be much better to have no staff at all, but this wd have been risky

for the first try.

4Follow-up

  1. NS sent out an email on 6 March to all the HoDs
  2. Suggestion for next SD:
  3. at Oxford Brookes
  • plenary presentations on 'teaching French language' by CS and ANOther (to be sought by VWS)
  • on a Wednesday in June: 13th has been pencilled in, but those present could also do 20 or 27 June

apropos of the date:

CS can only do 6th or 13th

LP can only do 20th or 27th

HT suggests waiting till next year & a new cohort of RSs

  1. On 8 March NS invited RHUL and Oxford to join – results still to come…

As the email stated, the reworked HEFCE bid has to be in by 20 March. NS to draft a rewrite, check it with DR then circulate for info/comment to the 2001 HoDs. At the same time, all HoDs who have given their agreement to be faxed the signature section to sign asap and return.

Key to initials

AHAlistair Healy (Reading French Assistant secretary

AKAndy Knapp

BIPBritish Institute in Paris

CSCarol Sanders

DRDavid Robey

FlSFrançoise Le Saux

FLSSFaculty of Letters & Social Sciences

HTHugo Tucker

JFJoël Félix

MBMary Bryden

MG Monique Giles (Reading French Dept secretary)

NSNaomi Segal

PSNPeter Noble

RHULRoyal Holloway

RSResearch Student

SDStudy Day

TUTim Unwin

VWSValerie Worth-Stylianou

WDRWalter Redfern

(UCL, UCML, HEFCE etc you know…)