Jul 6 2012 12:00PM
UCS hosted the first ‘Emerging Ethnographic Friendships Conference’ during a two-day event at on 20 – 21 June, aimed at encouraging frank conversations surrounding ethnography and auto-ethnography among individuals across disciplines.
At the conference, run by the Schools of Applied Social Sciences and Business, Leadership and Enterprise, fourteen provocative, interesting and inspiring presentations were delivered over the two days covering ethnographic explorations of a variety of topics ranging from new age tourism, academic identity, wellbeing, organisation, coping with sudden illness and adoption.
The conference attracted international speakers, contributions from across the UK and showcased some of the exciting research taking place within UCS. The event succeeded in exploring a diverse range of fields including health care, childhood and youth studies, sociology, education, social work and organisation and management studies.
The days were concluded with round table discussions, which encouraged free and critical exploration of the themes and questions that had arisen. This provided a space to air anxieties, evaluate dilemmas and share experiences and was a profitable experience generating relationships and conversations which will continue beyond the boundaries of the conference.
Presenters are currently working on transforming the exciting collection of papers into a book and as this is just the first appearance of this event, planning will soon begin for the next one, using the inspiring range of questions and issues raised across the two days.
The Organising Committee, Professor David Weir, Jessica Clark, Sarah Richards, Dr Aylin Kunter (BPP University College), Dr Daniel Clarke (Liverpool Hope University) and Gwenda Palmer, would like to thank all those who supported the event for their contributions and for the fantastic feedback received in subsequent days.