For the 2021 academic year, the Centre for Qualitative Research (CQR) have brought 2 new members to the team. These are our placement students, Kia Banks and Josie Rodohan, both in their third year here at the University of Bath.
They will be acting as research assistants to support the centre, which will involve an array of jobs such as:
- Writing literature reviews
- Assisting with data collection and analysis
- Producing research reports
- Organising workshops
Meet the Students
Kia Banks
‘Hi, my name is Kia and I am currently working as a research assistant at the Centre for Qualitative Research as part of my Education with Psychology degree. I was delighted to get the role at CQR due to my interest in qualitative research methods and future prospects of being involved in social research. Throughout my course qualitative methods, particularly ethnography, have been of interest to me and so gaining experience in this area has been a fascinating opportunity thus far. I am thoroughly enjoying working alongside the CQR members, who have made a real effort in integrating us into the team.
My academic interests lie in the disciplines of education and social and cultural anthropology. Through these lenses I am particularly interested in social justice issues, be it:
- Epistemic justice e.g., access and resource inequality, ‘comprehensivitisation’ of schooling.
- The climate crisis and injustices rising consequently.
- Ethnohistorical issues in contemporary society and decolonising education.
Therefore, I am thrilled to be involved with upcoming research projects in the centre. It will be an exciting opportunity to apply knowledge from my degree to research outside of the lecture hall. Additionally, I particularly am looking forward to organising the Qualitative Research Symposium 2022 which will focus on researcher vulnerability this year.’
Josie Rodohan
‘Hi, my name is Josie Rodohan and I am a placement student at the University of Bath. My degree is joint honours of sociology and social policy. I chose the Research Assistant role at the Centre of Qualitative Research for my placement, in order to gain greater insight into social research as a career. This career path is of great interest to me as I have enjoyed learning about social research within my degree programme over my first and second years. Therefore, I thought that this role would be well-suited and provide useful experience translatable to future jobs and success in my studies.
My academic interests are in the U.K. welfare state, specifically pension policy; social issues such as poverty, alienation, and integration; and critical theorisations of social change. I am excited to get involved in the writing of the book which the centre is hoping to create over the course of the year. This would provide a strong opportunity to develop my academic writing skills. This would be incredibly helpful as I intend on pursuing education beyond the undergraduate level. Moreover, I am, of course, looking forward to developing my qualitative research skills through assisting ongoing projects at the Centre.’
Our Current Projects
So far, our placements students have been working on developing their transcription skills and creating more up to date social media platforms for the centre. They aim to publish blog posts more regularly this year, and tweet about all upcoming events. These upcoming events include the QRS 2022, a 2 day event of workshops and lectures on researcher vulnerability. Moreover, the upcoming SWDTP 2022, and current postgraduate workshops, which the students have had a say in on how to approach topics and activities which should be integrated into these workshops. We look forward to see what is in store for our placement students next!
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