Celebrating the winners of our Postgraduate Research Student Photo Competition - #RKEFest23

Our inaugural Festival of Research and Knowledge Exchange was a week-long event full of engaging sessions for colleagues, students and external visitors to share expertise and network. We were thrilled to welcome a total of 466 people across the week – and we hosted talks from very highly respected professionals including our keynote speaker, Professor Marcus Munafò on transparency, trustworthiness and research culture, and Dr Julie Bayley on how to create meaningful research impact. Stuart Morris's opening session on ‘REF2028: what's new, what's the same, and how your research fits in’ - was extremely popular and informative – and Dr Laura Booi’s comedy theatre show about brain health (INEPT) was hilarious and thought-provoking.

Our team will be building on this major success in the months to come - reflecting on the inspirational stories and shared memories and its extraordinary impact on our research culture and environment.

The Festival Celebration Event took place in the Great Hall at Headingley Campus, and brought together colleagues and students across the University to celebrate the remarkable achievements, innovations, and contributions of our LBU academics and postgraduate research students.

We heard talks from our new Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange, Dr. Camelia Dijkstra, and from two of our Festival blog post authors – Professor Rachel Julian and Professor Emma Wood, learning more about their inspirational research.

The student photo competition entries were displayed around the room and Dr Dijkstra was proud to announce the winners of the three prizes:

1st Place, winning £150: Suzanne Simpson in the Carnegie School of Education

Suzanne scooped first prize for her photo entitled The Inner Superhero / Shifting Sands. Suzanne, a Senior Lecturer in Teacher Training and Education at Leeds Beckett, said: “It is wonderful that the Festival has celebrated a more creative way to showcase research - I hope there will be more opportunities offered in the future. Being a photography enthusiast, I am thrilled to have got so many votes because it has inspired me to think of how I might incorporate imagery more frequently into my future research.”

Describing her photo, Suzanne said: “Sector feeling consistently demonstrates that: Teacher Educators and Early Career Teacher's judge that ECT programmes are formulaic and simplistic – consequently dull and uninspiring; the coverage and structure are both time consuming and limiting and, as a result, not supportive; indeed, it is reported as extremely discouraging, disempowering and deprofessionalising. School-based teacher educators report to be devising their own (additional) content which has been recently dubbed ‘the shadow curriculum’ – they necessarily appear to be ‘playing the game’ but actually focus on the delivery of something which they consider pedagogically, socially and culturally a better ‘fit for its moral purpose’.

“The evolved landscape reveals unequivocally that more refined and discerning understanding of and approaches to effective mentoring and what constitutes mentoring excellence in teacher education are essential – my aim: what has been forced into the shadows can be Articulated, Celebrated and Empowered.”

2nd Place, winning £100: Lucy King in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Lucy won second prize for her photo, 'Missing Something?' On winning the prize, Lucy said: "I was really pleased to have the opportunity to challenge myself and present my research in an unusual way in just one image (especially because I'm currently writing up my thesis most days!). It's been a lovely surprise to be in the top three and have that little bit of extra experience disseminating my research."

Describing her image in her competition entry, Lucy said: “What conditions need to be met in order for young people to seek medical help if they have cancer concerns? Help-seeking is preceded by recognising a health change or warning sign, however young people may not have the necessary awareness. For those that do recognise an issue, their motivation and strategies for facilitating help-seeking can be variable; what motivates one individual can delay another. These barriers and facilitators can be influenced by sociodemographics, sense of self-efficacy, personal experiences and attitudes towards cancer.

“In addition, the perceived improbability of cancer risk for young people can make help-seeking seem unnecessary. Delay in recognition or help-seeking can have undoubtable consequences for timely diagnosis and health outcomes. By understanding the barriers and motivators in more depth, we may be able to work towards equalising opportunities for young people to take an active role in their health, and to receive the care they need.”

3rd Place, winning £50: Debbie Morris in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Debbie took home third prize for her photo, ‘Study Space / Study Place’. Debbie, a Digital Library Service Manager at Leeds Beckett, said: “Entering the competition was a good exercise for me in conveying my research area to a wider audience – I had to think about what might resonate with people less connected to libraries and how to articulate the relevance of the research in a useful summary, which I am very likely to use again to explain the research to others.”

Describing her choice of image, Debbie said: “Most researchers will have a pile of books like this. This photo represents my research because it’s my personal stack of related reading (plus the odd recreational title!) located in my own study space.

“My research is focussed on academic libraries and how evolving study habits have changed many of the ways in which they’re being used.  What do students want now and in the future from library spaces?  Hybrid study requires specialist facilities.  Many students want a relaxed, café-like environment.  Most want convenience, comfort, a place conducive to individual preference.

“As a librarian this image also conveys how my practice-based research has thrown up many points of personal learning about how today’s students think and feel about studying and libraries.  Libraries to many will always be about books, but everyone’s definition is different. We need to consider this as we design and develop our academic libraries of the future.”

All postgraduate research students were invited to create a photo that represents their research, including a short description that effectively communicates the work.

Photographs could capture various aspects of the research journey, including research processes, experimental setups, fieldwork, community engagement, or any other element that represents the student’s research journey.

All entries were presented online for colleagues and students to view and vote for their favourite entry. Voters were asked to consider criteria such as clarity, visual appeal, innovation, and potential for impact when making their selections.

Thank you to everyone who took part in the photo competition – you can see all of our entries in the image gallery below.