ICS Training 2023-2024

Held monthly for ICS-affiliated PhD researchers and Early Career Research Associates
Hybrid, in-person and online
Being a postgraduate or early career researcher can often feel alienating, or like a leap into the unknown. The LEAP Lab is an informal space to facilitate the sharing of ideas and experiences, gather feedback, develop networks, and contribute towards personal development. Meetings focus on publication processes and strategies; teaching techniques; developing funding and job applications; productive networking; and well-being in academia.
 

The ICS is collaborating with the British School at Rome and British School at Athens to offer two Turing Scheme placements to students from the School of Advanced Study in the 2023-24 academic year. Please find both placements and application processes advertised here on the School of Advanced Study website.

ICS/CCN Researcher Training Event: Research for Classics with Museums and Heritage Collections

A conversation with Thomas Harrison (British Museum), Katherine Baxter (Leeds Museums), Andrew Parkin (Great North Museum), Abigail Allan (University of Oxford), and Domenico Sergi (Museum of London).

Moderated by Emlyn Dodd (Institute of Classical Studies) and Anna Reeve (Classical Collections Network)

14.00–16.00, Tuesday 7 November

Online via Zoom

How can a researcher in Classics, Ancient History or Archaeology work with museums or heritage organisations and effectively utilise their collections for mutual benefit? This training event takes the form of a conversation between curators and museum professionals alongside researchers working with collections. It aims to demystify the experience of collaborating with museums and heritage organisations, breaking down barriers between external researchers/academics and the collections that might form an integral part of their research. Discussion will focus on practical advice for those at a range of career stages, from graduate and doctoral researchers to early and mid-career phases, on topics including:

· How to approach museums and collections: getting started!

· Undertaking a small-scale or ad hoc research project with a museum.

· What does (and does not) work when collaborating.

· Best practice when working with museums and heritage collections.

· Future trajectories and ideas for collaborations.

· Formal opportunities for collaboration, including Collaborative Doctoral Awards (CDAs) and Partnerships (CDPs).

· Financial considerations, including costs involved when working with museum collections and funding opportunities.

The moderated panel discussion will be followed by a Q&A with attendees; there will also be an opportunity to submit questions to the panel in advance. Topics discussed will focus on the UK context, however we warmly welcome and encourage participation by international attendees.

This event is hosted collaboratively between the Institute of Classical Studies (School of Advanced Study, University of London) and the Classical Collections Network, UK.

Book here

In conversation with Greg Woolf (Journal of Roman Archaeology), Verity Platt (Classical Receptions Journal), Susan Deacy (Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies), and Rosa Andújar (American Journal of Philology).

Moderated by Emlyn Dodd and Katherine Harloe (Institute of Classical Studies).

16.00–18.00, Wednesday 24 January 2024

Online via Zoom

How does one actually go about getting their research published in a journal? Which journal is the best fit for your research? And how important are journal rankings and impact factors? This researcher training event will tackle these among other questions in the context of the current (and future) academic publishing landscape. It takes the form of a conversation between journal editors across the discipline of Classics broadly speaking, including Ancient History, Archaeology, Reception and other adjacent areas of research. It aims foremost to demystify and break down barriers between researchers, editors and journals, as well as providing a toolkit of skills and advice to go about getting your research published. Discussion will be of use not only to those at graduate, postgraduate or early career stages, but also to more experienced researchers looking to publish in different spaces and new ways.

The moderated conversation will be followed by a Q&A with attendees; there will also be an opportunity to submit questions to the panel in advance.

Register here

Date tbc
Online, via Zoom
In conversation with commissioning editors and publishing houses.
 

This training event is in two parts. It is designed for those undertaking a PhD or graduated and interested in pursuing postdoctoral and early-career fellowship and funding opportunities across the broad remit of Classics, Ancient History, Archaeology, Reception and related disciplines.

Part 1: An online information session and opportunity to hear from those that have held or have other experiences with postdoctoral and early-career schemes, including the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship, Leverhulme Early-Career Fellowship, Marie-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship, Humboldt Research Fellowship, Awards at the British Schools at Rome and Athens, and more. Panellists will talk through their application experiences and provide advice for each scheme and general contextual information for postdoctoral and early-career awards. Representatives from university Research Offices will also provide guidance from an administrative perspective.

Panellists include: TBC

Wednesday 28 February 2024, time TBC

Online via Zoom

Part 2: Will take place in-person across the UK in regional hubs at collaborating partner institutions. These workshops will focus on providing hands-on feedback and workshopping time with proposals and draft applications (at any stage) brought by attendees. Academic staff at each regional hub will come from a range of Classics disciplines, have experience and expertise with these postdoctoral and early-career awards and be able to give both focussed and general feedback and advice. It will provide attendees with an opportunity to develop, refine and build their applications further, taking on board advice from both parts of this programme.

As part of the registration process you will be asked to select which regional hub you would like to attend in person for Part 2 (held at a university in that region, but open to anyone with any affiliation). These include:

Glasgow: late March/early April 2024, date TBC

Durham: 14.00–17.00, Monday 18 March 2024

Manchester Metropolitan: TBC

Birmingham: early April 2024, date TBC

London: late March 2024, date TBC

Register to attend both Parts 1 and 2 (link to follow)

9–11 April 2024 
In-person, Durham University
More details to follow in late 2023.
 

April; date tbc
Hybrid, in-person and online
 

May; date tbc
Online, via Zoom
 

June 2024
Opportunities will be advertised for students and researchers at UK institutions to participate in and build their fieldwork skills during excavations at Falerii Novi, as part of the broader Falerii Novi Project.
The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies also sponsors a two-week placement at the excavations for one student from a UK university. Details will be advertised in early 2024.
 

July 2024, dates tbc
In-person, University of London
 

The Sunoikisis Digital Classics training videos are widely used to Masters-level teaching worldwide and can also be used as supporting materials for other kinds of courses and workshops or in independent learning at any level. The sessions cover a mix of practical methods, theoretical discussion and research applications of digital approaches to ancient languages, texts and material heritage.

SunoikisisDC is an international consortium of Digital Classics programs originally developed by the Alexander von Humboldt Chair of Digital Humanities at the University of Leipzig in collaboration with Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies and the Institute of Classical Studies, London.

For more information, see the Sunoikisis website here.

The 2023-24 SunoikisisDC Digital Approaches to Cultural Heritage programme is available here.

Following the post-REF 2021 briefings held by the ICS and CUCD for the Classics subject community in summer 2022, the ICS is hosting three online workshops in 2023-24 for authors of prospective REF 2028 impact case studies, as well as unit heads who are considering how best to support impact case study development in their institutions. In each of these, authors of case studies submitted for REF 2021 will reflect informally on what they did, including challenges they encountered, conveying hints and tips for those now preparing case studies. Three workshops will be organised around three themes:

· Heritage protection, access and reuse in local and global contexts
· Supporting the creative economy and digital
· Education, inclusion and wellbeing

These workshops will be discursive and will be held under ‘Chatham House rules’ to enable frank discussion of the challenges and successes of impact case studies. This means that they will not be recorded. Once more definitive REF criteria have been published, we intend to follow with a workshop on ‘What does REF mean for me?’, which will cover all sections of REF and will be aimed especially at early-career researchers and those participating in REF for the first time.

Showcase 1: Education, Inclusion and Wellbeing
13.00–15.00, Tuesday 12 March 2024
Online via Zoom

· Rebecca Langlands (Exeter) Delivering transformational Relationships and Sex Education through creative methods: The Sex & History Method.

· Arlene Holmes-Henderson and Mai Musié (Durham; Swansea) Classics in Communities: Improving collaboration for Classics education in primary and secondary schools, nationally and internationally; Bridging the gap between teaching, learning, and policy.

· Rebecca Sweetman (British School at Athens/St Andrews) Archaeological resources enhancing education and wellbeing: Through A Glass Darkly.

Chair: Katherine Harloe (ICS)

Register here

Showcase 2: Supporting the Creative Economy; Digital

11:00 – 13:00, Thursday 9 May 2024

Online via Zoom

· Elton Barker (Open University) The Pelagios Network: developing methods, tools and communities for linking online historical resources

· Emma Cole (Queensland) Transforming theatre arts’ and artists’ understanding of ancient tragedy in modern performance

· Michael Squire (Cambridge) Forging new connections between ancient and modern art

· Maria Wyke (UCL) Classical antiquity in cinema

Chair: Emily Pillinger (KCL)

Register here

Showcase 3: TBC