Mining and Mixing in Methodology: Knowledge and the Distinction of the University

Professor Tim May, Sheffield Methods Institute, with the White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership

The landscape of university work is changing. Funders increasingly seek interdisciplinary collaborations; the thirst for knowledge is manifest in the desire to produce innovative methods; researchers are routinely expected to demonstrate impact and engagement; working beyond disciplines is expected whilst careers are evaluated by disciplines; postgraduate education is placing more emphasis on learning, experiencing and understanding outside of disciplinary boundaries and issues associated with coproduction, working with policy-makers and communities, lead to a need to deepen understanding of the different ways in which we produce knowledge.

These and other factors have implications for the future of the university as a distinct site of knowledge production. This lecture will examine these pressures and their manifestations and consider what this means for the social organisation of knowledge production.

Please join Professor Tim May, Sheffield Methods Institute, for his inaugural lecture and keynote speech for the workshop 'Innovative Methods in the Social and Political Sciences', run jointly with the Department of Politics. A drinks reception will follow.