Working Collaboratively with Marginalised Communities...

A full-day event involving academic presentations, a roundtable on ethics and a world cafe.

A full-day event involving academic presentations, a roundtable on ethics in practice with community partners and Loughborough's research ethics team, and a world café exploring topics such as informed consent and well-being.

Organised by Dr Azmeary Ferdoush (Geography, Migration, Borders and Mobility group), Dr Robyn Smith (SSEHS) and Dr Alena Pfoser (Communication and Media, LUSARG).

Keynote speaker:
Professor Maggie O'Neill, University College Cork

Creative Interventions: Doing Participatory Action Research and Participatory Arts Based Research with care

In this presentation I will draw on a body of participatory action research and participatory arts-based work spanning thirty plus years, working in collaboration with artists and communities to create change, to address social and sexual inequalities. I begin with a series of AHRB/AHRC ethno-mimetic projects that took place in the East Midlands with sex workers, as well as people seeking refuge and asylum and will share a series of projects both then and now that have a rigorous ethic of care at the centre-focusing on the challenges, possibilities and radical hope that such methods provide, especially in current times and the poly crisis.

Professor Maggie O’Neill is Director of the Institute for Social Sciences and Collective Social Futures Institute at University College Cork. An interdisciplinary scholar, her research & leadership has been instrumental in moving forward debates, dialogue and scholarship in three substantive areas: sex work and the commercial sex industry (since 1989); forced migration and the asylum-migration nexus (since 1999) including a focus on race, crime and justice; innovative participatory, biographical, performative and visual methodologies (since 1990). Maggie is a series editor for the Advances in Biographical Methods book series with Policy press. Her latest co-authored book is Walking as Critical Pedagogy with Routledge Press. She co-developed a series of pedagogic and feminist walks with students, community organisations and colleagues in Durham, Newcastle, York and Cork.

Research Methods Showcase speakers:
Alma Solarte-Toban, Loughborough University - School of Design and Creative Arts
Dr Oliver Hooper, Loughborough University - School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences
Dr Janine Coates, Loughborough University - School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences
Professor Peter Kraftl, University of Birmingham - Geography & Environment
Udita Bose, Brunel University of London - Geography

Amid the current global poly-crises context, marginalised populations are disproportionately impacted. These groups experience intersecting challenges related to age, socio-economic status, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, disability, and race. In alignment with Loughborough University’s 2030 Strategy, researchers have a growing responsibility to partner with these groups, embedding EDI within their research practices to tackle social inequities and foster vibrant and inclusive communities.

Despite growing recognition of the need for equitable and ethical research, marginalised communities have historically, and continue to experience, harm and limited mutual benefit from research (Tuhiwai Smith, 2021). Researchers often navigate complex ethical challenges, including power hierarchies, informed consent, and trust and reciprocity, in isolation. Many are themselves from marginalised backgrounds and experience increased risk of secondary trauma, compromising wellbeing and research integrity.

This one-day event aims to create a conversation how to do ethical and collaborative research with marginalised populations. It seeks to foster a space for reflection, dialogue and peer support, bringing together academics of different career stages and disciplines and community partners and members.

Programme -

9:30am - 10:00am Coffee/tea & opening remarks

10:00am - 11:00am Keynote, Maggie O'Neill, University College Cork

11:00am - 12:00 noon Navigating everyday ethics in collaborative research with children and young people

12:00 noon - 12:45pm Lunch

12:45pm - 1:45pm Ethics in conversation: challenges and opportunities in collaborative research

2:00pm - 3:00pm Ethics world cafe

3:15pm - 3:45pm Concluding discussion

International House can be found here on the campus map.

If these in person tickets have sold out, you can still register to watch the Keynote and Roundtable portions on Teams.