Research project
Developing Healthy Engagement
- Start date: 1 December 2024
- End date: 31 July 2025
- Funder: Research England Enhancing Research Culture Fund
- Primary investigator: Professor Kate Dossett
- Co-investigators: Dr Joanna Phillips, Simon Popple
- External co-investigators: Holly Smith (Cultural Collections, University of Leeds Library); Tim Procter (Cultural Collections, University of Leeds Library)
Description
Developing Healthy Engagement is a Research England funded project based at the University of Leeds. It will forge a new Healthy Engagement Network (HEN) to develop an interdisciplinary approach that centres the role of emotions in creating ethical, inclusive and sustainable engaged research projects. Focusing on collections-based engagement, the project is inspired both by community activism and scholarship that recognises the transformative possibilities and joy to be found in archival encounters, as well as by calls from both the archival sector and creative industries to develop trauma-informed approaches and embed therapeutic support in collections-based engagement.
The project is led by Kate Dossett (School of History, Leeds), working with Holly Smith and Tim Procter (both Cultural Collections, University of Leeds Library), Simon Popple (Digital Creativity and Cultures Hub, University of Leeds), and Joanna Phillips (School of History, University ofLeeds), and assisted by Sophie Turbutt (School of History, University of Leeds).
The project involves a series of workshops that bring together experts in engaged research, including academic researchers, archive professionals, and creative practitioners. The project also includes a forum for research enabling staff to explore how universities as institutions might better support wellbeing in the engaged research projects they facilitate.
Events
HEN workshop 1: What’s already out there?
At the first HEN workshop the core project team mapped the state of the field in wellbeing guidance and practice for historical research with a particular focus on using archives and collections. We examined existing resources produced by similar collaborative projects aimed at researchers, research facilitators, and archivists involved in emotionally demanding research, and we identified areas for development which we will pursue through our own project workshops and outputs.
Research Enablers workshop 1: Mapping the research journey
The first research enablers workshop brought together research enabling staff from across the University of Leeds, with participation from three Schools, three Faculties and four central services. We reflected on our experiences of supporting researchers working on emotionally challenging material, be that archival, collections, or data-based. We used creative facilitation methods to explore the qualities of a researcher, and a researcher’s journey through an emotionally challenging research project. Some participants stayed to take part in the HEN workshop 2 which followed this session.
HEN workshop 2: Archive Environments
This workshop focused on Archival Environments. See the event webpage for more information.
Outputs
Our project outputs, co-produced with workshop collaborators, will include a new framework for engaged research practice and a toolkit for engaged researchers.
Enhancing Research Culture
This project is funded by Research England under the Enhancing Research Culture funding stream. Find out more about Research Culture at the University of Leeds.
