Dissertation Prize 2022

Geographies of Children, Youth and Families Research Group (GCYFRG)

Two prizes, part-sponsored by Taylor & Francis are available for innovative and high quality undergraduate dissertations on any issue related to the geographies of children, youth and families.  The first prize is £100 and a one-year subscription to Children’s Geographies; the second prize is £50 and a one-year subscription to Children’s Geographies.

The dissertations should be approximately 8,000-10,000 words in length and should be accompanied by moderated institutional marks, illustrative feedback, and reasons for nomination.  

Please send the following via email or link (i.e. Dropbox) to: samantha.wilkinson@mmu.ac.uk

1. a PDF file of the dissertation;
2. supporting statement (including final mark, feedback, and reasons for nomination); and
3. an email address for the student that will be live after September 2022 (e.g. a personal email address where institutional addresses expire following graduation).

The competition is open to any dissertations produced during the 2021/22 academic year by students enrolled on an undergraduate degree programme at a UK University. Submissions are open to all UK geography departments as well as interdisciplinary degree programmes where the student has engaged with the geographies of children, youth and families literature.  Please note a department may not submit more than one entry.  

Deadline: 15 July 2022

List of Publications on racialised minority children, youth and families

Members of the group had put together a list of publications on racialised minority children, young people and families. 

You can find the list of publications in Links and Resources

GCYFRG AGM and Committee Vacancies

1. Register for the Geographies of Children, Youth and Families Research Group AGM

When: Monday September 6, 2021/ 13:00 – 14:30 / BST (London)

Where: Register at the following link in advance for this meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIuduyorzsiHt1phR0Puj91CKHaeEd1QG95

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. We would like to encourage anyone with an interest in the GCYFRG to attend our AGM, this is a good chance to network with colleagues in the sub-discipline and it is an open invitation to all, regardless of your career stage or knowledge of/previous engagement with the sub-discipline.  

2. Research Group committee vacancies 2021-2

This year many of our committee have completed their terms of service for the group.  We thank all of them for their hard work and their commitment to our vibrant research group. Ahead of our AGM,we now have an open invitation for the election of the following committee roles.  

Secretary (three-year post – should be a current Fellow of RGS-IBG)

• Working closely with the Chair to coordinate activities of the group and making key decisions about the direction and oversight of activities
• Circulating announcements of relevance to the research group on the research group email list (listserv)
• Acting as a key point of liaison between the RGS-IBG and the research group
• Working with the Chair to coordinate the AGM
• Attending a RGS-IBG Research Groups sub-committee meeting once a year
• Working with other committee members to provide administrative and organisational support for events, notably with the Events Officer for the research group writing retreat
• Contributing to other research group activities as relevant

Awards Officer (three-year post)

• Advertising the prize and encouraging nominations
• Managing and screening submissions
• Arranging for dissertations to be marked by GCYFRG committee
• Moderating marks/feedback and recommending first/second place in conjunction with Research Group Chair
• Liaising with nominators and students, particular winners and arranging interviews for website    
• Developing the Call for Nominations and eligibility criteria with particular reference to EDI and widening participation

Conference Officer (three-year post)

• Coordinating Research Group sponsored sessions at the Annual International Conference and act as a central point of contact with the conference organisers
• Provide support to the Events Officer role where necessary
• Support with wider Research Group initiatives

Website Officer (three-year post)

• Being reactive to requests to add content to the website
• Work on updating / re-formatting the WordPress website
• Support with wider Research Group initiatives 

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Officer (three-year post)

• To develop an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) plan for the Research Group in discussion with the committee and the wider Research Group
• To work with each of the committee members to ensure that EDI concerns are addressed through each of the roles
• To be proactive in relation to EDI issues in our sub-discipline
• Support with wider Research Group Initiatives 

Post-graduate Officer (one year post)

• Promoting postgraduate interests and the needs of the wider Research Group
• Leading the Researcher in the Spotlight initiative
• Maintaining connection with the wider postgraduate community through the Postgraduate Forum and potential blog posts
• Support with wider Research Group initiatives 

As a research group we are keen to reflect the diversity of our community and we encourage anyone researching in the sub-discipline to apply for any of these roles.

If you are interested in any of these positions, please email s.a.hadfield-hill@bham.ac.uk and catherine.walker-2@manchester.ac.uk to chat informally.  

Nominations for election must be made in writing (e-mail), to the current Secretary (catherine.walker-2@manchester.ac.uk) with the name and email address of two nominators, whose nominations we will verify in advance. Nominators need not be Fellows of RGS-IBG or be existing members of the GCYFRG Committee. Nominations must be made by Monday 9th August, 2021. 

Any questions, please do get in touch.

2021 GCYFRG Undergraduate Dissertation Prize

Two prizes, part-sponsored by Taylor & Francis are available for innovative and high quality undergraduate dissertations on any issue related to the geographies of children, youth and families.  The first prize is £100 and a one-year subscription to Children’s Geographies; the second prize is £50 and a one-year subscription to Children’s Geographies.

The dissertations should be approximately 8,000-10,000 words in length and should be accompanied by moderated institutional marks, illustrative feedback, and reasons for nomination.

Please send the following via email or link (i.e. Dropbox) to: Joe.Hall@Sheffield.ac.uk:

1. a PDF file of the dissertation;
2. supporting statement (including final mark, feedback, any departmental COVID restrictions to be taken into account (i.e. for methodology), and reasons for nomination); and
3. an email address for the student that will be live after September 2020 (e.g. a personal email address where institutional addresses expire following graduation).

The competition is open to any dissertations produced during the 2020/21 academic year by students enrolled on an undergraduate degree programme at a UK University. Submissions are open to all UK geography departments as well as interdisciplinary degree programmes where the student has engaged with the geographies of children, youth and families literature.  Please note a department may not submit more than one entry.

Deadline: 15 July 2021

Researcher in the Spotlight

Dr. Paulina Ruiz-Cabello

Senior Research Associate (ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow)
University of Bristol

Email: Paulina.ruizcabello@bristol.ac.uk
Twitter: @pa_ruizc
Webpage: www.mobilescuela.com
https://www.swdtp.ac.uk/our-fellows/dr-paulina-ruiz-cabello/

Research Area and Interests
Students´ digital cultures and learning in and out-of-school; the intersection between everyday digital practices and school culture; sociocultural situational and relational approaches to examine mobile and digital practices; qualitative research methods.

Research Projects
1. Doctoral research study: “I’d would die without it”: A study of Chilean teenagers’ mobile phone use in school

There has been an increasing interest in understanding children´s and young people´s digital lives within and across different time-space configurations. Yet, school has been rarely seen as a porous setting where students spend time interconnecting their educational, social and personal lives. Addressing such a perspective is becoming increasingly important in the current international educational context, where personal devices are part of students’ daily life, schools´ phone use regulations are discussed and implemented, and the covid-19 pandemic has brought new challenges and questions about the relationship between personal devices and schooling.

Drawing on sociocultural conceptions of space, practice and identities, and using an ethnographic approach, I conducted a study that aimed to explore 15-16-year-old teenagers´ phone use and negotiation process in two schools in Chile. One of the key findings was that the time participants spent on their phones cannot be considered as a total oppositional practice to school or an individual decision. Instead, although not totally free of tensions and challenges, it works as an orchestration of interests, needs and requirements grounded in who they want to be and who they significantly interact with as students, friends, and daughters/sons.

2. ESRC Postdoctoral project: Personal mobile technologies in secondary schools: developing international partnered efforts and participatory methods for debate and decision making

Building on my doctoral study, I am conducting a project -funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council- which aims to promote a “multi-relational” and participatory approach to understand, research, and define actions and regulations regarding use and presence of personal technologies in and for school. This entails incorporating the diverse, and sometimes contested, interests and needs coming from students, their families, teachers and authorities in debate and decision-making instances. To that aim, I am offering online participatory workshops to schools in the UK and Chile to co-create resources to support decisions around the presence and use of personal technologies in and for school.

I have also recently set up a website (www.mobilescuela.com) in Spanish and English. The website aims to go beyond the topic on mobile phones and school by capturing a wide range of aspects in which the digital -and increasingly mobile- lives and practices of school communities´ members intersects with their work and their school experiences in and out-of-school. Regarding this, the pandemic seems to have made more tangible this mobility supported by technologies and the diversity of those experiences that need further visibility and examination. At the moment, there is a Call open for Reflective Cases on the use of personal devices in and for school during the covid-19 pandemic.