The higher education sector and the governments that directly and indirectly support research have intensified their interest in impact and engagement with industry and communities in contexts such as Australia and the UK. Whilst humanities and social science research have always involved partnership and collaboration, this increased interest in partnership and impact require scholars in our fields to better articulate the mechanisms that underpin the forms of collaboration that our research practice entails.

This workshop explores the different forms of collaboration, engagement and impact that are often involved in humanities and social science research practice. Drawing upon qualitative and ethnographic research in different settings, the workshop draws attention to the power dynamics that shape the forms of collaboration (and impact) that may be possible for different research endeavours.

Introducing a working theory of the different genres of collaboration in HASS research practice, researchers and practitioners are invited to reflect upon and discuss their own genre of collaboration that are required – or aspired to – in their current and future research.

Facilitators

Heather Horst is Director, Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Her research examines digital media and technology including the use of digital media in transnational families, transformations in mobile telecommunications infrastructures in the Caribbean and Pacific, and materiality through studying homes, clothing, and technology. Her publications include The Cell Phone: An Anthropology of Communication; Hanging Around, Messing Around and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media; Digital Anthropology; Digital Ethnography: Principles and Practices; The Moral Economy of Mobile Phones: Pacific Island Perspectives; and Digital Media Practices in Households. Her creative outcomes include two documentaries on smartphone use in Fiji and Papua New Guinea and a film on the Fijian fashion industry.

The DSC Doctoral Research Conference brings together the College's three existing symposia – Practice Research Symposium (PRS), Urban Futures Symposium and Social Change Symposium – to create a shared space for innovation, sustainability and resilience aligned with the theme of regenerative futures.