Samantha Ford
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Publications
  • Conferences
    • Conferences
    • Workshops
  • Funding & Awards
    • Funding
    • Awards
  • Teaching
  • Training
  • EMMA Project
  • Contact

Personal 'thank you' for BELP2021

18/4/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Picture
​At the beginning of the 2020 academic year, I volunteered to run PG Tips with Stephen Appleton. PG Tips is a postgraduate group for postgraduate researchers based in the Department of English Language and Linguistics at the University of Birmingham. It was tradition that PG Tips host the annual Birmingham English Language Postgraduate Conference. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic outbreak in the UK forcing us into lockdown in March 2020, the BELP Conference was unable to go ahead that year.

Since then, however, PG Tips has been continuing to run online via the conference platform Zoom, developing the postgraduate researcher community in the department, with students tuning in from different countries across the world. With the support of technology and experience of conferences shifting online, Stephen and I strongly believed in the benefit of running the BELP Conference in the year 2021. Moving from initial planning stages with Stephen, and with the help of many volunteers from the postgraduate community, we were able to launch the conference; to take place on Friday 23rd April 2021.

It has been my great pleasure (and a lot of hard work!) to make BELP happen this year. I believe that community and collaboration is something integral not just to research but also to our human nature, which we need to facilitate and nurture at every opportunity. The conference welcomes postgraduate researchers and taught postgraduates to attend and present their work and engage in academic discussion. I am also delighted to invite and welcome distance-learning students and undergraduates to attend the conference. The conference has a diverse range of sessions, from plenary speaker Viola Wiegand talking about (corpus) linguistics and open research, to a round table panel discussion with Ashley Blake, Nouf Alharbi, and Bingjun Zhang talking about progressing with a PhD during COVID-19, to a variety of oral presentations and poster presentations from delegates.

While I have led the organisation of the conference for 2021, I must acknowledge and give my sincere thanks and appreciation to volunteers from the postgraduate community in the department: Nouf Alharbi, Stephen Appleton, Ashley Blake, Sharon Glaas, Eloise Parr, Qiuyi Sun, Eleanor Vivian, Greg Woodin, Keith Wilson, and Bingjun Zhang; and Amélie Doche; and staff members: Joe Bennett, Marcus Perlman, and Viola Wiegand (BELP2021 plenary speaker).
​
I hope all delegates of the conference enjoy the day and thank you all for your support of this event.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    Academic Advice
    Academic Research
    Awards
    Collaborations
    Conferences
    Courses
    EMMA Project
    Fundraising
    Partnership With Big Cat Agency
    Press
    Projects
    Publications
    Research Experience
    Teaching
    Testimonials
    Training
    Workshops

    Archives

    October 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    November 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    April 2017
    July 2016

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos from wuestenigel (CC BY 2.0), wuestenigel
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Publications
  • Conferences
    • Conferences
    • Workshops
  • Funding & Awards
    • Funding
    • Awards
  • Teaching
  • Training
  • EMMA Project
  • Contact