Wednesday 14th October

James Harrison, Rebecca Probert, Kevin Hearty and Stephanie Seavers, School of Law, University of Warwick

Many colleagues have very rewarding engagement with non-academic audiences which can (1) stimulate innovative research agendas and (2) mean that the fruits of our research endeavours reach a much wider audience, and even at times influence important public debates, court decisions, policy reforms etc. In this seminar, three colleagues, Kevin Hearty, Rebecca Probert and James Harrison will talk about recent examples of these interactions from their own work. We will also introduce Stephanie Seavers, the new faculty impact officer. There will then be a discussion of how we can use the impact agenda to support more of this kind of work, while at the same time meeting our REF goals.

Rebecca Probert: Earlier this year I was asked to lead a team at the Law Commission looking at the law regulating entry into marriage. Since the last time the Commission had looked at this topic was 42 years ago, this was an opportunity that really had to be seized! Perhaps surprisingly, it has been my research into the history of marriage, rather than the current law, that has proved most useful in the meetings with interest groups and in drafting the analysis of the current law. The experience has also given me a far deeper understanding of the mechanics of law reform.

Kevin Hearty: I will discuss the early career, post-doctoral research fellow perspective on the impact agenda. I will draw on my recent experiences to highlight the challenges and opportunities encountered when trying to forge links with audiences, interested groups and potential research end-users 'beyond academia' while still early in the process of formulating an established academic track record. In doing so I will offer an insight into current and future projects and how and where they correlate with the wider academic impact agenda stipulated by the REF.

James Harrison: In September I started work on an ESRC-funded research grant to investigate the impact of labour standards provisions in EU trade agreements, with a focus on the EU's recent agreements with Moldova, Guyana and South Korea (yes, i have to travel to all three places!). I will talk about what we hope to achieve in the project, and how we will engage with a range of non-academic actors. You may be interested in an article in the International Labour Review which explains the rationale for the project - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1564-913X.2015.00037.x/abstract. I will also talk about the Centre for Human Rights in Practice's online magazine Lacuna (www.lacuna.org.uk), which provides an opportunity for colleagues across the department to write for different audiences.