'From academic speed dating to contributions' - A reflection on the 1st BBS ESCP joint summer school

On a rather gloomy Monday afternoon in June twenty-eight PhD researchers from Birmingham, France, and Germany met up for the first joint summer school between Birmingham Business School and ESCP Europe.

Although just one and a half days long a packed agenda ensured it was intensive. The sessions based around qualitative methods focused on data analysis, the publication process, and our research contributions. All the sessions included plenty of group work with lively and open discussions about each other’s work.

To begin with the group reflected on their hopes and fears for the summer school and the facilitators Professors Mark Saunders, Claire Dambrin, and Penelope Tuck created an environment in which the students were able to engage with and learn from each other from the outset. An initial round of academic speed dating soon got everyone talking about their research interests and set the tone for the rest of the summer school.

From analysing sections of each other’s data to realising that succeeding in the academic publication process requires a thick skin and perseverance, all the sessions were extremely productive. If you get the chance to attend next year’s event, which is rumoured could be in Paris so less chance of needing your brolly, the summer school comes highly recommended from the participants this year.

The organisers extend a big thank you to everyone who attended for making it such an engaging session and to the facilitators for being so patient and guiding the students towards the application of their ontologies. This workshop was a great opportunity to actually reflect about the title “PhD”: Doctorate of Philosophy.