Have a read below to see what our ECR bursary winner Lilly Neubauer did with their award money.

Thanks to the VAMHN bursary I attended a Creative Research Methods Course lead by Helen Kara. The six weeks course has changed the way I think about research and has been one of the best things I’ve done so far during my PhD. The course introduced us to lots of different ways of using creative methods in research, for collection, analysis and communication. We explored the use of video, photography, comics and animation, poetry, metaphor, objects and place, and we discussed ways of enriching traditional methods like semi-structured interviews or focus groups with creative aspects. This opened my eyes to a completely different, ‘rebellious’ way of doing research and made me think about why these methods are not more commonly found in academia, despite much evidence that they can be highly effective, especially in fields of ‘sensitive’ research. There were countless examples brought up during the course of researchers using creativity to put study participants at ease or make talking about difficult experiences easier for them – such as allowing people to draw comics of their experiences; giving participants cameras so they could document aspects of their lives for themselves; or basing interviews around objects of personal meaning to enable participants to tell their stories on their own terms.

​Furthermore, we also explored inspiring examples of people using creative disciplines to communicate their research to a wider audience, such as using comics or animation to tell the story of their research, or poetry to get across some of the more intangible aspects of what they found. One of my favourite assignments in the course was to create a poem about your research. I chose to use the “found poetry” method, where I used words and phrases taken from the data I had collected from Reddit about people’s experiences of emotional abuse. I then used these words and phrases to construct poems around different themes I had found in my data. I felt that these poems were powerful and communicated something deeper about my data than could be put across in an academic paper. Overall, this course was an enriching and fascinating experience for me. Thanks to VAMHN for the opportunity!

Have a read below to see what our ECR bursary winner Siofra Peeren did with their award money.
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Sexual Violence Research Initiative Forum, Cancun, Mexico, September 2022 
Because of my ECR bursary I was able to attend and present my PhD research at the largest global conference on sexual violence: The Sexual Violence Research Initiative Forum in Cancun, Mexico. This conference brought together survivors, researchers activists, providers, third sector, industry and policy professionals to reflect on all aspects of sexual violence. It had an incredible programme of research and practice-based presentations as well as an impressive variety of well-being and networking activities. I presented on conducting a trauma-informed systematic review as part of a panel called ‘Being Trauma-Informed’, speaking alongside others who had used creative ways to make their research trauma-informed. At this conference, I connected with international peers and learned about I also made links with industry that I have continued to sustain since the conference. Many presentations at the conference stressed the importance of working in partnership with survivors in this field. Collaboration and partnership working are essential components of trauma-informed approaches and a strong interest of mine, and it was enriching to learn about the different ways that partnership working can look in different methodological, cultural and social contexts. Having the opportunity to attend the Sexual Violence Research Initiative has therefore given me invaluable opportunities to expand my network, disseminate my work and broaden my knowledge at a critical time in my career. 
 
Overseas Institutional Visit to the University of Melbourne 
The VAWMHN ECR bursary supported a 3-month visit to the University of Melbourne. I visited the Safer Families Centre which is a leading Centre of Excellence that aims to transform the health sector response to domestic and family violence. During my visit, I had the opportunity to collaborate with leading researchers in my field to analyse research data they had collected about intimate partner sexual violence. This collaboration resulted in a first-author publication which is currently under review. Having experience of working alongside an experienced qualitative researcher whose work had a significant influence on my PhD gave me unique skills and experience in qualitative research methods.  It was refreshing to be part of a different team, learn about different ways of doing research in my field, and to gain experience working in research in a very different part of the world. The team I visited gave me an extremely warm welcome and have continued to keep in touch. These connections will significantly benefit my future career. 

Have a read below to see what our ECR bursary winner Laura Havers did with their award money.

​The bursary that I was awarded was used to support my attendance on a 2-day multilevel modelling workshop. The workshop that I attended was held online, hosted by faculty at the University of Maryland, USA. The workshop introduced the statistical theory of multilevel modelling as it is applied in the behavioural/social sciences. Practical experience in estimating the models was supported throughout the workshop, and guided interpretation of the results was provided.
 
In attending this workshop, I gained both a theoretical and practical understanding of the multilevel framework. This will allow me to apply multilevel modelling in my postdoctoral research, which aims to understand relations between childhood maltreatment and adolescent mental health, specifically through the lens of intersectionality. Intersectionality is a broad theoretical framework that views the intersection of an individual’s characteristics (e.g., gender identification, ethnicity, sexual orientation) as giving rise to a unique social and societal position within structural conditions of oppression and privilege. I will use the knowledge gained in this workshop to model intersectionality at the strata level, thereby allowing for an estimation of the extent to which the relation between childhood maltreatment and mental health is attributable to intersectionality.

Have a read below to see what our ECR bursary winner Alison McKinlay did with their award money.
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In November 2022, I attended the UK Public Health Science conference in Glasgow with the help of an ECR Bursary Award from VAMHN. The conference is run by early career researchers for early career researchers, dedicated to showcasing developments in the field. The theme this time focused on creativity, innovation, and novel methodologies in public health.
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The day featured many fascinating talks, including several studies using coproduction methods to learn more about young people’s perception of health and inequality through art (Laura Tinner) and working with migrant mothers in public health research grant development (Kerrie Stevenson). One of the highlights was an interactive theatre workshop from Anna Dowrick and group Performing Medicine. They used art and performance to share the findings of a research project on health inequalities experienced by ethnic minority communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was so powerful and engaging to see research quotes performed by actors.

During the conference, I presented a poster summarising our research, focussing on the ways women with past experiences of abuse used the arts and creativity to support their mental health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this Wellcome Trust funded research, we found that participants engaged in creative arts during the lockdown to help create a routine and practice mindfulness. There were also benefits for those experiencing social isolation when some art forms were able to be moved online (i.e., singing groups, drawing classes). However, there were also important barriers to arts engagement and subsequent wellbeing benefits, including concerns about online safety from abuse perpetrators, excess screen time causing fatigue, and limited time or resources to access art materials. During the session, I was also able to network with other researchers doing research into the wellbeing benefits of arts and creativity. It helpful to be able to learn about the similarities in some findings but also the distinctions that are specific in the consideration of arts-based research involving survivors of abuse.

And finally, I was also grateful to have the opportunity to talk about another creative arts research collaboration with Viv Gordon Company (funded by VAMHN), called Plain Sight. In this project, Viv and I had been working to incorporate creative writing, performance art and film to help tackle stigma and public misperceptions about adult survivors of child sexual abuse.

Thank you to VAMHN for awarding me with the travel bursary that supported my attendance at this event.