The longstanding annual Postgraduate and Early Career Researcher Conference (PECRC) is traditionally an opportunity for researchers to present their work and network with peers. This year, PECR Day was a little bit different – in lieu of an in-person conference with HDR presentations, a number of academics presented live via Zoom on a number of key topics.
The online nature of the forum provided greater reach and attendance by Honours and HDR students as well as ECRs. Attendees joined from across Australia and New Zealand, with over 70 delegates registered. The event was chaired by Carley Ruiz, Michael Pass, and Kavita Raj. Session chairs also had the support of Shuktika Bose and Tristan Russell moderating the chat for Q&A.
In our first session, Professor Tara McGee with the Griffith School of Criminology opened by presenting on ‘Publishing During Your PhD’. While many HDRs have published or begun the publishing process, Dr McGee’s presentation was not lost on them. She provided helpful advice on navigating the publishing world, particularly setting up key profiles: ORCID, Google Scholar, ResearcherID, and Scopus Author ID.
In our second session, entitled ‘Career Options and Employability’, we welcomed Dr Kelly Hine and Dr Madeleine Ulbrick. Both presenters provided insight into career options and employability by drawing upon their experiences as PhD graduates. Attendees made the most of this opportunity to ask the academics questions about the opportunities they embraced during their candidature, the value of establishing and maintaining professional relationships, and their experiences of employment during the COVID-19 pandemic. With Dr Hine’s position as a policing scholar in the School of Law and Society at the University of the Sunshine Coast and Dr Ulbrick’s role as a senior researcher at the Victorian Law Reform Commission, both speakers complimented each other in covering the interests of candidates who will be entering the COVID-19 era job market.
We finished the event with a presentation by Caitlin Cary and discussion by Associate Professor Dr Kate Fitz-Gibbon, joining us from Monash University. Their session was entitled ‘Engaging with the Media’. Media and Communication manager Caitlin Cary provided practical tips for attendees on preparing for and giving a good interview. Importantly, attendees learnt how to promote their research and achievements through their university’s media team. Cary’s key tip was to build one’s personal message, and practice conveying a short, memorable message to an audience in plain language. The practical criminological experience of engaging with the media was expanded upon by the passionate Dr Fitz-Gibbon. Delegates were fascinated by her experiences with the media on prominent social issues and the legal responses to youth justice, violence, and domestic violence. This reinforced the notion of media framing and the need to stay within the scope of one’s research when engaging with the media.
This year’s PECRC was organised by postgraduate candidates from Griffith University’s School of Criminology and the Griffith Criminology Institute (Carley Ruiz and Michael Pass (CCJ HDR Representatives), Shuktika Bose and Tristan Russell, in consultation with ANZSOC HDR Representative (Kavita Raj). We would like to thank ANZSOC for their continued support of HDRs and ECRs, GCI (particularly Janet Ransley, Keiran Hardy, Li Eriksson, and Amanda Cockle), and most importantly our presenters for their invaluable advice and the delegates for their engagement which made the event a huge success. We hope to see everyone in person for PECRC 2022!
Submission provided by Carley Ruiz, on behalf of the PECRC Organising Committee.