At Queen Mary, we believe that everyone can work with people outside of the University in a mutually beneficial way. Across our University we know that there is some exceptional public engagement activity happening, with the students and staff involved keen to share their experiences and knowledge with others, to inspire future engagement work and develop their own engagement practice.
To facilitate this, the Centre for Public Engagement runs the Engaged Topics Network: a community for individuals involved in public engagement activities. The network provides a space where all staff and students at Queen Mary can come together to share their knowledge and experiences, build new collaborations, and provide support for one another. There is also coffee and cake!
The Engaged Topics Network aims to:
The Centre for Public Engagement organises informal sessions termly as part of the Engaged Topics Network. These sessions are open to all students and staff at Queen Mary to attend, and you are free to choose which sessions you do/don't attend.
Each session runs for 90 minutes with a mixture of presentations, Q&A space, and facilitated discussions. After each session, a member of the Centre for Public Engagement will run a further 30 minute 'Advice Surgery' session to support people with any of their thoughts/ideas developed in the session.
As the Engaged Topic Network exists to support our staff and students, the CPE are keen to ensure the programme is directed by our community and so welcome your suggestions for topics and themes for future sessions.
Our next network meeting will be taking place shortly. Please check back in due course for date confirmation.
Below is the archive of the learning shared as part of our previous Engaged Topic Network sessions.
This session was ran in January 2021 in response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. We explored how those at Queen Mary have adapted their work to engage 'dispite the distance' using online approaches.
Read the lessons learnt here
This session was ran in March 2021 as part of the 'Festival of Education' at Queen Mary. We explored how those at Queen Mary have worked with community organisations to ensure that students have the opportunity to learn from the community around them, and equally share their learning in a way that meaningfully contributes to society.