Finalist Summaries16th June 2016

3 MinuteThesis™

Graduate Students’Association

The North Yorkshire Coast Higher Education Collaboration

Contents

Page 5 Judging criteria and rules

Page 6 Highereducationincorporated:Neoliberalism,for-profituniversitiesandthe public intellectual KievAriza - The York Management School

Canrobotsbeasefficientasants? Edgar Buchanan Berumen - Department of Electronics

Page 7 Individualdifferencesandsecondlanguagelearning Veronica Garcia Castro - Department of Education

Whatarethelimitsofstorytelling? Jamie Cawthra - Department of Philosophy

Page 8 Effectiveremedies–makingwrongsright Reginald Frection - York Law School

Listen to the silence HasmikGasparyan - Department of Theatre, Film and Television

Page 9 Buildingclimate-resilience:Ukraine’sagri-foodsectorcanwin-win-win NatalieKopytko - Environment Department

Makenotyourthoughtsyourprisons:usingShakespeare-basededucationfor criminal rehabilitation LauraLouiseNicklin - Department of Education

Page 10 Whyisbehaviourmanagementinschoolsnotworkingforeveryone? Laura Oxley - Department of Education

Feeding the world with a good grain KuntalSingh - Department of Biology

Engagement: • Did the oration make you / the audience want to know more?• Did the presenter convey enthusiasm for their research?

Communication: • Did the speaker have suffi cient stage presence, eye contact and vocal range; maintain a steady pace, and have a confi dent stance? • Did the presenter spend adequate time on each element of their presentation or did they elaborate for too long on one aspect or was the presentation rushed? • Did the PowerPoint slide enhance the presentation - was it clear, legible and concise?

Welcome to the 2016 3 Minute Thesis™ competition at theUniversityofYork

Its success has led to the establishment of local and national competitions in several countries. Today, ten University of York research students have just three minutes to communicate their research and its impact to you - an audience made up of school pupils, teachers and

members of the general public. Communicating to different audiences is important for researchers as it helps to demonstrate the contribution that research makes to wider society and the economy.

Ateverylevelofthecompetitioneachcompetitorwillbeassessedonthethreejudging criteria listed below.Each criterion is equally weighted and has an emphasis on audience reaction. Each presentation will be assessed by a panel of judges and scored out of a total of 35 points (fi ve points per bullet point below):

Prizes

Competition rulesParticipants:• Single static PowerPoint slide (no slide transitions, animations or ‘movement’ of any description)• No additional electronic media (e.g. sound or video files)• No additional props (e.g. costumes, musical instruments, laboratory equipment)• Competitors exceeding 3 minutes are disqualifi ed

Audience:• No unwanted audience participation • Mobiles off

iPad Air 2

PLUS The University of York internal competition winner gets to take part in the 2016 national 3 Minute Thesis competition: semi-fi nals in July 2016; fi nal September 2016

£150 Amazon voucher £75 Amazon voucher

• Presentations are to be spoken word (e.g. no poems, raps or songs)• Presentations are considered to have commenced when a presenter starts their presentation through movement or speech• The decision of the adjudicating panel is fi nal

• Use a post-it-note to let us know what you think of the competition!

Comprehension and content: • Did the presentation provide an understanding of the background to the research question being addressed and its signifi cance?• Did the presentation clearly describe the key results of the research including conclusions and outcomes?

53 Minute Thesis - 2016

3MT™isanacademiccompetitiondevelopedbytheUniversityofQueensland,Australia

Dr Karen Clegg Director of Researcher Development, UoY (Chair)

ProfessorTomStonehamYork Graduate Research School Dean, UoY

Caryn Douglas White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities (WRoCAH) Manager, UoY

Karen Bloor Research Champion, UoY

JamesStrachan2015 3MT winner, Psychology, UoY

AndrewBartonBBC Radio York

Judging panel

Judging criteria

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Highereducationincorporated:Neoliberalism,for-profituniversitiesandthepublicintellectualKievAriza - The York Management School

Kiev is a doctoral researcher (PhD) at the York Management School and a former graduate from the Harvard Business School in Business Analysis, Valuation and International Business. His work experience includes working as Marketing Director for the Autonomous University of Veracruz Villa Rica in Mexico.

Veronica Garcia Castro is a second-year PhD student from the Department of Education. She holds a BA in TESOL and an MA in English Literature from the University of Costa Rica.

Edgar is a PhD student in the Department of Electronics working with robotic swarms. He completed his bachelor’s degree in Mechatronics with honours in Mexico and his MSc degree in Autonomous Robotics with merit at the University of York.

Jamie grew up near Brighton, and has studied Philosophy in Sussex, Hertfordshire, York and Montreal. He is in the first year of his PhD, and hopes to go into teaching when it’s complete.

Neoliberalism has imposed the principles of Individual Freedom, the

promotion of free markets and the privatization of public goods as a gold standard in educational systems around the world. As a result, the higher education industry changed into one where students are seen as customers and universities are run like corporations, some of them seeking profits out of public and private funding sources through acquisitions, transnational partnerships and online education. This study

aims to analyse Laureate Education, the largest private network of universities in the world, providing an illustrative and unique reference about the Internationalization strategies of For-Profit Multinationals and the role that such institutions play in the commodification and financialization of the higher education industry. Also, this research discusses the future idea of a University and the challenges faced by the public intellectual given the context of globalization and neoliberalism in academia.

Canrobotsbeasefficientasants?Edgar Buchanan Berumen - Department of Electronics

Due to their mechanical components and the rough environments where they might be

working, robots in a swarm might be susceptible to partial failures ranging from inaccurate sensors to overpowered/low-powered motors. Therefore, we want the swarm to adapt to these failures and retain with the best functionality possible. Inspired by Leafcutting ants an emergent task partitioning strategy is proposed that will provide

fault-tolerance against partial failures to robots. Leafcutting ants divide the task of foraging into two parts. At the same time that one group of ants cut leaves on the branches, another group on the floor collects them and takes them to the nest. The robots will divide the task in an emergent way in which the robots will learn the appropriate distance that will provide them a high collection rate with a low probability of getting the food source lost.

Individualdifferencesandsecondlanguage learning Veronica Garcia Castro - Department of Education

The research is in second language acquisition, and it focuses on the

incidental learning of vocabulary while reading. It analyses the effects of the individual differences of reading for pleasure in the first language, vocabulary size in the second language, and phonological memory, in the learning outcomes of receptive (recognition) and productive (recall) knowledge. Learning vocabulary involves knowing the use, form, and meaning of the words we are reading. This study tested, through immediate

post-tests, three different word s aspects: grammatical functions, orthographic knowledge, and knowledge of association. Findings showed that we learn more vocabulary receptively than productively, that reading for pleasure in the first language increases the ability to recognize the correct spelling of words in a second language, and the ability to write correct grammatical sentences using the target words, and that high phonetic memory may predict the recognition of the grammatical functions of the words people are learning.

Whatarethelimitsofstorytelling?Jamie Cawthra - Department of Philosophy

Sometimes impossible or outrageous things happen in stories. What does that do to us, the people

experiencing it? Sometimes it means we just don’t like the story (‘It was too weird!’). Sometimes it makes us explain away the odd happenings by saying they’re metaphorical, or that the narrator isn’t telling the truth (‘That didn’t literally happen! It was just figurative!’). Sometimes we invent rational explanations for them (‘They didn’t

actually change the past, it just looked like it!’). Maybe all this means there are restrictions on what sorts of things can happen in a story. That’s what I’m trying to find out – how the limits of our imagination and tolerance can be the limits of storytelling. My work draws on existing research in several areas – philosophy, psychology and literary theory. From these, I aim to find out how we interpret and appreciate impossible fiction.

Effectiveremedies-makingwrongsrightReginald Frection - York Law School

Listen to the silence HasmikGasparyan - Department of Theatre, Film and Television

Domestic Workers in Hong Kong who complain about labour rights violations, find themselves seeking

redress at the labour Department for complaints which range from excessive work hours, sexual, emotional and physical abuse which ends in early termination of their employment contracts. The preferred method of resolving violations and final compensation is conciliation, a non-judicial method where the worker is required to negotiate with their

If in the beginning was the word (John1:1) then what was before the word? Was the act of

creation also the act of breaking the silence? Despite extensive research on the notion of silence across a wide range of disciplines (music, philosophy, literature, architecture, theology) little is known about silence in Film. The image that emerges from published literature is the negative and relative nature of cinematic silence;

employer about final payments although their entitlements are outlined in their contracts. The complaints are treated as simple labour disputes. The lack of assessment to determine the nature of the violations results in a more serious violation of forced labour to go undetected, uninvestigated and unpunished. My research attempts to determine if the methods to prevent or redress violations are compatible with the requirement of an effective remedy as outlined in domestic and international law to which Hong Kong is obligated.

and its intrinsic connection to sound. This research will study directorial approaches and sound techniques applied by selected filmmakers in making cinematic silence. It will expand on the notion of cinematic silence as a strong narrative device that can contribute to the representation of human experience and bring attention to questions such as ‘how do filmmakers approach silence on screen?’, ‘is there a tendency to always ‘fill the gap’?’ and ‘how do audiences experience silence in films?’.

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Buildingclimate-resilience:Ukraine’sagri-food sector can win-win-win NatalieKopytko - Environment Department

Three facets to addressing climate change exist: lessening impacts through

greenhouse gas reduction, adapting to impacts that cannot be avoided and developing sustainably. Experts argue that building climate-resilience integrates all three facets, thereby providing the strongest response by achieving a triple-win. Yet, typically each aspect has been treated as a distinct response and studied separately. As such, insufficient research exists about how to build resilience. A case study of Ukraine’s agri-food sector

begins to address this research gap. The methods used ensured that a diverse array of interviewees, from farmers to business people to policy-makers, informed the direction of research. The results revealed that factors such as corruption, land tenancy, trust and a perceived inability to work together function as barriers to building resilience. Fortunately, these factors are already high-priority policy issues receiving strong public support for reform. Moreover, learning from both international and domestic projects helped to build resilience.

Makenotyourthoughtsyourprisons:usingShakespeare-basededucationforcriminalrehabilitationLauraLouiseNicklin - Department of Education

In 2016 the UK government is unveiling plans to reform prisons,

focussing on education based rehabilitation. Good examples of existing successful tools are therefore crucial at this time. Shakespeare has been used successfully in criminal rehabilitation in the USA for over 20 years both inside and outside prison. Repeat offending rates for course participants are as low as 5.6 % compared with a national rate

of over 70%. I joined adult and youth offenders across three states experiencing first-hand what they do, why they do it, why Shakespeare and what is gained from it. During this time, I met with and gathered data from leaders and participants about the impact these courses can have. Where prisoners are presented in media to be ignorant and less than human, these prisoners use Shakespeare to learn, develop and show change for the better.

Regi has a background in law enforcement. While living in Hong Kong in 2010 he became aware of the problems of Migrant Domestic Workers and the manner in which their complaints were resolved. Regi volunteered for three years at St. John’s Cathedral assisting migrant workers navigate the labour claims process. This experience prompted Regi to pursue his PhD in Law. Natalie is currently in the write-up year of her thesis in the Environment Department. Prior to coming to York, she received a BSc

from Simon Fraser University in Biology and a Master of Environmental Studies from The Evergreen State College. In between degrees, Natalie worked primarily as an educator for environmental non-profits.

Hasmik Gasparyan has a diverse background in media spanning both theory and practice. As an experienced filmmaker, with her ‘Investigating the making of cinematic silence’ PhD project, Hasmik wants to reflect on and refine her practice.

Laura Louise Nicklin is a third year PhD student in the Department of Education. She is investigating Shakespeare and arts-focused criminal rehabilitation projects through multi-sited ethnography. She has a BA in Language and Literature in Education (2012), and an MA in Shakespeare in Education (2013).

3 Minute Thesis - 201610

Whyisbehaviourmanagementinschoolsnotworkingforeveryone?Laura Oxley - Department of Education

The way that behaviour is managed in English schools is not working

for all students. A small number of students behave in a challenging way on a daily basis. This disrupts learning and creates stress for school staff. The students who behave in this way get caught in a cycle, which often leads to exclusion from school. As part of my research, I am talking to head teachers to find out what their experiences are of dealing with difficult

behaviour and what their views are on whether the way we manage this is working. I have talked with some head teachers who are doing some great work, trying new ways of managing behaviour. I hope that my research will highlight the reasons why these different approaches are not being used in more English schools and will suggest ways in which stress for school staff can be reduced.

Feeding the world with a good grainKuntalSingh - Department of Biology

Global warming is expected to create a more variable climate in the future especially in

rainfall patterns. Rainfall patterns are projected to change globally affecting crop production in areas that depend on natural rainfall for crop cultivation. Rice is a major crop consumed by large population of India and is sensitive to changing rainfall patterns. My thesis is a part of BBSRC-funded ‘SCPRID’ project titled “Using

wild ancestor plants to make rice more resilient to increasingly unpredictable water availability”. The objective of this project is to develop new rice varieties which have improved drought tolerance and give better yield under drought conditions compared to the existing varieties. My research, in particular, focuses on quantifying the impacts of climate change on rainfed rice yield and assessing the performance of the new varieties developed under the SCPRID project.

The organisers The Research Excellence Training Team (RETT) serves to provide all researchers, both research students and research staff (research assistants, associates and fellows), with the support and development opportunities they need to excel in their chosen fields and careers. RETT are committed to providing all researchers with a supportive, stimulating and structured framework in which to improve how they conduct their research and develop their professional skills and career profile.

RETT want all our researchers at York to realise their potential and fulfil their career aspirations, whatever they may be. We are always looking for collaborators in the form of organisations and individuals who can support our work. If you, or your organisation, are interested in helping us to develop our programme of skills training or are able to offer opportunities for our researchers, please contact us at: rett@york.ac.uk

For more information see: www.york.ac.uk/rdt

Acknowledgements The Research Excellence Training Team (RETT) at the University of York would like to thank the following people for their involvement and support with this event: all the members of the Judging Panel, Dr Ruth Penfold-Mounce, Dr Tom Hartley, the Widening Participation Team, the GSA (Graduate School Association), the York Graduate Research School, North Yorkshire Coast Higher Education Collaboration, YorkTalks PhD Research Spotlight finalists, the Alumni Office and, of course, our audience.

Laura is a third-year part-time PhD student in the Psychology in Education Research Centre. She has worked in the education sector for the past 12 years and currently works with schools to support young people at risk of exclusion.

Kuntal is a third-year PhD student in Biology. He grew up in India and studied Zoology and Environmental Studies before joining York. In his free time, Kuntal likes doing Salsa with the Latin Society and learning Spanish.

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