City Building | City Fix
Program
City Building
The Melbourne Centre for Cities aims to equip its doctoral and early career researchers with the skills needed to build a career in research and address the challenges associated with their work.
The City Building series are exclusively for Centre staff including doctoral researchers, Centre Fellows and Centre Associates.
Session details
When: 12:30 - 1:30pm on the first Thursday of the month from June to November
The City Building workshops are designed to equip postgraduates and early career scholars working on cities-related research with professional skills to enable them to position and represent themselves for their future careers. The series is open to all but is designed with an audience of early career researchers, doctoral students, and ambitious honours and masters students in mind.
Thursday 1 June Session 1: Building research partnerships | The Melbourne Centre for Cities is committed to fostering outward-focused research that seeks to make a positive difference in our cities. But how do you develop effective partnerships with non-academic stakeholders to undertake research? This workshop will explore the ways that you might develop urban research partnerships, through community collaborations and co-designing research with the private and public sector. Where: Seminar Room 146, Glyn Davis Building | ||
Thursday 13 July Session 2: Building conference know-how | Our Annual Symposium is one of the Melbourne Centre for Cities flagship events where you can share your research and learn about other members’ projects. But how do you get the most from symposia and conferences? This workshop will explore some of the best ways to navigate conferences successfully while also making them enjoyable rather than daunting experiences! Where: Japanese Room, 4th Floor in ArchitectureBuilding and Planning (Glyn Davis, MSD) | ||
Thursday 3 August Session 3: Building a writing portfolio | Members of the Melbourne Centre for Cities write for a range of urban-focused journals. But what journal should you choose to publish your cities research in and how do you build up a portfolio of publications? This workshop will introduce you to some of the key journals in the cities space, and it will guide you through some of the things you should consider when developing a portfolio of publications from your project. Where: Room 103, Alan Gilbert Building | ||
Thursday 7 September Session 4: Building grants expertise | Researchers in the Melbourne Centre for Cities successfully bid for research funding from a range of different agencies. But how do you choose which grants to apply for and what makes for a successful application? This workshop will introduce you to the range of funders available to you to seek financial support to undertake your research, as well as strategies for maximising your chances of grant success. Where: Kwong Lee Dow, Room 231 | ||
Thursday 5 October Session 5: Building knowledge exchange | Researchers in the Melbourne Centre for Cities are committed to making their research findings speak to wider audiences. But how do you share your research with non-academic audiences? This workshop will explore how to translate your research so that it is helpful for diverse stakeholders beyond the academy, as well as how you can use the media to amplify your findings. Where: Kwong Lee Dow, Room 231 | ||
Thursday 2 November Session 6: Building your career | Members of the Melbourne Centre for Cities go on to have successful careers in a range of different sectors. But how do you decide which career path is for you? This workshop will explore the range of careers that cities experts can develop, from careers in academia to careers in the private public sectors—and everything in between! Where: Seminar Room 146, Glyn Davis Building | ||
The City Fix series is not running in 2023, but watch this space for updates for 2024!
The Melbourne Centre for Cities aims to equip its doctoral and early career researchers with the skills needed to build a career in research and address the challenges associated with their work.
The City Fix series are exclusively for Centre staff including doctoral researchers, Centre Fellows and Centre Associates.
City Fix
As researchers we often come up against challenges in our work. Whether it’s conceptual conundrums, methodological dilemmas, practical challenges, or something else, these are things that researchers at every career stage experience—and often more regularly than we would probably like to admit!
The City Fix series is a monthly roundtable workshop for Centre members where we collectively work through challenges that people are facing in their cities research.
Each hour-long session will feature a Graduate Researcher and a more established scholar (either an early career researcher or a more senior academic) from the Centre who will share a challenge that they are currently experiencing in their research. The time will be split into two sections. Each presenter will talk through their challenge with the group for 10 minutes, which will then be followed by 20 minutes of suggestions, feedback and discussion from the group (made up of other Centre members).
The City Fix series is very informal and intended as a space for work-in-progress that is both private and courteous. It’s also a really good way to make intellectual connections across the Melbourne Centre for Cities. Our hope is that discussion around ‘sticky’ issues in our field will help us to develop shared ideas and discuss points of tension with other researchers working on design, governance, ecology, technology, and other city-related issues.
Get involved
Whether you’re a graduate researcher, early career researcher, or more senior scholar, we would really appreciate volunteers to share their research challenges in our City Fix sessions. There is very little preparation required, save attending the session itself (no need for slides, unless you want them), and we hope that you will get lots out of the discussion for your own research. If you’re keen to take part, please sign up here.