Cross London Sociolinguistics Seminar: 'Researcher well-being: preparing for, and responding to, emotionally challenging research'
When:
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Venue:
Birkbeck 43 Gordon Square
Applied linguists may be exposed to emotionally challenging material, such as narratives of trauma or prejudice-filled discourse, while conducting their research. Yet researchers are seldom offered training or clinically-informed supervision to help them work with sensitive topics and data. Where it is available, support tends to focus on how to protect participants from psychological harm, as driven by university ethics protocols. There is a need to do more to safeguard researchers, in addition to the secondary aim of ensuring that the research is not contaminated with researchers’ own distress.
This presentation will review best practice when carrying out emotionally challenging research, with a focus on researcher well-being. It includes recommendations such as writing a Researcher Wellbeing Plan (Brance & Skinner, 2024), putting in place independent wellbeing supervision if needed (Skinner et al., 2025) and keeping a research journal. In the workshop, participants will be invited to reflect on and discuss which aspects of their own project may involve emotionally challenging interactions with participants, documents or other forms of data. We will then explore which sources of institutional and social support, as well as self-care, are available to participants, as well as discussing what participants have found helpful – or unhelpful – to date.
References:
- Skinner, T., & Brance, K. (2024). Researcher Wellbeing Plan Template. Researcher Wellbeing Project: University of Bath. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/380317302_Researcher_Wellbeing_Plan_Template_C
- Skinner, T., Brance, K., Halligan, S., Tsang, E. & Girling, H. (2025). Coping with Emotionally Challenging Research: Developing a Strategic Approach to Researcher Wellbeing. J Acad Ethics, 23, 2559–2583. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-025-09665-5
Contact name: Dr. Jackie Lou
Speakers-
Dr. Louise Rolland
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Dr Louise Rolland is an Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck, where she obtained a PhD in Applied Linguistics in 2019. Her project investigated multilingual clients’ experiences of monolingual and multilingual language practices in psychotherapy. Her research interests focus on individual multilingualism, with a special interest in language and trauma, emotions, memory and identity. Her work also interrogates language practices within research projects and academic writing, and advocates for linguistic reflexivity and inclusivity.
She is a British Academy International Writing Workshops 2023 awardee, currently co-organising a programme for early career researchers in applied linguistics and psychology in Kenya alongside colleagues at the University of Essex, Kenyatta University and Birkbeck.
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