Identity and Marginalised Communities

PRN@TUoS: The Participatory Research Network at the University of Sheffield


Dr Kirsty Liddiard, with colleagues in the faculties of Arts and Humanities; Medicine, Dentistry and Health; and Science, has recently been awarded funding from Research England for a project entitled, Mapping Participatory Research at the University of Sheffield: Establishing Legacies for Best Practice.


The project will map and share participatory research across all faculties of the university and establish an ongoing Participatory Research Network called PRN@TUoS:


  • Aim 1. Map existing best practice in relation to participatory research across the University via a University-wide survey of academics and professional service colleagues. It is hoped that this early mapping will later be formalised on an annual basis via the PRN@TUoS;


  • Aim 2. Map existing practice with external collaborators, charities, social enterprises and industry partners in relation to participatory research with University partners;


  • Aim 3. Map the HEI and funding landscape to explore relationships between participatory research and the development of positive and inclusive research cultures; including equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers (Vitae, 2019).


Once established, PRN@TuOS will work with the four University Flagship Research Institutes (Energy Institute; Healthy Lifespan Institute; Neuroscience Institute; Institute for Sustainable Food) and Cross-cutting Institutes and Centres to capture and promote pioneering interdisciplinary participatory research expertise and practice at the University.

Rethinking D/deafness, film and accessibility

Dr Kirsty Liddiard and Dr Ryan Bramley, of the School of Education and iHuman, have just begun a Sheffield Innovation Programme (SIP) project with Beth Evans and Jon Rhodes at user research and design studio Paper to explore how D/deaf people perceive suspense in films as an under-researched and under-represented group.


The participatory research project explores D/deaf people's experiences of suspense in film and television. It is a small scale project, funded by the Sheffield Innovation Programme (SIP), which is a regional initiative that aims to stimulate business growth and promote the development of long-term relationships with small and medium enterprises; this is achieved by providing access to a broad range of academic expertise and university facilities. The project’s community partner is Paper, a local Sheffield-based user research and service design company. Paper has a number of governmental, industry and academic clients and partners, and believes in designing with people, not for them, and making sure no person is left behind.


From early collaboration, the team’s aim has been to co-create an accessible research process. The research is participatory through its inclusion and engagement with an Advisory Group made up of D/deaf people - people who identify as D/deaf and use British Sign Language (BSL) as a first language - who will actively guide the project, its themes and provide expert knowledge and guidance to the process to ensure an accessible and truly inclusive project for D/deaf participants and their communities. The capital 'D' here is used to denote people who identify as culturally Deaf and thus who use BSL as their first language. Importantly, the Advisory Group also ensures that D/deaf people/participants, awareness, voices and lived knowledge sit at the project’s core, acknowledging that the Research Team are all hearing people. In a similar vein, our commitment to BSL ensures that we fully embed accessible forms of communication and work to mitigate researcher-participant language barriers.


We will keep you updated as the project progresses!