Research Training

Digital Cultures and Societies is committed to developing and providing digital research training opportunities for staff and students. To find out more contact us at digitalcultures@hass.uq.edu.au.

DCS Winter School

The Digital Cultures and Societies Winter School is three days of workshops about digital research for humanities, arts, and social sciences. The Winter School is an opportunity to meet fellow UQ HASS HDR students and form a cohort dedicated to the intersection of our research with digital research concepts and methods. There is no need to be an expert in digital methods, this is an introductory program that will teach you these methods, techniques, and digital project considerations and possibilities. In collaborative workshops you will have the opportunity to engage with researchers across humanities, arts, and social sciences whose work engages with the intersection between digital technologies and our personal and professional lives, our private and public selves. The Digital Cultures and Societies team will lead discussions about digital research approaches and workshops on developing your own research practices. You will be introduced to digital storytelling, digital project management and problem solving, text analysis and data considerations, and machine vision and image classification. This is a cohort-based event, with the same group attending every session and leading to long lasting relationships and collaboration opportunities. Digital Cultures and Societies are relevant to all areas of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, so students from every school are strongly encouraged to express their interest in attending. Please remember to fill your EoI by 5pm Monday the 15th of May here: https://form.jotform.com/231032398876867

Please note that this year the Winter School is only open for enrolled UQ students.

Day 1: Morning Session 9AM – 12PM	Introduction to Digital Cultures and Societies Winter School with Nic Carrah and DCS Postdoctoral researchers
Day 1: Afternoon Session 1PM – 3PM	Stuck projects with Sam Hames and DCS Postdoctoral Researchers
Day 2: Morning Session 9AM – 12PM	Digital Storytelling workshop with Tom Doig
Day 2: Afternoon Session 1PM – 3PM	Podcasting workshop with Caroline Graham
Day 2 Evening	Tour of “We are electric” at UQ Art Gallery followed by reception and drinks
Day 3: Morning Session 9AM – 12PM	Data in the Humanities with Text analytics case study Martin Schweinberger and Sam Hames
Day 3: Afternoon Session 1PM – 3PM	Machine Vision workshop with Nic Carrah and Daniel Angus
Day 3 Evening	Informal dinner and drinks at St Lucy’s

Digital Research Training

Summer Research Scholarship Program 2024

Applications open 18 September and close 22 October 2023

https://employability.uq.edu.au/summer-winter-research

Exploring informal economies on social media platforms

Project Duration: The research project will be conducted over 6 weeks (Jan 8th to Feb 16th 2024) for 15-20hrs per week. The student will meet for weekly meetings with the supervisor and can work from the Digital Cultures and Society hub offices at the University of Queensland. The student will be included in everyday activities and events at the Hub. We can accommodate a remote working arrangement in accordance with an accessibility or COVID requirements.

Project Description: Over the last decade big data and machine learning technologies have shaped the way online advertising operates. As part of this shift, advertisers can target potential consumers via data traces stemming from individual users’ behaviour and characteristics. This project explores how actors involved in informal economies utilize social media advertising: how informal work is offered and procured online and across borders.

In this summer research project, the student will analyse advertisements from the Australian Ad Observatory – a collection of over 600,000 ads Australians have seen on Facebook – a research initiative of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. There are two projects available, focused on:

The hiring of “invisibilized” workers from the Global South via work advertising data as seen by virtual assistants in the Philippines
The informal economy of dropshipping as targeted to the Australian consumer

This project aims to:

Map out how social media platforms facilitate informal labor practices
Do a comparative analysis that finds the roundabout, individualized global labor supply chains as they weave across borders

Approach: The student will conduct a qualitative content analysis using a coding framework. The student will follow the following process: familiarise themselves with the dataset of ads, draft a short literature review, develop research question/s that will evolve throughout the research process, develop a criterion of inclusion for a subset of ads based on thematic or structural factors, iteratively code the subset of data, and develop findings.

Expected outcomes and deliverables:

The student will gain:

first-hand experience conducting empirical research: including project design, data collection and data analysis.
the opportunity to present their work at the Digital Cultures and Societies Hub
the opportunity to begin to develop a journal article with close supervision

Suitable for: This project is open to applications from students who are 2nd year or above. The project would suit students studying communication, sociology, East Asia Studies, or cultural anthropology.

Primary Supervisor: Dr Andrea Alarcon, Postdoctoral Research Fellow.

Further Information: To discuss the project or ask questions, please contact Andrea Alarcon a.alarcon@uq.edu.au.

Services, support and sources of information for donor-conceived adults

Project Description: Donor conception is an assisted reproductive technology in which donated eggs or sperm are used to achieve pregnancy. Prior to 2000, there was no research conducted with those conceived in this way (Blyth et al., 2020). In the last decades, researchers have focused on understanding how donor-conceived people make sense of their families and construct their identities (Macmillan et al., 2021). Yet less is known about the range of sources of information and support donor-conceived people access (from websites and social media groups to support groups and counselling). Indeed, scholars have called for more research that explores donor-conceived people’s attitudes towards support services “to address questions of ‘what works, when and why?’” (Crawshaw et al., 2016, p. 78). Using data from a national online survey with donor-conceived people (N=91), collected on Qualtrics, this project will describe the distinct forms of offline and online support donor-conceived Australians engage with and identify their associated attitudes.

Blyth, E., Crawshaw, M., Frith, L., & Jones, C. (2020). Donor-Conceived People’s Views and Experiences of Their Genetic Origins: A Critical Analysis of the Research Evidence. In K. Beier, C. Brügge, P. Thorn, & C. Wiesemann (Eds.), Assistierte Reproduktion mit Hilfe Dritter (pp. 361–388). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-60298-0_24

Crawshaw, M., Daniels, K., Adams, D., Bourne, K., van Hooff, J. A. P., Kramer, W., ... & Thorn, P. (2015). Emerging models for facilitating contact between people genetically related through donor conception: a preliminary analysis and discussion. Reproductive Biomedicine & Society Online, 1(2), 71-80. Macmillan, C. M., Allan, S., Johnstone, M., & Stokes, M. A. (2021). The motivations of donor-conceived adults for seeking information about, and contact with, sperm donors. Reproductive BioMedicine Online, 43(1), 149–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rbmo.2021.04.005.

Expected outcomes and deliverables:

The student will gain:

first-hand experience conducting empirical research: data analysis and writing development.
the opportunity to present their work at the Digital Cultures and Societies Hub
the opportunity to develop a journal article with close supervision

Suitable for: This project is open to applications from students 3rd year or above students with strong quantitative skills (e.g. psychology background).

Primary Supervisor: Dr Giselle Newton, Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Further Information: To discuss the project or ask questions, please contact Giselle at giselle.newton@uq.edu.au.