Research for all in the future university

In my presentation, I presented the utopian idea of the future university as a place where everyone can conduct research, and the small interventions I am currently making to encourage this idea. The concept of the third space encourages us to break down silos and think beyond job titles and realise how existing in ‘the blurred space’ or having a blurred work identity can actually allow for new perspectives and collaborations to foster. My dream for the university is that everyone has a chance to do research or to simply have the opportunity to be reflective about their work: to think, read and write. Both academic (teaching-focused) and professional staff are often denied time to do this, particularly if their research might not translate to immediate monetary outputs. If we rethink the relations between the academic and professional staff worlds, and view research as a collaborative effort, we might find more opportunity for us all to engage in research in some way. In my university, I’ve helped establish a community of practice (CoP) that was firstly focused on academic literacy resources; however, because we opened up this CoP to anyone in the university, creating a welcoming space, it unintentionally became a haven for third space staff, people who previously felt like they weren’t allowed to take part in ‘academic’ conversations despite having a lot of skills and knowledge to contribute. This has helped develop new collaborations, for example, between academic literacy and wellbeing staff, and enabled members to work with reflexivity and contribute to new spaces such as the University’s Teaching and Learning Showcase. Our CoP highlights how the development of inclusive and non-hierarchical spaces for staff in the university and the acknowledgement of blurred work identities can lead to exciting new collaborations and potential research endeavours.