Cohort 2025 Research Placement Project
About The Project
This project seeks to work with Oak Tree residents to create stories which represent the varied experiences of life on the estate. Work will be grounded in and carried out by members of the Oak Tree community in collaboration with colleagues from Nottinghamshire County Council, University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University. The work aims to challenge what are often culturally deficit representations of Oak Tree in the press and the public imagination. Stories of loss, disadvantage and problems obscure inter-generational stories of a community full of cultural wealth and rich complexities. The project provides researchers with an opportunity to work with fellow residents to create stories about life on Oak Tree on their terms, as opposed to more powerful others doing it for them. Working collaboratively, the researchers and wider project team, will work with residents to create stories to share with wider audiences to represent the cultural wealth and complexity of Oak Tree.
Project Aims
Taking equality, diversity and inclusion matters seriously, this placement focuses on a pilot project that highlights the importance of place-based and grassroots arts practices, as well as the role of creative arts in developing regional cultural economies. The successful candidate will aim to:
- to provide community-based researchers from Oak Tree with opportunities to develop narrative research approaches to create knowledge about the estate on their terms
- to foster community connectedness among Oak Tree residents by creating stories to communicate the rich cultural wealth of the estate
- identify co-production approaches which can be mobilised to promote civic engagement between community groups, universities and other institutions.
Project Team
- Research Candidate: Sian Willows
- Lead Supervisor: Dr Charlie Davis, University of Nottingham
- Co-Supervisor: Dr Ania Atkinson, Nottingham Trent University
- Co-Supervisor: Luke Parmenter, Nottingham Trent University
- Co-Supervisor: Dr Chris Rolph, Nottingham Trent University
- Community Supervisor: Dr Kate Taylor, Nottinghamshire County Council Education Support Service