Our Community, Our Voices: Stories about Oak Tree estate created by Oak Tree residents

Co(l)laboratory 2025 Research Placement

Aerial drone photo of a UK residential housing estate and rows of houses from above in the summer time

Key Details

Project Title: Our Community, Our Voices: Stories about Oak Tree estate created by Oak Tree residents

Deadline: 11:59pm Sunday 02 March 2025

Funding offer: Candidates receive a tax-free bursary of £1,300, paid in 2 instalments.

Project start date: Monday 28 April 2025

Working hours: Part-time, fixed term (minimum 14hrs hrs per week) until 11 July 2025

Working style: Flexible working supported with some in-person training and meeting requirements. Exact working pattern to be agreed between successful candidate and lead supervisor.

Certification: On successful completion, candidates will receive a formal certificate of recognition from Nottingham Trent University and the University of Nottingham.

Project Supervisors

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

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

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.

What will a successful candidate be doing?

The successful candidates will use creative narrative methods to create, analyse and represent the lived experiences of Oak Tree residents. Using methods such as photo-elicitation, and story circles, researchers will work with residents to share their stories.

Residents will also be given opportunities to submit their stories via other textual formats such as the submission of Word documents, or handwritten documents. Providing a variety of methods will make the project accessible to a wider range of people in the community. The researchers will work with residents, and the wider team to create outputs which represent the community in ways that challenge representations of Oak Tree which fail to capture its rich cultural heritage.

Who are we looking for?

Please ensure you have read the eligibility criteria for the scheme, available on the main 2025 Research Placements page. For more details about the kind of candidates we are looking for, visit our Research Placements overview page.

Competencies

Strong organisational and time management skills.
Willingness to work with the ideas, beliefs and opinions of others, particularly when they may not align with personal positions.
Agile responsiveness to changes within the research space.
Active listening skills and ability to communicate clearly with others.
Connection to the Oak Tree community as a resident.

Desirable Competencies

Previous experience carrying out work that involved engaging with individuals, and/or groups in a co-production research context.
Experience working with participants from different institutions to meet a shared outcome.
Experience communicating with different audiences using different dissemination approaches.
Previous experience organising others to meet shared goals within groups.
Experience interpreting information/data to develop evidence-informed practice.