Capturing Your (Research) Flag
The journey throughout ResBaz will lead you many steps closer to many things: finding the best research tool, deciphering your research question, stumbling upon potential collaborations. While all this forward momentum is positioned to be wonderful for research advancements and growth in both academia and industry, let’s not lose sight of the bigger picture.
I urge you, therefore, to take a step back and ask yourselves this:
Why are you doing your research?
What has brought you here?
How will your research benefit the world we live in today?
You navigating the wiley windy roads of research
Upon registering for ResBaz on Monday morning you will receive a strip of coloured fabric corresponding to the stream you’ve enrolled in. 6 streams. 6 colours. I urge you to wear your colours and wear them proudly. Use them as an arm-band, head-band, make-shift scarf, belt. In the words of songstress Cyndi Lauper, “Your true colours are beautiful / like a rainbow”.
A potential yellow team (admittedly very androcentric)
The fun doesn’t stop there. By day 3 I urge all ResBaz attendees to untie their colours, grab a marker and write + finish the following sentence:
“I hope my research helps the world by….”
Once completed we’ll tie these research flags all around and throughout the bedouin tent.
Simple. Together, we’ll take a step back and reflect on what we, as researchers, are here to do. And this all fits in neatly with our broader goal: to create a community of researchers within a shared space. When asked what research principle you believed most underpinned ResBaz, the largest response was, “we believe in cross-disciplinary research networking”. By stripping off your colours you’ll no longer be tied to your tools, your data, your disciplines. Instead you’ll be united by a principle strongly rooted in the belief that research is a societal good.
Display your flag proudly.
But why do all of this so overtly? Because we want to make noise. We want you tweeting, taking photos, conducting interviews. Sharing your notes, feelings, ideas, experiences.
We want loud research. Being a researcher means much more than thinking of a hypothesis, crunching numbers and publishing papers. It’s about sharing your knowledge and aiding the public understanding of research.
Sometimes you need to take a few steps back before you make the running leap forward. ResBaz - your research flags - are thus all steps towards becoming next generation digitally skilled researchers.
