Esther Lisk-Carew is engagement coordinator for a programme called AHEAD (Arts and Humanities Engagement and Dialogue) at Manchester Metropolitan University. She is also a freelance consultant, trustee of Manchester's Portico Library and founder of the Black and Global Majority Cultural Creative Network.
Sarah and Esther talk about
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Esther Lisk-Carew: There is a through line of telling narratives, telling stories,
Speaker:getting data about the people coming into you, that has been part of my work.
Speaker:Some people suit a portmanteau career really well.
Speaker:Certainly those who have cultural and creative practice themselves.
Speaker:It feels like a comedy answer, but when the Buffy reboot comes out, I
Speaker:want Giles to no longer be a librarian, but to be an academic researcher.
Speaker:Nothing makes a career look sexier and cool than having a hot person
Speaker:on a hit TV show doing that job.
Sarah McLusky:Hello there.
Sarah McLusky:I'm Sarah McLusky and this is Research Adjacent.
Sarah McLusky:Each episode I talk to amazing research adjacent professionals about what
Sarah McLusky:they do and why it makes a difference.
Sarah McLusky:Keep listening to find out why we think the research adjacent space
Sarah McLusky:is where the real magic happens.
Sarah McLusky:Hello there and welcome or welcome back to the Research Adjacent podcast.
Sarah McLusky:Before I introduce today's guest, I just wanted to thank you for
Sarah McLusky:choosing to share your day with me.
Sarah McLusky:If you're on LinkedIn, maybe you could share a photo of
Sarah McLusky:where you are listening from.
Sarah McLusky:I know that we have listeners all over the world, so I would honestly be thrilled
Sarah McLusky:to see what you can see right now.
Sarah McLusky:If you do, make sure that you tag me, Sarah McLusky, and the
Sarah McLusky:podcast page Research Adjacent.
Sarah McLusky:So back to today's guest.
Sarah McLusky:We are returning from a short summer break with a fantastic guest who has like
Sarah McLusky:many cultural professionals, has pieced together a career doing what she loves.
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew coordinates the AHEAD program at Manchester
Sarah McLusky:Metropolitan University.
Sarah McLusky:AHEAD stands for Arts and Humanities Engagement and Dialogue, and her
Sarah McLusky:role includes projects like a crime and justice film festival and the
Sarah McLusky:experimental arts series Bunker Talks.
Sarah McLusky:Although it was this role at MMU that brought Esther into my world.
Sarah McLusky:In prepping the show notes, I have discovered that she was
Sarah McLusky:nominated for the Manchester People's Cultural Award in 2024.
Sarah McLusky:She won the Volunteer Leader of the Year Award in 2021, and that she has
Sarah McLusky:also been a contestant on the Weakest Link, Pointless and Mastermind.
Sarah McLusky:Esther is also no stranger to podcasting, and through her Linktree
Sarah McLusky:in the show notes, she can find a series that she created in 2020
Sarah McLusky:called Well Spoken Tokens, exploring diversity in the cultural sector.
Sarah McLusky:On top of all of this, Esther also does freelance work, is a trustee of
Sarah McLusky:Manchester's Portico Library and also the founder of the Black and Global
Sarah McLusky:Majority Cultural Creative Network.
Sarah McLusky:I am starting to wonder if Esther ever sleeps.
Sarah McLusky:In our conversation, we talk about how engagement in the arts and humanities is
Sarah McLusky:often baked into the research process, her career journey, which includes a leisurely
Sarah McLusky:detour via the French legal system and why she would use her Research Adjacent magic
Sarah McLusky:wand to rework Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Sarah McLusky:Yes, really.
Sarah McLusky:Listen on to hear about that and the rest of Esther's story.
Sarah McLusky:Welcome along to the podcast.
Sarah McLusky:Esther, it is fantastic to have you here.
Sarah McLusky:I wonder if we could begin by hearing a little bit about
Sarah McLusky:who you are and what you do.
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: Thank you very much for having me, Sarah.
Sarah McLusky:So my name's Esther Lisk-Carew.
Sarah McLusky:I am the engagement coordinator for a programme called Ahead at
Sarah McLusky:Manchester Metropolitan University and ahead stands for Arts and
Sarah McLusky:Humanities Engagement and Dialogue.
Sarah McLusky:So it is the public engagement programme that helps our research academics in
Sarah McLusky:arts and humanities tell their stories, talk about their research, and connect
Sarah McLusky:with audiences, public, academics, people beyond the university here.
Sarah McLusky:So it's a really broad remit but it's a really interesting role.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah, I bet it is.
Sarah McLusky:And I think it's fantastic to have you on as a guest because I think people
Sarah McLusky:often think about public engagement as and also research as well as being
Sarah McLusky:about science subjects, engineering, technology, things like that.
Sarah McLusky:So tell us a bit about what sorts of things you're involved
Sarah McLusky:with in Arts and Humanities.
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: Arts and humanities because it's such a
Sarah McLusky:broad stretch of subjects, so it's the School of Architecture,
Sarah McLusky:it's sociology, it's English, it's history, it's a school of theatre.
Sarah McLusky:One of the things I sometimes struggle with is just doing it in a nutshell, but
Sarah McLusky:some of the projects that we've worked on are people in linguistics talking about
Sarah McLusky:social justice and how teachers how they might influence the ways in which academic
Sarah McLusky:learning is changed by looking at the ways in which they're teaching, what they're
Sarah McLusky:teaching, what's in the curriculum.
Sarah McLusky:So linguistics is really interesting.
Sarah McLusky:We've got the school of theatre.
Sarah McLusky:We've recently had one of our academics in the School of theatre
Sarah McLusky:who's had a production that's part of Manchester International Festival.
Sarah McLusky:It's a show called Liberation.
Sarah McLusky:Which talks to the Pan-African Congress that happened in Manchester in 1945.
Sarah McLusky:So it's interesting because quite a lot of people think about research outputs
Sarah McLusky:in terms of papers and conferences, and those are things that happen.
Sarah McLusky:But also there is nothing greater than having something, which one of the
Sarah McLusky:outputs of your research is a play that gets to engage hundreds of people a
Sarah McLusky:night on the subject of your researching this particular part of history and the
Sarah McLusky:impacts and legacies of this Congress that happened just after the war and so
Sarah McLusky:few people in Manchester, it's the 80th -anniversary this year, know much about
Sarah McLusky:that history, so it's really incredible that we have got people who are doing that
Sarah McLusky:research around who were these people?
Sarah McLusky:Why weren't their stories told at the time?
Sarah McLusky:Who were the women involved in telling their stories?
Sarah McLusky:Because quite often they get written out history.
Sarah McLusky:It's just such a really broad range of research areas.
Sarah McLusky:We've got people doing design for dementia, so collaborative working to
Sarah McLusky:talk about how if you co-design a game that helps people who are suffering with
Sarah McLusky:dementia access their memories, does it put off long-term adverse health outputs?
Sarah McLusky:We've got our Robotics Living lab.
Sarah McLusky:I could talk for hours about the Robotics Living Lab, which is an amazing
Sarah McLusky:project, which is from this school of Fashion, which is around working with
Sarah McLusky:people who are in industry, who have got small fashion businesses and how
Sarah McLusky:can robotics help and support them as small businesses, so amazing amount of
Sarah McLusky:research happening in the university.
Sarah McLusky:That does sound like a huge range of stuff, but it's also
Sarah McLusky:reminding me of the fact that sometimes I think the reason that people don't
Sarah McLusky:necessarily think of public engagement as being something that happens in the
Sarah McLusky:arts and humanities is because often it's something that's almost baked in
Sarah McLusky:to the way that they operate, isn't it?
Sarah McLusky:So like you say, you've got theatre studies of course they're gonna do plays.
Sarah McLusky:And then of course they're gonna have an audience for those plays.
Sarah McLusky:So it can be very much, I think, much more part of the process than in the sciences.
Sarah McLusky:Is that something that you've noticed?
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: Absolutely.
Sarah McLusky:The collaborative methodology coworking, co-producing.
Sarah McLusky:Working with different audiences to develop practice?
Sarah McLusky:I think a lot of those techniques and methodologies that people are
Sarah McLusky:encouraged to try and start using in other industries and in other academic
Sarah McLusky:areas do tend to already be used.
Sarah McLusky:So sometimes you are not doing it as new.
Sarah McLusky:You are talking about the ways in which you did it, or you are having
Sarah McLusky:a conference or a symposium about the different ways that people have done it
Sarah McLusky:differently or evolved that practice.
Sarah McLusky:Rather than going, oh no, I need to think about how I engage with young people who
Sarah McLusky:are affected by the scientific outcome and I dunno how to engage that in audience.
Sarah McLusky:Whereas actually, if we're talking about youth voices and justice.
Sarah McLusky:We're already working with young people 'cause they're part of those
Sarah McLusky:case studies and that way of working.
Sarah McLusky:And then the research outputs are probably more along the lines of how are we going
Sarah McLusky:to do quantitative data attached to that.
Sarah McLusky:So yeah, I think it's yeah, different lenses, different strands.
Sarah McLusky:The starting points are different.
Sarah McLusky:But I don't mentally think of it as distinct from a STEM subject, in
Sarah McLusky:terms of the way they do the research.
Sarah McLusky:It is the different types of research outputs I think are more common
Sarah McLusky:with arts and humanities sometimes.
Sarah McLusky:Yes, what I think in the next REF cycle, they're
Sarah McLusky:calling non-traditional outputs.
Sarah McLusky:Although you could argue that in some of these disciplines, these are actually
Sarah McLusky:very traditional outputs, couldn't you?
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:I think it's non-traditional in the way REF looks at outputs.
Sarah McLusky:It's not non-traditional in working practice.
Sarah McLusky:Yes.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Oh, it sounds like a, an amazing range of things that are happening there.
Sarah McLusky:So how did you find yourself in this role?
Sarah McLusky:Tell us a bit about your story.
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: Oh, it's, I've had a really varied career,
Sarah McLusky:which is, I've been very lucky.
Sarah McLusky:I've worked mainly in arts festival and venue operations.
Sarah McLusky:I've sometimes specialised in things like volunteer management and so
Sarah McLusky:that's been in the cultural sector for about 20 odd years, a little bit over.
Sarah McLusky:Where I would, I started out as the film administrator in independent cinema.
Sarah McLusky:One of the things I really loved was that there was a really strong
Sarah McLusky:festival programme throughout the year.
Sarah McLusky:So it was a place called Corner House, which is now morphed into a
Sarah McLusky:different organisation called HOME.
Sarah McLusky:But there used to be film festivals all the time, so it was logistical, it
Sarah McLusky:was getting speakers, getting people from around the world, getting films
Sarah McLusky:from all around the world, bringing people together, telling stories.
Sarah McLusky:There is a through line of telling narratives, telling stories, getting
Sarah McLusky:data about the people coming into you, that has been part of my work.
Sarah McLusky:And then working with volunteers in the heritage sector and in the art sector.
Sarah McLusky:You do a lot of data collection when you work with volunteer teams
Sarah McLusky:because you always, these are people who don't have to work with you.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:So you are always looking at ways you can continually motivate them, make
Sarah McLusky:sure you're not doing a load of staff recruitment, staff retention, volunteer
Sarah McLusky:recruitment, volunteer retention, having discussions with producers about
Sarah McLusky:how volunteers could be used in an interesting way to really engage them.
Sarah McLusky:So again, similarly the to working in arts and humanities research.
Sarah McLusky:You have these different ways of working with people that actually
Sarah McLusky:go a lot deeper than I think a lot of people think when they think,
Sarah McLusky:oh, you're a volunteer manager.
Sarah McLusky:Oh, you're a venue manager.
Sarah McLusky:You're doing, yes, a lot of the nuts and bolts things.
Sarah McLusky:But a lot of it is actually responding to data, learning, doing better,
Sarah McLusky:evaluating, and then trying to repeat that process again through
Sarah McLusky:trial, process of elimination.
Sarah McLusky:So there are parallels to working in an art sector.
Sarah McLusky:But then this role came up at the university.
Sarah McLusky:One of the things I've always found with arts and heritage is a lot of
Sarah McLusky:roles are tied to things like Arts Council funding or HLF funding,
Sarah McLusky:Heritage Lottery Fund funding.
Sarah McLusky:So it's quite unstable in terms of career progression.
Sarah McLusky:A lot of times I've done quite fixed term contracts, whether
Sarah McLusky:that's a couple of years.
Sarah McLusky:And so you deliver a project or deliver some activity and
Sarah McLusky:you might not necessarily have the same job or it evolves.
Sarah McLusky:So being within the university setting, being able to deliver things, but actually
Sarah McLusky:having a little bit more robustness.
Sarah McLusky:The period of REF is I think it's nine years.
Sarah McLusky:And my role was a relatively new one.
Sarah McLusky:They hadn't really looked at how engagement specifically fed into
Sarah McLusky:impact case studies, but obviously if you are looking at impact, who is
Sarah McLusky:coming along, what audiences you are reaching, how you are reaching them
Sarah McLusky:is a really important part of that.
Sarah McLusky:So I feel really lucky that the university had gone from doing
Sarah McLusky:much more around its research and thinking about its research culture.
Sarah McLusky:And I just got very lucky that there was this role that really matched my
Sarah McLusky:skillset at a time when Manchester Metropolitan was really looking at how
Sarah McLusky:does their research impact the world.
Sarah McLusky:It sounds like it makes sense the way that you've
Sarah McLusky:brought together all these different things that you've done before
Sarah McLusky:into this role that you do now.
Sarah McLusky:And as you say, I can see definite connections with having done events
Sarah McLusky:management and then that being applicable to like the public engagement type stuff.
Sarah McLusky:And also, as you say, around volunteer management and the fact,
Sarah McLusky:I think there's definite parallels between managing volunteers and doing
Sarah McLusky:things in public engagement because I think, again, it's like these
Sarah McLusky:people, they don't have to be there.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:They're choosing to be there and then how you actually interact
Sarah McLusky:with them and how understand why.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: Sorry, understanding motivation, but also
Sarah McLusky:holding that motivation to come and reengage with you over and again.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:I do think that is a consistent thing within different applications
Sarah McLusky:of my work over the years.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: But also I was really lucky because the organisation,
Sarah McLusky:the cultural organisations I've worked in, I've worked in some of the larger
Sarah McLusky:cultural organisations in Greater Manchester, are ones where when I was
Sarah McLusky:doing those sort of entry level jobs and early career jobs, a lot of my
Sarah McLusky:colleagues were people who were working in the cultural and creative industry.
Sarah McLusky:Now coincidentally lecturers at the university that I currently work in.
Sarah McLusky:It's really interesting because it's good to see them develop from
Sarah McLusky:being artists to being people who are now teaching people and being
Sarah McLusky:lecturers and then being researchers.
Sarah McLusky:And so it is interesting to see how their careers have developed and also, I think
Sarah McLusky:my role, it's not one that's consistently available in a lot of universities or,
Sarah McLusky:there's not always consistently this role in the way that it's presented.
Sarah McLusky:And it certainly isn't a role when I was at school thinking about
Sarah McLusky:what do I want to do with my life?
Sarah McLusky:What kind of career do I want to have?
Sarah McLusky:What kind of life do I wanna have?
Sarah McLusky:But it's really interesting role to have for someone who's interested in
Sarah McLusky:arts and culture, but I'm not an artist.
Sarah McLusky:I've never been an artistic practitioner, but I've always been interested in how
Sarah McLusky:things tell stories and how things happen.
Sarah McLusky:It's a really excellent job to combine my love and interest, I love learning.
Sarah McLusky:I look, I'm a huge nerd.
Sarah McLusky:So learning about all of the different academic disciplines and
Sarah McLusky:different bits of research, me, I could go on a real deep dive on them.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:And I find it much, I find it easier to do my job the more I know about the research.
Sarah McLusky:So sometimes they'll be like, oh, I want to do this conference, this event.
Sarah McLusky:Help me with that.
Sarah McLusky:The more I know about the research, the more I'm like, actually this is
Sarah McLusky:an audience that I think you might not have connected with before, but actually
Sarah McLusky:they would also be someone you would want to bring into the university or
Sarah McLusky:we go out from the university for them.
Sarah McLusky:So I think having worked in cultural sector brings a really
Sarah McLusky:different perspective to the academic audiences as well.
Sarah McLusky:You said there that you, this isn't something you aspire
Sarah McLusky:to do when you were at school.
Sarah McLusky:I'm thinking that again, is pretty, these jobs, I don't even know if they
Sarah McLusky:like, they, I'm pretty sure they didn't even exist when we were at school.
Sarah McLusky:What did you aspire to do when you were at school?
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: I think you've seen my IMDB, which this is the big,
Sarah McLusky:I often have to explain to people, particularly when I'm mentoring people
Sarah McLusky:about how you can change careers.
Sarah McLusky:So originally I wanted to be a French judge, so I went
Sarah McLusky:very academic, grammar school.
Sarah McLusky:And a lot of people at my school either went to Oxford or Cambridge
Sarah McLusky:and went into medicine and law, and those were, the marks of success.
Sarah McLusky:You got a really high profile kind of accountancy, those kinds of jobs.
Sarah McLusky:And I loved to talk and I loved to read and I loved languages, and so me
Sarah McLusky:thinking I'm not sciencey, I'm not gonna go into medicine or something like that.
Sarah McLusky:I wanted to be a lawyer.
Sarah McLusky:And then I specifically had a really great a level French teacher,
Sarah McLusky:and I thought I love France.
Sarah McLusky:I love law.
Sarah McLusky:I'll be a French lawyer.
Sarah McLusky:And there's only two places.
Sarah McLusky:There were only two places in the UK at the time where you could
Sarah McLusky:go on and do your legal studies with a full qualifying law degree.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:So one of them was, was Kent.
Sarah McLusky:Think it was Kent.
Sarah McLusky:And then one of them was the University of Liverpool where I
Sarah McLusky:ended up going and then but I'd always loved film, I'd loved theatre.
Sarah McLusky:I love arts and culture.
Sarah McLusky:I've loved reading all my life.
Sarah McLusky:And then when it came to doing this degree, I found it incredibly interesting.
Sarah McLusky:But I was also a bit of an idealist who wanted to change the world.
Sarah McLusky:And the more you study law, from my perspective, I didn't feel like I'd be
Sarah McLusky:changing the world by becoming a lawyer.
Sarah McLusky:I'd probably just be enforcing other people's laws and
Sarah McLusky:other people's decisions.
Sarah McLusky:So I had to rethink what I actively wanted to do in my life.
Sarah McLusky:And I realised I didn't want to be a lawyer, but I also
Sarah McLusky:didn't know what I wanted to do.
Sarah McLusky:I worked in the NHS for a while doing some project administration work as
Sarah McLusky:a temp and then got a permanent job.
Sarah McLusky:But again, it wasn't something that excited me about
Sarah McLusky:getting up in the morning.
Sarah McLusky:Then I saw this film administration job and it was two things, I was
Sarah McLusky:passionate about arts and film, and I was a great administrator.
Sarah McLusky:I was really good at looking at data and spreadsheets and pulling things
Sarah McLusky:together and staying organised.
Sarah McLusky:And then that then converted into a love, particularly of festivals,
Sarah McLusky:but also heritage and the ways in which they can tell stories and
Sarah McLusky:connect with audiences, which then developed into a career in an academic
Sarah McLusky:setting helping people tell stories.
Sarah McLusky:And it's funny how when we look back, sometimes we can connect
Sarah McLusky:the dots, even though at the time it, it feels a little bit random and haphazard.
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:I mean it comes full circle.
Sarah McLusky:Both with me having worked in a film team at a cinema and with me having
Sarah McLusky:to originally wanted to be a lawyer.
Sarah McLusky:One of the projects I worked on I helped support our crime and justice
Sarah McLusky:film festival, which our sociology team put together every year.
Sarah McLusky:So that combines everything I love, a film festival, amazing series of events.
Sarah McLusky:And, looking at how does, how is the justice system depicted on films?
Sarah McLusky:What specific laws are influenced by film?
Sarah McLusky:I know I was, I desperately wanted to put a film festival on years ago about
Sarah McLusky:just films that had changed the law and the idea that I'm now in an institution
Sarah McLusky:that showing all of these different aspects of the law, which I do still find
Sarah McLusky:incredibly interesting and fascinating.
Sarah McLusky:It's great.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Oh, it does.
Sarah McLusky:The enthusiasm is definitely coming over of how much you're
Sarah McLusky:enjoying what you're doing now.
Sarah McLusky:So you've mentioned quite a few different projects and things you've worked on.
Sarah McLusky:I know it's hard sometimes to pick favorites, but are there any particular
Sarah McLusky:ones that you're really proud of that you'd like to tell us about?
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: I really liked the recent collaboration we did, which
Sarah McLusky:there's an existing public engagement programme from the school of theatre
Sarah McLusky:and the performance research group here called Bunker Talks, which is
Sarah McLusky:researchers just, formally, informally, sorry, sitting and talking about what
Sarah McLusky:they do, why they do what they do.
Sarah McLusky:And I love a talk, I love an event.
Sarah McLusky:So it existing already, but being able to collaborate with them around this most
Sarah McLusky:recent one, which was with Liberation, it connected the geography of the
Sarah McLusky:building that the school of theatre is in because it's a part of history that
Sarah McLusky:actually took place in that building.
Sarah McLusky:That one was really special.
Sarah McLusky:It's also a bit of black history, which is very important to me personally.
Sarah McLusky:But also really love untold stories.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah, I think the Bunker Talk series and also it's traditionally held in
Sarah McLusky:space that's not physically accessible.
Sarah McLusky:And being able to move that into another space so that more people
Sarah McLusky:can see that there are these spaces in the building is really special.
Sarah McLusky:Which is sad because then it reminds me of another event that we recently supported
Sarah McLusky:called Mother Tongue Other Tongue, which was with Manchester Poetry Library which
Sarah McLusky:again, is a public space that a lot of people think because it's attached
Sarah McLusky:to the university they can't come to.
Sarah McLusky:And it had loads of school children involved, and that was another one
Sarah McLusky:because anyone who goes into the Poetry Library falls in love with it instantly.
Sarah McLusky:And it was an amazing number of people getting to showcase their home languages
Sarah McLusky:through poetry which is just beautiful.
Sarah McLusky:You never, any event that involves young people, that involves
Sarah McLusky:people learning really young to be passionate about art and culture,
Sarah McLusky:that's always a big winner for me.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:There's a lot of energy you get from doing stuff.
Sarah McLusky:I used to do loads of events with young people and yeah it is a special kind of
Sarah McLusky:energy and enthusiasm that they bring.
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Especially when it's their voices starting it rather than being told what to do.
Sarah McLusky:And have that imposed on them.
Sarah McLusky:I think nurturing that self-awareness of what it is that you want to do, whether
Sarah McLusky:it's misguided, whether it's amazingly idealistic, I think it's really important
Sarah McLusky:to cultivate that sense at a young age.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah, definitely.
Sarah McLusky:And you said there a bit earlier on that another thing you've been involved with
Sarah McLusky:is mentoring people around career change.
Sarah McLusky:Tell us a bit more about that.
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: So one of the things I've always done as a sideline in my
Sarah McLusky:career is, and particularly when you're working with volunteers, because, a
Sarah McLusky:huge pool of volunteers in a city like Manchester are students who are looking
Sarah McLusky:at career development and how you make money being an artist or being in the
Sarah McLusky:creative and cultural sector because there aren't the traditional routes, it's
Sarah McLusky:not as linear as the law, for example.
Sarah McLusky:So I really enjoy that aspect of working with people to speak up for themselves,
Sarah McLusky:develop their careers, understand how to talk about themselves because again, I
Sarah McLusky:was really lucky at my secondary school we were taught how to do interviews
Sarah McLusky:because it was expected that we'd go out and, be very impressive all the time.
Sarah McLusky:And I don't, it's not as consistent now.
Sarah McLusky:I think at secondary education, giving people those skill sets to talk about
Sarah McLusky:their skills, set themselves apart.
Sarah McLusky:I think a lot of education these days just seem to be towards conformity.
Sarah McLusky:Creative sectors are all about being individual and showcasing
Sarah McLusky:that thing that's special about yourself, whilst understanding
Sarah McLusky:that you have a skill set to prove.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:But talk about that.
Sarah McLusky:So I really like working with young people in particular to help them develop skills.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Oh, that's really interesting.
Sarah McLusky:I think you're right, is that a lot of.
Sarah McLusky:What young people it is about passing exams.
Sarah McLusky:It's about, fitting into this little box.
Sarah McLusky:But yeah, the fact that in the arts it's actually, it's about how do you
Sarah McLusky:stand out rather than how do you fit in.
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:And I think one of the things you are really focused on the subject specific
Sarah McLusky:thing when you do your university degree but you're not focused on how do I
Sarah McLusky:translate having worked on a hundred shows to going into an office whilst
Sarah McLusky:I'm doing my office job or going into a retail setting to do a retail job, whilst
Sarah McLusky:I'm also building up my career or how do I have the skill sets to work within a
Sarah McLusky:theatre setting, that's not necessarily, I am doing a producer role straight away.
Sarah McLusky:Mm-hmm.
Sarah McLusky:Actually, I've got to learn how to work in the marketing team and convey messages
Sarah McLusky:and be able to tell stories succinctly and interestingly, and reach audiences.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:And as you say, there it is.
Sarah McLusky:We don't often talk a lot about this, do we?
Sarah McLusky:There's a lot of talk in higher education about, precarity of researchers and
Sarah McLusky:things like that, but actually work in the arts and cultural sector can
Sarah McLusky:be incredibly, precarious, can't it?
Sarah McLusky:And short contracts, self-employed, temporary jobs, all that sort of
Sarah McLusky:stuff, even though these sectors make massive contribution to the economy.
Sarah McLusky:So yeah what's your experience been like of navigating those waters?
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: I think that's it.
Sarah McLusky:I think one of the things I've learned from experience and that I try and imbue
Sarah McLusky:is that to navigate precarity, one of the things is having a broad skillset and
Sarah McLusky:being flexible, being good at managing your own time and your boundaries, because
Sarah McLusky:it can fall into a space where you are trying to do so many things just to
Sarah McLusky:pay the rent, that you will say yes to everything and not be able to go actually
Sarah McLusky:this is the thing I want out this role.
Sarah McLusky:It's probably not paying me that much, but it's giving me a certain
Sarah McLusky:skillset or a certain network of people I've got access to.
Sarah McLusky:So I think helping people to understand that there's a point at which you
Sarah McLusky:can say no is really important.
Sarah McLusky:And that whilst precarity is to be expected, you can ask for more in certain
Sarah McLusky:spaces and if you know you're going into a precarious situation, that's great.
Sarah McLusky:That's the level of energy that you can give to it that is appropriate
Sarah McLusky:to the level of precarity.
Sarah McLusky:If they want you for that firm amount of time or for longer, then they should
Sarah McLusky:be building that in to support you.
Sarah McLusky:And organisations that do that well are really great at retaining people.
Sarah McLusky:And probably, although I've never yet to see the research and the data will
Sarah McLusky:consistently deliver those greater kind of cultural outcomes for their work.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah, that's interesting.
Sarah McLusky:Like you say, perhaps nobody's actually connecting the dots and counting it.
Sarah McLusky:But it makes sense that people who you treat people well and they stay
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: There are people who are doing that data.
Sarah McLusky:I read reports from Creative UK who look at the cultural
Sarah McLusky:sector and cultural working.
Sarah McLusky:There's a lot more work now being done to look at the cultural economy around
Sarah McLusky:freelancers and zero hours contracts and formalizing some of that practice.
Sarah McLusky:I think because they're cultural organisations, they don't fall
Sarah McLusky:more into practice research and not necessarily having a standard model
Sarah McLusky:for everyone who does the same thing because they won't work in the same
Sarah McLusky:way in different organisations.
Sarah McLusky:But the more and more there is actual data to firm it up now, which is
Sarah McLusky:great because that's really important.
Sarah McLusky:Yes.
Sarah McLusky:And as you say, that just helps people to forge, even if it's a
Sarah McLusky:career made up of lots of bits and pieces, but at least a sense that
Sarah McLusky:there is some kind of career there.
Sarah McLusky:There's some kind of structure to it.
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:And some people suit a portmanteau career really well.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Certainly those who have cultural and creative practice themselves,
Sarah McLusky:a lot of them, it is great for them to be able to do part-time, maybe in
Sarah McLusky:a university part-time, doing their own practice, traveling the world.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: So yeah, you can see now that there are careers where
Sarah McLusky:people really thrive doing that work.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah, it's great that it's options.
Sarah McLusky:Something for everybody.
Sarah McLusky:So I do like to ask all of my guests this question, which is, if you had
Sarah McLusky:a magic wand, what would you change about the world that you work in?
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: Oh, wow.
Sarah McLusky:Okay.
Sarah McLusky:I thought about this.
Sarah McLusky:I have two ones.
Sarah McLusky:Two is okay, i'll let you have two.
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: I'm a black woman working in a sector that is
Sarah McLusky:historically underrepresented with people of color and particularly
Sarah McLusky:black people in positions of power.
Sarah McLusky:So I go to a lot of meetings and a lot of the time I will be the only person there.
Sarah McLusky:I used to do a thing called the Count where I go into a meeting and literally
Sarah McLusky:just physically count how many other people in the room A spoke or B didn't
Sarah McLusky:just look like a one homogenised look so always I like seeing more
Sarah McLusky:people who look like me and more variety, just generally in the world.
Sarah McLusky:So in the sector, the more and more I see that happier and happier I
Sarah McLusky:get and it does, it has changed since I entered the world of work
Sarah McLusky:and it is constantly changing, but I really like seeing places with
Sarah McLusky:commitments to that, that stick to it.
Sarah McLusky:And then I think from a visibility of the work and research that we do, genuinely,
Sarah McLusky:it feels like a comedy answer, but when the Buffy reboot comes out, I want
Sarah McLusky:Giles to no longer be a librarian, but to be an academic researcher because I
Sarah McLusky:believe in lots of cultural art forms like TV and movies and theatre as ways
Sarah McLusky:of telling stories about the world.
Sarah McLusky:Nothing makes a career look sexier and cool than having a hot person
Sarah McLusky:on a hit TV show doing that job.
Sarah McLusky:I believe Giles, Rupert Giles on Buffy was the first non librarian
Sarah McLusky:ever to be on the big academic journal, The Librarian, right?
Sarah McLusky:So having someone on TV who really shows the great side.
Sarah McLusky:As what Giles did on Buffy was academic research.
Sarah McLusky:They were sitting down, they were making that, and then they had a practical
Sarah McLusky:application in fighting monsters.
Sarah McLusky:I genuinely think if Giles on the reboot or someone doing that watcher role was
Sarah McLusky:an academic researcher, it would be an amazing thing for telling people what
Sarah McLusky:about the joys and the powers of research.
Sarah McLusky:Let's go even further.
Sarah McLusky:Let's have an assistant who is like a public engagement person.
Sarah McLusky:Let's not let the researchers all the glory.
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: That would be amazing.
Sarah McLusky:I'll do some consultation on Buffy.
Sarah McLusky:That would be amazing.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:That, I think that is the best answer I've ever had to that question.
Sarah McLusky:Thank you Esther.
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: Thank you.
Sarah McLusky:Oh, I, we're coming towards the end of our time we shall leave our
Sarah McLusky:listeners with that image in their heads.
Sarah McLusky:If people want to find out more about you and the work that
Sarah McLusky:you do where do you hang out?
Sarah McLusky:Where's a good place to find you?
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: So I do a lot of the public engagement
Sarah McLusky:through our website ahead@mmu.ac.
Sarah McLusky:uk.
Sarah McLusky:And we have a Linktree that I link both public engagement events, but
Sarah McLusky:also articles about the research and about our researchers and what
Sarah McLusky:they're doing out in the world, whether it them being on an amazing
Sarah McLusky:podcast or other kind of videos and resources and things that they produce.
Sarah McLusky:They're available through the AHEAD website.
Sarah McLusky:But also we have a whole range of public engagement activities for Manchester Met.
Sarah McLusky:So if you go onto the Manchester Metropolitan University website
Sarah McLusky:and go to the event, there's a huge range of events that we do.
Sarah McLusky:I think people don't know about how much public facing work
Sarah McLusky:that we do as an organisation.
Sarah McLusky:So heading to the events page on the Manchester Metropolitan
Sarah McLusky:University website is amazing.
Sarah McLusky:Fantastic.
Sarah McLusky:I'll get links to those and put them in the show notes.
Sarah McLusky:And and do you yourself, do you hang out on LinkedIn or any, anybody, anywhere.
Sarah McLusky:If anybody wants to talk chat, Buffy.
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: Yes.
Sarah McLusky:Oh yes.
Sarah McLusky:You can find me on, you can find me on LinkedIn.
Sarah McLusky:I also have a Linktree for my kind of freelance and other activities
Sarah McLusky:I do, sometimes I host film events.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah, as I say, we'll get some links to those
Sarah McLusky:and put 'em in the show notes.
Sarah McLusky:People can find them there.
Sarah McLusky:Thank you so much for coming along, telling us about the work that you do
Sarah McLusky:and given me in particular a good laugh.
Sarah McLusky:I hope other people have had that too, so thank you.
Sarah McLusky:Esther Lisk-Carew: If we can't spread joy with our work, what are we doing?
Sarah McLusky:Thanks for listening to Research Adjacent.
Sarah McLusky:If you're listening in a podcast app, please check you're subscribed and then
Sarah McLusky:use the links in the episode description to find full show notes and to follow
Sarah McLusky:the podcast on LinkedIn or Instagram.
Sarah McLusky:You can also find all the links and other episodes at www.researchadjacent.com.
Sarah McLusky:Research Adjacent is presented and produced by Sarah McLusky,
Sarah McLusky:and the theme music is by Lemon Music Studios on Pixabay.
Sarah McLusky:And you, yes you, get a big gold star for listening right to the end.
Sarah McLusky:See you next time.