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Storytelling for research engagement with Esther Lisk-Carew (Episode 76)
Episode 769th September 2025 • Research Adjacent • Sarah McLusky
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Shownotes

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

  1. How she combines a love of storytelling and the arts with a talent for managing events and operations
  2. Why engagement is often baked into the methods and outputs of arts and humanities
  3. Building a career in the cultural sector (despite a detour into French law)
  4. Why academia needs more diverse voices, and high-profile cultural icons

Find out more

  1. Read the show notes and transcript on the podcast website
  2. Find out about everything Esther is working on via her Linktree
  3. Find AHEAD at MMU on the web, Linktree, LinkedIn and Instagram


About Research Adjacent

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  3. Sign up to the Research Adjacent newsletter
  4. Email a comment, question or suggestion
  5. Leave Sarah a voice message

Mentioned in this episode:

Member of the Month: Duncan Yellowlees, DY Training

Let’s put rubbish presentations in the bin – where they belong. Get in touch with Duncan for specialist research presentation skills training www.duncanyellowlees.com

Come along to our Manchester networking event

Join host Sarah McLusky and fellow research-adjacent professionals on Thursday 12 March 2026 at 5.30pm. Find out more and register here https://researchadjacent.circle.so/c/open-events/manchester-research-adjacent-community-networking

Transcripts

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Esther Lisk-Carew: There is a through line of telling narratives, telling stories,

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getting data about the people coming into you, that has been part of my work.

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Some people suit a portmanteau career really well.

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Certainly those who have cultural and creative practice themselves.

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It feels like a comedy answer, but when the Buffy reboot comes out, I

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want Giles to no longer be a librarian, but to be an academic researcher.

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Nothing makes a career look sexier and cool than having a hot person

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on a hit TV show doing that job.

Sarah McLusky:

Hello there.

Sarah McLusky:

I'm Sarah McLusky and this is Research Adjacent.

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Each episode I talk to amazing research adjacent professionals about what

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they do and why it makes a difference.

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Keep listening to find out why we think the research adjacent space

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is where the real magic happens.

Sarah McLusky:

Hello there and welcome or welcome back to the Research Adjacent podcast.

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Before I introduce today's guest, I just wanted to thank you for

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choosing to share your day with me.

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If you're on LinkedIn, maybe you could share a photo of

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where you are listening from.

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I know that we have listeners all over the world, so I would honestly be thrilled

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to see what you can see right now.

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If you do, make sure that you tag me, Sarah McLusky, and the

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podcast page Research Adjacent.

Sarah McLusky:

So back to today's guest.

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We are returning from a short summer break with a fantastic guest who has like

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many cultural professionals, has pieced together a career doing what she loves.

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Esther Lisk-Carew coordinates the AHEAD program at Manchester

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Metropolitan University.

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AHEAD stands for Arts and Humanities Engagement and Dialogue, and her

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role includes projects like a crime and justice film festival and the

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experimental arts series Bunker Talks.

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Although it was this role at MMU that brought Esther into my world.

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In prepping the show notes, I have discovered that she was

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nominated for the Manchester People's Cultural Award in 2024.

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She won the Volunteer Leader of the Year Award in 2021, and that she has

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also been a contestant on the Weakest Link, Pointless and Mastermind.

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Esther is also no stranger to podcasting, and through her Linktree

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in the show notes, she can find a series that she created in 2020

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called Well Spoken Tokens, exploring diversity in the cultural sector.

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On top of all of this, Esther also does freelance work, is a trustee of

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Manchester's Portico Library and also the founder of the Black and Global

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Majority Cultural Creative Network.

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I am starting to wonder if Esther ever sleeps.

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In our conversation, we talk about how engagement in the arts and humanities is

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often baked into the research process, her career journey, which includes a leisurely

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detour via the French legal system and why she would use her Research Adjacent magic

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wand to rework Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

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Yes, really.

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Listen on to hear about that and the rest of Esther's story.

Sarah McLusky:

Welcome along to the podcast.

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Esther, it is fantastic to have you here.

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I wonder if we could begin by hearing a little bit about

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who you are and what you do.

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Esther Lisk-Carew: Thank you very much for having me, Sarah.

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So my name's Esther Lisk-Carew.

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I am the engagement coordinator for a programme called Ahead at

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Manchester Metropolitan University and ahead stands for Arts and

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Humanities Engagement and Dialogue.

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So it is the public engagement programme that helps our research academics in

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arts and humanities tell their stories, talk about their research, and connect

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with audiences, public, academics, people beyond the university here.

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So it's a really broad remit but it's a really interesting role.

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Yeah, I bet it is.

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And I think it's fantastic to have you on as a guest because I think people

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often think about public engagement as and also research as well as being

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about science subjects, engineering, technology, things like that.

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So tell us a bit about what sorts of things you're involved

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with in Arts and Humanities.

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Esther Lisk-Carew: Arts and humanities because it's such a

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broad stretch of subjects, so it's the School of Architecture,

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it's sociology, it's English, it's history, it's a school of theatre.

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One of the things I sometimes struggle with is just doing it in a nutshell, but

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some of the projects that we've worked on are people in linguistics talking about

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social justice and how teachers how they might influence the ways in which academic

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learning is changed by looking at the ways in which they're teaching, what they're

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teaching, what's in the curriculum.

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So linguistics is really interesting.

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We've got the school of theatre.

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We've recently had one of our academics in the School of theatre

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who's had a production that's part of Manchester International Festival.

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It's a show called Liberation.

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Which talks to the Pan-African Congress that happened in Manchester in 1945.

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So it's interesting because quite a lot of people think about research outputs

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in terms of papers and conferences, and those are things that happen.

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But also there is nothing greater than having something, which one of the

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outputs of your research is a play that gets to engage hundreds of people a

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night on the subject of your researching this particular part of history and the

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impacts and legacies of this Congress that happened just after the war and so

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few people in Manchester, it's the 80th -anniversary this year, know much about

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that history, so it's really incredible that we have got people who are doing that

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research around who were these people?

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Why weren't their stories told at the time?

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Who were the women involved in telling their stories?

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Because quite often they get written out history.

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It's just such a really broad range of research areas.

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We've got people doing design for dementia, so collaborative working to

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talk about how if you co-design a game that helps people who are suffering with

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dementia access their memories, does it put off long-term adverse health outputs?

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We've got our Robotics Living lab.

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I could talk for hours about the Robotics Living Lab, which is an amazing

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project, which is from this school of Fashion, which is around working with

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people who are in industry, who have got small fashion businesses and how

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can robotics help and support them as small businesses, so amazing amount of

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research happening in the university.

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That does sound like a huge range of stuff, but it's also

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reminding me of the fact that sometimes I think the reason that people don't

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necessarily think of public engagement as being something that happens in the

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arts and humanities is because often it's something that's almost baked in

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to the way that they operate, isn't it?

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So like you say, you've got theatre studies of course they're gonna do plays.

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And then of course they're gonna have an audience for those plays.

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So it can be very much, I think, much more part of the process than in the sciences.

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Is that something that you've noticed?

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Esther Lisk-Carew: Absolutely.

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The collaborative methodology coworking, co-producing.

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Working with different audiences to develop practice?

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I think a lot of those techniques and methodologies that people are

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encouraged to try and start using in other industries and in other academic

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areas do tend to already be used.

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So sometimes you are not doing it as new.

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You are talking about the ways in which you did it, or you are having

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a conference or a symposium about the different ways that people have done it

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differently or evolved that practice.

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Rather than going, oh no, I need to think about how I engage with young people who

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are affected by the scientific outcome and I dunno how to engage that in audience.

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Whereas actually, if we're talking about youth voices and justice.

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We're already working with young people 'cause they're part of those

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case studies and that way of working.

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And then the research outputs are probably more along the lines of how are we going

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to do quantitative data attached to that.

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So yeah, I think it's yeah, different lenses, different strands.

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The starting points are different.

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But I don't mentally think of it as distinct from a STEM subject, in

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terms of the way they do the research.

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It is the different types of research outputs I think are more common

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with arts and humanities sometimes.

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Yes, what I think in the next REF cycle, they're

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calling non-traditional outputs.

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Although you could argue that in some of these disciplines, these are actually

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very traditional outputs, couldn't you?

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Esther Lisk-Carew: Yeah.

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I think it's non-traditional in the way REF looks at outputs.

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It's not non-traditional in working practice.

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Yes.

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Yeah.

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Oh, it sounds like a, an amazing range of things that are happening there.

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So how did you find yourself in this role?

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Tell us a bit about your story.

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Esther Lisk-Carew: Oh, it's, I've had a really varied career,

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which is, I've been very lucky.

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I've worked mainly in arts festival and venue operations.

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I've sometimes specialised in things like volunteer management and so

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that's been in the cultural sector for about 20 odd years, a little bit over.

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Where I would, I started out as the film administrator in independent cinema.

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One of the things I really loved was that there was a really strong

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festival programme throughout the year.

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So it was a place called Corner House, which is now morphed into a

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different organisation called HOME.

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But there used to be film festivals all the time, so it was logistical, it

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was getting speakers, getting people from around the world, getting films

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from all around the world, bringing people together, telling stories.

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There is a through line of telling narratives, telling stories, getting

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data about the people coming into you, that has been part of my work.

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And then working with volunteers in the heritage sector and in the art sector.

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You do a lot of data collection when you work with volunteer teams

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because you always, these are people who don't have to work with you.

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Yeah.

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So you are always looking at ways you can continually motivate them, make

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sure you're not doing a load of staff recruitment, staff retention, volunteer

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recruitment, volunteer retention, having discussions with producers about

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how volunteers could be used in an interesting way to really engage them.

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So again, similarly the to working in arts and humanities research.

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You have these different ways of working with people that actually

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go a lot deeper than I think a lot of people think when they think,

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oh, you're a volunteer manager.

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Oh, you're a venue manager.

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You're doing, yes, a lot of the nuts and bolts things.

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But a lot of it is actually responding to data, learning, doing better,

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evaluating, and then trying to repeat that process again through

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trial, process of elimination.

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So there are parallels to working in an art sector.

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But then this role came up at the university.

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One of the things I've always found with arts and heritage is a lot of

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roles are tied to things like Arts Council funding or HLF funding,

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Heritage Lottery Fund funding.

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So it's quite unstable in terms of career progression.

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A lot of times I've done quite fixed term contracts, whether

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that's a couple of years.

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And so you deliver a project or deliver some activity and

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you might not necessarily have the same job or it evolves.

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So being within the university setting, being able to deliver things, but actually

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having a little bit more robustness.

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The period of REF is I think it's nine years.

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And my role was a relatively new one.

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They hadn't really looked at how engagement specifically fed into

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impact case studies, but obviously if you are looking at impact, who is

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coming along, what audiences you are reaching, how you are reaching them

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is a really important part of that.

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So I feel really lucky that the university had gone from doing

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much more around its research and thinking about its research culture.

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And I just got very lucky that there was this role that really matched my

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skillset at a time when Manchester Metropolitan was really looking at how

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does their research impact the world.

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It sounds like it makes sense the way that you've

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brought together all these different things that you've done before

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into this role that you do now.

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And as you say, I can see definite connections with having done events

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management and then that being applicable to like the public engagement type stuff.

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And also, as you say, around volunteer management and the fact,

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I think there's definite parallels between managing volunteers and doing

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things in public engagement because I think, again, it's like these

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people, they don't have to be there.

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Yeah.

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They're choosing to be there and then how you actually interact

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with them and how understand why.

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Yeah.

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Esther Lisk-Carew: Sorry, understanding motivation, but also

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holding that motivation to come and reengage with you over and again.

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Yeah.

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I do think that is a consistent thing within different applications

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of my work over the years.

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Yeah.

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Esther Lisk-Carew: But also I was really lucky because the organisation,

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the cultural organisations I've worked in, I've worked in some of the larger

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cultural organisations in Greater Manchester, are ones where when I was

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doing those sort of entry level jobs and early career jobs, a lot of my

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colleagues were people who were working in the cultural and creative industry.

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Now coincidentally lecturers at the university that I currently work in.

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It's really interesting because it's good to see them develop from

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being artists to being people who are now teaching people and being

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lecturers and then being researchers.

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And so it is interesting to see how their careers have developed and also, I think

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my role, it's not one that's consistently available in a lot of universities or,

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there's not always consistently this role in the way that it's presented.

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And it certainly isn't a role when I was at school thinking about

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what do I want to do with my life?

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What kind of career do I want to have?

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What kind of life do I wanna have?

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But it's really interesting role to have for someone who's interested in

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arts and culture, but I'm not an artist.

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I've never been an artistic practitioner, but I've always been interested in how

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things tell stories and how things happen.

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It's a really excellent job to combine my love and interest, I love learning.

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I look, I'm a huge nerd.

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So learning about all of the different academic disciplines and

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different bits of research, me, I could go on a real deep dive on them.

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Yeah.

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And I find it much, I find it easier to do my job the more I know about the research.

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So sometimes they'll be like, oh, I want to do this conference, this event.

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Help me with that.

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The more I know about the research, the more I'm like, actually this is

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an audience that I think you might not have connected with before, but actually

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they would also be someone you would want to bring into the university or

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we go out from the university for them.

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So I think having worked in cultural sector brings a really

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different perspective to the academic audiences as well.

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You said there that you, this isn't something you aspire

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to do when you were at school.

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I'm thinking that again, is pretty, these jobs, I don't even know if they

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like, they, I'm pretty sure they didn't even exist when we were at school.

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What did you aspire to do when you were at school?

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Esther Lisk-Carew: I think you've seen my IMDB, which this is the big,

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I often have to explain to people, particularly when I'm mentoring people

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about how you can change careers.

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So originally I wanted to be a French judge, so I went

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very academic, grammar school.

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And a lot of people at my school either went to Oxford or Cambridge

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and went into medicine and law, and those were, the marks of success.

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You got a really high profile kind of accountancy, those kinds of jobs.

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And I loved to talk and I loved to read and I loved languages, and so me

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thinking I'm not sciencey, I'm not gonna go into medicine or something like that.

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I wanted to be a lawyer.

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And then I specifically had a really great a level French teacher,

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and I thought I love France.

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I love law.

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I'll be a French lawyer.

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And there's only two places.

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There were only two places in the UK at the time where you could

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go on and do your legal studies with a full qualifying law degree.

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Yeah.

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So one of them was, was Kent.

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Think it was Kent.

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And then one of them was the University of Liverpool where I

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ended up going and then but I'd always loved film, I'd loved theatre.

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I love arts and culture.

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I've loved reading all my life.

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And then when it came to doing this degree, I found it incredibly interesting.

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But I was also a bit of an idealist who wanted to change the world.

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And the more you study law, from my perspective, I didn't feel like I'd be

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changing the world by becoming a lawyer.

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I'd probably just be enforcing other people's laws and

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other people's decisions.

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So I had to rethink what I actively wanted to do in my life.

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And I realised I didn't want to be a lawyer, but I also

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didn't know what I wanted to do.

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I worked in the NHS for a while doing some project administration work as

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a temp and then got a permanent job.

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But again, it wasn't something that excited me about

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getting up in the morning.

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Then I saw this film administration job and it was two things, I was

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passionate about arts and film, and I was a great administrator.

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I was really good at looking at data and spreadsheets and pulling things

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together and staying organised.

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And then that then converted into a love, particularly of festivals,

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but also heritage and the ways in which they can tell stories and

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connect with audiences, which then developed into a career in an academic

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setting helping people tell stories.

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And it's funny how when we look back, sometimes we can connect

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the dots, even though at the time it, it feels a little bit random and haphazard.

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Esther Lisk-Carew: Yeah.

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I mean it comes full circle.

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Both with me having worked in a film team at a cinema and with me having

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to originally wanted to be a lawyer.

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One of the projects I worked on I helped support our crime and justice

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film festival, which our sociology team put together every year.

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So that combines everything I love, a film festival, amazing series of events.

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And, looking at how does, how is the justice system depicted on films?

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What specific laws are influenced by film?

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I know I was, I desperately wanted to put a film festival on years ago about

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just films that had changed the law and the idea that I'm now in an institution

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that showing all of these different aspects of the law, which I do still find

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incredibly interesting and fascinating.

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It's great.

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Yeah.

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Oh, it does.

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The enthusiasm is definitely coming over of how much you're

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enjoying what you're doing now.

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So you've mentioned quite a few different projects and things you've worked on.

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I know it's hard sometimes to pick favorites, but are there any particular

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ones that you're really proud of that you'd like to tell us about?

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Esther Lisk-Carew: I really liked the recent collaboration we did, which

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there's an existing public engagement programme from the school of theatre

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and the performance research group here called Bunker Talks, which is

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researchers just, formally, informally, sorry, sitting and talking about what

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they do, why they do what they do.

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And I love a talk, I love an event.

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So it existing already, but being able to collaborate with them around this most

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recent one, which was with Liberation, it connected the geography of the

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building that the school of theatre is in because it's a part of history that

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actually took place in that building.

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That one was really special.

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It's also a bit of black history, which is very important to me personally.

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But also really love untold stories.

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Yeah, I think the Bunker Talk series and also it's traditionally held in

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space that's not physically accessible.

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And being able to move that into another space so that more people

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can see that there are these spaces in the building is really special.

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Which is sad because then it reminds me of another event that we recently supported

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called Mother Tongue Other Tongue, which was with Manchester Poetry Library which

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again, is a public space that a lot of people think because it's attached

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to the university they can't come to.

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And it had loads of school children involved, and that was another one

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because anyone who goes into the Poetry Library falls in love with it instantly.

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And it was an amazing number of people getting to showcase their home languages

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through poetry which is just beautiful.

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You never, any event that involves young people, that involves

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people learning really young to be passionate about art and culture,

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that's always a big winner for me.

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Yeah.

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There's a lot of energy you get from doing stuff.

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I used to do loads of events with young people and yeah it is a special kind of

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energy and enthusiasm that they bring.

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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.

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