Three-D Issue 19: The 2012/13 Postgraduate Network Committee

Ruth Sanz Sabido
De Montfort University

The new MeCCSA-PGN Committee was elected at a meeting on 17 September during the PGN annual conference, hosted by Loughborough University. The Postgraduate Network welcomed five new officers into its board, while Ruth Sanz Sabido is the only continuing member in the role of Chair (see below for full list of the 2012/2013 committee).

The goals of the PGN Committee include offering a forum for postgraduate researchers to support their formation as future academics and their transition to their careers; providing events, such as conferences and workshops, related to teaching, learning and research; facilitating a ‘space’ in which the postgraduate community can debate current issues in media, communication and cultural studies; and providing a supportive environment for networking with fellow postgraduates and academics.

Previous research (Thorsen 2012) and informal talks with postgraduate students suggest that many postgraduate researchers in our field are unaware of the fact that they are automatically members of the Network if their Universities are members of MeCCSA. For this reason, and in line with our mission statement, the PGN board will continue to focus on generating awareness of the Network within the Postgraduate community and creating new ways for students to become more involved in our activities and resources.

One of our priorities for this new term is to ensure the continuation of our annual conference, which will be next held at University of East Anglia on 1-2 July 2013. Our call for conference hosts for our annual event in 2014 will be released early in 2013. In addition, the PGN Committee has been engaged in the organisation of various outreach and training activities which will also continue in this new term.

Our journal, Networking Knowledge, has also become a more inclusive forum for students by providing them with various ways to participate in its publication. Tom Phillips, our previous editor, has introduced new Research Spotlight and PGN Matters sections. In addition to publishing journal articles by postgraduate researchers and involving them in the peer review process, we have also released calls for guest editors of special issues. Various students have already been invited to edit forthcoming issues of the journal.

Finally, we would like to thank the previous committee for their dedication to the Network and for helping us in the transition to the new board. We wish Markee Rambo-Hood, Matthew Holtmeier, Victoria Kearly, Indrani Lahiri and Tom Phillips the best of luck with the completion of their PhDs and with their careers.