HDR events

Upcoming events

HDR Skills Development Workshop (10 November 2025)

Sign up for our next HDR Skills Development Series Workshop!

We’ve put together a fabulous program to build your academic and professional skills while supporting and enhancing your PhD journey, not to mention future career.

The day starts with an early morning tea, so that you can all get to know one another, with sessions starting at 10 am.

Workshop sessions

Session 1: Discourse analysis – Professor Robyn Mayes

This session will explore the practice of discourse analysis as a qualitative research method. You will learn how to conduct discourse analysis, as well as explore how to harness its potential for richer, more critical insights.

Session 2: How to write a strong Ethics Application – Professor Byron Keating

This session will guide you through the key components of writing a clear and comprehensive ethics application, with practical advice on how to address common challenges. You will gain tips to strengthen both the quality and integrity of your project. This session will provide insights from both the applicant and reviewer perspective to help you prepare a strong, well-supported submission.

Session 3: Visualising research positioning – Dr Valeria Macalupu

This session explores how to map and communicate your research focus, experience, and skills in a clear, visual way. By developing a visual representation of your research positioning, you will gain tools to articulate your unique contribution, identify opportunities for collaboration, and strengthen your academic identity. These skills will help you present to different audiences (including supervisors, peers, and industry partners), and help support career development, grant applications, and scholarly impact.

Session 4: What examiners do when they examine a PhD – Adjunct Professor Richard Johnstone

This session will provide invaluable insight into how examiners approach a PhD, what they expect to see, and how first impressions can shape their reading. Explore the key qualities that examiners consistently value, as well as the common pitfalls that can undermine an otherwise strong thesis. You will gain practical guidance on aligning your writing with examiner criteria, strengthening the clarity, coherence, and scholarly contribution of your work, and approaching submission with greater confidence.

Event details

Date: Monday 10 November 2025
Time: 9.30am – 3.15pm AEST
Venue: D108, D Block, Gardens Point campus
Cost: Free
Registration: Get tickets now on the Humanitix website

We look forward to seeing you there.

Recent events

HDR Skills Development Workshop (18 November 2024)

Sessions included:

  • Shameless self-promotion with Dr Michelle Newcomb and Dr Suemay Arif, UTS
    This session focused on the importance of identifying your skillset and how to best promote yourself for the job market.
  • Data analysis: Tips & tricks from Assoc Professor Penny Williams and Dr Diana Leon-Espinoza
    This session addressed practical insights from experienced qualitative researchers, who will share their approaches to planning and conducting effective data analysis.
  • Finding your research tribe with Dr Kylie Kingston
    This session covered how to engage with research and industry networks within your field to explore and expand knowledge, practice and career opportunities.
  • HDR communities: Skills and support with PhD Candidate, Denise Nogueira
    This interactive session aimed to promote connection, share experiences, and identify potential agendas/forms to enhance peer-support while navigating the HDR journey.

HDR Skills Development Day (4th December 2023)

Sessions during the day included:

Dealing with the media: Tips and Tricks with Professor Andrew Stewart, University of Adelaide, 2nd November 2023

CDWI hosted employment law expert Andrew Stewart, University of Adelaide on Thursday 2 November for an informal discussion of some of the do’s and don’ts when it comes to sharing your expertise through the mass (non-social) media.

HDR Skills Development Day, 18th July 2023

Sessions during the day included:

  • How to be a great research assistant – Prof Robyn Mayes, Maria Hameed Khan and Alicia Feldman
    This session covered the key aspects of providing research assistance on research projects and larger work programs along with developing a good relationship with your supervisor.
  • Selecting the right journal for publishing your work – Prof Paula McDonald
    In a ‘publish or perish’ academic environment, researchers are confronted with significant questions about which journals to target for their work. In this session, Paula McDonald discussed a range of issues which may help guide such choices. These included quality indicators; ontological, theoretical and methodological traditions; topic ‘fit’; aims and scope statements; submission restrictions; and historical debates. Participants had opportunity to discuss the characteristics of particular journals on their publishing horizon.
  • Data analysis beyond thematic analysis: Adaptive Theory & Rhizomatic Analysis – Dr Rudi Messner & Dr Kylie Kingston
    This panel session explored analytical methods beyond traditional thematic analysis. The panel members navigated through alternative qualitative analysis approaches used in their own research and how such approaches supported the development of outstanding theses.
  • Writing researcher reflexivity/positionality – Dr Christina Malatzky
    This session explored the importance of positionality in qualitative research along with the processes of knowledge-making and transparency in research.

Masterclass – Integrating theory, methods and empirical data with Paula McDonald, 14th June 2023

Integrating theory, methods and empirical data masterclass
Drawing on 15 years of research in the field of workplace sexual harassment, Professor Paula McDonald presented pragmatic examples of how theory from various socio-legal and social science perspectives can be integrated with different empirical data sets and methodological strategies. The aim of the masterclass was to illustrate how to build a critical mass of published evidence in a way that demonstrates academic expertise on a given topic, leads to authentic engagement with end-users, and underpins research impact.

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