BCUR Conference 2016- Snails, Space boxes and Horses at War

It has been a few weeks since a small group of us attended the BCUR Conference at Manchester Metropolitan University on the 22nd of March after winning the blog competition in February and I thought it was about time I sat and put the experience into words. A first clue as to what the day was like can be seen in my title; put into one word, ‘varied’ covers the topics that were being spoken about and demonstrated to the many people who were at the event. Not only does it encapsulate the subjects in the talks and on the posters, but also the people in attendance; students from all over the UK and beyond, studying all different topics and asking questions about both things they know and things completely alien to them and the course they study normally.

As a side note, I would personally add the word ‘delicious’ to my description of the day, because the food was incredible and the desert was fantastic. Not that it is particularly relevant, but I think it is worthy of a mention!

Back to the actual day, then, seeing as that is what people probably want to know about. So after an early start and gathering at York Station, we took our train and arrived at Manchester Piccadilly before taking another short train ride to Oxford Road Station. We had a small walk before reaching the university campus, where there was many a student wandering, apparently lost, trying to find the conference. We managed to find it, however, and therefore headed on in for the welcome speech. It was a bright and lively speech with some references to Shakespeare (Hamlet is actually an undergraduate researcher and as a literature student I have adopted this idea wholeheartedly) as well as the small history of the conference and its sister organisation in the USA. There was a final mention given to the first ever international event for student research (to be held in Qatar later this year) before we were sent to be registered and given our individual lanyard.

The day after this was broken up into sections lasting an hour, each then broken down into four intervals of talks and speeches before lunch, with the posters being presented during the early afternoon break. As a lover of horses and also of history, one particular poster stuck out; it was the cost of horses during the First World War and it was astoundingly logical and clear for something that (besides the Michael Morpurgo novel) is rarely studied closely. I had a prolonged chat with the girl presenting the poster and it was a really impressive piece of historical research.

The conference continued after the (glorious) food with more of the fifteen minute speeches. The rooms in which they were held were sometimes jammed so full that there was a standing crowd as well as all the chairs being filled; one particular speech given by a UCL law student on assisted suicide was incredibly busy and absolutely worthy of being as it was a stimulating and thought-provoking no matter what you normally study. Another incredible talk was by some engineering students from Warwick university on their part in an ongoing project to get a piece of their designs out into space; there were snails and their ability to help with the treatment of Alzheimer’s, the benefits of dance and the arts on helping the vulnerable, behaviorism in goats… The list goes on and I wish I could mention them all!

Overall, it was a tiring but brilliant day and it was not long before we were heading to catch the train back home again, landing back in York eleven and a half hours after we’d set out from there. Thank you so much to ADD and particularly to Holly Campbell for organising us and getting us there and home again! It was a fantastic experience and one I will treasure highly as a memory of university life and experience.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this blog post!