In the first of our new season of episodes we talk to early career scholar, and recent Exchanges author, Mehdi Moharami (Monash University, Australia) about his research and publishing work. Focusing of the ethnographic piece written for the journal, exploring the lived and cultural experiences of language teachers based in Iran, we move on to examine advice on publishing for other first time authors or early career scholars.

Read Mehdi and colleagues' paper in full here: A Teacher’s Autoethnography: The impact of lifelong experiences in shaping worldviews and teacher identity

Or find out how to submit your paper to Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal here.

We cap off a year for the journal and the podcast, with a look back at the contents of the last two issues of the year. Volume 8.4 was a special issue, dedicated to the Then & Now projects and looked at the experience of art students studying at Warwick over the past half a century. By contrast Volume 9.1 of Exchanges was a regular journal issue, and brought a selection of articles dealing with everything from ethnography to Norbert Elias to GMOs and Early Career Researcher experiences.

In this episode, I talk with Warwick’s Jim Judges about a topic close to both of our hearts: educational podcasting. Acting as an introduction to anyone in higher education who might be wondering about the basics of creating, configuring and producing a podcast our conversations take in such topics as effective hosting, timing, editing and the all-important theme of keeping guests to time. The conversation is inspired in part by a recent workshop panel discussion on academic podcasting, hosted at the University of Warwick.

In this episode we talk with Dr Catherine Price of the University of Nottingham. We discuss her current research into ‘biochar’, along with her work on the ‘Anthropocene and More Than Human World’ project, which is leading to a future special issue of the journal. We touch on some of the benefits from collaborative authorship in academia, as well as how emerging professional networks can serve to enhance writing skills, enthusiasm and achievement for early career researchers. As always, we close we some words of advice for first-time academic authors.

In this special episode, which was featured as a paper at the Mercian Collaboration 2021 Conference: Adaptation and Growth in Times of Adversity, we take a look at academic/educational podcasting - as illustrated through the experiences of the Exchanges Discourse. 

The episode spotlights the podcast's relatively recent genesis and subsequent evolution. Alongside this, the practical, technological and production processes are showcased, combined with reflections on elements such as show formats, guest management and publicising. Through revisiting the podcast’s trials, tribulations and triumphs, the episode also highlights routes to overcoming some of the challenges which were encountered. Moreover, the crucial value derived from embracing an ‘authentic and de-marketised’ discourse within your audio content will be stressed throughout.

Consequently, listeners may be inspired and informed to explore how their own library services could be actively, effectively and engagingly promoted through audio content to reach new audiences.

In this summery episode we talking to one of the author contributors to our climate-fiction (clifi) special issue, Rob Horsfield. Touching on his current work with the NHS we move to examine some of the themes in his article concerning the works of Philip K Dick and the Anthropocene. Moving on we also discuss some of the challenges faced by first time academic authors, and the value especially of collaboration with editors, reviewers and fellow authors in improving our writing practice.

In this episode, our resident Editor-in-Chief and host talks about 6(ish) ways early career and established researchers can get involved in our scholar-led journal. While some are unique to our host institution and our partner organisations, there’s still more than enough different routes to contribute to the journal’s mission, while enriching your own career prospects too. Find out how – in this episode!

We chat with M. Onat Topal (Middle East Technical University) about the article he wrote with a number of colleagues entitled Use of Artificial Intelligence in Legal Technologies: A critical reflection. We explore the key messages, alongside looking at some of the implications and conclusions drawn within the text. Then, as usual we move on to explore our guest’s current research and publishing activities, before closing with some advice for first time and new academic authors.

In this episode we take a brief look at each of the articles published in the latest issue of the Exchanges research journal. If you’re wondering if reading the issue was for you, hopefully this episode will whet your appetite to dive in headfirst to the journal!

In this episode we talk with Principal Academic in Media Education, Mark Readman, from the Faculty of Media and Communication at Bournemouth University. Looking back at Mark's recent article - The Comforting Nonsense of Creativity - we move on to talk through his thoughts on publication as an editor and author, as well as exploring some of his current research and publication plans. Along with advice for first time authors, we also diverge into a brief discussion concerning 1980s UK sitcoms.