Event overview
A day-event supported by the CHASE Training Partnership.
With the collaboration of English PEN and the Society of Authors.
The clash between freedoms (of expression, academic, intellectual) and rights (privacy, confidentiality) are familiar problems for creative, creative non-fiction, and life writers.
More recently, the ‘research ethics’ requirements for work produced in academic contexts has come to the fore. However, existing guidelines and ‘ethical approval’ forms have been written with different disciplines in mind (mainly empirical and social sciences), and their language and assumptions are at odds with the ethos and expectations of creative practitioners. How do one's own memories of a sibling constitute ‘research data’? How can one think of a parent as a ‘data subject’? How can consent be sought when the ‘data’ is based on lives inextricably entwined with our own, on interactions that took place well before any notion of writing arose? How can ‘data’ be made available to other researchers, and then destroyed, when, arguably, the ethical position for creative practitioners is the exact opposite – that all ‘research data’ should be archived and preserved indefinitely, but may need to remain confidential until the ‘data subjects’ have passed away?
We aim to discuss the challenges that ethics frameworks and legal contexts pose to practitioners of creative non-fictional work (mainly in creative and life writing, but in other fields of creative practice too, such as visual arts, film, drama, documentary, design, music) with two main, interlinked aims:
The intellectual focus will be on the line between academic freedom, freedom of speech, public interest on the one hand, and right to privacy, confidentiality, consent on the other.
The practical aim will consist of an examination of current guidelines on research ethics, informed consent, ‘ethical approval’ forms, and data management in order to produce, by the end of the day and after further follow-up discussion, a proposal for subject-specific guidelines and documentation, on which wider consultation will then be invited.
The day will consist of:
- Roundtable sessions and debates involving staff and students at CHASE institutions and other HEIs, as well as representatives from organisations with expertise in the publishing, legal, and rights context, such as the Society of Authors, English PEN, the Centre for Investigative Journalism, and the UK Research Integrity Office;
- Two parallel practical workshops to discuss the questions highlighted above, using creative writing projects as test cases, and to suggest where and how the current guidelines can be revised;
- A plenary final session aiming at drawing up draft guidelines relating to ethics in creative practice.
www.gold.ac.uk/.../ethics-in-creative-non-fiction/
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 20 May 2015 | 9:00am - 7:00pm |
Accessibility
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