Authors: Dr Matthew McKenna & Lauren Kane, ALL Institute & School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University.
Following a relatively quiet summer, the Ideas in ALL blog is now back in full-swing and ready for the new academic year! We would like to take this opportunity to warmly welcome back all students, academic researchers and staff, as well as those joining Maynooth University (MU) for the first time. This year we aim to continue highlighting the research taking place within the Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) community. Therefore, from September, and onwards throughout the academic calendar, we are seeking contributors to the Ideas in ALL blog. This is a wonderful opportunity to have a short piece of your writing published for a wider public audience.
Our blog articles generally comprise short submissions (up to 1,000 words) and can be on any topic you choose relating to the values/work of the ALL Institute (the author must have a connection with ALL or be a member). The core values of the Ideas in ALL blog include accessibility, inclusivity, respect for diversity, and participation. In particular, we welcome blogposts which relate to the MU Research Beacons: Data and Digital Transformation; Health and Wellbeing; Heritage, Culture and Language; Society and Public Policy; Sustainability and Climate Change. You can find more information and guidance on writing for the Ideas in ALL blog here.
While we prepare to scale up our publication schedule, we look forward to continuing sharing with our readers the diverse and state-of-the-art work being carried out across ALL. We had some interesting blogposts over the summer months, including an article written by Sara Pisanó – More Than Words: Language and the Exercise of Rights which considered how linguistic barriers may impact access to public services such as healthcare and education, and a piece developed by Professor Aisling McMahon and Eimear Mc Nally – From Articles to Easels? The Role of Art in Research Dissemination and Public Engagement , which explored the role of art in academic research. This blog dovetails an array of other contributions showcasing how the use of art and creative practices to disseminate and communicate scholarly outputs has emerged as a recurrent theme in the multiple fields of research underway within ALL. PatentsInHumans is a key example of the use of art and visual imagery to convey and disseminate research findings in an engaging, accessible and easy-to-understand manner to a wider audience outside of a purely academic context. Similarly, the use of spoken word poetry and visual performance art through interpretative dance is discussed respectively in the article ‘Unheard’, and in numerous publications from the recent ERC DANCING project, as well as in the work of individual ALL researchers who form an integral part of our expanding network of scholars. These examples demonstrate how arts-based research is being embraced in a multidisciplinary context by researchers and academics in ALL and is actively pushing forward new frontiers of accessible scholarship to communicate with wider and diverse audiences both inside, and outside academia.
Furthermore, as our network of contributors grows, so does our readership, with more than 18,000 readers from around the world in the past year having engaged with Ideas in ALL. Beyond Ireland and the UK, our blog now regularly attracts a growing audience, with the United States, China and Singapore featuring in our top five countries. Our expanding international reach helps us to disseminate the work and scholarship of the ALL Institute to an increasingly global community, thereby expanding our network and communicating our mission statement and values to readers and partners around the world.
In the same vein, we are particularly excited to see new research projects coming online in the forthcoming academic year which will further augment the inter- and multidisciplinary character of ALL. The diverse breadth of scholarship within ALL continues to be a core strength of both the Institute and Ideas in ALL. We eagerly anticipate contributions from our members who are working on these projects, alongside those undertaking independent research in ALL. By writing for Ideas in ALL, our members enable us to gain a deeper understanding of the value and impact of their work, while the blog itself has evolved into a key platform through which authors can share their research with the ALL community and the international audience beyond it.
As such, at the commencement of the new academic year, we look forward to sharing the research, ideas and perspectives emerging from our funded projects alongside those of individual members of ALL. We enthusiastically await new contributions to Ideas in ALL in the coming weeks and months as we continue to strengthen our profile as a leading centre for inclusive inter- and multidisciplinary scholarship.
