Presenter Profile

Robyne Calvert

Session Title(s)

10 Years of Let’s Talk About [X]: Reflections on the U of Glasgow’s Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research Conference

Aleix Tura Vecino, Mona O’Brien, Robyne Calvert, James Rowe

Abstract 

Let’s Talk About [X] (LTA[X]) is the University of Glasgow’s annual multidisciplinary conference, run by Student Learning Development (SLD). The initiative comprises a two-month training programme, through which participants enhance their multidisciplinary communication and academic presentation skills with the help of learning developers, PhD mentors, and student peers, and a conference event where students showcase their outstanding research to peers and the wider University community. LTA[X] is one of the most ambitious and longest-running events of its kind in the sector, and it has been shortlisted for a Times Higher Education Award.

As LTA[X] reaches the 10-year landmark, we want to share our reflections on the process of creating and running this programme with the wider community of learning developers. This presentation will trace the history of LTA[X] and detail what is involved in organising and running the conference yearly, from the selection of participants to the organisation and overseeing of the training and the delivery of the conference itself, including discussion of some of the main hurdles faced by the organising committee. It will also offer testimonies from previous years’ participants and PhD mentors who each reflect on their experience of taking part in LTA[X], and on the skills and experience they gained as well as some of the challenges they both encountered. In detailing our processes and experiences over the course of a decade, we seek to encourage and offer proven practical tools to learning developers in other institutions interested in organising similar events or programmes in their institutions.

 

Biography

Robyne Calvert is the Effective Learning Adviser for the College of Arts and Humanities. Robyne has a PhD in the History of Art, and has researched and lectured in art, architecture and design history and theory at the University of Glasgow and The Glasgow School of Art for over a decade. She has supervised many UG and PGT dissertations, and has also been a primary PhD supervisor. As a Cultural Historian, Robyne’s research and teaching interests span a wide range of topics, including: art, architecture, design, fashion, heritage and museum studies, digital and material culture, critical and creative writing, and academic literacies. She received a Pasold Fund PhD bursary for her thesis ‘Fashioning the Artist: Artistic Dress in Victorian Britain, 1848-1900‘ (University of Glasgow, 2012). She is an active public historian, has been an expert on BBC radio, television, and STV programmes, and most recently has been featured on the National Trust for Scotland’s ‘Love Scotland’ podcast with Jackie Bird. In April 2024 she published her first monograph, ‘The Mack: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and The Glasgow School of Art‘, with Yale University Press.

Last modified: 06/05/2025