PubhD's November event is a tree special - we had a chat with one of the speakers, Vivyan Lisewski-Hobson, to learn about how she's been getting ready for this tree-mendous event
Without giving too much of your talk away, can you give us a quick description of your research?
The government rejected the idea making woods open access because it was ‘too complicated on the ground’. Without any further detail on that I set out to find out what actually happens in woods, who is using them and how. The research involved detailed mapping of woods, observation of over a thousand people and interviews with woodland users, local residents and landowners.
How hard has it been to distil years of research into ten minutes?
Very! Especially without PowerPoint.
What's it been like preparing a "pub level" talk?
Quite difficult really because the subject is incredibly complex. I’ve had to work hard to come up with the main headlines that will interest people.
How important is it as a researcher to have the opportunity to get your work out there in front of non-academic people?
Yes, I consider it to be the real impact. If everything stays in academia then it doesn’t really make a difference.
Do you have a favourite public woodland in the UK?
Public wood? Not really, most of my favourite woods are private or owned by charities. I fell in love with a few of the woods I used in my case study, like the little copse of coppiced oaks at Hady in Chesterfield. I also like Slinter wood in Cromford, Bow wood in Lea Wood (Derbyshire) and Lady Grove (Darley Dale).
Vivyan Lisewski-Hobson is a PhD student at the University of Nottingham. She is researching the nature of public access to woodland, with special emphasis placed on woodland in private ownership. She is one of the speakers at PubhD's Tree Special, which takes place at The Vat & Fiddle on the 21st of November, starting at 7:30pm
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
