Online Safety for PGRs: Training on digital hate after engaging with the media

When: Wednesday 26th November 2025, 1:30pm – 3pm

Where: Online

This guided workshop invites PGRs to reflect upon some of the potential risks of being in the public eye as a consequence of publicising research findings. While sharing research with diverse audiences is important and can be very rewarding, the risks are often ignored in university training which focuses on engagement and impact. In this session we’ll unpack some of the myths of public engagement work (e.g. ‘it doesn’t take long to send a few tweets’), and consider how we can take the risks to members of our community seriously. We’ll look at how there are greater costs of safety labour required of people belonging to already marginalised groups, and identify where institutions’ can support staff and students. We’ll also think about the role of ‘hostile journalists’ in targeting particular types of (funded) research and researchers, and consider options for how researchers might choose to engage (or not).

Are there any particular themes in your research or characteristics of your identity as a researcher that you feel may put you at particular risk of backlash when publicising your research?

Have you had any experience of backlash when sharing research publicly?

What is your biggest concern about sharing research publicly?

Laura Clancy is a Lecturer in Media at Lancaster University. She is the author of Running the Family Firm: how the monarchy manages its image and our money (2021) and What is the Monarchy For? (2025). l.clancy2@lancaster.ac.uk

Hannah Yelin is an Associate Professor in Media and Culture at Oxford Brookes University and author of Celebrity Memoir: from Ghostwriting to Gender Politics (2020) and Girls, Leadership and Women in the Public Eye (2024). She is the Chair of the Creative Industries Research and Innovation Network and the host of the Celebrity Culture Club. hyelin@brookes.ac.uk

Together, Laura & Hannah run Cultures of Digital Hate https://culturesdigitalhate.wordpress.com/

Book your place on Eventbrite here*

*Please note there are limited spaces for this session and we recommend registering early if you would like to attend. We will operate a waitlist and if there is enough demand, we will organise an additional session.