Original publishing date: Feb 7, 2022

How do we reach and engage with the audience of our research in a meaningful way? This is a question that often plagues the mind of an academic, and is not just reserved for a single discipline either, as the wide variety in disciplines that attended our event shows. During this CUCo event we had speakers that engaged in creative ways with their research groups. 

Anna Poletti talked about how different societal groups use the Zine format to create and publish their own magazine/ pamphlet on their topic of interest. As Anna was invited to a meeting, to engage with her audience, she made her own Zine to tell about her background and research. This was not only an effective way to convey information, but also to create engagement with the people present. 

Lenneke Kuijer showed a different approach, where she used fictive product designs to spark conversations with attendants at her booth. To get into a dialogue with her audience about the effects of rising temperatures and how to deal with these, products like a patch that lowers the body temperature were designed. As none of these products are actually for sale, Lenneke showed how fictive design can trigger insightful conversations. 

These two speakers’ insights in how they use creative methods to engage with their research audience, sparked plenty of discussion during the event and hopefully fueled everybody present to think creatively on how they can create such meaningful engagements and convey the message of academic research in non-traditional ways.