BUiLD workshop: Research Supervision (Burwood campus)

Research Supervision

Professor Robert McLaughlin, Director, Australian Centre for the Study of Armed Conflict and Society, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, UNSW Canberra; Dr Tamsin Paige, Deakin Law School

Research supervision is a very personal thing, but the supervision that a research student receives lays the foundations for ongoing success during their career. This Q&A focussed seminar seeks to engage deeply with the question of “What does good supervision look like?”

Dr Tamsin Paige is former research student, who has by all markers been very successful in her career so far. Professor Robert McLaughlin is one of her supervisors, who has been involved in every step of her career.

This seminar provides an opportunity for both supervisors and students to engage with the question of what is good supervision looks like.

• Dr Tamsin Paige will share her experiences as a research student, both the positive and some of the struggles, the impact that supervision has had on her career, and the strategy she took to address difficulties or problems within the supervision relationship.
• Professor Robert McLaughlin will give perspective as a supervisor, with an overview of the key features of good supervision, and some of the ways in which he has addressed problems with students.

After their presentations Dr Paige and Prof McLaughlin will lead a Q&A. They are from a Law and Humanities background but the traits of good supervision are universal to all research fields, making this seminar of interest to anyone who has a passion for good research supervision.

The seminar will run for one and a half hours including time for Q&A, and then attendees are invited to stay for a light lunch until 1.30 pm.

Off-campus attendees are welcome to attend via VMP BL 3 39324.

Presenters

Professor Robert McLaughlin was the primary supervisor of Dr Paige’s MPhil and Postdoctoral research, and a secondary advisor to her PhD. He is currently consulting to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in South-East Asia. Prof McLaughlin (also a Captain in the Royal Australian Navy Reserve) regularly advises on, and designs, workshops for maritime police, coast guard organisations, government advisors, government departments and policy makers on matters of maritime law enforcement and security.

His research areas covering the law, regulation and governance of maritime operations, the laws of armed conflict and threats and challenges to the rules-based order. McLaughlin’s main audience is practitioners who work in these fields and who apply regulation and law. A secondary audience is academics. While much of his work garners international interest, he has also run workshops for local government agencies such as the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Attorney General’s Department.

Handbooks Prof McLaughlin has co-written are utilised world-wide and include the Sanremo Handbook on Rules of Engagement (currently in 12 languages), the UN Office on Drugs and Crime Manual on Maritime Crime and a handbook on the use of force for private security contractors. He is a writer of occasional op-eds for major newspapers and of blogs for international lawyers, the International Law Association and the International Committee of the Red Cross, among others. In addition to his academic work, Prof McLaughlin had a distinguished career in the Royal Australian Navy, and as the Head of Maritime Crime for the UNODC.

Dr Tamsin Paige is a Lecturer with Deakin Law School, having joined in February 2019 from her Postdoctoral Fellowship with UNSW Canberra (ADFA) in the Conflict + Society research centre. Her work is interdisciplinary in nature, using qualitative sociology to understand the application and impact of law. Her work to date has examined:

• counter-piracy operations in Somalia,
• how the UN Security Council decides to engage in a military intervention, and
• the prevention of sexual violence in armed conflict environments.

She has also spent time at the University of Adelaide, the Australian National University, the University of Nottingham, and Columbia University. During her PhD she was awarded the prestigious Endeavour Scholarship by the Australian Government. Dr Paige is a current Maritime Crime consultant to the UNODC. In a former life, she was a French-trained, fine dining pâtissier.