Meet the postgraduate researchers: Grace Cooper and Kate Long

Posted on Friday 11 September 2026

The York Graduate Research School connects more than 2,000 PGRs across all disciplines at York.

For our September edition, we wanted to showcase the incredible achievements PGRs make outside of their already impressive research. Here, we spotlight Grace Cooper and Kate Long - two passionate PhD researchers from the Department of Politics and International Relations, and organisers of the successful PGR conference, Teaching in the In-between: Postgraduate Perspectives on Teaching and Learning. 

We asked Grace and Kate to talk us through their conference topic, highlights from their experience and top tips they've have for anyone considering organising their own conference in the future.

Tell us a little bit about the conference you organised

Our conference, Teaching in the In-between: Postgraduate Perspectives on Teaching and Learning, brought together around 30 postgraduate researchers, early-career researchers and senior colleagues from across York and other universities, including Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Bradford, Hertfordshire and Warwick.

The title reflects the often confusing position of GTAs, who are simultaneously students, researchers and members of staff, but can be left out of conversations about teaching and learning. We wanted to create a space where postgraduate teachers could share their experiences and ideas.

The day covered topics including student support, the emotional side of teaching, accessibility, GTA training, innovative approaches to teaching and assessment, and the future of university teaching. We also held teaching circles, giving participants the chance to share what works, what doesn't and what they are trying in their own classrooms.

What drew you to this topic?

The idea came from attending a Teaching and Learning network roundtable at the Political Studies Association conference in Oxford earlier this year. We left feeling inspired by how much GTAs have to contribute to conversations about teaching, but how few spaces there are for them to share those experiences.

We had also both been involved in teaching circles, which showed us how useful it can be to step away from the classroom and talk honestly with other teachers. We wanted to build on that idea and create a larger space for these conversations.

What was the process like to organise this?

We organised the conference in around six weeks, largely ourselves, but with very helpful support from our department's administrative team. Doing it together definitely helped with the workload and keeping everything on track.
The biggest challenge was the administrative things like managing the budget. Our advice would be to keep a detailed spreadsheet from the beginning to track everything and be really clear with participants about what you can and can't provide.

Despite the short timeframe, it was a really rewarding process. It was great to see how willing people were to contribute and how much enthusiasm there was for talking about postgraduate teaching. The range of disciplines and career stages represented at the conference made the discussions particularly valuable, because people approached teaching from very different perspectives.

What were your highlights / favourite moments of the process?

The teaching circles were probably our favourite part of the day. They created exactly the kind of open and informal space we had hoped for, with people sharing experiences, practical ideas and challenges.

It was particularly interesting to see conversations move beyond simply sharing "good practice" to talking about the realities of teaching - from difficult classroom situations to student expectations and building confidence as a teacher.

For any other PGRs thinking of organising something similar, what advice would you give them?

Our main advice is: do it! You don't need a huge budget or months of planning to create something worthwhile. Start with a clear idea of what you want people to get from the event, and think about what you have enjoyed (or not enjoyed!) about other conferences and workshops. 

We wanted the day to be more interactive than a series of presentations, so we used whiteboards, post-it notes and hands-on activities throughout. Most importantly, we'd encourage PGRs to recognise that they already have valuable experiences and ideas to contribute. Creating spaces to share these can make teaching or research feel much less solitary and help build a real community around postgraduate teaching.

Share your story

Could you be our next spotlight? Contact our newsletter team at student-communications@york.ac.uk for more information on taking part in upcoming ‘Meet The PGR’ features.