FFYE forum: Doing, being, becoming and belonging – spaces and practices | 23 June

For our next FFYE forum, we come back to campus and reconnect physically. In this time of change and uncertainty, we reflect on the concepts of doing, being, becoming and belonging as space and practice, as defined by Thompson et al. (2025, p52): 

• Doing: our role as staff or students 
• Being: who we are as humans, embracing life’s challenges, unique capabilities, and social roles  
• Becoming: ongoing process of growth, development and change 
• Belonging:  a sense of connectedness to people, places, cultures and communities 

Examining our own space and practice, we use Thompson et al. (2025) research approach to capture our unique ‘lived’ campus experience, reflecting on spaces that we do things in, just be and belong etc, share these reflections with colleagues and draw out insights for students’ experiences. 

We’ll also draw on other research that captures the student voice on belonging: Karen Gravett, Roja Ajjawi and Sarah O’Shea on Many ways students can belong; and Lisa-Angelique Lim and Simon Buckingham Shum, on their UTS research, on Degrees of belonging. Lisa-Angelique will describe this research in her presentation,  and our workshop activities (world café) are drawn from the Gravett et al. study, as presented at their website: https://www.belongingtouniversity.co.uk 

Please come and join this on-campus event. Everyone, including students and staff, is welcome. A light afternoon tea will be provided.

Whilst we hope that this research could inform a better student (and staff!) experience, you don’t need to read the references below to join in.  We are keen for this to be a fun event, with lots of opportunities to meet and greet each other again, and to share perspectives and build our connections. Come early to collect your name badge.

The FFYE team and colleagues

Event details

• Date: Monday 23 June
• Time: Arrive at 1:30pm for 2pm start. Forum concludes at 4pm.
• Location: UTS Building 6, CB06.04.040

References: 

Thompson, J., Mahat, M., Tregloan, K., Rivera-Yevenes, C., Lomer, S., Cockayne, H., & Zhang, A. Y. (2025). Exploring the meaning of campus through lived experiences of students, staff, and visitors. Higher Education Research and Development, 44(1), 49–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2024.2430297 

Gravett, K., Ajjawi, R., & O Shea, S. (2025). Topologies of belonging in the digital university. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 33(2), 597–611. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2023.2256342  

Lim, L.-A., & Buckingham Shum, S. (2025). Degrees of belonging: Gaining insights into university students’ belonging through theory-informed learning analytics. Companion proceedings of the 15th International Learning Analytics & Knowledge Conference (p.221-223). 

Register for this event

Your video, audio and the meeting chat transcript may be recorded or photographed. Please advise the facilitator if you do not wish to be recorded or photographed.

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