Do you enjoy reading and talking about books? Would you like to take part in a fun, interactive reading group looking at how dementia is represented in fiction? We’re looking for enthusiastic individuals with little or no personal experience of dementia to take part in an important research project based at Queen’s University Belfast. All contributions from the group will play a valuable part in exploring how dementia is depicted in contemporary novels.
The online reading group will meet on Zoom one evening a week for 6 weeks during April and May. They’ll take place on Thursday evenings at 7pm and will last a maximum of 90 minutes. At each meeting, the researchers will read two short excerpts from two different novels while you follow along with the print copies provided. You’ll be asked to complete a short questionnaire and get involved in a group discussion. We’re interested in your opinion and value your ideas and contributions. There’s no such thing as a wrong answer. The sessions will be audio-recorded so that they can be transcribed for our research.
If you’re interested, you can find out a little more about the project on our website. If you’ve got any questions or would like to sign up please get in contact with Carolina at dementiafictionreadinggroup@gmail.com
We’d hoped to be conducting these readings groups in person and getting to know you in real life. As we can’t provide the usual tea and cakes, we’ll be posting out welcome packs including sachets of hot drinks and biscuits to be enjoyed while we chat. We’d also like to offer you a £20 book token as a thank-you for completing the reading group sessions.
Spaces are limited so we’d encourage you to sign up asap. This is a fantastic opportunity to help out with an important research project whilst getting to know some new people. We’d love to have you on board.
4 replies on “Reading Group Call Out”
Hi I would like to volunteer for this brilliant initiative.
Hi Siobhan, thank you for being in touch. If you could sign up through the email address included in the body of the blog this would be really appreciated. Many thanks
Are you still seeking reading group members? I have early stage Alzheimer’s
Hi Willy, thank you so much for your generous offer, unfortunately recruitment closed for the reading groups a few weeks back as they’ve already begun meeting. We partnered with a local advocacy organisation Dementia NI to recruit participants for the group