Adlington, Dr Hugh MD130079
Senior Lecturer in English Literature, University of Birmingham, School of English, Drama and American & Canadian Studies
English Language and Literature / Renaissance literature
John Donne's Books: Reading, Writing and the Uses of Knowledge
Sum Awarded from BA: £68,427
Abstract
This project offers the first ever study of the connection between the reading and writing of poet and preacher John Donne (1572-1631). More than 70 books once owned by Donne have recently come to light, on subjects including theology, law, history and philosophy. The new discoveries give us fresh sources and intellectual contexts for Donne’s life and work, but crucially they also reveal Donne’s shifting attitudes to the acquisition, use and expression of knowledge itself. In Tudor-Stuart England, at the birth of the scientific revolution, such issues were of pivotal concern. Integrating bibliography, literary criticism and the history of ideas, Dr Adlington will show how study of Donne’s creative transformation of his reading illuminates the arguments of his poetry and prose, and makes us rethink notions of originality, authority and interpretation in the period. Dr Adlington will use the Fellowship to complete the book and share its ideas through press, radio, a public exhibition and online, building on his substantial experience of disseminating his research within the academy and beyond.
Albarella, Dr Umberto MD130100
Senior Lecturer, University of Sheffield, Dept. of Archaeology, Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Archaeology / Archaeological Science & Environmental Archaeology
The pig in human history: early husbandry, intensification and ritual use
Sum Awarded from BA: £80,808
Abstract
The pig has played a vital role in human history, as a food source and as a companion to key developments in human societies. This project aims to fill some important gaps in our understanding of the past exploitation of this species. Specific issues that will be researched include the early domestication of this species in central Europe and the intensification of husbandry, as well as the ritual use of this animal, using a diversity of archaeological case studies, ranging from Britain to Italy and Greece. This research will make use of zooarchaeological methods and will be integrated with a new programme of ethnographic work on traditional pig herding in Sardinia, with the main aim of presenting new evidence, mainly in a visual form, to a general, rather than specialist, audience. The emphasis will be on the contribution that archaeology and ethnography can provide to a better understanding of ecologically sustainable ways of managing pigs. Outputs will focus on academic papers, conference presentations, an exhibition and a workshop.
Bartle, Dr John MD130098
Reader, University of Essex, Government
Politics / Electoral Studies
The British Macro Polity: Ideology and Economics, 1945-2010
Sum Awarded from BA: £93,638
In this research Dr Bartle will examine the evolution of British electoral politics between 1945 and 2010. In contrast with studies of particular elections, particular parties and particular periods, he will examine the whole system, over the whole of the post-war period. In order to take ‘the long view’ he will adopt an aggregate-level perspective and examine the relationship between the left-right ideological positions of the major parties (as indicated by the content of their manifestos) and voters (as indicated by his own estimates of the ‘policy mood’). Dr Bartle will also examine the effect of systematic (economic) factors and non-systematic factors (events such as evaluations of budgets, cabinet reshuffles, changes in leadership and by-elections) on aggregate government approval and/or evaluations of party competence. He will finally assess the claim that representation ensures that the policy mood drives policy. In short, he will cut through the accumulated (and often bewildering) mass of detail about electoral politics to examine a few fundamental variables and their dynamic properties.
Bhattacharya, Dr Debopam MD130078
University Reader and Tutorial fellow, University of Oxford, Economics
Economics / Econometrics
Econometric Analysis of University Admissions
Sum Awarded from BA: £106,659
Around the world, admission-practices at selective universities attract significant popular and political attention, owing to their implied equity-efficiency trade-off. Yet, there is a scarcity of scientifically rigorous methods for analysing them. The proposed research project aims to build an analytic framework for examining, both theoretically and empirically, college-admission as an economic problem of resource allocation under capacity constraints and uncertainty, and to use it to address three specific questions: (1) how do selective universities weigh academic merit versus equity considerations in deciding whom to admit?, (2) given current admission-practices, how do students decide whether to apply to selective universities, based on financial and non-financial application-costs, and (3) in light of the findings in steps (1) and (2) above, how would alternative admission-protocols, e.g., varying admission cut-offs or establishing quotas by gender/race/family-income, affect the balance between promoting intergenerational mobility vis-à-vis maintaining high academic standards.
Bovey, Dr Alixe MD130080
Head of Research, Courtauld Institute of Art
History/History of a specific country
Giants in the City: Mythic History as Material Culture in London from the Middle Ages to the 21st Century
Sum Awarded from BA: £89,362.40
For more than eight hundred years, a pair of giants usually known as Gogmagog and Corineus have been deployed to express ideas about the origins and status of Britain and the City of London. This project investigates how and why this tradition has survived and developed across the centuries. Focusing on the literary, visual, and material history of the giants through sculpture, manuscripts, pamphlets, printed books, paintings, prints, and photographs, it explores how different strands of the legend have been transmitted and reworked, especially in London. Through these sources it will consider the ephemeral objects fashioned for processions, pageants and display, which have been repeatedly destroyed and remade. Examination of this process of metamorphosis within a continuous tradition furnishes insights into how, why, and by whom the giants have been used playfully to ventriloquize civic, social, political, and mythic discourses, and more broadly, the means by which the legendary past has been harnessed to express power, identity, and cultural memory.
Cacho, Dr Rodrigo MD130097
Reader in Spanish Golden Age and Colonial Studies, University of Cambridge, Spanish and Portuguese
Modern Languages / Iberian and Latin American languages and literatures
The Rise of Colonial Spanish American Poetry, 1589-1610
Sum Awarded from BA: £104,480
Spanish American Colonial Studies have traditionally devoted most of their attention to the chronicles of the New World. Poetry has received less attention, with critics focusing on a few canonical authors, such as Sor Juana. This project aims at filling this gap by offering the first comprehensive account of the development of Colonial Poetry. Drawing on Political and Cultural History, History of the Book and Literary Criticism the project reflects on the interactions between arts and politics between the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. This period saw the rise of a new intellectual elite that sought to affirm its own identity thanks to the publication of several key poems and poetic treatises. Authors such as Castellanos and Balbuena represent what Rama has called the ‘lettered class’ who played a central role in the definition of a new American identity and poetics. Dr Cacho’s work seeks to emphasise the ideological and aesthetical complexities of their work, as well as widening the field of Colonial Studies and broadening its public visibility in the UK.
Caspersen, Dr Nina MD130086
Senior Lecturer, University of York, Department of Politics
Politics / Peace Studies
Peace Agreements: Resolving intra-state conflicts since the end of the Cold War
Sum Awarded from BA: £99,991
Since the end of the Cold War a significant number of peace agreements have been reached, including in conflicts that were previously thought beyond resolution. These agreements have displayed a great deal of ingenuity when it comes to engineering compromises that address both individual aspirations and collective grievances and fears. Yet there has been no detailed, systematic analysis of their content. Some of the separate elements of their institutional designs have been scrutinised, but they have not been analysed as a package, which is necessary in order to understand why a compromise was possible and the effect on longer-term stability. The interaction between the content of these agreements and the negotiation process is, moreover, often neglected. Based on in-depth case studies and a systematic analysis of peace agreements signed in separatist conflicts between 1990 and 2010, this projects aims to fill this gap. The project will add to our knowledge about conditions for successful peace settlements and it is expected to have significant impact both in academia and beyond.
Cohen, Dr Emma MD130076
University Lecturer and Tutorial Fellow, University of Oxford & Wadham College, Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology
Psychology / Evolutionary and Comparative Psychology
Synchrony and similarity in human social bonding
Sum Awarded from BA: £117,700
Do people who move together bond together? Evolutionary and social scientists have long hypothesized that synchronized movement in sport, dance, music, and drill enhances social solidarity. The proposed research will test this hypothesis. Using a combination of experiment and observation, it will seek to reveal why humans everywhere are motivated to join together in coordinated synchrony and whether these activities can forge and sustain bonds across group divides. The impact and relevance of this work will be appreciated across spheres as diverse as sport, education, and business. Participant and user communities will be reached through workshops, publications and popular media, as well as a GB- Brazil cultural exchange programme focused on the Olympic Games. Why did the events of London 2012 so boost the mood of the nation? Does being in sync make us feel good, enhance social cohesion, and motivate charity? The proposed programme of scientific research aims to answer these questions and to reveal how the mechanisms responsible can be harnessed for individual and group success.
Coope, Professor Ursula MD130061
University Lecturer and Tutorial Fellow, Oxford University, Philosophy
Philosophy / History of philosophy
Reason, self-reflection and self-determination: neoplatonism and its influence
Sum Awarded from BA: £114,438
Successfully maturing as a human being is usually thought to involve taking charge of oneself: becoming responsible for what one does and believes, determining for oneself what one cares about. For this, self-knowledge and self-control seem essential. But what are these two reflexive powers and how are they related to each other? Professor Coope will examine a neoplatonist answer and two different views of freedom that are based on this answer. On both views, the ability to take charge of oneself distinguishes humans, as rational beings, from other animals. On one view, self-determination is a kind of human perfection, only achieved by the virtuous; on the other, self-determination is linked to responsibility: one determines oneself in exercising one’s reason, whether well or badly. The neoplatonist background to these views shows a way in which concern with autonomy is not, as is often assumed, exclusively modern, but has roots in ancient thought. Professor Coope willl publish this research in a monograph and also present it to the public in two popular essays and in talks at philosophy clubs and at schools.
Hall, Dr Sarah MD130065
Associate Professor and Reader in Economic Geography, University of Nottingham, School of Geography
Geography / Economic Geography
New mobile elites: motivations, experiences and trajectories of highly skilled Chinese migrants in London
Sum Awarded from BA: £102,515
The mobility of highly skilled elites is central to the operation of the global economy. The circulation of such elites between leading cities in the global economy has been well documented by social scientists, but public & academic understanding of the recent growth of highly skilled migration from emerging economies to established global cities remains limited. In response, the proposed research examines new forms of elite mobility associated with highly skilled migration & expatriation from China to London’s financial & related professional services sectors. Drawing on interviews conducted with these migrants, the results will inform: academic debate on elite labour markets & highly skilled migration in emerging & established global cities; practice within highly skilled labour markets by providing information to early career migrants about the nature of these new forms of elite labour mobility; public understanding of highly skilled migration in the UK via the media; and, policy development concerning the role of new forms of elite mobility in shaping global elite labour markets.
Hammill, Professor Faye MD130102
Professor of English, University of Strathclyde, School of Humanities
English Language and Literature / Contemporary Literature (English)
Noël Coward, popularity and print culture
Sum Awarded from BA: £57,616
This project reorients the study of Noël Coward from performance to print culture, revealing his place in literary history and his relationship to modernism. Today, he is firmly categorised as a popular entertainer, but during his lifetime, his career was understood in more complex terms. In press coverage, Coward's name signalled tensions between 'art' and 'entertainment', 'popular' and 'modernist,' 'sophisticated' and 'sentimental.' Similar oppositions structure his own writing, especially his contributions to newspapers and magazines, which have been ignored by previous critics. They include parodies of experimental poetry and provocative articles on modern drama. The project investigates periodical texts by and about Coward in order to explore broad questions about the impact of celebrity on cultural hierarchies, and about the way the language of value worked in the early to mid-20th century. Results will be presented in academic papers, online, and via public engagement activities in conjunction with the Noël Coward Society and the Cadbury Research Library.
Hibbard, Dr Paul MD130066
Reader, University of Essex, Psychology
Psychology / Cognitive and Perceptual Psychology
3D vision in complex natural scenes
Sum Awarded from BA: £85,665
When we see a good 3D movie, objects and people appear to jump out from the screen, and to occupy the space right in front of our eyes. Somehow, the sense of depth is much more vivid and real than that conveyed by a traditional movie. But how, exactly, does it differ? After all, we can readily judge the shape and position of objects in traditional films and photographs. Yet there is a clear improvement in our sense of depth in the 3D case. To understand this difference we need to know how we represent depth. This research programme will advance this understanding. By comparing the perception of depth in ‘2D’ and ‘3D’ photographs, we can determine the nature of our perception of depth, and how it differs in the two cases. The research will also help to understand what makes for a good 3D experience. Sometimes, 3D films can be underwhelming or uncomfortable. By careful analysis of the depth content of photographs, we can predict when 3D presentation will improve the viewing experience. These results will directly benefit those working on the development of 3D content.
Hirschler, Dr Konrad MD130068
Reader in the History of the Near and Middle East, SOAS, University of London, History
Oriental and African Studies / Modern & Medieval Middle Eastern lang and lit
Reconstructing World Heritage - The Earliest Documented Medieval Arabic Library
Sum Awarded from BA: £106,721
The Arabic-speaking lands were, compared to other world regions, arguably the most bookish cultures during the Middle Period (c. 1000-1500). Yet we have very few documents at our disposal that inform us in detail about book production, book trade and book holdings. This project is centred on a unique document, the earliest Arabic library catalogue. This catalogue documents the holding of an endowment library in 13th-century Damascus with over 3,000 books. The project will reconstitute the holding and organisation of this medieval library, giving insights into the broad range of subject areas covered and into premodern concepts of how to organise such a large collection. The project's results will make it possible to set the history of the book in a comparative perspective with other societies bordering the Mediterranean. At the same time the project reconstructs an important part of the region's cultural heritage. This is currently of particular importance as the political turmoil of recent years has led to the theft of numerous artefacts and the destruction of historical sites.
Kavanagh, Dr Aileen MD140007
Reader in Law and Fellow of St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford and St Edmund Hall, Law
Law / Public Law
Parliament and the Courts: Protecting Rights as a Joint Enterprise
Sum Awarded from BA: £119,580
The Human Rights Act 1998 is premised on the idea that Parliament should play a leading role in protecting rights in the UK. However, the existing academic literature on the Human Rights Act focuses almost exclusively on the role of the courts. Moreover, in recent times, it has become common for prominent MPs, including the Prime Minister, to make disparaging and critical comments about the Human Rights Act, the European Court of Human Rights and domestic judicial decisions on human rights. Parliamentarians and judges sometimes seem to be on a collision course when it comes to protecting human rights. The aim of this project is to address this gap in the scholarly and popular understanding, subjecting the relationship between Parliament and the courts to critical scrutiny and examining the various points of interaction and collaboration between them when engaging in the joint enterprise of realising and protecting rights. It is only by understanding the dynamics of this relationship that we can evaluate the impact of the Human Rights Act on law and policy.
Kelan, Professor Elisabeth MD130085
Professor of Leadership, Cranfield University, School of Management
Sociology/Gender and Sexuality Studies
MANagers – Changing Gender Practices of Middle Managers
Sum Awarded from BA: £102,604.74
The persistent underrepresentation of women in senior management positions in organizations is much debated. After decades of initiatives, gender change in organizations has been glacially slow. Practitioners have started to recognise that men’s practices have to change to create more hospitable cultures for women. This research project focuses on changes in men’s behaviours who are often seen as roadblocks to gender equality particularly in middle management positions. The research uses the angle of ‘un/doing’ gender to establish changes and continuities in behavioural practices of male middle managers in organizations. The research will create an understanding of how middle managers foster gender change by creating a compendium of gender practices. This compendium is based on secondary and primary research. The latter is supported through job shadowing of middle managers. The findings will enhance the academic debate and will be instrumental in guiding organizations on behavioural practices that support gender equality.
Kelly, Dr Duncan MD140006
Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Cambridge, Department of Politics and International Studies
Politics / History of Political Thought
World Crisis: Ideas into Politics during the Great War
Sum Awarded from BA: £91,994
The Great War was the first global civil war of the twentieth century, but it was fought just as much for control over political and economic ideas as it was for military success. This international study of the World Crisis of 1914-1919 offers a 'field analysis' of political and economic ideas during this period of an increasingly global 'civil war', finding them as important in their own terms as military tactics or high diplomacy. Moreover, these ideas are less part of a world we have lost, but instead part of a world whose questions about war, peace, democracy and particularly union (in Europe especially), remain our own. Little of the vast amount of work on the Great War takes these ideas seriously though, seeing them as important only as memorial artefacts, or structurally problematic in that they blinded politicians and generals to the consequences of their actions, or unimportant when compared with the need to move men and materiel. But ideas don't work like that, and this research shows which political and economic ideas mattered then, and why they still matter now.
Kruschwitz, Professor Peter MD130081
Professor of Classics, University of Reading, Department of Classics
Classics and Ancient History / Greek and Roman epigraphy
Poetry of the People. Poetry for the People
Sum Awarded from BA: £105,447
The proposed Fellowship is designed to develop a more holistic approach to Roman poetry and song culture, using the body of Roman verse inscriptions, commonly known as the Carmina Latina Epigraphica, as its paradigm. Based on analyses of the intellectual and social contexts of the Carmina Latina Epigraphica, using both internal and external evidence, this project will establish, assess, and interpret the formal aesthetics and communicative processes of Roman subliterary poetry, which in turn will be contextualised in Greco-Roman literary history as well as the history of ideas. Thus it will be possible to create a realistic, truly democratic picture of the poetic reality and musical predilections of the Romans, not only across time and space, but also across social class (and gender?). As a result, it will become possible to (re-)evaluate the achievements and to appreciate the rootedness of Rome's literary poets within their chronological and cultural contexts, and thus to gain a clearer idea of how their artistic skills relate to aesthetic trends and fashions beyond the elite(s).
Lazar, Dr Sian MD130062
University Lecturer, University of Cambridge, Division of Social Anthropology, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Anthropology / Political Anthropology
Citizenship, economic justice and workplace organisation
Sum Awarded from BA: £88,729
The research has two threads. First, a monograph that explores collective citizenship in Argentina, and that draws on fieldwork conducted with activists from two unions of state employees. Dr Lazar will examine ways that activists construct themselves and their organization, the values and subjectivities that they develop, and the implications of these for our understandings of citizenship. Second, she will zoom out to a comparative project that examines the relationship between economic justice, workplace-based organizations (including but not limited to traditional trade unions) and contemporary mass mobilization in Latin America, Europe and the Arab World. Dr Lazar will explore links between workers, students, the un- and under-employed as they build alliances, make demands of the state, and attempt to define political and social alternatives to neo-liberalism and austerity. She will do so through two projects: an edited volume from a conference (to be held in July 2014) and a series of podcasts designed for a popular audience and discussing political and economic questions.
Liddy, Dr Christian MF130332
Senior Lecturer, Durham University, History
History / Medieval History - History
The Politics of Citizenship in English Towns, c. 1250 - c. 1540
Sum Awarded from BA: £73,193
This research explores the concept of citizenship between the mid thirteenth and mid sixteenth centuries, a period in which, in the absence of the modern nation state, citizenship was conceived as a distinctively urban and civic-based practice of inclusion and exclusion. While historians have been accustomed to imagine late medieval England as a polity in which the landed power of the nobility and the crown was supreme, citizenship was an alternative source of social and political power and identity. In thinking about what it meant to be a citizen in late medieval England, Dr Liddy will argue for the existence, in what has generally been regarded as an impoverished urban setting, of republicanism avant la lettre. His plan is to communicate this research to a wide audience via a series of public lectures on the subject of citizenship, sponsored by the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies at Durham University, and via a website, ‘Cities as Texts’, that is under development as a collaborative project at Durham.
Loizides, Dr Neophytos MD140005
Senior Lecturer, University of Kent, School of Politics and International Relations
Politics / Peace Studies
The Way Home: Peaceful Return of Victims of Forced Displacement
Sum Awarded from BA: £79,447
The Fellowship will provide Dr Loizides with the opportunity to a) complete a research programme on peaceful reversals of forced displacement, b) prepare a book manuscript for submission, and c) organise a workshop that will bring together academics and practitioners to discuss comparative cases of displacement and strategies to support victim groups. The project examines how victims of ethnic cleansing choose to return home under conditions that seem prohibitive and without reigniting past conflict. The empirical analyses are based on large-n surveys among displaced persons and on focused comparisons of cases. The project investigates the role of economic and security-related factors commonly identified in the literature, as well as novel ones (social capital and institutional design) in voluntary return focusing on four cases of forced displacement: Bosnia, Turkey, Cyprus and Iraq. The findings will contribute to the relevant literatures in geography, sociology and political science as well as to current policy debates on displacement, particularly in the Middle East.
Mainland, Dr Ingrid MD130084
Senior Lecturer, University of the Highlands and Islands, Orkney College, Archaeology
Archaeology / Archaeological Science & Environmental Archaeology
Herding economies, sustainability and resilience in Viking and Norse Orkney
Sum Awarded from BA: £84,277
The proposed research takes as its focus the island group of Orkney during the Early Medieval Period, a time of significant socio-economic, cultural and climatic change in the islands and across North West Europe. Orkney was settled by Scandinavian peoples, the 'Vikings', from at least the c. 8th century AD and between the 10th-13th centuries was the heart of the powerful and wealthy Earldom of Orkney which played a pivotal role in the socio-economics of the Norse world, linking Scandinavian Ireland and England with Norway, Denmark and the western Atlantic. Research will explore the role of Norse herding economies in Viking/Norse Orkney, looking specifically to address both how pastoral farming underpinned societal sustainability (e.g. by enabling participation in feasting or long distance trade networks) and whether it may have contributed, through intensification and overstocking, to the decline in agricultural production and the marginalisation of the islands in the Later Medieval period.
Manias, Dr Chris MD130060
Lecturer in Modern European History, University of Manchester, Department of History
History / History of Science
The Lost Beasts: International Palaeontology and the Evolution of the Mammals, 1880-1950.
Sum Awarded from BA: £76,038
When most people hear of ‘palaeontology’, they immediately think of dinosaurs. However, for much of the 20th century, scientists and public audiences seeking dramatic demonstrations of the history of life focused on something else - the evolution of mammals. Assumptions that ‘the Age of Mammals’ represented the pinnacle of development made it crucial for understanding the course of evolution and formation (and possibly future) of the natural world. Yet this combined with more troubling notions, that seemingly promising creatures had been mysteriously swept aside in the ‘struggle for life’ or that modern biodiversity was ‘impoverished’ compared to prior eras. This project will examine how scientists in Europe and North America reconstructed this problematic evolutionary history, and presented it to a wide public. It will show how palaeontology’s popular appeal and idiosyncratic evolutionary theories fed into public understandings of evolution, and how the processes it uncovered impinged on changing notions of the environment and animal world.
Maniura, Dr Robert MD130059
Senior Lecturer in History of Art and Assistant Dean (History of Art), Birkbeck College, University of London, Department of History of Art, School of Arts
History of Art / History of art and design
Identifying with the Art of the Fifteenth Century
Sum Awarded from BA: £101,161
This project explores the art of the fifteenth century and the interests which have shaped its study. Occupying a central place in conventional narratives of western art, the period tends, however, to be viewed very selectively, especially in terms of geographical focus. Dr Maniura’s aim is to prompt an expansion of the field of view and open up a discussion of the range of issues raised by the art. He intends to stimulate a reconsideration of the aims of the history of the art of this period and the ways in which it can engage a wider audience.
McLelland, Dr Nicola MD130077
Associate Professor in German, University of Nottingham, Department of German (School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies)
Modern Languages / German, Dutch and Scandinavian languages and literatures
A history of modern language education in the UK, 1600-2000
Sum Awarded from BA: £97,591
The project provides the first history of languages education in the UK (1600-2000). Original research will yield an accessible and authoritative history of modern language education, which will make an important contribution to the history of education, and will also inform teacher-trainers, trainee & practising teachers, policy makers & curriculum developers facing many changes to modern language education (e.g. primary languages, changes to national curriculum for modern languages, the crisis in provision and uptake, and efforts to ensure diversity of language teaching and increased uptake of strategically important languages). The project will consider which languages were learned and with what aims, who taught (e.g. were native-speaker teachers considered better or worse?), who learnt (e.g. was it an elite or every child in comprehensive education?), the role of stakeholders (such as exam boards, government policy) and to what effect (e.g. exams set by university boards could delay syllabus changes). It will analyse the methods and materials used in light of such variables.
Mennen, Professor Ineke MD140009
Professor of Bilingualism and Linguistics, Bangor University, Centre for Research on Bilingualism/School of Linguistics and English Language
Linguistics / Phonetics and Phonology
The nature of prosodic difficulties in second language learning: the case of Welsh stress
Sum Awarded from BA: £105,390
A key difficulty for learners who acquire a second language (L2) in adulthood is to acquire its prosody: its speech melody, rhythm and stress. This difficulty often results in a significant and persistent foreign accent, which in turn has been shown to affect intelligibility, slow down comprehension by native speakers, and even result in prejudice and discrimination. Understanding the basis of foreign-accented prosody is therefore of great pedagogical importance. Despite this, the source of prosodic difficulties is currently not well understood. It is particularly unclear whether prosodic difficulties are due to problems in L2 perception, problems in the storing of L2 prosodic information, or are caused by problems producing or articulating the L2 prosodic forms. This fellowship will investigate the prosodic abilities in adult English learners of Welsh to determine the underlying nature of their difficulties. Results will have direct didactic implications, showing whether to focus on perception or articulation abilities, and will lead to the development of a new teaching resource.
Middleton, Dr Simon MD130072
Senior Lecturer in History, University of Sheffield, History Department, Faculty of Arts and Humanities
History / Early Modern History
The Price of the People: Credit, Money, and Power in Early America.
Sum Awarded from BA: £96,994
This project investigates the relationship between credit and money and how it changed during the colonial period. Credit and money, rather than the reverse, because this story concerns the shift from an economy in which money was identified with abstract accounting to one in which it became increasingly synonymous with currency, in particular public paper credit, and was thereby re-conceived as primarily a medium of exchange. Historians have long debated how early America acquired its capitalist character, but surprisingly few have considered changes in monetary culture and practice. Dr Middleton will focus on New York and Pennsylvania because their ethno-religious pluralism, contentious politics, and mixed urban and rural economies best represented the diversity of colonial society and the character of the emerging nation. This project provides an accessible account of this development, enhancing our understanding of the historical context for contemporary debates concerning money and its relationship to citizenship, government, and society.
Miller, Professor Tina MD130067
Professor of Sociology, Oxford Brookes University, Department of Social Sciences
Sociology / Gender and Sexuality Studies
Managing modern family lives: public understandings and everyday practises of caring and paid work
Sum Awarded from BA: £118,134
Societal ideas about who cares for children have often assumed that women are naturally more able to care than men. These ideas arise from arguments about women's biology and destiny, and men's historical association with paid work. But as more women contribute in significant ways to the work place and may decide not to have children, ideas of biologically-determined capacities to care come under scrutiny and provide opportunities to think in new ways about men as carers too. In contemporary society the organisation of family lives, caring and paid work has become a pressing policy issue as a broader crisis in caring is also recognised. But policies only work when they reflect public experiences and understandings and currently little is known about how caring is understood and practices negotiated in families where dual incomes are necessary. Using collaborative techniques and analysis of 4 qualitative data sets this project will capture and illuminate unfolding practices of caring in families from birth to the teenage years, leading to a major publication and a BBC radio programme.
Ngai, Dr Liwa Rachel MD130088
Associate Professor (formerly Reader), London School of Economics, Economics
Economics / Applied Economics
Housing market dynamics
Sum Awarded from BA: £133,789
The housing market was at the core of the financial crisis of 2008 which is still affecting many nations. It is more volatile than most other markets and because of its size and the importance of housing wealth in people’s portfolios its ups and downs make the news. Yet, we do not know enough about the drivers of housing dynamics and how they are related to national and international economic conditions. My proposed research is a framework for the quantitative study of housing dynamics, beginning from the household’s decision to buy or sell and aggregating to the whole economy. The influence of macroeconomic conditions and housing policy will be key ingredients of the research. The main part of the research will be a quantitative analysis of the British and American housing markets, aiming to provide clear prescriptions about the impact of policy on housing dynamics and their connection with the rest of the economy.
Rackley, Professor Erika MD140011
Professor, Durham University, Law School
Law / Legal System and Legal Institutions
Women in Law: Beacons and Benchmarks
Sum Awarded from BA: £115,525
2019 marks the centenary of women’s admission to the legal profession in England & Wales. This project examines the changing position of women lawyers during this period. Its objective is to produce a historicised account of the progress of and outlook for women in law. It will do this though a series of interviews with women in law. It will include interviews with women originally questioned about women lawyers' prospects almost 20 years ago, as well as with women currently working in the legal professions (broadly conceived). The interviewees will be asked to reflect on their own progress, as well as of women lawyers more generally. These contemporary accounts will be situated within a historical exploration of women’s position in law in the form of an interactive, open access online exhibition and accompanying book targeted at early career women lawyers and students. It is intended that the project will provide an important historical record as well as a strong evidence base from which to inform, motivate and inspire today's women in law to build bold agendas for change.
Riggs, Dr Christina MD140004
Senior Lecturer, University of East Anglia, School of Art History and World Art Studies
Archaeology / Egyptology
The photographic archive of the tomb of Tutankhamun: Method, myth and modernity in Egyptian archaeology
Sum Awarded from BA: £97,578
This project uses the Tutankhamun archive to examine how photography informed method and meaning-making at every stage of the archaeological process. Photography was also crucial in mythologizing the ‘find of the century’ for the public eye, influencing cultural trends and nationalist politics. Despite its long history, the role of photography in shaping archaeological method and self- fashioning in the field, and beyond, has yet to be fully evaluated and theorized. In fields like Egyptology, photography has been seen only as a documentary source. Yet the photographic process, as well as its products, made modern archaeology possible, from day-to-day operations to the study and dissemination of results. The project builds on research at the Griffith Institute, Oxford University (with almost 2000 glass plate negatives and prints), where it will contribute to a 2014 exhibition. The project requires a further 12 months to visit the related archive in New York and complete the writing of a monograph; it will also yield web-based features and a touring exhibition.
Rubery, Dr Matthew MD130095
Reader, Queen Mary University of London, School of English and Drama
English Language and Literature / History of the Book (English)
The Untold Story of the Talking Book
Sum Awarded from BA: £94,232
This will be the first monograph to examine the history of recorded literature since Thomas Edison’s invention of the phonograph in 1877. The project traces the tradition from phonographic books made on wax cylinders to talking books made for blinded soldiers returning from the First World War and, much later, the commercial audiobooks with which we are familiar today. Addressing the vexed relationship between orality and print, this project contends that the talking book developed both as a way of reproducing the printed book and as a way of overcoming its limitations. Based on extensive archival work, it pushes scholarship away from literary representations of sound toward actual sound recordings. The project thus speaks to current debates over the relationship between old and new media. It will result in a monograph, presentations to academics and the public, and a conference on blindness and assistive technologies.
Shaw, Dr Julia MD130089
Lecturer in South Asian Archaeology, University College London, Institute of Archaeology
Religious Studies / Asian Religions
Archaeologies of well-being: environmental ethics and Buddhist economics in ancient India
Sum Awarded from BA: £103,331
The proposed project focuses on early Indian Buddhist concepts of human wellbeing and suffering in relation to environmental ethics and human ecology, and the question of how Buddhism responded to new environmental challenges in the mid to late first millennium BC. It will examine the ecological basis of the early Buddhist tradition from several angles: a) the role of the ‘natural’ environment and ancient Indian nature and agrarian cults in the development of a Buddhist ritual geography; b) the monastery’s role in the management of natural and agrarian resources as a means of alleviating suffering, as well as an instrument of lay patronage which lay at the centre of an emerging Buddhist economic system; c) the impact that scholarship on the 'ecological' focus of early Indian religious traditions and devolved religious and community based sustainable agriculture has on understandings of contemporary environmental challenges, e.g., the impact on human health and wellbeing of industrial and agricultural pollutants, climate-change and large-scale irrigation programmes.
Sleat, Dr Matt MD130063
Senior Lecturer in Political Theory, University of Sheffield, Department of Politics
Politics/Political Theory
The Ethics of Cyber-war
Sum Awarded from BA: £83,569.60
The use of cyber weapons has opened up a new 'front' in contemporary international conflict. The unique nature of cyber-war undermines many aspects of our traditional understanding of the nature of warfare and the ethical conditions that should regulate it. Yet despite the fact that cyber weapons have been frequently employed in recent years, there has been worryingly little reflection by governments or the public on the question of their moral permissibility or the moral constraints that should restrain their use. This research will address this lacunae. It shall demonstrate that several facets of the established moral framework of conflict provided by traditional just war theory are challenged by the distinctive nature of cyber-warfare and develop a new account of the ethics of cyber-war which is better suited to the nature of international conflict in the digital age. The project shall also seek to inform the public about the realistic threat posed by cyber-war and engage with practitioners to argue that cyber weapons require us to reconsider the ethical terms of modern warfare.
Surico, Dr Paolo
Associate Professor of Economics, London Business School MD130093
Economics/Economic Policy
A new empirical framework for studying the heterogenous effects of macroeconomic policies
Sum Awarded from BA: £99,961.69
This research seeks to contribute to the growing empirical literature on macroeconomic dynamics with heterogeneous agents by offering an unprecedented evaluation of the dynamic effects of monetary and fiscal policies on the distribution of household income and consumption. Combining macro identification strategies with micro survey data in a novel empirical framework, the goal of the three projects in this proposal is to identify the characteristics that make some households more sensitive to specific economic policy measures. On the academic front, the proposed approach can make it possible to discriminate among competing theories of heterogeneous behaviour. As for policy, knowledge of the characteristics that drive the heterogeneous responses may be used in future policy interventions to target the most sensitive groups of society. The outcomes of this research proposal will be disseminated through (i) leading international journals, (ii) non-technical summary-type articles, (iii) seminars, conferences and lectures at various academic and policy institutions around the world.
Swanwick, Dr Ruth MD130070
Senior Lecturer in Deaf Education, University of Leeds, School of Education
Education / Learning
Deafness and bimodal bilingualism: A plurilingual language framework for education.
Sum Awarded from BA: £115,138
This project will develop and disseminate a new understanding of deafness and language which recognises deaf children’s rich and diverse use of spoken and signed languages. This work addresses the current national priority in deaf education to develop language planning and teaching approaches which respond to deaf children’s changing multilingual and multimodal language practices. Dr Swanwick will conduct a synthesis of the international literature on bilingualism and deafness and empirical survey and case study work to explore deaf children’s increasingly plural, mixed and blended (bimodal) use of sign and spoken languages and to situate this new knowledge within the wider field of language research. The resulting new theoretical framework will expand knowledge of bilingualism and bimodalism and connect language and deafness with modern languages research and education. This framework will be disseminated publically and for practice as language planning and teaching guidance for deaf education schools/services and new specifications for professional training and development.
Tadros, Dr Mariz MD140002
Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, Participation, Power and Social Change
Politics / Development Studies - Politics
The politics of unruly uprisings
Sum Awarded from BA: £105,575
This study explores what explains the large scale participation of citizens in the 30th June uprisings in Egypt. It argues that an understanding of this form of citizen mobilization will contribute to the study of unruly politics, provide perspectives on political settlements ‘from below’ and critically engage with transition theories. The study will synthesize and analyze a dataset comprising a survey of 2423 questionnaires and 12 focus groups that have been completed in December 2013, and corroborate primary evidence with secondary literature review and interviews. The findings will be disseminated via a manuscript, two peer reviewed journal articles, a working paper, a series of contributions in relevant online publications and the press and communicated through public engagement with relevant audiences in the UK and Egypt, with a view to contribute to debates on conceptual and methodological approaches to ‘seeing like citizens’, understanding why people revolt en masse and engage with alternative perspectives on pathways of political and social change after regime ruptures.
Towsey, Dr Mark MD130101
Senior Lecturer, Department of History
History/Intellectual History
Reading History in Britain, 1750-1837
Sum Awarded from BA: £81,843.35
The proposed research focuses on the readership of historical texts between 1750 and 1837. Whereas previous studies have focused on writers and their ideas, this will be the first to approach historical books from the point of view of their original readers. The period is popularly associated with the rise of the novel. However, this was an age of landmark historical texts as much as it was the Age of Austen, with histories selling in unprecedented numbers across the English-speaking world. By detailing readers’ responses to these texts, Dr Towsey will reveal why history books were so widely read - showing how they were used by readers to help cope with a rapidly changing world marked by social upheaval at home and revolution abroad. In the process, he will raise questions about the meaning of reading today, inspiring boundary-crossing debate with stakeholders in the charitable and public library sectors. In addition, the results of the research will be featured in a major new exhibition and an accompanying study day, stimulating public interest in the future of reading in a digital age.
Valman, Dr Nadia MD140000
Senior Lecturer, Queen Mary, University of London, Department of English
English Language and Literature / Cultural studies - English Language and Literature
The Literary East End
Sum Awarded from BA: £93,037
Since the late nineteenth century, the East End of London has functioned as a symbolic site for the contestation of key national questions, including social mobility, immigration, poverty and regeneration. This project is the first to examine the broad array of cultural texts and artefacts - novels, journalism, tracts, government reports, memoirs, maps, public memorials and site-specific art - in which the East End’s meanings have accumulated and multiplied. In her monograph, ‘The Literary East End’, Dr Valman will identify the distinct, competing social narratives that have shaped interpretation of the spaces, subcultures and stories of the East End, and their development in response to a changing political and material landscape. Research conducted will be communicated to the academic community through publication of the monograph and a scholarly article, and to the public through guided walks for local community groups, a series of downloadable audiowalks on East End cultural history and a launch event at an East End arts centre.
Vout, Dr Caroline MD130092
University Senior Lecturer, University of Cambridge, Classics
Archaeology / Classical art and archaeology
Classical Art: A Life History
Sum Awarded from BA: £102,738
This proposal combines the production of a major academic monograph with an exhibition to explore how the collecting, ordering and display of Greek and Roman artefacts from Antiquity to the present day has defined, and challenged, the ‘classical’ and the ‘art’ elements of what we call ‘Classical Art’. It builds on a wealth of work on collecting but diverges in method and contribution - and not least because of its unprecedented chronological reach from fifth-century Athens to Ebay. In eschewing a focus on a single period, site or collector, this project places the emphasis less on what it means to collect at any given moment than on the longer journey and on the evolution of a genre and discipline. ‘Classical Art’ becomes not an entity but a story or way of handling the past, and ‘Classicism in art' a penumbra of competing phenomena. In this way, we gain a crucial awareness of how classification determines the lenses and objects of our looking.
Weber, Professor Thomas MD130082
Professor of History and International Affairs, University of Aberdeen, Department of History
History / Modern History
Metamorphosis: Adolf Hitler and Munich 1919
Sum Awarded from BA: £99,539
This project aims to bring light to the little understood rapid politicisation, radicalisation, and personality change of Adolf Hitler in the year that followed World War One. It also studies the emergence of the early Nazi Party that until now has remained largely a mystery, due to the destruction of the party's membership files in 1923. Finally, it examines the transformation of political attitudes in revolutionary and post-revolutionary Munich which were far more fluid than hitherto believed. For methodological reasons, each of the three transformation processes under investigation can only be studied in parallel. Based on newly available qualitative and quantitative material, the project contributes to the Academy's LQS strategy. It also makes the largest collection of early Nazi Party membership records available to both scholars and the public. The communication strategy of this project, focusing on academic and trade publishing as well as on media engagement, builds on the success of the engagement strategy of Professor Weber’s last book.
Wilson, Dr Alexandra MD130091
Reader in Music, Oxford Brookes University, School of Arts
Music / History & Criticism of Music: Romantic
Opera, popular culture and cultural categorisation in 1920s Britain
Sum Awarded from BA: £104,113
This project examines the relationship between opera and popular culture in Britain during the 1920s, a key historical moment when cultural hierarchies were codified that still endure today. While the relationship of literature to 1920s debates about ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture has been extensively researched, the complex place of opera in such debates has not. Demonstrating how opera defied easy categorisation as ‘highbrow’ or ‘middlebrow’, Dr Wilson will explore the art-form’s encounters with popular novels, music and films and investigate how its ambiguous status was further confused by dissemination via recordings and radio broadcasts. The project investigates the socially-constructed nature of cultural hierarchies, their relationship to national identities, and their long-term implications. Through a monograph, conference, radio broadcast, concert and blog, Dr Wilson will demonstrate how studying opera’s historical interactions with popular culture can challenge present-day assumptions that opera is and always has been elitist, stereotypes that inhibit potential new audiences from engaging with it.
Xiang, Dr Biao MD140010
University Lecturer in Social Anthropology, University of Oxford, School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography
Anthropology / Social & Cultural Anthropology, other branches
The Intermediary Trap: International Labour Recruitment and Transnational Governance in East Asia
Sum Awarded from BA: £101,546
Dr Xiang plans to complete a ten-year project on unskilled labour migration from China to Japan, South Korea and Singapore, the top three destinations for Chinese workers. Based on four years’ fieldwork in the four countries and extensive documentary research from 2004, her work reveals how commercial recruitment intermediaries acquired a dominant position in cultivating and conditioning this migration. Both the countries involved and the migrants became dependent on them, creating an ‘intermediary trap’. Caused by de-regulation of some aspects of migration control and re-regulation of others since the 1980s, this structural condition makes migration both efficient and expensive, orderly on one level and disorderly on another, and complicates migrants’ relations with employers and governments. During the Fellowship Dr Xiang will finish a monograph that dissects the trap ethnographically, and through this reflects on broader changes in east Asia and in the global governance of labour mobility. Key findings will be disseminated to targeted policy makers and activists through sustained communication.
Ziegler, Professor Katja MD140001
Sir Robert Jennings Professor of International Law, University of Leicester, School of Law
University of Leicester
Law / International Law (Public)
Judicialising War: International Use of Force in National Courts
Sum Awarded from BA: £115,603
The judiciary’s ability to act as a check and balance on the Executive is crucial for public trust in Executive decisions. However, when decisions involving the use of military force are made, such judicial balances may not function. In many countries, human rights form a structured integral part of judicial reasoning; in the UK, there is no such structured approach to human rights. This may lead to judgments being made on an ad hoc basis. When the British government makes a decision to go to war, do courts take into account human rights when considering the legality of the decision to go to war? And even if a war is legal, how do human rights apply in the theatre of war? For example, if soldiers are killed by ‘friendly fire’, do the soldiers’ families have a claim because the soldiers’ right to life was not protected? This research seeks to answer these questions by developing an innovative analytical framework to remedy the gap in doctrinal, judicial and policy thinking about the extent to which human rights discourse may constrain Executive action in times of war.