Dr Michael Barany BARSEA19\190087
University of Edinburgh - History £14987.00
Universals’ Locales: The International and Global History and Sociology of Modern Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences
In theory, the ideas and methods of modern theoretical and mathematical sciences are born universal, ungoverned by researchers’ locales and unconstrained by geopolitical borders. In practice, material and political constraints, linguistic and national barriers, and the manifold idiosyncrasies of individual research settings have historically divided theoretical and mathematical scholars more than their putatively placeless quarry has united them. This project brings together a network of early career scholars with a collection of senior mentors to attempt to articulate and engage the distinctive challenges of studying the international and global history and sociology of subjects whose universal ideals have only relatively recently corresponded to globe-crossing institutions and research communities. Our investigations will lead to new collaborations and approaches to vital questions in the history and sociology of science, with implications for those concerned with access, diversity, participation, equity, and integration in science policy and practice in and beyond Britain.
Dr Dominic Berry BARSEA19\190021
London School of Economics and Political Science - History £15000.00
Narrative science in techno-environments: integrating history of science with environmental history and humanities
Narrative, be it as a set of epistemic tools, rules for laying out information, or a distinctive way of knowing, provides some of the most significant ways in which scientists gain knowledge of the world. The formation of geological landscapes, the testimony of psychiatrists, and the development of biological organisms, these phenomena are only available to understanding thanks to narrative. Despite its importance, historians of science have only recently
begun to systematically explore narrative’s role in knowledge-making, a task requiring use of analyses from literary theory. At the same time, and in parallel, the past two decades have seen the rapid rise of the environmental humanities. A key feature of this new field is explicit integration of historical and literary research. The proposed project capitalises on these two overlapping and interrelated research agendas by focusing on histories of the techno-environment in which narrative plays a key epistemic role.
Dr Harriet Boyd-Bennett BARSEA19\190049
University of Nottingham - Music £12948.85
Everyday Fascisms
The engagement seeks to construct the first interdisciplinary and transnational project on music and fascism in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The nature of the limitations of individual scholarship is such that, to date, most work on this area has been focussed on single nations, composers, styles and institutions. With the proposed conference and workshop, I will bring early career and senior scholars together to share work and construct a more global history of music and fascism for the first time. It will consist of two major themes. First, what does it look like to put fascism centre-stage in the history of twentieth-century music? Second, how might we use this history to recognise the relationship of music with the re-emergence of the far-right in our present moment? This would be in part a methodological intervention, proposing new ways of using our historical work to relate to the present.
Dr Michael Carr BARSEA19\190017
University of Edinburgh - History £14740.00
Medieval Mediterranean Exchanges: New Approaches and Collaborations
This programme will bring together postgraduate and early career researchers, along with established academics and heritage professionals, to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing those working on medieval Mediterranean exchanges; a topic which is of particular importance because of its connection to current events in the region. The proposal is for two interconnected events which will discuss three key points: first, how scholars can familiarise themselves with the research traditions and methodological approaches of sub-disciplines of the medieval Mediterranean which are not their own; second, how they can use interdisciplinary approaches to overcome regional/linguistic barriers in the study of the medieval Mediterranean; and third, how they can engage with non-academics to successfully disseminate their work beyond academia. The programme will enable the next generation of scholars and heritage professionals to create new networks and form collaborative projects which will drive future discourses regarding the region and period.
Dr Hannah Dean BARSEA19\190082
University of St Andrews - Management and Business Studies £14952.00
Interdisciplinary ECRs Network on the Intersectionality of Women Entrepreneurs
The project focuses on building an ECRs interdisciplinary network on the intersectionality of women entrepreneurs (WEs). Gender and entrepreneurship have increasingly been researched and taught in a wide range of Social Sciences and Art and Humanities Schools. However scholars from different schools notably ECRs rarely talk to each other and are unaware of the research done outside their departments. In addition, the research on the intersectionality of WEs remains underdeveloped. The interdisciplinary network brings together scholars from different disciplines to explore how different forms of identities, including race, religion, sexuality, disability and socio economic background shape WEs' experiences. The network will also involve policy makers, WEs and women agencies. The programme consists of two conferences and the launch of a special issue. It builds on the lead applicant’s British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (2015-2018) and St Andrews’s interdisciplinary Institute for Gender Studies and the Centre for Research, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
Dr Emanuelle Degli Esposti BARSEA19\190032
University of Cambridge - Religious Studies £14638.00
Beyond 'Sectarianism'? Towards an Alternative Framework for Understanding Sunni-Shia Relations in the UK
While Muslim communities in Britain are arguably under greater scrutiny than ever, there remains a dearth of understanding regarding issues of minority representation and diversity among Muslims from different branches of Islam. In the face of rising intra-communal antagonism, and against the backdrop of ongoing sectarian tensions in the Middle East, there is a pressing need for more nuanced understandings of the Muslim community in the UK. Currently, no suitable conceptual language exists to explain forms of identity, conflict, and cooperation among British Muslims beyond simply reducing the specificity of their experience to the problematic concept of ’sectarianism’. This project seeks to establish such a language by bringing together academics, policymakers, and community members from both Sunni and Shi’a branches of Islam for a conference, discussion workshop, and film screening. Together, these events will generate new discussions about the place and resonance of Islam and Muslim minorities in Britain.
Dr Victoria Donovan BARSEA19\190060
University of St Andrews - Modern Languages £14992.00
Slavic Studies Goes Public: Creating an ECR network for knowledge exchange and capacity building in the public humanities
At a time of heightened tensions between Russia, Ukraine and the West, when international media are increasingly turning their attention to the region’s politics, the need for Slavists to engage audiences beyond the classroom, academic publishing, and the conference circuit has never been greater. Experts in Slavic languages, literatures, and cultures are in a privileged position to comment on and analyse contemporary political and cultural developments in the region and to correct the inaccurate and, at times, mendacious information that circulates in journalism and on social media and informs public opinion. This project aims to bring together ECRs from Russia, Ukraine, and the West to share knowledge about the public engagement work currently underway in the field, explore challenges and new directions, and, perhaps most importantly, to discuss the politics and practicalities of engaging communities (including communities in Russia and Eastern Europe) in academic research.
Dr Rhiannon Evans BARSEA19\190025
Cardiff University - Sociology £11055.60
The Sociology of Suicide Research Network: Developing a New Research Agenda
Sociology has made a clear and significant contribution to our understanding of suicide since the works of Emile Durkheim. However, more recently, the field has been dominated by psychology and psychiatry, arguably leaving sociology at the margins. This has meant that the application of a sociological lens has been rather sporadic and theoretical development has been somewhat limited. The present engagement award seeks to return sociology to the centre of suicide research through the development of a Sociology of Suicide Research Network. It will undertake four inter-related activities: 1) An early career research masterclass; 2) An expert meeting to develop the research agenda; 3) Networking with an international critical suicidology research group to translate learning about network infrastructure to the UK context; and 4) Grant application development to support the increased application of sociology in the study of suicide.
Dr Stefan Hanss BARSEA19\190084
University of Manchester - History £14970.00
Microscopic Records: The New Interdisciplinarity of Early Modern Studies, c. 1400–1800
By testing the use of scientific methods for broadening our understanding of the early modern period (c. 1400– 1800), this event will shift the kind of knowledge historians may acquire about the past. The ways people experienced the world relied on the ability of things to elicit emotions and behaviour. This recent interest of historians forms the basis to build new conversations that aim at revealing information embedded in the early modern microscopic record. Objects’ microscopic records reshape our understanding of past societies, wherefore archaeologists pioneered the use of technology. By asking how such methods can advance historians’ knowledge, this event establishes pathbreaking interdisciplinary cultures that make science a crucial element of a historian’s toolbox. The engagement comprises a three-day masterclass and a one-day symposium that will link Early Career Researchers (ECRs) with key leaders by hands-on training. The focus is on knowledge sharing and network creation to build future collaborations.
Dr Ralitsa Hiteva BARSEA19\190047
University of Sussex - Geography £14988.00
Methods and pathways for engagement with infrastructure services
The project seeks to make a step-change in current debates, policy and practice of infrastructure governance by bringing together a group of researchers and stakeholder who rarely talk to each other. In doing so, the project will build solid, interdisciplinary knowledge about real-life challenges of infrastructure governance and map how state- of-the-art research can support the ongoing dilemmas of infrastructure providers and decision-makers. ECRs working on infrastructure governance; infrastructure providers; national and local policy-makers and third sector organisations will be brought together through a practically oriented Studio Workshop; a policy-oriented Pathways Workshop; and an Open Lecture for the general public to 1) map and discuss existing methods for studying infrastructure services, used in different geographic locations, disciplines and contexts (covering developed, developing and transition countries); co-create 2) new methods for “seeing” and engaging with infrastructure services; and 3) pathways to using these to engage with policy-making.
Dr Neil Ketchley BARSEA19\190066
King's College London - Politics £13569.62
Dynamics and Legacies of Revolution in the MENA
Twenty nineteen marks the centenary of a series of anti-colonial revolutions and uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Beginning in Egypt, unruly protest quickly spread to Iraq, Syria, Sudan, and beyond. The proposed project has two aims: 1) to revisit those events with a view to producing multi-disciplinary scholarship. 2) To provide training and mentorship for early career researchers (ECRs) working on protest and revolution in the MENA. This will take the form of a two day workshop. The first day will be devoted to ECRs, drawn from politics, sociology, history, and area studies and working on the interwar mobilizations, receiving feedback from established scholars. The second day will be devoted to practical sessions on researching protest in the MENA in light of threats to academic freedom. Presentations on fieldwork issues will be recorded and disseminated through the “Social Movements and Popular Mobilisation in the MENA” network.
Dr Laura King BARSEA19\190040
University of Leeds - History £15000.00
Remembering the dead: artist-academic collaborations
This project will bring together academics working on remembrance practices with a group of Mexican artists producing creative work on the same theme. Through a residency with Theatre In The Mill in Bradford and the Corn Exchange shopping centre in Leeds, and a day-long workshop, this funding will allow new collaborative work to be produced, and new relationships forged. The visiting artists will use materials provided by the academics, along with a process of community engagement, to build a series of ofrenda, or shrines of remembrance, often created around Day of the Dead. It ultimately explores the questions of how different cultures remember their dead; which practices of remembrance are most effective and important for different groups of people; and how collaborations between artists and academics, alongside community groups, can offer new ways of investigating and communicating our research questions.
Dr Gary Lewis BARSEA19\190090
Royal Holloway, University of London - Psychology £9750.00
New Vistas for Human Social Cognition: A Fresh Look Through the Lens of Individual Differences
Humans are a highly social species. For example, we form impressions and decode the mental states of others in the blink of an eye, and we are highly attuned to how we are viewed by others. However, little attention has been directed to the fact that humans differ markedly on such abilities; that is, there are notable individual differences.
And this gap in knowledge seriously undermines our efforts when it comes to delineating biological bases (e.g. underpinning neural regions, genetic influences), how such abilities change with age, or the precise socio-cognitive deficits associated with a wide variety of mental health conditions. The proposed engagement will provide a training workshop affording early-career researchers the opportunity to learn about essential contemporary individual differences methods and stimuli/tool development. This will be complemented by a conference event that will provide presentations on the major contemporary discoveries and open questions in the field.
Dr Laura Teresa Loyola Hernandez BARSEA19\190072
University of Leeds - Geography £10886.00
#resistance: Exploring digital protest by marginalised groups
In recent years, there has been an explosion of research on the role of social media in contemporary social movements like Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, Indignados movement and the Arab Spring. Yet, little attention has been brought to the everyday use of social media as a tool of resistance to challenge unequal gender, racial, colonial and economic relations. This two-day event, held at the University of Leeds will bring together early career researchers (ECRs) and established academics in geography, linguistics, education, sociology, communications and gender studies with advocates working on daily resistance and online activism. This event will be a hybrid conference; having both face to face and virtual presentations, following a module of a Nearly Carbon-Neutral Conference (NCN). This event will engage local, national and international communities through the podcasting of speakers’ contribution, online Q&A and an active multi-author blog running throughout the year.
Dr Clare Mac Cumhaill BARSEA19\190088
Durham University - Philosophy £14624.00
Mapping the Quartet: The Living Legacy of a Female Philosophical School
In Parenthesis, which had its genesis in a BA small grant (SG152810, 2016-2018), was established to study the collective corpus of distinguished philosophers G.E.M. Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Iris Murdoch, and Mary Midgley - all of whom were born in 1919/20 and went up to Oxford between 1937-9. The primary objective of In Parenthesis was to establish a reading group to study these women’s work in order to determine whether this Quartet could be considered an all-female philosophical school. Mapping the Quartet will trace the transgenerational intellectual legacy of the Quartet in today’s living philosophers. This will be effected through a responsive web application which will allow past students and current scholars to register their connection to the Quartet and to share their stories so as to create a repository of oral testimony around the Quartet, a so-far neglected all-female philosophical school - the first in the history of Analytic Philosophy.
Dr Eliana Maestri BARSEA19\190064
University of Exeter - Modern Languages £15000.00
Enhancing Shared Reflexive Knowledge of Translation as Cross-cultural Communication
Public engagement is founded upon the ability not only to ‘speak up as an expressive practice’ but also ‘to speak with others or to speak for our commitments’ (Flower 2008:2). The aim of this project is to enable early-career researchers in Translation Studies to reflect on the co-creation of public engagement activities and shared reflexive knowledge of translation as cross-cultural communication, linguistic creativity, multilingual practice, mediation and professional service. The aim is also to enable them to plan interactive activities on/in translation with senior researchers, creative practitioners and stakeholders and deliver them at the 2019 Exeter Translation Festival.
Following the success of the 2017 Festival, this event will offer an invaluable opportunity to foster the rich linguistic and cultural diversity in Devon and the UK, broaden the general public’s understanding of translation as a cross- cultural encounter and promote a spirit of community and inclusion, especially in a delicate post-Brexit era.
Dr James Nguyen BARSEA19\190031
School of Advanced Study, University of London - Philosophy £11950.00
Epistemological Pluralism
Representations play a vital role in both the humanities and the sciences. In science these are often called ‘models’, in the humanities: ‘narratives’. It is regularly assumed that there are deep methodological differences between the approaches. Furthermore, in cases where they overlap, or where one approach extends to cover an area traditionally studied by the other, tensions arise (e.g. agent-based models vs. single case study based research in the social sciences, or accusations of ‘economic imperialism’ to the use of economics in traditionally non economic domains, such as the study of intrafamily relationships). Because of this researchers are increasingly suspicious, and indeed dismissive, of ‘opposing’ methodologies. This project will investigate whether these differences can be accommodated (indeed celebrated) by epistemological pluralism; a philosophical view that accepts our cognitive limitations, thereby welcoming multiple perspectives on a given subject, without collapsing into a pessimistic relativism or highly local realism.
Dr Ben Noble BARSEA19\190002
University College London - Politics £14675.48
Parliaments Under Fire
Why do authoritarian leaders close down legislatures? In spite of the academic, policy, and public interest in examining this question, we know surprisingly little about moments of parliamentary shutdown, including the various pathways leading to shuttering assemblies. The proposed project will address this knowledge gap in three ways: 1) the creation of a network of early-career researchers (ECRs) in political science studying legislative closures in non-democracies in different regions of the world, with the aim of gaining cross-regional insights and pooling information for joint analysis; 2) a workshop bringing this ECR network into dialogue with senior political scientists (mentors), non-political science area studies scholars to provide cross-disciplinary insights, and country- and region- specific research analysts from the UK policy community; and 3) a public engagement event to disseminate initial research findings and to allow members of the public to help co-produce the future directions of the research project.
Dr Naomi Paxton BARSEA19\190079
Central School of Speech and Drama - Culture, Media and Performance £9980.00
Different Stages: Exploring public engagement for Drama and Theatre early career academics.
Drama and Theatre methodology and practice is recognised as a useful and effective part of developing public engagement strategies by researchers from a number of disciplines – most notably History, English, Biomedical sciences and a wide range of STEM subjects. The research and practice of Drama and Theatre postgraduate and postdoctoral scholars, however, is underrepresented in academic public engagement networks and in national Arts and Humanities festivals. This project will bring together Drama and Theatre early career researchers to discuss the role of public engagement and knowledge exchange within the discipline, to identify key areas in which advocacy for research in Drama and Theatre might be used to influence policy, and to learn skills so they can take the lead in creating opportunities for interdisciplinary and creative collaboration both within their institutions and as independent researchers.
Dr Beryl Pong BARSEA19\190053
University of Sheffield - English Language and Literature £14999.00
The Aesthetics of Drone Warfare
Drones have now become commercial and readily available, with innovators promising unprecedented solutions to sectors as wide ranging as agriculture, energy, public safety, and construction. But this multi-billion-pound industry is founded upon the technology’s origins in a military context, and drone warfare is rapidly redefining the meaning of war, peace, and their temporal and geographical boundaries. This project explores the issues surrounding drone warfare through the prism of aesthetics: aesthetics understood as art, and as the relationship between the body, the self, and the material environment. Combining surveillance with targeting, satellite imaging with ground-level intelligence, drones alter how war is experienced by pilot, target, and spectator. To examine the impact of this information-based, algorithmic apparatus on the cultural consciousness, this project will bring together writers and artists, museum curators and NGOs, through three public engagement events and a dynamic web platform to reflect on the art of drone warfare.
Dr Francesca Vella BARSEA19\190030
University of Cambridge - Music £14969.00
Sounding (Out) 19th-Century Italy
Despite the countless sounds and noises that have characterised the region and its people over the centuries, Italy is still largely associated, in both the popular and scholarly imagination, with the ‘soundtrack’ that supposedly accompanied its birth as a nation-state: opera. 'Sounding (Out) 19th-Century Italy' will bring together seventeen talented young scholars and five renowned senior academics with an aim to challenge the pervasive cultural misconceptions—the myths of Italian distinctiveness and exoticism—that have thrived on this orthodox sonic marker of Italianness. The working group will reappraise the multifaceted phenomenon of sound during Italy’s ‘long’ 19th century from cultural, historical-scientific and ethnographic perspectives. Two forums will facilitate dialogue across disciplines and with a non-scholarly audience: an academic workshop; and an outreach panel and live performance.
A launch talk, an interim reading group and a website gathering multimedia material will further enhance the
project’s impact on the global scholarly and public community.
Dr Erica Wickerson BARSEA19\190015
University of Cambridge - Modern Languages £14230.90
Borders and Crossings: The Arts and Society
Informed discussion of the representation in word and image of space, time, and perspective, is highly significant in societies experiencing mass migration and a stark increase in divisive nationalism and right-wing populism. This project explores ways in which the arts can respond to social divisions and engage non-academic audiences with key aspects of cultural analysis. The project will bring Early Career Researchers together with more senior academics, educational practitioners, and representatives of charitable organisations concerned with refugees and prisoners – groups experiencing radical transitions and marginalisation. It will showcase a public art exhibition with an interdisciplinary panel discussion of how art engages with questions around migration, memory, the cultural representation of trauma, and the intergenerational transmission of experience. It will ensure longer-term legacies in newspaper articles, further public dissemination activities, and a website presenting filmed extracts of the events, accompanied by an accessible book on 'Why We Care about Culture'.
Dr Helen Williams BARSEA19\190074
Northumbria University - English Language and Literature £14299.70
Novel Impressions: Literature and the Hand-Press in the Eighteenth Century
Building upon a monograph on Laurence Sterne and the eighteenth-century book, and a AHRC-funded major research project exploring early adaptations of Sterne’s novels in ‘Sterne Digital Library’, this series of print workshops across Britain and Ireland explores the parallel histories of the novel and the printing press. The project brings together a network of ECRs, practising printers, and print museums to share research and expertise with each other and with public audiences through creative practice. The benefits of the workshops are threefold: they enable future scholarship on the eighteenth-century book to be better underpinned by knowledge of the printing process, they provide a means by which print museums and small businesses might explore literary history as a hook for engagement events and commercial printing enterprises, and they deliver an engaging series of research-led printing workshops for interested members of the general public.