Basu, Dr Paul
Reader in Material Culture and Museum Studies, University College London, Institute of Archaeology
Archaeology / Colonial and world archaeology
Archives, Histories, Landscapes: Surveying Sierra Leone's Cultural Memoryscape
£65,894
This project marks the culmination of an interdisciplinary investigation into cultural heritage and historical consciousness in Sierra Leone. Pursuing the spatial frameworks that have dominated memory and heritage studies, the research explores what is conceptualised as the Sierra Leonean "memoryscape". This memoryscape is dispersed in multiple locations within and beyond Sierra Leone and encompasses a plurality of forms of mnemonic trace. Using multisited methods, the research explores the "logics of relationship, translation and association" between these sites. The main objectives of the Fellowship are to complete a monograph on this work, conduct a short period of fieldwork (following the trace of specific defensive settlement features from the colonial archive into the Sierra Leonean landscape, where oral history collection and archaeological survey will be carried out), and engage with different publics in Sierra Leone and the UK through exhibition, preparation of a heritage management plan, and contributions to the National Archives' "Africa Through a Lens" online resource.
Bullard, Dr Paddy
Lecturer in Eighteenth-Century Studies, University of Kent, School of English
English Language and Literature / Intellectual history - English Language and Literature
Personal Knowledge, Enlightenment and the Printed Word, 1640-1815.
£44,906
The enlightenment (c.1650 - c.1815) is commonly characterized as a period of "open knowledge" and free inquiry. This project investigates how writers of the age dealt with knowledge that cannot be disseminated freely in print (the conventional technology of enlightenment) because it is tacit, and can only be reproduced by practical example and personal habituation. During the seventeenth century scientists and practical authors dwelt increasingly on the resistance of personal knowledge to emerging codes of denotative description. In the course of the eighteenth century this technical problem took on an increasingly broad cultural significance. First satirists of the new science, then novelists, then cultural critics explored its implications. By the end of the century the tacit, passive component of human understanding preoccupied educationalists, moralists and political philosophers. The project investigates whether this narrative of broadening, deepening significance is borne out by detailed historical research.
Caplan, Professor Richard
Professor of International Relations, University of Oxford, Dept of Politics and International Relations
Politics / International Relations
Measuring Peace Consolidation
£107,315
This is a proposal for an investigation into how the principal peacebuilding actors within the United Nations system differ in their understandings of the characteristics of and requirements for a consolidated peace, and the implications that these differences have for the formulation and implementation of coherent peacebuilding strategies. It will focus on the technical, organizational and political challenges of devising operational measures of effectiveness, in particular measures of progress towards the achievement of a consolidated peace. The project will consider the wide range of UN peacebuilding experience since the end of the Cold War with particular attention to Burundi, one of the six countries currently on the agenda of the UN Peacebuilding Commission (PBC). It will promote more effective integration of knowledge with practice in the fields of conflict analysis and conflict management by communicating its findings directly to practitioners within governments, inter-governmental organizations (IGOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Charlwood, Professor Andy
Professor of Human Resource Management, Loughborough University, School of Business and Economics
Sociology / Sociology of other, e.g. work, media etc
Happiness at work: the role of social norms
£97,695
Interest in the study of subjective well-being (SWB) at work is high amongst both academics and policy makers, as it is seen increasingly as a compliment to economic measures of living standards. However, making sense of survey results on SWB at work is not straightforward. SWB evaluations are made by combining an imperfect assessment of how people feel about their working lives with an assessment of how well work measures up against aspirations and goals. This makes it difficult to know if positive responses are evidence of a fulfilling job or of having learnt to cope with objectively poor quality working conditions through low aspirations. There is scant British evidence with which to address this question. The purpose of this project is to fill this gap by uncovering the taken for granted and often unarticulated norms and aspirations that people hold about work and life, to trace how these norms and aspirations influence SWB at work, and to communicate the findings to academics, policy makers and the wider public.
Chevalier, Dr Arnaud
Reader in Economics, Royal Holloway, University of London, Department of Economics
Economics / Applied Economics
Children of the Wall: Parental Selection and Children Outcome
£103,971
Parental characteristics, such as education, income or unobservable skills differ between cohorts. These variations may be driven by variations in the costs of having children over time by family type. For example, a worsening of the economic conditions cuts household budgets but also reduces the costs of being out of the labour market. Economic depressions may thus reduce the probability of giving birth for richer (or more future focused) parents but increase it for poorer (or more impatient) parents, affecting cohort composition. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 triggered economic turmoil in former East Germany. Fertility rate halved between 1990 and 1993, before returning to trend. Comparing parental characteristics and children's outcomes (education, crime) for those born around 1990, this proposal highlights parental selection and its consequences. Parental selection is of interest to academics but also public planners since it affects the demand for public services. Public investments should then be adjusted for parental type.
Chwieroth, Dr Jeffrey
Reader, London School of Economics, Department of International Relations
Politics / Int'l Political Economy/Foreign Policy Analysis
The Political Aftermaths of Financial Crises: A Panoramic Investigation
£131,096
This project explores the political consequences of financial crises. It provides a systematic long-run comparative historical analysis of the political aftermaths of financial crises that stretches from the early 19th century to the present. Through this panoramic analysis, this project contributes new and unexpected insights about how financial crises affect polities and their institutions, and how these effects feedback into the economic and policy aftermaths of crises. By taking a long-run comparative historical approach, it provides a more systematic and comprehensive analysis than the current literature that uses narrow time windows and regional experiences, and thus generate novel and important political economy lessons for scholars and policymakers. Incorporating insights from politics, economics, sociology, and public policy, this project substantively contributes to the emerging study of the political economy of financial crises and to improving the overall quality of policymaking.
Dale, Dr Gareth
Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Brunel University, School of Social Sciences
Politics / History of Political Thought
Economic growth as ideology: The origins, evolution and current travails of the "growth paradigm"
£75,093
The contradictions of growth appear intractable. If it creates jobs we rejoice, if it raises carbon emissions we agonise. An ostensible solution is "green growth," but doubts surround its viability. Hence it is vital to study not only the causes of growth, on which an ample literature exists, but also its ideological aspect, the "growth paradigm." This project charts the growth paradigm's social construction, analysing the work of key thinkers who have shaped it. It reveals its origins to be coeval with the consolidation of capitalism in C17-C18 Europe, trace its evolution, and propose two theses: it is an ideological affiliate of capital accumulation; and it has systematically inhibited consideration of alternative policies. The project will produce a history of the "growth paradigm," an account of why growth is taken as a "given" in policymaking circles, and materials to assist scholars and NGOs who are developing critiques of "green growth." Findings will be communicated to scholars and the public via a book, plus papers/workshops at universities and think tanks in Britain and abroad.
D'Angour, Dr Armand
Lecturer in Classical Languages and Literature, University of Oxford, Faculty of Classics and Jesus College
Classics and Ancient History / Ancient Greek music
Greek Music and Poetry: Integrating sound and sense in ancient Greek song
£112,951
Greek poetry from Homer to Euripides was sung music. Intensive study has been devoted to various aspects of this music - metre, melody, instrumental resources, performance conditions, chorality. Yet ancient Greek poems - epic, lyric, and drama - are still studied and written about almost exclusively as literary texts, and few know or learn much about the music of which they were a part. The traditional treatment of Greek metre abstracts it from its musical context, and the complexity of interpreting the fragments of Greek musical notation has allowed few to attempt to appreciate Greek music as an auditory reality. Trained as both a classical philologist and a professional musician, Dr D'Angour has published a series of scholarly articles on Greek musical and metrical matters. This fellowship will result in a wholly original monograph arising from this research, which will fulfil the pressing need to integrate scholarly knowledge and understanding of the sound and performance of ancient Greek music with the interpretation and appreciation of the Greek texts from which music was once inseparable.
Das, Dr Santanu
Reader, King's College London, Department of English
English Language and Literature / Colonial and postcolonial literature
Colonial Experience and Literature of the First World War
£100,488
The project aims to recover and analyse the colonial and multiracial aspects of First World War experience and literature. The intention is to complete two major pieces of research 1. In Jan-April 2014, work on the "Introduction" to the anthology His Majesty's Subjects: Colonial Voices of the First World War, to be published by Penguin for Nov 2014. This pioneering sourcebook will include archival, historical and literary material from different parts of the former British Empire. 2. In May-Dec 2014, work on the last two chapters of the monograph India, Empire and the First World War: Objects, Images and Literature: "The Indian Soldier in European Visual and Literary Imagination, 1914-1918" and "The Great War, India and Modern Memory". The rest of the book is complete. The research has already attracted media attention and it is planned to communicate to a wide audience through newspaper, radio, podcasts and talks in schools and the Imperial War Museum.
Dauncey, Dr Sarah
Lecturer in Chinese Studies, University of Sheffield, School of East Asian Studies
Oriental and African Studies / Chinese language and literature
'Disabled but not useless': Disability and identity in modern Chinese literature and culture
£83,226
The evolution of disability representation has been one of the most dramatic, but also most overlooked, features of recent Chinese history. From a near absence of disabled people from film, documentary, fiction, and life writing by the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), transformations since have resulted in a growing number of works incorporating an increasingly diverse range of impairments that have drawn on changing conceptions of disability and, in turn, contributed to the re-imagining of disabled identities. This interdisciplinary project, which aims to inform scholars, policy makers in China, and the broader public in the UK and beyond, will provide the first comprehensive study of changing literary and cultural representations of disability in China. Through analysis of literary, cultural, and socio-historical materials, it will explore how narratives of disability are created, employed, negotiated and challenged by disabled people and others, and demonstrate how cultural representations mediate the identity of their subject(s) in relation to dominant discourse.
Eynon, Dr Rebecca
Lecturer and Research Fellow, University of Oxford, Oxford Internet Institute and Dept of Education
Sociology / Social Divisions and Inequalities
Social inequalities in the networked era: exploring the links between Internet use and social mobility in Britain
£91,113
The British government views the provision of Internet access as a way to support social mobility. However, for decades research has shown that those individuals (of all ages) from better off, better educated backgrounds tend to use the Internet more often and for a wider range of "capital enhancing" activities: for learning, job searching, to join in politically, to build social networks, to compare goods and services etc. As more and more of everyday life moves online we urgently need a new way to look at this problem. I propose to achieve this goal by researching a largely ignored segment of the population, the "unexpectedly digitally included", who despite being from less well off backgrounds seem to be benefiting from being online. Through analysis of nationally representative survey data, in-depth interviews and online engagement with the public and other stakeholders, the aim is to find out what the contexts and processes are that lead these individuals to use the Internet "against the odds" and if this use has contributed to their social mobility.
Fabre, Professor Cecile
Professor of Political Philosophy, University of Oxford, Faculty of Philosophy/Tutor and Fellow in Philosophy, Lincoln College, Oxford
Politics / Political Theory
Cosmopolitan Peace
£110,842
Contemporary just war theorists have only just begun to tackle the normative issues raised by war's aftermath; none has done so systematically from a cosmopolitan perspective. The aim is to fill that gap. Cosmopolitanism holds that our most important general obligations to distant strangers (e.g. the duty not to kill, or the duty to provide assistance) can outweigh special obligations which we may have to compatriots; it is generally sceptical of the value of political sovereignty. This project attends to four questions, via a monograph (OUP, under contract): 1. When and how must a belligerent cease hostilities, given its general obligations to distant strangers? 2. Once war has stopped, may the victor occupy its enemy's territory and exercise jurisdiction over it - in apparent breach of its sovereignty? 3. Are belligerents' mutual obligations with respect to regime change, compensation and restitution compatible with their duties to humanity at large? 4. By whom should war crimes be tried? The project thus offers the first comprehensive account of cosmopolitan post-war justice.
Fairclough, Dr Pauline
Senior Lecturer in Music, University of Bristol, Department of Music
Music / History & Criticism of Music: Art Music since 1900
Classics for the Masses: socialist realism and the Western canon in Soviet music, 1917-1964
£69,878
Following an AHRC Early Career Fellowship on the reception and selection of the Western concert canon in Soviet musical culture under Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev, this project will develop four major research questions: first, analysing the cultural background to the evolution of a Soviet canon in concert repertoire that focused on Western classical and romantic repertoire; second, assessing the extent to which that classics-dominated market fed into the creation of the Soviet socialist realist style in music; third, questioning the notion that the "insularity" of Soviet music under Stalin kept Soviet music in a state of suspended evolution until Khrushchev's reforms and fourth, considering socialist realism in its international context, finding patterns of development in contemporaneous art movements across Europe and North America. All these will be covered in a monograph, while the third and fourth questions will feed into two conference papers (2013), an inter-disciplinary conference (2014) and three public lectures in Bristol between 2013-2015 on aspects of Socialist Realism.
Fruehwirth, Dr Jane
University Lecturer, University of Cambridge, Faculty of Economics
Economics / Economic Policy
The Effect of Parental and Peer Influences on the Achievement Gap as Students Age
£94,878
This project explores why disadvantaged students fall behind their more advantaged peers as they progress through school. The focus is on two key contributors to student outcomes: (1) parents and (2) peers. The project will build on previous work to make several novel contributions, including how peer influences vary as children age, along with how parents can moderate their children's responses to peers, through channels such as time investment, resources and home environment. It will apply economic models and statistical tools to quantify the contribution of these channels to the achievement gap, using two major national surveys of a birth cohort and young adults in the UK, along with detailed administrative data from the US. This research will inform policies related to improving disadvantaged student outcomes through the structure of peer groups and parental involvement. The plan is to disseminate these findings by publishing several journal articles and presenting results at major conferences in the UK and abroad, targeted to both policy makers and researchers in various fields.
Guyatt, Dr Nicholas
Lecturer, University of York, Department of History
History / Modern History
The Scale of Beings: Race, colonization and the prehistory of 'Separate but Equal'
£89,172
This project argues that, in the decades after the American Revolution, liberal whites in the United States struggled to exile blacks and Indians from the promise of the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal". The book describes how intellectuals, politicians and philanthropists erected a series of sociological (rather than racial) obstacles to immediate equality for non-whites, and later developed plans to send blacks and Indians out of the United States under the rubric of securing equality. It studies the reactions of non-whites to these proposals, and follows the human consequences of colonization to the American West, Liberia, and the Caribbean. Finally, it considers the troubling legacy of this 'separate but equal' rhetoric for U.S. race relations after 1865. Beyond writing in an accessible style for a trade publisher, it will explore the place of colonization in popular memory via a series of public events involving academics, representatives from the heritage/museum sector (in the UK, US and Liberia), and experts on contemporary Liberian politics and society.
Hart, Dr Jason
Lecturer in International Development, University of Bath, Dept of Social and Policy Sciences
Anthropology / Development Anthropology
The Moral Economy of Children's Rights: the UNCRC and International Development
£85,182
This Fellowship is timed to influence debates about future directions for international development prompted by the 25th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 2014 and the 2015 target date for achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. After many years in which child rights-based development work focussed on cultural change at the local level, the relationship between the actions of political/economic elites and the realisation of children's rights is now emerging. The Fellowship will support this initiative in two ways. (1)Through research intended to inform creation of a moral-economy framework for analysing the state of children's rights across diverse contexts. As part of this a case study of non-citizen children in Jordan and the extent of realisation of their rights to basic services and civil participation will be undertaken. (2)Through dissemination activities entailing, inter alia, production of a 15 minute video on the moral-economy approach and a training module for development practitioners created in collaboration with Save the Children.
Heal, Dr Bridget
Senior Lecturer in History and Director of the Institute for Reformation Studies, University of St Andrews
History / Early Modern History
Lutheran Visual Culture during the Age of the Renaissance and Baroque
£75,268
The evangelical reform movements that transformed European religious life during the sixteenth century have generally been associated with iconoclasm. Protestant ecclesiastical art, where it existed, has been described as didactic: it may have helped to spread and consolidate the reformers' message, but did not play an important role in creating confessional identity. Yet when, from the 1560s onwards, Calvinists in the Holy Roman Empire tried to complete what they saw as Luther's half-finished Reformation by cleansing churches of images, Germany's Lutherans protested. Despite their restricted spiritual significance images were central to Lutheran identity. We have only to look at the flourishing of baroque church art in territories such as Saxony to realize that images had become, by the eighteenth century, a central part of Lutheran ecclesiastical culture. This study aims to investigate this phenomenon, using concrete case studies to explain how and why a confession that derived its significance from the promulgation of the Word came to value the visual so highly.
Hempel, Dr Charlotte
Senior Lecturer in Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism, University of Birmingham, Dept of Theology and Religion
Religious Studies / Judaism
The Development of Complex Literary Traditions in the Second Temple Period
£48,897
This project offers a fresh evaluation of the Community Rule from Qumran alongside a series of compositions most of which have only been rudimentarily researched to date. The latter comprise six works of communal rules and five legal texts that lack references to a particular community. Issues raised in the legal material such as suitable marriages were prominently debated in the Second Temple period and beyond from the reforms attributed to Ezra to the New Testament and rabbinic literature. The Qumran manuscripts will be read against the background of Second Temple Jewish literary creativity and legal debate. The production, transmission and interpretation of texts and legal debate characterised a formative period in Jewish history and eventually gave rise to Christianity and rabbinic Judaism. Close analysis of texts alongside a reassessment of the material as products of complex scribal activity rather than snapshots of communal life illustrate the significance of this project for our understanding of a time and place seminal for the formation of western culture.
Hermens, Dr Erma
Senior Lecturer, University of Glasgow, School for Culture and Creative Arts
History of Art / Conservation and Technical Art History
A synergy of skills: collaborative art production at the Medici Court as a model for artistic enterprise
£80,344
This project examines Italian workshop organisations started in the 1580s, at the Medici (Florence) and Della Rovere (Pesaro) courts that employed a wide range of artists, artisans and alchemists. The innovative organisational structure of these workshop clusters as artistic enterprises fostered a synergy of disciplines and technical skills, unleashing unprecedented creativity and experimentation. Both clusters are documented by extensive unpublished archive material providing a unique research opportunity. Links will be examined with so-called Books of Secrets, compilations of recipes ranging from preserves to alchemy and artistic techniques; a microcosm of the arts, crafts, and science present in the workshops. The project will look into innovation models for so-called fablabs and workshop clusters for city regeneration projects. The project will also pilot an "Art of Making" online resource on historical artistic techniques, presenting "recipes", images, films of reconstructions, and informing conservators, art historians, artists, students, general public.
Heuer, Dr Ulrike
Associate Professor, University of Leeds, School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science
Philosophy / Ethics including applied ethics
The moral significance of intentions
£96,211
When morally assessing a person's actions, we often consider the intention with which the agent acted. But what is its significance? According to one prominent philosophical tradition - often called "the doctrine of double effect" - an action which would be permissible if a certain bad result were merely foreseen by the agent is impermissible if the result is intended. Thus, according to this view, intentions are crucial for the moral assessment of an action. According to an alternative Kantian approach, intentions determine not the wrongness or rightness of actions, but only their laudability of blameworthiness. Each of these traditional theories is problematic. There are many reasons to be skeptical about the doctrine of double effect. But it has a considerable advantage over its traditional rival: it can explain important moral distinctions that we ordinarily take for granted. This project will draw on interdisciplinary resources from political and legal theory to develop a novel theory of the significance of intentions that avoids the problems with the traditional views.
Hills, Dr Thomas
Associate Professor, University of Warwick, Department of Psychology
Linguistics / Language Acquisition
Comparative Network Analyses of Early Word Learning in Monolingual and Bilingual Children
£102,044
Bilingualism is of critical national and global importance, yet the number of bilingual speakers in the UK is declining. A principle challenge to resolving this problem is enhancing our understanding of how people learn more than one language. Bilingual first language acquisition-one of the most effective means of becoming proficient in two languages-is poorly understood, with a near absence of large-scale comparative studies. The proposed research combines state of the art techniques in network analyses with the largest available longitudinal database of mono- and bilingual children, providing a record of early word learning for 600 individuals. This work will characterize how children's word knowledge develops in mono- and bilingual children-using both semantic and phonetic analyses-with an aim to understand differences in the network structure of early-learned words known to influence word learning. This work will have implications for bilingualism and language acquisition more generally, and provide an important foundation for future research on second language acquisition.
Houlbrook, Dr Matt
Senior Lecturer in Modern British History, University of Birmingham, Department of History
History / Modern History
The Prince of Tricksters: Cultures of Confidence in Interwar Britain
£97,574
How can we be confident in something? This is a philosophical and historical question, shaped by social relations and cultural forms that are time and place-specific. It became a compelling question in interwar Britain. The war's legacies and pace of peacetime change made confidence and authenticity prominent yet precarious values. I show how the lies and lives of the conman and discredited journalist and royal biographer Netley Lucas revealed recurrent crises of confidence in the identity of individuals and "truth" of popular publishing. Tracing how authenticity was constructed and confidence sought in social encounters and print, I contribute to interdisciplinary work on trust. The aim is to rethink interwar Britain. Highlighting resonances between crime, consumerism and monarchy, the project integrates discrete historiographies and shows how confidence abraded boundaries between society, culture and politics. The aim is to write an intellectually rigorous and accessible book and share these ideas through press and radio, and to continue to engage the public through the blog The Trickster Prince.
Janes, Dr Dominic
Senior Lecturer, Birkbeck, University of London, Dept of History of Art and Screen Media
History of Art / Cultural Studies - History of Art
Picturing the closet: queer (In)visibility after the trials of Oscar Wilde
£68,035
This research project explores the visual culture of the 'spectacle of the closet' outlined in relation to literature - and specifically with reference to Proust's character, the Baron de Charlus - by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick in her pioneering work 'Epistemology of the Closet' (1990). This project will look at the ways in which 'homosexuals' were depicted and visually presented themselves in the wake of the trials of Oscar Wilde in 1895. It will also explore the wider potential for the application of Sedgwick's insights in the field of literature to the histories of British art and culture.
Kavada, Dr Anastasia
Senior Lecturer, University of Westminster, Dept of Journalism and Mass Communication
Communications and Media Studies / Film and Media Studies
Digital Communications Technologies and Protest Movements: The Case of Occupy
£86,410
The proposed programme will explore the relationship between new forms of protest movements and digital communication technologies by focusing on the Occupy movement. It will investigate the role of digital media technologies, such as social media platforms, websites, wikis, live-streaming applications, and discussion lists, in processes of organizing, mobilizing and decision-making. It will also examine the activists' relationship with the media, their interaction with opponents and targets, and their attempts to build solidarity and construct a collective narative for the movement. Methods will include in-depth interviews with activists, content analysis of Twitter hashtags and the press coverage of main Occupy events, social network analysis of the links between different Occupy groups, an analysis of the records of mass assemblies, and features analysis of the main digital spaces used by the movement. The proposed programme will thus critically evaluate the role of digital media technologies in the Occupy movement and in its capacity for social change.
Kelly, Dr Gavin
Senior Lecturer in Classics, University of Edinburgh, School of History, Classics and Archaeology
Classics and Ancient History / Latin language and literature
Studies in the Text and Language of Ammianus Marcellinus
£96,750
The historian Ammianus Marcellinus is both a literary giant and an immensely important source for fourth-century AD political, military, administrative and religious history. But there are major hindrances to widespread appreciation of his work in his extremely challenging Latin, his tenuous manuscript tradition, and the fact that he has been ill served by translators in English. The programme of close textual work here proposed is a discrete and vital part of a larger project, which includes communication with a wide public in the form of a new complete translation and will lead ultimately to a new edition of the text. Given the state in which the work has been transmitted, any translation requires constant reconsideration of the text; but certain issues in the language need to be studied not case by case but systematically, above all his exceptionally regular system of prose rhythm at the end of phrases, and various oddities of syntax, vocabulary, and style, which scholars have variously defended as authentic late Latin or have emended.
Knight, Dr Sarah
Senior Lecturer in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature, University of Leicester, School of English
English Language and Literature / Renaissance literature
A new critical edition of Fulke Greville's plays: 'Alaham' and 'Mustapha'
£99,568
Fulke Greville (1554-1628) worked as author and politician during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James VI & I. His philosophically complex plays Mustapha and Alaham (c. 1595-1600), intended by their author "for the use of life", are a Renaissance courtier's challenging dramatisations of near Eastern politics. Greville plunges us into key ideological debates of his turbulent times, posing perennially difficult questions: "is it ever right to kill an unjust ruler?", "how should we face death?", "what can near Eastern politics teach us about English political life?" My edition (contracted with Oxford University Press) will offer new texts and commentary on these plays, considering Greville's Latin, French, Italian and English influences, and showing how he interwove varied sources - classical and continental tragedy, contemporary travel narratives and Italian humanist historiography of the Ottoman world, Reformation anti-tyrant treatises, revivals of ancient Stoicism, Calvinist doctrine - to create an original form of tragedy which should now be more widely read and understood.
Lane, Dr George
Senior Teaching Fellow, SOAS, Dept of History
History / Medieval History - History
The Phoenix Mosque, the Ju-jing Yuan Cemetery, and the Persian Community of Mediaeval Hangzhou.
£96,723
The unearthing circa 1921 of twenty-one Persian tombstones by the shores of Hangzhou's Westlake, has allowed unique insight into the nature of mediaeval Hangzhou's Muslim community. Unlike the Muslim communities of other east coast Chinese port cities such as Guangzhou and Quanzhou, the Muslims of pre-Yuan Hangzhou left little evidence of their presence. The Muslims of Hangzhou arrived in the wake of the 1274 conquest of the Song capital by the Chinggisid conqueror, Bayan Noyan. They formed a powerful and very influential community and established themselves in the heart of Yuan Hangzhou, constructing their imposing mosque on Imperial Street beneath the former Song palace and their cemetery in the grounds of the former royal gardens on the shores of Westlake. From the inscriptions found on the 21 tombstones and on a number of steles, written in Chinese, Persian, and Arabic, from local Chinese gazetteers, Persian chronicles, European travelogues and other literary and archaeological sources, a vivid image of this Persian community has emerged questioning former assumptions on its nature.
McLoughlin, Dr Seán
Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies (Religion, Anthropology and Islam), University of Leeds, School of Philosophy, Religion and the History of Science
Religious Studies / Anthropology and Sociology of Religion
The Hajj and British Muslims: An Anthropology and Sociology of Islam in the UK
£102,171
25,000 Muslims travel from Britain to Saudi Arabia annually, joining millions of co-religionists to perform the Hajj. This programme of research and wide-ranging public communication would be the first to properly illuminate the changing face of Hajj-going from the UK, both in terms of its sacred and more secular elements. Topics of interest include not only the experiences of pilgrims before, during and after their journey but also the role of tour operators, pilgrim welfare organisations and government in organising pilgrimage from a non-Muslim society. The fellowship would focus upon writing up and communicating the results of interview and online survey data already collected by the applicant for the British Museum's 2012 Hajj exhibition and during subsequent research leave granted by the University of
Leeds in 2013. The project's academic output would be a monograph, while public communication would include media work, an online resource, a short industry report and seminar, a popular book aimed at British Muslims, and 3 community-based talks accompanied by a mini exhibition.
Mookherjee, Dr Nayanika
Reader in Socio-Cultural Anthropology, Durham University, Dept of Anthropology
Anthropology / Political Anthropology
"Boundaries of Blood": Bangladesh war and its trans-national returnee adoptees
£103,771
This ethnographic research aims to contribute to the interdisciplinary scholarship on the well-being of children affected by warfare. It focuses on adoptees who have returned to Bangladesh since the 1990s from Western countries where they had been adopted. Comparing the accounts of "war-babies" (children born as a result of rape during the Bangladesh war of 1971) with children orphaned as a result of the war, it contributes to the understanding of a contemporary issue - of forced pregnancy during wars - which has global resonances with the conflicts in Rwanda and Bosnia. It sets out to examine the impact of transnational and transracial adoption which has been the focus of recent debates within United Kingdom. It includes communication and public engagements (by means of public lectures, publications in blogs, open access popular social science journals and newspapers) in collaboration with Ain-O-Shalish Kendra (ASK), a Bangladeshi human rights NGO and the South Asian adoptee networks, in Bangladesh, Europe and North America.
Moran, Dr James
Associate Professor, University of Nottingham, Department of English
English Language and Literature / Theatre History - English Language and Literature
The Drama of D.H. Lawrence: Regional Identity and Space
£83,600
D.H. Lawrence's life and novels have increasingly appeared onstage in theatres in the East Midlands during the past decade. His recurring presence has made Lawrence central to a regional sense of cultural and literary identity. Yet Lawrence's own plays remain little known to theatre audiences and have not been the subject of a book-length study for almost four decades, and, as Dollimore puts it, Lawrence is "increasingly disregarded" in the wider academy. This project seeks to understand these tensions, and to show that the French and Irish dimensions in Lawrence's plays shed light on the transnational turn in 'new' modernist studies. This project will reacquaint audiences in the East Midlands with Lawrence's own playwriting, through a rehearsed reading of his "The Daughter in Law"; a set of interactive discussions on BBC Radio Nottingham; and a series of public lectures. The research will produce a new monograph on Lawrence's drama, combining original historical research and analysis of the unique manuscript holdings in the Lawrence collection at the University of Nottingham.
Murphy, Dr Rachel
University Lecturer in the Sociology of China, University of Oxford, School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies
Geography / Area Studies
The Children of China's Great Migration and Urbanisation
£98,341
In an era of unprecedented globalisation and urbanisation, migration and education have become principal strategies through which rural Chinese families pursue socio-economic mobility. Millions of rural adults now work in China's cities, and increasingly too in countries in Africa and the Middle East, while their children stay with grandparents and other relatives and at boarding schools. Whereas in the 1990s parents sought to earn money to secure their families' futures in the village, in the past decade, increasingly, their main objective has been to secure their children's off-farm futures. They do this largely by investing in their children's education, but also, especially when they have sons, by purchasing property in nearby industrialising towns. By analysing children's testimonies, family members' accounts, observations of daily life, and documentary and statistical evidence that maps background patterns, this project will produce a book that casts light on children's experiences of radically changing childhoods.
O'Connell, Dr Paul
Reader in Law, SOAS, School of Law
Law / International Law (Public)
Masking Barbarism: Human Rights in the Contemporary Global Order
£103,636
The last two decades have seen a profusion of human rights instruments, specialist bodies and NGOs, as well as increased affirmation of commitment to human rights from virtually all states and dominant global actors. Ours, then, is truly the 'age of human rights'. However, recent decades (the era of globalisation) have also seen increasing levels of poverty and inequality, which in turn contribute, in myriad ways, to the undermining and denial of human rights for billions of people around the world. There is, therefore, a major disjuncture between the promise of globalisation for human rights, and the concrete realisation of such rights. This research will explore the reasons for this. It will examine the extent to which the dominant economic and ideological paradigms of our age are inconsistent with the enjoyment of human rights. And, in light of this, asses what alternative strategies can contribute to the concrete realisation of human rights in the contemporary global order.
Pratt, Dr Nicola
Associate Professor, International Politics of the Middle East, University of Warwick, Dept of Politics and International Studies
Politics / Politics of a specific area or region (specified by regional interest on the classification tab)
Middle East Women: The Personal and the Geopolitical
£96,199
The "Arab spring" presents a paradox for women. Commentators have noted the substantial presence of women and their diverse roles in the uprisings. Yet the transition away from nominally secular dictatorships towards Islamist-dominated elected governments presents a threat to women's rights. This project challenges three tendencies within much public discussion of women in the Arab world: first, the resort to Islam or "Arab culture" to explain women's experiences; second, the tendency for women to be represented as either "victims" or "heroines"; third, the absence of historical contextualisation of women's activism. Based on new research inspired by the emergent findings of Dr Pratt's previous BA-funded work, this project assesses the significance of geopolitical events in shaping women's rights and participation in complex and often contradictory ways. The fellowship will be used to achieve a step-change in this research, to write a monograph exploring the interplay between women and geopolitics in the Arab world and to contribute to public debates over Middle East women.
Radick, Professor Gregory
Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Leeds, School of Philosophy, Religion and the History of Science
History / History of Science
The Mendelian Turn in Biology: Why It Happened and What Might Have Been
£98,636
Following the rediscovery of Gregor Mendel's work in 1900, the biological science of inheritance came to be reorganized around Mendelian concepts. Ever since, instruction in genetics at all levels has begun with Mendel and his peas. Yet biologists are increasingly aware that inheritance in reality little resembles the textbook image of it, and recent commentators have begun to wonder whether the pedagogic persistance of Mendelism may be counterproductive, in making it harder for students to absorb recent biology's lessons about how little genes "determine", and how fundamental are gene-environment interactions. Professor Radick's research over the last decade into the debates surrounding the introduction of the Mendelian perspective has revealed that its most powerful critic, W. F. R. Weldon, deprecated it precisely for ignoring the pervasive influence of environment. This proposal is to write a large-scale book that, drawing extensively on archival materials, will reconstruct that debate comprehensively to show why Mendelism really triumphed and what might have been had Weldon won instead.
Rees, Dr Amanda
Senior Lecturer, University of York, Department of Sociology
History / History of Science
Excavating Deep History: historiography, methodology and narratives of human nature
£98,586
Stories about the biological origins of human society and culture are consumed enthusiastically by the public, but while natural scientists have been happy to contribute to the development of such accounts, the human sciences have tended to remain aloof from such endeavours. Recently, however, some scholars have argued that the Deep History of humanity - more commonly known as "pre-history" - should be subsumed within the discipline of "history", the purview of which would then become the whole span of time from the emergence of anatomically modern human beings to the present day. Such a project throws up numerous methodological problems, on which this proposed programme of research will focus. It will analyse the ways in which conceptions of the deep human past have changed over time by examining the methodological development of archaeology and palaeoanthropology. As such, it will not only make a contribution to the history of science and historiography, but also to the public understanding of history and its wider political significance.
Roberts, Dr Stewart Craig
Senior Lecturer, University of Stirling, Division of Psychology, School of Natural Sciences
Psychology / Evolutionary and Comparative Psychology
Is there ill in the pill? Exploring social consequences of partner choice while using hormonal contraception
£98,430
Romantic love and marriage are universal features of human societies, directly affecting the lives of almost every individual. Recent research by the applicant suggests that widely-used hormonal contraception has disruptive effects on genetically-mediated mate preferences, influencing the outcome of long-term relationships, family wellbeing and, potentially, child health. This proposal addresses an urgent need to confirm these disruptive effects experimentally and with two further critical tests. In addition, the Fellowship will enable exploration and reflection on the implications of this body of research to determine how it might best be communicated to inform policy, practice and public debate.
Ruehl, Dr Martin
University Lecturer in German Thought, University of Cambridge, Department of German and Dutch
History / Intellectual history - History
Europa - A German Question, 1790-2000
£88,818
German philosophers and writers - from Herder and Goethe via Nietzsche and Thomas Mann to Carl Schmitt and Ulrich Beck - have provided some of the most influential formulations of the European idea. For almost all of these thinkers, the question of Europe was closely intertwined with the "German question". My research project is a rigorously historical analysis of the changing ways in which German intellectuals conceived of this special relationship in the two hundred-odd years between the end of the Enlightenment and the EU's first constitutional crisis. Using published as well as unpublished sources, the aim is to reconstruct the specific German debates in which "Europa" was imagined first as a guarantor for peace and civilization, then as a vehicle for social and political emancipation, and finally as a means for empire-building and the conquest of new markets. The goal is to show that despite these transformations, the German idea of Europe was defined by certain key features which remained constant, notably the belief in Germany's elevated role and special mission.
Ryan, Professor Michelle
Professor of Social and Organisational Psychology, University of Exeter, College of Life and Environmental Sciences
Psychology / Social Psychology and Organisational Psychology
Understanding work-life balance: Identity and compatibility
£89,171
Work-life balance, traditionally conceptualised as conflicting time demands, is a key determinant of women's underrepresentation in organizational life. This project proposes a novel approach to work-life balance - one based on identity. Key potential explanatory identity mechanisms, include (a) identity compatibility (the compatibility of who you are at home and at work?), (b) identity strength (does a strong organizational identity make extra work time more acceptable?), and (c) identity blurring (does high identification blur the line between work and non-work?). Funding is sought for an innovative program of to demonstrate the interplay between identification and work-life balance, and the way in such an interplay might be gendered. At least 4 studies will be conducted in collaboration with industry and employing innovative methodology informed by psychology and management. The studies will triangulate (a) surveys of male and female employees, (b) archival analyses of existing organisational data, and (c) experimental studies that systematically manipulate key variables of interest.
Sarris, Dr Peter
University Senior Lecturer in History, University of Cambridge, Faculty of History
History / Medieval History - History
The Novels of The Emperor Justinian
£104,032
The 'Novels' of the Emperor Justinian represent one of our most important sources for the development and operation of Roman law, and provide vivid insights into late antique social and economic realities. Yet no complete English translation of this source has ever been published. In conjunction with David Miller, Dr Sarris has been involved in producing a full translation based on the original Greek text. The aim is to use the Fellowship to write an Historical and Legal commentary to accompany the English translation, as well as an Introduction setting out the significance, history and transmission of the Novels. Cambridge University Press is committed to publishing the end product.
Schleiter, Dr Petra
University Lecturer in Politics, University of Oxford, Dept of Politics and International Relations
Politics / Comparative Politics
Surviving busts and exploiting booms: the economy, constitutional variation and cabinet survival in Europe
£110,577
This project examines the effect of the economy on government survival in Europe. The vulnerability of cabinets to the current economic crisis and indeed responses to booms differ tremendously, even when we account for the features of cabinets and their political context. Why? I argue that the varying constitutional powers of cabinets to manage their own demise condition the risks of cabinet termination in response to busts and booms. Constitutional rules determine who can trigger cabinet terminations and under what conditions they may do so. They therefore shape how susceptible cabinets are to shocks, their propensity to terminate in early elections or replacements, and their vulnerability to uncontrolled failure. The timing and management of cabinet terminations is an important matter on which policy choices and even civic peace may hang. Combining large-n controlled analyses of cabinets in 30 European democracies (1970s-2011) with in-depth case studies, this project promises major advances in understanding cabinet survival that will be of interest to academics and policy-makers.
Serneels, Dr Pieter
Reader, University of East Anglia, Dept of International Development
Economics / Overseas Economics
Malaria, Productivity and Income. Experimental Evidence from Agricultural Workers in Nigeria.
£60,345
The consequences of ill health for economic development are presumed to be severe yet rigorous evidence is scarce. Vector borne diseases like malaria have direct impacts on health and indirect impacts on productivity and income of workers. In on-going work we find substantial average treatment effects of curative malaria treatment on earnings, labour supply and productivity with workers at a sugarcane plantation in Nigeria using a randomized design. Funding was obtained for field work in 2012-13 that builds on these insights in two ways. First, to identify the causal mechanism more precisely we investigate the effect of malaria treatment on physical activity. Second, to analyse private demand we offer access to treatment at exogenously varied prices to estimate its effect on health care use, worker productivity and income, and also analyse the determinants of demand including worker perceptions and experiences. This field work generates rich and complex data that requires considerable time for analysis and dissemination, which is the subject of this proposal.
Simms, Professor Melanie
Professor of Work and Employment, University of Leicester, School of Management
Business and Management Studies / Management Studies
Employer experiences of hiring young workers during the crisis
£97,131
The impact of the recent financial and economic crisis has been most profound for young people's chances of finding work. Whilst the experiences of young people have been well documented, less is known about employers' engagement with initiatives to boost youth employment. It is argued that the success of such initiatives, and consequently for young people's employment opportunities, hinges on the propensity of employers to engage. This Fellowship therefore addresses this gap through a study of employers' practices. Professor Simms' previous research has focused on a set of employers who are engaged with such initiatives to and the aim is now to extend this to employers who are more reluctant. To do this, fieldwork will be undertaken gathering data from two main sources: Employer Engagement Officers within JobCentre Plus and employers. What will emerge is a thorough and theoretically grounded study providing insights into employers' attitudes and behaviours towards employment opportunities for young people which make a significant contribution to public debate around youth (un)employment.
Taylor, Professor Yvette
Professor of Social and Policy Studies and Head of the Weeks Centre for Social and Policy Research, London South Bank University
Sociology / Social Divisions and Inequalities
Critical Terrain, Dividing Lines & Lives: Re-Placing North-South Regionalism
£124,656
North-South UK terrain is represented and felt as a critical dividing line as policies ("Big Society") summon "community" as cure, claim and contestation in everyday lives. This project explores processes which shape and (re)make younger people's regional maps. Using two sites, Ovalhouse (London) and Theatre Pie (Newcastle), I ask how regionalised identities, communities and geographies are produced. Connecting lines - online and offline - and lives has implications for service provision and social well-being, culturally and economically. Encounters across the North-South geographical line involve innovative theoretical and methodological efforts: The purpose will be to "re-place regionalism" within a broader understanding of how dividing lines and lives can be shared and re-shaped beyond a static North-versus-South economy of belonging. It will establish inter-linked exhibitions in Newcastle and London titled "Walking The Lines: The North by the South, The South by the North", a cross-institutional seminar series and a policy document (Mapping Regional Relations: Resilient Inequalities?).
Tyrer, Dr David
Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Political Theory, Liverpool John Moores University, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Sociology / Social Theory
The ethics and aesthetics of phobia
£81,268
What is phobia, and why does it matter? The relevance of phobia is indicated in the social sciences by its invocation as a metaphor for discrimination (e.g. xenophobia, homophobia) and by its influence on literature and visual culture. However, relatively little attention has been paid to phobia, and it is either used descriptively or collapsed under a broader rubric of fear that elides proper consideration of its distinctiveness. Phobia is implied, though rarely explicitly engaged, in the extensive literatures on closely related concepts, such as trauma, emotion and affect. This project will identify the limits of social sciences understandings of phobia, tracing its genealogy, and examining the ways in which this underexamined fear is imbricated in wider concepts though often unnamed. It will synthesise an ethical framework with which the challenges posed by the social and political work of this most elusive, yet distinct of modes of fear can be engaged. The project will produce a monograph, two journal articles, and electronic resources.
Tyszczuk, Dr Renata Anna
Senior Lecturer, University of Sheffield, Dept of Architecture
History of Art / History of architecture
Provisional City: Revising the role of architecture in responding to environmental change
£94,002
Climate change establishes humans as a disruptive geological force and reminds us of collective vulnerability, responsibility and uncertainty. However, science and policy debates have tended to overshadow accounts that address the historical, philosophical and ethical dimensions of living with environmental change. In the midst of this architects are charged with redefining how we create, shape and maintain our cities in order to limit environmental impacts and risks. This project consolidates and extends Dr Tyszczuk's previous work on architecture and provisional thinking to bring into a single volume a set of arguments about how to re-position architectural practice in relation to wider intellectual, environmental, political and cultural shifts. Central to this project is the proposition that living with uncertainty requires that architecture is reframed as a provisional practice. The project includes a historiographic survey of architectural responses to environmental change and the piloting of a programme of professional and public engagement with this research.
Uskul, Dr Ayse
Senior Lecturer in Psychology, University of Kent, School of Psychology
Psychology / Social Psychology and Organisational Psychology
Ostracism in Micro Cultures: Evidence from Farmers and Herders
£69,172
This Mid-Career Fellowship has a goal to a) complete a research programme on social exclusion, b) prepare three high-impact journal articles for submission, and c) organize a workshop that will bring together academics and practitioners to discuss most recent research on different forms of social exclusion and real life implications. The project examines two important factors that are hypothesized to shape social exclusion experiences in samples of adults and children: economic/cultural background (farming vs. herding) and source of ostracism (close other- vs. stranger-led ostracism) and aims to identify factors accounting for group differences (e.g., interaction with strangers). This way, the project will explore cultural differences, mechanisms, and developmental processes in social exclusion experiences. The workshop aims to bring together academics working on different forms of social exclusion (e.g., bullying) and governmental (e.g., European Social Inclusion Team) and nongovernmental (e.g., BullyingUK) organizations.