Funded by
Barassi, Dr Veronica MD160066
Lecturer and Convenor of the Anthropology and Media Programme, Goldsmiths University of London, Department of Media and Communications
Communications and Media Studies / Film and Media Studies
CHILD | DATA | CITIZEN: Data Flows, Family Life and the Digital Profiling of Children
Awarded: £90,978.40
What would happen if the digital traces of our childhood were available today? This is a key question for generations to come who see their digital footprints shaped by everyday digital interactions in family life. Families have always impacted on children's lives by narrating them in public. Yet, with the recent developments in facial recognition and data mining technologies, new questions are emerging on the social implications of the data they share. By combining an ethnographic research amongst families in the U.K. and
U.S. with platform analysis, this project investigates the production of children’s digital data: from the biometrics of the unborn on mobile apps to social media narratives. It questions how families understand online privacy and big data, and whether children’s digital traces lead to different forms of digital profiling (e.g. social, medical, etc.). The project aims to contribute to current debates on online privacy by critically reflecting on the interconnection between children’s digital traces and broader processes of datafication of citizens.
Bate, Dr Sarah MD170004
Associate Professor of Psychology, Bournemouth University, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science and Technology
Psychology / Cognitive and Perceptual Psychology
Recharacterising individual differences in face recognition: A taxonomic approach
Awarded: £104,484
Interest in individual differences in face recognition is rapidly increasing and people with very poor or extraordinarily good skills present unique windows of theoretical insight into the underlying neuro-cognitive system. Yet, the findings of this growing and influential body of work are questioned by their diagnostic protocols. Current screening procedures are overly simplistic, adopting a basic categorical approach following administration of a limited number of face recognition tests. The current project will address this issue by (a) developing multiple versions of newly devised tests to provide a more nuanced and complete assessment of face recognition skills, and (b) conducting a taxonomic analysis of data from a large sample of respondents. This will provide a fuller characterisation of the face recognition continuum, distinguishing between categories and dimensions. A coordinated public engagement approach will simultaneously recruit members of the public for interactive participation in the project and disseminate information about this highly engaging topic.
Bennett, Dr Huw MD160027
Reader in International Relations, Cardiff University, Politics and International Relations Politics / Strategic Studies
The British Army's War in Northern Ireland, 1966-1979
Awarded: £108,652.80
This project explains how military strategy was created and changed in Northern Ireland, from 1966 to 1979. The Troubles is the defining conflict in Britain's postwar history and a key case study in writings on terrorism and insurgency. Yet the Army's attitudes, policies and conduct remain obscure. This study aims to clarify the competing influences that shaped military strategy. It examines policy disputes within the government, international influences such as the media and global defence commitments, regimental culture, and adaptation to different geographical conditions. The project is the most ambitious archival study so far on the Army's role in the Troubles, drawing on a wide range of newly available sources. The key output is a monograph, "The British Army's War in Northern Ireland, 1966-1979", for Cambridge University Press.
Findings will be aimed at wider audiences: the general public (to improve understanding of the conflict), lawyers in Northern Ireland dealing with the past (to aid the peace process), and the armed forces (to enhance doctrine and professional education).
Berry, Professor David MD160052
Professor, University of Sussex, School of Media, Film and Music Communications and Media Studies / Film and Media Studies
Reassembling the University: The Idea of a University in a Digital Age
Awarded: £114,828.80
In times of deep economic and political uncertainty there is a pressing need to revisit the constellations of concepts grounding the idea of a university for a digital age. The research will examine the relevance of ideas that reassembled the university in differing periods beginning in the 19th century until the present. A combination of archival, interview, and site-based fieldwork will be undertaken to examine how the university has become a highly contested space through the creation of networks of relations between devices, bodies, sites, and institutions. By focusing on the university as a site of culture and institutional knowledge, the project will examine how the politics of these networks depends upon the precise configuration of the relations and things of which they are composed. The Fellowship will allow Professor Berry to link his ongoing research in this area with new research in order to complete a monograph. In addition, the findings will be disseminated in conferences, an interdisciplinary workshop and a collaborative public artistic event for public engagement.
Blanco, Dr Maria del Pilar MD170006
Associate Professor in Spanish American Literature, University of Oxford, Faculty of Medieval & Modern Languages
Modern Languages / Iberian and Latin American languages and literatures
Modernist Laboratories: Science and the Poetics of Progress in Spanish America, 1870-1930
Awarded: £111,310.40
This project tells the story of the correspondences between science and Spanish American literature in the age before disciplinary lines were drawn. Synthesising intellectual history with readings of textual production, "Modernist Laboratories" repositions Spanish American modernismo within the emerging vocabularies of "science" and "progress" from 1870 to 1930. Not simply an aesthetic but cultural movement, modernismo needs to be understood in tandem with the discourses of progress and science as they were treated in the press of the fin de siècle. While progress is often conceived in technological and economic terms, Dr Blanco will explore how Spanish Americans perceived it as a catalyst for creative and intellectual exchange, as well as innovation. Studying an expansive archive that includes newspapers, popular science publications and little magazines, this is the first scholarly work to offer such a layered history of the intellectual environment that propelled what Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío called Spanish America's modernity, or "its material and spiritual commerce" with the world.
Calder, Dr Barnabas MD170020
Senior Lecturer, University of Liverpool, School of Architecture History of Art / History of architecture
Energy in the History of Architecture
Awarded: £102,610.74
A 2014 RIBA report states ‘emissions from buildings account for 2/3rds of total greenhouse emission in the UK.’ Energy is the leading national priority in architectural design and technology. Most architectural research and teaching reflects this urgency, but architectural history - around ¼ of many architecture degrees - pays very little attention to energy. This research will produce the first ever survey of the history of energy use in world architecture. Energy has shaped architecture since its origins: human and animal labour supply, material processing and transport, and climatic performance. This research will take cases from throughout global history, from the barley farming reform that that fuelled the first monumental construction in the 3000sBCE, to the coal-dependent glazing and bricks for C18 London houses, and the relationship between central heating and Modernist house design. Primary output: a single-volume history for a wide audience, published by Penguin Pelican. Secondary output: a television series, to be pitched late in the fellowship.
Connolly, Dr Heather MD160030
Reader in European Employment Relations, De Montfort University, Faculty of Business and Law Sociology / Sociology of other, e.g. work, media etc
Trade Union Futures: Representing Precarious Workers in Europe
Awarded: £90,762.40
Since the 1980s there has been a general decline in the protection of workers by collective means through trade unions, within a broader context of deregulation and intensified globalisation. This has contributed to an increase in the proportion of workers in precarious employment. Trade unions often struggle to access and represent precarious workers, and in countries where there are low levels of employment protection these workers are even more exposed and more likely to be outside regulated spaces. Using a comparative ethnographic methodology, the research will explore union responses and activities to represent precarious workers in France and the UK. Drawing on insights from industrial relations, political economy and the sociology of work and employment, this project will engage with, advance and influence key debates around the possible futures of trade unions, comparing two countries that are often contrasted in terms of their regulatory regimes and institutional structures. The research will be communicated to a broad audience in order to enhance public understanding.
Da Rold, Dr Orietta MD160036
University Lecturer and College Lecturer, University of Cambridge and St John's College, Faculty of English English Language and Literature / History of the Book (English)
Paper in Late Medieval English Manuscript Culture from 1300 to 1475
Awarded: £106,807.20
The scope of this project is a rigorous exploration of the coming of paper to England during the late medieval period, a subject which is still absent from current book histories. This research will consider the influence of paper on book production and, more broadly, on the literary and non-literary culture of the period. Paper has captured the curiosity of literary scholars and book and cultural historians, because of its contribution to the success of the printing press over manuscript culture in the spreading of knowledge and ideas. Paper is central to histories and theories of written communication from the introduction of printing to digital technologies. Despite its importance, our knowledge of the introduction and impact of paper in England is radically incomplete. The research will build on current scholarly interests in the materiality of the text, and embed the bibliographical study of paper in a wider matrix of historical, social and cultural interrelations and networks to investigate how paper influenced the communication process and shaped literacy in the medieval period.
Dunbar, Professor Robert MD160065
Chair of Celtic Languages, Literature, History and Antiquities, University of Edinburgh, Celtic and Scottish Studies, in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures,
Law / Public Law
Language Law and Policy and Celtic Languages: Irish, Welsh and Scottish Gaelic
Awarded: £115,084
Over the past 25 years, major pieces of language legislation have been enacted for Irish, Welsh, and Scottish Gaelic, and each language has also benefited from recognition in major international legal instruments. The proposed research will be the first comprehensive analysis of both the legal frameworks for these languages as well as their social, political and policy contexts, set in the broader context of language policy for minority languages. They are particularly interesting cases because of the historically marginalised position of the languages in English dominant societies, the use of the law as an instrument of language revitalisation, but, in contrast to other jurisdictions such as Canada, the relative lack of explicit language rights in the respective legislative regimes. The principal output will be a monograph, and the outcomes of the research will also be communicated via presentations in Ireland, Wales and Scotland to policy-makers, language organisations, and the broader language communities.
Gavazza, Professor Alessandro MD160024
Professor of Economics, London School of Economics, Economics Economics / Economics and Quantitative Analysis
Aggregate Recruitment Intensity
Awarded: £110,932
This project aims to develop a model of firm dynamics with random search in the labour market where hiring firms exert recruiting effort by spending resources to fill vacancies faster. Consistent with micro evidence, fast-growing firms invest more in recruiting activities and achieve higher job-filling rates. In equilibrium, individual recruiting decisions of hiring firms aggregate into an index of economy-wide recruiting intensity.
The project will develop a model to study how aggregate shocks transmit to recruiting intensity, and whether this channel can account for the dynamics of aggregate matching efficiency around the Great Recession.
The project will assess whether productivity and financial shocks lead to sizable pro-cyclical fluctuations in matching efficiency through recruiting effort. The project will further seek to determine the relative importance of two different mechanisms: 1) firms attain their employment targets by adjusting their recruitment effort as labour market tightness varies; and 2) fluctuations in new-firm entry.
George, Dr Robert MD160046
Reader in Family Law, University College London, Laws Law / Private Law (Family, Persons)
The Fall and Rise of the Inherent Jurisdiction of the High Court
Awarded: £115,973.04
The inherent jurisdiction of the High Court is a wide-ranging court power stemming from the Crown's prerogative over the subject, and is used to protect vulnerable citizens (e.g. making a child a ward of court). Statutory reforms in the 1980s placed major restrictions on the inherent jurisdiction, and by 2000 it had largely fallen from use. However, recent years have seen a resurgence in the court's use of its inherent powers, with debate about the appropriate scope of this power in the modern age. Addressing individual vulnerability and state power, the project is timely and important: it is the first research for 30 years and comes at a time of court activism and debate. The project combines historical work on the nature and application of the jurisdiction with doctrinal analysis of recent caselaw and empirical research in the form of interviews with stakeholders to understand and critique its place today. The research will lead to monograph and refereed journal article, practitioner articles and training seminars, and broad public engagement regarding court powers in family cases.
Grandy, Dr Christine MD160033
Senior Lecturer in Twentieth Century British History, University of Lincoln, School of History & Heritage History / Modern History
What the Audience Wants: Screen Culture and Race in Britain, 1918-1978
Awarded: £76,260.80
Dr Grandy’s research for ‘What the audience wants: Screen culture and race in Britain, 1918-1978’ documents the persistent reluctance of producers and shapers of screen culture to regulate images of 'blackness' for British audiences in a period of increased immigration. Producers and regulators, newly invested in imagining the responses of British audiences in the 20th century, constructed audiences as impressionable and fragile when it came to sexuality, class conflict, and politics on screen, but largely unaffected by negative representations of black and minority ethnic subjects. Changes in screen content were ultimately informed by British audiences influenced by American screen culture and regulations. This project is consequently about the shifting official perceptions of what was acceptable when it came to images of race on screen. It is the first of its kind to respond to historian Sian Nicholas’s call to move beyond separate histories of film or television and address the lived experiences of Britons engaging with a varied 'screen culture' in the 20th century.
Hammersley, Dr Rachel MD160035
Senior Lecturer in Intellectual History, Newcastle University, School of History, Classics and Archaeology History / Intellectual history - History
James Harrington: Beyond the Republican Paradigm
Awarded: £52,794.41
James Harrington deserves to be much better known both among academic audiences and the wider public. He was a highly influential political thinker whose innovative constitutional proposals exercised a profound influence on political debate during the English Revolution and for at least two centuries thereafter. His insights concerning the nature of democracy and representative government also remain relevant today.
Harrington’s reputation rests on his status as a leading English republican, yet that perspective has obscured a full understanding of him. This project will offer a broader approach, pursuing new research on his historical, philosophical, and religious thought and taking seriously his role as a literary innovator. The fresh interpretation resulting from this research will be presented in a new biography of Harrington (the first in over fifty years). In keeping with Harrington’s commitment to the dissemination and application of his ideas, several public engagement activities will explore the relevance of 17th century political ideas to our turbulent political landscape.
Hammond, Dr Marlé MD160039
Senior Lecturer in Arabic Popular Literature and Culture, SOAS, University of London, Department of the Near and Middle East, Faculty of Languages and Cultures
Oriental and African Studies / Modern & Medieval Middle Eastern lang and lit
From Fiction to Fact: the Curious Evolution of an Arabic Epic
Awarded: £105,887.20
This research concerns the Tale of Barraq Son of Rawhan, an anonymously authored heroic epic and song cycle set in the fifth century, CE, about a knight-in-shining-armour who rescues his beloved Layla, a young Arab woman who has been kidnapped and threatened with forced marriage to a Persian king. It emerged in the eighteenth century and was misconstrued as history by scholars in the nineteenth century, who extracted the poems recited by Layla in the epic as some of the earliest examples of Arabic women's verse. While the original tale of Barraq is now obscure, Layla's persona and her poems live on in various guises in Arabic popular culture. In an effort to raise awareness of this peculiar history and to consider its ramifications, Dr Hammond will publish a bilingual edition and critical analysis of the tale, presenting its history, and showcasing its afterlife in twentieth-century popular culture. Additionally, Dr Hammond will also create a website with a virtual exhibit of texts, images, songs and video clips featuring Layla 'the Chaste'.
Herodotou, Dr Christothea MD170009
Lecturer in Innovating Pedagogy, The Open University, Institute of Educational Technology (IET)
Education / Information and Communication Technology in Education
m-Evaluate: Devising an evaluation framework for the design and use of mobile learning applications in early years’ education
Awarded: £73,684.80
Despite the popularity and market growth of mobile applications for early years' education, very little is known about their impact on children's learning and development. Existing studies report on literacy development, engagement and peer communication yet these studies are few and not robust enough to guide teachers and parents when selecting and using apps with children. Also, while there is an abundance of apps labelled as "educational", there are no research-based recommendations to guide selection and design apart from self-reports by e.g., customers and developers, and rubrics based on existing learning theories. This study will provide robust evidence about the impact of selected mobile applications on the learning and development of 5-years old and produce a research-based evaluation framework. This will be achieved through a mixed-methods methodology (randomised control trials, observations, interviews) working in a participatory manner with participating teachers and researchers. A public engagement strategy will ensure findings of the study will reach diverse audiences.
Holberton, Dr Edward MD160041
Lecturer, University of Bristol, English
English Language and Literature / Renaissance literature
Literature and Transatlantic Exchange in the British Atlantic World 1640-1750
Awarded: £88,836
This research is the first investigation of transatlantic literary exchanges in the early modern period. It discusses dialogues between writers in Britain, and in Anglophone colonies in America and the Caribbean, as they echoed, cited and adapted one another’s texts. These processes show exchanges of perspective which offer valuable insights into the shifting identities that shaped the British empire. This research also throws new light onto these developments by joining up disciplinary areas - Early Modern English Literature and Early American Literature - which are often considered apart. It will interest a general audience by illuminating the cultural history of empire through a close investigation of Atlantic- focused writers and readers, some of whom are well known (Milton, Defoe, and Behn) and some of whom (Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor and John Dunton) deserve a wider readership.
Hoover, Dr Jon MD160037
Associate Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Nottingham, Theology and Religious Studies, Religious Studies / Islam
Ibn Taymiyya: Medieval Muslim Utilitarian
Awarded: £105,644.80
Al-Qa’ida and Islamic State quote Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) more than any other medieval authority, while many Muslims take him as an inspiration for the very different ends of democratic political engagement, modernist theological and ethical discourse, or quietist piety. Ibn Taymiyya’s evident importance for contemporary Islam has produced demand for historically-informed perspectives on his life and thought. Recent research has highlighted utilitarian reasoning in both his ethics and theology. Drawing on this research and further analysis of Ibn Taymiyya’s life events and writings, this project will explore the implications of his utilitarianism to a far greater extent than attempted previously. This will yield an article showing that Taymiyya himself links theology and ethics under the rubric of God’s utility-oriented action, a short monograph showing how utilitarianism illumines Ibn Taymiyya’s retraction of his creed in 1307, and a succinct intellectual biography arguing that utilitarianism provides an insightful framework for understanding Ibn Taymiyya’s whole life and thought.
Impullitti, Dr Giammario MD170016
Associate Professor, University of Nottingham, School of Economics Economics / Economic Policy
Innovation Policy in the Global Economy: Competition vs. Cooperation
Awarded: £117,596
The recent financial crises have increased the demand for stronger international economic policy coordination on the one hand, and triggered movements toward more policy independence on the other. While some European countries are promoting an “ever closer union” agenda of further policy coordination, in an historical referendum the UK voted to terminate its EU membership. Although there is sufficient consensus that trade integration should not be reversed, less agreement can be found on the virtues of coordinating fiscal and monetary policies. This proposal provides a quantitative macroeconomic framework to evaluate the effects of tax incentives for innovation in open economies, and assess the costs and benefits of policy cooperation. The results contribute to the academic debate on innovation policy and growth in a globalised world. Policy makers will also be informed of the trade-offs involved in 'going alone' in global innovation races. Public understanding of the pros and cons of international cooperation will also be enhanced.
Innes, Dr Abby MD160050
Assistant Professor in the Political Economy of Europe, London School of Economics, European Institute, Politics / Comparative Politics
What does the marketisation of the state mean for democratic government in advanced capitalist states?
Awarded: £70,506.40
After thirty years of pro-market reforms of the state directed at creating 'better government for less money', the evidence from the most reformed states, such as the UK, points to frequently opposing outcomes from those intended: micromanagement instead of meta-regulation; rising costs instead of increased efficiency; the dominance of monopolies and oligopolies instead of competitive provision. The scholarly puzzle here is to find out what happens to the democratic autonomy of the state to act when the institutional capacity of the state becomes 'hybridised' or fragmented between public and predominantly private business actors. This question will be explored using comparative case studies of countries characterised by initially 'most different' state forms: the UK, Germany and Sweden, with the US and Czech Republic as 'shadow' cases.
This 'most different systems design' will allow Dr Innes to test for regularities in institutional development resulting from the adoption of hybridising reform and for any common impact on the state's downstream policy options.
James, Dr Al MD170018
Reader in Economic Geography, Newcastle University, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology Geography / Economic Geography
Digital Work-Lives and Gender Inclusive Growth in the 'Sharing Economy'
Awarded: £104,010.40
This research in feminist economic geography critically explores the labour market possibilities for improved ‘work-life balance’, female worker empowerment and socially inclusive growth in the ‘Sharing Economy’ (or ‘peer-to-peer economy’) in different urban areas. Using survey and interview methods, it documents the lived experiences of women with young families juggling digital work with everyday activities of social reproduction, in ways that potentially disrupt (versus reinforce) stubborn gendered labour market inequalities. The project is developed through fieldwork with women whose work-lives are governed by popular online jobs platforms in two UK cities (Leeds and Manchester) which are actively positioning themselves as ‘Sharing Cities’. Key findings are communicated through a project website showcasing an online photo exhibition and video commentaries that make visible the everyday work-lives of female digital workers; 2 high profile workshop events (1 in each city) to launch an accessible report for end-users and policy-makers; and 3 papers in high impact journals.
Khan, Dr Gulshan MD160055
Assistant Professor in Politics, The University of Nottingham, School of Politics and International Relations Politics / Political Theory
Rethinking Dependency
Awarded: £92,607.20
Dependency, or the condition of being reliant upon another person or thing, is generally perceived in negative terms. This research maps out different dimensions of dependency to demonstrate its ambiguity and show that it is not simply a pejorative relation. It differentiates dependency from relations of care, vulnerability, domination, recognition and slave/debtor and investigates why needing or receiving economic, physical, social or emotional assistance generates such negative feelings. Bringing different and interdisciplinary dimensions of dependency into dialogue this research seeks to establish how it can be given a stable and positive meaning by showing that the condition of mutual dependency is, perhaps counter intuitively, a key factor for independence, autonomy and self-reliance. This conceptual project establishes an interdisciplinary criterion by which to distinguish between desirable and undesirable forms of dependency. It speaks to policy makers and practitioners by generating a framework to map and understand different forms of dependency to inform policy development.
Knox, Dr Hannah MD160038
Lecturer in Digital Anthropology and Material Culture, University College London, Anthropology Anthropology / Political Anthropology
Climate Change, Data and the Re-Formation of Politics
Awarded: £108,863.86
The aim of this project is to demonstrate how the analytic tools of political and digital anthropology can shed light on the complex social implications of global climate change. The research builds on a project that Dr Knox has been conducting since 2012 which has looked ethnographically at how scientific knowledge about climate change is affecting the planning and governance of cities. The main empirical focus of this research has been on the reduction of carbon emissions in the city of Manchester, UK. This British Academy Mid- Career Fellowship will enable the completion of this project by allowing time to write up this research into an ethnographic monograph, as well as putting in place the final piece of the research: an analysis of how new forms of environmental data are re-making political ‘publics’. Findings of the research will be presented on a public facing website, in a pamphlet for policymakers, and through public lectures and will be promoted through a European network of policymakers, technology developers and environmental activists.
Kreps, Dr David MD160067
Senior Lecturer, University of Salford, Salford Business School, Business and Management Studies / Business Studies
Understanding Digital Events: A philosophical and sociological study of virtual experience in the everyday
Awarded: £106,255.20
The Fellowship will provide the opportunity to a) complete research on digital experience, b) prepare a book manuscript for submission, & c) hold a workshop for academics and practitioners to discuss the notion of an Information Systems ‘Event'. The project examines personal experience of everyday digital tasks - paying a bill online, playing a digital game, receiving smartphone messages - and also new tasks such as tagging photographs, and experiencing people being recognised (or not) in photographs by software. The project seeks to discover if such digital experiences can usefully be re-conceived as a set of ‘events’ within a ‘structure of events’. This ‘structure of events’ approach uses Whitehead’s process philosophy, where the ‘event' comprises both the subjective consciousness of duration (Bergson’s durée réelle), the dexterity (or otherwise) of our physical gestures, and all the material and virtual artefacts of computing technology, and their interfaces, unified conceptually into a set of Digital Events.
Linton, Dr Anna MD160054
Senior Lecturer in German, King's College London, German Department, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Modern Languages / German, Dutch and Scandinavian languages and literatures
German Writers in Stuart Britain
Awarded: £55,695.90
Issues of migration and transnational identity currently occupy the minds of academics and the general public alike. This timely project takes the long view on European migration to Britain, looking back to the seventeenth century, which stands out as a period of relative tolerance and diversity, with many political and economic migrants settling in England and Scotland. Research on Northern European migration has focused largely on two groups: Protestant refugees from the Spanish Netherlands, and French Huguenots. A further contingent - German-speaking migrants from various parts of the Holy Roman Empire - has not received so much attention, which is surprising given the dynastic links: James I's wife, Anna of Denmark, came from a largely German-speaking court, her siblings were connected by marriage with German houses, and in 1613 her daughter Elizabeth Stuart married Fredrick V, Elector Palatine, later (and briefly) King of Bohemia. This study aims to redress the balance, investigating the contributions made by German speakers to the literary and intellectual life of Stuart Britain.
Longkumer, Dr Arkotong MD170012
Lecturer in Religious Studies, University of Edinburgh, School of Divinity Religious Studies / Anthropology and Sociology of Religion
Fractured Landscape: Hindutva, nation and identity in Northeast India
Awarded: £102,377.60
With the 2014 election of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in India, Hindu nationalism (Hindutva) is on the rise. Like many nationalist movements, Hindutva seeks to promote a singular identity, but one that runs contrary to the aspirations of other groups in India. This project is the first to examine the impact of Hindutva in the sensitive borderlands of Northeast India, an area often considered to be ‘un-Indian’ due to its ethnically diverse population distinct from the rest of India. Firmly rooted in ethnographic research, the study explores four themes: Christianity and representations of patriotism; assimilating indigenous traditions with ‘Hinduism’; secularism and political theology; and ‘place-making’ and national belonging. The project will provide insight into Hindutva’s transformation in this region by broadening our understanding of the ambiguous relationship between religion, culture, and national identity. It will investigate the propagation of Hindu nationalism in the recalcitrant periphery of the Indian state, and its relation to the very concept of ‘India’.
Lorimer, Dr Jamie MD170005
Associate Professor in Human Geography (University of Oxford) and Tutorial Fellow in Geography (Hertford College), University of Oxford, School of Geography and the Environment
Geography / Cultural Geography
Rewilding and reworming: a probiotic turn in human and environmental health
Awarded: £105,652.80
A probiotic turn is underway in the management of human and environmental health in late modern societies. Across a seemingly disparate range of domains, scientists, policymakers and practitioners speak of rewilding socio-ecological systems. Rewilding involves the careful reintroduction of formally taboo species and practices to secure desired properties. Predators, like wolves, have been returned to manage dysfunctional nature reserves and deliver biodiversity, while parasitic worms are deployed to tackle human autoimmune diseases. This project draws together and extends existing research to offer the first systematic description of this probiotic turn. Critical analysis will focus on the geographies, temporalities and political economy of rewilding in Europe and North America. Fieldwork will involve reviews of scientific literature, interviews with key thinkers, advocates and opponents, and ethnographic research at public conferences.
Findings will be disseminated through a research monograph, conference presentations and a series of public lectures and articles.
Macfarlane, Dr Robert MD160042
Reader in Literature and the Geohumanities, Cambridge University, Faculty of English English Language and Literature / Contemporary Literature (English)
Underland
Awarded: £110,107.42
This Fellowship will allow Dr Macfarlane to complete Underland, a major exploration of subterranean space and its contemporary representations in the context of the Anthropocene. Among the project’s key research questions are: 1. How are writers, artists and scientists currently imagining and representing below-ground spaces? 2. With what new kinds of knowledge and responsibility has Anthropocene awareness charged the subterrane? 3. How do the ethic, politics and aesthetics of ‘deep time’ intersect with actual and imagined underworld spaces? Drawing on the work of glaciologists, geologists and urban explorers, as well as writers and artists, Underland answers recent calls for the academic humanities to ‘engage with [the Anthropocene] in a focused, discipline-bridging way’ (Bostick, 2016). It also marks the culmination of my four-book project mapping nature-culture relations with respect to specific zones. The Fellowship will also enable Dr Macfarlane to curate a season of 'underworld' films at the South Bank, and develop an associated exhibition of 'underworld' art at Tate Modern.
McCarthy, Dr Helen MD160053
Reader in History, Queen Mary University of London, School of History, History / Women's history
Double Lives: Working Motherhood in Twentieth-Century Britain
Awarded: £102,555.20
Mothers frequently earned money to support their families in modern Britain. Yet only during the second half of the twentieth century did working motherhood gradually acquire the status of a social norm. Explaining how far and for what reasons the employment of mothers became recognised as an ordinary and permanent feature of British life, rather than a moral, social and economic ‘problem’, is the principal aim of this project. The project will produce the first comprehensive account of mothers' employment in Britain across the twentieth century. It offers a new interpretation of women’s work in this period, revealing the important role of ideas, and particularly of social research, in transforming the meaning of working motherhood. The principal output of this project is a substantial monograph. In addition, there will be a photographic exhibition, magazine articles, and a radio documentary designed to engage wider publics. Collectively, these outputs will advance scholarship whilst providing rich historical context to contemporary debates about gender equality, work and care.
McNamara, Dr Lawrence MD160023
Reader in Law, University of York, York Law School Law / Public Law
Respecting Private Rights, Pursuing Public Interests: Parliamentary Committees and Scrutiny of the Private Sector
Awarded: £114,115.20
There is a sense that parliamentary select committees are increasingly exercising their powers very broadly and subjecting the governance, management and operation of private companies to scrutiny more than ever before. While there is a public interest and benefit from such scrutiny, concerns have been raised about procedural fairness, lack of clarity in rules, the relationship of committee hearings with parallel legal or regulatory proceedings, and the possibility of overreach by committees in the exercise of their powers. As such, it gives rise to a tension between respecting private rights and pursuing public interests. Surprisingly, this dimension of committees’ work has attracted little scholarly attention. This project seeks to remedy that gap. It asks: how do parliamentary committees balance private rights and public interests when they engage with the private sector? Analysing committee data and using research interviews, the project aims to provide insights into how coercive powers are exercised in practice, including the processes by which contentious issue are resolved.
McNeill, Professor Fergus MD160022
Professor of Criminology & Social Work, University of Glasgow, School of Social & Political Sciences Sociology / Criminology and Deviance
Pervasive Punishment: The Shadow of Penal Supervision
Awarded: £115,249.60
Despite its dramatic proliferation and diversification in recent decades, 'offender supervision' has been largely invisible in scholarly and public discussion of criminal justice and its development in late-modern societies. The pre-occupation with 'mass incarceration' has, until very recently, allowed the emergence of 'mass supervision' to remain in the shadows. This fellowship aims to consolidate four years of work leading a network of European researchers to address this neglect. As well as seeking to re-shape 'punishment and society' debates by de-centring the prison, the fellowship aims to use innovative and creative methods to explore and to represent the lived experience of supervision. Specifically, it uses photography and song to (literally) make supervision seen and heard. These methods will simultaneously enrich our scholarly understandings of supervision, punishment and reintegration and secure deeper public dialogue on these important issues.
Meseguer, Dr Covadonga MD160070
Associate Professor in International Political Economy, London School of Economics and Political Science, International Relations
Politics / Int'l Political Economy/Foreign Policy Analysis
The Emigrant State
Awarded: £71,495.20
Despite being a major facet of globalization, international migration has only recently been incorporated into the study of International Political Economy. Research on international migration has been conspicuously biased toward the study of the political and economic consequences of immigration. However, emigration is a much less researched issue. When it comes to researching emigration, the emphasis has been on the understanding of its economic consequences, with the debate being dominated by economists and concerns about the so-called “brain drain.” There is a major gap in the exploration of the politics of emigration. Also, whereas economists have extensively researched the economic consequences of workers’ remittances, hardly anything is known about the political consequences of these voluminous capital flows. With the debate on international immigration being more salient than ever before, what is missing is a much better understanding of the other side of the international migration phenomenon; namely, emigration.Dr Meseguer’s research contributes to this understanding.
Micheli, Dr Pietro MD160051
Associate Professor of Organisational Performance, University of Warwick, Warwick Business School Business and Management Studies / Business Studies
Design thinking: Linking technological innovations to improving people’s lives
Awarded: £115,884.80
Design is now firmly on the business agenda. No longer the cherry on the cake for high-end goods and luxury brands, in the past decade it has gained relevance for the way organisations are structured and how they operate. “Design thinking” is an emerging process whose main goal is to create innovative outcomes that address people’s needs. Rather than relying on linear, technology-centred approaches, design thinking starts by understanding users in their contexts, portrays desired future states and iteratively creates ways to achieve them. It is a human-centred approach to innovation that considers technology, products and services as means to an end, rather than ends in themselves. Building on Dr Micheli’s previous research, the Fellowship will allow him to undertake a more in-depth empirical study and disseminate findings to a wider audience of practitioners, policymakers and academics. It will refine and operationalise the definition of design thinking, and identify its distinctive contributions and relationship to technological innovations, particularly in business to consumer contexts.
Muscolino, Professor Micah S. MD160068
Professor of Modern Chinese History, Jessica Rawson Fellow in Modern Asian History, Oxford University, Merton College, Faculty of History
History / History of a specific country
Erosion and its Enemies: Soil and Society on China’s Loess Plateau, 1877-1976
Awarded: £116,648.31
This Fellowship will result in a book that marks the first study of soil-society interactions as a fundamental component of late imperial and modern Chinese environmental history. The book will analyse the ways people in China’s Loess Plateau region understood and responded to anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic modifications of the soil, and assess the significance of state-led soil conservation campaigns of the late- twentieth century for local communities and environments by exploring them in light of the complex relationships between soils and societies that had coalesced in earlier periods. The study will enrich our awareness of the historical roots of China’s contemporary environmental challenges, while also engaging directly with interdisciplinary debates surrounding the Anthropocene. In addition to disseminating this research at seminars and international conferences, Professor Muscolino will communicate it to the public through a series of articles posted on the website chinadialogue.net, an online geospatial database, and via lectures given at local branches of The History Association.
O'Rawe, Dr Catherine MD170019
Reader in Modern Italian Culture, University of Bristol, Italian Communications and Media Studies / Film and Media Studies
Stardom and Performance in Italian Neorealist Cinema, 1945-53
Awarded £115,143.20
Italian neorealist cinema has been widely celebrated by critics and scholars, and films such as Bicycle Thieves (De Sica, 1948) and Paisan (Rossellini, 1946), with their use of non-professional actors, were globally influential. This project remedies a major lacuna by studying stardom and performance in neorealist film. It addresses three major areas: the casting, performance, and labour of nonprofessionals, particularly children; critical discourses around acting, performance,and stardom; the integration of established transnational stars (e.g. Ingrid Bergman, Montgomery Clift) into neorealism and the impact of this on ideas of Italian ‘national’ cinema. Written outputs (a monograph, a journal article, video essay) will combine archival research with close textual analysis, locating individual performances and stars in a broader critical, industrial and historical field. Findings will be disseminated to wider audiences via public talks and film screenings, a conference, and a film made by students at the University of Rome, who will find and interview some of these ex-performers.
Petrie, Dr Cameron MD170014
Reader in South Asian and Iranian Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Archaeology / Prehistoric Archaeology
Land, Water and Settlement in Indus northwest India
Awarded: £91,881.60
The Land, Water and Settlement project was a multi-institutional and internationally collaborative archaeological project that carried out surveys and excavations in northwest India from 2008 until 2014. This project has revolutionised our understanding of the nature of human and environment relationships during the rise, floret and decline of the urbanised Indus Civilisation (c.3000-1500 BC), and in the lead up to the reappearance of urban centres in the Early Historic period. Indus populations occupied a region that received both winter and summer rainfall, and shows considerable ecological diversity. The project confirmed that these populations were affected by a weakening monsoon, highlighted the regional diversity of Indus material culture, and showed that Indus populations adapted their farming practices to the diverse environment, potentially making them resilient to environmental change. This Fellowship will allow Dr Petrie to complete the final publication of the Land, Water and Settlement project and disseminate these finding to a general audience.
Rasul, Professor Imran MD160069
Professor, University College London, Economics Economics / Overseas Economics
Understanding Labour Markets in Low-Income Settings: Evidence from Uganda Using Field Experiments and Structural Modelling
Awarded: £107,838.18
This proposal relates to a large-scale randomized control trial designed to understand how labour markets operate in Uganda. The project has three objectives. The first focuses on workers: we evaluate the effectiveness on worker outcomes of the two most common forms of training programme utilized in developing countries: on-the-job training (apprenticeships) and vocational training. We do so combining a randomized control trial (RCT) with a structural model of worker job search. The second objective focuses on firms: we identify the constraints to expansion SMEs face using an RCT. We measure the impacts on firms of interventions relaxing constraints related to labour, credit, and the information firms have on workers. As the project encompasses both sides of the market, we can study how workers and SMEs match. This design also allows us to measure the impact of our interventions on net job creation. Our publication and dissemination strategy targets multiple audiences, with outputs provided at various levels of technicality, ranging from academic articles to policy briefs.
Rau, Dr Petra MD160057
Senior Lecturer in Modern Literature, University of East Anglia, School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing,
Modern Languages / German, Dutch and Scandinavian languages and literatures
The Aesthetics of Loss: Remembering Flight and Expulsion in German Literature and Film
Awarded: £106,688
In this project, Dr Rau will examine literature and film about the wartime flight and postwar expulsion from the former Eastern territories of 12 million civilian Germans: what have fiction and film achieved that homeland museums, reparations and political lobbying did not? What can culture tell us about the experience and the effects of forced migration that economics and statistics can't? This is the first book to theorise the aesthetics of forced migration in German literature, documentary and film (1945-present) with the help of key concepts from Anglo-American memory studies. How has the textual and visual iconography of the lost homeland underpinned the complex German memory debates East, West and post-unification? What affects are mobilised in literature and film? How have they helped turn competing memories of perpetration and victimhood into co-existing, multi-directional ones? In turn, the communication strategy will examine how this broadening of German cultural memory might have resonated in, even shaped, the cultural responses and public discourses in the current refugee crisis.
Saatsi, Dr Juha MD160063
Associate Professor in Philosophy, University of Leeds, School of Philosophy, Religion, and History of Science,
Philosophy / Philosophy of science
Scientific realism reinvigorated: How to think about scientific progress and knowledge in the 21st century
Awarded: £106,486.85
Questions about the nature of scientific knowledge and progress are as old as modern science itself. These issues are tackled in the ‘scientific realism’ debate in philosophy of science, which alas cannot currently provide cogent answers due to its impasse and entrenched battle lines. To break the deadlock, and to answer questions of critical cultural importance, a radical rethink of the debate’s key terms is called for. Dr Saatsi’s extensive research provides the materials, with timely potential to culminate in a field-transforming book that can change how we think about science. He will argue, in particular, that philosophical analysis of scientific knowledge must be more sensitive to various differences in how scientific theories explain and yield empirical successes. We can break new ground by capturing scientific progress in more case-specific terms, by forgoing much-criticised overly general claims and arguments. Dr Saatsi will reinvigorate the debate by thus rethinking it; synthesise and wrap up 15 years of his research; and publicise these new ideas via public talks, videos, and popular articles.
Sadan, Dr Mandy MD160058
Associate Dean (Research), Faculty of Arts & Humanities, SOAS, University of London, History History / Modern History
The Frontier Areas Administration of Burma 1922-47: Autonomy and Development at the Margins of Empire in a Time of Global Change
Awarded: £114,721.60
Burma has experienced some of the longest continuous armed conflicts in the modern world, yet there has been little historical research on the conditions that led to this violence. This project examines the work of the Frontier Areas Administration of Burma, 1922-47, which had authority over many of the regions that rose in revolt. FAA officials in dialogue with frontier communities responded to new imperial imperatives by envisioning a vital relationship between political autonomy and the development of the frontier as a special economic and cultural zone. Drawing on influences including the Tennessee Valley Authority in the US, the local debates that ensued contributed to the emergence of modern, politicised ethno-nationalism, which manifested critically in the years before independence and still resonate in the contests over political transition, the peace process and federalism today. Drawing on comparisons with frontier regimes in Asia and beyond, this project explores the history and legacy of a little understood branch of imperial administration at a time of global change.
Schofield, Dr Katherine Butler MD160059
Senior Lecturer, King's College London, Music, Music / Ethnomusicology
Histories of the ephemeral: writing on music in late Mughal India, 1757–1858
Awarded: £100,578.06
This project tells the forgotten stories of Indian musicians, patrons, and the courtly culture they inhabited during the tumultuous period of transition from Mughal to British rule. Music scholars have previously thought that there are no written sources for this period because musicians were “illiterate” and passed down their knowledge secretly by word of mouth. But it turns out this is not the case. In a recently completed project Dr Schofield documented an enormous indigenous archive of writings on Hindustani music c.1700– 1880, most of which has been overlooked. In this new project, through a series of public lectures, conversations and webinars culminating in a new monograph, she aims to bring this archive to public attention; to demonstrate ways to read these diverse writings in and of themselves and in conversation; and in doing so, to tease out of them stories of musical culture that don’t just provide us with much needed new histories of music and listening in late Mughal India, but also of wider events in the critical period of regime change from Plassey to the Uprising.
Sriprakash, Dr Arathi MD160029
University Lecturer, Sociology of Education, University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education Education / International and Development Education
The contested science of education and international development: concepts and politics in Indian schooling, 1947-1968
Awarded: £80,000
This project examines the politics of knowledge in education and international development. Focusing on mass primary education in India, Dr Sriprakash wilI trace how scientific knowledge about schooling and society was produced, circulated, and legitimised in the two decades after independence. Concepts, categories and measures from western sociology and psychology were used – and contested – in domestic and international planning for postcolonial education reconstruction. Theories of child development and community integration produced specific understandings about social difference in India which came to inform education policy and practice. Such specialised knowledge has active legacies today in the field of education and international development. However, the political contingencies of this science and its productions of social difference are not well known. Through this Fellowship, Dr Sriprakash will bring these historical contestations to public and scholarly understandings of education and global development, offering a major rethinking of the field’s normative ideas and approaches.
Strickland, Dr Lloyd MD160040
Reader in Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University, History, Politics, and Philosophy, Philosophy / History of philosophy
Leibniz's "Examen religionis christianae"
Awarded: £92,140
The focus of this proposal is a key work by the great German thinker G. W. Leibniz (1646-1716), namely his "Examen religionis Christianae" [Examination of the Christian Religion]. This piece, one of Leibniz’s most important theological writings, was written in 1686, and ostensibly as a detailed personal statement of faith arrived at “neutrally,”• in accordance with Holy Scripture, pious antiquity, right reason, and history. However, the text was written in the shadow of negotiations for church unification, negotiations with which Leibniz was heavily involved (albeit not in any official capacity). The chief aim of this research is to return to the original manuscript of the "Examen religionis Christianae" in order to produce a critical edition of the text, which will be published by Yale University Press as part of their Yale Leibniz series. As per the format of the series, this will be a dual language edition, with the Latin and English on facing pages, prefaced with a lengthy, scholarly introduction.
Tate, Dr Gregory MD160047
Lecturer in Victorian Literature, University of St Andrews, School of English English Language and Literature / Victorian literature
Poetical Matter: Nineteenth-Century Poetry and the Physical Sciences
Awarded: £72,399.20
This project explores the two-way exchange of language, concepts, and methods between poetry and the physical sciences in nineteenth-century Britain. Despite its reputation as an emotional or spiritual form of writing, Romantic and Victorian poetry was often characterised by a focus, shared with physics and chemistry, on the observation and experimental manipulation of nature’s material objects. Studying poems and scientific texts from across the nineteenth century, this project asks why scientific theories about matter became an important subject in nineteenth-century poetry. It also considers how science writers used poetry to formulate their theories, to bestow cultural legitimacy on the rapidly developing disciplines of chemistry and physics, and to communicate technical knowledge to non-specialist audiences. By examining these surprising connections, this research offers a new way of thinking about the history of nineteenth-century science, about poetry’s place within it, and about the complex relations between scientific and literary understandings of the material world.
Trepanier, Dr Simon MD170000
Lecturer in Classics, University of Edinburgh, Classics, School of History, Classics and Archaeology
Classics and Ancient History / Latin language and literature
Studies in Lucretius and the New Empedocles
Awarded: £92,840.80
Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura, a Latin six-book didactic epic on Epicureanism, is one of the most influential works from Classical antiquity. Modern scholarship has come to recognize the influence of Empedocles, the Greek fifth-century philosopher-poet, upon its literary format. Since 1999, however, our knowledge of Empedocles has been completely transformed by the Strasbourg papyrus of Empedocles. The time is thus right for a new look at Empedocles in Lucretius. The project builds upon of fifteen years of work on the new Empedocles and several years of teaching and writing on Lucretius. The proposal is for a set of related studies that will explore: the full extent and function of the Empedoclean opening of the De Rerum Natura; Lucretius’ re-use of Empedoclean imagery and rhetorical techniques such as ‘proleptic’ anticipations of later content; his adaptation of Empedocles’ didactic plot, that of a god or god-like master initiating his disciple to divinity; and the first ever study of the immediate background, the Hellenistic philosophical reception of Empedocles.
Twum-Danso Imoh, Dr Afua MD160045
Lecturer in the Sociology of Childhood, The University of Sheffield, Department of Sociological Studies, History / Modern History
Travelling Concepts: Exporting a 'Proper' Childhood for All from Britain to the Gold Coast
Awarded: £97,911.20
Children have long been the focus of civilising missions, not just in distant lands but within Western Europe. Efforts, mainly by middle class reformers, to universalise a 'proper' childhood in Western Europe are well documented. However, relatively little is known about the implications of these attempts for indigenous populations in colonies acquired by the governments of these European countries at a time when their societies were in the process of reconstructing and negotiating constructions of childhood. Hence, this study seeks to:1) examine the implications of these developments in 19th century and early 20th century Britain for indigenous populations in the British colony of the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana); 2) explore the reactions of colonised subjects to encountering this 'proper' childhood in their contexts; 3) examine the legacy of these efforts for present-day Ghanaian society.Data, collected through archival and qualitative research methods, will result in the production, during the period of the fellowship, of a book proposal, one journal article and a documentary film.
Vrecko, Dr Scott MD160026
Senior Lecturer, King's College London, Global Health and Social Medicine Sociology / Medical Sociology/Sociology of Health and Illness
Life on PrEP: A study of the changing norms and forms of sexual conduct among gay men who use Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis medications for HIV prevention
Awarded: £101,512.28
This project examines how issues of morality, risk and responsibility relating to sexual conduct are negotiated by HIV-negative individuals who take antiretroviral drugs to reduce the risks of infection. Such ‘Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis’ (PrEP) has the potential to transform one of the most significant public health crises of the contemporary era, and the lives of individuals affected by it, but little social research has explored the everyday experiences of actual PrEP users. Addressing this knowledge gap, this project will used mixed qualitative research methods (interviews, focus groups, and participant photography) to develop an empirically rich account of PrEP use among gay males and other ‘men who have sex with men’, a key at- risk population in the UK. Findings will offer new perspectives on the social, personal and ethical issues associated with everyday PrEP use, and will be communicated through a multifaceted dissemination strategy (media communications, a public gallery exhibition, and stakeholder briefings) designed to engage a broad non-academic audience.
Whetham, Dr David MD170011
Reader in Military Ethics, King's College London, Defence Studies Philosophy / Ethics including applied ethics
Global Provision of a Global Good: Making Quality Military Ethics Education Available to Military Institutions Worldwide
Awarded: £100,861.56
Fostering ethical awareness and moral decision-making in military personnel is a proven way of reducing unnecessary harm and suffering in conflict (Warner et al, The Lancet, Sep 2011). Therefore, there is substantial benefit for everyone in making military ethics available as widely as possible. However, extensive research by, and the professional experience of, Dr Whetham has demonstrated that the subject is taught in only a very limited way in many (or even most) military institutions around the world. Dr Whetham is an established global champion for military ethics education. By offering quality distance learning material accessible by anyone, in a range of languages, for free, Military Ethics education can be made accessible to new areas and people. The platform to do this has already been developed, and even without publicity, the initial material is being utilised by states as diverse as Romania and Colombia. Using Dr Whetham’s links to military institutions around the world, this fellowship will be used to formally launch, consolidate and expand this innovative and effective initiative.