Funded by
Barker, Dr Nicola MD\170046
Professor of Law, University of Liverpool, School of Law and Social Justice Law – Public Law
Awarded: £114,823.20
From the Human Rights Act to the British Bill of Rights: A Feminist Perspective.
The Human Rights Act (HRA) has been the subject of intense political debate, with right-wing antagonism towards the Act building over the last few years. However, there are also important critiques of both this legislation in particular and ‘rights’ discourse more generally from a feminist perspective, which have been largely absent from the mainstream debates. A feminist perspective on these debates will be particularly important post-Brexit because many of our existing non-discrimination and gender equality provisions (outside of the HRA) derived from EU law. As the source of these provisions disappears, it will be vital that the domestic human rights regime is able to provide effective protection. This ground-breaking research will provide an important, accessible, and original contribution to public knowledge by situating the possibilities for reform of the human rights regime within the context of a thorough evaluation of the existing legislative framework from a gender equality perspective.
Betts, Professor Alexander MD\170018
Professor of Forced Migration and International Affairs, University of Oxford, Department of International Development
Politics – Development Studies - Politics Awarded: £125,586.19
The Political Economy of Hosting Refugees in East Africa: A Comparative Analysis of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda
Due to their proximity to conflict, three East African countries – Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda – all feature in the top ten refugee hosting countries around the world. Yet each one adopts very different policies towards the socio-economic integration of refugees, varying on a spectrum. In order for refugee hosting to be sustainable, we need to better understand their relative degree of willingness to allow refugees opportunities for socio-economic participation. In order to do so, the research comparatively explores three sets of questions: 1) variation in economic outcomes for refugees; 2) variation in economic impacts on host communities; 3) variation in political willingness to support economic inclusion by host governments. The 12- month programme combines analysis of an existing original quantitative data set on the economic lives of refugees in the three countries with supplementary qualitative research on national and local host country politics.
Bukodi, Dr Erzsebet MD\170031
Associate Professor in Quantitative Social Policy, University of Oxford, Department of Social Policy and Intervention
Sociology – Social Divisions and Inequalities Awarded: £106,691.20
Educational inequalities in Britain revisited: a new approach to investigating primary and secondary effects of social origins
Despite decades of educational expansion and reform in Britain, social inequalities in educational attainment have persisted. Individuals from more advantaged backgrounds not only outperform those from less advantaged backgrounds in tests and examinations (primary effects), they also make more ambitious educational choices at comparable levels of prior performance (secondary effects). It is important to understand the relative importance of primary and secondary effects, in order to determine appropriate policy interventions. Sociologists and economists have alike addressed these issues but existing findings are inconclusive. Moreover, certain questions have been neglected. For example, previous studies have focused almost exclusively on the influence of inequalities in families’ economic, rather than social and cultural, resources. This is likely to underestimate the size of both primary and secondary effects. Further, little effort has been made to identify the mechanisms that generate secondary effects, an understanding of which is crucial for policy interventions.
Carroll, Dr Royce MD\170055
Reader in Comparative Politics, University of Essex, Government
Politics – Comparative Politics, Government, Parliamentary Studies, Political Parties Awarded: £112,806.40
Explaining Elite Polarisation in European Parliaments
In Europe, deep political divisions surrounding globalisation issues pose a challenge for policy-making. The rise of populist movements and responses from mainstream parties has destabilised many traditional party systems and threatened to hinder effective governance. While mass attitudes reflect these deepening anxieties, we know little about how attitudes of Members of Parliament (MPs) in European democracies reflect these trends. The proposed project therefore aims to use rhetorical patterns to understand whether and how MPs respond to pressures from conflicts salient in their electorates. This project combines analysis of traditional ideological models of political conflict – i.e., the policy differences between politicians – with an understanding of the ‘identity’ aspects of polarisation from political psychology. The latter involves political responses to ‘group threats’ – identity conflicts between political opponents that cannot be resolved through policy bargaining. The project uses computational text analysis of parliamentary speeches, providing new data on elite polarisation.
Conneller, Dr Chantal MD\170047
Senior Lecturer in Prehistory, Newcastle University, Department of Archaeology, School of History, Classics and Archaeology
Archaeology – Prehistoric Archaeology Awarded: £99,940.60
Mesolithic Histories: Rethinking the settlement of the British landscape
The Mesolithic (9500-4000BC) in Britain has often been viewed as a time of stagnation; however this perception is due to poor chronological resolution which disguises significant shifts in human lifeways over the period. In reality the Mesolithic saw the appearance of new forms of occupation of the landscape: the first houses, middens, pits, monuments and ritual deposition. However our understanding of the emergence and development of these features is currently limited because the period is so poorly dated. This project builds on work already undertaken on the early Mesolithic to produce a refined chronology for the late Mesolithic.
This will be used to produce an account of the Mesolithic as a period of historical change and to investigate how the timing and tempo of new forms of settlement and landscape marking created new, long-term relationships with place.
de Luca, Dr Tiago MD\170004
Assistant Professor in Film Studies, University of Warwick, Department of Film and Television Studies Culture, Media and Performance – Film and Media Studies
Awarded: £46,436.80
Envisioning the World: Film, Media Culture and the Earth
The present global environmental crisis is the greatest challenge of our time. It has therefore never been more urgent to see the world as a whole. This project proposes to do just this by exploring how the Earth has been depicted and imagined in the cinema and related media at two crucial historical junctures: the turns of
the 20th and 21st centuries. Cinema’s relationship with the global is often framed in terms of the circulation of images. The project brings an entirely new perspective to this relationship. It explores instead the globe itself as a figure and subject matter in audiovisual culture. By putting the global imaginaries of these two periods in productive conversation for the first time, the project will contribute towards a radically more nuanced and historicised understanding of why we perceive the Earth the way we do, thus paving the way for new imaginings of the world.
Eichner, Dr Barbara MD\170038
Senior Lecturer in Music, Oxford Brookes University, School of Arts; Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment
Music – History & Criticism of Music: Medieval/Renaissance Awarded: £98,521.60
Cloistered Voices: Music and Monasteries in Early Modern Germany (1555-1632)
Music was central to the way religious communities asserted their spiritual identity in the early-modern era. My monograph will open a hitherto uncharted field of research: it shows how the practice of polyphonic music (in addition to chant) was vital to the programme of ecclesiastic renewal in South-German monasteries and nunneries, responding to the demands of the Council of Trent (1545-1563). At the same time monastic composers, patrons and performers asserted their new-found artistic confidence in competition with burgeoning Protestant institutions, thus reclaiming urban and rural soundscapes. Drawing on a wealth of newly discovered and unpublished material, my book will challenge current narratives of religious renewal, cultural identity formation and stylistic change in the Age of Confessionalisation. The impact of the monograph and accompanying articles will be enhanced by public engagement activities, e.g. performances of hitherto unknown music, raising our appreciation of this lost musical heritage and its wider context.
Evangelista, Dr Stefano MD\170050
Associate Professor, Oxford University, English Language and Literature
English Language and Literature – Comparative Literature - English Language and Literature , Victorian Literature
Awarded: £121,471.20
Citizens of Nowhere: Literary Cosmopolitanism in the British Fin de Siècle
Citizens of Nowhere is an original and provocative study of the literary culture of the British fin de siècle. It shows that a period generally associated with the predominance of the nation state and imperialism was in fact profoundly shaped by the ideology of cosmopolitanism, or world citizenship, and witnessed extensive discussion about transnationalism, cultural mediation and translation. I provide a nuanced historical reconstruction of cosmopolitanism as a site of debate and literary innovation based on various forms of print culture (essays, fiction, drama, translations, periodicals) and extensive use of archival sources. My research engages with issues of mobility and national/transnational/international identities that have acquired new, contested relevance in Britain today. I shall draw upon this intersection with contemporary questions to engage with a wide and varied audience by offering articles in the on-line media, participating in public debates and working with teachers and schoolchildren from diverse linguistic backgrounds.
Fisher, Dr Helen MD\170005
Senior Lecturer (open-ended contract; funded by HEFCE), Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre Psychology – Behaviour Genetics and Individual Differences, Clinical Psychology, Developmental and Educational Psychology
Awarded: £102,617.26
Uncovering the mystery of early psychotic symptoms: phenomenology, outcomes, and greater public awareness
Psychotic symptoms (e.g., hearing voices, having visions, or being paranoid) occur in around 1 in 20 children. These symptoms are associated with self-harm in childhood and development of major mental health problems in adulthood, particularly when the symptoms persist. It is thus crucial to understand which children are most vulnerable to having persistent psychotic symptoms so that we can provide them with help and support. I plan to write a review paper bringing together the current literature on the development and outcomes of childhood psychotic symptoms, and two empirical papers examining whether childhood victimisation is associated with persistence of these symptoms and predicts which children will require clinical care. To improve public understanding of these often stigmatised symptoms, I will create an MQ Open Minds podcast, an informative webpage for ChildLine, an online simulation with young people who hear voices, and exhibit an immersive experience at a national science festival.
Glickman, Dr Gabriel MD\170037
University Lecturer in Early Modern British History, University of Cambridge (Fitzwilliam College and Faculty of History), History
History – Early Modern History, History of Ideas, Political History Awarded: £97,504.98
The making of an imperial nation: colonisation, politics and English identity 1660-1702.
My research aims to fill a major scholarly gap by reinstating the overseas colonies within the political and religious history of Restoration England. Drawing on previously unexplored archives, alongside public debates, poetry and theatre, I look at how commentators imagined and evaluated schemes for expansion in America, Africa and Asia, and assess the impact they exerted over domestic affairs. I examine the effect of colonisation upon English relations with Scotland and Ireland, and on older bonds and rivalries within Europe. My work shows how colonial encounters transformed the culture of English Protestantism, and shaped the evolution of the Established Church. I argue that overseas ventures posed moral and ideological questions that created lasting divisions in English politics. By exploring the centrality of foreign affairs to concerns of national identity and orientation, my research probes a subject of growing importance, at a time when Britain is again reconfiguring its global relationships.
Gomes, Dr Anil MD\170032
Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy. Associate Professor of Philosophy., Trinity College, Oxford. University of Oxford., Philosophy.
Philosophy – History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind Awarded: £117,744.80
Perception and Autonomy
Can science tell us everything about the mind? Or is there a role for the humanities in the study of the mind? My project will investigate these questions by examining the nature of perceptual experience. We have learned a great deal about perception from psychology and neuroscience. But we also seem to know something about perception from the inside, as perceivers of the world. Can this distinctive relationship to our own minds be a source of knowledge about the nature of perceptual experience? And what are the implications for the relation between the science and philosophy of mind? My work on these questions will use perception as a case study to investigate the potential limits of any scientific investigation into the mind – that is, into the nature of who we are. The research will result in a monograph, and will be communicated through two popular essays, podcasts, and talks.
Harloe, Dr Katherine MD\170027
Associate Professor in Classics and Intellectual History, University of Reading, Department of Classics, School of Humanities
Classics and Ancient History – Classics in comparative and interdisciplinary contexts, The reception of classical antiquity and the classical tradition
Awarded: £111,019.20
Winckelmann's Love Letters
The writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, the eighteenth-century ‘father’ of classical archaeology and art history, are significant for LGBTQ history because of their celebration of male same-sex desire in an era of prohibition. Winckelmann’s 'private' correspondence, which was first published in the eighteenth century and circulated widely thereafter, was as fundamental as his scholarly essays in shaping understandings of his erotic personality. This project provides the first English translations of twenty-one of Winckelmann's love letters, plus three discursive chapters exploring how readings of the correspondence have shaped
understandings of Winckelmann’s ‘gay’ life; its historical reception by figures ranging from Goethe to Oscar Wilde and within the early European homosexual emancipation movement; and recontextualising it within ancient and early modern cultural and rhetorical epistolary conventions. It aims overall to make the case for reading Winckelmann's 'private' letters as literary artefacts and to recover the artfulness and variety of his erotic voice.
Hestermeyer, Dr Holger MD\170034
Shell Reader in International Dispute Resolution, King's College London, Dickson Poon School of Law Law – European Union Law; International Law (Public); Public Law
Awarded: £114,416.80
Free Trade for Britain: Understanding Free Trade Agreements and how they are negotiated
Ever since the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have occupied a prominent part of the debate. Even though some aspects of such agreements have been explained, e.g. by the House of Lords Brexit reports, for two of which I had the privilege to serve as a specialist advisor, more research needs to be done and communicated to the public.
The proposed research consists of two parts: describing FTAs, their content and their effects. This part will have to systematize a vast amount of material and communicate the relevant concepts to decision-makers and the general public. The second part will inquire how FTAs are negotiated, using the EU and the US as main examples. Research on this is sparse, but essential to help the UK set up its own policies in the field, as it has not negotiated an FTA for 40 years.
Hoicka, Dr Elena MD\170023
Senior Lecturer, University of Bristol, Graduate School of Education Psychology – Developmental and Educational Psychology
Awarded: £109,272
The effects of touchscreens on social play in 1- to 3-year-olds
Three- and 4-year-olds have around four hours of screen time per day. However, research shows young children do not learn well from television, and television displaces other activities. Many parents and policy makers worry touchscreens are also detrimental for social skills and play. However, little research in this area exists, leading to opinion, rather than evidence, guiding recommendations. Unlike television, touchscreens allow for interaction, potentially allowing children to learn. Therefore apps encouraging social play may lead children to increase their social play (pretending, humour) in non-digital settings. Qualitative research suggests young children pretend about things learned in apps, and experimental research found children with autism who use pretending apps also use more play dialogue. The goal of the current project is to use longitudinal and experimental methods to determine whether touchscreens apps help 1- to 3-year-olds learn to pretend and joke. This will provide stakeholders evidence for touchscreen use guidelines.
Ingawanij, Dr May Adadol MD\170041
Reader in Visual Culture, University of Westminster, Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM), Westminster School of Media, Arts and Design
History of Art – Film and Media History Awarded: £121,379.20
Contemporary Art and Animistic Cinematic Practices in Southeast Asia
The project conceptualises animistic cinema. It places in constellation two resonant spheres of aesthetic practices in Southeast Asia, which speak to important present-day questions regarding media interface, and the agency of cinematic apparatuses in creating images of life and worlds. The first are itinerant film performances addressed to the spirits in Thailand during the Cold War. The second are moving image practices since the 1990s of contemporary artists such as Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Lav Diaz, and Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook. The aims are: 1) To explore heterogeneous uses of the cinematic apparatus intertwining the audio-visual with the sacral or non-human; 2) To create vocabularies, routed through the deep past of animism in Southeast Asia, for discussing the historical, environmental and cosmological imaginaries of the region's contemporary time-based art; 3) To encourage discussions of methodological issues in researching and exhibiting Southeast Asia's time-based art. The outputs are a monograph, workshop, and curatorial project.
Jones, Dr Ben MD\170053
Senior Lecturer, University of East Anglia, School of International Development Anthropology – Development Anthropology
Awarded: £113,687.20
Educating institutions: A study of the influence of educated young women and men on local politics in Uganda
In the Teso region of eastern Uganda there is a generation of young men and women in their twenties and thirties who are the first in their family to go to school. I want to investigate the effect this generation is having on local institutions – school committees, church groups, village courts, burial societies. What are the political entailments of education? Available research on education in the developing world focuses on education's economic impact, or on the spread of modern attitudes, particularly among male urban youth.
Less is understood about the political consequences of education, or about the transformations taking place with the arrival of educated young men and, more especially, women, in the countryside. Does education open up new paths to becoming influential? Does it help to reconfigure gender relations? Do educated young women and men approach politics in new ways?
Khan, Dr Yasmin MD\170044
Associate professor (University Lecturer), University of Oxford, Department for Continuing Education History – Modern History, Social History, Women's History
Awarded: £113,792.72
The pioneer generation: historical narratives of British South Asian lives, 1945 -1968
How can historians tell the history of South Asian immigration to Britain and what are the different historical approaches through which this story can be told? My aim in this research will be to bring histories of South Asian migration into dialogue with the new imperial histories of decolonization. I will be researching within a matrix of decolonization and social change in the UK, at a time of the postwar welfare state and the retraction of empire. The book resulting from this project is imagined as a theoretically grounded investigation into the meaning of the category of ‘British South Asian’ alongside an engaging recovery of voices and personal stories. I will be asking how historians can locate individual biographies within larger conceptual histories of race and nation, and illustrating this with narratives of the first pioneering generation of South Asian settlers in the UK.
Luhrmann, Dr Melanie MD\170011
Senior Lecturer, Royal Holloway, University of London, Economics Economics – Applied Economics, Economic Policy, Quantitative Economics Awarded: £104,745.60
The influence of early life health and nutrition interventions on later life morbidity and mortality
The proposed research identifies the long-run health and mortality impact - around age 60 -, of three historic interventions that shaped childhood health and nutrition. Two nutritional interventions implemented in the UK in the 1940s will be examined: the National Milk Scheme (NMS) and wartime/post-war food rationing. The third is the introduction of the NHS in 1948, providing health coverage to infants from lower social classes around birth. All three changed childhood environments by improving health and/or reducing infant mortality, as reflected in an initial examination of aggregate infant mortality statistics. We estimate their lifetime health and mortality effects 50 to 60 years after exposure, and the impact of selective infant mortality. By drawing parallels to current nutritional interventions in the UK including Healthy Start, the Sugary Drinks Tax, and universal healthcare in lower-income countries, our results will inform the public and policy debate on their health and mortality dividends.
Mairs, Dr Rachel MD\170033
Associate Professor of Classical and Near Eastern Studies, University of Reading, Department of Classics Africa, Asia and the Middle East – Ancient Near Eastern languages and literature, Modern & Medieval Middle Eastern lang and lit
Awarded: £102,271.20
Teach Yourself Arabic: Foreigners Learning Colloquial Arabic, 1850-1945
European visitors to the Middle East in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries engaged with the Arabic language to differing degrees. While some were serious scholars of Classical Arabic, in the Orientalist mould, many did not learn the language at all. Between these two extremes lies a neglected group of language learners – travellers, archaeologists, pilgrims and soldiers who wanted to learn enough everyday colloquial Arabic to get by. The needs of these learners were met by popular language books (for speakers of English, French, German and other languages), which boasted that they could provide an easy route to fluency in a difficult language. This project explores the motivations of Arabic learners and effectiveness of instructional materials, principally in Egypt and Palestine. It also considers how Arab intellectuals understood the project of teaching Arabic to foreigners, and the remarkable history of Arabic-learning among Yiddish- and Hebrew-speaking immigrants in Palestine.
Matthews, Dr Danielle MD\170025
Reader in Cognitive Development, University of Sheffield, Department of Psychology Psychology – Developmental and Educational Psychology
Awarded: £107,702.40
Pragmatic Development: How children learn to use language in social interaction
Pragmatic development - learning to use language effectively and appropriately in interaction - is now recognised as uniquely important for children’s social wellbeing. Yet we lack an account of how children develop pragmatic skills and why some struggle to do so. Indeed, this aspect of language development is far less well understood than the acquisition of grammar, lexicon or phonology. The aim of this project is to produce a monograph that will 1) map out the heterogeneous set of pragmatic skills that develop in childhood, 2) assess how individual differences in each skill relate to underpinning social and cognitive functions, and 3) propose a mechanistic model of developmental change in response to experience.
Targeted summaries, professional videos and engaging activities for primary school children will raise public and professional awareness of the importance of pragmatic abilities and the remarkable learning trajectories children take to acquire them.
McCusker, Dr Maeve MD\170003
Senior Lecturer, French (since 2007), Queen's University Belfast, School of Arts, English and Languages Modern Languages – Contemporary Literature , Critical and Cultural Theory - Modern Languages, Cultural Studies - Modern Languages, French language and literature, Historical Studies of language and literature - Modern Languages, History of Ideas (Modern Languages), Intellectual history (Modern Languages), Textual Studies , Women's writing - Modern Languages
Awarded: £85,920
Fictions of Whiteness: Race, Privilege and Anxiety in French Caribbean Culture
This project offers the first monograph (Fictions of Whiteness) on the emergence, construction and sanctification of ‘whiteness' in French postcolonial culture. It focuses on Martinique and Guadeloupe, among France’s earliest colonies, where supremacist ideologies (notably, the consecration of ‘whiteness’ as superior to ‘blackness’) were tested and crystallised. The islands are French departments (1946-), part of the avowedly 'colour-blind' Republic. Whites on the islands are a segregated and privileged minority (c.1%), and race/skin colour carries a painful historical charge. The monograph addresses three key lacunae by (1)analysing the neglected tradition of white Creole literature (2)bringing this tradition into dialogue with better-known C20th/C21st writings by non-whites (3)engaging with theory/criticism on 'Whiteness', largely ignored in France. The recent intensification in racist discourse in France and beyond confirms the urgency of better understanding the intersection between race, politics and culture; research will be disseminated in academic and public engagement in France, Martinique and UK.
Mejia-Acosta, Dr Andres MD\170029
Senior Lecturer, King's College London, Department of International Development Politics – Development Studies - Politics
Awarded: £114,842.50
Two sides of a coin? The politics of food security, hunger and nutrition in Mexico and Brazil.
Nearly 200 million children worldwide are chronically undernourished, lacking the sufficient dietary energy requirements to lead a healthy lifestyle. Child undernutrition has long-term negative consequences for their individual development, affecting brain functions, poor health and eventually, reinforcing the poverty cycle. Despite efforts by UN and development agencies, governments and NGOs to reduce hunger and malnutrition, progress remains elusive.
The proposed research challenges the common view that hunger and malnutrition are two sides of the same coin. Instead, it argues that hunger reduction efforts may, at times, undermine nutrition campaigns. The research will use a political economy approach to go beyond conventional “political will” explanations and identify the relevant players, their cooperation incentives, and budgetary allocations to understand where and how food security and nutrition campaigns reinforce or collide. This work will rely on mixed research methods to compare Brazil and Mexico’s capacity to deliver effective, efficient and sustainable interventions.
Mulheron, Professor Rachael MD\170030
Chair of Tort Law and Civil Justice, Queen Mary University of London, Law
Law – Comparative Law and Roman Law; European Union Law; Legal System and Legal Institutions; Private Law (Contract, Restitution, Tort)
Awarded: £107,985.32
Class Actions and Government: The Interplay (CAGI)
This ground-breaking CAGI research project will critically analyse the primary and secondary jurisprudence surrounding the interaction of class actions and Government, from a comparative perspective. Its aim is to propose ‘best practice’ recommendations for UK (and overseas) legislators, policy-makers, judiciary, and other stakeholders in this field of complex litigation.
On 1 October 2015, a sea change occurred in English civil procedure, when the UK's first opt-out class action took effect. It pertains solely to competition law grievances. For the first time, that regime enables consumers and businesses to group together to litigate allegations of price-fixing, cartel behaviour, etc, without bringing individual suits.
CAGI aims to coincide with the emerging jurisprudence under the UK’s fledgling class action. The relationship between the class action and Government is full of tensions and potential conflicts of interest, as the two comparator jurisdictions adopted for CAGI (i.e., Canada and Australia) have demonstrated.
Navickas, Dr Katrina MD\170039
Reader in History, University of Hertfordshire, Humanities
History – History of a specific country, Modern History, Social History
Awarded: £78,280
A history of public space in England, c.1700 to 2000
What is public space and who has the right to use it? This research is a major rethinking of the history of public space in England. Contemporary urban regeneration and social protest movements have raised urgent questions over the ownership, policing and uses of sites where people meet, play and protest. But often such debates lack full consideration of how contested sites have been shaped by much longer histories of planning, legislation and local resistance. This project analyses the long-term development of public space from enclosure in the 18th century, 19th century experiments to new towns in the 20th century. It will forge a new direction in urban history, bringing together a wide range of planning and social history sources. By delivering a monograph and creating community-produced histories at public workshops, it will actively engage with current and future debates about the uses of public space.
Nowell Smith, Dr David MD\170035
Senior Lecturer, University of East Anglia, School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing
English Language and Literature – Contemporary Literature (English), Historical studies of language and literature - English Language and Literature, Literature in Relation to Other Arts, Scottish Literature in English and Scots, Textual Studies - English Language and Literature
Awarded: £106,784.80
W.S. Graham: The Poem as Art Object
This project provides the most comprehensive evaluation to date of the work of W.S. Graham (1918-1986), timed to coincide with, and build on, his centenary year. Graham died in obscurity and, while increasingly revered by poets, he remains largely unknown to a broader reading public. The project addresses this through three major outputs. (1) A series of exhibitions, complementing other planned centenary events: drawing on previously unaccessed archival materials, these will display his manuscripts and visual work, presenting another side to Graham as ‘maker’. The exhibitions will form the basis for (2) a co-edited volume of facsimiles. As well as allowing his work to speak to new audiences, the exhibition and volume will significantly revise the critical consensus on Graham, and (3) a monograph grounded in this archival research will explore how Graham’s work demands that we rethink many prevailing narratives in postwar British poetry, intermedia modernism, and poetic theory.
Power, Dr Henry MD\170001
Associate Professor, University of Exeter, Department of English
English Language and Literature – Comparative Literature - English Language and Literature , Intellectual history - English Language and Literature, Textual Studies - English Language and Literature
Awarded: £107,260
An Edition of Joseph Addison’s Non-Periodical Prose
This project offers fresh insight into the reception of classical literature and material culture in the early eighteenth century, while also casting light on important works by a major English author: Joseph Addison (1672-1719). Addison's later periodical writing (especially in the Spectator) was fundamental in shaping eighteenth-century attitudes to classical learning. His currently neglected non-periodical works allow us to see how he developed his views through his early encounters with classical and antiquarian culture - and especially through his interest in numismatics (the study of coins and medals). If awarded a Mid-Career Fellowship I will be able to produce (1) a thoroughly annotated critical edition of Addison’s non-periodical prose works. (2) A substantial journal article, exploring the relationship between numismatics and literature in the early eighteenth century, and (3) a programme of public engagement which will increase public understanding of both eighteenth-century culture and of the discipline of numismatics.
Retsikas, Dr Konstantinos MD\170020
Senior Lecturer in the Anthropology of South East Asia, SOAS University of London, Anthropology & Sociology
Anthropology – Anthropology and Policy, Comparative Religion (Anthropology), Development Anthropology, Economic Anthropology, Political Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, other branches
Awarded: £112,776
Theo-economics: Islamic Micro-finance and the Question of the Future in Indonesia
The project is an anthropological investigation into the different forms the economy assumes, and the different purposes it serves, when conceived from the perspective of Islamic economics as a field of everyday practice. It is based on long-term fieldwork in Java, Indonesia, with Islamic foundations active in poverty alleviation programs. The project seeks to explore the social foundations of contemporary Islamic practices that strive to encompass the economic within an expanded domain of divine worship, and elucidate the effects such encompassment has on time and its governance. To this end, it aims at re-invigorating inter- disciplinary exchanges between anthropology, on the one hand, and philosophy, development, and Islamic studies, on the other.
Scrinzi, Dr Francesca MD\170054
Marie Curie-Sklodowska research fellow, European University institute, University of Glasgow (I will be on unpaid leave of absence until June 2018 but remain an employee of the University of Glasgow; I will resume my position as Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow in June 2018)., Subject area of Sociology, School of Social and political Sciences
Sociology – Gender and Sexuality Studies Awarded: £105,658.40
Gender and the populist radical right in Europe
In Europe, gender equality issues are a battlefield for anti-immigration actors. Populist radical right political parties champion traditional models of the family while, at the same time, they paradoxically frame their anti- immigration agenda as a struggle for gender equality, depicting Islam as incompatible with women’s rights. At a time of highly polarised public debate on immigration, those supporting gender equality are under pressure and torn between cultural relativism and cultural fundamentalism.
I apply for this fellowship to support full exploitation of the data gathered through my previous projects on this topic. Drawing on these, I will produce a monograph and organise numerous events to engage different British and international publics on this topical issue. The fellowship will allow me to expose the paradoxical and under-studied gendered strategies of these parties and to promote scholarly and public debates on the challenges which their mobilisation of gender equality issues raises for feminists.
Stegmann, Dr Ulrich MD\170000
Senior Lecturer, University of Aberdeen, School of Divinity, History and Philosophy Philosophy – Philosophy of Science
Awarded: £72,578.40
Scientific metaphors in action
Scientists have described genes as packets of instructions for building organisms, a view that has strongly affected the public imagination of human nature. Although historians and philosophers of biology have questioned the cogency of this view, the debate still proceeds without understanding how scientists employ the various informational metaphors within actual research practice. Such understanding, however, is essential for answering the most pressing questions: 1) Are the metaphors referential? 2) What are the referents? 3) Do the metaphors play any valuable scientific roles? This project will answer these questions by employing a novel approach, i.e. by identifying how scientists employed informational metaphors in practice. The project focuses on a central historical episode (1953 – 1958) and considers a broad range of primary sources, both published and unpublished. Investigating the implications for contemporary life sciences forms part of the project.
Taws, Dr Richard MD\170006
Reader in the History of Art, University College London, History of Art Department History of Art – History of Art and Design
Awarded: £114,763.72
Art and the Communication Revolution in Nineteenth-Century France
This project examines the intersection of art and modern communication networks in nineteenth-century France. While many histories of communication accentuate a drift towards an increasingly virtual world, this project considers the fundamentally material aspect of communications infrastructure, investigating its overlap with other forms of transmission, especially prints and photography. The focus is on the long history of telegraphy, a form of communication developed during the French Revolution that changed irrevocably the media landscape of nineteenth-century France. Initiating an unprecedented acceleration of information across space and time, telegraphy transformed how modern life was experienced and represented, and it was described by a wide range of artists and authors. Exploring the dialogue between ostensibly invisible communication networks and a rapidly evolving visual culture, I investigate the functions of art in this new technological regime. The research will be disseminated via a monograph, a journal article, and an exhibition with accompanying public events.
Wigston Smith, Dr Chloe MD\170028
Lecturer (permanent), University of York, English and Related Literature
English Language and Literature – Gender studies - English Language and Literature, Literature in Relation to Other Arts
Awarded: £100,404.91
Women and Material Entanglements in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World
This interdisciplinary study shows how eighteenth-century novels set in early America, West Africa and the West Indies reimagined the relations among women, property and colonialism. It makes two main claims about women and material objects. First, it argues that objects allowed women, in life and fiction, to forge connections that challenged conventional hierarchies of empire. I study portable goods to illuminate, for the first time, how women joined forces via the items they touched, made, consumed and exchanged. These material entanglements shed new light on the relations between material culture and empire. Second, this study unearths how literary representations of these objects, namely how fictional women deploy them, generated innovative narrative structures, evading the ubiquitous marriage plot. My study examines the interconnectedness of objects and print culture, their fissures and tensions, in order to develop an original methodological approach to women and their things.
Wood, Dr Philip MD\170002
Associate Professor, Aga Khan University, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations History – Medieval History - History
Awarded: £72,265.60
An Islamicate church: The world of Dionysius of Tel-mahre, 750-850 CE
This study uses medieval Syriac (Aramaic) chronicles to investigate Christian responses to Arab Muslim rule. It aims to place these sources on the same standing as Muslim Arabic writings, and see them as central for the history of the caliphate and the medieval Middle East. I read these Syriac texts as assertions of ideal forms of Christian leadership and society, rather than as a mine of facts or events. I argue that the image of self-governing, discrete communities that they present is a product of the caliphs' own strategies of divide and rule, which transformed parts of the Christian clergy into an Abbasid service elite. During the period c.750-850, we see the Christian re-deployment of Muslim modes of governance (legislation and taxation by clergy) and Muslim legitimating narratives (a divinely-sanctioned ruler and a divinely-sanctioned conquest) that mark out the development of a distinctive, Islamicate Christianity.
Zou, Dr Huan MD\170017
Senior Lecturer in International Management, SOAS, University of London, School of Finance and Management
Management and Business Studies – Management Studies, Organisational Theory Awarded: £123,401.38
Sustainable Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets: Attributes, Motivations and Actions of Habitual Entrepreneurs in China
Habitual entrepreneurs (HEs), who exit their first business and subsequently run a second one, contribute to job generation and economic performance because of their past experience, passion for success and increasing commitment to economic, societal and environmental concerns. However, conflict between social and commercial priorities is a central puzzle for HEs who are ambitious about addressing social and environmental challenges. This project will take a bold step toward investigating the attributes, motivations and actions of HEs on sustainability in the context of emerging markets. China, as the largest emerging economy with a strong commitment to tackle climate change, large scales of entrepreneurial activities and the development of green industries, provides an exciting opportunity to examine the relationship between HEs and sustainability and add new evidence to this field which has mainly focused on developed economies. The project will also draw important policy implications on how to facilitate sustainable entrepreneurship (SEs).