Tag: research

2024 Wrapped: Faculty Research Centre Highlights and Looking Ahead

Posted on by George Thomas

By George Thomas, Faculty Research Events and Communications Coordinator

As 2024 draws to a close, we caught up with some of our Faculty Research Centres and Groups to learn about their highlights from the academic and calendar year, as well as activities they are particularly looking forward to in 2025. This year’s blog is presented in two parts: one focusing on our Faculty Reseach Centres, the other on our Faculty Research Groups. To find out more about their research and how to get involved, contact details, social media accounts and website links are provided at the end of each entry.

Centre for Black Humanities

The Centre for Black Humanities has had a fantastic start to the 2024/5 academic year! We kicked things off at the end of the summer with a wonderful workshop session featuring our University of Cape Town-Bristol Fellow Dr Shanaaz Hoosain. The workshop, which explored themes of memories and identities in Dr Hoosain’s work, was co-convened with the Black South West Network (BSWN) and generously hosted in their incubator space. It was a rich event that invited participants to think through different global and local practices for co-creating heritage spaces with diverse communities. It also opened up new avenues for thinking about the BSWN’s UnMuseum project, which we are really excited to see! Whilst Dr Hoosain has now returned to UCT, we look forward to welcoming her back to Bristol in the Spring.

KMT, Maria Fernandez Garcia and MoYah discuss hip hop and gardening as forms of creative expression in the second Autumn Art Lecture at the Royal West of England Academy (RWA).

Across the Autumn, we have been busy hosting the 2024 Autumn Art Lecture Series. A longstanding highlight of the cultural life of the University, the Autumn Art Lectures have taken place every year (with exceptions for World War II and COVID) for more than a century and it was an honour to be asked to convene this year’s iteration. Under our theme ‘Creation & Liberation’, we brought together a rich and interdisciplinary chorus of speakers who invited the public to consider the potential for liberation offered by creativity in all its forms. Across four events that took us from the unexpected intersections of hip hop and gardening to the history and legacies of the Tudor court musician, John Blanke, we examined the threads of power, protest and art-making that weave together across the work of artists, writers and musicians. We have moved from Bristol’s Central Library to the RWA’s garden and from the local Jungle scene to celebrated novelist Monique Roffey’s imaginary island of St Calibri to celebrate artistic expression that challenges, uplifts, and liberates. It has been wonderful to showcase the amazing work being done by Centre members who have contributed to the series by organising lectures and chairing discussions. A special shout out to PhD students Lizzie Bowes and Marko Higgins for their stellar work on kicking off the series brilliantly and to Dr Leighan Renaud for wrapping it all up beautifully in her discussion with Monique Roffey!

Listen to DJ Krust talk about his life and career in the first Autumn Art Lecture at Bristol Library.

As we wind down TB1, we look forward to an equally active TB2. As the Centre celebrates a decade since its founding(!), we have been reflecting on our past, present and future(s). We have been thinking through the possibilities and implications for the work that we do after not only the fall of Colston, the murder of George Floyd and the reinvigoration of the Black Lives Matter Movement, but also after the race riots of this past summer and the closure of Black Studies and Black Studies-adjacent courses across UKHE. Watch this space for a programme of events and activities that we have planned over the next year to respond to these challenges and imagine a new future for the Centre for Black Humanities.

To find out more about the Centre for Black Humanities, please contact elizabeth.robles@bristol.ac.uk. Follow the Centre’s X account for the latest updates.

Centre for Medieval Studies

The two halves of the academic year highlight two different sides of the Centre for Medieval Studies (CMS): the first semester was full of visiting professors and the second will be filled with conferences. CMS hosted three distinguished visitors in TB1. Professor David Scott-Macnab (North West University, South Africa) was based at CMS as Leverhulme Visiting Professor (September-December). He enthused undergraduate students with a lecture on Gawain, gave masterclasses on editing to the English medieval research group and to the PhD students of the EU/UKRI-funded Doctoral Training Network REBPAF, and delivered the Annual Tucker-Cruse lecture. Visiting us from the University of Leiden and funded by Bristol’s Next Generation Visiting Researcher programme, was Dr Jelmar Hugen, a specialist in Middle Dutch literature, who gave a lecture on the literary history of Gawain to undergraduates and presented his current research on responses to the Grail story in our regular series of seminars. In partnership with the Italian Department, CMS also hosted Nick Havely (Professor Emeritus, University of York). As well as giving a fascinating and very well-attended talk for the Centre, pictured below, Prof. Havely co-taught Tristan Kay’s seminar on Dante’s Inferno in the Department of Italian; met with PGR students working in fields connected to his expertise; and gave an interview for the Italian student publication La Civetta. 

Emeritus Professor Nick Havely delivers a lecture on Dante Alighieri before an audience.

2025 promises another rich programme of activities for our Centre. Nine CMS seminars are already scheduled for the second half of the current academic year, with speakers visiting us from leading UK and international institutions. We will host six major interdisciplinary conferences, including the Medieval English Theatre Society conference (29 March 2025), the French of the Celtic Worlds conference (9-11 April 2025), the Historical Sociolinguistics Conference (21-23 May 2025), the International Arthurian Society conference (September 2025), and the latest iteration of the hugely successful PG conference in medieval studies (24-25 April 2025). The CMS has also begun planning the large International Conference for Medieval and Renaissance Scottish Language, Literature, and Culture (Bristol 2026: icmrsllc.org).  The CMS will again be well represented in sessions and a reception organized at the Leeds International Medieval Congress in the summer. Existing partnerships with Bristol Central Library and Bristol Archives are ongoing and will culminate in the publication and launch of the catalogue of manuscripts in the city of Bristol (forthcoming in the CMS publication series with Boydell and Brewer), as part of Kathleen Kennedy’s British Academy-funded Cataloguing Bristol Manuscripts project. Impact activities with partner institutions such as Wells Cathedral, Aardman Animation, and Winterbourne Medieval Barn are also planned for 2025. An inaugural Summer School in Medieval Studies will bring students from around the world to study in Bristol in June. 

To find out more about the Centre for Medieval Studies, please contact a.d.putter@bristol.ac.uk and tristan.kay@bristol.ac.uk. Follow the Centre’s X account for the latest updates.

Centre for Creative Technologies

The Centre for Creative Technologies (CCT) has had a dynamic and impactful year, involving interdisciplinary partnerships, and regional and international projects experimenting with creativity and technology: from a collaboration with Bristol Common Press on feminist poetic technologies to work with Knowle West Media Centre. Our aim for 2024 was to foster exchanges and create connections between academic researchers and the creative industry.

The year began with Queer Practices and Creative Technologies, exploring the role of queer practices with creative practitioners and Bristol researchers. Another major highlight was the continuing success of the Future Speculations Reading Group, which expanded into a ‘day reading group’ run by the Centre for Sociodigital Futures (CenSoF), fostering further interdisciplinary dialogue. The CCT has continued our collaboration with the Bristol Digital Game Lab , running Games Jams on ‘Immersive Futures’ and ‘Navigating Violent Geographies’. May was a busy month – we held our annual keynote lecture with Dr Liam Jarvis and co-hosted experiential futurist  Stuart Candy as a Benjamin Meaker Visiting Professor with the Centre for Sociodigital Futures.  His visit included a 3-day Immersive Futures Jam for researchers, postgraduates, and professional creatives, one-to-ones, a master class and a public talk at Pervasive Media Studio.

Learn more about the Centre’s collaborative work with Visiting Professor Stuart Candy.

CCT has organised a range of Friday Lunchtime Talks at the Pervasive Media Studio, from Bristol researchers to Zach Blas, all of which you can watch here. From July to November, the CCT and Brigstow Institute ran our second Alternative Technologies workshop series ran by Bristol researchers and Pervasive Media Studio residents. The Centre participated in an event at Knowle West Media Centre called ‘What if..? Seeds of Tomorrow Growing Today’ and co-director Ed King chaired a discussion with Brazilian media activist Felipe Fonseca. The year rounded off with co-directors Professor Ed King and Paul Clarke being involved in the ‘Caring AI’ workshop series on predictive AI in schools in Bristol, with Paul collaborating on sessions around data sharing, and Ed running games jams on ‘exposing bias in AI’ at Barton Hill Activity Club and Knowle West Media Centre. With talks, workshops, networking events and research seminars throughout the year, the CCT continues to take a leading fostering critical, creative, and socially engaged uses of technology.

Watch Centre members deliver insightful talks at the Pervasive Media Studio.

We are eagerly anticipating our Evening of Creative Technology, which will serve as the final event in the Alternative Workshop Series (2). Looking ahead to the new year, on January 23rd, an event at Watershed, co-hosted by the CCT, UWE’s Digital Cultures Research Centre, MyWorld, and both universities’ Impact Acceleration Accounts, will share the Narrative Technologies projects by Bristol and UWE researchers and professional creative technologists, which have each received seedcorn funding. Also in January, the CCT is looking forward to supporting the Voice, AI, Myth and Storytelling symposium co-organised by Prof. Genevieve Lively & Dr Francesco Bentivegna. We are planning another Friday Lunchtime Talk series following the success of 2024’s, so do get in touch if you work with or on creative technologies and would like to present. We are planning exciting activities for the reading group, including external speakers and creative writing opportunities. We will also continue to support early-career researchers with funding opportunities. Finally, we are excited for further collaborations with the Pervasive Media Studio and have been discussing developing further work in the area of creative community technologies with Knowle West Media Centre, CenSoF, and Ed King’s partners in Brazil. The AHRC and Arts Council’s Immersive Arts programme, which UWE are leading on with Bristol’s CCT as a partner, has started and the first round of applications comes in on 2nd December, so we are looking forward to seeing what artists want to explore with immersive technologies and experiencing the first work produced with the support of this programme in 2025.

To find out more about the Centre for Creative Technologies and how to get involved, please contact artf-cct@bristol.ac.uk.

Centre for Environmental Humanities

2024 was another busy year for the Centre for Environmental Humanities. We have hosted talks by a wide range of visiting speakers, on topics from the history of the commons in England to aquariums at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and the ‘Great Storm’ of 1987. We were especially pleased to host the renowned environmental historian Harriet Ritvo in May. We worked with the curator Georgia Hall to hold successful workshops on working with artists and creative practitioners, and in the summer many MA students, PGRs and academics took part in a field trip to Exmoor where we met with park staff to discuss creative responses to management challenge with a focus on the theme of ‘Elegant Conversation’. We welcomed the second cohort of students on our MA programme in September. The Centre’s co-directors took part in the inaugural meeting of the European Environmental Humanities Network in Utrecht in February, and we continue to develop partnerships across Europe and beyond.

Centre members visit Exmoor National Park for a workshop on ‘Elegant Conservation’.

In that vein, plans for 2025 include applying for an ERC Synergy Grant with colleagues at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and KTH Stockholm. We are also looking forward to a PGT/PGR showcase on 21 February, as well as the usual programme of talks and reading groups. We are also planning to submit a co-authored article on environmental humanities in practice for a special issue of PMLA, and discussions on the location for the 2025 field trip are already underway…

To find out more about the Centre for Environmental Humanities, please contact adrian.howkins@bristol.ac.uk and paul.merchant@bristol.ac.uk. Follow the Centre’s X account for the latest updates.

Centre for Health, Humanities and Science

The Centre for Health, Humanities and Science (CHHS) has held a vibrant programme of events over the Autumn term. The programme opened with a talk by Dan Degerman (Philosophy) on ‘Mania and the Capacity for Silence’. Degerman spoke about silence and its many nuances in psychopathology, from the agony of enforced silence to ineffable, empty or unworded silence associated with the breakdown of articulation. The seminar generated a lively discussion, and was followed a couple of weeks later by a guest talk by Lorna Mitchell, Head of Library and Archives at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh. In a talk on the ‘Plant Humanities’, Mitchell focused on the significance of plants to our wellbeing, their role in social prescribing, and their crucial significance in the context of the development of new pharmacological treatments – as well as on the value of plants in their own right. She discussed the impact of climate change on biodiversity and plant habitats, and revealed the rich archival and other research resources available at Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh.

Dr Dan Degerman (Philosophy) introduces his research into silence and its many nuances.

Also in September, the CHHS held an all-day international symposium on Georges Canguilhem, the French physician and philosopher of science, organized by Federico Testa (Modern Languages), British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in French (Dr Testa has since moved to the University of East Anglia to take up a permanent lectureship). In October, another recent Bristol postdoc and current CHHS affiliate, Doug Battersby (now a Lecturer in Modern Literature at the University of Leicester), organized an online symposium on ‘Victorian Literature and the Health Humanities’, featuring Sally Shuttleworth (Oxford), Andrew Mangham (Reading) and Anne Stiles (Saint Louis University), with an audience of well over a hundred.

One of the highlights of the term was Bodies 2, an all-day event bringing high-profile writers to Bristol to talk about a range of health-related matters. Organized by CHHS board member John Lee (English), the event was opened by Benji Waterhouse, NHS Psychiatrist, stand-up comedian, and author of the bestselling book, You Don’t Have to Be Mad to Work Here (2024). Waterhouse presented a hilarious standup-performance-cum-book-reading that also raised serious social and ethical questions about the profession of psychiatry and, more generally, about NHS mental-health service provision. ‘Nothing is funnier than unhappiness’, as Samuel Beckett once put it, and Waterhouse’s opening talk about unhappiness was both funny and deeply moving. Other highlights included a talk by Anthony Warner (the ‘Angry Chef’) on ‘Ending Hunger’; an affecting talk by the palliative care consultant Rachel Clarke on her new book The Story of a Heart (2024), in which Bristol Royal Hospital for Children makes a prominent appearance. The day concluded with a talk by the neurosurgeon Henry Marsh on ‘Why are Hospitals so Horrible?’ In a poignant critique of the disregard with which hospitals in the UK are designed, Marsh pointed out that the architecture and design of UK hospitals, with their long corridors and their small and over-crowded wards, bears a closer resemblance to prisons than to places of healing and recovery. Marsh stressed the importance of colour, light, fresh air, and relative tranquility for recovery. He also highlighted the significance of artworks in allowing patients an imaginative release from their confinement in over-crowded wards.

Dr Rachel Clarke discusses her new book, The Story of a Heart, at the Bodies 2 event.

Looking forward, the CHHS will be hosting an equally lively programme in the new year. The first speakers, Simon Hall (University of Bristol) and Catherine Lamont (Arts Therapist), will be focusing on their project, ‘Prosthetic Futures: An Art and Science Collaboration on the Future of Reconstructive Prosthetics’, which is funded by Bristol’s Brigstow Institute. This will be followed by Andrew Gaedtke (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne), who will be speaking about his forthcoming monograph, Brain Narratives. Mark Paterson (University of Pittsburg), an expert on the body, senses, affects, and sensory technologies, will be visiting and speaking at the CHHS in April. In May, the CHHS will be hosting a talk by Helen Chatterjee, MBE, Professor of Human and Ecological Health at UCL and co-founder of the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance. Finally, in June, the Centre will be holding an event on online therapy: Marjo Kolehmainen (University of Jyväskylä, Finland), who holds an Academy of Finland/Finnish Research Council five-year fellowship on the topic, will be focusing on the ways in which online therapy reconfigures notions of intimacy and trust, with a speaker/respondent from Bristol Medical School.

To find out more about the Centre for Health, Humanities and Science, please contact ulrika.maude@bristol.ac.uk. Follow the Centre’s X account for the latest updates.

Read the 2024 Wrapped: Faculty Research Group Highlights and Looking Ahead blog to discover more exciting research carried out at Bristol. Follow UoBArts Matter on X and Bluesky for the latest updates.

2024 Wrapped: Faculty Research Group Highlights and Looking Ahead

Posted on by George Thomas

By George Thomas, Faculty Research Events and Communications Coordinator

As 2024 draws to a close, we caught up with some of our Faculty Research Centres and Groups to learn about their highlights from the academic and calendar year, as well as activities they are particularly looking forward to in 2025. This year’s blog is presented in two parts: one focusing on our Faculty Reseach Centres, the other on our Faculty Research Groups. To find out more about their research and how to get involved, contact details, social media accounts and website links are provided at the end of each entry.

Bristol Digital Game Lab

If we imagine 2024 as an open world game, and the Bristol Digital Game Lab as player, then there’s lots to celebrate in terms of achievements (although there have also been challenges!).

In 2024, we brought in over £300,000 of funding for research, impact, and commercialisation projects, significantly increased our party size to 250 members, and saw an uptick in successful postgraduate applications. In July 2024, we embarked on a major quest, Game Conscious™ Characters, with industry lead Meaning Machine, which will see us assess how players respond to First Person Talkers, a new genre of video game. Teaming up with industry legends Ndemic and Larian Studios meant we could offer insights into the impact and the writing of video games respectively, which we delivered through sold-out workshops to audiences in Bristol and beyond. We initiated expeditions inspired by the interests of Lab members. This includes the development of a video game to tackle the complex topic of postnatal depression, knowledge-exchange around the ethics and use of AI Tools for Game and XR Storytelling, ‘concept’ game jams for partners including Natural England and the Centre for Sociodigital Futures, sponsorship for the UK premier of asses.masses, an epic, 7+ hour, custom-made video game about labour, technophobia and sharing the load of revolution, a conference on New Directions in Classics, Gaming, and Extended Reality, which brought together 24 academic and industry speakers from eight different countries, and Antiquity Games Night, a monthly online collaborative play series.

Are you a budding adventurer looking to join a group? To gain a sense of what we do in the Lab, check out the following video and see below for a glimpse into 2025.

Next year will see the Lab exploring new worlds, starting with a Cabot-funded symposium on Can Games Teach? Games and the Environment. We’ll follow this with another Can Games Teach? event on Games and History/Heritage. We’ll also be running a series of player studies, so watch this space for paid opportunities to get involved in cutting-edge gaming research! Then there’s the XR game jam for the AI Tools for Games and XR Storytelling project, a postgraduate roundtable on Game Development, further industry workshops and research seminars in the pipeline, and showcases where we’ll feature the games we’re creating. We’ll also be defining and testing a broader service offering through the Lab, including consultancy, game jams, and player studies. 

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr Xiaochun Zhang, co-founder and co-director for several years, for all her hard work. Xiaochun will continue to support the Lab from her new home at UCL. In September 2024, we were delighted to welcome Dr Michael Samuel (Film and TV) as new co-director of the Lab.

To sign up to the Lab’s mailing list and to become a member, please visit our website. To follow our updates on LinkedIn, search for #BristolDigitalGameLab. You can also reach out to the co-directors: richard.cole@brstol.ac.uk and mike.samuel@bristol.ac.uk for further information.

Drinking Studies Research Group

The undoubted highlight of 2024 for the Drinking Studies Research Group (DSRG) was the hosting of the Drinking Studies Network’s triennial international conference at Bristol in March. We welcomed 40 speakers from across the UK and Ireland, as well as from Poland, Sweden, Denmark and the USA, with a great blend of early career researchers – our own Amy Burnett organised a panel on ‘Early Modern Drinking Establishments’ with ECRs from across Europe – and leading figures in the field, such as Geoffrey Hunt who flew in from San Francisco. We also hosted a hybrid session with colleagues in Australia and Japan to celebrate the launch of a partner research group: the AustralAsian Drinking Studies Research Group. We heard about subjects ranging from the growth of online sobriety communities, to the importance of Desi pubs, to the treatment of alcohol in popular music. You can read a full account of the conference and its key themes on the DSN website, here. The conference was a significant milestone for the DSRG, as it firmly established Bristol as one of the most important ‘hubs’ of the wider field of drinking studies.

Dr Stephen Spencer presents at the Drinking Studies Research Group’s international conference.

We are rounding off 2024 with another instalment in our series of ‘Project Talks’, where we welcome speakers who are leading major projects in the field of drinking studies to tell us about their research, and to advise us on the development of successful funding applications. We will be welcoming colleagues from the wider university when Karen Gray (School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol) and Martin Preston (School for Education, University of Bristol), along with horticultural therapist and activity leader Guy Manchester, come to share insights from their experience running the Hoppiness: Brewing in Care Homes project. This involved brewing beer with residents of care homes as a way of supporting wellbeing and forging social connection. In 2025 we have two events coming up that we are particularly excited about: a panel event on ‘Early Career Pathways in Drinking Studies’, which will bring together speakers with recent experience of navigating both academic and alt-ac careers post-PhD. We plan to run this is a hybrid event to benefit ECRs across the international Drinking Studies Network, not just those at Bristol. And we are also planning a grant-writing retreat in the spring to support the several members of the group who are working towards funding applications in this field.

To find out more about the Drinking Studies Research Group, please contact drinkingstudies@gmail.com. Follow the Group’s X account for the latest updates.

American Studies Research Group

The American Studies Research Group continues to expand and serve a growing demand from graduate students and academic colleagues studying the United States. We enjoyed welcoming new members from across the University in 2024 as we continued to run a diverse range of events, such as our PGR workshops, external speaker series, and academic roundtables. Some of the highlights of the last year included the hosting of a UoB Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professor, Dr Vanessa Northington Gamble, who delivered a set of lectures on the history of race and medicine in America. She also met with our graduate students and offered some important guidance on research and networks. In accordance with the U.S. Election, we hosted an exciting post-presidential roundtable, featuring Bristol colleagues from the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies (SPAIS) and History, as well as an historian from the London School of Economics, who together reflected on the recent result. We strengthened our partnerships, including one with American Museum in Bath, and recognize the additional financial support of the British Association for American Studies. We also continued to build several research and teaching links with North American universities.

Dr Lucas de Abreu Maia (Politics) responds to an audience question in the U.S. Election event.

The coming year presents many exciting opportunities for our Group. We aim to expand our membership further within the University and beyond. Our partnerships and our portfolio of events are aimed at engaging different audiences, including an event about Native American art in conjunction with the Rainmaker Gallery. We also running co-badged events, including a roundtable on American environmental history with the Centre for Environmental Humanities as well as a roundtable, examining the challenges and opportunities of studying race in America after the 2024 election. Such talks will help us reflect on and contextualize America’s upcoming 250th ‘birthday’ in 2026. We hope you will be able to join us! 

To find out more about the American Studies Research Group and how to get involved, please contact stephen.mawdsley@bristol.ac.uk and sam.hitchmough@bristol.ac.uk.

Senses and Sensations Research Group

In 2024, the Senses and Sensations research group continued to build its international reputation by hosting a series of virtual seminar papers from colleagues across North America, Europe and the UK. At the same time, we worked closely with colleagues at the Brigstow Institute to bring partners from the creative industry and heritage sectors into conversation with group members. We hope that, in time, this will stimulate new collaborations and generate ambitious, innovative and impactful funding applications. Finally, we were delighted to be able to host Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professor, Mark Paterson, from Pittsburgh University. Mark is a work-leading scholar of sensation, and his presence really injected energy and focus into our activity.

Benjamin Meaker Visiting Professor Mark Paterson delivers a talk on emotions and the senses.

Building on Professor Paterson’s visit in June-July, we have now submitted an ambitious application for AHRC Curiosity funding. This will enable us to build an innovative international research network that brings together sensory studies scholars and sensory ecologists. We are excited to (hopefully) win that grant and, if not, to pursue further avenues to realize our exciting and world-leading aspirations. In addition, we are focusing our internal conversations on two major challenges. The first is to explore ‘intangible’ sensations, from sense of place to sense of time. The second is to build capacity around Sensory Studies for a Planet in Peril. We hope that by focusing activity, we will inspire generative collaborations and new research partnerships.

To find out more about the Senses and Sensations Research Group, please contact andrew.flack@bristol.ac.uk and victoria.bates@bristol.ac.uk.

Early Modern Studies Research Group

The Early Modern Studies (EMS) research group is pleased to report on another fine year of activities. On 21 May 2024 we ran an event on ‘Engaging the Early Modern’: a round-table discussion on how our scholarship engages with the media, communities, the arts, industry, in co-production, and more. Another highlight was our annual Summer Symposium in July. This featured a keynote from Rachel Willie (Liverpool John Moores) on extraterrestrial travel, and six further papers from PhD, early career, and established researchers on topics including Shakespeare’s 1 Henry VI, the performativity of walking, the religious poetry of Justinian Isham, Shakespearean tragedy, and early modern mining and metalworking. On 30th October, as part of our ‘Early Modern Conversations’ strand, we ran an event on ‘Teaching the Early Modern’: specialists in early modern studies from across the Faculty, both academics and postgraduate students, gathered to share their experiences of teaching the early modern in history, art history, theatre, comparative literature, liberal arts, Italian, and English. The event allowed us to share best practice and to explore future directions for early modern pedagogy at cross-Faculty level.

Early Modern Studies members have plans to present at next year’s conference in Bristol.

At the time of writing, we are organizing a research celebration event that will take place early in TB2: an opportunity to shout about and celebrate major and minor research achievements and successes. Behind the scenes, EMS officers have been working hard in preparation of the Society of Renaissance Studies biennial conference that will be coming to Bristol in July 2025. This major event now has attracted 300+ paper and panel proposals from international delegates, and plans are afoot for a very busy conference featuring three keynotes, a concert, drama reading, and more. More info here: https://www.rensoc.org.uk/event/srs-11th-biennial-conference/.

To find out more about the Early Modern Studies Research Group and how to get involved, please contact s.verweij@bristol.ac.uk and kenneth.austin@bristol.ac.uk.

Read the 2024 Wrapped: Faculty Research Centre Highlights and Looking Ahead blog to discover more exciting research carried out at Bristol. Follow UoBArts Matter on X and Bluesky for the latest updates.

The Liberation of France: 80 Years of objets de mémoire

Posted on by George Thomas

By Damien McManus, Professor Martin Hurcombe, Dr Charlotte Faucher, Dr Federico Testa, Louisiane Bigot 

August 2024 marks 80 years since the liberation of Paris from Nazi occupation in the summer of 1944, a decisive and highly symbolic moment in World War II. In celebration, the School of Modern Languages and Library Services, with support from the University’s Theatre Collection, the French Government’s Mission Libération, and AUPHF+, held an event in June to commemorate the D-Day landings and the importance of objets de mémoire (objects of memory) as powerful reminders of the struggle against oppression.

French Forces of the Interior (FFI) barricade, the liberation of Paris, World War II, 1944.

This event was held to mark the 80th anniversary of Operation Overlord, the landings in Normandy which took place in June 1944, and the subsequent liberation of France that year. Supported by the French Government’s Mission Libération, it comprised an exhibition of photographic images and original documents selected from the University Library and the Theatre Collection; and a series of short presentations and discussions around the intellectual and cultural context and legacy of resistance to the Nazi occupation of France 1940-44. Material for the exhibition was chosen from two areas of the collections: the University of Westminster War and Culture Studies Archive which is now housed at the University’s Library Services, and the Irving Family Archive, located in the Theatre Collection, also at Bristol.

A number of themes provided the focus of the exhibition and traced aspects of the French experience of the war. The first of these reflected attempts to bolster morale during the early days of the Occupation and included representations of life for French people in exile in the UK. Others reflected how keenly the French in exile in the UK anticipated Liberation, before the exhibition moved on to the aftermath of the Normandy landings, and the gradual lifting of the Nazi Occupation.

A major source for texts and images around these themes was La France libre [Free France], which was published first in London, then Paris, from November 1940 to December 1946, and which sought to fight against the acceptance of defeat, and advocate resistance and the restoration of freedom to France. Among the writings and images selected were satirical pieces depicting occupying forces as brutal simpletons in contrast to the more erudite French population; and intriguing adverts for a range of products from quintessentially French brands such as Michelin tyres to less well known and possibly more controversial items, to the French at least, such as Marmite. Photographs taken on the day of the liberation of Paris and of celebrating civilians in Normandy and the capital served to remind viewers of the relief felt at the end of the Occupation.

Image courtesy of the Irving Family Archive. Courseulles-sur-Mer is a coastal town in Normandy, known for its proximity to Juno Beach, one of the D-Day landing sites during World War II.

The Irving Family Archive provided some fascinating images of the planning and execution of the landings at Normandy. Laurence Irving, a prominent Hollywood set designer and Intelligence Officer with the Royal Air Force, specialised in the analysis of low-level reconnaissance photographs, some of which were displayed, marked up with vital information about coastal defences. Other images provided impressions of the destructiveness of war and powerful portraits of captured German equipment and vehicles.

Presentations and a panel discussion rounded off the day’s proceedings. Dr Federico Testa provided an account of the tensions between the ideas of pacifism and justice, and in particular the moral and ethical dilemmas facing the French during World War II. Professor Martin Hurcombe spoke about Les Amants d’Avignon (The Lovers of Avignon] written by Elsa Triolet and published clandestinely under the pseudonym of Laurent Daniel, and focused on the roles of women in the Resistance, which have very often been overlooked. Dr Charlotte Faucher framed her talk around a photograph of Résistantes from the BBC Yearbook 1945, taken when the impression among some British people was of well-fed French civilians at a time of rationing in the UK, and outlined her interviews with former female resistance fighters who firmly countered that view. Lastly, Professor Debra Kelly (emerita, University of Westminster, who kindly organised the donation of the War and Culture Studies Archive) discussed the 1946 novel, Siege of London written by (Mrs)Robert Henrey (sic), real name Madeleine Gall, a member of the French community in London.

Professor Martin Hurcombe provides historical context to visitors at the exhibition.

This was a hugely enjoyable exhibition to organise, and the presentations and discussions were fascinating, enlightening and full of debate. Perhaps the most rewarding aspect was the range of people who came to see the exhibition and to attend the discussions, from members of the public to groups of sixth formers from Bristol and Cardiff who were evidently very engaged with the collections, especially as they were directly connected to their A-Level studies.

With thanks to Damien McManus, Library Services, Professor Martin Hurcombe, Dr Charlotte Faucher and Dr Federico Testa in the Department of French, and PhD candidate Louisiane Bigot in the School of Modern Languages. To find out more about the University of Westminster War and Culture Studies Archive, visit Library Services. To find out more about the Irving Family Archive, visit the Theatre Collection.

Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell and Pressburger

Posted on by George Thomas

By Professor Sarah Street, Professor of Film and Foundation Chair of Drama, School of Arts

From October to December 2023, the British Film Institute (BFI) curated a special UK-wide season of screenings and events to celebrate the work of visionary British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. In a partnership spanning thirty-three years and twenty-four films, Powell and Pressburger transformed cinema with their bold storytelling and vivid cinematography, most notably in The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus. As an academic specialist on British cinema history, Professor Sarah Street participated in several of the events and here tells us about her contributions.

To mark the opening of the Cinema Unbound season, the BFI published The Cinema of Powell and Pressburger, a superbly illustrated book co-edited by Nathalie Morris and Claire Smith. This includes a chapter by Sarah Street on the filmmakers’ extraordinary use of Technicolor which draws on research arising from several major projects on colour films led by Sarah Street and funded by the AHRC and Leverhulme Trust. It was also informed by her in-depth study of Black Narcissus which features with a link to a chapter in the BFI/Bloomsbury’s Screen Studies online publication on Powell and Pressburger. The Cinema of Powell and Pressburger includes many sumptuous images showcasing an extraordinary range of original set and costume designs, photographs and objects, many of which are in the BFI’s own archives. The book was launched at the BFI Southbank in conjunction with the opening of a major exhibition on The Red Shoes. A special cake was made to mark the occasion.

As part of the Powell and Pressburger season the BFI held several discussions on fascinating dimensions of their work. Sarah Street contributed to ‘Centre Stage: The leading women of Powell and Pressburger’, appearing alongside Professor Lucy Bolton (Queen Mary, University of London), critic, writer and historian Pamela Hutchinson and writer Lillian Crawford. The second panel discussion was ‘Queering Powell and Pressburger’, with Dr Andrew Moor (Manchester Metropolitan University), Emma Smart, Director of Collections, Learning and Engagement at the BFI, and Zorian Clayton, Curator of Prints at the V&A and BFI Flare programmer. Each panelist chose extracts from a selection of Powell and Pressburger’s films which illustrated many key themes. These included queer perspectives on the films, offering fresh understandings of iconic performances by well-known actors such as Anton Walbrook and Ruth Byron, and British character actors such as Charles Hawtrey and Judith Furse.

Professor Sarah Street (third from left) participates in a panel discussion on the theme of ‘British Blonde’

Sarah Street is currently collaborating with Claire Smith, Senior Curator of Special Collections at the BFI and Professor Melanie Bell, University of Leeds on a three-year research project, ‘Film Costumes in Action’, funded by the AHRC. She also recently contributed to a panel discussion held at the V&A in connection with a series of lectures by art historian Professor Lynda Nead, Birkbeck, University of London, funded by the Paul Mellon Centre. These were on the theme of ‘British Blonde’, focusing on four celebrated, notorious blonde women: Diana Dors, Ruth Ellis, Barbara Windsor and Pauline Boty. Filmmakers Catherine Grant and John Wyver made four video essays in response to the lectures which were discussed in the last session of the series by Sarah Street and Professor Melanie Williams, University of East Anglia.

Professor Sarah Street is Professor of Film and Foundation Chair of Drama in the Department of Film and Television. A member of our Screen Research Group, Sarah has published widely on British cinema history and the importance of preserving colour film in the archives. To find out more about Sarah’s research, including her current AHRC investigation into ‘Film Costumes in Action’, please email sarah.street@bristol.ac.uk.

Representing Evolution

Posted on by George Thomas

By Professor Samir Okasha, Professor of Philosophy of Science, School of Arts

Professor Samir Okasha tells us about Representing Evolution, a £1.4m ERC Advanced Grant currently underway in the Department of Philosophy. Led by Samir, the five-year research project in the philosophy of science aims to deepen our understanding of how evolution is, has been, and should be represented.

A central part of scientific enquiry involves constructing representations of the world, or more accurately of those objects, events and processes in the world that the science in question is concerned with. Representations can take many forms, including diagrams, taxonomies, verbal descriptions, physical models, and abstract mathematical models. Thus a diagram of the solar system, a taxonomy of Alpine flora, a ball-and-stick model of a chemical substance, and a mathematical model of the spread of a disease are all examples of representations. Different though they are, each of these scientific constructs aims to represent some system in the world (the “target system”) and can be assessed for how well they achieve this aim.

The aim of Representing Evolution is to examine how biological evolution has been represented – diagrammatically, verbally and mathematically – in the scientific literature, past and present. A further aim is to examine representations of evolution in the context of pedagogy and science communication. “Biological evolution” is taken to include the process of descent with modification that Darwin described; the mechanisms that drive the evolutionary process such as natural selection; and the products to which the process has given rise, such as organic adaptation and diversity. Scientists have constructed representations of each of these elements in their quest to understand how evolution works. The project will offer a systematic study of these representations, the concepts from which they are built, and the associated inferences, from an overarching philosophical perspective.

The project has six work strands:

  1. The first strand examines diagrammatic representations of evolution, such as trees, landscapes and causal graphs.
  2. The second examines linguistic representations, particularly the use of metaphors and analogies to describe the evolutionary process.
  3. The third examines mathematical representations, as found in the abstract models that evolutionary theorists develop.
  4. The fourth strand examines “ways of thinking” about evolution, that is, fundamental cognitive styles that scientists and laypeople alike use to think and reason about evolutionary phenomena.
  5. The fifth strand considers the communication of evolutionary ideas, in particular how evolution is represented in science education and non-specialist fora.
  6. The sixth strand examines the project of generalizing evolution to the non-biological realm, a project whose feasibility depends in part on which representations of evolution are treated as canonical.

The importance of the project lies in its integrative ambition. The project will bring together philosophical ideas about the nature of representation and idealization, linguistic ideas about metaphor and analogy, psychological ideas about reasoning and cognitive biases, and educational ideas about science communication. By drawing on such a diverse range of ideas, the project will deepen our understanding of how evolution is, has been, and should be represented. The results will be of interest to both philosophers of science and scientific practitioners alike.

Professor Samir Okasha, Department of Philosophy, is Principal Investigator (PI) on the Representing Evolution project. To find out more about Representing Evolution, please visit the project’s website at https://representingevolution.xyz, or contact Samir directly at samir.okasha@bristol.ac.uk.

The Centre for Medieval Studies: Examining the Past into the Future

Posted on by elle.chilton-knight

By Professor Ad Putter and Professor Kathleen Kennedy, Co-Directors of the Centre for Medieval Studies and Professor Marianne Ailes, former Co-Director of the Centre

The Centre for Medieval Studies is a leading centre for research and training in all aspects of medieval studies, providing an ideal research environment for staff and graduate students in an area that is inherently interdisciplinary. With more than 30 Centre staff members from across the Faculty of Arts and beyond, we have an exceptionally broad range of specialists learning from the different methodologies of our individual disciplines. 

Internally, the Centre nourishes excellence in research, promoting interdisciplinary research and training in medieval studies, facilitating grant capture, and providing a network for mutual support and exchange of knowledge and expertise. Lecturer, Dr Steve Bull, comments: 

‘As an ECR still finding my place in the wider academic community, the advice, support, and connections that I have gained through the CMS have been invaluable. There is a genuine feeling of collegiality amongst the centre’s members.’

We are raising the profile of Bristol’s medieval research community nationally and internationally. We have an extensive network of partners, including local heritage organisations, facilitating impact, and offering student placements (e.g., Bristol Cathedral and Berkeley Castle), and national and international research partners. Professor David Wallace (University of Pennsylvania), a frequent visitor to the Centre, comments:  

‘Bristol’s Centre for Medieval Studies has great medievalists across the range to sift the secrets of Bristol (a great medieval city), of Europe, and of the global Middle Ages.  A truly exceptional centre for student education and international scholarly collaboration.’

We lead several externally-funded projects. A recent project we initiated is the Marie-Curie Doctoral Training Network ‘Re-mediating the Early Book: Pasts and Futures’ (REBPAF); it will support 13 PhD researchers at the universities of Bristol, Galway, Antwerp, Alicante, Vienna and Zürich, enhancing our already strong postgraduate cohort and international reach. PhD applications for the REBPAF project close on 10 January.

We offer exceptional support to our postgraduates, integrating them into our research community with regular social events and research seminars, some tailored to meet their needs, including seminars on ‘what every medievalist needs to know about…’ (useful for us all, but especially early career researchers) and an annual ‘student choice’ seminar with a speaker nominated by the students. We also host on our Blackboard site a constantly upgraded ‘training hub’ with online resources and run a range of reading groups, notably for medieval languages, such as Old French and medieval Latin. Our successful MA in Medieval Studies, with its unique placement unit, attracts students from different disciplines and diverse backgrounds with a high conversion rate to postgraduate research, here and elsewhere. 

A highlight is the annual postgraduate conference, the longest-running of its kind; this brings to Bristol, and now also online, an international group of postgraduates. PhD student Maria Rupprecht, from Germany, who chaired last year’s organising committee, notes: 

‘It is the perfect environment for postgraduates to present their research in progress and connect with medievalist peers and leading scholars from Bristol and beyond in a most benevolent, constructive, and supportive framework. The conference is an absolute highlight in the CMS. It is conceptualised, organised, and managed by Bristol’s postgrads and with this approach allows for discovering and developing organisational and managerial skills as well as teamwork in a committed and friendly environment.’

In the year ahead, in addition to our regular programme, we look forward to strengthening local ties through the research of our BA Global Professor, working with Bristol Central Library on their early books, including a planned public workshop. Visiting professors enrich our research environment: we are currently hosting a specialist in Old French from Stockholm, and we look forward to welcoming a Newton International Fellow next year. Our research into the past always looks to the future. 

Professor Ad Putter and Professor Kathleen Kennedy, Co-Directors, and Professor Marianne Ailes, former Co-Director, Centre for Medieval Studies

The Centre for Environmental Humanities: Who we are and what we do

Posted on by Kathryn Pintus

By Dr Adrian Howkins and Dr Paul Merchant, Co-Directors of the Centre for Environmental Humanities

The stories we tell about the environment and the images we make of it end up shaping the environment itself, for better and for worse. This is one of the key principles of the environmental humanities, an interdisciplinary field that brings together historians, literary critics, philosophers, scholars of visual culture, cultural geographers, and more.  

As the COP27 climate change summit gets underway in Egypt this week, it is striking to note how little coverage the summit has had in the media, especially when compared with the COP26 summit in Glasgow last year. It seems that expectations of meaningful progress are low, despite stark warnings from the UN that drastic action is needed. The environmental humanities can help us understand how we have arrived at this point, and reflect on how culture can play a role in building a more hopeful future.  

The Centre for Environmental Humanities at the University of Bristol, established in 2017, has rapidly built a reputation as one of the leading centres in the field. Our community spans all of the disciplines in the Faculty of Arts, and our members include postgraduate researchers, professors, and all career stages in between.  

We support our academic members in developing their research ideas, by providing seed funding, and supporting applications for external grants – recent funded research from Centre members includes Andy Flack’s ‘Dark Pasts’ project and Paul Merchant’s ‘Reimagining the Pacific’ project, both funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). We are particularly proud of our vibrant postgraduate community, whose members organise reading groups, workshops and the Literary and Visual Landscapes seminar series (you can watch a recording of their most recent seminar).  

The River Avon at low tide, with the Clifton Suspension Bridge above. It is dark and the lights from nearby buildings are reflected in the water
The River Avon at low tide. Credit: Kristoffer Trolle, CC-BY 2.0

“It’s really great being part of the Centre for Environmental Humanities here at Bristol. Being involved in a community of researchers from many different disciplines—from History, English, Geography, and many others—is incredibly stimulating. It’s a genuinely creative melting pot centred around a brilliant programme of events, seminars, reading groups, and field trips.” 

Milo Newman, PhD student in the School of Geographical Sciences 

In the 2022-23 academic year, we are exploring the future of the environmental humanities – where does the field need to go next? Where are the gaps in current research? How can our interdisciplinary community of scholars and students at Bristol shape new developments? With these questions in mind, we will be holding a special workshop in February 2023, with internal and external participants.  

Over the next few years, we are also looking to expand our network of international partners. This year, we established a formal partnership with the Greenhouse Center for Environmental Humanities at the University of Stavanger in Norway and the Environmental Humanities Center at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Partnerships provide opportunities for visiting fellowships, networking, and collaborative grant applications to our members. We are also developing a series of co-hosted online seminars on environmental humanities in Latin America with the Center for Environmental Studies at Rice University (USA). Professor Gisela Heffes from Rice will be visiting as a Bristol Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professor in May and June 2023.  

Collaboration both within the University and with community partners, including Bristol’s Black & Green Ambassadors and the Bristol Green Capital Partnership, is fundamental to our work, and the Centre is at the forefront of interdisciplinary innovation. One recent initiative, ‘Keywords in Environmental Research and Engagement’, worked with a range of community organisations across the city and academics from different disciplines to explore how to generate a common understanding of key terms like ‘resilience’ and ‘transitions’. 

We’ve also been promoting a place-based approach to collaborative scholarship, where we use field trips to provide a focal point for interdisciplinary conversations. Recent field trips have included visits to the Island of Lundy (see our co-authored article), Exmoor, and the Brecon Beacons.  We’re planning to continue these field trips this coming academic year with visits to the See Monster in Weston-super-Mare and to the Somerset Levels.   

We are very excited to be developing a new MA in Environmental Humanities, which is due to start in September 2023. You can find out more and apply on our website. 

Dr Adrian Howkins and Dr Paul Merchant, Co-Directors, Centre for Environmental Humanities 

Introducing the Centre for Creative Technologies

Posted on by Kathryn Pintus

By Dr Paul Clarke and Dr Ed King, Co-Directors of the Centre for Creative Technologies 

We are excited to be launching the new Centre for Creative Technologies this autumn and to have been supported by the Faculty of Arts. The Centre will provide a focus for colleagues from a wide range of disciplines working with and on creative technologies, using creative technologies as a method in their practice-as-research and working historically, critically, or theoretically on media. Our understanding of creative technologies is inclusive of both analogue and digital technologies, and of media from print and film to gaming and Virtual Reality. Bristol Common Press is part of the Centre, and we are closely associated with the new Bristol Digital Game Lab which is advertising upcoming events on its new site. 

Over our first foundational year we’ll be defining the Centre’s identity and scope through a series of events and doing so in dialogue with Centre members and our partners, both within and beyond the University, locally and internationally. We hope that bringing Faculty researchers together through the Centre will lead to inspiring conversations and collaborative exchanges, building our critical mass in this priority area for both the University of Bristol and the city region. 

In the foreground is a smart phone in landscape orientation on a selfie stick. Someone's left hand is holding onto the selfie stick. The phone screen displays a blue and white digital image of the scene in front of the phone's camera viewfinder, which is blurred in the background.
Billennium, by Uninvited Guests and Duncan Speakman. Photo by Paul Blakemore.

As evidenced by the success of the MyWorld Strength in Places bid, the University of Bristol and the South West region have a reputation as international trailblazers in screen-based media and creative technology research and development. Our Centre’s Management Committee includes Ki Cater, Professor in Computer Science and co-investigator on MyWorld, alongside Susan Halford, Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the new Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Centre for Sociodigital Futures, and Dylan Law from the Research and Enterprise Division (RED), who’s responsible for managing and developing creative and cultural opportunities. The intention is for the Centre to be a vehicle for more cross-Faculty STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths) research projects and to promote interdisciplinary collaboration on creative technologies innovation. 

The Centre also aims to enable and encourage further engagement with creative industries and communities on impact or knowledge exchange, including exploring social and civic applications of creative technologies with partners like Knowle West Media Centre. Our recent publications, activities and interdisciplinary projects range from Dr Ed King’s book Twins and Recursion in Digital, Literary and Visual Cultures and the AI and Literature symposium, which the Centre co-hosted, to Professor Esther Eidinow’s Virtual Reality Oracle, Connecting Through Culture as we Age: Digital Innovation for Healthy Aging and Dr Paul Clarke’s augmented reality engagement activity for planning consultation, Future Places Toolkit. 

The Centre will be based at the Pervasive Media Studio, which is a partnership between Watershed, UWE Bristol (UWE) and the University of Bristol, where UWE’s Digital Cultures Research Centre (DCRC) is also based. Jo Lansdowne (Executive Producer, Pervasive Media Studio) said: “We look forward to hosting the Centre in the Studio, to members contributing to the community of residents, and increasing the presence of the University of Bristol here. We’re planning a range of activities together, including a welcome event on Thursday 1 December, speculative co-design workshops around ‘Alternative Technologies’, and a series of public Friday lunchtime talks that will take critical perspectives on creative technologies. These will be co-curated with the Studio and the DCRC and it will be great to get Bristol and UWE researchers together with the creative technology professionals resident in the studio for discussions, to share skills and ideas, and to imagine exciting new collaborative projects.” 

A screenshot from the Virtual Reality Oracle, showing a figure in ancient Greek robes with arms outstretched, palms up, and looking up to the sky. The figure is standing in front of a large tree with bright green leaves.
Virtual Reality Oracle Project, Esther Eidinow , Kirsten Cater, et al, with Friday Sunday Studios, funded by AHRC, University of Bristol.

A priority for the Centre will be to support Early Career Researchers (ECRs) and postgraduates (PGRs), to attract new PhDs in this area, and to build the Faculty’s community of practice and research in creative technologies. One of the ways in which we’ll be doing this is through a new ECR and PGR-led reading group run by Dr Francesco Bentivegna and Katy Dadacz. As they say: “This will be open to those beyond the University, including Pervasive Media Studio residents and Control Shift Network. The group will focus on readings that explore creative relations between humans and machines, with invited presentations, discussions of interactive experiences and media, plus sharings of research and practice in progress.” As far as professional development for researchers at all stages of their careers, there are plans to work with the Library and Jean Golding Institute on training, potentially with funding from a bid recently submitted to the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s (AHRC) Embedding Digital Skills in Humanities and Arts Research scheme, and also for immersive media training in partnership with MyWorld. The MA Immersive Arts, which is part of MyWorld’s skills provision, is also associated with the Centre. 

The Centre for Creative Technologies will have a soft launch this semester, building towards a larger-scale and higher profile event at the end of this academic year, developed through exchanges with related centres internationally (and potentially in collaboration with the Virtual Reality Oracle project, Bristol Digital Game Lab and Bristol Common Press). The aim is for this to be both a symposium and showcase, to share Bristol’s thought- and practice-leading research in this growth area for both the University and local creative and immersive industries.  

We’re currently growing our membership, so do get in touch, whether your interests relate and you’d like to get involved in contributing to Centre activities, or if you’d like to join our mailing list to hear about upcoming events and opportunities. 

Dr Paul Clarke and Dr Ed King (Centre Co-Directors) 

Supporting digital literacies in Brazil through videogame design

Posted on by Kathryn Pintus

From digital inclusion to digital literacies

Associate Professor Ed King tells us about his latest project to develop a science-fiction videogame to raise awareness of the dangers of social media disinformation in Brazil. To do this, he’s been working with local Brazilian organisations. It is an example of how arts research can address societal challenges. The project has recently received an AHRC Impact Acceleration Account award.

With help from the AHRC Impact Acceleration Account, I am currently collaborating with artists and non-profit organisations in Brazil to develop a videogame which will improve digital literacies. Our videogame will raise awareness about the dangers of disinformation by providing them with an accessible, engaging, free and enjoyable educational resource which will encourage young people to think critically about these issues through the medium of digital play.

In the early 2000s, during the first administration of the left-wing Worker’s Party President Lula da Silva, the Brazilian government invested heavily in ‘digital inclusion’ initiatives as a way of reducing social inequalities in the country. The ‘Pontos de Cultura’ project, for example, which funded media centres based in community spaces across the country, including in favelas and socially deprived neighbourhoods, became a model for approaches to free software among policy makers in Europe and North America.

‘Future calls’ by Rafael Coutinho, Cachalote Produções

However, now that there are extremely high levels of smartphone ownership and social media usage in Brazil, it has become clear that access to digital networks is not a guarantee of social inclusion but can entail exposure to manipulation and data surveillance. As a result, the focus among governmental and non-profit organisations working in this area has shifted from increasing digital inclusion to supporting digital literacies across the social spectrum.

Why is this research important?

Through my research, it has become evident that a digital literacy skill in need of particularly urgent support is the identification of disinformation online. This emerged as an important issue during the last presidential elections in Brazil in 2018 and was cited by many reports as a key factor in the rise to power of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro (who is seeking re-election in October 2022). It was also an important factor in the consolidation of cultures of denial during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, government and non-governmental organisations (such as Global Network Initiative and Direitos na Rede) have been attempting to tackle the issue at the levels of policy and law, including through the regulation of content.

Over the last few years, I have been working with a network of organisations that have been working with communities across Brazil to develop digital literacies as a way of expanding social inclusion.

  • In 2020-21, with support from an ESRC-IAA grant, I collaborated with the Ubatuba-based Instituto Neos to produce the ID21 report, which provides a survey of the major challenges facing these organisations.
  • With funding from a Bristol Digital Futures Seed Corn grant and the Participatory Research Fund, we used this report as the basis for developing an online repository of educational resources to be used in constructing new community digital inclusion initiatives and policies.

‘Future calls’ by Rafael Coutinho, Cachalote Produções

What does the research project involve?

Our project aims to support those organisations looking to tackle disinformation at the level of its reception, particularly among marginalised communities. ‘Futuro Chama’ is a videogame that uses a science fiction plot to encourage young people to think critically about the spread of disinformation through social media. It was developed in collaboration with a group of digital artists led by Rafael Coutinho and members of non-profit organisations based across Brazil that contributed to the ID21 report. These include: Instituto Neos (Ubatuba); Instituto Procomum (Santos); Coletivo Digital (São Paulo); Casa de Cultura Tainã (Campinas); and Associação Thydewá (Olivença).

We developed a prototype of the game with ESRC-IAA funding and have recently received AHRC-IAA ‘Proof of Concept’ funding to complete the game’s development and carry out beta testing. We will also start looking for potential users of the game beyond Brazil. This will involve translating the game into English and approaching organisations that support creative technological approaches to the challenges of democratisation.

Who will the game’s initial users be?

The first users will be the same organisations that contributed to the ID21 report and collaborated in the development of the game. They will use ‘Futuro Chama’ during the digital literacy workshops they run to support the development of digital literacies among marginalised communities. However, we will also distribute the game more widely through the same social media networks that the game critically engages. The aim here will be to raise public awareness of the dangers of misinformation, particularly in a context of social upheaval such as the current political crisis in Brazil.

The Centre for Black Humanities: Who we are and future directions

Posted on by Kathryn Pintus

By Dr Saima Nasar and Professor Madhu Krishnan, Co-Directors of the Centre for Black Humanities

The Centre for Black Humanities is an international hub for Black Humanities research in the heart of Bristol. The Centre aims to foster the broad range of research currently being done at the University of Bristol around the artistic and intellectual work of people of African descent. Some of our current interdisciplinary projects include Dr Josie Gill’s research on ‘Black Health and the Humanities’, Dr Elizabeth Robles’ work on Black British Art, and Dr Justin William’s project on UK Hip-Hop. Other research projects include those relating to ethics and social justice, literary activism, and slavery and its legacies.

The Centre is committed to reaching audiences outside the traditional university through a diverse programme of film screenings, reading groups, performances, and research collaborations with local communities. Such activities enable our research to generate impact in other areas including the cultural industries and higher education policy.

Our main priorities as a Centre are: collaboration, interdisciplinarity, engagement, exchange, and internationalism. The Centre works with academics, artists and practitioners – nationally and internationally –  to produce world-leading research in Black Humanities. We work across disciplines in the Arts and Humanities but also beyond, with researchers in the Sciences and Social Sciences. Centre members also facilitate a wide range of public engagement activities based on our research in local, national and international settings, working with museums, charities and other organisations to deliver high-quality, non-academic outputs.

Additionally, we have active research partnerships with local writers, artists and grassroots organisations in Bristol. These help create high-profile opportunities for mutual exchange and collaboration on issues of local and national importance. We also have academic and creative partners in Uganda, Ghana, Senegal, Angola, Portugal, Brazil, and the US, amongst others. A list of our international board members can be found on our website.

The Centre has had a series of visiting scholars join us. In 2021, we were delighted to host Professor Nicola Aljoe. Professor Aljoe’s research is on Black Atlantic and Caribbean literature with a specialisation on the slave narrative and early novels. She described her time in Bristol:

‘Despite the ongoing COVID pandemic, my sojourn at the Centre for Black Humanities in Bristol during the fall term of 2021 was an incredibly productive and intellectually engaging experience. I conducted research in the Bristol archives on two related projects. The first was the creation of a digital map of the various locations associated with Black people in 18th – century London through the lens of Ignatius Sancho. The second project was my book manuscript on representations of women of colour from the Caribbean in fictional European texts between 1790 and 1830. Such data productively challenges notions of absence of Black people in the archives of Britain at this time, and provides more details about the complexities of their lives.’

The Centre offers exciting opportunities for our early career and postgraduate community, through cutting-edge research and dialogue with arts and community activists. This year, Adriel Miles, Alice Kinghorn and Francis Asante are coordinating a programme of events. Francis explained:

‘The Centre plans to organise a number of postgraduate research (PGR) seminars and reading groups. Two seminars are planned for the first teaching block on topics related to the exploration of racial communities in online spaces, and the relationship between race, music, and cultural politics. These events are designed to encourage a sense of community in the Centre, and to provide a space for learning and socialising. Preparations for the seminars are still ongoing, and further information about them will be shared soon.’

Dr Saima Nasar and Professor Madhu Krishnan

(Centre Co-Directors)