Wednesday 23 September 2009

AHRC secures additional £4m to support ICT developments

The AHRC has secured £4m of capital funding to enhance access to leading-edge digital technologies and facilities by arts and humanities researchers and enhance impact from digital research outputs, such as databases, established with current or past AHRC or AHRB support.

The call is designed to enhance the UK’s research strengths in the arts and humanities, including the outputs from AHRC’s ICT Programme, and to complement existing activities, such as those supported through the RCUK Digital Economy Programme.

The call has two strands, the first relating to access to leading-edge digital equipment, resources ands facilities, the second the development of AHRB/C digital research outputs to ensure long-term sustainability and accessibility of those resources.

Proposals can be submitted with a minimum full economic cost of £50,000 and a maximum full economic cost of £1,000,000. Projects will be expected to start on 1 March 2010 and run for periods of up to one year. The closing date for the receipt of applications is 4pm on Thursday 5 November 2009.

For further information, please go to the Digital Equipment and Database Enhancement for Impact funding opportunity page.

source: AHRC website

Wednesday 9 September 2009

Music Department Research Seminar

Title:Acoustics applied to manufacturing processes and organology. The case of the piano
Date:16 September 2009 – 2:00 pm
Venue:Room MR11 – Second Floor, Wilson Building A, Open University
Speaker: Adrien Mamou-Mani (Newton Research Fellow, OU)

I will present two previous studies I carried out concerning the physics of the piano. The first one is a modelling of the “downbearing”, the downward load applied by the strings on the piano soundboard. Following the opinions of makers, its adjustment is crucial for the mechanical stability and the acoustical quality of the instrument. I will present some effects of this load on the vibration properties of the soundboards. An emphasis will be done on unusual values of downbearing, which induce very large amplitude vibration. The second study deals with the dynamical behaviour of a historical piano action. The organological question asked by the piano curator at the Musee de la musique in Paris was: Is the simple escapement action of Erard pianos different than the English grand piano action? I will propose an answer using both experiments with a high-speed camera and numerical models of one Erard action and one Broadwood action.

Open Briefing Session on the University's Research Strategy

PVC (Research & Enterprise) Professor Brigid Heywood will lead an open briefing session on the University's research strategy for the next five years.
Questions are welcome via e-mail either before or during the event and can be sent to strategy-rae@open.ac.uk. All OU staff are welcome to attend.

The event will be webcast via KMi Stadium (see: [stadium.open.ac.uk])

The Road to Professordom

For many in the academic world a promotion to a professorship is the ultimate goal, and a difficult one to attain.

For hints and tips on how to make your career work for you so that you are in the best position for that promotion, come along to the first in our series of 2009-10 Bite Size Seminars, titled “The Road to Professordom”. Professor Linda Jones, Professor of Health in the Faculty of Health & Social Care, will tell her own story on what worked for her.

Seminar Title: The Road to Professordom
Speakers: Linda Jones, Faculty of Health & Social Care
Venue:Research Meeting Room, 2nd Floor, Library
Date: Thursday 1 October 2009
Time: 12 noon to 1pm

The seminar will be followed by lunch and an opportunity to network with other researchers.

To register: If you would like to attend, you can enrol directly by using the Staff Learning Management System (LMS): Link http://staff-lms.open.ac.uk/staff-lms/ or alternatively please contact research-training-development@open.ac.uk.

Sharing Best Practice in Supervision

Would you like an opportunity to:
discuss best practice with other research supervisors?
update your supervision skills?
influence Open University research supervision policy?

If your answer is yes to any of these questions Sharing Best Practice in Supervision is for you.

Sharing Best Practice in Supervision will address some or all of the following issues: Coping with difficulties; Supporting students through probation; Maintaining the momentum for finishing on time; Supporting part-time students; International students’ perspectives;

To register: You can enrol directly by using the Staff Learning Management System (LMS): Link http://staff-lms.open.ac.uk/staff-lms/ or alternatively please contact research-training-development@open.ac.uk.

Please note there are limited places available so early registration is recommended.

New Chief Executive arrives at the Arts and Humanities Research Council

This week sees the arrival of Professor Rick Rylance as the new Chief Executive and Deputy Chair of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

Before taking up the post of AHRC Chief Executive, Rick Rylance was Head of the School of Arts, Languages and Literatures at the University of Exeter. Prior to moving to Exeter in 2003 he had been at the then Anglia Polytechnic University in Cambridge which he left as Dean of Arts and Letters. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) in 1998 and a Founding Fellow of the English Association in 1999. He chaired the Sub-Panel for English in RAE2008 and was a member of HEFCE’S Advisory Group on the development of the REF. His personal research interests are in nineteenth and twentieth-century literature and the literary, intellectual and scientific history of those periods.

Professor Rick Rylance said:
“Over the next few years I am looking forward tremendously to working with colleagues in the arts and humanities community and with Government to develop our world-class research achievements and demonstrate their importance culturally, academically, socially and economically at home and abroad. I’d like to thank the terrific work already done by my new colleagues at AHRC, and my predecessors in this role, which give such a strong basis on which to do this.”


source: AHRC website
http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/News/Latest/Pages/NewChiefExecutivearrives.aspx

JISC Advance brings together eight JISC services

As stated on the JISC site. A new organisation called JISC Advance launches this week. It will bring together eight established JISC services as part of JISC’s ongoing strategy to deliver world-class support to colleges and universities.

The organisation will be led by new managing director Guy Lambert and will co-ordinate JISC Digital Media, JISC infoNet, JISC Legal, JISCMail, JISC Netskills, JISC Procureweb, JISC TechDis and the JISC Regional Support Centre UK by centralising funding and business development opportunties.

Managing director Guy Lambert said: “All of these services are extremely well-respected within the education sector and receive good feedback from their users. JISC Advance will allow the services to reach new audiences, and will help our users to understand what we can collectively deliver for them.”

Guy Lambert joined JISC in January 2009, having previously worked in commercial and managerial roles at UK board level within the IT industry, in both the public and private sectors. His roles with Honeywell, Bull, Steria and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have all involved managing operational improvement and cultural change, with a service focus.

JISC Advance will launch at the Association for Learning Technology conference (ALT-C) at the University of Manchester on 9 September 2009.

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2009/09/jiscadvance.aspx

Thursday 3 September 2009

Radical Nature Study Day at the Barbican

Saturday 12 September 2009 10:30am - 4:30 pm
Location: Redgrave Suite, Level 4, the Barbican Centre, London EC2Y 8DS

An event exploring the relationship between contemporary art and climate change.

How are artists responding to the urgency of the issue? How does climate change affect culture? This study day maps the possible collaboration between creative thinking and problem solving.

Join artists Cornelia Parker, Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey; Franceco Manacorda, Curator of Radical Nature; Michaela Cimmin, Head of Arts, RSA; and Dr Joe Smith, Senior Lecturer, Geography, OU to engage with this hot topic. The event is chaired by Bob Spicer, Professor of Earth Sciences, OU and Gill Perry, Professor of Art History, OU.

This Study Day will be of special interest to students studying Arts and Humanities, Art History, Earth Sciences and Geography. It is organised by the Barbican in association with the OU.

Tickets £20/ £15 concessions (includes ticket for the Radical Nature exhibition currently showing at the Barbican) available from the Barbican Box Office 0845 120 7500 or online.

The programme for the day

10.30am - 12.30pm Morning focus on Climate change - Chaired by Bob Spicer

10.30am - 11.00am Welcome

11.00am - 11.30am Bob Spicer, Professor of Earth Sciences, Open University Climate Change in Context

11.30am - 12 noon Dr Joe Smith, Open University - Climate Change changes everything

12 noon - 12.30pm Mark Watts, former Environment Advisor to Ken Livingstone, now at Arup

Discussion with all speakers, and opened up to the audience, chaired by Bob Spicer

12.30pm - 2.00pm Lunch break with time to see RN exhibition

2pm - 4.30pm Afternoon focus on mediating through art / artists’ responses to climate change Chaired by Gill Perry

2 .00pm - 2.30pm Gill Perry, Professor of Art History, Open University – ‘A bilious shade of green’? Installation Art and the Evironment: Problems and Possibilities

2.30pm - 3.00pm Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey artists – illustrated talk

3.00pm - 3.30pm Michaela Crimmin, Head of Arts, RSA curatorial concerns-

3.30pm - 3.50pm Cornelia Parker intro & showing Comskian Abstract 2007 film (short 6 mins extract)

3.50pm - 4.30pm Discussion with all speakers, opened up to audience chaired by Gill Perry.

Radical Nature: Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet 1969 -2009 exhibition open from 11am until 8pm.

Tickets for Study day include entry to the exhibition on this day only.

Friday 28 August 2009

Digital Humanities Project in Classics

Elton Barker has recently joined the Faculty as a lecturer in Classics (from Oxford) and has brought with him the HESTIA (the Herodotus Encoded Space-Text-Imaging Archive) project. He is Principle Investigator for HESTIA, working with Stefan Buzar (University of Birmingham), Chris Pelling (University of Oxford) and Leif Isaksen (University of Southampton).

HESTIA provides a new approach towards conceptions of space in the ancient world, supported by a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Combining a variety of different methods, it examines the ways in which space is represented in Herodotus' History, in terms of places mentioned and geographic features described. It develops visual tools to capture the 'deep' topological structures of the text, extending beyond the usual two-dimensional Cartesian maps of the ancient world.

The project website is at: http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/hestia/index.html. Before the end of the year the project team are planning to post some initial results, including a spatial database (with a user-friendly set of queries that can be asked of it) and various maps that it can generate. They are also looking at developing a 'bookline', (a timeline linked to a map showing how certain places/regions come in and out of focus in the literature over time).

For more about the project, listen to a presentation by Elton Barker on 31 July, which can be downloaded from http://www.digitalclassicist.org/wip/wip2009.html along with the PowerPoint slides.

For more information about Digital Humantities projects in the Classics see The Digital Classicist website at http://www.digitalclassicist.org/. The Digital Classicist is a decentralised and international community of scholars and students interested in the application of innovative digital methods and technologies to research on the ancient world. The Digital Classicist is not core funded, and nor is it owned by any institution. The main purpose of this site is to offer a web-based hub for discussion, collaboration and communication.

Thursday 27 August 2009

British Academy Research Development Awards (BARDAs)

Deadline to notify REST of intention to bid: 23 October 2009
Faculty deadline to complete application form: 27 November 2009

The British Academy launched its new online electronic grant administration processing system, e-GAP2, on 20 August 2009. If you are thinking of applying to one of the research grant programmes it is worth learning about e-GAP2 (see: http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=1136) and you can register as a user as soon as the call opens so that you can see what is required for the application.

BARDAs are offered for established UK-based scholars to develop a significant collaborative or individual research project, providing a flexible package of support, including research leave, research expenses, workshops and visits by or to partner scholars. Awards are offered on an FEC basis, up to £150,000 (of which the BA meets 80%). Priority is given to applicants who have at least five years postdoctoral experience.
  • Annual competition (two-stage process)
  • Applications available from: 2 November 2009. It will not be possible to access application forms before these dates. Paper-based applications will not be accepted.
  • Funder deadline for submission of applications: 15 December 2009
  • Results of outline stage expected: end January 2010
  • Research beginning on or after: 1 June 2010
  • A smaller group of the most outstanding applicants will then be invited to submit second-stage applications for a deadline in March 2010, final decisions in May
For full guidance on British Academy Research Development Awards (BARDAs) see: http://www.britac.ac.uk/funding/guide/barda.cfm

For details of all the recently announced British Academy deadlines see: http://www.britac.ac.uk/funding/index.cfm

British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowships

Deadline to notify REST of intention to bid: 23 October 2009
Faculty deadline to complete application form: 18 November 2009

The British Academy launched its new online electronic grant administration processing system, e-GAP2, on 20 August 2009. If you are thinking of applying to one of the research grant programmes it is worth learning about e-GAP2 (see: http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=1136) and you can register as a user as soon as the call opens so that you can see what is required for the application.

Senior Research Fellowships are offered for established scholars working at UK universities providing a period of research leave during which they will be able to concentrate on bringing a major piece of research towards completion while their normal teaching and administrative duties are covered by a full-time replacement. Awards are tenable for 1 year from autumn 2010.
  • Annual Competition
  • Applications available from: 22 October 2009. It will not be possible to access application forms before these dates. Paper-based applications will not be accepted.
  • Funder deadline for submission of applications: 7 December 2009
  • Results expected: early March 2010
  • Research beginning on or after: 1 September 2010
For full guidance on British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowships see: http://www.britac.ac.uk/funding/guide/srf.cfm

For details of all the recently announced British Academy deadlines see: http://www.britac.ac.uk/funding/index.cfm

British Academy Conference Support Grants

Deadline to notify REST of intention to bid: 12 October 2009
Faculty deadline to complete application form: 12 November 2009

The British Academy launched its new online electronic grant administration processing system, e-GAP2, on 20 August 2009. If you are thinking of applying to one of the research grant programmes it is worth learning about e-GAP2 (see: http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=1136) and you can register as a user as soon as the call opens so that you can see what is required for the application.

Conference Support Grants are offered of between £1,000 and £20,000 to promote the dissemination of advanced research. Conference convenors may apply for financial assistance, e.g. to bring key speakers to the UK, or for a wider range of expenses.
  • Two rounds annually
  • Applications available from: 15 October 2009. It will not be possible to access application forms before these dates. Paper-based applications will not be accepted.
  • Funder deadline for submission of applications: 1 December 2009
  • Results expected: end January 2010
  • Conferences happening on or after: 1 February 2010
For full guidance on Conference Support Grants see: http://www.britac.ac.uk/funding/guide/confs.cfm

For details of all the recently announced British Academy deadlines see: http://www.britac.ac.uk/funding/index.cfm

British Academy Small Research Grants

Deadline to notify REST of intention to bid: 12 October 2009
Faculty deadline to complete application form: 4 November 2009

The British Academy launched its new online electronic grant administration processing system, e-GAP2, on 20 August 2009. If you are thinking of applying to one of the research grant programmes it is worth learning about e-GAP2 (see: http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=1136) and you can register as a user as soon as the call opens so that you can see what is required for the application.

Grants are offered of up to £7,500 for collaborative or individual projects to facilitate initial project planning and development, to support the direct costs of research, and to enable the advancement of research through workshops or by visits by or to partner scholars.
  • Two rounds annually
  • Applications available from: 7 October 2009. It will not be possible to access application forms before these dates. Paper-based applications will not be accepted.
  • Funder deadline for submission of applications: 23 November 2009
  • Results expected: end January 2010
  • Research taking place on or after: 1 February 2010
For full guidance on Small Research Grants see: http://www.britac.ac.uk/funding/guide/srg.cfm

For details of all the recently announced British Academy deadlines see: http://www.britac.ac.uk/funding/index.cfm

British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships

Deadline to notify REST of intention to bid: 12 October 2009
Faculty deadline to complete application form: 9 November 2009

The British Academy launched its new online electronic grant administration processing system, e-GAP2, on 20 August 2009. If you are thinking of applying to one of the research grant programmes it is worth learning about e-GAP2 (see: http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=1136) and you can register as a user as soon as the call opens so that you can see what is required for the application.

Postdoctoral Fellowships provide a career development opportunity for outstanding early career researchers who have not yet been appointed to a permanent academic post, to strengthen their experience of research and teaching in a university environment, offering employment for three years.
  • Research beginning on or after: 1 September 2010
  • Annual competition (two-stage process)
  • Applications available from: 28 September 2009. It will not be possible to access application forms before these dates. Paper-based applications will not be accepted.
  • Funder deadline for submission of outline proposals: 26 November 2009
  • Results of outline stage expected: January 2010
  • A smaller group of the most outstanding applicants will then be invited to submit second-stage applications for a deadline in March 2010, final decisions in May.
For full guidance on Postdoctoral Fellowships see: http://www.britac.ac.uk/funding/guide/pdfells.cfm

For details of all the recently announced British Academy deadlines see: http://www.britac.ac.uk/funding/index.cfm

British Academy Overseas Conference Grants

Deadline to notify REST of intention to bid: 16 October 2009
Faculty deadline to complete application form: 30 October 2009

The British Academy launched its new online electronic grant administration processing system, e-GAP2, on 20 August 2009. If you are thinking of applying to one of the research grant programmes it is worth learning about e-GAP2 (see: http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=1136) and you can register as a user as soon as the call opens so that you can see what is required for the application.

Overseas Conference Grants are simple travel grants towards the travel expenses of scholars delivering a paper at a conference overseas.
  • Two rounds annually
  • Applications available from: 1 October 2009. It will not be possible to access application forms before these dates. Paper-based applications will not be accepted.
  • Funder deadline for submission of applications: 16 November 2009
  • Results expected: end December 2009
  • Conferences taking place on or after: 1 January 2010
For full guidance on Overseas Conference Grants see: http://www.britac.ac.uk/funding/guide/ocg.cfm

For details of all the recently announced British Academy deadlines see: http://www.britac.ac.uk/funding/index.cfm

Tuesday 25 August 2009

Briefing Events for Researchers Considering Applying for ERC Starting Grants

Following the launch of the latest Call for Starting Grants, on 30 July 2009, the UK Research Office (UKRO) is organising a series of information events for researchers who are based in the UK or moving to the UK and who are interested in applying for European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants.

Each session is geared to providing participants with an overview of the ERC in FP7, focusing on the Starting Grant Scheme and the most recent call, and also to giving attendees a deeper understanding of the proposals format and the key issues in planning, writing and costing a Starting Grant proposal.

The sessions will be held in the following locations:
  • University of Sheffield, 3 Sept 2009;
  • Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, 7 Sept 2009;
  • Royal Veterinary College, University of London, 14 Sept 2009;
  • University of Cambridge, 21 Sept 2009;
  • Brunel University, London, 22 Sept 2009.
Two identical sessions will be held at each venue, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. It is only necessary to attend one session. Both sessions will provide an overview of the ERC and will focus on the application process for the ERC Starting Grants. There will be opportunities to ask questions during each session.

There is no charge to attend and places can be booked on-line at http://www.ukro.bbsrc.ac.uk/erc/events_ukro/

Background Information
The Ideas programme is one of the specific programmes of FP7. Implemented by the European Research Council (ERC) independently of the rest of FP7, individual projects of scientific excellence proposed by truly creative scientists, engineers and scholars can be funded. Activities of “frontier research” can be across disciplines, including engineering, social science and the humanities.

Two funding streams support researchers, namely the ERC Starting Independent Researcher Grant (referred to as the Starting Grant) and the ERC Advanced Investigator Grant (referred to as the Advanced Grant). Application follows calls for proposals.

The ERC Starting Grants aim to provide critical and adequate support to the independent careers of excellent researchers, whatever their nationality, located in or moving to the EU Member States and Associated Countries, who are at the stage of starting or consolidating their own independent research team or, depending on the field, their independent research programme.

The ERC Advanced Grants aim to encourage and support excellent, innovative investigator-initiated research projects by leading advanced investigators across the EU Member States and Associated Countries. This funding stream complements the Starting Grant scheme by targeting researchers who have already established themselves as being independent research leaders in their own right.

Monday 24 August 2009

The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913

A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court is available on-line at http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/.

This online digital resource is the output of a collaborative research project between the University of Hertfordshire, the Open University and the University of Sheffield, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (in 2000 and 2005), the Big Lottery Fund (2001) and the Economic and Social Research Council (2005).

The directors of this project, and authors of all the historical background pages, are Professor Clive Emsley (Open University), Professor Tim Hitchcock (University of Hertfordshire) and Professor Robert Shoemaker (University of Sheffield).

Professor publishes book on the Great British Bobby

The Great British Bobby, A history of British policing from 1829 to the present, has just been published by Professor Clive Emsley, co-director of the International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research at The Open University. He is also President of the International Association for the History of Crime and Criminal Justice.

Professor Emsley said: “Histories of the police have always tended to be institutional and have tended to focus on law makers and chief constables. I wanted to explore the lives of the men and women on the beat at the sharp end.

“My father was a policeman who, in 1943, changed his police blue for RAF blue. He was killed serving with Bomber Command a few months before I was born.

"I guess the book was written partly because of the father that I never knew, but also because I believe that it is important to understand the lives of ordinary people. The aim of the book is to weave the stories of ordinary police officers into the social history of Britain over the last 250 years.”

The Great British Bobby, A history of British policing from 1829 to the present, is published by Quercus books, ISBN 978 1 84916 197 8. Times Review.

OU professor talks at International Congress of the History of Science

Jim Moore, Professor of the History of Science, gave the opening plenary address `Darwin's Sacred Cause', to the 23rd International Congress of the History of Science (triennial of the world's leading professional body), meeting in Budapest - 26-31 July, 2009.

Darwin’s Sacred Cause, authored by Jim Moore and Adrian Desmond, gives a completely new explanation of why Darwin came to his shattering theories about human origins. More than a thousand people enjoyed Jim’s presentation, to the point where two historians of mathematics (one being the UK leader in the field) said despite initial misgivings, they were “quite convinced by the argument”, which they credited as revealing a potentially radically new Darwin.

As a result of the presentation, the Director-General of the Hungarian (national) Museum of Natural History gave Jim a private two-hour tour, where he was shown astonishing 18th-century natural mummies and Neanderthals. Jim said: “It was amazing to hold the mandible of a 25-35 year-old woman, dead 60,000 years."

Jim has now been invited by The Foreign Secretary of the Cuban Academy of Sciences to address the Academy and to lecture at the University of Havana in early October.

Related links:
Talking to Open2, Jim Moore explains how Charles Darwin changed our whole way of thinking - and makes a surprising revelation concerning one of the motivations for Darwin's work. http://www.open2.net/historyandthearts/arts/jimmooreinterview.html

Hatred of slavery drove Darwin towards evolutionary theory: http://www.open.ac.uk/platform/news/arts-and-culture/hatred-slavery-drove-darwin-towards-evolutionary-theory

Wednesday 19 August 2009

AHRC Collaborative Research Training Scheme - Student Led Initiative

This route is part of the Collaborative Research Training scheme which provides pump-priming funds to support the provision of specialised subject - or discipline - specific research training which will enable institutions to offer such training to groups of students where it is not possible or cost-effective to provide the training in just one department or institution. The aim of the Student-Led Initiative route is to support the establishment of innovative collaborative research training programmes, originated by and run for postgraduate doctoral students that have a subject – or discipline – specific focus. Training is welcome which has as broad or as narrow a subject focus as is appropriate for the particular field.

The Student-Led Initiative provides awards of up to £2000 towards the costs of setting up a training project, activity or event.

Eligible activities could include:
  • Networks or Research Forums
  • Journals or on-line web resources: these could include students both submitting, reviewing and editing papers as well as students organising and administering the journal, or provide on-line video resources
  • Conferences (as long as these are student-led and student organised)
  • Career Development Initiatives
  • Roundtable events with academics and practitioners in the relevant field to discuss career pathways and career development issues
  • Public Engagement activities: these could be showcase/demonstration events, where students can present their research to community organisations, media, primary and secondary educational pupils, the general public etc.
  • Activities involving the exchanges of knowledge involving interaction between students and non-academic organisations. These could be professional interactions such as events engaging with professional bodies, policy makers, government bodies or relevant businesses such as local or national employers
The AHRC are keen to see proposals outlining innovative practices that will benefit a wide range of postgraduate researchers, either by their involvement in the organisation of the programme, or by participating in the scheme.

Events are welcome which address a clearly identified gap in provision within or across subjects, for example additional language skills, fieldwork techniques, practical skills required for specific careers, engagement with professionals or practitioners.

The scheme operates on a rolling deadline with applications accepted throughout the year.

To download the application form and guidance please see: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundingOpportunities/Pages/CRTS-Student-LedInitiative.aspx

The OU faculty of Arts has had previous funding from this source for the January 2009 conference for postgraduate doctoral students in Classics titled ‘Sex and the (Ancient) City: Love and Friendship in Greece and Rome’.

Tuesday 18 August 2009

Leverhulme Trust Funding Success for OU and Warwick University collaboration

Professor Dennis Walder of the Arts Faculty has been awarded a Leverhulme Research Project Grant of £140, 826 for a three-year joint project with Dr Yvette Hutchison of the University of Warwick, entitled ‘Performing Memory: theatricalising identity in contemporary South Africa’ . The grant is to fund two full-time PhD students, as well as travel and archival work.

Professor Walder is Director of the Ferguson Centre for African & Asian Studies, where one of the students will be based, and a South African theatre archive established; the other will be supervised by Dr Hutchison, an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies at Warwick.

Both Walder and Hutchison have wide experience of research and publication in the South African theatre context – Walder’s work on playwright Athol Fugard is well known - and they recently co-edited a special Africa Issue of Contemporary Theatre Review. The Ferguson Centre is engaged in a number of projects related to memory, identity and nation, and is building up an archive of research materials.

The aim of the new project is to explore how formal processes of remembering and recording the contested histories of South Africa – such as the Truth and Reconciliation hearings – are related to popular performative representations including plays, installations, memorials, film and TV. The outcomes of the project will include a book and several articles.

Radical Nature Study Day at the Barbican

Saturday 12 September 2009 10:30am - 4:30 pm
Location: Redgrave Suite, Level 4, the Barbican Centre, London EC2Y 8DS

An event exploring the relationship between contemporary art and climate change.

How are artists responding to the urgency of the issue? How does climate change affect culture? This study day maps the possible collaboration between creative thinking and problem solving.

Join artists Cornelia Parker, Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey; Franceco Manacorda, Curator of Radical Nature; Michaela Cimmin, Head of Arts, RSA; and Dr Joe Smith, Senior Lecturer, Geography, OU to engage with this hot topic. The event is chaired by Bob Spicer, Professor of Earth Sciences, OU and Gill Perry, Professor of Art History, OU.

This Study Day will be of special interest to students studying Arts and Humanities, Art History, Earth Sciences and Geography. It is organised by the Barbican in association with the OU.

Tickets £20/ £15 concessions (includes ticket for the Radical Nature exhibition currently showing at the Barbican) available from the Barbican Box Office 0845 120 7500 or online.

Thursday 6 August 2009

Internal approval process for bids

If you are thinking of applying for ANY external funding - whether for research, enterprise, teaching or any other activity - you need to let the University know and receive the relevant approvals. Depending on the circumstances, this may take a few weeks. There is a new page on the intranet which outlines the processes with an explanation of which form to use for each type of funding. This can be found at: http://intranet.open.ac.uk/developmentoffice/project-funding/

If you are a member of the Arts Faculty, please notify the Research and Enterprise Team at Arts-REST of any planned funding bids or negotiations.

Friday 31 July 2009

EU funding call for Reinterpreting Europe's cultural heritage

Funding scheme: FP7 Collaborative project (small or medium-scale focused research project) - Activity 8.5: The Citizen in the European Union - Area 8.5.2 Diversities and commonalities in Europe - SSH.2010.5.2-2 Reinterpreting Europe's cultural heritage: towards the 21st century library and museum?

National museums and galleries emerged in the context of the consolidation of the nationstate in Europe from the 18th century onwards. At the beginning of the 21st century, the intellectual underpinnings of many of these institutions are being questioned, while at the same time, new forms of interaction with the publics are formed. The purpose is to develop a new role for national museums and libraries that allows them, in an innovative way, to adequately reflect past trends and processes that are not constrained by national borders, engage the interest of new social groups and audiences, while simultaneously acting as agents of social cohesion and stability in Europe.

Research could look at the impact of museums, galleries and libraries (including virtual libraries) on identities and values through time and in Europe today, including research on memorialisation and the institutionalisation of cultural memory, as well as on how to best coordinate the activities and collections of museums galleries and libraries across Europe for the benefit of a European and global audience.

Research should also look at how contemporary research in the social sciences and the humanities can be applied in the re-evaluation and re-interpretation of collections and archives in museums, galleries and libraries; this will imply linkages between researchers and archivists in the museum, gallery and library sectors and the academic sector. The increased role of Information and Communication Technologies in museum and gallery displays or in virtual libraries, as well as scenarios for the organisation and content of post-national museums could be looked at.

For these collaborative projects there needs to be at least 3 partners located in 3 different member states. The maximum requested EU contribution under this scheme is EUR 2.7m.

Deadline: 2 February 2010 at 17.00.00 Brussels local time

For more information see: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/dc/index.cfm?fuseaction=UserSite.CooperationDetailsCallPage&call_id=254 or contact Arts-REST

Thursday 30 July 2009

ESRC new strategic plan increases focus on impact

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) released its Strategic Plan for 2009-14 on 21 July. It outlines the research council’s goals and objectives for the next five years, including a greater concentration on the impact of its research.

"The social sciences are essential to developing the international competitiveness of UK business and the wellbeing of citizens in the UK and beyond. Providing a high quality social science knowledge and evidence base, which is at the heart of the ESRC's mission, is fundamental to addressing a range of economic and social issues within the UK and globally. To achieve this, active two-way dialogue and collaboration between social scientists and potential users throughout the research process and beyond is crucial."

For more information and to download a full copy of the Strategic Plan go to: http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/strategicplan/

Thursday 16 July 2009

European Science Foundation Research Networking Programmes - 2009 Call for Proposals

The European Science Foundation (ESF) are inviting Proposals for new Research Networking Programmes. An ESF Research Networking Programme is a networking activity bringing together nationally funded research activities for four to five years, to address a major scientific issue or a science-driven topic of research infrastructure, at the European level with the aim of advancing the frontiers of science.

Key objectives include:
  • creating interdisciplinary fora;
  • sharing knowledge and expertise;
  • developing new techniques;
  • training young scientists.
A successful Programme proposal must show high scientific quality and also demonstrate added value by being carried out at a European level rather than by individual research groups at the national level.

Proposals may be submitted in any or across several of the following broad scientific fields:
  • Biomedical Sciences
  • Life, Earth and Environmental
  • Physical and Engineering Sciences
  • Humanities
  • Social Sciences
Science driven issues of Research Infrastructures in any of the above fields

Deadline 22 October 2009, 16.00hrs CET

For more information see: http://www.esf.org/activities/research-networking-programmes/rnp-call-for-proposals.html#c15761

Monday 13 July 2009

Deadlines for Digital Economy Research in the Wild

(This story was originally posted on 27 April 2009)
The Digital Economy Programme invites applicants to apply for short-term funding to perform their ‘Research in the Wild’. This call is about allowing researchers in the Digital Economy to expose and test their research ideas with potential beneficiaries – for example, the individual, business and/or society – in order to get closer to achieving a viable proposition with potential for transformational impact.

Projects are limited to up to 18 months in duration and this call will be open for 12 months after which it will be subject to review.

Proposals will go through an Expression of Interest stage before full proposals are invited. Expressions of interest will be assessed internally on a quarterly basis. Deadlines for Expressions of Interest are:
  • 15 May 2009 (passed)
  • 14 August 2009
  • 13 November 2009
The Digital Economy is an RCUK Cross-Research Council Programme involving EPSRC, ESRC, AHRC and MRC, hence challenges in the Digital Economy will require multi-disciplinary input across a broad spectrum of subjects including researchers from the arts and humanities, economic and social scientists, medical sciences, in addition to engineering and physical sciences.

This call is being administered by EPSRC and all application details can be found on their website at http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/CallsForProposals/RiTW.htm Applications are made through the Je-S system.

AHRC Knowledge Transfer Fellowship scheme - next deadline 12 November 2009

The Knowledge Transfer (KT) Fellowship Scheme is designed to support academics to undertake a programme of knowledge transfer activity in a flexible way. The knowledge transfer project should be planned around an existing piece of arts or humanities research which has the potential to make a significant difference beyond the world of academia. KT Fellows may work either on their own or as part of an academic team, to collaborate with, and bring tangible benefits to, non-academic organisations through a process of knowledge exchange. These benefits may be economic, social or cultural in nature.

Researchers can apply to work on the project on either a full time or part time basis for between 4 months and 3 years. The award can be between £5,000 and £1 million on a full economic cost basis.

The Knowledge Transfer Fellowships scheme has two closing dates each year, in November and May. The next closing date will be 12 November 2009, at 4pm. A revised scheme guide will be available in August, and the J-eS system will open for applications to this round at the same time.

For more information see: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundingOpportunities/Pages/KTFellowshipScheme.aspx

For more general information about Knowledge Transfer see the RCUK Knowledge Transfer Portal: http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/innovation/ktportal/default.htm

International fellowship programme for New York Public Library resources

15 fellowships of up to $60,000 are awarded each a year to outstanding scholars and writers – academics, independent scholars, journalists, and creative writers - by the Cullman Center’s Selection Committee.

The Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers is an international fellowship program open to people whose work will benefit directly from access to the research collections at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street (formerly the Humanities and Social Sciences Library). Renowned for the extraordinary comprehensiveness of its collections, the Library is one of the world's preeminent resources for study in anthropology, art, geography, history, languages and literature, philosophy, politics, popular culture, psychology, religion, sociology, and sports.

Foreign nationals conversant in English are welcome to apply.

The Cullman Center looks for top-quality writing from academics as well as from creative writers and independent scholars. It aims to promote dynamic communication about literature and scholarship at the very highest level – within the Center, in public forums throughout the Library, and in the Fellows’ published work.

Exclusions
Candidates who need to work primarily in The New York Public Library's other research libraries – The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Science, Industry and Business Library – are not eligible for this fellowship, nor are people seeking funding for research leading directly to a degree.

Deadline
Completed applications and letters of recommendation for the Cullman Center fellowship must be received by Friday, September 25, 2009. Candidates will learn the results of the competition in early March.

For more information and application form, see:
http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/scholars/fellowship.html

Launch of OU's new Research and Enterprise Hub

Finding research-related information on the intranet has been made a whole lot easier thanks to a new Research & Enterprise Hub (http://intranet.open.ac.uk/research/) - launched on the OU intranet this week.

The site performs a signposting function, making it easy to find research-related content wherever it may be across the university. The target audiences are researchers, research students, research managers, research administrators and other support staff as well as staff in service units supporting research.

The Hub project team, led by Mark Wight, would like to thank all those who have contributed to its development, especially Pat Grace in the Strategy Unit (who built the site), Research Administrators and Research School teams.

The site will be maintained by the Research School (email Research-Publicity).

Edited from email from Mark Wight, Senior Manager (Research Degrees) 13/07/09

Thursday 25 June 2009

‘Building on History: The Church in London’ Project

A pioneering project aiming to disseminate fascinating and important new insights into the modern history of religion in London in order to inform both policy-making and self-understanding was launched at a reception at Lambeth Palace Library on 18th June 2009. Dr Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London, spoke at the event along with the Project leader, Professor John Wolffe of The Open University. Over the next three years ‘Building on History: The Church in London’ will see two leading historians of modern British religion -- Wolffe and Professor Arthur Burns (King’s College London) – work with the leading national depository for English religious history, Lambeth Palace Library, and the Anglican Diocese of London to enhance the diocese’s self-understanding and effectiveness.

Building on History: The Church in London’ is funded by a £234,000 Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Knowledge Transfer grant. It is amongst the first ventures of its kind involving academic historians collaborating not with a gallery or museum but with a major public institution, as the Church of England seeks eagerly to unlock its own history to bring insights to its clergy, congregations and the broader multi-cultural community of contemporary London.

The project enjoys the strong support of the Bishop of London, who spoke at a Building on History seminar at St Paul’s Cathedral on 5 May of the importance of historical awareness to London Anglican identity and the development of informed strategy. Many of the social changes and pastoral challenges currently facing the diocese, such as rapid urban development, and heavy migration (both within and to the area) have been perennial issues for both Church and the metropolis since at least the late eighteenth century; and a historical perspective on the experience of these phenomena over time will help inform current and future responses.

The last twenty years have transformed academic understanding of the place of religion in modern English society, particularly in relation to ‘secularization’. It is increasingly clear that claims of religion’s inevitable decline in the face of modernization are not borne out by the ability of religious groups to respond react to changing contexts. Building on History creates a new space in which those active in the contemporary religious life of the capital can reflect on and learn from the remarkable stories now emerging about the experience of the churches in one of the world’s great cities responding to two centuries of challenge and change.

Following the launch, the project will engage with the Diocese of London at every level. Seminars and workshops for clergy and laity will provide a context in which history can provide helpful perspectives on practical contemporary concerns. In addition, seminars will be convened with church leaders responsible for formulating both diocesan and national policy. As the project progresses, it will interact with other Christian traditions and with London’s diverse local and cultural communities.

For more information see project website: http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/building-on-history-project/index.html

Partners: Arts and Humanities Research Council; The Diocese of London (Church of England); King’s College London; Lambeth Palace Library; The Open University
Directed by: Professor John Wolffe, Professor Arthur Burns
Project Researchers: Dr Lucinda Matthews-Jones, Dr John Maiden

Monday 22 June 2009

Collaborative Research Seminar - Framing Muslims: New Directions

A collaborative workshop has been organised by the Ferguson Centre for African and Asian Studies, Open University and the Framing Muslims Project, SOAS as follows:

25 June 2009, 2pm
Venue: MR01, Wilson A Block, Ground floor
Milton Keynes Campus, Open University

Speakers:
Madeline Clements (English, University of East London)‘Lunar streets and the Lonely Planet: locating Karachi in Kamila Shamsie’s Kartography’

Maruta Herding (Sociology, Cambridge University)‘'Pop-Islam': The Emergence of an Islamic Youth Culture in Western Europe’

Peter Morey (English Literature, University of East London)
‘How (not) to Recognise a Muslim Stereotype: the Spooks Controversy’

Amina Yaqin (Postcolonial Studies and Urdu, SOAS)
‘What is a Muslim Diaspora? Locating Muslim transnational subjectivities in British media post 9/11’

ALL ARE WELCOME

If you would like to book a place please contact Heather Scott, Research Centre Secretary at h.scott@open.ac.uk

This seminar is one of a series. The specific questions which the seminar series and interactive website will address include the following:
  • How is the production and reception of images of Muslims governed?
  • How have the roles and conventions of such representations changed since 9/11?
  • What are the strengths and limitations of existing theoretical paradigms when addressing questions of representation and power?
  • How might we understand oppositional modes of Muslim representation, and how is the space for such forms negotiated?
  • How has the legal status of certain Muslim practices and structures been called into question, and how has this questioning been mediated?
  • How has the re-entrenchment of national belonging been used to question models of multiculturalism?
For more information see: http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/ferguson-centre or http://www.framingmuslims.org

OU Music Dept Research Seminars on "Entrainment in Cuban Music: An Analysis of Son" & "Word and Song: Performing Devotion in South Asia"

Room MR03 – Ground Floor, Wilson Building A (R023), Open University, Milton Keynes 24 June 2009 – 2:00 pm
All welcome

Adrian Poole (OU) - Entrainment in Cuban Music: An Analysis of Son

Son is a style of popular dance music that combines African and Spanish elements and which originated in the Eastern region of Cuba in the late 19th century. Originally associated with the peasant or working-classes, son developed to become one of Cuba’s most important and influential musical forms and is often described as the forerunner of modern salsa. An important feature of son, and all dance music, is the ‘groove’: the sense of shared timing negotiated between performing musicians which provides the drive, feel and motion that invites audiences to move with the music.

Whilst early ethnomusicologists such as Alan Lomax and John Blacking have explored the relationship between musical rhythmic interaction and bodily movement, it is Charles Keil and Steven Feld’s work on Participatory Discrepancies that provides the most explicit connection between the socio-musical processes that create the musical ‘groove’ and how this groove draws the listener in, evoking a sense of participation and shared experience. In their 2005 article “In time with the music: The concept of entrainment and its significance for ethnomusicology”, Clayton et al suggest an interdisciplinary approach that connects research in ethnomusicology with entrainment theory - how two or more rhythmic entities interact - providing a useful methodological framework that combines ethnography with the analysis of performance timing data.

This paper draws on the these theories to present some initial findings of how musicians in rhythm sections (bass, percussion and piano players) interact with each other to create and develop a successful dance ‘groove’ during the performance of Cuban son.

Jaime Jones (University College, Dublin) - Word and Song: Performing Devotion in South Asia

The liturgical canons of bhakti (devotional) practice in South Asia undergo constant manipulation and transformation through performance. The musicians who activate the canon through song, dance, theatre, and drumming play a fundamental role in the creation of felt connections between sacred ideologies and daily experience, and they do so knowingly. The music-making that constitutes devotional ritual simultaneously reiterates a fixed repertoire and re-creates the same fixed repertoire through musical invention, virtuosity, and stylistic citation. In other words, devotees build new spiritual encounters from the established texts of their tradition through music.

In this paper, I examine the use(s) of music in devotional traditions of South Asia in order to underscore the agency of devotees as performers. I consider the ways in which singers and musicians mobilize histories, practices, and genres in order to effectively and affectively construct bhakti. This focus extends previous literary studies of bhakti songs by sustaining questions about the role of performance in the sacred and the discursive strategies that allow musical practice and worship to coincide.

Free Evening Lecture Series: Art and Travel in the Mediterranean, 1600–1900

In the history of British travel since the late sixteenth century, the Mediterranean has always played a prime role and inevitably captured the imagination like no other European region. Travel to the Mediterranean was stimulated by its art and architecture and in return inspired new art, architecture, collecting and art criticism. Images drawn, painted or photographed on these journeys by a diversity of travellers – artists, antiquarians, scientists, ethnographers, diplomats, navy personal, amateurs and tourists, to name just a few – have fulfilled a whole variety of purposes. This lecture series, organised by the National Maritime Museum’s Centre for Art and Travel and generously hosted by the Paul Mellon Centre, attempts a new overview on the subject from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century.

Lectures
26 November 2009: The Origins of the Grand Tour and the Discovery of Art, Edward Chaney, Southampton Solent University

10 December 2009: 'Present under the rose...' Stratford Canning, his Greek artist, and the last chance to see Turkey before the Tanzimat, Charles Newton, former Curator, Victoria & Albert Museum

21 January 2010: 'These inhuman trafficers in flesh & blood' : British artists and the slave trade in Egypt, Briony Llewellyn, Independent Art Historian

4 February 2010: Revolving Mirrors: Britain and Spain from the Armada to the Spanish Civil War, David Howarth, University of Edinburgh

18 February 2010: ‘Hellas… in one living picture’: British artist travellers in Greece, Jenny Gaschke, National Maritime Museum

All lectures take place at: Seminar room, Paul Mellon Centre, 16 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3JA. 18.00 start; 19.00 drinks; 19.30 exit. (Nearest tube stations include Tottenham Court Road, Goodge Street or Russell Square.)

Booking: Free of charge and no need to book, but if you wish to reserve a place, please check NMM website for contact details (link below).

For more information see: http://www.nmm.ac.uk/researchers/research-areas-and-projects/cart/art-and-travel-lectures/

Futurism and the Avant-Garde - OU Art History Study Days at Tate Modern

Saturday 27 June 2009, 11.00–17.15
Starr Auditorium, Level 2, Tate Modern


This symposium explores the controversial status of Futurist movements in art history, and some of their 'avant-garde' practices. Speakers engage with various forms of Futurist art, performance and film, including the use of manifestos and demonstrations. Italian Futurism will be viewed in relation to other radical art practices across Europe. The Futurists' disdain for traditional values and their pursuit of an 'art of modern life' will be explored in relation to prevailing concepts of modernity and 'avant-garde' utopias.

The seminar has been organised by Tate Modern in collaboration with The Open University

Speakers
  • Lutz Becker is a director of political and art documentaries such as ‘Double Headed Eagle’ 1972, ‘Lion of Judah’ 1981 and ‘Nuremberg in History' 2006. A practicing painter, he is also a curator of exhibitions. He collaborated with the Hayward Gallery on ‘The Romantic Spirit in German Art’ 1994, ‘Art and Power’ 1995 and Tate Modern on ‘Century City’ 2001. He is an expert on Russian Constructivism and Italian Futurism. His recent exhibition on European photomontage 'Cut & Paste' was held at the Estorick Collection, London.
  • Mary Ann Caws is Distinguished Professor of English, French, and Comparative Literature, Graduate School, City University of New York. She has edited the HarperCollins World Reader, the Yale Anthology of Twentieth Century French Poetry, Surrealist Love Poems, Surrealist Painters and Poets, Surrealism, and authored The Surrealist Look, Glorious Eccentrics, Surprised in Translation, To the Boathouse: a Memoir, Provencal Cooking: Savoring the Simple Life in France, and illustrated biographies of Picassos’s Weeping Woman, Proust, Picasso, James, Woolf, and Dali. She has co-translated volumes of René Char, Tzara, Reverdy, Breton, and Desnos, and held Fulbright, Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundation fellowships.
  • David Cottington is a Professor of Art History at Kingston University London, and the author of several books on the early twentieth century avant-garde, including Cubism in the Shadow of War: The Avant-Garde and Politics in Paris 1905-1914 (Yale University Press, 1998), Cubism and its Histories (Manchester University Press, 2004) and Modern Art: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2005). He is currently working on two books about the avant-garde.
  • Alex Danchev is Professor of International Relations at the Univeristy of Nottingham. He is deeply interested in the interconnections and intersections of art and politics. He is the author of a number of widely acclaimed biographies, among them GEORGES BRAQUE (Penguin, 2007). His most recent books are PICASSO FURIOSO (2008) and ON ART AND WAR AND TERROR (2009). He is currently working on a biography of Cezanne, and a collection of artists' manifestos.
  • Matthew Gale is Head of Displays at Tate Modern and curator of Futurism.
For more information and to book see: http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/eventseducation/symposia/18175.htm

Tuesday 16 June 2009

Launch of new electronic grants system

During June and July, the British Academy will complete the testing and implementation of its new electronic grant making system, eGAP2 (electronic Grant Administration Processing system). It is anticipated that, pending a successful outcome to the test phase, the system should go live in early August. The software was developed by our sister Academy, the Royal Society, which implemented this second version of the system in spring 2008. Over the past few months, we have made a number of changes to the system and have adapted eGAP2 to better fit the Academy’s needs.

The introduction of electronic grant making will help the Academy to overcome the shortcomings of an almost completely paper based system, and to manage an ever increasing volume of applications and awards. Saving time used for keying in several thousand applications and monitoring reports every year will allow Academy staff to continue to respond promptly and knowledgeably to enquiries and requests for support from researchers in the UK and abroad. Applicants will benefit by being able to have direct access to the progress of their application and to share applications with others where relevant. Further announcements – in particular with regard to schedules of future funding competitions – will be made on the Academy’s website and through the Academy's email bulletin.

From British Academy website: http://www.britac.ac.uk/funding/egap-release.cfm

Monday 15 June 2009

Funding Opportunity for Pursuing Transdisciplinary Approaches to the Big Questions

The Metanexus Institute announces grants in support of transdisciplinary exploration of fundamental questions of life, the cosmos, and humanity. Metanexus invites proposals from networked teams of five or more investigators who:
  • Intend to examine questions that range beyond those normally studied within established academic disciplines;
  • Span an adventurous diversity of such disciplines;
  • May engage religious and spiritual points of view;
  • Seek to forge new and enduring links among different fields of study; and
  • Aspire to have a transformational impact upon human knowledge and education.
To foster this transformation, MGNI will support open and dynamic transdisciplinary exploration and research with the aim of discovering new scientific, philosophical, and spiritual insights. The grants are intended to provide seed money for the formation and maintenance of networked groups of investigators from diverse academic backgrounds with the aim of building intellectual community.

Awards of $30,000 (£18,000) will be made through the Metanexus Global Network Initiative (MGNI) Basic Grant. Winning proposals will demonstrate academic rigor in program content, imagination and creativity in program planning, and cost-effectiveness in program execution.

For Further information visit: http://www.blogger.com/www.metanexus.net/globalnetwork

Fellowships and grants from The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art has two rounds of fellowship and grants awards each year - a January round for fellowships and grants and a September round for grants (the application deadlines are 15 January and 15 September). Their Advisory Council meets to decide on the awards in March (for the January round) and in October (for the September round). They write to applicants informing them of the outcome of their application no later than three weeks after the Council's meeting.

The following programmes have a deadline of 15 September 2009:
  • Curatorial Research Grants - Up to £20,000 per annum to help institutions undertake research for a particular exhibition or installation of British art (up to three years).
  • Educational Programme Grants - Up to £5,000 for lectures, symposia, seminars or conferences on British art and architecture.
  • Publications Grants (Author) - Up to £10,000 (but normally not exceeding £5,000) for costs incurred by authors on books, catalogues of exhibitions or permanent collections of British fine and decorative arts and architecture.
  • Publications Grants (Publisher) - For costs incurred by publishers or institutions on books, catalogues of exhibitions or permanent collections of British fine and decorative arts and architecture.
  • Research Support Grants - Up to £3,000 to contribute towards travel and subsistence expenses for scholars engaged in research on the history of British art or architecture.
  • The Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Research Support Grant - This grant was instigated by the Barns-Graham Charitable Trust (www.barns-grahamtrust.org.uk) in 2009 and will be administered by the Paul Mellon Centre. £2,000 will be awarded annually to assist scholars and researchers in the field of 20th Century British painting.
For more information, guidance and application form, please see: http://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/16/

Tuesday 9 June 2009

Leverhulme Trust Research programmes for 2010

The Leverhulme Trust have just published its annual call for Research programme bids, and this year’s two themes are
  • Beauty
  • The Impact of Diasporas.
Normally one grant is awarded for each theme. The grants provide funds to research teams for up to five years to enable them to explore significant issues in the social sciences, in the humanities and, to a lesser extent, in the sciences. The scale of the awards is set at a level where it is possible for a research team to study a significant theme in depth by conducting a group of interlinked research projects which taken together can lead to new understanding. The themes are selected not to exclude particular disciplines from the competition but rather to encourage research teams to look upon their established research interests from a set of refreshing viewpoints.

For each theme, a minimum of £500,000 and a maximum of £1.75 million is available for the support of work extending over periods of up to five years.

For further information see: http://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/grants_awards/grants/research_programmes/

Monday 8 June 2009

British Library’s Sound Archive

The British Library has an Archive Sound Recording website with 21,000 selected recordings of:
  • music -including classical and world music
  • spoken word - including oral history and accents and dialects
  • human and natural environments. – including soundscapes and wildlife
You are able to: Search all recordings on the site; listen to the recordings and download them; add notes and tags and create a favourites list.

To find out more visit:http://sounds.bl.uk/

Leverhulme Trust Emeritus Fellowship Awarded to OU Professor of History

Professor Clive Emsley has been awarded a Leverhulme Trust Emeritus Fellowship, which will allow him to continue his research on "Crime and the British Military in the 20th Century" for another 2 years after his retirement in September 2009. He is currently Professor of History and co-director of the International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research (ICCCR) at the Open University.

Prof Emsley says "Most crime is (and has been) committed by young men, and most military personnel are (and have always been) young men. The end of wars in Britain, since the eighteenth century, has witnessed fears that men, trained to kill and brutalised by the experience of battle, will find it difficult to return to civilian life and will continue to act violently, and hence criminally at home. Focussing primarily on the two world wars of the twentieth century, this research project will explore the scale of criminality by men in the armed forces and their behaviour at the wars’ ends."

"The aim of this project is to explore two distinct aspects of crime and the British Military during the twentieth century. First, there are the issues of the extent and variety of offending by soldiers: second, there is the problem of soldiers returning from conflict and the extent to which their experiences fostered subsequent criminal behaviour."

"It is generally recognised that most crime is committed by young men. The majority of soldiers are young men and it has often been commented upon how conventional crime declined in wartime and how juveniles and women appeared in greater percentages before the courts. Army provosts, and those relatively few military historians that have commented upon crime, have tended to use the positivist assumption that offenders in uniform were simply ‘professional criminals’ that had been recruited or conscripted. The initial aim of the project is to explore the kinds of crimes committed by soldiers in wartime on both the home and the battle fronts and the extent of this crime. The basic hypotheses to be tested are that:
  • There was remarkably little difference between offences committed by civilians and offences committed by soldiers; however,
  • In some instances, war provided new opportunities or new pressures to commit crime.
The fear of the brutalised veteran returning home to commit violent offences has a long history. The acknowledgement of the problem of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, commonly described in Britain as ‘shell-shock’, began during the First World War. Soldiers before civilian courts began to use the disorder as a defence before the end of the war. Nevertheless, while there has been research on the history of the concept and its gradual acceptance, there have been few attempts to explore its impact on criminal offending."

"The second aim of the project is to explore the concerns about brutalised veterans – as reflected in the comments of experts and in the popular media – together with the reality of such veterans appearing before the courts. The basic hypotheses to be tested here are that:
  • In the euphoria of victory, there was also an underlying climate of fear about brutalised veterans; however,
  • While there may have been some sympathy for men who responded violently (but not with lethal results) to wives that had been unfaithful, there was little serious appreciation of men that had been seriously psychologically damaged by their experiences and who, in consequence, drifted into drunkenness and violent offending."
The research will take place in London, Fareham and Brussels and the principal outcome of the project will be a book and at least one conference paper at the European Social Science History Conference in Ghent in 2010.

AHRC Beyond Text project asks "What is Black British Jazz?"

The ‘Black British Jazz’ project (BBJ) explores the emergence of a distinct tradition within British music. BBJ melds reggae, hiphop, African music and US jazz into a rich, and constantly developing set of sounds. In documenting this musical hybrid, the project touches on important issues for the study of music – the transmission of cultural values, the social context of musical forms, and frameworks of ownership that impact on musical communities.

The research takes an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together researchers with specialism’s in sociology, music psychology and (ethno) musicolology. It integrates a range of methods, from detailed analysis of performance through to ethnographic and historical investigation.

The project approaches BBJ via three research strands:
  • Routes
  • Ownership
  • Performance
These strands act as guides for our work. But as the project develops we will also be looking for ways of integrating them and highlighting common themes.

In terms of audience the project reaches out, beyond academia, to a broad constituency through film, a radio series/podcast, an end-of- project concert and more. What Is Black British Jazz runs from January 2009 through to July 2011 and is supported through the AHRC’s Beyond Text programme.

The Open University project team are:
  • Dr Jason Toynbee (Principal Investigator), Dept of Sociology,
  • Dr Mark Doffman (Research Fellow), Dept of Sociology,
  • Dr Catherine Tackley (Co-Investigator), Dept of Music,
  • Dr Byron Dueck (Co-Investigator), Dept of Music,
  • Mark Banks (Co-Investigator), Dept of Sociology,
The project aims are:
  • To trace the historical and geographical routes along which black British jazz (BBJ) has developed.
  • To examine the role of memory and cultural transmission in the emergence of new musical forms (also to contribute to their preservation through audio-visual recordings).
  • To investigate ownership of BBJ in relation to entrepreneurship, creativity and cultural policy.
  • To analyse aesthetics, embodied practice and participation in BBJ performance.
    Research questions
The main research question, 'What is Black British Jazz?', is broken down as follows:
  • What is the cultural identity of the genre?
  • How did it emerge?
  • Who owns it, how is it owned and what is the impact of cultural policy on ownership?
  • What are the defining themes in its performance? How do musicians use grooves, voices and improvised scripts in its delivery?
  • In political and aesthetic terms, why and how does BBJ matter?
Outputs
Research outputs from the project include conventional academic forms such as books, journal articles and conference papers. But the project team also aim to make the results of their work available to a broader public. A film (in collaboration with Metal Dog Productions), a short series of radio programmes/podcasts and a concert will take the project to non-academic audiences. Project data drawn from performances, interviews and documents will also be available as a) archive material held by the British Library and the Center for Black Music Research in Chicago and b) a resource for jazz education.

For more information see: http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/blackbritishjazz/ and http://projects.beyondtext.ac.uk/blackbritishjazz/blog.html

Thursday 4 June 2009

AHRC Fellowships - early career researchers scheme launched

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) will accept applications for their early career researchers fellowship scheme from 1st September (open deadlines). The early career route aims to enable the AHRC to work in partnership with institutions to support the career development of researchers at the start of their careers and to provide them with focused research time.

The Fellowships scheme provides salary and associated costs for periods of three to nine months, to enable an individual researcher to work on a specified research project or programme. The Fellowship can be used to support a wide range of research activities provided that these lead to significant specified research and other outputs by the end of the Fellowship, including the preparation of publications and other outputs from research conducted prior to the start of the Fellowship. Proposals for full economic costs up to a maximum of £120,000 may be submitted.

The early career route aims to enable the AHRC to work in partnership with institutions to support the career development of researchers at the start of their careers and to provide them with focused research time and appropriate support and mentoring so that they can broaden their research experience and enhance their research outputs profile. In order to apply to this route, applicants must meet additional eligibility criteria as outlined in the AHRC Funding Guide.

The Fellowships scheme (Standard and Early Career routes) operates with open deadlines. This means that applicants can submit Fellowship applications at any time without having to worry about submitting for specific deadlines.

Applications to this scheme can be submitted at any time from 1 September 2009.

Please note that the assessment process for applications submitted to the Fellowships scheme (Standard and Early Career routes) takes approximately 30 weeks and the earliest start date for a project should be no earlier than 9 months after submission to the AHRC.

If any researchers associated with the Open University Faculty of Arts are intending to apply to this programme, they must contact the Research & Enterprise Support Team (REST) for confirmation of the full economic cost of their proposal and to receive the necessary internal approvals to allow the application to be submitted. Please notify the team of your intention to make an application at least 4 weeks before the date that you intend to submit your bid.

For more information see: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundingOpportunities/Pages/Fellowshipserc.aspx

AHRC Science & Heritage Postdoctoral Fellowships

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Science and Heritage Postdoctoral Fellowships are designed to support outstanding early career researchers to carry out research and so establish an independent research career in heritage science.

The duration of the Fellowship is equivalent to 3 years full-time and they are open to researchers with no more than 5 years post-doctoral or equivalent experience.

The funding will cover Fellow’s salary and a small amount of travel and subsistence, equipment and consumables.

The deadline is 4pm Thursday 10th September 2009

AHRC is administering this call on behalf of AHRC and EPSRC. Please ensure that you have read the Details of the Call and the Specification document carefully before making your application. For more information see: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundingOpportunities/Pages/Fellowshipspdsciher.aspx

Thursday 21 May 2009

Open Call for proposals for ESF Research Conferences to be held in 2011

The European Science Foundation (ESF) invites scientists to submit proposals for high-level research conferences to take place in 2011 within the framework of its Research Conferences Scheme in the following scientific domains:
  • Molecular Biology+
  • Brain, Technology and Cognition
  • Mathematics
  • Physics/Biophysics and Environmental Sciences
  • Social Sciences and Humanities
Submission deadline: 15 September 2009, midnight CET

In the area of Social Sciences and Humanities, the topics should be at the forefront of scientific research and may be interdisciplinary when appropriate. The ESF will fund up to 4 3-day-long Social Sciences and Humanities conferences to be held in 2011 in Linköping, Sweden.

The ESF Research Conferences Scheme provides the opportunity for leading scientists and younger researchers to meet for discussions on the most recent developments in their fields of research. It acts as a catalyst for creating new synergistic contacts throughout Europe and the rest of the world. ESF Research Conferences are open to scientists world-wide, whether from academia or industry.

Format:
  • 90-150 participants (including up to 25 speakers and convenors)
  • A duration of 4 full conference days (3 full conference days for conferences in social sciences and humanities)
Core activities:
  • lectures by invited speakers
  • short talks by young scientists
  • poster sessions and extensive discussion periods
  • Forward Look Plenary Discussion about future developments in the field
  • no parallel sessions
  • Joint meals and social activities to encourage further contact and networking
For more information see: http://www.esf.org/activities/esf-conferences/call-for-proposals/framework-call-for-proposals.html and http://www.esf.org/activities/esf-conferences.html

Conference to assess state of crime

An assessment of the current knowledge of crime, crime prevention and deviance in Europe will be debated at CRIMPREV’s final conference at The Open University from 17-19 June 2009. The international project was launched at the end of 2006 with EU funding to investigate perceptions of crime; criminalisation; deviant behaviour; interactions between different forms of organised crime; public policies of prevention; and to establish good practice guidelines across Europe.

The International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research (ICCCR) at The Open University played a significant role in CRIMPREV since its inception. Clive Emsley, Director ICCCR and Professor of History, said: “It is an honour for us to be hosting this conference. The ICCCR is particularly strong in providing historical perspectives in the area of juvenile justice and policing".

The conference will be debating the conclusions of six work packages in preparation for the final report. A short keynote by Professor Emsley will pinpoint some of the problems of understanding crime in contemporary society, notably with governments that cherry-pick research to suit ill-considered policies.

Professor Emsley believes this conference is timely to address sub-standard government spending on crime prevention. “The economic downturn poses a significant threat to the funding of crime research. Whilst the government want quick results, criminologists can’t offer guarantees that their work will begin to solve the crime problem. A conference like this will however bring us a step closer to understanding the problems and offering potential solutions.”

The conference will be webcast live. For more info see: http://www.open.ac.uk/icccr/events.shtml

Please contact Sarah Batt (a.s.c.batt@open.ac.uk) for further information concerning this conference.

Notes:
1. CRIMPREV is an international project funded by the EU through the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) - issues connected with the resolution of conflicts and restoration of peace and justice.

The CRIMPREV consortium is made up of 31 universities and research institutes spread across Europe from 10 European countries. The consortium will continue as a federation of institutions under the umbrella of the Groupe Européen de Recherche sur les Normativités (GERN) based in Paris. This federated body now constitutes an important Europe-wide crime control lobby with a presence at the EU table.

2. The International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research (ICCCR) is an Open University centre of research excellence. It was established in December 2003. It is a unique multi disciplinary and cross faculty initiative drawing on expertise from Social Sciences (social policy & criminology, psychology and sociology), Arts (history), and Health and Social Care (youth justice).

It incorporates the European Centre for the Study of Policing based in Arts and the Rethinking Criminology and Forensic Psychology Research Groups based in Social Sciences.

The ICCCR unites contemporary practice-based research and critical policy analysis in crime, policing and criminal justice with an awareness of historical, psychological and social contexts.

ICCCR has developed three substantive (but inter-related) areas of expertise:
  • policing
  • justice, rights and regulation
  • prisons/penology
Coherence between these subject areas is maintained through a shared interest in comparative methodologies (historical and/or cross-cultural) and in a concern for processes of governance and regulation. Its research is aimed at academic, policy and practitioner audiences, and is disseminated via regular conferences, seminars and publications.

Conference: Echoes of the Past: Women, History and Memory in Fiction and Film

Newcastle University, June 26-28 2009

Keynote Speakers:
  • Kate Mosse (best-selling author of Labyrinth and Sepulchre)
  • Deborah Cartmell (De Montfort University)
  • Veronica Gregg (City University of New York)
  • Diana Wallace (University of Glamorgan)
Plus 'Vanessa and Virginia Writing Workshop' with Professor Susan Sellers

A very limited number of places on the workshop are still available for those attending the conference. Early registration is recommended to avoid disappointment. Registration and payment deadline for non-speakers: 29th May 2009

This conference is supported through a generous contribution from the Catherine Cookson Foundation.

Details of the cfp, conference programme and how to register can be found on the conference website at: http://conferences.ncl.ac.uk/echoes

Small grants for Philosophical and Religious Studies

The Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies are inviting proposals for their latest round of project funding.

Applications are welcomed for the funding of projects designed to:
  • encourage a culture in which innovative developments in learning, teaching and assessment are valued and acknowledged at a national level;
  • promote good practice in the development and evaluation of innovative methods of learning, teaching and assessment;
  • disseminate within the wider community innovative methods or materials originally developed for use within a single institution.
in subject disciplines the Subject Centre covers:
  • Philosophy
  • Religious Studies
  • Theology
  • History of Science, Technology and Medicine
  • Philosophy of Science
The Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies is setting aside £15,000 for projects in this tranche; the maximum funding for any single proposal will be £3,000.

Additional funding may be available for major collaborative initiatives - contact the Subject Centre for details. Support is also available for those who would like to submit a proposal.

To find out more: Application deadline: 12 noon, Friday 26 June 2009

Edited from email from Dr. Clare Saunders, Senior Academic Co-ordinator (Philosophy), Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies, School of Humanities, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK URL: http://prs.heacademy.ac.uk

Open University to research religious conflict

The Open University has received nearly £407,000 jointly by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for research into religious conflict. The three-year project, Protestant-Catholic Conflict: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Realities, will be led by John Wolffe, Professor of Religious History and run from 01 October 2009 to 30 September 2012.

The research will explore how differences between Protestant and Catholic beliefs have been translated into ideas and beliefs about security and insecurity; when and why such ideas led to conflict; and the extent of how Protestant or Catholic religion became labels of political significance. It will also investigate how similar historic conflicts ignited and spread and the circumstances conducive to breaking the cycle. The research programme will include work on attitudes in contemporary Northern Ireland in collaboration with the independent Belfast-based Institute for Conflict Research. It will culminate in a major international conference in Belfast in the summer of 2012.

Professor Wolffe explains: "Had a research programme on ‘global uncertainties' been launched three hundred years ago, an explicit concern with the domestic and international security implications of conflict between Catholics and Protestants would undoubtedly have been very prominent. Even a hundred years ago there was still influential support for the view that the most significant source of confrontation within and between European states was religion.

“While such a perception was eclipsed in the subsequent actual course of twentieth century history, in the context of its revival at the turn of the twenty-first century the longer term historical perspective merits closer examination. Moreover, local and regional tensions between Catholics and Protestants continue to be a matter of contemporary concern, especially in Ireland and the United States.

“The project will explore the long term resolution of regional tensions between Catholics and Protestants to aid understanding and address other contemporary religious conflict. Most notably there will be comparison with the perceived 'clash of civilizations' between Christianity and Islam."

The research will have wide interdisciplinary applications across the Humanities and Social Sciences. Successful development and synthesis of historical work in Protestant-Catholic conflict will provide a valuable resource for those engaging on research on related contemporary issues.

This grant is co-funded between ESRC at 64% and AHRC at 36%. ESRC is administering the grant on behalf of ESRC and AHRC. This ESRC/AHRC fellowship grant forms part of the "RCUK Global Uncertainties: Security for all in a Changing World" Programme.

For press release see: http://www3.open.ac.uk/media/fullstory.aspx?id=16135

Tuesday 19 May 2009

AHRC International Strategy 2009-2012

The AHRC's International Strategy acknowledges that "to be regarded as a world leader in advancing arts and humanities research we must be active internationally."

The AHRC is committed to the implementation of an international research policy addressing the international aspects of the Council's work and responsibilities.

The AHRC International Strategy 2009-2012 is available to download from the AHRC website at http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/About/Policy/Pages/InternationalActivity.aspx

Tuesday 12 May 2009

Free Ethic Lectures

How should ethics be built into our strategies for business, for government and for life?

The downturn has an upside. The current economic turmoil is the perfect opportunity for business, governments, and individuals to rethink their ethical orientations from the bottom up. The Open University would like to invite you to one of the following free lunchtime lectures on 'Integrity in Public Life' to explore some of the most pressing ethical dilemmas.

The lectures are free and open to all, and will be hosted at St Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield, London from 12.50 - 2pm (see: http://www.greatstbarts.com/Pages/Other/News/lectures.html ) . Places are limited, to book your place please email Marie-Claire Le Roux (m.leroux@open.ac.uk)


20th May - Lord Butler: Integrity and Politics

Lord Butler will draw on his experience as a previous head of the Civil Service, and lead author of the Butler Report, to discuss the ethical pitfalls facing politicians and civil servants, and how to avoid them.


27th May - Professor John Cottingham: Integrity and Fragmentation

Professor Cottingham, the distinguished philosopher from the University of Reading, will argue that we are harmed by living in a compartmentalised culture. Our institutions are manned by specialists who have mastered a particular field, but are not expected to form a view of the whole. Yet the classical ideal of the unity of the virtues suggests that people cannot live well unless their activities are integrated into a meaningful structure, informed not just by narrow technical expertise but by an overall vision of the good for humankind. We need this idea today.


17th June - Baroness O'Neil: Trustworthiness, Accountability and Character

Baroness O'Neill, cross-bench peer and President of the British Academy, focuses on the place of trust in public life, and explores what we should take as evidence of trustworthiness. Character, codes of conduct and formal systems of accountability can all be helpful for judging trustworthiness, but what can we do when they don't provide enough evidence?


This lecture series has been organised by the Open University's Ethics Centre (http://www.open.ac.uk/ethics-centre/). The Open University would like to thank F&C (http://www.fandc.com/new/UK/) for their support of these lectures.

The Research School's latest research related news.

The Research School have updated the Research Information Alert. The main stories are:

Connecting up Strategy: Are Senior Strategy Directors (SSDs) a missing link?

Postdoctoral Fellowship Community Service-Learning 2009-2010

Times Higher Education Awards

To follow these stories and for other research related news visit the Research Schools Research Alert website at:

http://intranet.open.ac.uk/strategy-unit/research-alerts/info.shtml

Thursday 30 April 2009

New Writing Prize for poetry, fiction and life writing

As part of their 25th anniversary celebrations, Wasafiri has launched a New Writing Prize for poetry, fiction and life writing. The competition closes for entries on 30 June, and the winner will be announced on 31 October at a day-long programme of events for Wasafiri at the Southbank Centre in London. Judges for the prize include Margaret Busby, Mimi Khalvati, Susheila Nasta and Blake Morrison. The winner of each category will receive £300, and their work will be published in the first issue of Wasafiri in 2010.

Wasafiri, the literary magazine at the forefront of contemporary international writing, celebrates its 25th birthday in 2009. To mark the occasion, a variety of celebratory events is planned throughout the year.

Since the magazine was first published in 1984 it has continued to champion new writing, celebrating Britain’s diverse cultural heritage together with inspirational writing from around the world. ‘Wasafiri’, the Kiswahili word for ‘travellers’, echoes the magazine’s ethos of writing as a form of cultural travel and its aim to extend the established boundaries of literary culture.

Founded in 1984 by the writer, critic and academic, Susheila Nasta, the magazine has provided a platform for hundreds of writers. Many were struggling to be heard at the outset of their writing careers, and many have since gone on to become world-renowned, award winners.

For further information about the New Writing Prize and forthcoming events, visit the website – www.wasafiri.org

Wasafiri is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, the Open University and Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.