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.

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

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’.

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.

‘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

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.

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

Reading Experience Database 1450-1945

Version 3 of the Reading Experience Database (RED) is planned for release in summer 2009.

RED was launched in 1996 at the UK Open University. Its mission is to accumulate as much data as possible about the reading experiences of readers of all nationalities in Britain and those of British subjects abroad from 1450 to 1945.

RED currently contains approximately 17,000 records, the majority of which have been verified, edited and released for searching. More entries are contributed and released every day and thus return visits to the database should yield new results each time.

Anyone can contribute information to the database and help to make this resource usefully and fully searchable by providing details of whatever evidence you have of a relevant Reading Experience.

RED is also looking for volunteers to work their way systematically through such materials in order to record evidence of reading.If you are interested in becoming a volunteer see: http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/RED/volunteers.html

What is a ‘reading experience’?
‘Reading’ can mean many things, from reading a book aloud or silently, to the critical ‘reading’ of a text (including dramatic and cinematic texts) in an academic sense, or (metaphorically) ‘reading’ a face, a social situation, or the symbolic value of a text. But in the interests of clarity and manageability the RED has had to exclude certain of these ‘reading experiences’ as outside their remit. For the purposes of the database, a ‘reading experience’ means a recorded engagement with a written or printed text - beyond the mere fact of possession. A database containing as much information as possible about what British people read, where and when they read it and what they thought of it will form an invaluable resource for researchers of book history, cultural studies, sociology and family history, to name but a few.

For more information see: http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/RED/

Professor's publication receives 'outstanding academic title' award

The Novels of Daniel Defoe has been awarded an ‘Outstanding Academic Title’ by Choice, the review journal of the American Library Association.

Bob Owens, Professor of English Literature at the Open University, has been joint General Editor of The Works of Daniel Defoe, an edition in 44 volumes that has been appearing at the rate of 4 or 5 volumes every year, since 2000. The first part of the final set, The Novels, appeared in late 2007, and included Prof Owens' editions of Robinson Crusoe and the Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.

The award of ‘Outstanding Academic Title’ is given to about ten percent of some 7,000 works reviewed in Choice over the year. The 2008 list, published in the January 2009 issue (vol. 46, no. 5) includes 679 titles from 54 disciplines. There were 38 titles in the section on English and American Language and Literature, in which the Defoe edition was included.

The criteria for the award are:

• Overall excellence in presentation and scholarship
• Importance relative to other literature in the field
• Distinction as a first treatment of a given subject in book or electronic form
• Originality or uniqueness of treatment
• Value to undergraduate students
• Importance in building undergraduate library collections.

The journal Choice is perhaps not very well known in the UK, but it has a circulation of over 35,000 copies to academic librarians as well as academics in the USA, and is very important in getting academic works into college and university libraries.

Professor Owens says, "For the edition to have been given this accolade in its final stages is very pleasing indeed, not only for me but for my dear friend and colleague and joint General Editor, Nick Furbank, Emeritus Professor of The Open University. Now in his 88th year of age, but as intellectually indefatigable as ever, Nick completed a magnificent edition of Defoe’s The Fortunate Mistress in the final set which has just appeared. It has been quite a job seeing 4 or 5 volumes through the press every year for ten years, though it has been enjoyable too."

Edited from email 12/12/2008.

Open University academic wins prize for essay on Marlowe

Dr David Mateer is the joint winner of the 2008 Calvin and Rose G Hoffman Prize for a Distinguished Publication on Christopher Marlowe. He has received half of the £9,000 prize money for his essay 'New Sightings of Christopher Marlowe in London', which is an account of the legal consequences of Marlowe's transgressive behaviour in the capital after he left Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. It also fills in some details relating to his early career that were hitherto unknown.

The Calvin and Rose G Hoffman Prize for a Distinguished Publication on Christopher Marlowe is offered annually. This is awarded to the person who submits to The King's School, Canterbury, prior to the first day of September in any year, an essay that, in the opinion of The King's School, most convincingly, authoritatively and informatively examines and discusses in depth the life and works of Christopher Marlowe and the authorship of the plays and poems now commonly attributed to William Shakespeare, with particular regard to the possibility that Christopher Marlowe wrote some or all of those plays and poems, or made some inspirational creative or compositional contributions towards the authorship of them.

Dr David Mateer is Lecturer in the Department of Music at the Open University, Milton Keynes, and has published widely in the field of English music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, most recently in the form of editions of William Byrd’s Songs of sundrie natures (Byrd Edition 13) and two volumes of pre-Reformation liturgical settings from the Gyffard partbooks (Early English Church Music 48 and 51). From an interest in legal records as musicological documents, he has developed a theatre-historical side to his research, with recent articles appearing in Review of English Studies (on relations between Richard Perkins, Francis Langley and Edward Alleyn) and English Literary Renaissance (on the early history of the Theatre in Shoreditch).

Abstract - 'New Sightings of Christopher Marlowe in London'
Two lawsuits – one certainly relating to Christopher Marlowe, the other probably relating to him – have been discovered among the records of the court of King’s Bench at The National Archives in Kew, London. In the first, one Edward Elvyn, a friend from his student days at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, sued ‘Christopher Marley’ in debt for the unpaid sum of £10 lent to him in London in April 1588. In the second, James Wheatley, a hackney-man from the parish of Allhallows London Wall, brought suit against ‘Christopher Marlo’ in conversion for the non-delivery of a horse and tackle that the latter had hired from him in August 1587. These documents help to fill a yawning gap in Marlowe’s biography by locating him in the theatrical community living around Bishopsgate, in London’s north-east suburbs, immediately after leaving Cambridge on completion of his studies there. His difficulties with the hackney-man are tentatively linked with the horse-courser episode in Doctor Faustus, which, it is suggested, may have implications for the dating of the play. The transgressive nature of Marlowe’s behaviour, as revealed by the new documents, appears to confirm at an early date his reputation as the ‘bad boy’ of Elizabethan theatre.

Abstract copied from http://www.earlytheatre.ca/et11_2.pdf. The full essay appears in the journal ‘Early Theatre’ Vol 11.2 (2008).

Two year AHRC Early Career Grant success for the Music Department

Dr Laura Leante has been awarded an AHRC Early Career Grant of over £168,000 for a two year project that will start in October 2009. The project, Reception of performance in North Indian classical music, will involve studying various ways in which performance is experienced by those who participate in it (including both musicians and listeners). The study of performance won't be limited to the artists and the music they make, but will be extended to elements which have often been considered as part of performance 'context' rather than performance per se - with particular emphasis on audience response and interpersonal dynamics.

This study will involve comparing music made in two distinct North Indian regions, and this will allow Dr Leante to determine how the reception of music performance relates to cultural background and context.

Dr Laura Leante and Prof Martin Clayton are co-organising the XXV European Seminar in Ethnomusicology (ESEM), which will be taking place in September 2009. For more information see: http://www.esem-music.eu/

Open University lecturer wins prestigious French literature prize

Tim Benton, Professor of Art History at The Open University, has just been announced the joint winner of the Prix du Livre by the Academie d’Architecture in France. The award is the most prestigious prize for books about architecture in the French language and he shares it with architect and architectural historian Philippe Prost.

Professor Benton’s book Le Corbusier conférencier, is a collection of numerous excerpts, preliminary notes, accompanying drawings, and photographs that architect Le Corbusier produced for his lectures. It covers the period 1924 – 1929 and analyses the construction, content and use of verbal and visual aids.

By using manuscript notes and eyewitness accounts, Professor Benton was able to reconstruct the content of unscripted presentations, thereby unlocking a completely new perspective on Le Corbusier’s thinking.

The book was selected from a shortlist of eight, nominated by a jury of architects, historians and critics. Commenting on his award, Professor Benton said: “I am extremely excited by the jury’s selection of my book, since the book is an unusual one and not the typical architectural monograph. I became fascinated with Le Corbusier’s architecture when I first saw it in real life, and the Fondation Le Corbusier’s rich archive has kept me hooked ever since. The richness of the collection is a fascinating and complex challenge for anyone studying it.”

Le Corbusier conférencier was first published in 2007 in French. An English edition, The Rhetoric of Modernism: Le Corbusier as a lecturer will be published in May 2009 by Birkhauser.

Editor's Notes
Tim Benton, Professor of Art History at The Open University, has worked on the architecture of Le Corbusier since 1973. His classic work, The Villas of Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, originally published in French in 1984 and in English in 1987, has been reissued in a revised edition in 2006 (French, English and Italian editions). He has worked on numerous exhibitions, including Art Deco 1910-1939 (2003) and Modernism Designing a new world 1914-1939 (2006), both at the V&A.

Tim is a member of the Conseil d’Administration (managing committee) of the Fondation Le Corbusier and is currently chairing a working party producing a comprehensive edition of all Le Corbusier’s lecture notes.

He is the Robert Sterling Clark Visiting Professor of Art History at Williams College, Massachusetts.

Text from OU Press release 18 Dec 2008

Open University International Contemporary Writing magazine wins Arts Council funding

Wasafiri: The Magazine of International Contemporary Writing, housed at the OU and edited by Susheila Nasta of the English Department has won an additional grant from the Arts Council of England to support our 25th anniversary year in 2009. Susheila and the Wasafiri team based in Camden (Region 1) will be co-ordinating and organising a series of high profile events in London next year. The grant to support these events is for £36,000. Events will include a live event at the British Library with invited writers talking about the 'Books That Made Me', participation in the London Book Fair (India focus) in partnership with the British Council, the launch of a New Writing Prize (judged by Blake Morrison, Susheila Nasta, Mimi Khalvati, Margaret Busby) and a day of anniversary events at the Festival Hall, South Bank in October 09 including a number of highly distinguished writers.

We will also be publishing a bumper special issue.

This is very good news indeed especially in the current economic climate. The grant supplements our annual award as an Arts Council revenue client.

For more information about Wasafiri see www.wasafiri.org

Edited from email (08/12/08) from Dr Susheila Nasta, Professor of Modern Literature, Editor, Wasafiri.

Open University researcher receives prestigious prize for putting Renaissance Rome on art history map.

Dr Carol Richardson, Lecturer in Art History at The Open University, has scooped one of the prestigious Philip Leverhulme prizes for 2008. The prizes, worth £70,000 each, are awarded to outstanding young scholars who have made a substantial and recognised contribution to their particular field of study.

One of Dr Richardson’s most significant research achievements to date has been to help put Renaissance Rome on the art historical map. Her scholarly initiatives and substantial archival research have enabled a series of articles, book chapters, conferences and international seminars, and a forthcoming monograph and edited collection, which have redrawn and enriched cultural and art historical assumptions about Renaissance Rome. Her work addresses the relationship between history, culture and art, as is illustrated in her pioneering studies of artefacts created to mark, celebrate or defend monuments of triumph and crisis in Papal Rome.

In her nomination, Professor Gill Perry, Head of Art History, praised Dr Richardson for being a researcher of exceptional abilities, and said: “Her commitment to disseminate and enhance art historical research has led to the production of several important collaborative publications and projects, and her planned future research shows enormous promise.”

Commenting on the award, Dr Richardson said: “I am delighted to receive recognition for this exciting part of my work. Renaissance Rome is generally viewed as a poor cousin of Florence, and my research involves careful reconstruction of fifteenth century monuments, those in old St. Peter’s being the prime example; close scrutiny of some renaissance stereotypes, such as the unchanging nature of the papacy; and an approach that combines the study of art, architecture, archaeology, religion and history.”

Dr Richardson's book "Reclaiming Rome: Cardinals in the Fifteenth Century" will be available from Brill in Spring 2009. For more information see: http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=210&pid=23897

For full list of Philip Leverhulme Prize 2008 winners see: http://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/news/PLP/2008

Lessons from the past: Modern religious history explored

Fascinating insights into the history of modern religion in the UK will be revealed by a unique knowledge exchange partnership between The Open University, King’s College London and the Church of England. The project, funded by a £234,000 Knowledge Transfer grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, should bring the Church a better understanding of lessons from its own history and so help to inform Church interactions with wider society.

Over three years, beginning this November, historians Professor John Wolffe (The Open University) and Professor Arthur Burns (King’s College London) will be working closely with the diocese of London and Lambeth Palace Library – the leading national repository for English religious history - on the project, Modern Religious History and the Contemporary Church. They will be unlocking the rich archives in the Library’s care to bring valuable historical insights on current challenges facing clergy, congregations and the broader multi-ethnic community of contemporary London. Seminars to discuss historical insights into modern-day problems will be convened with leading figures in the diocese responsible for formulating both diocesan and national policy, while the project will also establish training programmes for clergy and other local leaders to provide historical perspectives on practical concerns.

The last twenty years have transformed academic understanding of the place of religion in modern English society, and produced a sophisticated appreciation of the dynamics of the Anglican church's relations with both national and local communities, as a pastoral and missionary enterprise, as an influence on public policy, and as a community in an increasingly multifaith environment. This project will enable these insights to be shared with much wider groups of people.

John Wolffe, Professor of Religious History at The Open University, said: “The project will give historians of modern British religion invaluable exposure to the current thinking of an institution central to their work. Much historical scholarship and many of the original documents available in archives and libraries, provide invaluable insight relevant to many current challenges. There are striking contemporary parallels with many of the issues that confronted the Victorian and Edwardian church.”

Arthur Burns, Professor of Modern British History at King’s College London added: ”While knowledge transfer between the Humanities and cultural institutions such as galleries and museums is well established, projects like this will provide invaluable experience in the ways insights from the Humanities can be applied in institutions less directly concerned in the cultural sphere or education.”

(Press Release date 04/11/08)