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).
Monday, 24 August 2009
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.
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
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:
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’.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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