A researcher from Brunel University London, working with the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) (RGS-IBG), is among the first to receive pilot funding from the British Academy, the UK's national body for the humanities and social sciences, for an innovative public engagement research project focusing on ‘undoing’ the public imagination of the Himalayas, and reimagining the region through the lens of its indigenous communities, by centring their stories and perspectives.
Dr Rohini Rai, Lecturer in the Sociology of Race in the Department of Social and Political Sciences at Brunel, is one of fourteen researchers across thirteen projects to receive funding via the British Academy’s new SHAPE Involve and Engage Awards, a pilot scheme designed to support creative methods of engaging the public in cutting-edge SHAPE research (social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy). Each award is in partnership with a regional cultural organisation, including galleries, libraries, archives and museums. The scheme was subject to high demand, the British Academy said, receiving many more applications than anticipated.
The awards, announced last week and worth up to £8,000 each, will support researchers to develop innovative public engagement projects and activities, co-designed in collaboration with their chosen partner cultural organisation. The projects will inspire and connect local communities and audiences with SHAPE research topics and meaningfully involve them in the creation of new research outputs.
Dr Rai will work in collaboration with the RGS-IBG, engaging with their vast archival materials on the Himalayan region, and will closely work with the UK-based Himalayan diaspora communities from Nepal and Northeast India. The project, in collaboration with its partner and communities, will include a co-organised, day-long workshop-style event which will engage the public in ‘storytelling through dancing’. This activity will feed into a digital exhibition using archival materials on the Himalayas, which will be co-curated with the communities involved.
The successful researchers begin their awards today via a kick-off community of practice public engagement workshop at the British Academy. Their projects will be delivered between October 2023 and October 2024, with more details of public activities and events to be revealed next year.
“I am extremely excited to have secured the funding from the British Academy and to be a part of its first ever SHAPE Involve and Engage programme,” said Dr Rai. “This project will enable me to work closely with the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) as the key cultural partner in engaging the public with interdisciplinary social science research. I am also particularly glad that this project will ‘open up’ academic and cultural spaces to the underserved minority communities, particularly the indigenous Himalayan diasporas from Nepal and Northeast India in the UK.”
Professor Julia Black, President of the British Academy, said: “Our vision is to see public engagement fully embedded in research and so we are delighted to support these partnerships between researchers and cultural organisations which will do just that, galvanising local communities and target audiences related to their research themes. I know that the review panel were struck by the sheer creativity, innovation, diversity and variety held not only within our disciplines, but in how researchers feel they can meaningfully engage with audiences through arts and culture institutions which sit in the hearts of communities. On behalf of the Academy, I offer my warmest congratulations to those who have received awards. We hope that their partnerships will inspire and spark new meaningful connections between communities and the humanities, social sciences and arts.”
Find out more about sociology research projects at Brunel University London
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