When the Lights Go Out

Trentmann FrankProfessor Frank Trentmann, Birkbeck College,
PI, Material Cultures of Energy: Transitions, Disruption, and Everyday Life in the 20th century. The research group consists of Frank Trentmann, Hiroki Shin, Vanessa Taylor, Heather Chappells and Rebecca Wright.

What happens when the lights go out? During a blackout it’s not only light that you lose. Electric cookers, heaters, TV and the radio stop working, and your computers, wifi and mobile phones will probably be off-line. A major part of our life today depends on the constant supply of energy. Cars might still run but traffic lights might not, nor would lifts, ticket machines, ATMs and the tube. Continue reading

Archives into the Future symposium

Archives into the Future symposium, British Library
Monday 5 January 2015

The event is free, but booking is essential via http://ptja.leeds.ac.uk/category/news/.

The day features all three of the large grants recently funded under Care for the Future; it is co-hosted by ‘Performing the Jewish Archive’ and ‘The Antislavery Usable Past’, with contributions also from ‘Assembling Alternative Futures for Heritage’.

The event will include contributions from key Care for the Future partners, including the British Library, The National Archives, and others. It will culminate with the official launch of the large grant project ‘Performing the Jewish Archive’, and a short performance.

For more details and to book a place, please visit the website of ‘Performing the Jewish Archive’, http://www.ptja.leeds.ac.uk/.

Launch event for ‘The Antislavery Usable Past’ at WISE, University of Hull

12th December Launch event for ‘The Antislavery Usable Past’ at WISE, University of HullAntislavery Usable past Hull announce

Celebrate the launch of Care for the Future large grant ‘The Antislavery Usable Past’, which will unearth the lessons of historic antislavery as a ‘usable past’ for the contemporary antislavery movement. With new digital resources, exhibitions, advisory documents, networks, partner seminars and publications, the project team will apply the successes and failures of past antislavery strategies to the movement to end the enslavement of more than 30 million people around the world today.

Come for wine, nibbles and a short introductory speech by Professor Kevin Bales, and meet the rest of the project team: Professor John Oldfield, Director of WISE, Professor Zoe Trodd of the University of Nottingham, and Professor Jean Allain of Queens University Belfast.

Venue: Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation, Oriel Chambers, 27 High Street, HULL, HU1 1NE.
Date and time: 12th December, 4.30 – 6.30pm.
RSVP: Sarah Colley on S.Colley@hull.ac.uk

Sustainability and subsistence systems in a changing Sudan

Dr Philippa Ryan, Department of Conservation and Scientific Research, The British Museum, Principal Investigator

Philippa sampling a 3,100 year old hearth in a large villa.

Philippa sampling a 3,100 year old hearth in a large villa.

Professor Katherine Homewood, Department of Anthropology, UCL, Co-Investigator

Nubian agricultural practices are rapidly changing due to infrastructure development, technological and environmental changes. Our project explores how comparisons of present-day and ancient crop choices can inform on risk management within agricultural strategies of small-scale riparian Nile village settlements. Research is focused on present-day Ernetta island (620km north of Khartoum) and nearby 2nd millennium BC Amara West, which was also located on an island during its occupation. Today, as in the past, islands are important due to their agricultural potential. Continue reading

Researching Community Heritage – A Connected Communities project

Researching Community HeritageThe University of Sheffield’s Researching Community Heritage project was funded by the AHRC Connected Communities programme to support community groups and organisations to develop research projects exploring their local heritage. Academics were matched with community researchers and encouraged to work together to develop co-produced projects. Groups applied to the Heritage Lottery Fund for financial support to develop the project, meaning that they retained autonomy and ownership of the projects and were not reliant on the university for funding. Projects included: working with a homeless charity for young people to research the history of the hostel they are based in; exploring links between the Peak District, India and Hindu culture through research into the cotton trade with Sheffield Hindu Samaj; and a project with Rotherham Youth Service working with Primary School children to find out more about the history of their area through creative approaches to history and archaeology. Continue reading

Caring for the Future Through Ancestral Time. Engaging the Cultural and Spiritual Presence of the Past to Promote a Sustainable Future.

Professor Michael Northcott, University of Edinburghmichael_northcott1
PI of Caring for the Future through Ancestral Time, funded under AHRC Care for the Future: Thinking Forward through the Past

The global spread of a consumer culture, through electronic forms of communication, multinational trade networks, and airplane and shipping containers, creates a culture of instantaneity which changes human perceptions of time. At the same time rituals which used to marked the passage of the years, and linked time’s passing to daily life, are declining. Many of these rituals were associated with the planting, tending and harvesting of crops as determined by the seasons. The culture of instantaneity reflects a growing disconnect between culture and nature, and between consumption and production. Continue reading

‘The Power and the Water’, the Power of Water and the Flows (Visible and Invisible) Connecting Energetic Environments and Landscapes

Professor Peter Coates, School of Humanities, University of Bristol
PI of The Power and the Water, funded under AHRC Care for the Future: Thinking Forward through the Past

Peter at project partner Northumbrian Water’s Howdon Sewage Plant, Newcastle, on an unseasonably chilly day – even for the northeast – in June (photo: Jill Payne)

One of the places ‘The Power and the Water’ team visited during our gathering on Tyneside in June 2014 was the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, on the river’s Gateshead (south) bank. The exhibit that caught my attention was ‘Near Here’ by Nina Canell, who, a guidebook explains, is ‘fascinated by forces that affect us every day but that we can’t see with our eyes – things like electricity and air. If we can’t see them, how do we know they exist?’ Canell takes materials like cables, steel and water to create sculpture that, according to the Baltic’s press release, gives ‘substance to the intangible’. This strategy renders the invisible visible and brings the seemingly distant closer to us (near here?). The installation ‘Forgetfulness (Dense)’ consisted of a water-filled tank (raised on a frame like a display case) that contained a suspended length of underwater telecommunications cable which bore an uncanny resemblance to an oversized, particularly colourful liquorice all-sort. The combination of power and water appealed to me, as did the severed nature of the cable: a power supply cut off at both ends, disconnected from its source and destination. Continue reading

Integration and Integration Policy Roundtable Meetings

Thompson - Integration Brief ImageIntegration and Integration Policy Roundtable Meetings

Following the highly successful ‘Making History Work’ seminars organised by AHRC Care for the Future, AHRC Translating Cultures, and Institute for Government, Andrew Thompson was asked to participate in the roundtable on 20 October 2014, ‘What is Integration?’

The following information and text is from http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/globalexchange/working-with-the-department-for-communities-and-local-government/

COMPAS Oxford co-organised three roundtables on Integration and Integration policy with the Integration and Faith Division of the UK’s Department of Communities and Local Government, hosted at their London office. The aim was to inform understanding and stimulate debate on integration processes, outcomes and policy interventions.

What is Integration?

This roundtable explored differing concepts of integration processes, aims of integration policies and the history of policy approaches in the UK: highlighting integration as not one but a series of processes; the role of local versus national approaches and of mainstream versus targeted integration policies.

Briefings

Thompson’s briefing can be downloaded here: Thompson Briefing, What is Integration – 20 Oct 2014