Log in
The production of hand-knitting is of key economic and cultural importance in Scotland. University of Glasgow research on the history of hand-knitting has: helped to enhance a significant textiles collection at Shetland Museum and Archives (~88,000 visitors each year) and contributed to the growth of public interest in and understanding of this craft activity and its history. Glasgow research has also informed the work of contemporary knitwear designers who have found inspiration in the traditional designs and colour ways and has engaged the wider public, promoting greater appreciation of the cultural significance of hand-knitting and its role in the rural economy of the past and present.
The collective research of Breitenbach, Delaney, Devine, MacKenzie, and Ugolini at the University of Edinburgh since 2006 has had impact in terms of public understanding, policy and museum practice in relation to the Scottish diaspora. Specifically it has: (i) enabled the transformation of public understanding of the emigration history of the Scots (a central part of the history of the nation) as global in territorial spread rather than simply confined to the settlement colonies and the USA; (ii) shaped the development of new Scottish Government policies of engagement with the global diaspora; and (iii) influenced the intellectual underpinning of new and revised national museum displays in Scotland especially in relation to empire and emigration.
More than twenty years of sanctions and war have decimated all areas of Iraqi society, including its higher education sector. In this context, the work of Professor Nadje Al-Ali has countered conservative forces pursuing Iraqi reconstruction in ways that explicitly marginalise women. Drawing on her research on women's rights in Iraq and beyond, Al-Ali has worked to raise consciousness of how perspectives informed by gender theory can contribute to a more equitable reconstruction of Iraqi civil society. Through in-country and regional training of academics and women's rights activists, and mentoring numerous Iraqi research projects, Al-Ali has substantially progressed the promotion of women's rights and gender-based equality in Iraq.
Research on modern Scottish history undertaken at the University of Edinburgh by Cameron (since 1993) and Devine (since 2005) has had an impact on the curriculum for Higher history, an examination taken by around 10,000 secondary pupils in Scotland every year. It influenced the topics to be modularised in the reformed curriculum — especially `Migration and Empire, 1830 to 1939' and `Scotland and the Great War, 1914 to 1928' — and the detailed `issues' which form these modules. Devine's work on the impact of Scots on the Empire and the effect of the Empire on Scotland and Cameron's on recruiting, politics and the land question during the Great War have been used in the classroom, cited in the key textbooks and set as source `extracts' for critical commentary in examinations.
Using a ground-breaking database of recovered narratives of Latin American women during the Wars of Independence,
Research undertaken by Dr Rainbow Murray in the School of Politics and International Relations (SPIR) at QMUL has assisted governments and activists from Europe, Israel and China interested in adopting gender quotas in elections to understand their potential advantages, pitfalls and consequences. Users of her research include parliaments, intergovernmental organisations, political parties, public bodies, NGOs and the media.
In March 2013, the British Library (BL) launched the first national oral-history archive of the British Women's Liberation Movement (WLM). A permanent public resource preserving the voices of 1970s/1980s feminists, the archive was the outcome of 'Sisterhood and After: The Women's Liberation Oral History Project', a three-year Leverhulme-funded research-partnership project led by PI Margaretta Jolly, in partnership with curators at the BL and the Women's Library (WL). Through the national prominence this archive has achieved and the numerous curatorial, educational, cultural and community activities directly associated with it, the research is having a significant impact on the public perception of feminism, bringing it to life for new audiences.
Evans' internationally acclaimed research on gender and sexuality in China has had significant impact on critical debate, heightening public awareness of gender as a key marker of social difference and hierarchy, and encouraging diverse professional organisations to address gender in their work on China. Through radio broadcasts, television appearances and web-based media, NGO and government consultancy, gender training workshops and translation, Evans' work has influenced the thinking and practice of representatives of international and Chinese NGOs working on women's gender and sexual rights, and reproductive and sexual health. Prominent amongst the organisations she has worked with is the world's largest state-based women's organization, the All China Women's Federation, and UK non-governmental and legal organisations. In recent years, Hird's research on men and masculinities in China has broadened the reach and significance of this impact through attracting the attention of international and Chinese NGOs, and commercial advertising interests seeking to include men and ideas about masculinity in their work on gender and sexuality rights and representations.
The focus of the research in question has been to establish how far the architectural and urban culture of Scotland before the Union in 1707 was `European' and the consequences for Scotland's architecture after 1707 within the UK, including the issue of its assimilation with that of the rest of Britain. Initially the work, beginning in the later 1990s, concentrated on particular Scottish cities, notably Dundee and Edinburgh, more recently widening to include a large sample of Scotland's other smaller towns. The impact of what is a major body of diverse but inter-related research (at the heart of which are buildings and the built environment) is demonstrated at several levels, through local dissemination and community engagement, through to changing public discourse at national level about much of Scotland's architectural heritage and its implications for today. This has been achieved through the role of the lead researcher (Charles McKean) in major advisory bodies, as chairman of Edinburgh World Heritage Trust (2006-2012) to the Historic Environment Advisory Council for Scotland, and on the Scottish Committee of the Heritage Lottery Fund (Section 5: 1,2,3,4,5 and 8).
Italiane. Biografia del Novecento has enhanced public discourse by stimulating widespread and important debates in the Italian media, among politicians and the public about the role of women in twentieth-century Italy. Some of its arguments have been considered controversial, leading many commentators, including the prominent journalist Paolo Mieli in 2012, to call it a `courageous book' (Section 5:3). As the first scholarly but accessible work of synthesis (in any language) ranging over the history of Italian women in the whole twentieth century it is an important milestone for Italian women's history and for discussions about women's role in contemporary Italy. It has also made a significant contribution to history teaching in Italian universities.