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A number of initiatives organised by the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre for the Study of Islam in the Contemporary World (Alwaleed) have provided Area Studies colleagues with the opportunity to utilise their research expertise to challenge stereotypes about Islam and Muslims with profound impact in and for Scottish civil society.
Exploring Islam, providing Scottish police with essential understanding of Islam in the local and global context, transformed Police Scotland's diversity training programmes.
Breaking Barriers deepened the knowledge of 22 young Scottish Christians and Muslims, including community leaders, about each other's beliefs and practices, overturned prejudices and equipped all to challenge prevailing discourses about the Other within their communities.
The research of Humayun Ansari, at RHUL since 1990, and Akil Awan, appointed 2006, examines the interplay of political, social and religious relations within Muslim societies and between Muslim minorities and non-Muslim populations. This expert knowledge has underpinned engagement with government and community organisations in the UK and abroad, often through Royal Holloway's Centre for Minority Studies (CeMS). Ansari's research contributed directly to legal changes regarding discrimination on the grounds of religion, while both have advised the British and US governments on issues relating to Muslim community affairs and Islamic activism, contributing to shaping security policy, both in the UK and internationally.
Since the events of 11th September 2001, Muslims have been placed at the centre of national and global debates about modernity, citizenship and multiculturalism; this research has served to promote and inform public debate about the representation of British Muslims in contemporary culture. The impact of this research takes two closely related forms. Firstly, this research has promoted awareness and understanding of the historic contribution of South Asians to British life and culture since 1870. Secondly, this research has served to bring new audiences and readers to the work of contemporary writers of Muslim heritage.
The Middle East Centre (MEC) has achieved a unique standing in providing informed analysis of the region, based on its cumulative academic expertise. It has made significant contributions to the media's and the public's understanding of political and societal developments in the Middle East. The MEC has given advice both to emerging Arab democracies on their own political systems, and to other governments on their relations with the countries of the region. The centre itself has also become a place of neutral ground, where individuals from opposite sides in conflicts in the region can meet, away from local tensions.
The modern and contemporary British historians in the School of History at Queen Mary have a reputation for rigorous, yet relevant and engaged scholarship which has bearing on contemporary policies. Three historians — Peter Catterall (01 Sep. 1992-31 August 2012), Martyn Frampton (01 Sep. 2009-) and Tristram Hunt (30 Jun. 2003-) — have followed the influence of Peter Hennessy and the School of History's Research Strategy to make high profile and high value interventions in shaping public policy debates that surround the making of various policies, including contributing directly to the policy-making process in Whitehall. As a result, Queen Mary historians are recognised as reliable and expert interlocutors on counter-terrorism (Frampton), democracy and heritage (Catterall), and policy related to the cities and the countryside (Hunt).
The key impact in India of the work conducted by Prof C A Bayly and Dr S Kapila has been to reposition the history of ideas as a crucial tool for understanding contemporary politics. For two generations, the study of Indian politics has been dominated by economistic and interest-based models and, more recently, by a notion of political `culture' that has tended to drive ideas out. Bayly and Kapila have made common cause against this approach. The most visible public manifestation of their impact was a public meeting convened in Delhi in September 2012 bringing together political leaders, prominent journalists and leading academics. At its core were debates concerning the significance of liberalism, socialism and revolutionary activism in modern and contemporary India. There was wide coverage in the Indian national media. Their work and their joint advocacy have contributed to the new prominence assigned to ideas in contemporary Indian political discourse.
Prof Christopher Clark's book Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia 1600-1947 has had a broad impact both on academic debate and on public discussion. It served as the foundation for an hour-long documentary which aired on BBC4 and was awarded numerous prizes, including the Wolfson Prize. It was widely discussed in the German media. The author was invited to Bellevue Palace, Berlin to brief the then President of the German Federal Republic, Horst Köhler, on the issues raised by it. There were numerous podium discussions, public lectures and radio and newspaper interviews. Der Spiegel ran a four-page interview with the author and the book was credited with shifting the public mood in Germany on what had traditionally been a controversial subject matter.
As a result of research by Prof. Sanjoy Bhattacharya since October 2010 at York into the history of disease control, the social determinants of health, and primary healthcare, the Department of History's Centre for Global Health Histories (CGHH) was invited to formalize and develop the WHO's Global Health Histories (GHH) project, including its annual flagship seminar series in Geneva. This research programme has had a major impact on institutional practice within the WHO headquarters and its regional offices: (i) through the promotion of greater transparency and openness toward internal and external stakeholders; (ii) in leading the WHO to use historical research for staff training and development; (iii) by leading the WHO to encourage partner governmental and non-governmental organizations to make greater use of historical research in developing and running health policies. Due to the success of GHH in these areas, historical analysis has now been designated an Office Specific Expected Result for departments within the WHO HQ. It is now an officially required and audited activity for evaluations of major campaigns and for teams planning new projects.
This case study draws upon the research of the internationally renowned scholar, Peter Hennessy (http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/lords/lord-hennessy-of-nympsfield/4189), and the public engagement organisation that he established, the Mile End Group (MEG — http://www.mileendgroup.com/). Hennessy's historically-informed understanding of constitutional and governance issues has enabled him to make direct interventions in key debates in the House of Lords and affect public debate and parliamentary democracy. Similarly, MEG has played a critical role in generating popular and public interest in its events and thus in the modern and contemporary history of British constitutional affairs and governance. MEG is a trusted environment in which historians, civil servants and politicians can frame decision-making with a proper appreciation of precedent, contingency and comparative studies. It has provided historical research and expertise in its work with No. 10 Downing Street, the Cabinet Office on the Cabinet Secretaries Project and with the Treasury for its in-house seminars `Learning the Lessons of Past Spending Reviews'.
This case study concerns two forms of impact from the 2012 BBC2 television series, The Crusades, based on the research of Asbridge (www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01b3fpw): on the public understanding of the crusades; and on the creative industries. Asbridge's landmark television series, which he wrote and presented, informed public understanding of the crusades as an historical event with contemporary echoes in international political debate. In this example of one area of the School's historical research, a Queen Mary historian has drawn upon two decade's research on the history of the crusades to mediate his findings for a national and international public audience. Asbridge's series presented his research in an accessible, non-technical form to over two million viewers in the UK and to audiences across the world from Australia to Russia. In achieving a major BBC television commission to produce a series based on his research, Asbridge also made a contribution to the creative industries. The Crusades led to employment and prosperity for a television production company (360 Productions — www.360production.com/) and to the development of BBC television history.