Summary of the impact

The Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) actively promotes cross-sector collaboration and exchange with cultural institutions outside Higher Education. Through these partnerships, MEMS research in material culture and spatial studies by Catherine Richardson and Bernhard Klein has delivered public benefits by changing curatorial practices in the heritage sector and by influencing the content and the form of the education of doctoral students in the Humanities beyond the University of Kent. This research has been used by cultural providers, engaged wide public audiences, significantly enriched the experience of a large number of individuals, and changed the policies of several institutions within and outside the UK.

Underpinning research

MEMS comprises 20+ staff from several disciplines in the Faculty of Humanities, including Richardson (appointed at Kent 2007; Reader 2011-) and Klein (appointed at Kent 2008; Professor) from the School of English. All research supported by the Centre is interdisciplinary, international and collaborative in conception, evidenced by several major funding awards gained during the REF census period. These include the two EU-funded projects DocExplore: Historical Document Exploration System (EU Interreg IVa Project, 2009-2012, CI Richardson, €945,730) and TEEME: Text and Event in Early Modern Europe (EU Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctoral programme, 2010-2018, PI Klein, c. €5million), and the AHRC grant Ways of Seeing the English Domestic Interior, 1500-1700 (AHRC Network Grant, 2011-2013, PI Richardson, £29,781). The research supported by these grants focused on material culture and spatial studies, and has been conducted through dedicated collaborations with the heritage sector.

Richardson's interdisciplinary approach to the relationship between textual evidence and extant objects and spaces has significantly advanced the understanding of the role of the material environment in social and cultural life. This research has been disseminated through outputs such as the landmark collection Everyday Objects [3.1] (`ambitious and engaging', Journal of British Studies, 50:4, 2011), which demonstrated how the experience of social change was reflected in the use of actual objects, the monograph Shakespeare and Material Culture [3.2] (`brilliant', Shakespeare Quarterly, 63:4, 2012), which demonstrated how closely Shakespeare's writing responded to the physical world, and the first scholarly edition of a 17^th-century account book from Warwickshire [3.3], which corrected long-held critical assumptions about the early modern domestic interior. The key findings of this research have implications for the reconstruction of historical practice and for modern relationships with heritage settings. Further exploring these dimensions with the heritage sector led to the two collaborative projects DocExplore and Ways of Seeing the English Domestic Interior. DocExplore successfully developed a sophisticated touch-screen technology between 2009 and 2012 through which fragile documents were made available for new audiences; the cross-sector research network on Domestic Interiors staged a series of workshops, conferences, and knowledge transfer events between 2011 and 2013 that investigated household life in the 16^th and 17^th centuries.

Research by Klein on cartography, travel writing, and the sea equally engages with questions of material culture and spatial change. His ongoing research on the material contexts of early modern voyaging and the global ocean as a transnational contact zone `has radically expanded the cultural and historical meanings of the sea' (Steve Mentz, At the Bottom of Shakespeare's Ocean, 2009). Central to this research are the broader European and global frameworks of the relationship between texts and the events recorded, reimagined or reshaped by these texts. Recent essays on the global travel knowledge implicit in early modern English writing [3.4], the moral anxieties visualised on 16<sup>th</sup>-century European world maps [3.5], and the epistemological assumptions about global space which the Portuguese epic inherited from modern sea charts [3.6], have all demonstrated the need to transcend single national perspectives in the study of early modern culture. These key findings have enabled Klein in 2010 to set up the European research network and integrated joint doctoral programme TEEME - Text and Event in Early Modern Europe, which fosters comparative and interdisciplinary research in early modern studies. TEEME research is carried out in collaboration with the heritage sector through innovative work placements and joint initiatives such as the `Before Empire' project on English encounters with Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East (BEACON). The BEACON consortium includes three national libraries in the UK (British Library), US (Huntington), and India (National Library) as partners. The results of TEEME research are regularly showcased at international conferences and symposia (eg 2011 World Shakespeare Congress; 2012 and 2013 TEEME conferences in Porto and Prague).

References to the research

Key grants: 1) Richardson; DocExplore: Historical Document Exploration System; European Commission; 2009-2012; Value: €945,730; 2) Klein; TEEME: Text and Event in Early Modern Europe; European Commission; 2010-2018: Value: c. €5million; 3) Richardson; Ways of Seeing the English Domestic Interior, 1500-1700; AHRC; 2011-2013; value: £29,781.

Details of the impact

MEMS has developed a strategy of sustained cross-sector collaboration and public engagement with partners outside Higher Education. Utilizing the research of Richardson and Klein, these collaborations enabled the Centre to create impacts by changing the heritage practice of several cultural institutions and by influencing the content and the form of doctoral education in the Humanities through a training programme that enables students to engage closely with the heritage sector in several EU countries.

Cross-sector collaboration with international partners was a key feature of all three major, grant-supported MEMS research projects included in this case study.

• DocExplore was a cooperation between MEMS, Engineering and Digital Arts (Kent Science Faculty), Canterbury Cathedral Archives, Rouen Library, and the University of Rouen.
• TEEME was founded by MEMS together with the universities of Berlin, Porto, and Prague, and a further 30 HE and non-HE institutions in the EU and beyond (selected non-HE partners include the National Maritime Museum in London, the Prussian State Library in Berlin, the Casa da Música in Porto, and the Czech National Archives in Prague; see full list at http://www.teemeurope.eu/associated-partners/index.html).
• Ways of Seeing the Domestic Interior brought humanities and science researchers from six UK universities together with conservators, museum curators, and heritage professionals from English Heritage, the Victoria and Albert and Ashmolean Museums, Historic Royal Palaces, the Geffrye Museum of the Home, and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

These cross-sector collaborations have enabled MEMS to change the heritage practice of several cultural institutions:

• Canterbury Cathedral started adopting the computer-based interactive tool developed by the knowledge transfer project DocExplore in 2011. Building on Richardson's research into the material and haptic qualities of texts as objects, DocExplore simulates the physical experience of handling a manuscript and allows public institutions to create `a new digital archive that enables readers to interact with the materials without damaging centuries-old books' (The Guardian).[5.1] Users can also access translations and transcriptions, sound and video resources, and historical notes prepared by MEMS scholars. The chief archivist of Canterbury Cathedral confirms that DocExplore has changed heritage practice by `allow[ing] [the Cathedral] to share manuscripts with the public in new ways ... and thus help preserve [them] for future generations'.[5.2] The potential of DocExplore to reform existing archival and library practice was first demonstrated in successful displays at the Salon du Livre Ancien, Abbatial St. Ouen in Rouen, in 2010 and 2011 (5716 visitors), and at the Canterbury Cathedral Open Days, also in 2010 and 2011 (2000+ visitors).[5.3] In 2013 DocExplore was the subject of a postgraduate research event within the Going Digital strand of AHRC-funded training.[5.4]
• The Courtauld Gallery has since October 2012 been able to put objects in their collection that `normally live in the reserves' newly on display through the innovative placement scheme `Illuminating Objects'.[5.5] This placement format for PG students was designed by the Gallery in conjunction with TEEME in 2012 and emerges directly from Klein's and Richardson's comparative and interdisciplinary research into material culture. It allows the Gallery to display rare or unusual objects from the Courtauld collection through the perspective of a particular humanities or social science discipline by drawing on the expertise of academic staff and doctoral students. As confirmed by the Curator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts in a letter dated 03/06/2013, the placement scheme constitutes a `change of existing practice for the Courtauld which has resulted directly from the Gallery's collaboration with TEEME'.
• The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has since spring 2013 used the research carried out by the Domestic Interiors network to change their approach to the display and presentation of objects in historic houses. The Domestic Interiors project grew directly out of Richardson's innovative interdisciplinary approaches to the analysis of early modern objects and spaces. The network experimented with virtual reality environments that recreate historic atmospheric effects and eye tracking equipment that measures where and how we look at our surroundings. The Head of Collections at The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust confirms that this research `has directly fed into our discussions about the interpretation of the spaces and objects in our care, for instance in our re-display project for Shakespeare's Birthplace, and aided us in our exploration of new ways of presenting these unique houses to enhance the quality of our visitors' experiences'.[5.6]

These cross-sector collaborations also allowed MEMS to integrate the heritage sector more closely within the remit of PhD training by influencing the content and the form of doctoral education:

• The core of the research network TEEME, set up in 2010, is a joint PhD programme funded by the EU's flagship excellence scheme in Higher Education, Erasmus Mundus (EM). Europe-wide, TEEME was only the second EM programme at doctoral level in the Humanities and the first in any field led by a UK institution. Reflecting the international and comparative range of Klein's research, TEEME has been specially praised for its `exemplary involvement of the professional sector' (EU evaluation report) grounded in formal partnerships with 30 institutions within and outside the EU (non-EU partners are based in India, South Africa, US, Brazil, Egypt, and Turkey). Non-HE institutions run doctoral training sessions, offer integrated work placements, and formally advise the programme coordinators. The content of the education of doctoral students on this programme, organised around the collaboration with the non-HE sector, has been confirmed as innovative by the independently funded EU Quality Assurance `Handbook of Excellence' with 20+ references recommending TEEME practice to the HE sector in the EU.[5.7] The University of Porto and other European partner HEIs have adopted `TEEME structures and practices' to implement new `internationalisation strategies' at institutional level, demonstrating that the impact of TEEME on Higher Education extends significantly beyond Kent.[5.8] Professor Rui Carvalho Homem of the University of Porto confirms that Porto's new interdisciplinary PhD programme `Literary, Cultural, and Interart Studies', launched in April 2013, is directly modelled on TEEME.[5.8]
• TEEME has also pioneered a new form of the education of doctoral students by devising a workable management model for international programmes that has benefitted other HEIs in the UK. Until 2010 UK participation in Erasmus Mundus at doctoral level was de facto prevented by the requirement in the 2005 EU Charter for Researchers, ratified by all member states, that employment contracts must be issued to doctoral students. TEEME was the first joint doctorate in the UK to devise an employment contract that respected both the EU Charter and UK employment law. The TEEME model of a `Fellowship Contract', designed to improve employment prospects for PhD graduates, is being recommended to the UK sector by The British Council (representing Erasmus Mundus in the UK) [5.9], following its approval in 2010 by Universities UK, Research Councils UK, and the Department for Business, Innovations & Skills. The employment contract recognises doctoral students as early career researchers and has greatly facilitated the cross-border cooperation between EU universities by coordinating different traditions of academic and administrative practice in Europe. Several HEIs in the UK (incl. King's College London, Aberdeen, Bristol, Hull, Edinburgh) have used it in their own Erasmus Mundus applications. The Institute for Biomedical Research into Human Movement and Health confirms that the TEEME model has been `adopted ... for use at the Manchester Metropolitan University' [5.10] in 2012.

Over the REF period, the impact of MEMS research has changed the working practices and policies of cultural institutions and HEIs within and outside the UK. This impact has reached individuals in the UK, whose experience of going to museums, galleries, historic houses and other heritage sites has been enriched, and several HEIs in the UK and the EU, whose provision for the education of doctoral students has been significantly reshaped in content and/or form.

Sources to corroborate the impact

1. Corroborating citation of DocExplore in the media and on blogs: see links to Archimag, Guardian, BBC, and La Chaîne Normande on http://www.docexplore.eu/?page_id=415
2. Corroborating that DocExplore has changed existing practice at Canterbury Cathedral: Letter from Cressida Williams, Cathedral and City Archivist, 25/06/2013. RSS Source 1.
3. Corroborating the impact of DocExplore on archival and library practice: evidence of the 2011 Rouen trial (http://www.docexplore.eu/?p=212) and 2011 Cathedral Open Day (http://www.docexplore.eu/?p=279), including audience figures and feedback.
4. Corroborating that DocExplore has engaged local and EU archival practice with the digital humanities agenda: DocExplore session on 25/06/2013, AHRC Going Digital Event, hosted by Essex University: http://www.essex.ac.uk/ldev/events/going_digital.aspx
5. Corroborating the impact of TEEME on work placement practice at the Courtauld Gallery: see `Illuminating Objects' website: http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/exhibitions/2012/illuminating-objects/index.shtml
6. Corroborating that Domestic Interiors research has changed heritage practice: Letter from Dr Delia Garratt, 14/06/2013, Head of Collections, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. RSS Source 2.
7. Corroborating that the TEEME model is being recommended as an example of best practice to the HE sector in Europe: EU Handbook of Excellence for joint doctoral degrees on the Erasmus Mundus Quality Assessment website: http://www.emqa.eu/
8. Corroborating that TEEME has changed existing practice in doctoral education in other HEIs: Letter from Prof. Rui Carvalho Homem, University of Porto, 03/05/2013. RSS Source 3.
9. Corroborating that TEEME Fellowship Contract is being recommended to the UK sector: Letter from Ozan Revi, British Council, 24/05/2013. RSS Source 4.
10. Corroborating that the TEEME model has been adopted by other UK institutions: Letter from Dr Hans Degen, Manchester Metropolitan University, 29/11/2012. RSS Source 5.