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Cultural studies at Middlesex has often exemplified the New Left tradition that played an important role in founding the discipline. It sees cultural research as part of a broad continuum informing and shaping political debate, policymaking and civic education. Facilitated by a series of e-publications, public events and other activities, many associated with the journal Soundings, and working with organisations such as the Guardian, Oxfam, Friends of the Earth and the Labour Party, this research has had a demonstrable impact on issues of intergenerational politics, ethical consumption and the role of identity in new political formations. Key beneficiaries are charities, NGOs, political parties, think tanks and members of the general public.
Research undertaken by Professor Antoni Kapcia has had far-reaching influences on policy formation (internationally) and has improved the intelligence base on Cuba for journalists, business organisations and diplomatic missions. It has:
Lancaster research on the persecution of minorities in European societies, from the 1930s to the present, helps guide human rights activism to challenge the rise of far right ideologies. Civil rights NGOs, government authorities, media, and educational institutions use the research to study the dangers of extremism and discriminatory propaganda. Impact is achieved through i) trans- European civil rights NGOs, which draw on the research and seek expert advice, particularly with regard to the fight against Islamophobia; ii) advice to an EU and Turkish National Assembly project on Muslim migration; iii) the media, through which it contributes to the deeper public understanding of - and awareness against - discrimination and extremism; iv) public engagement, informing local community awareness and action.
University of Glasgow research has contributed to the founding and development of two unique research networks, the Glasgow Refugee, Asylum and Migration Network (GRAMNet) and Translating Russian and East European Cultures (TREEC), creating new, innovative forums for dialogue and influence on refugee, asylum and migration policy across Scotland and beyond. By cultivating relationships with policy-makers, practitioners and other stakeholders, Glasgow researchers have enhanced service delivery for marginalised groups such as LGBT asylum seekers, and informed policy debates at local, regional and national level. GRAMNet and TREEC have also fed directly into a series of public engagement events and activities around the translation, performance and memorialisation of different cultures in Scotland.
The University of Southampton has carried out a programme of research into transnational networks of migrants, especially musicians from African countries, and multicultural neighbourhoods across Europe. This has resulted in a series of popular multi-national arts events in Africa and Europe, involving artists numbering in the hundreds and audiences in the hundreds of thousands. These events have generated new independent cultural projects, leading to economic benefit for organisers and participants and to greater public awareness of migrant and mixed community issues.
An exhibition stimulated reflection on and provided new knowledge and perspectives on migration — historical and contemporary — for audiences in Nottingham and Glasgow. Linked teacher resources enhanced the capacity of local teachers to deliver challenging content on cross-curricula themes such as displacement, migration and asylum.
Physical material and cultural capital (individual and group memory as embodied in audio-visual oral histories) which would otherwise have disappeared have been preserved and transformed into educational material for a local Ukrainian community organisation, adding to its resource base and capacity. A national Polish diasporic community organisation has benefitted from access to research and advice to enhance its capacity to engage new audiences with its work and histories.
Publications analysing political mobilisation during the English revolution, widely disseminated through sales of the book God's Fury, England's Fire, reviews, and in public engagement activities, have shaped public understandings of how popular support for radical politics can be mobilised. The book's central arguments have made a significant contribution to contemporary political and social debates and have shaped the work of programme makers and other creative artists. The widespread use of the book in teaching in higher education and at A Level in the UK and internationally means that it has played a central role in shaping student understandings of this key period of English history.
This case study documents the impact of practice-as-research into playwriting methodologies engaging multiple voices as expressive of the instability of auto/biography and the social/political construction of the self. This research has had a national and international impact on the cultural life, the quality of life and education. The impact was initiated at the anniversary event of the Goethe-Institute (Dresden and Mühlheim) in celebration of the twenty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall; the impact has been continuing and, apart from a life in the theatre, has resulted in the inclusion of the script in German language tuition at A-Level (Routes Into Languages Project).
The research has had a demonstrable impact in Italy, in the UK, and elsewhere, in the areas of Civil Society, Public discourse, and Cultural Life. Specifically, it has a) supported LGBTQ community initiatives; b) helped LGBTQ individuals to meet societal challenges and thereby improved their well-being; c) increased public awareness and understanding of human rights infringements experienced by LGBTQ individuals in Italy; d) generated publications and debates on the incorporation of the term `queer' in Italian discourses; e) directly influenced the writing practice of a contemporary Italian novelist and indirectly her readership. Beneficiaries: individuals and groups studied in the ethnographic research; LGBTQ populations in Italy and elsewhere, and sections of the public concerned with the politics of sexuality and gender.
Dr Bayly's research into the lives of scientists and scholars in Vietnam during and after the country's 20th-century revolution and liberation wars has underpinned highly effective interventions by Vietnam's Centre for Research and Promotion of the Cultural Heritage and Centre for Research and Preservation of Vietnam's Doctoral Heritage to change public and official attitudes to cultural heritage preservation, appreciation and education. Her advisory roles with these organisations have made it possible for her research to inform capacity-building, education, and major public events, and to change attitudes towards the role of museums and public heritage sites and the value of intangible cultural heritage.