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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.
Yaqin's research on Muslim women's stereotyping and self-image has heavily informed on-going discussions regarding the representation of Muslims in the media and how it shapes public perception of the Muslim community and Islam more broadly. Through active engagement with the media and the public, her research findings have impacted on a wide audience, increasing awareness and understanding of how negative portrayals of Muslims are created and, more importantly, how they can be countered.
The research, undertaken by Professor Ron Geaves, provides a biography of a Victorian convert to Islam, Abdullah Quilliam, who established the first registered mosque in Liverpool. The study challenges and illuminates cultural values and social assumptions concerning the origins of Islam in Britain and provides an historical narrative that can be seen to enrich and expand the cultural life of British Muslims. It also offers deeper insight into a figure who can act as an iconic exemplar of what it means to be British and Muslim. The reception of the book shows its impact upon the psychological and social well-being of British Muslims, as it provides positive self-images of their presence in Britain. The research has contributed to the quality of evidence, argument and expression in public and British Muslim understandings of integration, identity and belonging.
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.
Mondal's research has been of benefit to policy makers and civil servants advising government departments dealing with social integration, education and youth, and counter-terrorism and radicalization including the Home Office, Association of Chief Police Offices, PREVENT and the Department of Children, Schools and Families. The research has provided a more nuanced and detailed qualitative analysis of the attitudes of young British Muslims aged 16-20 towards religious belief, identity, politics, society, culture and inter-generational relationships. It has also been of use to third-sector and inter-faith organizations working with Muslim youth, and Higher Education courses training youth workers specialising in Muslim youth. It has also made a contribution to the wider debate in the media about young Muslims in contemporary Britain.
Professor Iftikhar Malik's research on the cultural and political history of South Asia has informed public discourse in the UK, and has been particularly influential in informing British and EU policy and practice in Pakistan. This has resulted from Malik's involvement in the briefing of British diplomats and the training of EU officials, including election monitors for Pakistan, 2007-13.
Dr Chris Allen's research into Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred has had a direct influence on the political thinking and emerging policy developments of central government in the United Kingdom. Having been recognised as a leading expert in his field at the political level, his research has helped to encourage engagement, raise awareness and facilitate public and political debate. Allen's expertise and knowledge has been drawn upon in establishing the All Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia, the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group and the recently launched, Tell MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks) third party reporting initiative that was recently noted in the Coalition's new integration strategy.
Almost everything about Islamophobia is contested, from the very phenomenon and name, to its attendant facts and the responses it calls for. This case study focuses on a research-based intervention which has impacted how key stakeholders frame the discussion of Islamophobia at critical junctures of the grassroots-media-policy continuum. Specifically, for those most actively affected by and engaged with the issue, it has opened up more robust critical modes of intervention and argumentation. The research was conceived and informed by a commitment to public engagement envisaged as a two way and participatory process with communities and stakeholders, and has influenced public debate and benefited community relations in the UK, Europe and beyond.
Ben O'Loughlin led and participated in a series of grant-funded collaborative projects that explored the nexus between media and security, provided a foundation for innovations in political communication theory and practice, and impacted upon government, business and media organisations. The iteration of projects and outputs integrated qualitative and quantitative, behavioural and interpretive methodologies, which in turn revealed emergent relationships between policy, media and publics in global, multilingual media ecologies. O'Loughlin's collaborations with Linguamatics Ltd, the BBC World Service and the House of Lords have led the application of these new methodologies and created policy debate on the ethics of their use.
Impact derived from Prof Maggie Andrews' research was through collaboration, since 2008, with the National Memorial Arboretum (NMA) in Staffordshire and, latterly, with archival and heritage organisations in Worcestershire and Staffordshire, to increase public involvement in practices of remembrance, memorialisation and commemoration and to enhance experience of them — both for those directly affected and for the general public. Andrews' collaboration with the NMA influenced development of the UK's first, national centre for remembrance during critical years of its evolution. Through assisting the NMA to envision and understand its role in the context of contemporary culture, her input informed the NMA's approach to supporting visitors' experience and framed and informed its developing approaches to visitor interpretation. Her collaboration with organisations in Staffordshire and Worcestershire supported development of approaches to forthcoming, national centenary commemoration of World War 1.