Log in
University of Southampton research into the Battle of Agincourt, and on the late medieval soldier more generally, has impacted widely on the public, enriched popular understanding and enjoyment of history, and challenged widely held beliefs. The work has inspired individuals, groups, students and academics — in the UK and across the world — to explore their family and community heritage, thereby enriching the quality of life. Notable outputs included an online database of soldiers in Henry V's army, which received over 3.4 million hits in the three months after its launch in July 2009. Further impact has been made through television documentaries, media coverage and contributions to museums in England and France.
The main aim of the Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND) in impact terms is to provoke a revision of the understanding of the role of Anglo-Norman in the development of English and to demonstrate how the language (especially the vocabulary) of the incoming Normans impinged on and fed into English. The project and its freely-available online dictionary (www.anglo-norman.net) have attracted considerable attention from the educated lay public with interests in language history, genealogy, family names, aspects of language use in Britain in the Middle Ages, and social history.
Impact has been achieved by speaking to non-academic groups; contributing to audio and visual displays in museums; and by being interviewed by Radio 4; Trotter appeared as an expert in a National Geographic film on broadly related matters to do with medieval literature; and the AND has been awarded a prestigious French prize. The AHRC decided to feature the AND as a project on their website in autumn 2012, suggesting that it is perceived as beneficial to their own impact and publicity strategy.
In contrast to many European countries, public performance of music in languages other than English is still rare in the UK. French specialist Peter Hawkins has been researching and teaching the genre of chanson as a key element of French popular culture for most of his career. His research has fed into a regular series of public engagement activities over the past decade and beyond, including public performances of French chanson at a variety of venues. In a set of concerts given in spring 2013, Hawkins performed his own English translations of French chansons by the sometimes controversial Monegasque writer Léo Ferré, who is exceptionally well-known in France but much less so in the UK. The aim was to bring this particular type of musical poetry to a non-French-speaking audience. Feedback from the various audiences shows that some 70% feel that singing French chanson in English was a success and significantly extended and enhanced their cultural experience.
The publication of a book in both English and French versions on this subject led to many media interviews in several countries, wide press coverage in the UK and USA especially, the appointment of Robert Tombs to the Franco-British Council, many invitations to lecture to diverse audiences, and to take part in private discussions and seminars with French and British diplomats. Diplomats, whether French or British, now rarely have more than minimal historical knowledge, and this research enables them to understand the cultural and political ramifications and ambiguities of a relationship central to both countries' foreign policy.
This case study provides an example of impact on cultural life and cultural heritage underpinned by research undertaken by Dr Laura Wright on the history of London English. She has been broadcasting fortnightly talks devoted to this topic on BBC London 94.9 from 1999 to the present. The very considerable feedback from listeners testifies to the range and significance of its impact on their lives, substantiating a sense of their own history, in and through language.
The French currently constitute a significant presence in London, yet there is little consistent research into their experiences, or the development of this presence. This is a ground-breaking study heralded by the French Embassy/Consulate, and used by the constituency office of the French MP for Northern Europe and the London Section of the French Socialist Party, and the British Library (for inclusion in the UK Web Archive). It has attracted considerable media and popular interest, notably programmes for French Radio London, and at the Bankside Bastille Day Festival. The research assesses the motivations, experiences and occupations of London's French residents, both historically and today, and their contributions to culture, society and business.
Research led by Cayley (the Exeter Manuscripts Project) has enhanced appreciation of medieval manuscript culture, drawing upon unique Exeter holdings, and has increased public understanding of medieval game cultures and European manuscript production (Impact 1). Her iPad app, developed with Antenna International, related exhibition and workshops have effected a `translation' of medieval material culture through modern media. Research by Roberts has disseminated new understandings of Renaissance obscenity in visual form, influencing artistic practice, and engaging regional communities (Impact 2). Jones has generated impact by stimulating public engagement with theatre and the visual arts (Impact 3) based on research offering new understandings of narrative and the visual.
This research has had a significant influence on: (1) cultural life, through a major exhibition at the National Library in Cape Town and promotion of forgotten French cultural heritage in the Cape; (2) civic life and public discourse, through a major series of talks, as keynote speaker at a public event organized by the National Library of South Africa (NLSA) focused on cultural memory, commemoration and reconciliation, press coverage and radio broadcasts in the UK and South Africa; (3) education, through visits to secondary schools; and (4) economic prosperity, through the promotion of tourism in the Eastern Cape of South Africa.
Birthing tales by lay people and medical practitioners abound in all cultures. On her research website for both non-specialist and academic readers, Valerie Worth-Stylianou provides important early modern French sources in a portal accessible to a broad and interdisciplinary audience. This central information source on the history of midwifery is supplemented by her English translation (2013) of key medical texts. In 2012 she co-organised an international conference in Oxford for historians, social scientists and contemporary health practitioners to investigate, through the prism of history, societies' changing attitudes to the physical and cultural phenomenon of birth; this enabled practising midwife delegates to reflect on their current work methods and feed historical insights back into their midwifery practices.
Dr Jones's research on the obsolescent Norman French dialects of the Channel Islands has had a significant effect back in Jersey, Guernsey and Sark. The island communities are extremely interested in the research and there have been events to mark it involving public figures and other members of the community (2008, 2009). Dr Jones's research is featured regularly in local media and she has been invited to collaborate in local language planning and revitalization initiatives (2008-13). The publicity this work has received has raised the profile of these dialects and her findings have given impetus and direction to their revitalization.