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Since 2006 ULIP has adopted the strategy of examining French and Spanish North Africa as an object of study. The rationale for this is to use ULIP's physical location in Paris as a bridgehead for researchers in North Africa and Europe. ULIP has recently recruited staff with the appropriate research profiles. These staff members have already been involved in public debates organized by ULIP in North Africa and the aim is to develop a generation of researchers who can move ULIP's strategy in this field forward.
Andrew Hussey's research has focused since 2002 on the relation between France, Spain and North Africa. As an essayist, broadcaster and public speaker, Hussey has communicated this research far beyond academic audiences to reach a general public in Europe and North Africa. His work has made a major contribution to debates about the cultural and political history of North Africa. A significant dimension to such impact has been its influence on the broadcast and print media in France, the UK and North Africa.
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 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.
This case study is devoted to the impact of Ginette Vincendeau's research, which has influenced cultural life through the creation of more critically-informed audiences for French cinema. It focuses on (i) how her research insights have reached a non-academic, cine-literate large audience through screening introductions and lectures (in particular at BFI Southbank) and through the media (Sight & Sound, BBC Radio, and DVD commentaries) and (ii) how this research has had formative effects on secondary education in the UK (A-level French students) and on other audiences through different forms of cultural production (theatre).
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.
The research examined the causes, events and public memory of the violent repression of a peaceful, pro-independence demonstration of 40,000 Algerians in Paris (17 October 1961). Initially covered up, these events resurfaced to become one of the most controversial episodes in Franco-Algerian history, formally recognized by the French state in 2012. This project's key impacts have been on civil society and public discourse in France and Algeria, changing and increasing both public understanding and visibility of the massacre. Further important impacts were enhancing inter-ethnic and inter-generational understanding and citizenship, by providing social knowledge to campaigning groups, as well as enabling former demonstrators to speak publicly.
Research at Durham University led to an exhibition of contemporary visual art at Cornerhouse Gallery (Manchester) from April to June 2011 exploring the relationship between France and Algeria. New Cartographies: Algeria-France-UK enhanced the understanding of a non-specialist UK audience about a relationship which is historically important for both countries and central to contemporary geopolitics. It helped Cornerhouse pursue its visual arts strategy, and brought economic benefits to the gallery and the wider region by attracting a large audience. It provided the exhibiting artists with opportunities for creative and professional development by commissioning new work or showing work in the UK for the first time. The refusal of an entry visa for one of the Algerian artists became part of a political issue concerning UK immigration policy debated in the House of Lords.
The nature of the impact described in this case study is twofold. First the case study evidences the impact Dowd's research has had on learning and teaching in other Higher Education Institutions. The evidence for this lies in the use of Dowd's publications by educators on University courses in the UK, the US, Australia and elsewhere. Impact of books and articles published in the period 1998-2013 which are used in syllabi at other HEIs is evidenced by their inclusion in course documents published by those institutions during the census period for REF2014. The second, related, strand of impact may be ascertained by the extent to which the same body of research has been responded to and engaged with outside the domain of academic literature.
The product of the underpinning research is a dynamically searchable, on-line catalogue of the archives of theatrical producer, critic and cultural promoter Henri Brochet (1898-1952). Preservation and interpretation of historical memory is a major part of the impact, which comes from the discovery of an aspect of grassroots Catholic activity in France. Importantly, the catalogue is physically sited not in one of the metropolitan centres of France but in Auxerre, Brochet's home town (a major centre at the provincial level). Access to these materials has enabled an apparently peripheral (regional) public to understand local, national, and international heritage in ways that enrich civic and cultural life.
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.