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This case study demonstrates how a concern with the significance of place in the history of science, technology and medicine, as addressed in research carried out by Graeme Gooday, Jonathan Topham and Gregory Radick since 1998, forms the basis of three initiatives over the period 1/1/2008 to 31/7/2013: first, a reappraisal of scientific, medical and technological collections held in Leeds-area museums, in collaboration with curators; secondly, the use of the University's own collections to promote understanding of science and its history among local citizens and schoolchildren, and thirdly the application and transmission of this approach at the national level and beyond.
Dr Richard Noakes led `Connecting Cornwall', a project working with the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum (PTM) from February 2009 - July 2012, looking at the lives and careers of the `ordinary' men who operated the Victorian and Edwardian British submarine cable network.
The project was fundamental in building a working relationship with PTM that now paves the way for future research-based collaborations. The exhibition also raised the profile of PTM. A new section of the website was created for PTM, greatly improving its online presence and user experience. Impacts on the public have included providing access to previously unseen archival material, preserving and displaying artefacts of cultural heritage and in educating people with regards to their local history.
The University of Leeds has a long-established reputation for research into the identification of stamps used by potters on terra sigillata (`samian ware'), a key dating indicator for archaeological excavations on sites in the western Roman empire.
Publication of the illustrated index of these names in nine volumes, complemented by the ongoing release of the data to an online database, has made this research more accessible.
The index has given archaeologists — primarily community and commercial archaeologists beyond academia — a powerful resource for identifying samian pottery and dating the strata where it is found. It has also provided a valuable tool for museums' educational work.
Textile-heritage research at the University of Leeds has informed and improved public awareness and understanding of textile heritages among target audiences, especially school children, community groups, volunteers, interns and teachers. Through hands-on workshops, conventional publications, talks and lectures, a strong website presence and public exhibitions, the research has engaged and inspired audiences, and has underpinned a `best practice' resource for other museums and archives. Impact is demonstrated through direct feedback from workshop participants, evidence of community engagement, commentary in the visitors' book, website hits, and also from accreditations, awards and endorsements from key national arts organisations in recognition of initiatives enhancing public appreciation of textile heritages.
This case study focuses on the impact of research carried out at the University of Cambridge into the history of evolution by Professor James Secord and co-workers, notably the impact of two research programmes: the Darwin Correspondence Project and Darwin Online. These projects have contributed to a substantial reorientation of public discourse on the history of evolution. The impact has been achieved through web resources; museum and library exhibitions; teaching materials for schools and universities; and radio and television programmes. These outputs have encouraged public understanding of the range of contributors to science, including women; an awareness of the diversity of positions in the evolutionary debate; and an appreciation of the complex relations between evolutionary science and faith. The projects have shown that the highest achievements of scholarship can be made freely accessible to a global audience.
Research produced within the Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies (LCVS) has led to, through numerous public engagement activities, an impact on public understanding and appreciation of the Victorian era. The research on which this is founded relates to two members of the UOA, who particularly focus on Victorian identities, history and historical cultures in Britain and the British Empire. They have each engaged the public through public lectures at local museums and history groups, publishing their work in an accessible format and media appearances. Links have also been established with local museums that particularly focus on this period of history, enabling museum staff to promote their collections.
Leeds research on religions in contexts of migration and diaspora has effected improvements in representation and public understanding of religion in Britain. Key areas are: (a) high-profile public debates, where we have shifted assumptions about religious communities in Britain; (b) national museums, where we have enabled new ways of representing religions in diaspora, and advanced engagement with minority communities; (c) schools, where we have developed educational resources on the complex trajectories of communities in diaspora. The impact occurred between 2009 and 2012, drawing on research from 1993 onwards (Knott, McLoughlin, Tomalin), and a 35-year record of research with religious communities.
Stefan Collini's research on the character of universities and their relations to their host societies has had a major impact on public discourse in Britain. Grounded in historical evidence concerning the growth of institutions and disciplines, and on the ways public debate about the functions of universities has evolved since the mid-nineteenth century, it has influenced political argument about legislation, the content of reporting on higher education, and public understanding of universities more generally. There is extensive evidence for the uptake of these ideas in documents produced by public bodies, citations in the media, and other published reports on policy debates.
The Wars of the Roses and Richard III remain engrossing and controversial after 500 years throughout the Anglophone world and beyond. Hicks and Holford have made a significant impact on public knowledge and understanding of the period's politics and society. Their publications, printed and online, are valuable resources for professional and amateur historians, students and the general public, nationally and internationally. Hicks' Anne Neville underpinned Philippa Gregory's novel, The Kingmaker's Daughter and hence the BBC series The White Queen. The website, blog and twitter, Mapping the Medieval Countryside, are making the inquisitions post mortem (IPMs) much more widely accessible and useful than hitherto.
Professor Sinclair's project on `Wrongdoing in Spain 1800-1936' explores the difference between cultural representations of wrongdoing and their underlying realities, and includes the digitization and cataloguing of c4500 items of popular Spanish material held at the University Library, Cambridge (UL), and the British Library (BL). This contributes significantly to the conservation, stewardship, and enhanced accessibility of this ephemeral material, increasingly valued and recognized as important in Spain as part of its social history and heritage. Digitization also makes this fragile material available to support teaching. An exhibition of this material and comparable material in English runs at the UL, Cambridge April — December 2013, strongly supported by a virtual exhibition. Public engagement events extend the understanding of the relevance of this material to modern Britain.