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Early Women Writers as Innovators

Summary of the impact

Research demonstrating the innovative contributions of early women writers to the cultural, socio-political, and economic life of their period has enhanced and broadened understanding of British and European literary traditions. It has contributed intellectually and economically to the heritage industry through Chawton House Library (CHL), a registered charity promoting early women's writing, and a range of other public organisations. Key findings of the research have been used to reinvigorate secondary school teaching and inspire those who occupy leadership roles in education, inform television documentary makers, and enthuse old and new readers internationally.

Submitting Institution

University of Southampton

Unit of Assessment

English Language and Literature

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies, Literary Studies
History and Archaeology: Historical Studies

Stories of our own: helping marginalised communities to write their stories (University of Lincoln)

Summary of the impact

This case study focuses on the social and educational benefit to local Lincolnshire communities of English research at Lincoln on life writing, creative uses of oral history and literary and dramatic representations of marginalised communities. In particular, it highlights the ways in which research in this area has led to knowledge transfer as a means of empowering rural communities through helping community groups to research, write, document, represent and disseminate their own stories. These acts of recovery have contributed to the self-realisation and empowerment of individuals and have enabled cross-generational connections and community cohesion. English research at Lincoln in these areas spans the 18th to 21st-centuries and has developed over nine years. Research activities in this area include a conference, a festival, publications, public talks and two related Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded projects (details below).

Submitting Institution

University of Lincoln

Unit of Assessment

English Language and Literature

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies, Literary Studies
History and Archaeology: Historical Studies

Women’s Travel Writing in the Archives: Exploring Local and Regional History

Summary of the impact

Dr. Zoë Kinsley's research focuses on British home tour travel writing by women and a significant part of her work in that field has involved the study of manuscript travel journals held in libraries and county record offices, the majority of which had received little or no critical attention prior to her own research work. She has undertaken a series of public engagement activities within Greater Manchester and Yorkshire, focused on the manuscript writings of Dorothy Richardson and other women travelling in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, which encourage greater use of and interest in local archive services, enrich understanding of local history in the North of England, and assist in the preservation of regional literary heritage. These events, all of which took the form of workshops which encouraged discussion and debate between participants, have taken place in partnership with Wigan Archives Service, Scarborough Maritime Heritage Centre, and the John Rylands Library, Manchester.

Submitting Institution

Liverpool Hope University

Unit of Assessment

English Language and Literature

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies, Literary Studies
History and Archaeology: Historical Studies

Contemporary Women’s Writing

Summary of the impact

Research into contemporary women's writing that took place in the School of Cultural Studies and Humanities at Leeds Metropolitan University between 2000 and 2013 has contributed to the continuing personal and professional development of beneficiaries amongst the public, as well as postgraduate students significantly beyond the submitting HEI. The majority of these beneficiaries have engaged directly with this research in two ways: via the website (the Contemporary Women's Writing Association website, or its sister organisation the Postgraduate Contemporary Women's Writing Network website) or via a public lecture or event.

Submitting Institution

Leeds Metropolitan University

Unit of Assessment

Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management 

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies, Literary Studies
History and Archaeology: Historical Studies

Inspiring Contemporary Quakers through Presenting Seventeenth-Century Quaker Women’s Thinking to Them

Summary of the impact

Research into seventeenth-century Quaker writings conducted at Loughborough University by Prof. Elaine Hobby and Dr Catie Gill has enriched the cultural and spiritual lives of modern-day Quakers, and that of others interested in the Quaker movement. This has been achieved both through their involvement in an advisory capacity at Woodbrooke, Europe's only Quaker Study Centre, since the mid-1990s, and through their working together to produce a booklet and audio materials that are being distributed by the Quaker group Kindlers. The booklet and its related recording grew from a workshop that Hobby led for Kindlers in London in November 2011.

Submitting Institution

Loughborough University

Unit of Assessment

English Language and Literature

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies, Literary Studies
History and Archaeology: Historical Studies

Brilliant Women: 18th-century Bluestockings Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, March to June 2008

Summary of the impact

While academic research about 18th-century women writers is well established, many general readers are completely unfamiliar with the range, presence and vitality of their cultural activity. Elizabeth Eger's research on 18th-century women's writing led to a free, public exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery aimed to bridge the distance between specialised and general knowledge by introducing to the general public the original bluestockings— a group of intellectual women who had significant social and literary impact upon Enlightenment Britain but were subsequently written out of history. The exhibition attracted a large audience of over 185,000 people, approximately twice the number predicted by the NPG. 40% of the visitors were first time at the NPG, and an outreach programme ensured this audience was diverse.

Submitting Institution

King's College London

Unit of Assessment

English Language and Literature

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies, Literary Studies
History and Archaeology: Historical Studies

Recovering Labouring-class and Radical Writing

Summary of the impact

Making a major contribution to English recovery research in the Unit, work associated with this case study has brought to a wider public:

1) the works of writers whose livelihoods were principally earned through manual labour or craft skills;

2) radical and neglected writing across a range of periods, genres and cultural contexts.

This has led to impact through enhancement of public understanding of literary and cultural value.

Underpinning research began in 1994; subsequently three principal routes to impact have evolved:

1) the development of open access online resources, in particular, `Labouring-Class Poets Online';

2) NTU publishing imprint, Trent Editions, which combines scholarly research with dissemination of neglected radical writing;

3) engagement with literary societies and related organizations.

Submitting Institution

Nottingham Trent University

Unit of Assessment

English Language and Literature

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Literary Studies
History and Archaeology: Historical Studies
Philosophy and Religious Studies: Religion and Religious Studies

Exeter Programme for Creative Writing and Arts: Creating, Inspiring and Supporting New Forms of Literary Expression

Summary of the impact

Members of the University of Exeter's Programme for Creative Writing and Arts have translated their research-as-practice into regional, national, and international impact by introducing innovative forms of contemporary writing to a range of audiences through publications, several of which have had notable public acclaim; an events programme; and training workshops. Funded projects to develop new writing have strengthened relationships between academic and creative sectors and inspired new and successful writing careers. The main impacts of this research-as-practice have been to:

  • create new forms of literary expression and enrich public appreciation of contemporary writing
  • engage different publics in creative practice through participation and events
  • inspire and support new forms of literary expression

Submitting Institution

University of Exeter

Unit of Assessment

English Language and Literature

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies, Literary Studies
History and Archaeology: Historical Studies

From risorgimento to resistance: intergenerational female literary legacy in the Collier-Galletti-Salvadori Family

Summary of the impact

The impact of this case study is located in uncovering the contribution of Margaret Collier to the Anglo-Italian literary and cultural relations from Risorgimento to Resistance through her individual initiative as well as her legacy in the literary works and political commitment of her daughter, Giacinta Galletti, and grand-daughter, Joyce Salvadori. Impact is achieved through disseminating and promoting the understanding of this lesser-known intergenerational female legacy nationally and internationally through publications, conferences, and lectures in public domains; in translating texts previously available only in Italian; in broadening the knowledge of nineteenth- and twentieth-century British literary communities in Italy; and in deepening the understanding of concepts of nationality, multiculturalism, migration, otherness and difference.

Submitting Institution

Bishop Grosseteste University

Unit of Assessment

English Language and Literature

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies, Literary Studies
History and Archaeology: Historical Studies

Public understanding of poetry

Summary of the impact

Mediating the complex and rewarding pleasures of poetry to a wide audience is central to the Department of English at Queen Mary's impact on the public understanding of the medium. Poetry has very high status in conceptions of literary merit and ambition, and commands large public audiences; yet it is also seen as difficult to understand by that audience, especially in the case of contemporary poetry. At Queen Mary, research on poetry includes scholarly modes of close reading and explication, analysis of poetics, women's writing, and poetry's print culture. Drawing on this research, we have used diverse strategies to enhance public understanding of poetry, including broadcast and internet dissemination, publishing ventures, poetry readings, and public archiving of poetry recordings. This has extended to work with teachers on teaching modern poetry in schools, the location where most general readers first encounter poetry.

Submitting Institution

Queen Mary, University of London

Unit of Assessment

English Language and Literature

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies, Literary Studies
History and Archaeology: Historical Studies

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