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The research into mixed racial people, couples and families has enhanced social awareness, corrected misconceptions and celebrated the heritage of these groups. Impact centres around educating various publics through channels such as a prime time viewing on BBC2. The research has also manifested itself in: (i) a successful on-line resource (Mix-d Museum) in collaboration with the third sector, (ii) materials which have influenced school curricula, and (iii) training resources for teachers. One organisation has presented the materials emanating from the research to over 250 foster carers within a year. The British Academy recognised the research as an exemplar which contributed to the reintroduction of its Small Grant scheme.
Two Queen Mary historians from distinct periods of study, and different stages in their careers, have employed their major research projects from over ten years' work in archives and other repositories to advise museum curators and influence museum exhibitions. Renaissance historian Kate Lowe's research has enabled her to assist curators in the selection of objects to highlight sub-Saharan Africa and Africans in Renaissance Europe, thereby emphasising the historic importance of the early African diaspora in Europe. She worked with the Renaissance Europe curator at the British Museum on the 2012 `Shakespeare: Staging the World' exhibition and with the curator of Renaissance and Baroque Art at the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD, on its 2012-13 `Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe' exhibition which was noted as one of the top ten 2012 exhibitions in the US by the New York Times. War and culture historian Dan Todman's research on the cultural and social history of the First and Second World Wars has enabled him to advise and work with curators at the Imperial War Museum (IWM) as it prepares to commemorate the First World War's centenary. The impact of Lowe's and Todman's research expertise has been to advise curators, shape exhibitions and ensure that visitors experienced historically-informed exhibits to gain a more complex understanding of the past.
The research has had an impact on public understanding of the contested German past. Pathways include public lectures, radio broadcasts, newspaper coverage, and the production of two documentary films as well as A Level source materials and school textbook chapters. The reach has included diverse audiences in Europe, the USA, Australasia and elsewhere. It has improved the knowledge and understanding of students and teachers in the UK, professionals involved in public history activities in Germany and interested members of the public. In the Rhineland, it has led to changes in how the legacies of former officials are commemorated. The research has been of particular personal significance to people variously grappling with the continuing legacies of Nazism and the Holocaust, and the East German dictatorship.