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FOAH2001 - Projects for 2020-21

Yorkshire and Basque Child Refugees
Peter Anderson, School of History

In 1937, nearly 4,000 children were evacuated from the Spanish Civil War to the United Kingdom (a year before the more famous Kindertransport). This project involves working with the Basque Children of ’37 Association UK to help them preserve the story of these children. Many of the youngsters were looked after in Yorkshire: some by foster families and others in specially created boarding schools known as colonies.

The Association would like you to research the history of the children in Yorkshire: where and how they were housed and educated, how they were looked after and taught and how volunteers worked to win public sympathy and overcome hostility to refugees. The Association has a number of archival documents you can consult, but you could also work with the local press and archives in towns such as Leeds, Bradford, Keighley or Scarborough that hosted colonies.

You do not need to speak Spanish but would need experience of writing undergraduate humanities or social science essays. You will develop historical research and writing skills. You will also hone your ability to work collectively, to co-operate with civic associations and to organize exhibitions. Other skills you will develop include working to deadlines and learning as group and becoming more self-directed learners. Above all, you won’t just be reproducing knowledge you will be creating knowledge for future generations.

Research Output/s
The goal is to write a history of the children in Yorkshire which could be placed on the Internet. Another objective is to put on an exhibition about the children and to spread their story to others interested in refugee history.

The English Education System
Melanie Prideaux, PRHS

You will be working in partnership with a group of refugees and asylum seekers, Leeds Asylum Seekers Support Network (LASSN) and other key stakeholders such as the council and the universities in Leeds,   to develop a new online resource to support refugees and asylum seekers to engage with the English education system.

As a group you will
1. Review and evaluate existing materials
2. Research the needs of refugees and asylum seekers in engaging with education in England
3. Develop a set of materials for an online resource
4. Work with a web designer to see your research come to life as an ongoing resource which will make a difference to a range of people in Leeds and beyond

You will be developing your research and team working skills as well as making friends with people you would otherwise have never met. This is a great project if you want to know more about life outside the University, and want to see your work make a real difference.

You need no existing knowledge of the English education system or of conducting research and development work of this type. What you DO need is:
1. Willingness to be flexible and adaptable, you may need to meet with your research partners outside of normal working hours
2. Great communication skills
3. Drive and determination to see the project through

Research Output/s
You will create a web-based resource.

Registrar Training for the Future; Evaluating Impact
Abigail Harrison Moore, FAHACS

For 10 years, the University of Leeds has been working in partnership with the Royal Armouries and Leeds Museums and Galleries to deliver a unique project to train registrars. Often described as the heart of a museum, and a vital part of all museum collections activity, from acquisition, through loan and conservation through to sale, this important role had no bespoke training offered anywhere in Europe until ACE funding helped us develop a 1 year internship, where the student completes a PG Cert at the University, while working on projects across both museums and with organisations such as art movers and insurers. Success has been demonstrated by the fact that all 10 graduates have been placed immediately in museum roles, and work for national and local museums and galleries across the UK. But after 10 years we are looking to expand the programme and therefore it is vital to evaluate its impact. Using a mix of research methods (quantitative and qualitative), you will work with the graduates of the programme, the delivery partners and the museums where they now work to produce an analysis of the impact of this project.

This project would particularly suit you if you are keen to develop research skills, able to work independently and have good attention to detail. You should be able to present research findings clearly and concisely to a range of audiences; and have, or have the potential to develop, excellent communication skills (in verbal and written form). We would expect you to have an interest in museums and heritage and you may be thinking about a career in this field.. There will be opportunities to get involved in public engagement and give talks/research papers once the research is done so if you have good communication skills and an interest in a future heritage career you should consider applying.

Research Output/s
A research report, plus transcripts of interviews and if possible, short films and/or pod casts of your interviews with the registrar graduates and the colleagues at the museums involved in the project. If you were interested and willing there may be an opportunity to share this work with the UK Registrars Group and/or the European registrars Group through conferences and seminars.

Food, Glorious Food: What the Victorians Ate
James Stark, PRHS

Students on this project will use the internationally-significant collection of Victorian manuscript recipes - handwritten collections of everyday recipes - to better understand the features of Victorian cookery and ingredients, and what constituted a "healthy" diet. The project will involve doing some transcription of these handwritten sources, refining existing draft transcriptions, and using them to outline the key themes (and limitations) of these source materials. All the necessary materials can be accessed online, and this project will be invaluable preparation for working with archival materials, developing important skills in using historical source materials. You don't need to be taking History as your major to do this project as the goal will be to develop skills by working first-hand with primary sources. You develop new skills in approaching and using archive manuscripts and learn about how and what the Victorians cooked and ate. Alongside expected recipes for apple pies and rhubarb cordials, some examples of the more unusual recipes include "Strong Herring Soup", "Almond Flummery", and "An Infallible Recipe for Destroying Rats." There is also the potential for the group to set their own agenda, finding and using other source material such as newspaper articles and books about food and eating.

Research Output/s
You could work towards producing a podcast series exploring the recipes and their significance, or even a series of videos recreating some of them!

Changing the Story
Katie Hodgkinson and Paul Cooke, LCS

This project will be embedded in Changing the Story – a participatory project which explores how the arts, heritage, and human rights education can support youth-centred approaches to civil society building in post-conflict settings. Changing the Story (CTS) has engaged with young people across its 12 project countries using a range of arts-based methods including film, theatre and animation. Your work on the project will help to facilitate (online) conversations between young people from different project countries who have been using the same arts-based methods, such as conversations between young film-makers in Bosnia and Herzegovina and South Africa and conversations between young people who have created theatre pieces in Rwanda and India. You will bring these conversations together to create a film or films that you will then show as part of a mini (online) film festival and/or at a film screening that you will organise as part of the project, in collaboration with the young people you have included. You don’t need to already have expertise in editing films to apply for the project, but you should be willing to learn. You will need to have good organisational skills in order to arrange both the online conversations and the film festival/screening.

Research Output/s
The main output from the project will be a film or a series of short films that you will screen at an event that you organise. This could be a mini-film festival of short films or a film screening if you decide to create one long film. As CTS aims to be a participatory project, the format of the films and event should be decided in collaboration with the young people that you work with.

19th-century Leeds: Political Cartoons
Antony Ramm, Leeds City Council / Leeds Libraries and Vic Clarke, School of English

At Leeds Central Library we have a wonderful collection of 200 political cartoons satirising personalities in the race to be a Leeds M.P. in 1868, 1874 and 1880. With the help of the British Library, we’ve recently had this collection digitised but we’re struggling to engage the public with what we think is a fantastic source for our region’s local history and heritage.

That’s where you come in: we want you to plan and deliver exciting and engaging outreach activities with this collection, in whatever form you think is most likely to succeed. If you took up this opportunity, you would have chance to develop many interesting new skills: how to execute your vision within the limits of a partner organisation’s policies and guidelines; the chance to collaborate with other heritage professionals in whatever direction you choose to take the project.

Most importantly, you’ll develop the ability to transform complex, seemingly inaccessible material into something that grabs people with the immediacy of a viral meme. You absolutely do not need to know anything about local or national politics in the 19th-century; we simply want you to engage with the cartoons on your own terms and then think as creatively as possible about ways you could get the collection in front of the public. So, while an interest in history, language or the arts are welcome, all you really need to get started is an open-mind, a creative vision and the willingness to take chances: think of this as more 'Mad Men' than 'Time Team'. Are you our Don Draper, our Peggy Olson?

While the majority of the project will take place during our usual opening hours, there may be some out-of-hours work involved, depending on the types of activities and events you choose to run. The project is designed so that it can be engaged with entirely online if required.

Research Output/s
Outputs for the project could include, but are absolutely not limited to:
• Informative posts on our Secret Library Leeds blog
• Social media engagement – Twitter accounts, Instagram feeds, Facebook activity, YouTube videos, etc. You could launch your own accounts and/or ‘takeover’ the Leeds Libraries official streams
• Wikipedia-editing to increase engagement and interest in the cartoons
• Production of content for Leeds’ educational forum, MyLearning
• Creative remixing of the cartoon imagery, either by yourselves or by interesting local artists/art college students in the collection
• Physical and/or online exhibitions
• ‘Zines or other easy-to-print productions (leaflet, home-made heritage trail)
• Eye-catching posters, e.g. for display around the city centre
• Group/individual talks about the cartoons

Please note that some of these options are dependent on the Central Library reopening over the next few months. Priority will be given to online, remote activities if it does not.

Waking Wakefield
Rebecca Dye

Waking Wakefield is an Alternate Reality Game designed to enable Wakefield residents to explore issues such as climate change and the environment in a playful and engaging manner.
Story Trails will be developing this game over the coming months and you are invited to join me in this journey.  Alternate Reality Games can be highly engaging.  They are often designed to enable learning through play, and have been used in high profile marketing campaigns.

Participating in this project will enable you to develop skills, experience and knowledge in:

  • narrative design as it applies to game play through the unique structure of the Alternate Reality Game;
  • character development;
  • mythology and folklore;
  • problem solving issues that arise in beta tests;
  • developing an online presence for the game;
  • working to deadlines in industry;
  • understanding environmental and sustainability issues;
  • considerations around community engagement and marketing;
  • the ability to develop work for multiple media, e.g. audio, interactive web-based, video.

What you need to participate in this project:

  • a good working knowledge of social media;
  • interest in game and narrative structures;
  • the ability to be flexible and focussed on tasks;
  • the ability to work independently;

You do not need any prior experience in games or knowledge of how they work. You simply need to be willing to learn and to get involved in every aspect of the process.

Research Output/s
You will make a tangible contribution to the development of the Alternate Reality Game.  This may be, but is not limited to:

  • a marketing campaign;
  • digital artefacts for the narrative;
  • research that is used in relation to myth, folklore, climate change, environmental issues
  • a portfolio of work and contributions to the ARG will be kept by each student for assessment purposes.