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FOAH2002 - Projects running in 2026-27

The Ethics of Direct Cremation 

Sarah Carter-Walshaw, IDEA in PRHS

The Ethics of Direct Cremation involves the cremation of the deceased shortly after death, usually without a viewing beforehand and without a funeral service (though the bereaved might opt to separately arrange a memorial service at a later stage). According to research by SunLife, direct cremation accounted for 20% of body disposals in 2023 and 2024. The majority of these were requested or organised by the deceased prior to death, but 10% of respondents to the SunLife study noted that they chose direct cremation due to financial constraints (SunLife 2025, pp.17-8).

In this project you will explore direct cremation and the ethical questions and issues that it raises. Some things that you might like to consider or investigate could include the ethical implications as related to:

  • The possible impact on the bereaved
  • Choosing this for oneself vs choosing it for another
  • How Direct Cremation is advertised
  • The reasons why people choose to have direct cremation
  • The wider socio-economic context of this changing approach to body disposal

You will be encouraged to explore the wider literature on body disposal and death studies as well as ethical and philosophical literature more generally in your work. You do not need to have pre-existing knowledge or experience of studying ethics, philosophy, or death studies more broadly. You only need to have an interest in body disposal and its related ethical considerations, and a willingness to undertake some research and produce an output with your colleagues.

Project outputs
I am open to the output that you might wish to develop; options can include but are not limited to:

  • A report, which can take the form of an ‘edited collection’ with an introduction written as a group and individual sections
  • One (or more, if students would prefer) of the following, which should be public-facing:
  • Activity or event
  • Webpage
  •  Leaflet or information pack
  • Podcast episode (or series of mini episodes)
  • Zine

Sharing the Voices of Medieval Female Visionaries

Marta Cobb, School of History

This project will involve creating public engagement activities relating to the lives and writings of medieval female visionaries.

People tend to assume that medieval women had to be silent and obedient. Some women, however, felt that, not only was God speaking to them, but that God wanted them to share his message. Having had these experiences, these women often felt called to another way of life, leading them to disobey their parents, abandon husbands and fiancés, and even, in some cases, criticise popes and lead armies. Some of these women would be recognised as saints; others would be condemned as heretics. Some, like Joan of Arc, are famous today, but many are much less well known. Will you help to share their stories?

Working on this project will hone your skills in research, project management, and communication, as well as giving you a chance to think creatively about how to engage audiences with a topic they might not know much about.

You don’t need expertise in medieval history or religion to apply for this project, just a sense of curiosity as well as a desire to learn more about the lives of medieval women and to share that knowledge with a wider audience.

Working times are flexible and will depend upon the activities you create and how you would like to present them.

Project outputs
This will largely depend upon participants, but possibilities could include creating a card or board game, a series of podcasts, or other events and activities. One option would be to present your work at Be Curious in May 2027.

Who Paid for the Welfare State?

Charlie Dannreuther, POLIS and West Yorkshire Archive Service

How did we start paying for the UK welfare system?
It seems impossible to think that there was a time when increasing welfare spending was a "good thing" but the Public Works and Loans Board archive saw dramatic increases in spending on welfare infrastructure investment across the UK throughout the C19th and early C20th. Students working on this project will find out how key welfare infrastructure investments (schools, sewers, hospitals, allotments) in West Yorkshire were imagined, proposed planned and financed by PWLB loans and changed the city forever. Alongside research into PWLB files at National Archives in Kew, the West Yorkshire archive will show how central loans funded important local buildings that changed the lives and future trajectories of places in Leeds.

The Leeds study is the first local study from this project. It will show how the PWLB invested in Leeds, under what legislation and under whose local leadership the applications were made and awarded and who benefitted from them. Students will examine how the local building program changed a part of Leeds (perhaps housing sewers or hospitals?) and research and tell a story about that building and its contribution to its place. This project brings history, politics, economics and sociology together to show how the dreams of the past link to the needs of the future through the decaying welfare capital assets (buildings!) of the present.

Students won’t need to know anything about any of these disciplines but they will need the imagination to see what these projects were hoping to do, the tenacity to dig out the connections and self restraint to not get lost in the archives!

Project Outputs
At the end of the project there will be an output for the community in the form of a flyer and website and possible event. There will also be enough material to provide a proof of concept case for a paper to back the grant application. We will also have made some progress on designing a template for local public works investigators to answer important questions about their local welfare infrastructure (when was it built, who paid for it, who paid the loan back and how (normally rates!) and who owns it now? These will include training people how to use an archive, track records and RQs and how to use a mobile phone to record documents and analyse them further.

Feminist Art Making Histories

Elspeth Mitchell, FAHACS

Feminist Art Making Histories (famh.art) is a digital archive of long-form, oral history interviews with artists, curators and writers, exploring the encounter between art and feminism across Ireland and the UK from the 1970s to the 1990s. On this project, you'll work directly with this rich body of material to investigate how feminist ideas shaped, and were shaped by, art making in this period.

You'll spend time listening closely to these interviews and working to identify the themes, tensions and stories that run through them, or take particular interviews as a starting point for further research.

From there, you'll turn your listening into something others can engage with (defined by the group). You'll develop skills in archival and oral history research, critical analysis, collaborative working, and writing for public audiences.

You don't need any background in art history, feminist theory or oral history but rather an interest and investment in the politics of feminism in all its diversity and an interest in learning more about art in Britain and Ireland.

The archive is fully digital, so there's no travel involved and all the work fits within normal teaching hours.

Project outputs
Ideas include:

  • A curated digital 'listening trail' through the archive that guides a visitor through selected interview clips with student-written context.
  • A short exhibition (physical pop-up or digital) pairing extracts from the interviews with images of the artworks or movements they describe.
  • An educational or schools resource pack introducing feminist art history through the voices in the archive: accessible activities, discussion prompts, key terms.
  • A zine or printed leaflet that reinterprets the oral histories visually and textually, in the DIY spirit of much feminist art.
  • An edited collection: a group-written introduction framing the themes, plus individual chapters where each student digs into one artist, interview, or theme.
  • A set of 'annotated interviews' you might produce a critical companion essay situating it in its historical and artistic context.
  • A thematic report mapping recurring threads across multiple interviews (networks, institutions, exclusions, turning points).
  • A short podcast episode or audio essay responding to the interviews.
  • 'Liner notes' for the archive, interpretive guides to help future listeners.

Gregory Radick, PRHS

I'm the editor of a book-reviews journal in History and Philosophy of Science called METASCIENCE, and with encouragement from the publisher, Springer, I've been looking for ways of repackaging its large and rich back catalogue of reviews into topic collections that might be valuable to researchers, teachers and students. The students would basically take charge of the project, with guidance from me and, in a much more light-touch way, my contact at Springer, Agustina Perez Ryan.

The creative/research elements would involve: doing a survey of how such collections work at other journals; applying the lessons learned about best practice to come up with a proposal; working with me to curate the collections, commission introductions from academic specialists, publicize them on social media etc., and monitor usage.

I'm also interested in exploring productive use of AI in all of the above, consistent with the University's and Springer's regulations.

Project outputs

  • A plan for the production and promotion of topic collections.
  • 5-10 topic collections, comprising up to circa 20 review each, and with bespoke, commissioned introductions.
  • A social media campaign publicizing the above, along with a plan for monitoring uptake.
  • An infrastructure and plan in place for future students to make use of.

Roman Catholic responses to ecological and humanitarian injustice: finding active hope in a time of crisis

Tasia Scrutton and Simon Hewitt, Philosophy, Religion and History of Science

Our lives today take place against the backdrop of large-scale ecological and humanitarian crisis. Many of us are confronted with feelings of hopelessness. Coping strategies can range from despair to disavowal to wishful thinking that somehow we do not need to act because all will in the end be well. Religious responses sometimes perpetuate this latter attitude, whether because they promise ‘pie in the sky when we die’ or because they teach that it is ‘God’s job and not ours’ to sort out ecological and social problems.

A more helpful response is active hope – hope that, far from demotivating ecological and social justice activism, involves and sustains that activism. The Roman Catholic Church has promoted active hope through Catholic Social Teaching, for example in texts such as Laudato Si’. This has the potential to have a huge influence: the Roman Catholic Church is international rather than being based in one country or continent, and it is estimated that around 17% of the world’s population is Roman Catholic, amounting to around 1.4 billion people. If incorporated into Roman Catholic practice and spirituality, the teaching about ecological and social justice therefore has the potential to influence a significant part of humanity.

Unfortunately, this potential is hampered in various ways. One of these is conservative Roman Catholic influence, as we see evidenced in some politics in the USA. But some of it is simply that the Catholic Social Teaching has not filtered through into ordinary Catholic communities, perhaps because core documents seem too abstract to many people, or are not widely or accessibly distributed.

This project seeks to remedy this by attention to Roman Catholic theology and practice that enables people to find and sustain active hope. As part of this project, you will examine Catholic Social Teaching about ecological and social justice such as Laudato Si’, form links with local Roman Catholic churches, and interview some Roman Catholics who are ecological/social justice activists. We anticipate that your findings about what sustains active hope will include theological and other ideas and beliefs, religious and non-religious practices, exemplars ranging from St Francis of Assisi to Greta Thunberg, and documents, texts and pieces of music.

You will develop skills including theological literacy, textual analysis, qualitative research methods, building relationships with non-academic partners (such as churches), and design, production and dissemination of accessible publications.

You do not need to be a Roman Catholic or any kind of Christian to do this project but you do need to be interested in religious belief systems and in the ways in which they can support (or alternatively undermine) ecological and social justice, and respectful of people’s religious beliefs. You will also need to be sensitive to the challenges raised by ecological and social injustice (e.g. climate change; poverty; war) and sympathetic to appropriate activism aimed at justice.

Project outputs
You will co-create a zine or pamphlet involving ‘stories of hope’, which will draw on your analysis of texts and your conversations with activists. People can often relate to other people and the narratives they tell rather than more abstract ideas and so, while the design is ultimately up to you, your pamphlet/zine could be designed to take a person- or narrative-centred approach. Your output will be accessible and public-facing, and will be distributed to Roman Catholic churches to inspire people to incorporate ecological and social justice into their faith.

The interdisciplinary project Mapping Emily and Anne Brontë’s Gondal: a fantasy saga and/or a multiverse analyses how Emily and Anne Brontë’s 19th century Gondal juvenilia prefigures narrative and communicative practices from our contemporary Internet era

María Seijo-Richart, Institute for Transport Studies

The Brontë children created a game of rival kingdoms (Glass Town), akin to fantasy worlds like Game of Thrones (Franklin, 2016). Around 1832, Emily and Anne created their own separate imaginary world: Gondal, which we must outline through their poems and diary papers (the prose notebooks detailing events were lost). In contrast to reconstructions of the juvenilia as a saga (Ratchford, 1955), recent studies describe Gondal as alternative universes (Gezari, 1992), roleplaying games (Ashley, 2011) or a fandom (Seijo-Richart, 2025).

Using these primary sources and specific studies, students will compile Gondal characters and relationships, design a map of the kingdom and a net of narrative threads, either chronological or alternative. We will evaluate how textual practices available to the Brontës precede modern multiverses. Emily and Anne could travel virtually through their newspapers (an innovation back then): real life Arctic explorers Parry and Ross were characters in Glass Town. Gondal authorship is collective (like oral storytelling), anticipating online fanfiction, which derives from 17th century archontic literature (Derecho, 2006): unofficial continuations of a pre-existing text, offering an uncensored space of self-expression to subordinated groups (women, ethnic minorities): Gondal’s cruel queen challenges 19th century ideals of femininity.

No previous knowledge of the topic is needed, just willingness to investigate storytelling practices and early forms of long-distance communication.

Project Outputs
We will compile and present our findings (the map, the list of characters and the narrative threads) in a webpage, which we can create using CampusPress. We will share this webpage for teaching and learning purposes.
The main output expression will be a creative response bridging one of the textual practices studied to contemporary digital forms. Mirroring the multiple types of media involved in the Gondal juvenilia (prose and poems, drawings, roleplaying), the response can take the form of a picture, an art piece, a fanfiction story, a roleplay video recording.
It will be accompanied by a short personal reflection (around 250 words) on what this response means for the student and how it relates to their learning during the project. The responses and reflections will be included on the webpage, subject to prior consent from the student.

Filling The Void: Social Media Reaction to Active Crime Cases and The Dangers of Contempt of Court

John Sinclair, School of Media and Communication

A heinous crime is committed. A suspect is arrested. Tensions run high. The police seem tight-lipped about the potential perpetrator. Social media users take to their keyboards to fill the information void. A familiar situation?

You might not know that those who speculate online about active criminal proceedings risk committing 'contempt of court,' which could result in a prison sentence of up to two years and/or an unlimited fine. Despite these potential sanctions, many social media users, following the detection of a crime, spend much time gossiping online. Public-facing posts range from actual witness testimony, to hearsay, to outright misinformation/disinformation. In all of these cases, there is a danger that social media posts may undermine or prejudice court proceedings, or interfere with the administration of justice. In other cases, this may lead to the identification of victims of sexual offences or children whose identity is protected by law.

The government is trying to get this message across to the public – but, given febrile online speculation following notorious real-world crimes, it seems to be failing to change online behaviours.

This proposed study aims to survey social media users. Possibly in the same age range as our undergraduates.

The proposed areas of research (subject to negotiation) are:

  1. Social attitudes of young people towards the tension between freedom of speech and the legal doctrine of postponing the release of information to protect the course of justice.
  2. The views of young people as to if (and how) social media platforms should adjust content to meet the strict requirements of the law.

It is envisaged that students come to this topic without any pre-existing knowledge or viewpoints. What we are looking for is a curiosity about what drives social media engagement with crime stories and social attitudes towards the concepts of ‘justice’ and a ‘fair trial.’

Students can gather research data in their own time.

Fieldwork can take place on campus and/or across the Leeds community as a whole.

About your supervisor
Students will work with John Sinclair from the School of Media and Communication. They will design and execute research methodologies to answer agreed research questions. John is a lecturer in Journalism who, in a former career, spent many days attending the courts, reporting criminal trials. Now he teaches rookie journalists in the basics of responsible court reporting. He is looking for a team of inquisitive interdisciplinary undergraduate researchers to investigate an area of online activity that is causing much concern across government and the legal profession.

Project outputs
Possible outputs include a group-work report e.g., a quantitative questionnaire survey of public knowledge of contempt law and/or a qualitative focus-group investigation into public attitudes towards the concepts of justice and/or aversion to information voids.

Historic Cinemas as Community Spaces: Negotiating Identity and Belonging in Leeds and Bradford

Priyanka Singh, LCS

Cities like Bradford (the first UNESCO city of film), and Leeds (key centre of film culture) are also home to iconic historic and cultural spaces such as Hyde Park Picture House and Alhambra Theatre, which serve as important sites for showcasing independent, regional, and historic films. These two sites are over a hundred years old, and their legacy is well recognised across England, serving as key venues that promote cinema as a vital medium through which diasporic identities are negotiated. Film festivals such as the Yorkshire Indian Film Festival, Leeds Indian Film Festival, Leeds International African Arts Festival, and Leeds International Film Festival act as platforms for negotiating diasporic identities. Through these festivals, unique hybrid identities and transnational connections are created and maintained. Essentially, these festivals showcase films in the aforementioned historic spaces, creating a significant cultural bridge that strengthens diasporic dialogue, identity and belonging, cultural heritage and trans-culturalism. The films offer a crucial lens through which migration, belonging, identity, and transnational connections are explored. This project aims to examine the role of diasporic audiences in these cities, emphasising how they engage with iconic cinema halls and recurring festivals as both a connection to their homeland and a way of negotiating the complexities of British identity and multiculturalism. Ultimately, the project will assess the geographical significance and patterns of cultural engagement of Bradford and Leeds in fostering diaspora connections.

Through this project, students will develop skills in archival research and the critical analysis of identity, diaspora, multiculturalism, and cultural heritage by drawing on a wide range of sources. The students will also gain professional skills in data collection, analysis, presentation, and the public dissemination of research.
The group will gain experience communicating with cinema managers, film festival curators, and audiences of these historic venues. They will also gain a deeper understanding of diaspora and multiculturalism.

Project Outputs
The output of the project depends largely on the direction the student group decides to take. The creative output could take the form of interviews, archival research, podcasts, blogpost or a report.

Navigating the Abortion Debate

Alison Toop, PRHS

You will be assisting the project lead in putting together a brand-new teaching resource for teaching the ethics of abortion to both philosophy and non-philosophy students (e.g. medical or discovery students) at an undergraduate level. Over the course of the year you will research both the philosophical topic, and different forms of teaching resources (including digital platforms), with the aim of producing an easily navigable and visually engaging teaching resource for this complex topic.

You will mainly be working with the project lead (Alison Toop), but other partners from the university might be brought in where appropriate (e.g. colleagues from the digital teams). Work will be varied, and is likely to include:

  • Researching relevant academic and non-academic literature/sources
  • Writing summaries of relevant sources to be used in the output
  • Researching pedagogical literature
  • Researching/trialling different forms of teaching resource to find something that would work for this topic.
  • Producing the output: a teaching resource to be used in PRHS and medical school teaching, which could be made more widely available online.

You will develop a variety of knowledge and skills during the project. You will gain knowledge of an important and continuing philosophical debate and of university pedagogy. You will develop academic research skills, verbal and written communication skills, as well as employability skills (particularly for those wanting to work in education).

No prior knowledge/experience is required. You do not need to be familiar with the topic, or have experience of teaching – just a willingness to engage with the topic and think creatively about how to communicate complex ideas.

There will be no 'out of hours' work on this project.

Project outputs
Teaching resource for undergraduates