Funded by
Anscombe, Dr Frederick SRF\170116
Reader in Modern History, Birkbeck, University of London, Department of History, Classics and Archaeology History – Modern History
In Search of Justice and Dignity: The Middle East since 1900
Awarded: £49775
I plan to write a book that explains historical trends and environmental influences underpinning the turmoil now wracking the Arab Middle East, Iran and Turkey. It traces a dominant problem of today, oppressively authoritarian government, back to the late Ottoman period. Highlighted as enduring factors encouraging authoritarianism are the harsh environment and geography of the wider Middle East, and damaging patterns of Western interventionism in the region. It identifies the origins of Turkish and Arab nationalisms in alternative ideas of how to preserve the Ottoman Empire from partition by Christian European powers. In combination with environmental circumstances, these ideas were to lead post-Ottoman countries onto differing paths of development, but politically the paths ultimately converged on authoritarianism. Running through the book will be the theme of popular demand for justice and dignity, first aimed against European domination and then against oppressive nationalist governments.
Armstrong, Professor Chris SRF\170049
Professor in Political Theory, University of Southampton, Department of Politics and International Relations Politics – Political Philosophy - Politics, Political Theory
Ocean Justice
Awarded: £42149
The world’s oceans are key to the survival of humans and wider ecosystems. As the land comes under intense pressure for food production and resource extraction, we will increasingly rely upon the ocean’s capacity instead. But many of the ocean’s resources are already in urgent need of conservation. To date, political theorists or philosophers have paid precious little attention to how their benefits, and the burdens of conserving ocean resources, ought to be distributed, or to what would constitute legitimate ocean governance. Considerable attention has been given to the resource wealth contained in or under the land, and on arguments for and against the territorial rights of states. Sustained interest in the ocean’s wealth is only now beginning to emerge. This project will develop the first systematic normative theory of ocean justice. It will provide much-needed guidance addressing important concerns about the exploitation, and conservation, of the world’s oceans.
Ni Aolain, Professor Fionnuala SRF\170094
Professor of Law, University of Ulster, Ulster University, Law School & Transitional Justice Research Institute
Law – International Law (Public)
Quantifying and Clarifying the interplay of legal regimes in the counter-terrorism sphere with Particular Emphasis on intersection with the Law of Armed Conflict and Human Rights Law
Awarded: £45000
The expansion of institutional and legal counter-terrorism frameworks, policies and practices following the events of 9/11 has been formidable. These normative developments were in part driven by the need to fill exposed lacunae in global counter-terrorism regulation. The pace of producing new and often transformative rules has out-paced the capacity for full consideration of the overall effects of sustained norm production on the protection and promotion of human rights. Equally the pace of norm creation in the counter-terrorism sphere creates real challenges of norm fragmentation and ineffectiveness. This project posits that insufficient attention has been paid to the consequences of wide-ranging counter-terrorism regulation on human rights and law of armed conflict standards. The project undertakes the first global mapping of these international, regional and local counter-terrorism norms and systematically analyses their impact on protection, accountability, and transparency. Policy implications support practical, deliverable strengthening of global human rights norms and institutions.
Obeid, Michelle SRF\170131
Lecturer in Social Anthropology, University of Manchester, Department of Social Anthropology, School of Social Science
Anthropology – Social and Cultural Anthropology, other branches
Migrants in Anchorage: an Ethnography of Palestinians in London
Awarded: £49949
In the context of Europe’s ‘migration crisis’ and Brexit, migration has become a volatile political matter in the UK, consolidating stereotypes about ethnic groups and exaggerating the figure of the migrant as a resistor to ‘integration.’ As the first anthropological study of Palestinians in the UK, Migrants in Anchorage explores the experiences of a displaced Palestinian Muslim family in creating a new home in London. In an ethnographic monograph, I provide an account of different trajectories of settling by documenting what I term processes of anchorage, the everyday practices that create a sense of holding fast in otherwise fluid times and places. By examining how these migrants established a distinctly Palestinian café, embedded themselves in their neighbourhoods, engaged in multicultural activities and negotiated their legal entitlements with state officials, the project explores how migrants anchor themselves in new social worlds and the part they play in shaping those worlds.
Pasternak, Dr Avia SRF\170153
Senior Lecturer in Global Ethics, University College London, The School of Public Policy Politics – Political Theory
Irresponsible States, Responsible Citizens
Awarded: £42471.84
Are citizens responsible for the wrongs committed by their governments? This question becomes particularly puzzling in several common cases: citizens who protest that their government is not acting in their name; citizens who were not alive when the wrong was committed; and citizens in authoritarian states, who are denied political participation rights.
During the Fellowship I will write a monograph and two peer-reviewed articles, in which I will develop a novel normative justification for citizens’ responsibility for state policies. I shall demonstrate that citizenship can be a form of massive collective action, and that when policies are the product of this collective action, citizens become responsible for them. This account will throw new light on citizens’ responsibilities for state wrongdoings across various regime types, between generations, and in the face of political protest. And it will ground a normative re-evaluation of some entrenched practices in domestic and international politics.
Shovlin, Professor Frank SRF\170069
Professor of Irish Literature in English and Head of Department, University of Liverpool, Institute of Irish Studies
English Language and Literature – Intellectual history - English Language and Literature, Irish literature in English
The Letters of John McGahern
Awarded: £43049.65
The project seeks to edit a selection of the letters of celebrated Irish fiction writer John McGahern (1934- 2006) composed over a fifty year period. Those with whom McGahern corresponded include family, friends and other well known writers such as Seamus Heaney, Colm Tóibín, Paul Muldoon, Ian Hamilton and Richard Murphy. The resultant volume will be published by Faber and Faber as a large book of circa 800 pages and will be one of the major contributions to the study of Irish and British literature of the past thirty years. It will act not just as a crucial insight into the life and works of a great writer but will also work as a history of post-war Irish literature and its close ties to British and American literary life.
Story, Professor Joanna SRF\170016
Professor of Early Medieval History and Research Director, University of Leicester, School of History, Politics and International Relations
Medieval Studies – Manuscript Studies, Medieval History - Medieval Studies, Medieval Latin, Palaeography
Politics and Script: Anglo-Saxon influence at the Carolingian court.
Awarded: £51215.84
This project centres on the role of Anglo-Saxon scholars and scribes working at or close to the Carolingian court, c. 760–840. It examines their influence on script and text, in books and monumental inscriptions made in Francia in the age of Charlemagne. At the heart of the project is an innovative study of the visual power of the written word, on the page and on the wall, and the role of both words and graphic art in the formulation of power in the Carolingian world. My research focuses on the epitaph composed for Pope Hadrian I (d. 795) by Alcuin of York that was made in Francia and taken to Rome, where it remains in St Peter’s basilica, and on manuscripts written in Insular scripts in Francia during this period. The research underpins and contributes to a major exhibition at the British Library and accompanying academic and public outreach programmes.