Beard, Dr Lee (Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London)
“Living with Modernism”: British Art and the Domestic Interior, 1900–1940
This project will present a critical and historical analysis of the relationship between visual modernism and interior design in Britain between 1900 and 1940. By locating modern art in relation to the contemporary interior Dr Beard will provide a wide cultural context for understanding the promotion and patronage of the former that will in turn challenge the critical distancing of modernist practice from the domestic space of the home. Whilst considering the important ideological implications of artists’ engagement with issues of domesticity (including questions of ‘lifestyle’ and display), by looking at exhibitions, design journals, and other publications, Dr Beard will evaluate the manner in which the promotion of modern art during the period can be understood in relation to wider themes concerning the expansion of a consumer market.
Berry, Dr Mark (University of Cambridge, Faculty of History)
A History of Political Music-Drama since Wagner
Dr Berry will examine the interaction between music drama and political thought after Richard Wagner, with specific, although not exclusive, reference to the continuing importance of Wagner’s example and ideas. This project will, naturally, begin with consideration of Wagner’s conception of music drama, including the growing tension between political activism and artistic sacralisation. Particular reference will then be given to the composers of the Second Viennese School (in this case, Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg), and to other, closely connected theorists and commentators (for example, Theodor Adorno and Thomas Mann). Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron will be considered as an exemplar of the difficulties and opportunities provided by the Wagnerian tradition of music drama. Adorno will then provide a crucial link with the concerns of the post-war musical avant-garde: namely, the very possibility of writing opera in late-capitalist society, and the aesthetic and political implications thereof.
Brockington, Dr Grace (University of Cambridge, Clare Hall)
'No Man is an Island': Anglo-European Cultural Relations at the Fin-de-Siecle)
The early twentieth century was an age of national consolidation and rivalry, yet it also witnessed a counter-current of internationalism which challenged the model of the nation-state. Recent research into cultural exchange between nations has tended to emphasise the formation of separate traditions. However, Grace Brockington’s study of Anglo-European cultural relations at the fin de siècle will examine the internationalist spirit generated at moments of contact between artists, writers and scholars. Focusing on issues such as Anglo-German cultural diplomacy, the proliferation of international societies, the ambassadorial role of cosmopolitan individuals, and the spread of experimental theatre between Britain and Europe, her work will draw on a range of creative and academic disciplines. It will explore ways in which, despite growing European hostilities, culture exchange became a vehicle for constructive diplomacy between nations, and a symbol of the internationalist ideal.
Daniels, Dr Rhiannon (University of Leeds, Department of Italian)
The Reception of the Decameron in Sixteenth-Century Italy, with special reference to its role in the development of the Italian language
In the sixteenth century, Boccaccio’s Decameron was a key influence on the most popular form of fiction, the short story, and played an important role as a literary model in the language polemic. Dr Daniels’ research will assess the full impact of the Decameron on early modern Italian culture, and the debates over the use of the vernacular as a literary language in particular, by analysing the presentation of editions of the Decameron printed in Florence and Venice between 1520 and 1600. Material features (e.g. fount), paratexts (e.g. indexes), and handwritten marks left by readers will illustrate the complex and reciprocal relationship between the presentation and status of the text, the printers and editors who produced it, and the readers who consumed it. Vital indications of the role that the Decameron played in linguistic debates are located within these editions, for example, in glossaries. However, in order to pursue further the extent of the Decameron’s linguistic influence, other sixteenth-century texts, such as dictionaries and dialogues will also be examined.
Das, Dr Santanu (Queen Mary University of London, School of English and Drama)
India, Empire and First World War Writing; and Commonwealth Responses to the First World War: An Anthology
Dr Das will work on two related projects. The first will be a literary and cultural study of the relation between empire, nationalism and the First World War, focussing on the Commonwealth experience of the war, particularly that of India. Based on extensive archival research in India and England, and through a close examination of different kinds of war writing (testimonial, political, literary), both Indian and English, the study will examine the complexity of the colonial encounter, its imaginative impact on the writings of the time, and its relation to questions of identity, displacement, nationalism and cultural politics. The second project is an edited collection of First World War writings, archival and published, from different parts of the empire (including India, Ireland, African and West Indian colonies, Canada, Australia and New Zealand). Both will highlight the international and multiracial nature of the war, and intend to make it part of world (rather than predominantly European) memory.
De Visscher, Dr Eva (University of Oxford, Faculty of Theology and Oriel College)
Jewish Texts through Christian Eyes: The Impact of Christian Hebraism on the Development of Biblical Exegesis in Medieval Western Europe (1100–1300
Dr De Visscher will research the knowledge of Hebrew and the use of Jewish sources among Christian scholars in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Western Europe. Little attention has been paid up till now to the extent of this 'Christian Hebraism' in relationship to the development of biblical exegesis. By studying a wide range of Christian primary texts of this period, including biblical commentaries, polemical works, and multi-lingual Bibles, Dr De Visscher will assess Christian levels of familiarity, first, with the Hebrew language and, second, with Jewish thought. On the basis of this it will be possible to explore the role(s) of Christian Hebraism in the theory and practice of biblical translation and exegesis and to discuss the integration of ideas on history, prophecy and messianism in Christian exegetical structures at the time. Overall, this project will expand our knowledge of the history of biblical scholarship, Jewish-Christian relations and medieval language-learning.
De Wachter, Dr Stefan (University of Oxford, Department of Economics)
Option Price Patterns, the Pricing Kernel and Market Micro-Structures
Derivatives pricing theory has enjoyed a fair amount of attention in the press after the demise in 1998 of Long-Term Capital Management, the hedge fund managed by Nobel prize winners Myron Scholes and Robert Merton. In spite of its public image as the supreme example of financial wizardry, option pricing theory is neither based on black magic, nor is it a fully matured scientific discipline. This project investigates option price patterns in relation to the predictions of economic theory. In particular, the project will first examine whether derivatives are priced consistently with reasonable attitudes to fundamental sources of risk in the economy. Secondly, it will seek to establish whether deviations of observed option price patterns from theoretical predictions can be partly attributed to market micro-structure and liquidity issues. Both aspects have remained virtually unexplored in mainstream derivatives pricing theory.
Edyvane, Dr Derek (University of York, Department of Politics)
Quest, Conflict and Belonging in Political Philosophy
Conflict is necessary for community, not destructive of it. In contrast to prevailing philosophical accounts of community, Dr. Edyvane’s research project will suggest that the political philosopher’s concern should not be to minimise social conflict, but rather to recognise it and the important role that it plays in the moral life. The centrality and value of conflict will be articulated through consideration of the meaning of belonging in the literary genre of ‘quest’. Quest literature (such as Homer’s Odyssey) forcefully poses the question of where it is that we really belong: is it at the quest’s end or on the journey itself? These considerations will be employed in an assessment of the crisis of belonging which afflicts contemporary liberal political theory. The project will examine and question the appropriateness of Aristotelian responses to this crisis, seeking ultimately to develop an alternative account of political belonging as companionship amid conflict.
Enmarch, Dr Roland (University of Liverpool, School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology)
Ancient Egyptian Laments: Origins, Contexts and Development
This project will comprise a study of Ancient Egyptian laments, examining the genre as a whole, and its relationship with mourning scenes in tombs. The style and historical development of the genre will be analysed, as well as its cultural associations and intertextual links with other Egyptian genres. It will examine the occurrence of many rhetorical and literary features commonly associated with laments in other written forms, often with quite different effects and meaning. Egyptian laments will also be compared with those found in Ancient Near Eastern and Hellenistic cultures. Through an investigation of these links, Dr Enmarch hopes to provide a more penetrating and generically aware understanding of a range of Egyptian sources. The material has implications for Egyptian views of the afterlife, and a proper understanding of it can clarify the nature of Egyptian literature’s relationship to other pre-Classical and Classical literatures. This research, into one of the world’s oldest literatures, will thus also contribute to the wider literary history of humanity.
Evenden, Dr Elizabeth (University of Cambridge, Faculty of History)
The Decline of the Master Printer and the Rise of the Syndicate: The Changing Relationships between Printers, Authors and their Production of Deluxe Texts in Early Modern London
This research project will examine how the methods used by authors and printers to produce deluxe books changes during the period 1560–1700. In particular, it will show the problems faced by syndicates, after the breakdown of printing monopolies from the 1580s onwards. Without a single printer at the helm and a firm editorial hand examining the copy-text, these syndicates inevitably found themselves challenged by the problems of several cooks working on only one broth. Where it was possible, it would take both time and subsequent editions to get the balance anything near right. (An example would be the production of John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments, produced originally by single author/master printer, but from 1596 by syndicate.) Book historians have hitherto neglected how these syndicates of authors, booksellers and printers actually worked together — how they divided the work, finances, editorial and authorial control of a complete text and a multiplicity of interested parties. Through bibliographical and editorial analysis of both individual copies and editions of deluxe works, this study will reveal the complex methods by which both the books and the texts were produced.
Fontein, Dr Joost (University of Edinburgh, Department of Social Anthropology)
An Ethnographic Study of the Politics of Land, Water and ‘Tradition’ around Lake Kyle/Mutirikwi in Southern Zimbabwe
This research will explore the politics of land, water and ‘tradition’ in postcolonial Zimbabwe, in both the historical context of a dam built in the 1960s, and the contemporary context of recent land reform. Building on established literature on both the politics of landscape and the role of spirit mediums in the liberation struggle, it will focus on the deployment of a vocabulary of water and land in the rhetoric of power, resistance and the politics of identity of clans and individuals around Lake Kyle/Mutirikwi in southern Zimbabwe. Given the saliency of land issues in postcolonial states across the region, its focus on the relationship between national strategies and local responses will have important ramifications for land reform efforts in southern Africa and elsewhere.
Gascoigne, Dr Alison (University of Cambridge, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research)
The Archaeology of Provincial Urbanism in the Early Islamic Middle East
The archaeology of provincial urbanism in the early Islamic Middle East, especially in Egypt, is not well understood. Alison Gascoigne’s proposed research will investigate the structure and development of Egyptian settlements in comparison with that of sites elsewhere in the Middle East. Following on from work undertaken this year on the archaeology of Tinnis, I intend to carry out a survey of Ansina in Middle Egypt. The results of these surveys will provide a basis for the creation of a paradigm of provincial urbanism against which other sites in Egypt can be assessed. The resulting broadening of our understanding of mediaeval settlement in Egypt will allow comparison with that in other areas of the Islamic world in the light of their differing social, economic, political and geographic situations. Ultimately, I hope this project will clarify factors involved in regional urban diversity across the Middle East.
Gerwarth, Dr Robert (University of Oxford, Corpus Christi College)
Terrorism in Weimar Germany: The Organisation Consul
Dr Gerwarth’s research project will examine the nature of violent political extremism in Weimar Germany. In particular, he will analyse the origins, composition and behaviour of one of the most active – yet virtually forgotten – terrorist groups in twentieth-century history: the ‘Organisation Consul’ (OC). His research aims to shed new light on one of the darkest sides of Weimar’s political culture: an underworld of secret societies, conspiracies and political assassinations. In so doing, the project seeks to contribute to a better understanding of a social milieu of radicals alienated from the political culture of their time. Furthermore, the project will investigate the OC’s legacy for the public perception of, and state responses to, terrorism in modern Germany.
Greiffenhagen, Dr Christian (University of Manchester, Department of Sociology)
What is ‘Social’ about Mathematics: Philosophy, Sociology, Mathematics and Practice
A frequent but much contested claim is that the natural sciences, including mathematics, are ‘social’ practices and that their results are ‘socially constructed’. However, it is not entirely clear how these claims are to be either interpreted or substantiated. Furthermore, despite repeated attempts to investigate these claims by studying the work of natural scientists (in numerous ‘laboratory studies’), studies of what mathematicians are doing when they do mathematics are very rare, possibly because it is both easy and conventional to conceive of mathematics as an intrinsically asocial and conceptual enterprise.
This project will provide, first, a philosophical clarification of what the claim that mathematics is a ‘social’ practice might signify, and, second, a naturalistic study that aims to extend the investigations of laboratory science to see how, in the workplace setting of university instruction, those practices present themselves.
Heath, Dr Oliver (University of Essex, Department of Government)
The Evolution of Democracy: An Over-Time Cross-National Study of Civic Engagement and Political Participation in Italy, India and Venezuela
The second wave democracies, which sprung up in the 1940s and 50s, are the first generation of countries to experience democracy as a swift transition rather than a slow evolution. Focussing on India, Italy and Venezuela, Oliver Heath explores how democratic attitudes and behaviour in these countries have changed over time. The main objectives of the research are three-fold: firstly, examining political culture and democratic legitimacy, the study will assess the extent to which there is convergence between countries in political attitudes, and between regions within countries. Secondly, examining processes of political inclusion and representation, the study will analyse the extent to which previously marginalised social groups have been incorporated in the democratic system. Thirdly, examining the extent to which party systems reflect social cleavages and social diversity, the study will analyse the dynamics of political inclusion and representation and its impact on electoral volatility and political stability. The study will help to shed light on how the socio-cultural setting influences practices and attitudes towards democracy and also how the experience of democracy shapes attitudes and behaviour.
Joncus, Dr Berta (University of Oxford, Faculty of Music and St Catherine’s College)
Staging the Street Ballad: The Eighteenth-Century Origins of Mass Popular Music
Recent studies have revealed the extent to which the rise in popular literacy and in theatre publications during the eighteenth century revolutionized the marketing of the London stage. My research project explores how this dynamic engendered the earliest form of modern ‘pop music’. Key to this development was the flourishing from 1728 of ballad opera, a genre in which familiar tunes were for the first time wedded to the nascent industry of the star performer. Ballad opera incorporated three novel practices through which players could establish themselves as popular singers: first, it allowed vocalists to adopt the ‘natural’ voice of street ballad singers; second, it combined ballads with a speech act in which the vocalist commented on social issues of the day; and third, it absorbed and re-invented music by renowned composers – particularly Handel – for audiences seeking ‘low’ entertainment. Although the vogue for ballad opera proved fleeting, the means established by this genre for marketing singers continued to be used by later composers. The history of ballad opera shows how vocal music could be composed by the star persona for which it was designed, and how the period’s embryonic popular song market re-defined the boundaries between ‘low’ and ‘high’ style.
Kapila, Dr Kriti (University of Cambridge, Department of Social Anthropology)
Gaddi Cultural Politics and the Indian State: An Anthropological Study of Liberal Multiculturalism
Dr. Kapila’s research aims to develop a critical approach to cultural politics in anthropology, as well as laying the ground for a new theoretical approach to the anthropology of rights. It will investigate how and why the Gaddi (a pastoral group in North India) were successful in forcing the Indian state to reclassify them as a ‘Scheduled Tribe’ in 2002, thereby granting them specific entitlements and rights with regard to aid, education and jobs. Central to the project is the question of why the Gaddi finally gained recognition of their tribal status at an historical juncture when their distinctive way of life is less evident than before. Exploring the history of the struggle, it will examine why their identity politics fractures along class, generation and gender. It will study the emergence of a public sphere that redefines both Gaddi identity and the politics of redistributive justice for the Indian state
Kaufmann, Dr Juergen M (University of Glasgow, Department of Psychology)
Developing and Testing Cognitive Models of Face Learning by Using Event-Related Brain Potentials (ERPs)
Using methods from cognitive psychology and neurophysiology, Dr Kaufmann’s research will explore the formation of face representations. There is a dramatic discrepancy between our ability to process familiar and unfamiliar faces: while familiar faces are recognized effortlessly even from low-quality stimuli, the processing of unfamiliar faces is remarkably poor. Even relatively simple tasks such as face matching pose substantial problems if viewpoint or expression is changed. This suggests that the processing of unfamiliar faces is based on relatively low-level pictorial descriptions while representations of familiar faces are stable, but do show a certain degree of pictorial independence. Surprisingly little is known about how new representations of faces are formed and updated. Finding brain processes that are specific for familiar faces and develop during learning will considerably contribute to the understanding of face familiarisation. This research will also look at contributions of semantic and voice information on face learning and interactions between the brain systems involved.
Lunn-Rockliffe, Dr Katherine (University of Oxford, Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages & St Anne’s College)
Victor Hugo’s Poetry: The Art of Dynamism
Dr Lunn-Rockliffe’s project aims to rehabilitate the poetry of Victor Hugo, by showing how his ideas of progress and prophecy drive his aesthetic of length and continuity. Poetry is a neglected part of Hugo’s vast output and its eloquence tends to arouse suspicion, so it is now necessary to find a critical language for the fluency at which he excelled. Using the fertile concept of dynamism as a guiding principle, this study will link the forward impetus of his verse lines and the force of his voice to his political activism and Romantic quest for cosmic understanding. To this end, it will draw on theories of the relationship between politics and culture, methodologies of close reading, and recent work on French prosody. By engaging closely with the key texts of Hugo’s exile years, it will show how he pushes the medium of verse to its limit. Since his innovations are crucial to an understanding of his successors, this research will help to explain why he exerted such an influence and contribute to an understanding of his impact on the century as a whole.
Meeks, Dr Roland (University of Oxford, Department of Economics and Nuffield College)
Applications of Dynamic Macroeconomic Theory to Macroeconomic Performance and Asset Pricing
Dr Meeks' research interests lie in the related fields of dynamic macroeconomic theory, asset pricing and econometrics. His research seeks to answer both methodological and applied questions. First, Dr Meeks will examine how agreement between the predictions of theory and the macroeconomic data can be improved. This involves consideration of econometric methods, in particular how to determine an appropriate mix of model calibration and estimation, and how to judge the relative success of one model versus another. Substantive applications to recent macroeconomic performance will be analysed. Second, the asset pricing implications of macroeconomic models with multiple sources of risk and limited insurance possibilities will be investigated. The importance of asset price fluctuations for general macroeconomic conditions will then be quantified, and the significance of these fluctuations for policy assessed.
Morrison, Dr Claudio (University of Warwick, Department of Sociology)
Transition in Question: Case Studies of Labour Relations in Selected CIS Companies
Dr Morrison will research the dynamics of shop-floor management and labour relations in new private, and particularly foreign-owned, enterprises in former socialist countries. The research will build on the knowledge and experience accumulated through his doctoral research on former state textile enterprises in Russia and his more recent research undertaken while a CEP Visiting Fellow in Moldova and Ukraine. The research will ascertain to what extent new private firms display behaviour similar to that of state and privatised enterprises in terms of reliance on traditional soviet managerial practices, which has proved particularly detrimental to the achievement of significant enterprise restructuring. The findings will contribute to establishing whether enterprise restructuring can be achieved by reformed management and corporate structures or rather requires deeper social and organisational change. The proposed research will be based on the use of the case study method, which uses a wide range of qualitative sociological and ethnographic research techniques.
Moutu, Dr Andrew (University of Cambridge, Department of Social Anthropology and Girton College)
Towards an Ontology of Relationships and Ownership
This proposed research draws on philosophical concepts to interrogate certain anthropological assumptions about the intertwined nature of ‘relationships’ and ‘ownership’. ‘Ownership’ is often seen as a function of ‘relationships’ while ‘relationships’ are conceptualized as a matter of contingency and as an analytical variable employed in the service of epistemology. A lacuna exists in conceptualizing ‘ownership’ and ‘relationships’ ontologically. I aspire to address this gap. Taking a metaphysical view of necessary causation, my Iatmul (PNG) ethnographic data and other comparative material will be marshaled to demonstrate the causative agency of ‘ownership’ and ‘relationships’. I will expand upon the Iatmul notion of ‘paired brothers’ that characterize their ideas of kinship, gender, personhood, myth and ritual to disclose ‘relationships’ as an internal necessity anchored within an ontological process of becoming the other brother. A discussion of ‘ownership’ in Iatmul naming system and initiation ritual will be used to show how ownership perpetuates itself.
Oltean, Dr Ioana (University of Glasgow, Department of Archaeology)
Contextualizing Change on the Lower Danube: Roman Impact on Daco-Getic Landscapes
The study will address the changing character of Roman imperial power and administration and evaluate the nature and impact of conquest and colonisation on the transformation of native settlement patterns. It will contextualize this process within a wider chronological and geographical framework, through a comparative analysis of a representative sample of landscapes in modern Romania with differing experience of Roman contact (Transylvania, within the Iron Age core of Roman Dacia; the Dobrogea, exposed to the Greek colonisation prior to incorporation in Moesia Inferior; and 'Free Dacia' beyond both areas). Utilising previously un-exploited research resources (new aerial reconnaissance; WWII RAF aerial coverage; declassified CORONA satellite imagery; Romanian archive vertical aerial photography), and applying technologies new to the area (relational database analysis within a GIS environment), it will examine both in-site and territory-wide patterns within past landscapes, both urban and rural, along functional, social and political lines.
Peacock, Dr Andrew (University of Cambridge, Faculty of Oriental Studies)
Islam and Society in the Medieval Caucasus
This research is a study of Islamic rule and society in the Caucasus, especially Georgia, in the seventh to thirteenth centuries, an area which has hitherto been neglected as peripheral to the mediaeval Muslim world, despite the fact that the area formed an important part of it for several hundred years. Such scholarship that has been devoted to it hitherto has generally been marred by nationalist or communist ideology. Dr Peacock's research, which is based on a number of unpublished and recently discovered manuscripts, aims to reassess both the importance of the Caucasus to the Muslim world, in which it constituted an important frontier region, and the importance of Islam in Caucasian and Georgian history, over which it continued to exert a significant influence long after Christian Georgian rulers had reasserted their control over the region. This research aims to cut across the artificial modern frontiers that have defined much contemporary scholarship on the region to allow a more nuanced and accurate interpretation both of Caucasian history and of the region's role in the Islamic world as a whole.
Pons-Sanz, Dr Sara (University of Nottingham, School of English Studies)
Norsified Vocabulary in Old and Selected Middle English Texts
Studies on the Norse-derived vocabulary recorded in Old English texts tend to present a list of terms without clarifying the actual reasons behind each acceptance, the context of these terms and their relation – from a semantic, social and stylistic point of view – with native words referring to the same concept.
This project will explore the aforementioned aspects in relation to the lexical items in Old English texts which can be or have so far been attributed a Norse origin. The aim will be to establish the reasons which may have led Old English speakers to adopt and use the foreign terms so as to gain further understanding of the Anglo-Scandinavian linguistic interaction and the sociolinguistic and social factors associated with it. The results will be presented in a much-needed monograph.
The Norse-derived vocabulary in the Middle English text The Ormulum, last studied thoroughly in the nineteenth century, will also be analysed in this light.
Reyes, Dr Raquel (School of Oriental and African Studies, Department of South East Asia and the Islands)
Scientific Reason and Sexual Knowledge in the 19th Century Philippines
Dr. Reyes' study in biomedical history examines the interaction between western medical discourse and Tagalog notions of health, illness and the body, with special regard to sexual physiology and functioning. Drawing on a wide range of vernacular and Spanish sources, including folk traditions, travellers' accounts and ethnographic studies, Dr. Reyes will trace how local sexual knowledge and practices responded selectively and unevenly to late 19th century scientific currents. The study will examine the development of new diagnostic procedures, technologies and treatments, the emergence of European-trained Filipino physicians, and the growing specialisation and secularisation of medical care. As well as aiming to fill a gap in Philippine historiography, the study will engage with the work of scholars who have written on science and sexuality in other 19th century colonial settings, and thereby contribute a fresh comparative perspective to the wider field.
Smith, Dr Craig (University of Glasgow, Department of Politics)
Adam Ferguson and the Polished Nation: The Idea of Civil Society in the Scottish Enlightenment
Dr Smith’s research aims to provide the first significant analysis of the complete body of work of the Scottish philosopher Adam Ferguson (1723–1816). Ferguson was one of the central figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, a friend of Adam Smith and David Hume, and a thinker whose ideas have had a profound effect on the development of social theory. The core of the research will be an examination of Ferguson’s pioneering work on the concept of civil society. His Essay on the History of Civil Societyof 1767 is one of the first modern examinations of the idea of civil society. Drawing on all of Ferguson’s extant writings the research will examine his account of the historical development of civil society and his views on its internal operation. By developing a clear understanding of Ferguson’s civil society the study will contribute to the history of the idea of civil society and add to the current debate about the future of the concept.
Smith, Dr Kenny (University of Edinburgh, Theoretical and Applied Linguistics)
Language Evolution and Social Networks
Language is socially transmitted, and this social transmission leads to language evolution and change. The structure of the societies in which social transmission occurs impacts on language — new languages will only be born into populations with particular social network configurations, and social structure influences the differential spread of sociolinguistic variants. Language in turn impacts on social network structure — for example, people may speak so as to associate themselves with certain groups, as well as being influenced in the way they speak by the groups they belong to. Dr Smith will use computational modelling techniques to investigate the nature of these interactions between linguistic evolution and social network structure, exploring how social network structure impacts on language evolution and change, and how linguistic and social structure co-evolve.
Souhami, Dr Anna (London School of Economics, Department of Social Policy)
Governing Youth Crime
This research will explore the emergent system for the governance of youth crime in England and Wales following the radical restructuring of the youth justice system under the Crime and Disorder Act (1998). It involves an in-depth qualitative study of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales as a basis for exploring wider questions of the organisation and culture of contemporary youth justice. This will be the first empirical study of the Youth Justice Board, and of the transformed structures and processes of policy making in youth justice.
The research will explore why youth justice policy comes to take the form it does. It will examine the emerging role and culture of the Youth Justice Board, the nature of its relationships with other parts of central government and the local delivery of services, and the ways in which policy is disseminated and understood by those who implement delivery.
Staples, Dr James (School of Oriental and African Studies, Department of Anthropology and Sociology)
Becoming a Person in South India: The Socio-Cultural Implications of Disability
Dr Staples’ research will focus on how attitudes towards physical disabilities in South India are shaped by – and shape – socio-cultural understandings of what constitutes completeness as a human being. Ethnographic fieldwork with three distinct categories of disabled people – people with cerebral palsy, leprosy affected people and people with impaired vision – will examine how social aspects of disabilities are constituted from multiple sources, including mass media; development discourse; state institutions and NGOs; disabled people and carers; and political activists. It will also explore how disabilities are experienced, and reconstituted by disabled people in their day-to-day interactions with others. The resulting data will contribute to existing scholarship of South Asian personhood and the body, much of which draws on essentialised Hindu ideas about caste status, spirit possession, misfortune and pollution. Field research will be undertaken in rural Andhra Pradesh; in Hyderabad, the state capital; and in Delhi.
Stewart, Dr Laura (University of Edinburgh, School of History and Classics)
Government and Taxation in Early Modern Scotland, 1637–1660
There are only two certainties in life – death and taxes. This cliché must have seemed true to Scots living through the 1640s and 1650s. No study has comprehensively addressed how the parliamentary regime that took power in Scotland after 1637, known as the Covenanting regime, funded itself. Using largely unexplored manuscript material, this project will analyse how innovative taxation policy during the 1640s contributed to the development of an expanded, centralised administrative system. Consideration will also be given to the way in which the Cromwellian regime utilised and expanded the existing tax regime after 1651. Taxation has been identified by British and European historians as a critical component in the creation of centralised state bureaucracies. During the 1640s, the relatively small, impoverished, decentralised kingdom of Scotland embarked on a revolutionary experiment in government by committee, which arguably made government more visible in the localities than ever before. By assessing the Covenanting regime’s taxation policy, this study will provide a Scottish contribution to the debate on early modern state formation.
Subrahmanyam, Dr Gita (London School of Economics, Department of Government)
Government Growth in the French Empire-State, 1890-1960 (with special reference to Indochina, Algeria and Chad)
Our current understanding of the history and development of states is based on a conceptual definition which excludes empires. The focus is on nation-states, rather than empire-states. This narrow world-view extends to the empirical literature concerned with measuring and tracking trends in states. While many studies examine public expenditure and employment patterns in liberal democratic states, few track trends in regimes before they became states. A consequent problem concerns perceptions of growth patterns of West European states, many of which historically maintained overseas empires.
This study appraises French government growth patterns at an overall or empire-state level. It examines institutional arrangements and analyses public expenditure and employment data relating to France and three former French dependencies (Indochina, Algeria and Chad) from 1890 to 1960. The project has the following aims: first, to determine how large the imperial state was relative to other components of the overall French state; second, to ascertain whether there were significant differences in the historical expansion patterns of the domestic and overseas components; and third, to establish in what functional areas resources were concentrated, both domestically and overseas. The study will provide a useful, if somewhat partial, understanding of wider French state growth and development over time. Its findings will be used to draw instructive comparisons between the French and British cases, furthering our knowledge of both systems.
Watkins, Dr Elizabeth (University of Leeds, School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies)
An Analysis of the Aesthetics and History of Colour Photography and Effects in Cinema
This project will develop an analytical and historical archive dedicated to the aesthetics of colour photographic practices and effects in cinema. Although fragmentary studies exist and the effects of camera technologies have been tracked as a mark of historical context, colour in cinema has never been adequately examined theoretically or historically.
A detailed analysis of colour aesthetics engages with the historical specificity of the cinematic archive as a photographic material in which colour resolution is variably sensitive to light, liquids, deterioration and touch. This project will examine the psychic, somatic and poetic significance of the physical characteristics of colour (intensity, saturation, transparency) and colour practices (stains, dyes, scratches) for inscriptions of sensate subjectivity.
An analysis of the larger context of the affectivity, materiality and semiotics of coloration in relation to inscriptions of sexual difference and subjectivity opens a space in which colour, theorised beyond and as a supplement to narrative, image and enunciation, functions as a contestant paradigm for film studies hitherto dominated by the concept of the sexualised but disembodied gaze.
Watkins, Dr Jeremy (University of Oxford, Faculty of Philosophy)
Outcomes, Responsibility and Luck
People are subject to 'moral luck' whenever they are held accountable for matters that are wholly or partly outside of their control. The aim of this project is to examine a species of moral luck that arises from the fact that people are appraised, not only on the basis of their intentions and choices, but also on the basis of how things turn out. The role of “outcome luck” in ordinary moral and legal reasoning concerning blame, compensation, and punishment will be documented, and a number of consequence-sensitive legal doctrines, including strict liability and constructive liability, will be explored. The Kantian thesis that all forms of moral luck are unwarranted will be rejected, and a twofold justification for outcome luck will be developed which appeals (i) to sound principles of distributive justice, and (ii) to the role of accomplishment and success in an adequate account of human well-being.
Wedgwood, Dr Daniel (University of Edinburgh, Theoretical and Applied Linguistics)
The Inferential Basis of ‘Scope’ Readings in Natural Language
The fact that a sentence like 'Everybody loves some singer' has two readings (one versus potentially many singers) is usually explained by assuming structural ambiguity at some level, different syntactic representations being mapped onto logical formulae that give different scopes to the quantifiers 'every-' and 'some'. Scope thus becomes a fundamental property of linguistic syntax as well as logic. However, in languages like Hungarian strictly linear expression of 'scope' accompanies the linear expression of information-structural meaning, which constrains the readings of quantified expressions more directly, suggesting that at least some 'scope' phenomena are reducible to other factors. This project investigates previously noted but poorly understood connections between scope readings and information structure, thereby questioning the extent to which logical scope as such is manifested in human languages. Adopting a dynamic, parsing-based approach to grammatical analysis crucially allows for consideration of the influence of inferences drawn during processing, something conventional frameworks have no access to.
Yang, Dr Steffi (University of Cambridge, Faculty of Economics and Politics)
Financial Market Fragility, Regulation and Policy
This proposed research is aimed to apply social network modelling to study cross-market interactions and the related policy implications. The context of this proposed research goes beyond individual financial markets to interrelated multiple markets. Markets of diverse functions or regions are not isolated from each other, and they are often interconnected through different mechanisms. A change in one area has the potential of causing greater changes in many other areas. These rippling or contagion effects have provoked increasing interest since the 1997 Asian financial crises. Nowadays as local markets are facing more global challenges and regional coordination and cooperation are gradually taking place, the result is a deeper interdependency among market economies. The need for a better understanding on the cross-market linkage is pressing. This research should provide a fresh perspective that views cross-market relations as a complex web of networks.
Yoon, Dr Eun Young (University of Birmingham, School of Psychology)
A Direct Route to Action from Vision is Universal for Both Meaningful Objects and Non-Objects?
Many traditional theories of action selection emphasize that processes for action from objects are semantically mediated – that is, they require access to learned knowledge about particular objects, the contexts where they occur and so forth. However there is increasing psychological and neuropsychological evidence for direct (non-semantic) links between the visual properties of objects (e.g., the presence of action-related parts, from a given viewing angle) and associated motor actions (e.g., Humphreys & Riddoch, 2003; Yoon, Humphreys & Riddoch, in press). The planned experiments are designed to provide new information about the nature of any direct links between vision and action, so that we begin to understand how any direct route operates. To do this, the studies will use novel tools, designed to reduce any influence of stored knowledge, whose visual properties can be manipulated independently of recognition processes. Studies will assess the effects of viewpoint, motion and surface property on tasks designed to assess direct and semantic routes to vision, and the data will be simulated using an implemented dual route model of action selection.
Reckitt Travelling Fellowship in Archaeology Competition 2004
The Albert Reckitt Archaeological Fund was established under the will of the late A L Reckitt, whose personal interests had ranged widely over natural science and archaeology. The Academy decided to use part of the income from the Fund to initiate a series of awards designed to enable scholars who have recently obtained a doctorate to broaden their archaeological horizons and expertise through travel abroad — to sites, museums and collections — and visits to overseas institutions. The first two awards were made in 2000, and this year four applications were received and a further two awards made.
Daly, Dr Patrick (University of Cambridge, The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research)
A Comparative Analysis of the Neolithic Ceramics from the Niah Cave West Mouth Cemetery, Sarawak, East Malaysia
The main goal of the proposed research is to analyze the ceramic material from the Neolithic cemetery in Niah Cave, Sarawak, and situate it within the broader context of South East Asian archaeology. This will contribute to the current debate about the nature of Neolithic activity in island South East Asia, specially focusing upon the relationship between the islands and mainland, and addressing whether developments in the islands were the result of migration and diffusion from the mainland, or were part of a trajectory of growth independent of the mainland. This work will contribute towards the compilation of a standard reference for Neolithic ceramics in island South East Asia, as well as inform a number of debates about the nature of activity which occurred during the later Holocene in the region. The work will involve a detailed examination of the extensive ceramics collection housed in the Sarawak Museum in East Malaysia, in addition to a number of visits to both sites and museums around the South China Sea, in particular to Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
van der Schriek, Dr Tim (University of Newcastle upon Tyne, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology)
Impact of Long-Term Tectonic Landscape Development and Environmental Change on Patterns of Human Migration, Subsistence and Archaeological Preservation
The Reckitt Fellowship will enable Dr Tim van der Schriek to carry out a systematic research on Palaeolithic landscapes in Northern Greece. The proposed study will focus on the contrasting, active tectonic landscapes of Epiros and Central Thrace. These areas may have attracted early hominid occupation due to the repeated occurrence of nearby land bridges with Turkey, while extensive landscape changes took place over the Quaternary period.
The research intends to develop a geoarchaeological landscape model, in order to evaluate
- the impact of long-term tectonic landscape development on patterns of settlement-subsistence and archaeological preservation and,
- the potential for early human occupation and migration over Quaternary timescales. This study will provide an important resource for Greek Palaeolithic research, as well as supplying an unparalleled data source for modelling the influence of tectonic landscape change on hominid dispersal and evolution.
Substantial travel is crucial to this research in order to access relevant local archives and archaeological material, and to enable an extensive fieldwork program. The results are intended to be presented in map form and will be published in appropriate scientific journals.