The British Academy announces 17 recipients of the 2024 Knowledge Frontiers: International Interdisciplinary Research Projects

Today, the British Academy has announced the 17 successful recipients of the Knowledge Frontiers: International Interdisciplinary Research Projects 2024 awards.

This programme is funded by the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation & Technology with additional support from the UK’s International Science Partnerships Fund managed by the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology.

This round of the International Interdisciplinary Research Projects is supporting international collaborations between early career researchers in the UK and elsewhere on internationally focused research projects of an interdisciplinary nature involving the humanities and social sciences. 

Professor Simon Goldhill, Foreign Secretary and Vice-President of the British Academy, said:

“We are thrilled to announce this new cohort of award holders. The projects funded under this programme will facilitate original ideas and policy-relevant insights from across the SHAPE disciplines, showcasing the importance of interdisciplinary and international collaboration. I very much look forward to seeing these projects develop over the next 24 months.”

The 2024 Knowledge Frontiers: International Interdisciplinary Research Projects awardees are:

Please note: Awards are arranged alphabetically by surname of the grant recipient. The institution is that given at the time of application.

Dr Ipshita Basu

Co-applicants: Dr Sudheesh R.C., National Law School India University; Dr Ekata Bakshi, Policy and Development Advisory Group; Professor Vinita Damodaran

KF8\230040

Planetary Health and Relational Wellbeing: Investigating the Ecological and Health Dimensions of Adivasi Lifeworlds in India

University of Westminster

£299,902.87

The project pairs historic, ethnographic and indigenous research methods to investigate how ecological, health and livelihood dimensions interlink in the experiences of resilience and resistance of adivasi (original inhabitants) communities in Jharkhand and Kerala.

Comparing two politically and spatially different contexts of adivasi resistance, the project will generate pathbreaking evidence by:

1. Documenting local adivasi histories of environmental change, collective action and resilience
2. Generating new evidence on wellbeing trajectories through a wellbeing survey and life history interviews
3. Catalysing innovations built on evidence and enhanced participation of adivasis, civil society and global indigenous networks to inject new ethics and concepts to the philosophy of planetary health.

Dr Caitlin Bawn

Co-applicants: Dr Kathy Sanderson, Lakehead University; Professor Linda McKie, King's College London; Professor Sophie Bowbly, University of Reading; Dr Irfan Butt, Toronto Metropolitan

KF8\230185

Marginalised Women at Risk: experiences and impacts of hyper-precarity and the growth of digitisation and AI in rural communities

King's College London

£299,993.59

Marginalised women face profound employment disadvantages, further compounded in remote and rural locations. The confluence of intersectional barriers in such environments places these women at an elevated vulnerability, at risk of hyper-precarity, causing deep concerns for their future and ability to meet basic needs. The burgeoning trends of digitisation and artificial intelligence further heighten the risks, with technological advancements already exerting a discernible influence on occupations characterised by instability.

Teams in the UK and Canada will use creative qualitative methods to explore key experiences and social imaginaries in this area. After in-depth interviews with women engaged in precarious employment (n=25), as well as employers and policy influencers (n=15) we will use sound-sourcing (or audio-diaries) to capture the voices and experiences of marginalised women (n=10). The data collected will be used to inform recommendations and provide insights into how to reduce inequities experienced by marginalised women in remote and rural areas.

Dr Neema Begum

Co-applicants: Tanika Raychaudhuri, University of Houston; Dr Hannah Thuraisingam Robbins, University of Nottingham; Dr Uditi Sen, University of Nottingham; Dr Nicole Burrowes, Rutgers University

KF8\230087

Inter-Minority Coalition or Conflict? Identity Formation and Inter-Minority Relations between Asian and Black communities in the UK and US

University of Nottingham

£298,908.60

Although dominant accounts of race relations focus on white majorities and racialised minorities, inter-minority relations are increasingly relevant as western nations rapidly diversify. Conflict and coalition-building between minority groups are of growing salience to contemporary life in the UK and US, where racial minorities navigate complex racial hierarchies. With greater access to economic and political resources, British Asians and Asian Americans are upheld as ‘model minorities’. Meanwhile, other minorities including Black British people and African Americans are often stigmatised.

This research will identify where interracial convergence and divergence exist in social and political attitudes, memory and popular representations. We will analyse the role of social values, local community memory-making and representations of inter-racial relationships and lived experiences of minoritisation in popular culture in shaping inter-minority relations.

Dr Radhika Borde

Co-applicants: Dr Asa Roast, University of Leeds; Dr Saurav Chakraborty, Presidency University

KF8\230147

Reframing the Urban via Southern Spatial Religiosities: Mapping Sufi Geographies in the Indian National Capital Region

University of Leeds

£144,461.22

This research project studies how real estate capital, Sufism-inflected vernacular Islam, and competing political religiosities shape urban space in the National Capital Region in India. This is a region that has functioned as a centre of Sufism for several centuries, made spatially manifest by the presence of dargahs (shrines to Sufi saints) and roadside mazaars (lesser Sufi shrines). It is also a region that is facing rapid urbanization and is a context for religious competition. At the same time, traditionally, Sufi dargahs and mazaars have functioned as liminal and syncretic religious spaces that draw visitors, worshippers, and devotees from diverse faith traditions. The research project’s central premise is that the National Capital Region in India is a critical case and ideal space in the Global South from which to think and re-think the urban.

Dr Joanna Demaree-Cotton

Co-applicants: Dr Carme Isern-Mas, University of the Balearic Islands; Dr April Bailey, University of New Hampshire; Brian Earp, National University of Singapore

KF8\230096

Gendered Conceptions of Autonomous Consent: A Philosophical, Psychological and Linguistic Investigation Across Cultures

University of Oxford

£296,980.57

According to the principle of informed consent, autonomous persons have the right to make their own decisions regarding their bodies, lives and medical treatment. If a person is deemed not to be autonomous, others may make paternalistic decisions on that person’s behalf based on what is thought to be in that person’s best interests. However, research on gender stereotypes suggest that women are stereotyped as less agentic, less rational, and more emotional - traits that are associated with lower degrees of autonomy.

Meanwhile, threats to women’s autonomy in medical domains (e.g. high rates of reported unconsented to interventions during childbirth) and sexual domains (e.g. unconsented sexual touching documented by the #metoo, #SeAcabó movements) are widely reported. Our project bridges philosophy, social psychology and linguistics to investigate how gender stereotypes in different cultures affect the extent to which women are perceived to be autonomous and capable of making their own decisions.

Dr Isabelle Gapp

Co-applicant: Dr Sarah Cooley, University of Oregon

KF8\230008

From the Floe Edge: Visualising Local Sea Ice Change in Kinngait, Nunavut

University of Aberdeen

£259,117.32

For many Arctic communities and ecosystems, one of the most impactful consequences of climate warming is the deterioration of coastal sea ice which forms along the coastline during winter and spring. This sea ice is of immense importance to Indigenous Arctic residents, humans and animals alike, and experiences of coastal sea ice and the floe edge are seen as inherently local. Through printmaking and drawing, alongside satellite imagery, From the Floe Edge represents novel art historical and geographical research into the stories, memories, science, and visual histories of local sea ice conditions.

In collaboration with Canada’s longest running print studio Kinngait Studios in Nunavut, we explore how a community-led and visually-oriented study of the sea ice and floe edge surrounding Kinngait might help inform understandings of past, present, and future sea ice conditions.

Dr Jamelia Harris

Co-applicant: Dr Dexnell Peters, University of the West Indies (Mona)

KF8\230034

Colonial legacies and the labour market in the English-speaking Caribbean

University of Warwick

£246,511.13

The proposed research aims to explore how colonial legacies continue to shape the labour market in the Caribbean. The project combines historical and economic analysis to link the past to the present. The research will first unpack how British governance during the colonial period (1800-1960) shaped:

1. the structure of the economy
2. Relationships between different groups
3. Aspirations of the people – factors important to the labour market.

These three factors will be explored in the post-independence period to present day, teasing out patterns of continuation versus divergence. The third component of the project will be forwardlooking, exploring aspirations of young Caribbean people.

The focus will be on Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. Current academic and policy discourse have shone a light on the decolonisation agenda. This project will inform these debates by providing evidence on how long-standing colonial institutions may still influence present day society.

Mrs Catarina Heeckt

Co-applicants: Sofia Greaves, University of Vigo; Elisa Schramm, University of Amsterdam

KF8\230018

Towards post-growth cities: the cultural politics of mobility transitions in Barcelona and London

London School of Economics and Political Science

£298,546.00

Post-growth planning is an urgent new paradigm seeking to reorient urban development goals away from economic growth and towards ecological and social well-being. So far, however, this emerging field has overlooked the fundamental role of cultural politics in enabling such a shift. In response, our research foregrounds 'the cultural' as a vital site of political struggles over meaning and applies this to the recent backlash against progressive urban mobility initiatives, focusing on Superblocks in Barcelona and Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods in London.

Combining ethnographic work and participatory workshops with a novel interdisciplinary analysis of urban history, affect and imaginaries, we aim to bring new humanities-informed perspectives to questions of post-growth urban transitions usually dominated by social-scientific and technical disciplines. In doing so, we seek to find innovative pathways for communities to overcome polarisation and collectively re-imagine an alternative cultural politics of urban change that engages with the transformative potential of post-growth.

Dr Pauline Heinrichs

Co-applicant: Dr Adam Lerner, University of Massachusetts Lowell

KF8\230136

The Production of Climate Justice: Towards Critical Actuarial Science in Loss and Damage Negotiations

King's College London

£248,011.00

Climate justice is one the prevailing challenges of the global climate governance regime not least because of the attribution of debt and responsibility. At the international and institutional levels discussions have largely taken place through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its loss and damage negotiations. Yet reaching consensus on principal questions such as organisational and institutional logics, beneficiaries and contributors remains politically charged.

This research project aims to address a gap in the current analysis of loss and damage negotiations by examining the assumptions behind the fund’s formation and development, including how its framers understand the relationship between calculating debts for climate damage and achieving climate justice. Based on interviews with policymakers, climate justice advocates and climate scientists as well as narrative analysis this project will build a bridge between normative international political theory and real-world policymaking, informed by critical actuarial climate science.

Dr Max Lacey-Barnacle

Co-applicant: Dr Martin Boucher, University of Saskatchewan

KF8\230094

Building 'common' wealth through just transitions: the role of anchor institutions in supporting community-led decarbonisation in Canada and the UK

University of Sussex

£297,502.00

This proposal will advance new research on Community Wealth Building (CWB) and just transitions via a novel UK-Canada partnership, bringing together the Universities of Sussex & Saskatchewan, key CWB & local energy actors and local governments. Over 2 years, we will provide the first in-depth international comparative analysis for using CWB to support green economies in the UK and Canada, whilst bringing together just transitions (humanities) and CWB and energy transitions (social sciences/policy) theory in a uniquely interdisciplinary research project.

Using literature reviews, research briefs, policy analysis, deliberative workshops, research visits and interviews with experts in the UK & Canada, we will explore how ‘anchor institutions’ – large public organisations rooted in local economies - can support decarbonisation that builds community wealth. The research will produce an original multi-author book, high-impact journal publications, facilitate international knowledge exchange & develop cutting-edge transferable toolkits for using CWB to support just transitions.

Dr Farah Mihlar

Co-applicant: Dr Carmen Hassoun Abou Jaoude, University Saint-Joseph of Beirut

KF8\230078

Sustaining struggles and working towards transformative change – women activists and transitional justice in Lebanon and Sri Lanka

Oxford Brookes University

£299,927.52

Scholarly work has demonstrated that transitional justice processes and mechanisms have largely been ineffective in achieving their goals of truth seeking, justice and accountability in post-war contexts and consequently fail victims of mass atrocities. While critical literature has attributed this to the limitations of ‘topdown,’ ‘formulaic’ global frameworks that are unable to adapt to local contexts, these models continue to be imposed and implemented in countries, often sidelining and undermining those at the forefront of justice struggles – women activists.

Through a two-country, interdisciplinary study inspired by decolonial approaches, this research co-constructs knowledge with women activists to understand how they respond to the denial or failings of transitional justice and how they sustain justice struggles in such contexts. In doing so, it will contribute new thinking on transforming transitional justice, including through decolonial and gender theory, and develop strategies on sustaining women’s in-country struggles for just-peace.

Dr Rishika Mukhopadhyay

Co-applicants: Dr Jen Dickinson, University of Southampton; Dr Saeed Ahmad, O. P. Jindal Global University

KF8\230129

Reframing sacred urbanism: India-UK diasporic worlding and nationalist heritage revival

University of Southampton

£282,795.00

Previous studies treat the imprints of religious nationalism on cities and the transnational practices of diaspora communities as distinct topics. Combining our interdisciplinary expertise across urban history, cultural and development geography, we bring these two debates together through three angles: 1) the historical spatial claims, conflicts and negotiations around religious heritage in pilgrim cities 2) the mobilisation of sacred narratives in the contemporary redevelopment of pilgrim cities 3) the connections between the UK Indian diaspora’s faith-based practices in the UK and their material contributions to local sacred sites in India. Our contribution is to analyse how the historic past mediated by contemporary religious urban politics in the present casts itself on the practices of the dual diasporic self.

Dr William Otchere-Darko

Co-applicants: Dr Raymond Talinbe Abdulai, Newcastle University; Dr Helen Akolgo-Azupogo, University for Development Studies; Dr Austin Dziwornu Ablo, University of Ghana; Dr Deborah Darko, Water Research Institute at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research; Dr Pauline Destrée, Durham University

KF8\230016

Energising Landscapes: lands, livelihoods, and energy infrastructures in Ghana

Newcastle University

£299,911.49

Energy availability and affordability are considered crucial in Africa and have been used to justify large scale appropriation and acquisition of lands. Despite Ghana’s varied energy sources, a history of inconsistent electricity provision continues to drive policies on new energy infrastructure constructions. This has resulted in extensive land acquisitions, displacements, and resettlement of communities close to such infrastructures, with broader livelihood challenges.

This project will focus on three geographically diverse communities in Ghana situated near distinct energy infrastructures (gas, hydroelectric, and solar). Investigating how different energy infrastructures affect everyday livelihoods, prospects for land tenure, use and accessibility will integrate local knowledge and values in addressing the multidimensional challenges communities face and in enhancing inclusive energy governance.

Dr Katherine Roscoe

Co-applicants: Dr Tracey Johnson, University of Georgia; Professor Barry Godfrey, University of Liverpool

KF8\230182

Ethical Digital Public Histories: Prisoners and the legacy of enslavement 1817-1970

University of Liverpool

£299,999.62

This is an ambitious and inclusive public history project, led by ECRs to create new knowledge frontiers, supported by a multi-disciplinary community which combines expertise and experience from the US and UK.

The lives of formerly enslaved people and their descendants remain largely hidden to researchers and the public. We argue that the criminal justice system, which impacted disproportionally and disastrously on racially-minoritised men and women, produced data which reveals the incarcerated as real, embodied individuals, particularly when innovative digital technologies are employed. We will first create a platform for interdisciplinary debate on the ethical dissemination of digitised prison data, and, second, create a public website which makes available Georgia Penitentiary data 1817-1970. This will allow schoolchildren, undergraduates, descendants of formerly enslaved people, and academics, to access data which was never meant to be revealed to the public, but which is an important part of individual, family, and collective, histories.

Dr Mike Slaven

Co-applicants: Dr Mayra Feddersen, Adolfo Ibáñez University; Carla Sepúlveda, Adolfo Ibáñez University; Dr Abuta Huizar-Hernández, Arizona State University; Evan Smith, Flinders University; Hamoon Khelghat-Doost, University of Lincoln

KF8\230123

Colonialism and Migration in Global Perspective

University of Lincoln

£228,000.79

Colonialism has fundamentally shaped human mobility. Yet analysis of colonialism’s influence on contemporary migration politics and governance is highly uneven, being frequently discussed in some countries with evident colonial legacies, while rarely in others. Amid claims that settler and ex-metropole societies are “converging” in migration approaches, this project redresses major limitations in these debates by deepening analysis historically and broadening it geographically.

Drawing on the humanities to excavate complex social meanings and identities surrounding colonialism, and on the social sciences to analyse how these are mobilised, this project analyses diverse settler and ex-metropole contexts on all six inhabited continents, many of which are infrequently compared. This project breaks new ground through a historically rooted, global study illuminating the complexity of how colonialism shapes migration governance today.

Dr Laurence Williams

Co-applicant: Dr Elizabeth Stewart, State University of New York at Oswego

KF8\230151

Fact-checking: epistemologies, public perceptions and automated futures

University of Sussex

£299,547.12

Fact-checking, as a distinct journalistic form, has risen to prominence in the 21st century as a response to concerns about a lack of respect for the truth in political debate and the rapid spread of misinformation across social media platforms. This project will leverage expertise and insights from the social sciences and philosophy to examine fact-checking epistemologies – that is, simply put, how fact-checkers produce, justify and articulate their knowledge claims. In the context of political polarisation, challenges to the authority of expertise, concerns about dishonesty in political debate, and the spread of misinformation online, the epistemologies of fact-checkers and how they are perceived by public audiences are topics of great importance.

This research will generate novel and impactful knowledge about how fact-checkers produce and justify fact-checks, how automation could change this, and how UK and US public audiences and stakeholders view different epistemic approaches to fact-checking.

Dr Ruth Wilson

Co-applicants: Dr Meng Qu, Hokkaido University; Dr Luke Dilley, Akita International University; Dr Laurie Brinklow, University of Prince Edward Island; Dr Ana Vuin, Scotland's Royal College; Dr Laura Hodson, Falmouth University; Dr Lucy Frears, Falmouth University

KF8\230027

INTANGIBLE: Understanding the socio-cultural dimensions of island population change in Scotland, England, Canada and Japan

James Hutton Institute

£278,941.51

The depopulation of subnational islands is a global phenomenon, and a range of initiatives aim at repopulation/revitalisation. Typically, these focus on increasing the number of migrants through improved jobs, housing and infrastructure. Less attention is paid to intangible aspects of shifting island populations, such as social and cultural change. Yet these socio-cultural dimensions are critical to the retention and integration of newcomers and the preservation of valuable cultural heritage.

To address this gap, we employ traditional and innovative methods in case study islands in Scotland, England, Canada and Japan. Following life history interviews with residents, we employ a novel ‘Photovoice+’ method, using photos, video and audio to give voice to experiences of socio-cultural change, to be incorporated into a film.

The project will culminate in island 'gatherings' at which the film will be screened and discussed, and cross-national policy guidelines co-created for addressing socio-cultural dimensions of island population change.

The awards listed are those for the 2024 Knowledge Frontiers: International Interdisciplinary Research Projects. Previous award announcements can be found on the Knowledge Frontiers: International Interdisciplinary Research Projects past awards page.