The British Academy announces seed funding in partnership with the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to explore creative interventions for social and environmental crises

The British Academy has announced seed funding for six SHAPE research projects in partnership with the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation as part of the Knowledge Frontiers Symposium.

Funded by the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, the symposium aims to bring together early career researchers based in the UK and Germany from across the humanities and social sciences, to discuss themes of “natures, cultures and communities” and encourage collaboration and exchange between early-career researchers.

Seed funding has been awarded to a number of symposium participants to support long-term knowledge exchange across both disciplinary and national boundaries. Successful research projects explore themes of climate justice, cultural resilience, and the interconnections between art, nature, and communities.

The 2024 British Academy and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Knowledge Frontiers Symposium seed funding 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 Kevin Grecksch, University of Oxford

Dr Stefan Knauß, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg

'Landscapes of Just Transition'

Value awarded: £2600

The collaboration intends an exchange of experiences, methods and knowledge with regard to socio-ecological transformation in Germany and the United Kingdom, enhanced and initiated by Kevin Grecksch (University of Oxford) and Stefan Knauß (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg). Socio-ecological transformations are complex and far reaching processes of change of land and society. East Germany faces in particular the exit from lignite and the ecological and social sustainable development of post-mining landscapes by the introduction of new industries (eg innovative digital and sustainable technologies). While the United Kingdom does not face these large scale transformation processes, it does face similar ecological challenges requiring a just transformation. This relates especially with regard to how certain types of knowledge(s) such as local (expert) knowledge are being ignored, for example in water management, or in the debate around access to nature and land. An approach of “Just Transfer” is needed in order to confront social inequality and enhance acceptance for new social and ecological norms eventually reaching to Rights of Nature.

Dr J. Kelechi Ugwuanyi, Global Heritage Lab, University of Bonn

Dr Phoebe Griffith, Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries

Dr Olivia Arigho Stiles, University of Essex

Dr Emily McGiffin, University of Warwick

'Human-Animal Relationships, Extractivism and the Anthropocene'

Value awarded: £4206

We propose to begin a discussion on how members of local communities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America relate with animal species in ways that enable the survival of these animals in the past or present. We have identified some practices of human-animal interconnectivity in Nigeria, Guinea, Bolivia, and Nepal resembling what is currently being discussed within more-than-human relational ontologies. These practices take the form of kinship relationships and sacralisation of animal species in ways that protect them. We plan to engage these practices within the discussion of alternative approaches to conservation in the Anthropocene.

Dr Roxani Krystalli, University of St. Andrews

Prof Dr Sandra Fluhrer, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg

Dr Gilberto Mazzoli, University of Konstanz

Prof Dr Laura Otto, Würzburg University

'Arts of Tending'

Value awarded: £5000

This proposal has emerged from a shared interest in practices of care and arts of tending that enable life. The four collaborators will each identify a form of life (bird, bees, algae, seeds) and work to document their (or their interlocutors’) encounters with that form of life over the course of a year. Collaborators will leverage their different disciplinary positioning to bring together textual analysis, (eg of growing seeds, life histories, semi-structured interviews, visual data such as photographs, and more) to shed light on the many forms that tending in the Anthropocene takes.

Dr Emily McGiffin, University of Warwick

Dr Jonathan Jackson, University of Cologne

'From Berlin to Prague: Dissemination of “Natures, Cultures, and Communities'

Value awarded: £5000

Dr Emily McGiffin (University of Warwick) and Dr Jonathan Jackson (University of Cologne) propose to co-convene a panel at the tenth and next biennial European Conference on African Studies (ECAS) conference to be held in Prague, 25–28 June 2025. Hosted in this cycle by the Czech Association for African Studies, the ECAS conference is the flagship conference of AEGIS, the European African Studies Association. The theme for this upcoming conference is African, Afropolitan, and Afropean Belongings and Identities. This brings to the fore an important set of contemporary questions and perspectives concerning the place(s) and relationship(s) of – and struggles between – different versions and voices of Africa, Africans and Africanness in the world, multiply experienced and expressed across time and space.

Dr Emily McGiffin, University of Warwick

Dr Thom Pritchard, The University of Edinburgh

Dr Feng Schöneweiß, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz –Max-Planck-Institut

Dr Antonio Montañes Jimenez, University of Oxford

'Art and Conflict in Time of Climate Change'

Value awarded: £5000

The enquiry of this workshop focuses on (1) how cultures have both been shaped by the concurrent forces of war and changing environments and (2) how these lived experiences were expressed through art and literature. Comprised of early- to mid-career researchers from across the UK and Europe in the humanities and social sciences, the workshop will interrogate and explore human creation and destruction in historical and contemporary climate changes. Taking a necessarily planetary perspective, with researchers from a variety of disciplines, including cultural history, anthropology, art history, archaeology and other cognate disciplines, our two-day workshop comprised of presentations, roundtables and a museum visit with local curators will explore our pertinent and indeed timely investigation.

Dr Antonio Montañes Jimenez, University of Oxford

Dr Mats Küssner, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

'Exploring the entanglement of Christian flamenco music and religious experiences: A multi-method approach'

Value awarded: £4955

The project aims to pioneer an exploratory study on the role of music in shaping and producing religious experiences in the global Pentecostal Christian tradition. Specifically, we set out to understand how the soundscape of the 'Gitano Artist's church' in Madrid, a Gitano church known for its musical practices shaped by flamenco cultural traditions, contributes to the perception of sacred experiences as felt, narrated, and bodily expressed by Gitano believers. This innovative pilot research will employ a multi-method approach, combining ethnographic and music-psychological methods.

The awards listed are those for the 2024 Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and The British Academy Knowledge Frontiers Symposium. Previous award announcements can be found on the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and The British Academy Knowledge Frontiers Symposium past awards page.

Image credit: fhm via Getty Images