2018/2019 Projects

1. Evaluating the impact of #TimesUp and #MeToo on the subjects of the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures

The last two years have seen a proliferation of feminist activism, with the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements challenging harassment and gender inequality in a wide range of professional contexts, particularly in the arts, and in academia with #TimesUpAcademia.

In this project, students were invited to research this further; using SALC and its subjects as a starting point, they explored whether these movements affected research, art, performance, power structures, and professional practice. Students were given the freedom and flexibility to choose which areas to research and decide how to plan their investigation.

Project Lead: Dr Hannah Cobb

Students involved in this project: Asia Braithwaite, Isidora Cortes-Monroy Gazitua, Li Wanze, Ke Yang

2. Working with Holocaust-related sources

In this project, students investigated the global norms of justice. This project enabled students to research a range of Holocaust-related sources such as historical documents, personal survivor narratives, fictional literature and feature film, from an interdisciplinary perspective. It also gave students the opportunity to develop the basic methodological and conceptual skills for working with such sources, as well as the opportunity to pursue their specific course of research at local institutions including the University of Manchester, the Manchester Jewish Museum, and the Imperial War Museum North as well as in the wider European context.

Project Lead: Professor Cathy Gelbin

Students involved in this project: Harriet Fleming, Urussa Malik, Lucia Qureshi

3. Editing a Georgian archive

In this project, students worked with the Mary Hamilton Papers held in the John Rylands Library and edited letters from a fascinating archive of material dating from between 1760-1820. Students were given the chance to engage with authentic texts from the Georgian period and were able to produce linguistic commentaries and explore how letter writing of the late eighteenth century was influenced by linguistic change, social codes of etiquette, historical context and literary influences.

Project Lead: Professor David Denison

Students involved in this project: Chenming Gao, Paula-Jo Gaskill, Seren Gaeaf Morgan-Roberts, Mariana Sancho Moncasi, Daniel Speight