Diasporas: Enhancing Arts and Humanities Research Program

1. This research programme is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and runs from January 2005 to the end of February 2010 with a budget of £6.3 million. Director: Professor Kim Knott

2. In October 2005, we commissioned 20 small research projects 14 workshops and networks (including ‘Writing British Asian Cities’ In July 2006, we commissioned 15 large research grants (from a total of 157 applications), including four studentships. See posters. Commissioning projects within the programme

3. In addition to projects, networks and workshops, other programme activities include, Programme database and email updates; Programme website, www.diasporas.ac.uk; Workshops for award-holders; Two postgraduate conferences, 2006 and 2008; Open seminars and joint programme events in 2008; Stakeholder events and final conference in 2009; A programme book, Diasporas: Concepts, Identities, Intersections, policy briefings, practice-led output etc. Programme activities

5. Research quality, range and coherence; Research engagement and dissemination (including knowledge exchange); Collaboration and interdisciplinarity; Monitoring and evaluation of programme and its impact; Improving public awareness of the programme and arts and humanities research; Embedding research on diasporas, migration and identities in medium to long term agenda (of AHRC and academy more generally); Key priorities of the Programme

6. Dr Kate Pahl (SG) Artefacts and narratives of migration: Rotherham museum collections and the Pakistani/Kashmiri community This project involved collaboration between two universities, Creative Partnerships, a museum, local families, a school, a Sure Start centre, and a visual artist. It explored ways in which museum practices and the collection of artefacts within a museum are both upheld and disrupted through the presentation of an exhibition of identity narratives. The exhibition, at the Walker Gallery Rotherham, was opened in February 2007, and a web-based version is at http://www.ferhamfamilies.com/intro.html. Other projects on South Asian diasporas

7. Prof John Baily (SG) Afghan music in London and its ongoing communications with Kabul and the Afghan Transnational Community Research into the dynamics of music practice amongst Afghans in London, and how through their cultural performances they communicate with Afghanistan and other parts of the Afghan diaspora. Building on work already carried out in Pakistan, Iran and the USA, the project focused on musical innovation, the feedback of new music from the periphery (the transnational community) to the centre (Kabul), and the connection between the creation of new music and transformations in the construction of cultural identity. A public concert was held in London in November 2006. Other projects on South Asian diasporas

8. Dr Joya Chatterji and Dr Claire Alexander The Bengal Diaspora: Bengali settlers in South Asia and Britain This project brings together historical, sociological and anthropological perspectives and methodologies to compare the history of migration and settlement of Bengali Muslims in the Bengal Delta region and across the UK since 1947. It will enquire who these migrants were, where they came from, and why they resettled where they did, and explore in what ways their experience of integration has been shaped by their different locations. It will focus on oral history accounts of migration, arrival and settlement, the imagination of old and new ‘homes’, and the formation of new cultural and religious communities. Research on Asian diasporas

9. Research on Asian diasporas • This project investigates the presence of ‘South Asian’ clothing textiles in ‘British’ culture in both colonial and post-colonial times. In exploring the processes of material cultural exchange between Britain and South Asia the research will cast new light on both the imperial diaspora in India and contemporary South Asian diasporas in Britain. • ‘Indian’ textiles associated with the colonial British diaspora centred on the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum (1850s to 1880s). • a parallel analysis of contemporary (1990s and 2000s) arrays of ‘South Asian’ textiles associated with the post-colonial South Asian diasporas. • engagements between clothing textiles from the V&A’s collections and contemporary ‘British-Asian’ fashion and textile practitioners and consumers. Professor Philip Crang and the V&A Fashioning Diaspora Space: textiles, pattern and cultural exchange

10. Research on Asian diasporas Thirty years ago, the workers in a photo-processing plant in north west London – Grunwick’s – walked out in an industrial protest about low pay and exploitative conditions. The workers and the leaders of the industrial action were mainly women, and the majority of them first generation Asian migrants to the UK. This strike became an iconic example of Asian women’s political empowerment in post-war Britain. Thirty years later, almost identical imagery was used in the coverage of the Gate Gourmet strike, a strike by workers in a food preparation firm providing airline meals for flights from Heathrow. The main methodologies include oral histories undertaken with women workers and the collection and analysis of archival and other documentary sources relating to both strikes. Professor Ruth Pearson and Professor Linda McDowell Asian women’s political activism: Grunwick and Gate Gourmet disputes

11. Dr Katy Gardner and Dr Kanwal Mand Home and Away: Experiences and Representations of Transnational South Asian Children The research explores how South Asian children in East London (aged 8-13 years old) experience and represent 'transnational lives', whether this involves travel to 'the homeland', or being part of families and communities in which people constantly move. It draws attention to South Asian children born in Britain, many of whom are taken on or receive regular visitors from the 'homeland', and are likely to have a significantly different perspectives than adults on questions of belonging, cultural identity and place. They are in transition, yet beyond popular assumptions of being 'between two cultures', we know little about their perspectives. The project involves collaborations with schools, local artists and the Museum of Childhood in Bethnel Green. Research on Asian diasporas

12. We are working with other programmes to organise joint events which will involve award holders and allow them to disseminate their research in interdisciplinary contexts. Encounters and Intersections: Diasporas, Religion and Identities Joint conference (with AHRC/ESRC ‘Religion and Society’ and ESRC ‘Identities and Social Action’), 9-11 July 2008, St Catherine’s College Oxford; Diasporas, space and the city Joint double session (with AHRC ‘Landscape and Environment’) at RGS/IBG Annual Conference, London 27-29 August 2008. Forthcoming joint programme activities

13. Writing British Asian Leeds- religion and food -