Research Projects

As a result of our projects, the School of Arts and Humanities has developed significant online research resources available to all. These include The Listening Experience Database (LED), UK RED: The Reading Experience Database and The Open Arts Archive. We also produce open-access journals, including the Open Arts Journal, New Voices In Classical Reception Studies and Practitioners’ Voices in Classical Reception Studies (PVCRS).

Our innovative and wide-ranging projects, working with a range of collaborators, include:

Psychiatry and the Arts in Nineteenth-Century Britain (PAN) Network

Led by Dr Rosemary Golding, this AHRC-funded network is designed to bring together scholars working on a wide variety of interrelated, cross-disciplinary projects in order to consolidate and develop historical understanding, as well as forging new connections with professionals in health and wellbeing practice, heritage and history, and the creative sector.

The Environmental Impact of Filmmaking: Using Star Wars to Improve Sector Sustainability Practices

The Environmental Impact of Filmmaking (EIF) project, funded by AHRC and led by Dr Rebecca Harrison, will explore different prop and costume making practices on Star Wars sets. EIF aims to create a range of resources that support the UK’s film industries in their ongoing work to improve sustainability practices.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Engagement Fellowship (EDIEF)

AHRC Funding Scheme Report 2020-21, led by Dr Manuella Blackburn, provides an assessment and commentary on the AHRC’s 2020—2022 Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Engagement Fellowship (EDIEF) pilot.

Reading Europe Advanced Data Investigation Tool

This transnational project, co-led by Shafquat Towheed and funded by JPICH, is building a large-scale, open access investigation tool to identify and share groundbreaking evidence about the cultural heritage of reading in Europe.

The Mobility of Objects Across Boundaries 1000-1700 (MOB)

This AHRC funded project, co-led by Leah R Clark, examines the history of material culture from 1000–1700.

Prison History

Rosalind Crone’s AHRC-funded project into the history of prison education is transforming our understanding of incarceration in the British Isles, from the early modern period to the twentieth century.

George Frideric Handel: Collected Documents

Enabled by grants from the AHRC and Handel Institute, the five volume project (CUP, 2013-) brings together the texts of all known references from Handel’s lifetime.

The Pelagios Network

One of a series of OU Digital Classics research projects, Pelagios connects researchers, scientists and curators to link and explore the history of places.

DREAMing Romantic Europe

This AHRC-funded project, led by Nicola Watson, developed a network of museums and scholars, and the building of an online exhibition, RÊVE (Romantic Europe: The Virtual Exhibition).

Beyond the Now: Social Art Practice for A Post-Pandemic World

This project co-led by Kim Charnley is fostering new creative, cultural and political affinities through investigation of the role of socially-engaged art in a post-pandemic world.

The BAME Presence in British Politics

This collaborative project, led by Amanda Goodrich and Suzanne Forbes, will produce the first database of Black and minority ethnic people involved in British politics and political culture more broadly.

Women’s Musical Leadership Online Network (WMLON)

This is an AHRC-funded research network which explores women’s musical leadership in the contemporary music industries and within music education and aims to interrogate the role which mentorship plays in developing women’s leadership potential.

The Votives Project

Led by Emma-Jayne Graham and Jessica Hughes, this project brings together a network that study, create or use votive offerings or other related ways of communicating with the divine.