A Dickens of an idea conveys research through the senses
Posted on 6 October 2010
Researcher Claire Wood decided that students would appreciate the power of the passage in Oliver Twist where Oliver asks for more food in the workhouse if they tasted the type of thin gruel he was seeking. So she made some.
We are so familiar with the story of Oliver Twist asking for more food that we can easily forget its power and pain
Claire Wood
It led to the exciting new, Sensory Stories, project that trains postgraduates to communicate their research with audiences in the wider community through appeals to the senses, such as taste, smell, vision and touch, and by making use of objects, public spaces, and performance.
The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) is funding Sensory Stories to develop the skills of research students in public engagement. The funding bid was developed by Professor Jane Moody, Director of the University's Humanities Research Centre, with an interdisciplinary team of doctoral students, led by Claire Wood from the Department of English and Related Literature.
“I first became interested in communicating ideas through the body when teaching undergraduates,” says Claire Wood. “Sometimes they can find it difficult to get inside the social and historical world of the books we are studying. We are so familiar with the story of Oliver Twist asking for more food that we can easily forget its power and pain.”
“When I gave students the opportunity to taste authentic workhouse gruel, they immediately understood the pathos of the scene in a completely new way. It struck me that the body was a powerful interface for conveying research ideas to different audiences.”
The initiative builds on the BBC/British Museum project, ‘A History of the World’, which uses manmade objects to explore global and local histories. Sensory Stories will host a training day in January for 60 students from across the country. Specialists in media communication, theatre performance and the heritage sector will lead workshops that showcase dynamic, interactive techniques for presenting research stories to the public. Groups of students will then take their own sensory stories to a variety of local audiences, culminating in a research fête at the University next summer.
Professor Moody said, ‘This is a fantastic and really creative project which demonstrates the vibrant postgraduate research culture in the humanities at York. Sensory Stories is also a great opportunity for us to strengthen links—and develop new ones—between the city and the University."
Notes to editors:
- Photocall: 3.45pm Thursday 7 October 2010 in the foyer of the Berrick Saul Building, University of York. Claire Wood will be cooking gruel for a group of staff members’ children.
- For more information contact Claire Wood (cew113@york.ac.uk) and see the blog (http://sensorystories.wordpress.com).
- The BBC’s ‘A History of the World’ website can be found at www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/.
- Each year the AHRC provides approximately £112 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from languages and law, archaeology and English literature to design and creative and performing arts. In any one year, the AHRC makes approximately 700 research awards and around 1,300 postgraduate awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.
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