Updates from early career researchers whose projects were funded by our EC3R programme: UK spotlight
As part of our EC3R programme in partnership with the University of Toronto, we awarded small grants to early career researchers in the UK and Canada. The aim of the EC3R scheme was to support the development of early career researchers working at the intersection of the arts, health and humanities through establishing capacity, connection and collaboration.
In case you missed it, we announced all of our grant winners in a previous blog. Read on to learn more about the EC3R-funded projects led by early career researchers based in the UK.
Space to Write Retreat
Laura Blight (Falmouth University) and Jessie Edwards-Thomas (UWE Bristol)
Aim
Laura and Jessie’s project aimed to create a rejuvenating space outside of their day-to-day work, where they could develop their funding and grant writing skills. They wanted to improve their ability to write compelling funding applications to help grow an existing project – the ReWilding Creativity Residency.
Making it happen
The first ReWilding Creativity Residency was held in 2022 and explored collaborative ways of working for creative practitioners. It embodied permaculture values, taking a multidisciplinary approach and challenging institutional ways of learning and creating. The EC3R funding enabled the co-producers of the residency to develop a Space to Write retreat, which in turn provided space and time to reflect on the 2022 residency in preparation for planning the next. During the retreat, Laura and Jessie identified key priorities for the residency going forward, namely accessibility and inclusivity. They also sought guidance from specialist mentors, including Daniel Regan, a visual artist and creative health expert, who helped them progress their ideas and plans.
Impact
The project facilitated interaction with experts in the creative health sector – both within and outside of academia. These exchanges helped shape the plans for a future ReWilding Creative Residency and were a starting point for collaborating with institutions on developing this project in 2024.
Toolkit for the MASc Creative Health Community
Jamie Eastman with Becky Floyd, Beth Woolley, Elizabeth Muncey, Ellana Hall, Elle Charlton, Lizzy Fretwell and Todd Henkin (University College London)
Aim
This project led by Jamie aimed to plug a gap currently experienced by UCL MASc Creative Health students and graduates when it comes to arts, nature and health research and evaluation. Many joining the MASc programme have a background in arts, holistic wellbeing, or therapy-based practice but not in research, so require support to develop their research skills.
Making it happen
Building on course teaching, this project dreamed into existence the tools creative health students would benefit from having at their disposal to increase research confidence. This was done via shared conversation, interactive activity, and co-produced ideas both in-person and online with a cohort of students, graduates, and teachers, joined by guest arts and health researchers. Through discussion, the participants identified the tools and resources that would be helpful in making ‘being a researcher’ more straightforward and started putting together a digital resource (website) to house them. The tools and resources prototyped included: a co-posted repository of literature, videos and audio; a peer-generated glossary of terms; a directory of active researchers and their outputs; a notice board for opportunities; and a gallery of relevant social media posts and feeds.
Impact
The project raised the idea of drafting funding proposals to produce a toolkit along the lines of what had been prototyped. It also fuelled genial and constructive interaction with teaching staff on the MASc Creative Health programme beyond the usual environment of lectures and taught sessions.
Mongolian Therapeutic Art: Tracking and tracing a shaman healer’s tunic
Elizabeth Turk (University of Cambridge)
Aim
Elizabeth’s project aimed to facilitate the healing of lost knowledge in Mongolia and China’s Inner Mongolian semi-autonomous region. It engaged a museum-based object once used by a healer to facilitate knowledge exchange between source communities and the carers of objects from those communities. Shamans in the Mongolian region of the past and today are practitioners of therapeutic art; they are ritual specialists who restore health in imaginative and individually tailored ways.
Making it happen
In March 2023, the research team behind this project met at the Centre for Material Culture, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge to hold an event, which was recorded. The event brought together two Mongolian curatorial fellows and researchers and focused on a 150-year-old Numinchen shamaness’ tunic from the Lindgren Collection. The research team set the tunic in historical context by asking culturally-informed questions.
Impact
This project highlights a novel approach to how Global North museums consider objects in their care from elsewhere. The process is captured in a short film, which shows highlights from the knowledge-exchange event and which was displayed at temporary exhibitions at the Inner Mongolian University and the National Museum of Mongolia. The film will also be shared online, accompanied by a series of blog posts situating the event, collection, and knowledge exchange that took place.
Congratulations again to the successful early career researchers that developed such interesting projects! We are grateful to you all for sharing detailed reports of your work to make this blog possible.
Wondering about the projects led by early career researchers based in Canada? Stay tuned for a blog spotlighting the projects funded by our collaborators, University of Toronto.
The EC3R programme was funded by the University College London-University of Toronto Emerging Global Talents fund.
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