Recently published projects
| Project description | |
|---|---|
| Geographies of Orthodoxy: mapping the English-Pseudo-Bonaventuran Lives of Christ, c. 1350-1550 | Geographies of Orthodoxy offers a new account of an English devotional phenomenon and affective literary tradition usually characterised as ‘pseudo-Bonaventuran’ by modern commentators. Geographies of Orthodoxy proposes to examine and make openly accessible through the latest electronic means the entire material remains of the anglophone pseudo-Bonaventuran tradition. The handmade books belonging to this tradition that were copied, owned and read in the period have never before been systematically analysed, yet these provide a key means for understanding the aspirations and motives of the people who created and fulfilled the obvious demand for reading material containing such emotional and politicised representations of Christ’s life. The relevant extant manuscript miscellanies and anthologies also reflect the interests and identities of more than one generation of book producers, readers and owners. The 1350-1550 period is marked by many different examples of religious controversy and uncertainty, especially those associated with ‘Lollardy’ and ‘the Reformation’. Pseudo-Bonaventuran writings can be seen as offering an historically significant corpus, sometimes because of their role in the debates over Wycliffite translation programmes, or through forms of censorship and other responses to religious heterodoxy, real or imagined. |
| Buried treasure: rediscovering the Lord Chamberlain's collection of plays | The project began upon the long-overdue cataloguing of the Lord Chamberlain's collection from 1852 onwards. The pilot covered the decade to 1863. The collection for that period numbers about 3000 plays, including for example the British versions of Uncle Tom's Cabin and many farces and pantomimes with political implications around issues such as first-wave feminism. Cultured mid-Victorians agreed with G. H. Lewes that 'drama is extinct as literature' and ignored the new performance culture; these plays have therefore never been considered in either literary or social histories. The project aimed to make them more available for study, and to that end included key-wording of texts for catalogue searching, an innovation in the British Library Manuscript Catalogue. A spin-off project has been the transcription of interesting unpublished texts and their publication on the Royal Holloway website, which is ongoing. |
| Beyond Legalism: Amnesties, Transition and Conflict Transformation | Amnesty laws are an important but often contentious way for states to quell dissent, end conflict or shield state agents from prosecution. This project aims to move beyond legalistic debates to produce an analysis of the consequences of enacting amnesty laws during transitional periods, based on fieldwork in five jurisdictions worldwide. The website contains the Amnesty Law Database comprising materials relating to over 500 amnesty laws enacted since the end of World War Two. This database is freely available to all users, who are encouraged to provide further information to enhance the profiles of the amnesty laws. The website also contains brief descriptions of the jurisdictions visited and detailed reports charting the history of amnesty laws and related clemency measures in each of the case study jurisdictions and extensive bibliographies of literature on amnesty laws and transitional justice in general, as well as specific bibliographies for each case study jurisdiction. |
| Fitna, the video battle: how YouTube enables the young to perform their religious and public identities | In March 2008, Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders released a 16 minute anti-Islam movie called Fitna. Wilders had a hard time finding a broadcaster or internet provider willing to air the film, because his mere idea caused an immense global controversy, leading to death threats, violent protest, diplomatic incidents and fierce public debate. One of the reactions consisted of organised and unorganised video protest by young people from all over the world, who uploaded their reactions to websites such as YouTube or LiveLeak. These videos form the material for this research project funded by the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Program. |
| Contested Common Land: environmental governance, law and sustainable land management c.1600-2006 | An examination of the management of common land since the 17th century using historical methods of enquiry, and an examination of modern governance mechanisms and the emergence of sustainable land management as a discrete objective for the future of our Commons. |