AHRC Impact Accelerator Award

This project will bring to life the eighteenth-century letters of the Canning Family Network (which include detailed references to Bath and the Assembly Rooms).

It'll do this  through creative writing and theatrical performance workshops with local creative theatre company Kilter Theatre for public visitors to the Assembly Rooms. 

Project team members:

• Rachel Bynoth, School of Design, Bath Spa University
• Bath Assembly Rooms 

This project will explore the development of an Our Town Corsham Community App intended to make it easier for Corsham’s population to locate the right service, project or community group for their needs, with special relevance for Corsham’s Deaf and Disabled community partners and visitors. 

Project team members:

• Tanvir Bush,  School of Education, Bath Spa University
• Corsham Town Council
• Same Difference
• Corsham Connections
• Praminda Caleb-Solly, Professor of Embodied Intelligence, Nottingham University
• Jason Leake, Smart Metrics Ltd

The Radical Trust project aims to work with Fairfield House to think critically about equitable models for partnership work, drawing on Fairfield House’s experiences to uncover and critique any assumptions and colonising modes of thought.

The project will experiment with different forms of relationship-building and knowledge exchange and develop a radically decolonised framework for engaged research and teaching.

Project team members:

• Sarah Morton, School of Writing Publishing and the Humanities, Bath Spa University
• Jenni Lewis, School of Writing Publishing and the Humanities, Bath Spa University
• Fairfield House

Three ‘listening events’ will be held with young people and families from disadvantaged and minority groups, in community venues in Bristol/Bath, Birmingham and Brighton.

The project will hear and capture individuals’ views on barriers they face and how we might reinvent schooling, education and skills opportunities to better support their employment needs in a postdigital society.

Project team members:

• Sarah Hayes, School of Education, Bath Spa University
• Alex Cole, CEO at TIN Ventures
• Michael Jopling, Professor of Education, University of Brighton
• Richard Watermeyer, Professor of Education, University of Bristol

Pavilion for Plastic Dialogues aims to create a plastic pavilion for public engagement activities in Bristol.

Situated in Knowle West Media Centre, the pavilion will serve as a gathering space for ‘plastic dialogues’ and workshops involving young people, residents, local businesses and creative practitioners, connecting participants with the ongoing UN draft Plastics Treaty negotiations.  

Project team members:

• Ben Parry, Reader in Art, Ecology and Social Practice, Bath Spa University
• Knowle West Media Centre
• Plastics Treaty Analysis Working Group

Objects Without Borders investigates the role of puppetry and object performance in connecting people across borders, boundaries and differences, with a focus on using digital spaces to connect people who would not normally be able to connect.

The project draws on the knowledge and experience of people living on and between the borders and boundaries of society including refugees and people from deprived communities.

This phase of the project includes the development of a mobile app embedded within workshops that will be designed to capture impact data. 

Project team members:

• Laura Purcell-Gates, Reader in Drama, Bath Spa University,
• Seenaryo (a UK NGO working with refugee communities in Jordan)
• Dafa Puppet Theatre (a theatre company that runs workshops with refugees in Europe and the Middle East, based in Prague)
• Theatre Orchard (a theatre company that runs engagement projects with deprived and refugee communities in Weston-super-Mare)

This project aims to empower girls in Nepali schools by supporting them to create collages highlighting gender disparities in Nepal's education system.

These will be used to engage policymakers in gender discussions.

The visual narratives presented in an art gallery setting will foster meaningful dialogue among policymakers about gender issues, ultimately advancing gender equity and societal progress. 

Project team members:

Vandana Singh, School of Education, Bath Spa University

Nangi Village School

This project will develop resources to support Key Stage 2 pupils in consolidating and elaborating science concepts to develop rich, interconnected knowledge.

It brings together primary teachers, primary science experts and BSU research led by Kendra McMahon to ensure that the design is suitable for professionals working in real classrooms and is grounded in research. 

Project team members:

• Kendra McMahon, Reader in Education, Bath Spa University
• Primary Science Quality Mark
• primary school teachers

Working in partnership with a Kenyan team of experts in agriculture, youth development, dairy production, decolonising, and futures literacy, this project will develop two Future Literacy Labs in Kinangop and Ol Kalou.

The aim is to reimagine the future of the dairy industry in Kenya and the roles community members (women farmers in particular) envision having.

Project team members:

• Caroline Kuhn, School of Education, Bath Spa University
• Dominic Kimani, community leader and conservationist, Kinangop
• Mary Warui, community leader and value chain expert, Kinangop
• Julius Gatune, UNESCO Chair in Futures Literacy for the East Africa Region at Dedan Kimathi University of Technology
• Fisayo Oyewale, UNICEF Foresight Senior Fellow
• Geci Karuni-Sebina, Associate Professor at the Wits School of Governance
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