LEVERHULME SEPT16 NEWSLTTR

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Recomposing ancient musicA case study in Akkadian song

The Nawab of Bengal’s English familyPolitical, social and cultural worlds experienced

Frozen but not forgottenMicrobial habitability in planetary fluids

MARKING DEATHWITH ARTHistory and meaning of gravemarking in South Sudan

SOCIAL LIFE OF SPIDERSHow do animals evolve to live ingroups?

SCHOLARSHIPS FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATION SEPTEMBER 2016

WHOWASSATYAJIT RAY?Exploring the contradictoryidentities of the Indian filmmaker

LEVERHULME SEPT16 NEWSLTTR.indd 1 16/08/2016 06:38

2 September 2016

CONTACTSThe Leverhulme Trust1 Pemberton Row, London, EC4A 3BGTel 020 7042 9888 | www.leverhulme.ac.uk | @LeverhulmeTrust

For more profiles of current research and full awards listings, please visit theLeverhulme Trust website (www.leverhulme.ac.uk). To order additional copies ofthis newsletter, please contact Bahia Dawlatly at [email protected]

DIRECTOR’S NOTE

THINKING OUTSIDE,ACROSS, ANDBETWEEN THE BOXES

FUNDING UPDATES

SCHEME NEWS

Recently there has been much hand-wringing in UK science policy circlesabout the difficulties of supportinginterdisciplinary research (IDR). Why isit seemingly so difficult to obtain fundsfor such work? In what ways mightestablished peer review proceduresdiscriminate against grant proposals andscholarly outputs which embrace ideasor methodologies from more than oneacademic discipline? Do other countriessuffer from this malaise or is it a featurepeculiar to the British research landscape?

These are just a few of the questionsthat were considered by the severalformal inquiries that were established toinvestigate the difficulties of conductinginterdisciplinary study. The first ofthe resulting reports – Crossing Paths:Interdisciplinary Institutions, Careers,Education and Applications – has nowbeen published by the British Academy.I am reassured to note that the Trustemerges relatively unscathed after criticalscrutiny by the Academy panel. TheReport concludes that ‘The LeverhulmeTrust is … frequently cited as morefriendly towards IDR than other funders.There may be reasons for this linkingback to the trust’s philosophy, whichhas always been about problem-solvingand collaboration, stemming from itsnon-academic, company roots. In someways, being small also helps – the Trust’sinternal structures are necessarily flexibleand cannot be aligned in disciplinarystructures. …The Trust does not ask forbids to be cross-disciplinary, nor demandany explicitly interdisciplinary working,which means that the proposals it receivesare often better integrated and lessartificial than a top-down process mighthave engendered’.

This is an astute insight. Lately,some research funders in the UK (andelsewhere) have tried to design or shoe-horninterdisciplinarity into their programmes,but with limited success. The BritishAcademyWorking Group was surely rightto conclude that the Trust’s responsive-mode approach results in more robust andauthentic IDR than is typically achievedby artificial attempts to engineer pan-disciplinary working.

But this is only part of the story.The Trust’s reputation as a sympatheticfunder of IDR derives mainly from theLeverhulme Board’s appetite for (andability to fund) higher-risk proposals– at least when compared to publicfunders. The same is true, incidentally,of fundamental (basic, blue-skies orcuriosity-driven) research, and for manyof the same reasons: it tends to takelonger, attract less recognition, and carryfewer guarantees of being successfullyconcluded. Over eight decades, the Trusthas come to embrace a significantly higherproportion of interdisciplinary (andfundamental) projects than will be foundin the typical portfolio of (say) a ResearchCouncil, not as a matter of explicit policybut as a welcome by-product of the Board’sattitude to risk. The Trust Board can morereadily support riskier research becauseit is not accountable to the tax-payer forspending public money and because it isunder no obligation to represent or satisfyparticular disciplinary communities (wefund excellence where we find it).

The underlying message is surely andsimply that a healthy research ecosystemshould be able to accommodate diversemodes of study and scholarship.

Professor Gordon Marshall

RECENTLY OPENED ROUNDS

Research Fellowships of up to £50,000for three to twenty-four months areawarded to experienced researchers,particularly those whose day-to-dayresponsibilities have prevented themfrom completing a programme ofresearch. Applications are welcomedfrom established independent scholarsas well as those holding posts in highereducation institutions.

International Academic Fellowshipsenable established researchers to spendthree to twelve months in overseasresearch centres, to develop newknowledge, skills and ideas. Up to£40,000 is available.

Study Abroad Studentships supportadvanced study or research at a centre oflearning in any overseas country, exceptthe USA. Applicants need to have beenresident in the UK for at least five years,and should be either currently a student,or have been registered as a studentin the last eight years. The schemeoffers maintenance costs of £18,000, adependent allowance, and travel costs.Studentships are awarded for betweentwelve and twenty-four months.

Emeritus Fellowships provide fundingfor three to twenty-four months forsenior researchers who have retiredfrom an academic post to complete aresearch project, and prepare the resultsfor publication. The awards offer researchexpenses of up to £22,000.

Visiting Professorships are awardedto UK institutions that wish to invitean eminent researcher from overseasto enhance the knowledge and skillsof academic staff or the student bodywithin the host institution. The schemecovers maintenance, travel expenses andresearch costs. Visiting Professorshipslast for between three and twelve months.

Visit the Trust’s website for further detailson eligibility, closing dates and how toapply: www.leverhulme.ac.uk/funding


3www.leverhulme.ac.uk

Interest in rural modernisation grewacross Latin America during the secondhalf of the twentieth century; AnnaCant’s studies will focus on a ColombianNGO that pioneered ‘communication fordevelopment’, provided radio educationfor rural communities and championedthe ‘modern peasant’

Interest in modernising the countrysidegrew across Latin America during the latterhalf of the twentieth century, particularlyfollowing the 1959 Cuban Revolution,which allowed non-governmentalorganisations to argue successfully thatrural development was an essential tool toprevent revolutionary movements.

One such NGO was AcciónCultural Popular (Popular CulturalAction, ACPO), a Jesuit organisationthat pioneered ‘communication fordevelopment’. Combining radio educationwith study manuals and a newspaper,ACPO taught basic numeracy and literacyand championed the idea of the ‘modernpeasant’. From 1947 to 1994 its station,‘Radio Sutatenza’, attracted over 4 millionsubscribers and became a model in thirteenLatin American countries. While RadioSutatenza has ceased to exist, ACPO hasevolved and now offers education to ruralcommunities via the internet. Focussingon a peak period in ACPO’s activities, myresearch aims to understand the forms of

The sound of modernity: radio education in ruralColombia, 1960–1980

‘modernity’ that the organisation promotedin the countryside and how these werereceived by listeners.

Given the strong historicalassociation between modernity and cities,it is understandable that many studiesof modernity have an urban bias. Thisoften ignores modernity’s important ruralimplications. A detailed study of ACPOwill reveal extensive debate (in both citiesand the countryside) about the effects of,and need for greater, modernity in ruralColombia.This should support a richerunderstanding of ‘modernity’ in Colombia,incorporating its impact as well as its origins.

Since beginning the project in June2016 I have uncovered fascinating materialin the ACPO archive in Bogotá. Recognisedby UNESCO in 2013 for its contributionto world heritage, the archive includesphotographs, radio scripts and recordings,newspapers and over a million lettersbetween listeners and ACPO staff. Listeners’letters not only provide valuable insights ontheir feelings towards Radio Sutatenza, butalso capture unexpected details about lifein rural Colombia during a period of greatsocial change.

My research will contribute tostudies of mass communication and itspotential to drive social development.Mass communication is often incorrectlyconceived as a direct channel frombroadcaster to receiver, ignoring the

complexities or opportunities presented bythe space between them. A key factor inRadio Sutatenza’s scale and endurance werethe many volunteers across rural Colombiawho set up radio schools in their ownhomes and communities. Exploration ofthese radio schools’ role in ACPO’s deliverywill develop an important example of howexisting social structures can augment andsocialise mass communication.

The project is also highly relevantto current Colombian politics. Peacenegotiations between the Colombiangovernment and the Revolutionary ArmedForces of Colombia (FARC) are approachingtheir conclusion. It is widely acknowledgedthat rural communities’ demand formodernity will be key to maintaining peace.This ‘modernity’ is often assumed to meaneconomic security, better infrastructureand public services. However, this remainsan assumption.This and related studieswill help understand the demands of ruralcommunities better, potentially allowingpolicy-makers to refine their approaches.

Dr Anna CantStudy Abroad Studentship

ABOVE Esperanza, Puerto Lleras, Departmentof Meta, Colombia, February 1976, RitoAntonio García. From collection FT2519: radioschools, ACPO archive, part of the collectionsof the Banco de la República, Colombia.


4 September 2016

Lyn Innes’ biographical study willexplore the stories of the Nawab ofBengal, his son, their British wives, andthe political interests affecting their livesand the social and cultural worlds theyexperienced

OnMay 15, 1870, a Shia Muslimwedding ceremony took place in one ofLondon’s most prestigious hotels, theAlexandra in Knightsbridge. The groomwas His Royal Highness, the last NawabNizam of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa; thebride was Sarah Vennell, a 17-year-oldchambermaid who worked at the hotel.

The Nawab had left his three Indianwives in Bengal and travelled to Londonto petition the British Government forthe repayment of the money owed tohim by the East India Company and theBritish Government. In England he wasreceived by Queen Victoria, and attendedtheatrical, sporting and social events withthe Prince of Wales and other membersof the English and Scottish aristocracy.The Nawab and Sarah lived in Londonfor 10 years, and had six children. Theirmarriage was a contributing factorwhen he was persuaded by the BritishGovernment to abdicate in 1880 andallow the permanent abolition of his title.In that same year the Nawab formed aliaison with another maid and returnedto India with the four surviving children,leaving Sarah in England. When he diedin 1884, the Nawab’s will decreed thathis two sons by Sarah (his ‘English sons’)should be sent to school in England andreceive ‘a good Muslim education’.

Sarah’s younger son, Prince NusratAli Mirza (who was to become mygrandfather) married an English woman,Elsie Algar, the daughter of schoolteachers in Kent. She was a journalistand the author of numerous children’sand adult novels. The couple lived inJamaica, Paris, England, and Wales until1925, when, at the age of 48, he changedhis name to Norman Alan Mostyn andemigrated with his wife and two children

to Australia. There he bought a farmsome 150 miles north west of Sydney.To accommodate the ‘White Australia”immigration policy he had declared hisnationality as Persian rather than Indian.Nevertheless, he was known in the localcommunity as ‘the black prince’. He diedin Sydney in 1941.

This Fellowship will enable me tospend time researching the extensivefiles in the British Library’s India Officeand other archives in India, Jamaica,Britain and Australia, as well as visits tokey sites in these countries. I am writinga biography of the two couples – theNawab and Sarah, Nusrat and Elsie –exploring their stories in the contextof the political interests that affectedtheir lives, and the social and culturalworlds they experienced. Although theirindividual stories are both fascinatingand extraordinary, they also tell us muchabout imperial, cultural, racial, andreligious relations in the nineteenth andearly-twentieth centuries, as well as aboutmigration and changing identities in thatperiod.

Like recent books, such as WilliamDalrymple’sWhite Moghuls, my researchseeks to reveal new insights into relationsbetween the British and Indians innineteenth-century India, but here thefocus is on a member of Indian royalty,his conflicted relationships with Britishofficials in Bengal, his later marriage toan English woman, and the response ofBritish newspapers and officials to theNawab and his ‘lower class’ wife. Thestories of my great-grandmother andgrandmother and their marriages toIndian princes echo Cinderella narratives,but with a difference, and in so doinguncover complex issues and prejudicesregarding class, race, religion, and culture,all of which figured differently in India,Britain and Australia. The ways in whichthese two couples responded to andnegotiated inter-racial and inter-classrelationships, and the attitudes towardsthem, will allow readers to reconsider

The Nawab of Bengal’s English family

their assumptions about Victorian,Edwardian, and imperial attitudes, andcompare such attitudes and stories withthose that emerge from our contemporarymulticultural and diasporic societies.

With its focus on colonial andpostcolonial cultures and literature, myacademic career has been profoundlyinfluenced by the attitudes I encounteredas a child in rural Australia towards myIndian inheritance. I see this currentresearch as a kind of culmination androunding off to my career.

Professor Lyn InnesUniversity of KentEmeritus Fellowship

ABOVE One of the many caricatures of theNawab that appeared in the British pressin the 1870s. Published in Vanity Fair, 16April 1870.

LEFT Hazarduari Palace, image credit:Ariful Anam (CC BY-SA 3.0).



How do animals minimise the costsof group living? Lena Grinsted will usesocial and colonial spiders to study thisfundamental evolutionary question,comparing species and their kin-groupformation

Unknown to most people, some spidersform groups wherein hundreds ofspiders live peacefully together, sharingthe chores of hunting, nest buildingand babysitting. I will use group-livingspiders to study questions about howanimals evolve, which are relevantto our own and our distant relatives’evolutionary past.

A central question in evolutionarybiology is: how do animals evolve to livein groups? We know of many benefitsthat encourage individuals to cooperate,such as when wolves hunt in packs tocapture larger prey. However, living inclose proximity to other individuals –often close relatives – brings about anumber of problems. Competition forfood or nest sites may arise, and if oneonly has brothers, sisters and cousinsas mating partners, then inbreedingbecomes inevitable. How do group-living animals solve these problems?This is the main theme of my EarlyCareer Fellowship. More specifically Iask: how does evolution shape the trendto disperse, i.e. move away, from yourfamily group in order to minimise thecosts of living in groups?

Spiders provide an excellent studysystem for addressing this question.Although spiders are famous for beingaggressive, solitary predators, group-living has evolved many times in spiders,via one of two evolutionary routes.Firstly, the so-called social spiderslive in communities in the tropics andsubtropics where they cooperate incatching prey, feeding and caring fortheir young. They have evolved via adistinct route starting with maternal care,progressing into cooperation amongstjuveniles, followed by the evolutionarystep of losing their juvenile dispersalstage. At this point, siblings simplyremain in their mother’s nest and breedwith their siblings, generation aftergeneration. Hence, social spiders areextremely inbred. I aim to unravel thisinbreeding mystery. By collecting spidersin Africa and using state-of-the-artgenetic analyses I aim to reveal whether,in the evolution of social living, spidersmay have retained a small tendency todisperse away from their nest, in order tofind and breed with non-relatives.

Through a different evolutionaryroute, the so-called colonial spidershave come to live in non-cooperativecommunities of unrelated individualswherein spiders defend their ownpersonal territories within a larger web. Iplan to establish how dispersal tendencieshave evolved in this route to group-living. This will clarify how individuals

come together to form groups; how, orwhether, individuals disperse from theirgroups to find mates; and whether malesand females differ in these tendencies.To this end I will perform behaviouralexperiments in Israel and set uppopulation genetic studies.

Finally, a third type of group-livinghas evolved, perhaps via a combinationof both of the above evolutionary routes.I recently discovered colonies on Baliwith two closely related spider speciesliving together. Both species showcharacteristics from both the social andcolonial spiders; they show maternal careand cooperation among juveniles, butthey defend their own territories withinthe group. I will perform behaviouralobservations in the field combinedwith population genetic studies to learnabout these unique multi-species groups’evolutionary past.

Dr Lena GrinstedRoyal Holloway, University of LondonEarly Career Fellowship

ABOVE Colony of Cyrtophora spiderscovering an entire tree. Photo credit:Dr Virginia Settepani.

COVER THUMBNAIL Social Stegodyphusspiders cooperating in catching prey. Photocredit: Dr Virginia Settepani.

The social life of spiders


6 September 2016

Zoe Cormack’s ground-breakingstudy will be the first to investigatethe histories and meanings ofvisually striking Southern Sudanesefunerary monuments both in museumcollections and in South Sudan, puttingthem in the context of evolving waysof marking death in changing politicalcircumstances

For many, South Sudan is synonymouswith a troubled history of enslavement,colonisation and civil war: a country inwhich death might seem to have becomealmost banal. But beyond media imagesof conflict and humanitarian crisis, howhave South Sudanese people respondedto death through periods of chronicinsecurity?

During my Fellowship, I willaddress this question through aninterdisciplinary study of grave marking

and memorial cultures. My focus is anextraordinary group of visually strikingSouth Sudanese funerary monuments.These statues are traditionally installedin the ground above a grave or at a siteof commemoration. Carved from wood,often greater than human height, theyare either figurative or stylised naturalbranch formations. These artefacts arenot exclusively associated with any singleethnic group and were historically foundacross the entire western half of SouthSudan. They conspicuously mark death,identity and belonging on the landscape.

Partly because of their strikingappearance, these objects have excitedthe interest not only of scholars butalso of art collectors. A large number,dating from the mid-nineteenth tothe late-twentieth century have foundtheir way into museum and privatecollections. Examples are on display at

Marking death in South SudanTheMetropolitan Museum of Art in NewYork, The British Museum in Londonand Le Musée du Quai Branly in Paris,making them among the highest profileexamples of South Sudanese creativeculture in the world.

What excites me about theseobjects is how they speak simultaneouslyto the material culture of death,the anthropology of landscape andmemory and the historical study ofempire and collecting. My projectwill be the first major comparativestudy of this material, exploring boththe meaning of these objects to thepeople who produced them, as wellas the historical relationships that ledto their incorporation into westernmuseum collections, revealing how thesecollections are themselves entangled inpractices of slavery and the tumultuoushistory of South Sudan. The first gravemarkers entered museums in the mid-nineteenth century, during a period ofconsiderable violence and extraction.More recently, there are reports offunerary statues being looted in post-colonial civil wars.

I will be carrying out detailedcomparative analyses in museums,photographic archives, and privatecollections. I will also be conductingresearch in South Sudan, returning toparts of the country where I worked formy doctoral thesis and to other areaswhere large numbers of grave markershave been recorded and collected. I planto interview craftsmen and local people,observe current practice and record localunderstandings of the use and value ofgrave markers.

Through this research, I hope tooffer a new way of thinking about theturbulent past of South Sudan and howit has been perceived by ordinary people,through the lens of one group of artefactsand their creative practice.

Dr Zoe CormackUniversity of OxfordEarly Career Fellowship

LEFT A funerary statue photographedby E.E Evans-Pritchard (1929). © PittRivers Museum, University of Oxford(1998.343.5.2).

COVER THUMBNAIL Bongo gravein South Sudan (1926). H.C. Jacksoncollection, Sudan Archive, DurhamUniversity.



Claire Cousins and her team willventure to places on Earth that sharesimilar chemistries to environments onMars, Europa, and Enceladus; usingthese natural laboratories to understandhow microbial life is sustained underfreezing conditions

Our understanding of habitabilityacross the Solar System has increaseddramatically over the past decade, fromthe discovery of water on ancient Marsto subsurface oceans within icy moons.In particular, subsurface hydrothermalactivity exists throughout the SolarSystem, with huge implications forthe possibility of life beyond Earth.We are on the cusp of exploring theseenvironments via robotic space probes,yet we know little about how these placessustain microbial life and preserve theirremains within minerals, especially whenhydrothermal fluids erupt and freeze onplanetary surfaces.

To truly understand whether theseextraterrestrial bodies could ever sustainmicroorganisms within their moreclement, subsurface environments

requires novel cross-disciplinary studiesthat link the geochemistry of these systemsto the requirements of life. In particular,there is a need to trace, end-to-end,how microbial communities drivenby extraterrestrial chemistry manifestthemselves within the spacecraft-accessible surface minerals produced bythese environments.

We will venture to places onEarth that share similar chemistries toenvironments on Mars, and the twomoons Europa and Enceladus. We will usethese natural laboratories to understandhow microbial life interacts with theseenvironments when they freeze usingexperimental microbiology and computermodelling. Fieldwork-to-planetaryanalogue sites in Iceland and Canadawill provide geochemical parameters,microbial communities, and mineralprecipitates that have physical andchemical similarities to aqueousenvironments on the celestial bodies. Wewill use these to test the habitability oflaboratory fluids that mimic thechemistry of extraterrestrial hydrothermalfluids. Both natural and laboratory fluids

will be frozen to induce mineralprecipitation, simulating what happenson sub-zero planetary surfaces. We willexpose these minerals, and any microbialremnants they contain (‘biosignatures’),to the harsh radiation environment foundin space by using an ultraviolet lightsource and a gamma irradiation facilityto test how different minerals protectbiosignatures from destruction.

Alongside this experimental work,geochemical modelling will be usedto calculate the sequence of mineralformation from hydrothermal fluids,with and without the influence of biology,providing a framework within which tointerpret data from experimental andfield studies. Overall, our research willinform the astrobiological explorationand provide details of the habitability ofour Solar System.

Dr Claire CousinsUniversity of St AndrewsResearch Project Grant

ABOVE Frozen hot springs in Iceland.

Frozen but not forgotten: microbial habitability andpreservation in planetary fluids


8 September 2016

Duncan Murdock will use the onlyreal-time record of the Cambrianexplosion – the fossil remains of theearliest animal skeletons – along withwhat we know about how animalsgrow skeletons today, to build the mostcomplete picture of the cause of thisirrevocable change

In dusty cabinets, behind lockeddoors, in museums around the worldare drawers of glass vials, microscopeslides and dog-eared cardboard boxescontaining what the untrained eye couldeasily mistake for grains of sand – butto me they are all tiny time machines.Under the microscope their trueidentities are revealed, the fossilisedremains of the first animals to buildskeletons, each around half a billionyears old. They transport me back to themost dramatic event in the history oflife on Earth, the ‘Cambrian explosion’,when in the blink of a geological eye,the strange soft-bodied creatures thatdominated the world’s oceans werereplaced by true animals – bristling withteeth, spines and shells.

Put in the context of what weknow about the early origins of animallife, two remarkable observations can

be made: firstly, the variety of differentskeletons animals possess were acquiredin independent evolutionary steps, andsecondly, all this happened in the samerelatively short period of time. Whatdrove these extraordinary events?

Genes are the blueprint forbuilding an animal but are not a fixedinstruction manual that is read justonce. Rather, the reading of genes is adynamic and continual process. Rightnow tiny portions of your DNA (knownas regulatory elements) are turninggenes on and off causing cascades ofreactions (a regulatory network) to keepyour body running smoothly. Thesegene regulatory networks are how theremarkably simple genetic code sharedby every living thing can producecreatures as different as a worm and awarthog – it is all in the reading.

Developmental biologists havesuggested that these gene regulatorynetworks were far less rigid early on inanimal evolution. This predicts that theways in which the first animals built theirskeletons would vary much more thanlater on in their evolution, as differentfamilies of animals independentlyused the genes they inherited fromtheir common ancestors to build ever

Uncovering the dawn of the skeletonmore complex, and progressively moreregulated networks. More regulationmeans fewer possible cascades of genesturning on and off, so less variation inwhat those cascades can produce.

Over the course of my FellowshipI will use the information that is lockedinside these tiny skeletons to test theseideas. By using high magnificationelectron microscopes and 3D X-rayimaging I can peer into the tinydifferences in their microscopic internalstructures and measure the variability ofthe shape of individual teeth, spines andshells.

These journeys back in time,in collaboration with developmentalbiologists studying growth of skeletonstoday, will allow me to reconstruct howthe first skeletons were made. I can thenweigh-up the relative importance ofbiological and environmental factorsin the Cambrian explosion, and adda crucial piece to the puzzle of theextraordinary events that took place halfa billion years ago.

Dr Duncan MurdockOxford University Museum ofNatural HistoryEarly Career Fellowship

LEFT A small snapshot of the rangeof skeletal bits and pieces that can berecovered from Cambrian rocks, in thiscase from the Comley Limestones inShropshire.



Although cuneiform writings on claytablets provide details of a rich musicalculture in ancient Mesopotamia andplayable replicas of instruments havebeen constructed, we do not know howthe music sounded; Stephanie Conneraims to produce an empirical method forrecomposing songs in an Akkadian style

The history of human music is incalculablylong, the history of music notation is, bycomparison, extremely short. Shorterstill is the history of sound recording,which means that the vast majority ofmusic played, sung and listened to by ourancestors is now irretrievably lost.

Vestiges of ancient musicaltraditions, such as instrument remains,song texts, tuning instructions and treatises,are sources of fascination to scholars andperformers alike, while the constructionof playable replicas of ancient instrumentsenables today’s musicians to draw onthese source materials to create excitinghistorically informed and historicallyinspired music. As one such musician,I owe the existence of my performancepractice to the historians, linguists andarchaeologists, who discover, translate andinterpret the materials I use. In exchange,my performances help to animate thatresearch, enhancing scholars’ practical andexperiential understanding of their field.However, because so many crucial detailsof history’s oral traditions are unpreserved

or untranslatable, we performers havehad to accept that inventing music basedon the precious little information thatremains is an intuitive rather than anevidence-based or empirical process.

No matter how many features of anancient musical style can be substantivelyverified or convincingly hypothesised,there will always be knowledge gapsfor performers to fill. I am developing anew method that uses evidence-basedpredictions to fill said gaps – predictionsthat I envisage will grant musicians likeme a little less dependence on musicalintuition alone as we strive to ‘recompose’ancient music.

Because the information we inheritfrom the distant past is so fragmentary,we must look to the music of the present,and recent past, to provide evidenceon which to base predictions about thecharacteristics of ancient music. Thecomparative method used by linguists intheir reconstruction of dead languagescan be extended into the realms of songthrough an investigation of the ways inwhich song melodies relate to song textsin a range of singing styles. Documentingfrequently occurring patterns in music-text relationships will allow us to predictsome of the likely features of ancient songsfor which text but no melody survives.

I am developing this method morespecifically in order to compose and performsong texts from ancient Mesopotamia,

which are preserved in cuneiform writingon clay tablets and include hymns,lullabies, incantations and love songs.They are accompanied by a number ofsurprisingly detailed cuneiform tabletsdescribing tuning systems and othermusical technicalities. One set of tablets,the so-called ‘Hurrian Hymns’, is thoughtto contain a form of music notation, whichhas not yet been convincingly deciphered.This small but compelling corpus ofarchaeological evidence brings ustantalisingly close to being able to imaginehowMesopotamian music might havesounded, but its obscure and fragmentarynature leaves many questions aboutmusical style unanswered. I believe that acomparative study of more recent singingstyles provides the best possible hope ofanswering those questions plausibly.

Dr Stephanie ConnerUniversity of HuddersfieldEarly Career Fellowship

ABOVE Amodern reconstruction of thesilver ‘Lyre of Ur’, discovered in 1922 atthe Royal Cemetery of Ur, in modern Iraq(Ancient Mesopotamia). Dating from theEarly Dynastic III Period (2550–2450 BCE),the instrument is over 4500-years-old and iscurrently held by the British Museum.This isone of about five playable replicas currentlyin circulation. ©Mark Harmer, 2015.

Recomposing ancient music: a case study inAkkadian song


10 September 2016

Chandak Sengoopta’s biographical studyexplores the contradictory identitiesof the Indian filmmaker, Satyajit Ray,Carolyn Allen, of the Trust, reports

Satyajit Ray (1921–1992) was the firstfilmmaker to put India on the worldcinema map and remains one of herforemost cultural ambassadors. InBengal, he is worshipped as a local hero,although less for his films than for hisimmensely popular books and songs. InHollywood, he is recognised as one ofthe world’s greatest ‘humanist’ directors;a master storyteller more interested incommunicating emotions than politicalideas. Of all Ray’s identities, this is themost famous but also the most bizarre,says Chandak Sengoopta, professorof history at Birkbeck, University ofLondon: “Certainly, Ray was alwaystelling a story and telling that story inthe most interesting way he could. Buthis films were increasingly open abouthis politics – not just the politics ofgovernment, but the politics of race andclass, politics of gender and the politics ofcolonialism”.

So how did Ray become somisunderstood? In a project fundedby a 2007 Leverhulme Trust ResearchFellowship, Chandak showed howAmerican acclaim for Ray’s first film,Pather Panchali (Song of the LittleRoad, 1955) was founded on themistaken understanding that it wasa documentary, faithfully portrayingvillage life in India. Although thatmisconception didn’t last – and Rayhimself was always clear that the filmscript was based directly on a novelby Bengali author, BibhutibhushanBandyopadhyay – the ‘humanist’ labelstuck fast. This, Chandak argues, is inno small part due to the fact that Ray’sfilms are rarely studied in their social,cultural and political context. They arealso nearly all in Bengali, and althoughmany have subtitles, these are often poortranslations – especially of the rich, morecomplex dialogue used in his later films.

A native Bengali speaker, Chandakwas awarded a 2012 Major ResearchFellowship for a comprehensive studyof Ray’s life, his art, and the diversereputations he came to acquire. The

project was based on a collection ofrarely accessible manuscripts and otherarchival material that Ray’s son, Sandip,invited him to use. Stored at the Rayfamily home, the archive proved to bea biographer’s dream with a wealth ofpreviously unstudied scrapbooks, lettersand manuscripts. Amongst its manytreasures, Chandak found a handwrittenscript ofThe Home and the World basedon Rabindranath Tagore’s 1916 novel ofthe same name. Completed in 1946, thiswas the first complete screenplay Rayhad ever written. “As far as I know, apartfrom other members of the family, I amthe only person to have even seen it. Notbecause it was in any way a secret butbecause no-one had shown any interest,”Chandak explains. Ray eventually madeThe Home and the World in 1984, butthere are massive differences betweenthe 1946 script and the version he usednearly four decades later. Comparingthese two interpretations of the samenovel, Chandak could see not only Ray’sdevelopment as a filmmaker but alsoa profound change in his outlook oncontemporary politics.

Who was Satyajit Ray?



When Ray wrote his firstscreenplay, independence was still ayear away, and although India wastorn by anti-colonial protests as wellas religious riots, progressive Indianintellectuals regarded nationalism ina positive light. Ray’s script reflectsthe times faithfully, documenting themany competing approaches to Indiannationalism that were dividing opinionat the time but ending on an optimisticnote. By the 1980s, when Ray returnedtoThe Home and the World, India hadbeen free of colonial rule for nearly fourdecades but Hindu-Muslim antagonismwas again a burning issue. While hisnew script still addressed the theme ofnationalism, its emphasis was on Hindu-Muslim tensions and its conclusion wasentirely tragic. Ray’s shift in attitude,Chandak argues, reflects his dismayat the growing institutionalisation ofcorruption in Indian life and politics.From the beginning to the end of hiscareer, Ray’s films – and even more so hisbooks – chart the weakening of his oldfaith in nation, science, and the power ofindividual morality.

One of the major outcomes ofChandak’s project will be a comprehensivebiography of this iconic but ill-understoodartist, exploring how his career wasshaped by the interaction of regional,national and global forces unique to histime. It will also highlight the radicalqualities of Ray’s work, he says, and itsrelevance to our age of globalisationand cultural hybridity. “Ray has beenpigeonholed for over 65 years now –celebrated only for the so-called‘humanism’ of his films – but I hope mybiography, when it is published will gosome way to dispelling that myth anddemonstrating Ray’s importance as apolitical commentator of his time”.

ABOVE Ray, Satyajit, 1970. Priya/TheKobal Collection.

ABOVE LEFTTheHome and the World,1982. National Film Development Corp ofIndia/ The Kobal Collection.

COVER Pather Panchali, 1956. Govt of W.Bengal/The Kobal Collection.

Chandak Sengoopta’s bookThe Ray’sBefore Satyajit was published in June byOxford University Press.


12 September 2016

Andrew McNeillie aims to write a studyof Quentin Bell’s life and work – hiscareer as a ceramicist and sculptor, hispolitical activities and theories of art;with particular attention to the 1930s hisbook will make a significant contributionto understanding the role of the visualarts in this era

Quentin Bell (1910–1996) is probably knownto readers of this newsletter, if known at all,as the nephew and biographer of VirginiaWoolf. But there was much more to hislife and his achievements than that work,masterful though it undoubtedly is. He leftschool at seventeen without any formalqualifications, determined to be a painter.It didn’t quite work out like that. But he diddevelop as an artist of marked originalityand sensuality, in ceramics, terracotta, andlarger sculpture. Along the way he becamean engaged art theorist and a critic.

In the 1930s his politics – whichhe pursued from the ward level in theinterests of Labour to the upper reachesof international cultural engagement –moved to the frontiers of Communism,though he could not find it in him to crossthe border and sign up to Stalin’s agenda.So he remained, like many of his class andgeneration, a committed fellow traveller,ready as many were not to support theaims and actions of the Front populaire.

In 1935 Bell went to Stoke-on-Trent– to Arnold Bennett’s ‘Five Towns’ – toapprentice himself to the craft of pottery,studying for three or four months at theBurslem School of Art. While in Stoke,he was politically active and developedhis natural aptitude for public speaking.In this departure northwards from themetropolis, he might be seen as anticipatingthe trajectories of his friends in the Euston

Quentin Bell: life and work

Perhaps we tend to think ofthe 1930s as a literary decade, at theexpense of the visual arts. So too, withthe exception of Picasso’s Guernica,we probably see the Spanish Civil War.Simon Martin in his Conscience andConflict: British Artists and the SpanishCivil War (2014) powerfully readjuststhis view of Auden’s ‘low, dishonestdecade’. The unpublished materials inQuentin Bell’s archive – including muchaesthetic theorising and contemporaryengagement provide an invaluablesupplement to this different account ofthe period. And this is what will form thecore of my study.

Professor Andrew McNeillieUniversity of ExeterEmeritus Fellowship

ABOVE Levitating Woman ‘The Dreamer’,Quentin Bell. Image © University of Leeds.

LEFT Levitation women, maquette inQuentin Bell’s house.

Road School of painters; of George Orwell,who went in pursuit of Wigan Pier in 1936;of the Mass Observationists who began toorganise in 1937; and in the spirit of JohnGrierson’s documentary film unit.



Using innovative molecular techniquesto identify mammal species from DNAwithin the stomachs of terrestrialleeches, Rosie Drinkwater seeks toexplain the impact of agriculturalexpansion on tropical ecosystems

Borneo is a large tropical island in South-East Asia which is home to incrediblelevels of biodiversity with hundreds ofnative mammals and birds and thousandsof species of insects and plants. Many ofthese species are endemic to the island,meaning they are found nowhere elseon Earth. Unfortunately, the hyper-diverse ecosystems of Borneo are beingincreasingly threatened, with large-scalehabitat loss driven by logging and land-conversion for agricultural plantations.These activities have left behind degradedforest patches within a mosaic ofagricultural land and plantations.

A lot of valuable ecological researchhas championed the conservation ofprotected areas and pristine rainforests;however, as degraded landscapes arebecoming a dominant feature on Borneo,the research focus is shifting. Now,rapid assessments and biomonitoring ofdegraded rainforests are urgently neededto identify priorities for conservation,and evaluate their importance as wildlifehavens and corridors between isolatedlarger tracts of forest.

The overall focus of my projectis to investigate how forest degradationis impacting mammal communities bysampling across a gradient of differenthabitats and disturbed sites, includingrainforest that is pristine, or has beensubject to varying levels of logging. Toachieve this, instead of using traditionalmammal sampling techniques – which areoften expensive and time-consuming – I amcollecting and analysing the mammalianDNA retrieved from the blood-meals ofleeches. In Borneo’s rainforests there are

A novel method to assess the effects of forestdegradation on mammal diversity

detection without having to observe or catchthe individual, which is beneficial whenstudying rare or endangered species.

Thanks to this Studentship I will beable to work in world-class laboratories inCopenhagen, at the Natural HistoryMuseumof Denmark, alongside the research groupthat pioneered this technique.This is anamazing opportunity to process and analysemy leech samples in facilities that are notavailable yet in my home institute.ThisStudentship will also allow me to return foran extra field season to Sabah, in Borneo,to collect more leeches from the samesites I visited in 2015.This will give me animportant comparison, as the rainforestdisturbance is ongoing and will provideinsights into the effects of increasing land-use change and into which species are mostvulnerable to the negative effects.

Ms Rosie DrinkwaterStudy Abroad Studentship

LEFT Degraded rainforest, at the Stabilityof Altered Forest Ecosystems (SAFE) project,Kalabakan forest reserve, Sabah. Photo byD Bennett.

two abundant species of land leech whichfeed primarily on mammalian blood. DNAcan then be sequenced from this bloodusing highly-sensitive and sophisticatedtechnologies that are more commonlyapplied to the study of ancient DNA. Bycomparing the DNA sequences collectedwith those available for different Borneanmammals, I will be able to identify whichspecies occur across the landscape, sobuilding up a map of the mammals that usedegraded forests. Using blood-meal derivedDNA in this way allows for mammal

One of the abundant land-leechspecies, the tiger leech (Haemadipsapicta) on leaf. Taken at DanumValley Conservation Area, LahadDatu, Sabah. Photo by Dr R Knell.


14 September 2016

The first step will be to gather a richdataset describing the way that peoplenaturally coordinate their body language.We will invite people to come to our labin pairs and strike up a conversation.While they talk, we will track their eyecontact, facial expressions and headmovements using a head-mountedcamera system that takes a reading25 times per second. This will give usinsight into precisely how and whenpeople’s body language becomes coupledtogether; for example, is there a specialpattern of timing to coordinated headmovements? Are multiple nonverbalbehaviours coordinated at once? Is eye-contact a predictor for when two peoplewill be more coordinated?

As well as answering thesequestions about human behaviour,we will use the same dataset to train amachine-learning model that can predictone person’s facial expressions based onthe head movements or expressions oftheir partner. Machine learning can find

the hidden patterns in a large datasetthat predict social interactions, givinga new level of data analysis. It will alsolet us generate social body language inavatars online. Equipped with the rightmachine learning model, an avatar wouldbe able to coordinate its body languagewith a human conversation partner – forexample, if the partner smiles, the avatarmight recognise that as a cue to smileback. Our research will therefore helpto create more effective virtual avatarsthat could be used in a range of socialcontexts, from gaming to technicaltraining to customer service, as well asshining a light on the core processesunderlying people’s social interactions.

Dr Antonia Hamilton and Ms Jo HaleUniversity College LondonResearch Project Grant

ABOVE A participant greets a virtualcharacter in a motion capture study.

Two people engaged in conversationcoordinate in many ways, includingfacial actions, gestures, words, andposture; Antonia Hamilton’s projectaims to test cognitive theories andadvance computational models ofnonverbal behaviour

In face-to-face conversations we all speaktwo languages at once. Apart from spokenlanguage, we unconsciously coordinateour nonverbal behaviour – or ‘bodylanguage’ – including postures, gestures,facial expressions and eye contact.

Understanding how socialinteraction works has been described asthe ‘dark matter’ of social neuroscience,and until recently it has been hard tosystematically capture people’s bodylanguage during a natural conversation.Traditionally, researchers would haveto videotape the conversation andlaboriously annotate the nonverbalbehaviour they could see. Now,technological advances in motion captureand computer vision mean we canautomatically extract nonverbal behaviourwith unprecedented detail and precision.

At the same time, a new demandfor understanding body languagehas emerged from the virtual realityindustry. Consumers can now experienceincreasingly vivid and realistic-lookingvirtual places, but a major challenge is tocreate virtual people with equally realisticbody language. This project will thereforebring together social neuroscientistsand computer scientists with the aim ofmeasuring, modelling and generatingnatural nonverbal behaviours duringsocial interactions.

Understanding and generating nonverbal behaviour

When reflecting on my work experienceat the Leverhulme Trust, I am struckby the sheer range of scholarshipand enquiry that is encouraged andsupported. There could be no greatertribute to the vision of Lord Leverhulme.From mind-bending quantum physics toesoteric medieval processions, there areso many far flung corners of academicenquiry that are illuminated by the Trust’swillingness to back talented scholarswith big ideas. We lay-people struggleto keep up with new breakthroughs anddiscoveries but admire and honour thosewho have so much knowledge and skill.What we do not appreciate is that none ofthese things happen without funding.

In making grants of £80 millionper year, the Trust gives opportunitiesto hundreds of talented people to study,research and exchange ideas with theirpeers. Essentially, all this flows from thevision of one man who, in a final act ofkindness, facilitates continuing progressin science, social science, the arts andhumanities, nearly 100 years after hisdeath. Every decision made in theseoffices has a unique impact, whether forthe individual researcher, academia or thewider world. A young recipient of an EarlyCareer Fellowship may be set on a paththat eventually leads to a Nobel Prize.

I learned so much during myweek with the Trust. Not just the

facts and figures but also theimportance of teamwork. If the teamdoes not work effectively, the knock-oneffect could be huge. I also beganto understand that no matter howobscure or seemingly bizarre thesubject, there is always someone insearch of answers. It is this insatiablecuriosity that drives the human racein its continuous quest for insightand understanding. So thank you,William Hesketh Lever, for supportingour passion for discovery andenlightenment for so many years, andall from a bar of Sunlight soap!

Gabriella FitzGerald

Thanks to the Founder



RESEARCH PROJECT GRANTS

Sciences

Dr Andrew BaylissUniversity of East AngliaExamining the mechanisms underpinningshared attention£270,862

Dr Yoselin Benitez-AlfonsoUniversity of LeedsUnlocking plant intercellular channels:lessons from cell wall molecular biophysics£353,301

Dr Roger BensonUniversity of OxfordTiming the origin of genome doubling infossil teleosts£248,425

Dr Jacopo BertolottiUniversity of ExeterPrime factorisation using light£118,672

Dr Caroline BrennanQueen Mary, University of LondonThe genetics of numeracy and theevolutionary basis of number; can fish count?£291,247

Professor Fernando BresmeImperial College LondonElectrotunable nanoscale friction: from fullstall to superlubricity£237,563

Dr Amanda BretmanUniversity of LeedsHow are flexible behavioural responses torapidly changing environments coordinated atthe genomic level?£245,369

Dr David ChesmoreUniversity of YorkAutomatic acoustic observatories: non-invasivelong term monitoring of acoustic species£310,933

Dr Andy ChowUniversity College LondonAgent-based modelling and optimisation oftransport network resilience£72,865

Dr Georgina CosmaNottingham Trent UniversityNovel approaches for constructing optimisedmultimodal data spaces£115,355

Dr Claire CousinsUniversity of St AndrewsFrozen but not forgotten: microbialhabitability and preservation in planetary fluids£165,903

Professor Norman FentonQueen Mary, University of LondonImproved understanding of causal models indynamic decision-making£383,510

Dr Kumiko FukumuraUniversity of StrathclydeThemechanisms of choosing pronouns: across-linguistic study£156,799

Professor Ruth GregoryDurham UniversityChallenging the standard model with blackholes£192,413

Dr Antonia HamiltonUniversity College LondonUnderstanding and generating real-time face-to-face social interactions£314,885

Dr D Flemming HansenUniversity College LondonExploring the conformational sampling andmotions of side chains in proteins£198,009

Professor Felix HofmannUniversity of OxfordProbing the invisible: characterising atomic-scale point defects with X-rays£254,220

Dr Sarah HorswellUniversity of BirminghamAdvanced bioelectrochemical measurementson unsupported membranes£245,580

Dr Francis JigginsUniversity of CambridgeThe evolution and origins of arthropod RNAi£153,665

DrMatthew JohnsonUniversity of SheffieldOrganisation of photosystem I and ATPsynthase in plant photosynthetic membranes£178,389

Professor Alex KacelnikUniversity of OxfordRelational concept imprinting in ducklings£171,635

Professor Anthony KenyonUniversity College LondonUnderstanding and controlling dynamicfunctional oxides£331,470

Dr James KilnerUniversity College LondonThe role of emotion in believable acting£149,231

Dr Daniele LeonoriUniversity of ManchesterVisible-light mediated synthesis of nitrogen-centred radicals£105,569

Professor Alistair McGregorOxford Brookes UniversityHow to build a spider: regulation ofsegmentation in Parasteatoda tepidariorum£160,246

Professor Michael MorganCity University LondonA bayesian approach to the control of eyemovements in human subjects£122,047

Dr Ian MorrisUniversity of SurreyLower bounds for Lyapunov exponents£267,776

Dr Robert NashAston UniversityCognitive biases in the recipience of past- andfuture-oriented feedback£98,236

Professor Tim NaylorUniversity of ExeterA new understanding of planet formation£184,349

Dr Karen Olsson-FrancisOpen UniversityThe feasibility of contemporary life elsewherein our Solar System£170,394

Dr Antonio PadillaUniversity of NottinghamA new approach to the cosmological constantproblem: disentangling local physics fromglobal£212,393

Professor Daniel PaulusmaDurham UniversityEfficient graph colouring algorithms via inputrestrictions£187,316

Professor Neil RobertsonUniversity of EdinburghMaterials development to realise the organicpiezoelectronic transistor£299,296

Professor David RuedaImperial College LondonVisualising repressor-activator competition as amechanism of Ikaros-mediated gene regulation£186,209

Professor Saverio RussoUniversity of ExeterRoom temperature quantum electronics£254,711

RECENTLY AWARDED GRANTS


16 September 2016

Professor Pauline SchaapUniversity of DundeeUnderstanding the molecular mechanismsthat control somatic cell specialisation£227,354

Dr Felix SchulzeUniversity College LondonAdvances in contact topology via Lagrangianmean curvature flow£337,709

Dr Howard SnellingUniversity of HullLaplacian magic windows£123,828

Professor Gyaneshwar SrivastavaUniversity of ExeterTuning thermal transport in nanocompositeswith size, shape and interface control£228,338

Dr Anne StraubeUniversity of WarwickHow microtubule plus tip trackers couplepolymer assembly to cargo transport£256,434

Dr Dhanraj VishwanathUniversity of St AndrewsWhat does it mean to ‘see in 3D’? Explainingthe phenomenology of stereopsis£161,204

Dr Bridget WallerUniversity of PortsmouthCultural variation in the social function andexpression of guilt£106,827

Professor Eske WillerslevUniversity of CambridgeMethod for quantification of ancient plantpopulations using fossil pollen DNA£354,456

Dr Kate WilmutOxford Brookes UniversityMovement planning during reach-to-grasptasks across the lifespan£52,581

DrMischa ZelzerUniversity of NottinghamSurfaces, the next frontier in understandingand controlling gel properties£154,274

Humanities

Dr Christopher BriggsUniversity of CambridgeLiving standards and material culture inEnglish rural households, 1300–1600£319,133

Professor Cyprian BroodbankUniversity of CambridgeArchaeological deep history and dynamics ofMediterranean Africa, c.9600–700 BCE£115,433

Professor John DiversUniversity of LeedsThinking counterfactually. How would havebeen reveals what is and what must be£165,945

Dr John GilmoreUniversity of WarwickOriental poetry, Latin scholarship and theEuropean Enlightenment: the case of WilliamJones£249,968

Dr Nathaniel HansenUniversity of ReadingThe psychology of philosophical thoughtexperiments£101,062

Professor John KlapperUniversity of BirminghamInner and outer exile in fascist Germany andSpain: a comparative study£314,730

Professor Clive OppenheimerUniversity of CambridgeNature and impacts of Middle Pleistocenevolcanism in the Ethiopian Rift£165,547

Dr Kim SloanBritish MuseumEnlightenment architectures: Sir Hans Sloane’scatalogues of his collections£332,552

Dr SethinaWatsonUniversity of YorkThe register of Walter de Gray, Archbishop ofYork (1215–1255)£152,339

Social Sciences

Professor Robin GoodwinUniversity of WarwickPsychological sequelea of the Great MiyagiEarthquake: a four-wave study£62,129

Dr Tim JaySheffield Hallam UniversityHow does game-based learning promotechildren’s mathematical cognition?£128,978

Dr Alex MesoudiUniversity of ExeterThe cultural evolution of social hierarchy: anexperimental investigation£217,042

Professor Charles WatkinsUniversity of NottinghamBritish amateur topographical art andlandscape in Northwest Italy, 1835–1915£141,462

EARLY CAREER FELLOWSHIPS

Sciences

Dr Kirsti AshworthUniversity of LancasterAir quality impacts of land–atmosphereinteractions (AQuILA)

Dr Konstantin BarylyukUniversity of CambridgeHigh-resolution spatial proteomics of themodel apicomplexan Toxoplasma gondii

DrMartin BenningUniversity of CambridgeLearning from mistakes: a supervisedfeedback-loop for imaging applications

Dr Radha BoyaUniversity of ManchesterGas separation with atomically precisedesigner capillaries

Dr Guillem CarlesUniversity of GlasgowSeeing within extended volumes and 3Dstructures: 3D imaging and applications

DrThibaut CharpentierUniversity of LeedsNano-enabled water desalination

Dr Jeongmin ChoiUniversity of CambridgeDecoding an ancient plant-microbe dialogue:the signalling role of DWARF 14 LIKE (D14L)protein in arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosisof rice

Dr George ConstableUniversity of BathNoise in ecological systems: from individualvariation to ecosystem stability

Dr Andrew CrombieUniversity of East AngliaUncovering novel mechanisms for themicrobial regulation of atmospheric methane

Dr Frances DavisUniversity of SouthamptonA novel method to characterise the highstrain rate properties of soft tissues

Dr Anita DawesOpen UniversityThe physico-chemical properties andaggregation of interstellar dust and ice

Dr Duygu DikiciogluUniversity of CambridgeUnderstanding the beneficial impact onbiotechnological processes of mixed culture ofmultiple microbial species

Dr Tao DingUniversity of CambridgeLight-powered plasmonic actuatingnanomachines: ANTs



Dr Lena GrinstedRoyal Holloway, University of LondonThe social life of spiders: evolution ofdispersal and group living

Dr Fang HuangUniversity of LiverpoolExploring the self-assembly and heterologousengineering of bacterial CO2-fixing machinery

DrThomas HudsonUniversity of WarwickA mathematical study of discrete dislocationdynamics

Dr Anna KalogirouUniversity of East AngliaControlling the complex behaviour ofmicrofluidic flows using surfactants

Dr Jackie KendrickUniversity of LiverpoolUnderstanding the frictional behaviour ofvolcanic rocks and magmas

Dr Peter KeysQueen’s University BelfastThe polarimetric properties of waves in thesolar atmosphere

Dr Dmitry KishkinevBangor UniversityThe disrupting effect of electromagnetic noiseon avian magnetic compass sense

Dr Hong LiuUniversity of WarwickCounting in finite fields, integers and graphs

DrMarcelo Lozada-HidalgoUniversity of ManchesterProton transport through atomically thininterfaces

Dr Rafael MaldonadoUniversity of LeedsSolitonic models of atomic nuclei

Dr Duncan MurdockOxford University Museum of Natural HistoryThe hard parts of the Cambrian explosion

Dr Antonio De PaolaImperial College LondonGame theory applications towards a greenand sustainable power network

Dr Steven ParsonsUniversity of SheffieldFundamental astrophysics with white dwarfbinaries

DrMarc ReidUniversity of StrathclydeManganese by numbers: a ‘chem-tech’ toolboxfor innovation

Dr Guillaume SchweicherUniversity of CambridgeOrganic semiconductors to enable a newelectronics

Dr Victor Soria-CarrascoUniversity of SheffieldThe impact of speciation mode onmacroevolutionary dynamics

Dr Juraj Szavits-NossanUniversity of EdinburghDeciphering rules for optimal protein biosynthesis

Dr Peter WadleyUniversity of NottinghamThe domain structure and electrical switchingbehaviour of antiferromagnets

Dr Tong ZhangDurham UniversityEffective bound for arithmetic line bundles inArakelov geometry

Dr Noa ZilbermanUniversity of CambridgeSystems for big data applications:revolutionising personal computing

Humanities

Dr Jason AllenUniversity of LeedsWitnessing, memory and poetics: traumaand the epic in anglophone and francophoneCaribbean literature

Dr Luke BlaxillAnglia Ruskin UniversityThe war of words: quantifying the language ofBritish politics, 1880–1945

DrMenaka PP BoraRoyal Holloway, University of LondonFrom tradition to contemporary: Sattriyamusic and dance in India and global contexts

Dr Rachel BowerUniversity of LeedsTranscultural collaboration: poets of Leedsand Nigeria unite, 1950–1970

Dr Stephanie BowryUniversity of LeicesterCultivating the art gallery in the early moderngarden

Dr Harriet Boyd-BennettUniversity of NottinghamModern migrations: musical travels throughItaly in the 1920s

Dr Angus BrownUniversity of BirminghamBook lovers: affect and the history of readingin the late age of print

Mr Andrew BrownBournemouth UniversityMaking land: settlement dynamics inmarginal Polynesia

Dr Tom BrughmansUniversity of OxfordMercury: understanding the Roman economythrough big data and network modelling

DrMichael CarrUniversity of EdinburghManaging otherness: papal permissions totrade with the ‘Infidel’, 1342–1394

Dr Adrianna CatenaUniversity of WarwickThe hatters’ blues: a microglobal history ofnew world dyes in early modern Spain

Dr Stephanie ConnerUniversity of HuddersfieldRecomposing ancient music: a case study inAkkadian song

Dr Oskar Cox JensenQueen Mary, University of LondonLife in London: a biography of streetindigenes in Seven Dials

Dr Anjali Bhardwaj DattaUniversity of CambridgeGendering the city: urban informalities andproduction of space in Delhi

Dr Jennifer FrenchUniversity College LondonThe palaeolithic of Europe: a demographicand social (pre)history

Dr Robert GallagherUniversity of OxfordThe Latin lexicon of Anglo-Saxon England,871–1016: networks, contexts and uses

Dr Sarah GoldsmithUniversity of LeicesterEmbodying the aristocrat: a history of theeighteenth-century elite male body

Dr Aaron GrahamUniversity College LondonThe problems of global finance in Britain,Ireland and Empire, 1783–1844

Dr Charlotte HammondCardiff UniversityCaribbean threads: Creole networks of clothand consumption

Mr Remco HeesenUniversity of CambridgeOrganising science: the social epistemology ofscientists and their incentives

Miss Charlotte HemmingsUniversity of OxfordInformation structure in the languages ofNorthern Sarawak

Dr Christin HoeneUniversity of KentColonial soundscapes and non-westernmodernities

Dr Florence ImpensUniversity of ManchesterIn their own words: poetry in translation inGreat Britain after 1962

Miss Suzanna IvanicRoyal Holloway, University of LondonReligion for sale in counter-reformationcentral Europe, 1550–1700

Dr Lama JabbUniversity of OxfordTibetan literature as a confluence of the oraland the literary


18 September 2016

Dr Lucy JacksonKing’s College LondonAncient tales new told: the re-invention ofGreek tragedy in neo-Latin

Dr Jane KershawUniversity of OxfordBritain’s Viking silver hoards: anarchaeological analysis of the sources and usesof silver in Scandinavian Britain, 850–1050 CE

Dr Alison KnightUniversity of CambridgeStranger churches: hate speech and religiousrefugees in early modern England

Dr Tian S. LiangUniversity of OxfordAnatomising the body: art, science and thehumanities in modern China, 1851–1949

Dr Peter LindfieldUniversity of StirlingAntiquarian by design: fakery and thematerial object in Britain, 1720–1824

Mr David LowtherDurham UniversityImagining India: Mughal art and colonialknowledge networks in the creation ofmodern British zoology, 1800–1858

Dr Lydia LunczUniversity of OxfordLost technology: using chimpanzee woodentools to identify missing human records

DrMichael MalayUniversity of SheffieldFaceless extinctions

DrThomas McClellandUniversity of WarwickMental action and cognitive phenomenology:lessons from enactivism

Dr Emily McLaughlinUniversity of CambridgePoetic ecologies: the praxis of relation inrecent French and francophone poetry

Dr Emily OliverUniversity of WarwickBroadcasting nations: a history of the BBCGerman Service, 1938–1999

Dr Nicholas PalfreymanUniversity of Central LancashirePatterns of variation and local identities inIndonesian sign language varieties

DrMaroula PerisanidiUniversity of LeedsReform and clerical authority in the eleventhcentury: a comparative perspective

Dr John-Mark PhiloUniversity of East AngliaThe reception of Tacitus in the British Isles(1500–1600)

Dr Rachel RandallUniversity of OxfordA part of the family? Domésticas, babás andnanas in Brazilian and Chilean culture

Dr Sean RobertsUniversity of BristolIdentifying causal effects in cultural systems

Ms Elizabeth SandisUniversity of BirminghamPolitical playmaking at the universities ofEngland, 1605–1665

Ms Kathryn SantnerSchool of Advanced Study, University ofLondonArt and the lived experience of Peruvian andPhilippine religious women

Dr Karian SchuitemaBath Spa UniversityKnowledge co-production with children inspecial schools through community arts

DrThomas SmithUniversity of LeedsThe rise of papal provisions in thirteenth-century England

Dr Preti TanejaUniversity of WarwickShakespeare and human rights

Dr Damian TaylorUniversity of OxfordMaking and immateriality: art andembodiment in the digital age

Dr Claudia TobinUniversity of CambridgeColour and the imagination: chromaticexperience in modern literature and art

Dr Guido van MeersbergenUniversity of WarwickCross-cultural diplomacy compared:European diplomats in South Asia, 1600–1750

Dr RobWatersUniversity of SussexStreets that went black? Cultures of blacknessand politics in London, 1958–1981

Dr EmmaWhipdayUniversity College London“You see my sister’s yet at my dispose”:siblings, subordinate roles and proprietaryrights on the early modern stage

Dr Darryl WilkinsonUniversity of CambridgeAnarchism in the prehistoric Andes: thematerial culture of anti-complexity

Dr GavinWilliamsKing’s College LondonGeographies of the gramophone: recordedmusic and urban space, 1897–1939

Social Sciences

DrWendy AsquithUniversity of NottinghamUniversal human rights: a century ofintergovernmental display at world’s fairs

Dr Dalel BenbabaaliUniversity of OxfordUprooted adivasis: conflict, development anddisplacement in central India

Dr Hannah-Louise ClarkUniversity of GlasgowHealing the body of the nation? Healthcareand the state in Algeria c.1800–1980

Dr Elena CooperUniversity of GlasgowIntellectual property and criminalisation: anhistorical perspective

Dr Zoe CormackUniversity of OxfordMarking death in South Sudan: funerary artin museum collections and beyond

Dr Emma DavidsonUniversity of EdinburghA new page? Libraries, austerity and theshifting boundaries of civil society

Dr SamHalvorsenUniversity of CambridgeRethinking territory from below: learningfrom theory and practice in Argentina

Dr Sophia HatzisavvidouUniversity of East AngliaGreen arguments: scientific evidence andpolitical persuasion

Dr Anni KajanusLondon School of Economics and Political ScienceCooperation, punishment and violence – acomparative study of children’s cooperativerelationships in China and in the UK

Dr Nino KemoklidzeUniversity of BirminghamSelf-determination and secession in Europe’s‘near abroad’

Dr Samuel KirwanUniversity of WarwickLiving in debt: a sociology of everydayindebtedness

Dr George KyrisUniversity of BirminghamConflict, statehood and sovereignty in worldpolitics

Dr Alexander LeveringhausUniversity of ManchesterThe politics of rescue revisited: non-stateactors, drones, and intervention

Dr Kirsty LohmanUniversity of SurreyPunk, politics and gender in the UK

Mr Eric LybeckUniversity of ExeterThe academic self: changes in universityexpectations since 1800

Dr Chandra MorrisonLondon School of Economics and Political ScienceNew muralism and the politics of erasure: astudy of public culture in Peru



Dr Amrei MuellerQueen’s University BelfastHealthcare in conflict: do armed groups haveobligations and responsibilities?

DrMichal MurawskiQueen Mary, University of LondonMoscow makeover: architecture and politicsin Putin’s paradise

Dr Peg Murray-EvansUniversity of YorkTalking power: South Africa and the pursuitof legitimacy in the global order

Dr Chloe Nahum-ClaudelLondon School of Economics and PoliticalScienceIntimate witchcraft: forging human lifebetween unseen and phenomenal worlds

Dr Jonna NymanUniversity of SheffieldSecuring China: understanding securitypolitics beyond the west

Dr Janosch PrinzUniversity of East AngliaMore democratic, more realistic: toward adiagnostic approach to legitimacy

Dr Lizzie RichardsonDurham UniversityDigital workplaces: technology and the self-organisation of work

Dr Barbara SamalukUniversity of GreenwichAiming for skilled or secure employment onthe EU market: a Sisyphean task?

Dr Clara SandelindUniversity of SheffieldTrust and solidarity in Scandinavia:immigration and narratives of boundedcommunities

Dr Rosemary SmithUniversity of NottinghamThe university revolutionised: upheaval andmassification in post-2000 Cuba

Dr Banu TurnaogluUniversity of CambridgeThe western question: the eastern questionseen from the east

Dr Lani WatsonUniversity of EdinburghAn interdisciplinary investigation into theeducation of questioning

Dr Julia WellandUniversity of WarwickThe joy of war: pleasure and performance incontemporary military conduct

Dr Hila ZabanUniversity of WarwickThe urban effects of British Jews’transnational practices on London andIsrael

EMERITUS FELLOWSHIPS

Sciences

Professor Colin AitkenUniversity of EdinburghStatistics and the evaluation of evidence forforensic scientists£20,920

Professor Paul CarlingUniversity of SouthamptonMeteorite impact-stratigraphy and environmentalinterpretation in north-east Thailand£21,984

Professor Philip CharlesUniversity of SouthamptonFundamental properties of galactic X-ray binaries£18,269

Professor Jennifer ClackUniversity of CambridgeThe earliest tetrapods: environment, faunalassociations, and terrestrialisation£21,925

ProfessorThomas CollettUniversity of SussexTailoring wasp learning behaviour to differentmodes of locomotion£18,060

Professor Peter CrittendenUniversity of NottinghamNitrogen relationships of lichens£21,136

Professor Michael DuffImperial College LondonGravity as the square of a gauge theory£21,950

Professor Robert EvansUniversity of BristolUnderstanding interfacial and adsorptionphenomena in liquids£12,208

Professor Douglas GoughUniversity of CambridgeThe structure and dynamics of the Sun£12,074

Professor Leslie MorlandUniversity of East AngliaConstitutive laws for evolving fabric in ice;their influence on ice-sheet flow£14,500

Professor Ekhard SaljeUniversity of CambridgeMultiferroic domain boundaries£21,700

Professor Anthony StaceUniversity of NottinghamUnderstanding how charged dielectricparticles interact with one another£21,857

DrMurray StewartMRC Laboratory of Molecular BiologyIntegration of nuclear steps in the geneexpression pathway with nuclear export£9,700

Professor Mark SwenartonUniversity of LiverpoolThe housing programme of the London Boroughof Camden under Sydney Cook, 1965–1973£8,220

Dr IainWilkieUniversity of GlasgowFunctional characterisation of neuropeptidesin a basal echinoderm – Antedon mediterranea£7,560

Professor Wojciech ZakrzewskiDurham UniversityQuasi-integrability of soliton systems£10,900

Humanities

Professor Joseph BerginUniversity of ManchesterEnduring passions – religion and politicalconflict in France, 1600–1914£17,150

Professor Alan BowmanUniversity of OxfordCorpus of Ptolemaic inscriptions£21,278

Professor Robin DennellUniversity of ExeterFrom Arabia to the Pacific: how our speciescolonised Asia£14,960

Professor Richard GrayUniversity of EssexSpeaking the unspeakable: major Americanwriters and the writing of trauma£13,500

Dr Jennifer HarrisUniversity of ManchesterMaterial strategy – textiles as process andmetaphor in visual art 1960–present£4,830

Professor David HawkinsSOAS, University of LondonCorpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptionsvolume III£22,000

Professor Lyn InnesUniversity of KentThe last nawab of Bengal, and British relations£7,235

Professor Robert LethbridgeUniversity of St AndrewsA critical edition of Emile Zola’s writings onthe visual arts£7,990

Professor AndrewMcNeillieUniversity of ExeterQuentin Bell: life and work. A biographical study£6,822

Professor Helen TaylorUniversity of ExeterRooms of our own: British women’s lives in fiction£17,428


20 September 2016

Professor Lisa TicknerCourtauld Institute of Art, University of LondonThe London art world in the 1960s£11,500

Dr Gus WylieUniversity of the Arts LondonThe campagna romana revisited£6,400

Social Sciences

Professor Paul BlytonCardiff UniversityWorking time, work–life balance and well-being: who’s winning and losing and why£19,860

Professor Michael Freeden University of Nottingham Listening to silence: lack and absence in political theory £6,960

Professor Paddy Hillyard Queen’s University Belfast The stalker affair: coincidence or conspiracy? £16,374

Professor Linda McDowell University of Oxford Rethinking deference: the decline and rise of the deferential worker £17,440

Professor Paul Thompson University of Essex Pioneers of social research £8,440

Professor Barbara Townley University of St Andrews Becoming homo economicus: creative labour, IP and the valuation of goods£21,912

Professor Paul WhiteUniversity of SheffieldThe separation of high-skilled migrant communities in European capital cities £8,906

INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS

Sciences

Professor Beverley InksonUniversity of SheffieldPicoFIB network: fundamentals of atom patterning using focused gas-ion beams£125,765

Dr Katrin LeschkeUniversity of LeicesterMinimal surfaces: integrable systems and visualisation£105,520

Humanities

Professor Jiehong JiangBirmingham City UniversityEveryday legend: reinventing traditions in Chinese contemporary art£95,114

Dr James ScorerUniversity of ManchesterComics and the Latin American city: framing urban communities£95,912

Professor Joanna StoryUniversity of LeicesterNetworks of knowledge in early medieval Europe: insular manuscripts, ad 650–850£87,507

Dr Stephan TorreUniversity of AberdeenWhat’s so special about first-person thought?£96,782

Social Sciences

Professor Jane SealeOpen UniversityDisabled students, ICT, post-compulsory education and employment: in search of new solutions £123,911

STUDY ABROAD STUDENTSHIPS

Study Abroad Students receive basic maintenance costs of £18,000 a year, a dependent allowance, and travel costs.

Sciences

Dr Tom BullockHarnessing incompatibility: the standard quantum limit and tight error bounds – Finland

Mr Anthony Carter1,8-Naphthalimide based ligands for supramolecular lanthanide spintronics – Germany

Miss Emma DohertyMaster of biological anthropology – Australia

Ms Rosie DrinkwaterDoctoral research in a novel method to assess the effects of forest degradation on mammal diversity – Denmark and Malaysia

Mr Luke McCleanMRes in coevolution of a little known brood parasite and its host: the honeyguide – South Africa

Dr Joanne SampsonComplex nanomaterials from cyclic peptides – Australia

Miss Helen ScottMasters in brain and cognitive sciences – The Netherlands

Humanities

Dr Anna CantThe sound of modernity: radio education in rural Colombia, 1960–1980 – Colombia

Dr Silvia Espelt BombinMaking peace in the Brazilian Amazon and the Guianas, 1600–1820 – Portugal

Miss Anna Fernandez De PacoDirecting documentary and narrative film – Bosnia and Herzegovina

Mr David JervisMasters in orchestral performance – Germany

Mr James NorrieTransforming ideology and the cult of saints in the eleventh century – Italy

Mr Samuel O’DonoghueThe holocaust in Spanish culture under Franco – Spain

Miss Isabel StokholmDoctoral research on fathers and sons? Uncovering cross-generational relations in the Russian art world – Russia

Social Sciences

Mr William AltoftMasters of science in international development studies – Norway

Mr Matthew BamberDoctoral research in a comparative study of Islamic State’s contemporary state-building strategy across Iraq, Syria, Libya and Nigeria – Switzerland

Ms Antonia FoldesMA in European studies – Poland

Mr Benjamin LawrenceDoctoral research in Cambodia’s competing constitutional sites and spirits – Cambodia

Miss Caitlin McCormackMSc in rural development and natural resource management – Sweden

Mr Stephen MillarSounding dissent: music, resistance, and Irish Republicanism – Republic of Ireland

Ms Philippa MorganDoctoral research in international politics – China

Ms Densua MumfordDoctoral studies in empowering international parliaments: the East African legislative assembly – Switzerland

Ms Martha NicholsonMA in public health sciences – Sweden

Dr Natalie PapanastasiouEuropean governance as scalecraft – The Netherlands

Mr Benjamin RadleyDoctoral research in foreign direct investment and capitalist development in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – Democratic Republic of the Congo

Mr Adam WoodDoctoral research on Italy’s school-building programme: designing space for people? – Italy and Australia


LEVERHULME SEPT16 NEWSLTTR

Documents

Transcript of LEVERHULME SEPT16 NEWSLTTR