In the last round of the BA IPMS two of our academics were awarded new grants.
UEL postdoctoral researcher Dr Cecilia Sosa, from the School of Arts and Digital Industries, has received British Academy funding for a project that explores the transformation of former sites of repression and political terror in Latin America into spaces of commemoration and mourning
The ‘Commemoration, New Audiences and Spaces of Memory in Latin America’s Southern Cone: Trans-cultural Dialogues in the Wake of Loss’ project is part of the British Academy International Partnership and Mobility Scheme and will be led by Dr. Sosa along with Dr Valentina Salvi, Professor of Sociology at Argentina’s Universidad Nacional Tres de Febrero.
The project will explore the intervention and curation practices of memory sites in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay during the aftermath of devastating military dictatorships. It will examine how these practices might help to awaken a shared sense of ownership towards these traumatic pasts.
The project seeks to create new dialogues and collaborations between Latin America and the UK by bringing together experts in memory studies, performance and trauma theory, human rights practitioners, artists, and curators.
Professor Chandra Lekha Sriram, Co-Director of UEL’s Centre on Human Rights in Conflict, has secured funding from the British Academy to explore the role of civil society in promoting accountability for serious crimes in Kenya.
The project is part of the British Academy International Partnership and Mobility Scheme and will be led jointly by Professor Sriram and Dr Thomas Obel Hansen from the United States International University in Kenya.
Following contested presidential elections in 2007, Kenya experienced a wave of violence which resulted in international mediation, a power-sharing political settlement and the involvement of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Attention of both scholars and policymakers has focused on how the ICC can promote accountability in Kenya, however, little attention has been paid to the role of Kenyan civil society in promoting accountability themselves.
This pilot research project will engage expert civil society members in Kenya and scholars in the UK with the aim of developing initial hypotheses and findings regarding civil society strategies, with the intent of building a large-scale research project.
We would like to congratulate both on their awards.
UEL Research, Innovation and Impact 