RESEARCH REPORT | 2014 1. INTRODUCTION 2014 was an exceptionally busy year for IWM. 19 July saw the opening of the innovative First World War Galleries and the redesigned atrium with new exhibitions and displays – all requiring intensive effort by historians and curators across IWM. The centrepiece of this major redevelopment work, the First World War Galleries, attracted almost one million visitors to IWM London in the first six months of opening alone. They drew on four years of research by a dedicated team of researchers who trawled IWM’s archives for especially engaging and historically illuminating material. The first year of the Centenary of the First World War had a huge and positive impact on IWM, and this was matched by intense activity in the higher education sector, to which IWM staff contributed in various ways. Success with funding bids, the presence of more PhD students and IWM’s closer involvement with the Consortium of National Museums, Galleries and Libraries with Independent Research Organisation status, demonstrated how our Research initiative was continuing to make headway. Suzanne Bardgett Head of Research A section of the new First World War Galleries at IWM London, formally opened on 17 July 2014. (IWM_SITE_LAM_003899) 1 2. COLLABORATIVE DOCTORAL AWARDS AND PhDs, AND SUCCESSFUL RESEARCH FUNDING BIDS 2.1. Collaborative Doctoral Partnership/Awards and IWM Supported PhDs IWM continued to benefit from the presence of several students working towards doctoral degrees, either as part of Collaborative Doctoral schemes or directly supported by IWM. Completed PhDs Christopher Deal was awarded his PhD by King’s College London in May 2014 after examination of his thesis Framing War, Sport and Politics: The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and the Moscow Olympics. Christopher’s studentship had been an AHRC- funded CDA, co-supervised by Dr Peter Busch of the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, and Suzanne Bardgett, Head of Research at IWM, and was the second collaborative studentship to draw on the collection of transcripts of foreign broadcasts made by the BBC Monitoring Service. Elizabeth Oliver was awarded her PhD by the University of Leeds in June 2014 after examination of her thesis Interpreting Memories of a Forgotten Army: Prisoner-of-war narratives from the Sumatra Railway, May 1944 - August 1945. Lizzie’s studentship had been an AHRC-funded CDA, co-supervised by Dr Jay Prosser, School of English, University of Leeds, Rod Suddaby, Research Associate, and Stephen Walton, Senior Curator Documents and Sound Section, IWM. Following the award of her doctorate, Lizzie was appointed Brotherton Fellow for 2014 at Leeds Humanities Research Institute, researching archives in the Liddle Collection on the representation of romusha (forced labourers) on the Thailand-Burma Railway. She also helped to organise a conference for June 2015 with the Researching Far East Prisoners of War (FEPOW) History Group and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine on the ‘Medical Aspects of Far Eastern Captivity and its Aftermath’. Studentships underway 1. IWM supported PhD (2010–2016) Candidate: Ian Kikuchi, Assistant Curator, IWM Film Section Title: Filming a Forgotten War: Combat cinematography and British film propaganda of the war in Southeast Asia 1942–46 Supervisor: Dr Dan Todman, Department of History, Queen Mary, University of London 2. AHRC CDA (2011–2015) Candidate: Alys Cundy Title: A Century of Reinvention: Display policy and practice at the Imperial War Museum, London 1917-2017. Collaborative partner: Dr Grace Brockington, Department of History of Art and Dr Tim Cole, Department of History, University of Bristol IWM co-supervisor: Roger Tolson, Principal Curator, Transforming IWM London, and Suzanne Bardgett, Head of Research 3. AHRC CDA (2011–2014) Candidate: Leanne Green Title: Advertising War: War Publicity and the First World War Collaborative partner: Professor James Aulich, Faculty of Art and Design, Manchester Metropolitan University 2 IWM co-supervisor: Richard Slocombe, Senior Curator, Art Section, Department of Collections. Leanne has been working as an Assistant Curator and Content Developer at MOSI (Museum of Science & Industry, Manchester) since September 2014. 4. AHRC CDA (2011–2015) Candidate: James Wallis Title: Remembrance, Commemoration and Memory: Negotiating the Imperial War Museum’s First World War Exhibitions, 1964 - 2014 Collaborative partner: Dr Nicola Thomas and Dr David Harvey, Department of Geography, University of Exeter IWM co-supervisor: James Taylor, Head of IWM London’s First World War Gallery Exhibition Team James began an Associate Research Fellow position at the History Department at the University of Exeter in November 2014. This forms part of an institutional collaboration with the University of Hertfordshire's AHRC-funded First World War Engagement Centre, 'Everyday Lives in War'. The post aims to connect on-going academic and community research projects focusing on the First World War within the South-West region, and he has been working on a project looking at the role of 'Food and Farming in Wartime Devon'. 5. AHRC CDP (2013–2016) Candidate: Rebecca Coll Title: Noble Frankland and the Reinvention of the Imperial War Museum 1960–1982 Collaborative partner: Professor David Reynolds, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge IWM co-supervisor: Roger Smither, Research Associate, Research Department 6. AHRC CDP (2013–2016) Candidate: Jane McArthur Title: The Scars of War: Ruin, Memory and Loss in Photographs of Second World War London Collaborative partner: Dr Ella Chmielewska, Senior Lecturer, Cultural and Visual Studies, University of Edinburgh IWM co-supervisor: Alan Wakefield, Head of Photographs Section 7. AHRC CDP (2013–2016) Candidate: Anna Maguire Title: Colonial Encounters during the First World War Collaborative partner: Dr Santanu Das, Department of English, King’s College London IWM co-supervisor: Suzanne Bardgett, Head of Research 8. AHRC CDP (2014–2017) Candidate: Kathryn Butler Title: The impact of participating in British counterinsurgency campaigns, 1945-1997, on the psyche of British armed forces personnel Collaborative partner: Dr Karl Hack and Dr Alex Tickell, The Open University IWM co-supervisor: Dr Simon Robbins, Senior Archivist, Department of Research 9. AHRC CDP (2014–2017) Candidate: Sabine Grimshaw Title: Pacifism and protest: anti-war sentiment in IWM collections Collaborative partner: Ingrid Sharp and Professor Alison Fell, University of Leeds IWM co-supervisor: Matt Brosnan, Historian 10. AHRC CDP (2014–2017) Candidate: Jessica Douthwaite 3 Title: Voices of the Cold War Collaborative partner: Professor Arthur McIvor and Dr Emma Newlands, University of Strathclyde IWM co-supervisor: Richard McDonough, Curator, Documents and Sound Section The current students continue to contribute to research at IWM in a wider context, having responsibility both for running IWM’s Research Blog (http://blogs.iwm.org.uk/research) and for convening its Early Career Researchers Group. Future Studentships During the summer, IWM launched its process to identify university partners for its third (2015) round of CDP studentships. Suzanne Bardgett and Emily Peirson-Webber represented IWM at Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Open House events at Tate Britain on 10 June and at Edinburgh Castle on 17 June respectively. These events gave academics the opportunity to discuss potential AHRC Collaborative Doctorates across a range of topics. Around 25 academics spoke to the IWM representatives on these two occasions. Following up these events, the Research Board agreed that IWM should pursue studentships on the following topics: § A review of the worldwide effects and impact of Spanish Influenza, 1918-1919, based on IWM’s medical collections IWM supervisor: Dr Simon Robbins § Contemporary Art and Conflict at IWM IWM supervisor: Sara Bevan § The IWM and Public Memory of the Second World War IWM supervisor: James Taylor A Board to select HEI partners was held at IWM London on 17 December, chaired by Mark Whitmore, Director of Collections and Research, and attended by Kristian Jensen, Head of Research at the British Library. Suzanne Bardgett has in turn served as a member of the CDP selection boards for Tate, The British Library and The National Gallery. 2.2. Successful research funding bids AHRC – BBC Monitoring Reports Network In August, the Research Department received the welcome news that its application to the Arts and Humanities Research Council for an international Research Networking Scheme grant had been successful. The network will address the value and future exploitation of the collection of BBC Monitoring Service’s transcripts, 1939-1980 which has been administered by IWM for the last 50 years, and will bring together academics from various disciplines. The network, for which IWM has received £32,000, will be led by Suzanne Bardgett (Principal Investigator) and Professor Jean Seaton of the University of Westminster, the current official historian of the BBC (Co-investigator). In part because of IWM’s success in demonstrating the research potential of the monitoring reports, BBC has now decided to resume direct control of this 15 million sheet collection, but the transfer of ownership will not affect the completion of the work envisaged for the network. Work on this project is due to start in March 2015, and a number of preparatory meetings took place in 2014. On 10 October Suzanne Bardgett met with Prof Seaton and Dr Alban 4 Webb of the University of Sussex author