Behind the looking-glass: 'Other'-cultures-within' translating cultures

This interdisciplinary proposal is premised upon the act of translation as collaboration and shared knowledge. Our transcultural, international network of scholars will draw centrally on texts including museum objects, marked by creolisation, in order to conduct an intercultural enquiry into global English as an effective vehicle of cultural translation. Drawing on collaborative teaching methodology, we wish to consider also how gendered creolisation might contribute to a recasting of Englishness in terms of New Britishness within globalization. We shall interrogate culture and its connection with human agency and knowledge production within the wider social frameworks from which objects and texts emerge. Our methodology takes particular account of the 'poetics of relation' (Glissant) in addressing the rich seam of cultural translation in the 'relative and related' intersections of Creolisation, Britishness and Global English of interest to scholars, teachers, museum educators, and creative artists. We are interested to contribute new academic interpretations, encouraging the creation of new interpretive platforms, and contributing to further understanding of postcolonial and diasporic art-forms, as well as significant potential impact upon contemporary creative practices.

The group's collective scholarship is grounded in transcultural discourse, and crosses international borders through, for example, teaching Caribbean Literature in the UK, Black British Literature in the USA and American Literature in Italy. From this basis, we wish to engage intersecting theoretical questions of key concern to cultural translation. The research will start by asking how creolisation texts in the UK contribute to translating and re-figuring Britishness in a globalized context towards a changing understanding of complex 'cultures within' society, in order to draw comparisons with other western contexts. It will examine further how important they are in reflecting and refracting traditional and contemporary hierarchies of power, assessing their implications, particularly for issues of gender, race and sexuality. By drawing into dialogue 'other' cultural UK texts, we aim at a comparative, intercultural enquiry focusing on the global English as an effective and respectful vehicle of cultural translation.

Our network will generate a series of Intercultural Research Network Meetings (IRNM) and collaborative teaching seminars allowing intensive dialogue through joint methodological approaches. This is premised upon active participation of clusters of collaborative teaching partners located within the Americas and Europe, who will develop an interactive website to share materials and best practices. We expect this process to develop a specific collaborative methodology and generate important findings concerning the questions highlighted, especially given the expertise of participants who teach not only Caribbean textualisation in the UK but also 'other' textualities in the EU, the Caribbean and the Americas. Integral to this interdisciplinary research are ways of developing museum literacy and progressing literacy from objects as texts in the UK, and internationally with the aim of caring for the communicative aspects of knowledge production.

Within the commercial private sector, the Museums Association (MA) UK will be a key beneficiary enabling the research to reach a wider audience outside of the academy in Britain and the EU. Leicester's School of Museum Studies regularly contributes articles to the journal and papers at the annual conference, Europe's largest event for museum and heritage professionals.

Outside of the UK, the International Council of Museums (ICOM), which maintains formal relations with UNESCO, will be an influential beneficiary, since it is committed to the conservation, continuation and communication to society of the world's natural and cultural heritage, present and future, tangible and intangible, which most importantly includes languages.

The research will contribute to the MA and ICOM missions through enhancing the value of museums to society by sharing new knowledge, developing new skills, inspiring innovation, and providing leadership in this new field of study. Specifically our website will outline our findings and offer key factors on communication to be considered for essential training and continuing professional development. Other than museum professionals, most importantly the website will increase access to museums and galleries for culturally diverse audiences who have previously felt unwelcome, misrepresented or silenced in museums and galleries.

Working in partnership with schools and other cultural organisations, we will enhance public debates on citizenship, thus contributing to community cohesion and widespread social inclusion. Caribbean and Black British texts will, in addition, enhance the Mission of many universities and cultural institutions towards wider participation, especially within Humanities subjects.

The last phase of our project involves the production of scholarly editions of the texts as creolisation models. These will serve as starting points for public discussion on the shaping of New Britishness in terms of creolisation, allowing more democratic and inclusive practices, and enhancing the curriculum in British schools. Our project website will gather reference materials for such works, their history, initial reception, and dissemination.

Impacts may include:

1) Providing a newly edited, scholarly version of creolisation texts (some out of print), creating financial benefits for UK publishers and a new cultural experience for readers, students, and teachers;

2) Raising awareness of aspects of our cultural heritage through the dissemination of such texts and through engagement with the general public. Because texts which offer models of intercultural dialogue mediate social change, dissemination activities will include various speaking engagements during Black History Month, interviews on BBC Radio, readings and workshops at bookshops and museums;

3) Workshops with secondary school teachers to share best practices for the study of such texts and contexts, which illuminate the cultural heritage of 'other' students in the UK, thus contributing to their knowledge, quality of life, and creative output;

4) Strengthening international links between the UK and the Americas through collaborative teaching seminars and workshops;

5) Cultivating the US market for Black British and Caribbean Scholarship and Exchange of Faculty and Students;

6) Partnering with arts organisations such as 'Apples 'n' Snakes,' the UK's premier spoken-word poetry organisation, to sustain a dialogue on writing and performance, standard English and creolised forms;

7) Increasing the interest in Caribbean and Black British literatures in UK Universities both critically and in terms of the curriculum;

8) Validating interculturality will change the demographics within Higher Education by signalling to ethnic minorities the benefits of the academic study of the Humanities, including diverse cultures.