Empowering Women; Co-producing Histories of Women and Energy in the Home.

This Fellowship explores the benefits of co-producing energy history research with young people in museums. By collaboratively researching the histories of women and energy to co-produce a critical re-interpretation of domestic objects in Leeds Museums and Galleries' collections, we will effectively facilitate a public conversation via an exhibition, podcasts and digital classroom resources, on who has the power to make the decisions that need to be made to create the post-carbon home of the twenty-first century.

I will work with Leeds Museum's established youth collective, the Preservative Party: a diverse group of 14-24 year olds. We will co-produce research founded in the numerous objects in the Leeds collections that represent the histories of energy but are rarely interpreted as such and never from the point of view of women influencing energy decisions. Building on the Preservative Party's work to explore the overlooked histories of museum objects, we will ask why it is important to understand how energy transformations were effected and often led by women in their homes? What can we learn from historic social and gendered drivers for change at a moment when we all need to transition to a post-carbon energy supply? How does co-production empower young people, often our contemporary leaders in climate activism, building new skills that enable them to be more effective environmental activists?

The Fellowship will develop my research leadership in energy history through the co-production of research with young people. The project is founded on 20+ years of working together with Leeds Museums and Galleries to deliver educational engagement activities and teaching. I have led on cultural partnerships in Leeds, particularly during my 10-year tenure as the Deputy and then Head of the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies and successfully delivered the first Memorandum of Understanding between the University and our City museums and galleries. But I have never consolidated my research expertise in histories of the c19th home and my leadership in educational engagement and I have not yet co-produced research with the communities that I most want to learn from and impact - young people living in Leeds.

The Preservative Party and I will co-create an exhibition and educational resources that will be disseminated on MyLearning.org: a digital platform for free National Curriculum Linked learning resources from arts, cultural and heritage organisations. These resources will speak to their current concerns about sustainability and the environment while questioning the history of decision making and the power of social persuasion in energy transitions. Focusing on the question of 'Who had/s the power to make energy decisions?' and reframing the history and historiography of this through women's experiences in the home, we will use cross-disciplinary explorations of the history of energy in a way that engages a diversity of voices in both process and outcomes. By co-creating the educational outcomes, our focus will be on continuing to develop the young people's agency in the way that education in heritage spaces is conceived and delivered in Leeds.

I will share my learning on the benefits/challenges of co-production and its role in energy history research, via the work I do to support and inspire ECRs at the University, my museum collaborations, work on educational policy and my leadership of a national network of teachers, supporting them to support young people to develop the skills, cultural and science capital to increase their agency in energy activism. The Fellowship will create a step-change in my research leadership and will impact nationally and internationally our understanding of the importance of social and cultural history in energy futures and the role of young people, their teachers and our museums in generating environmental change.