Literature and Partition

This doctoral thesis offers an opportunity to bring historicised literary analysis into contact with a range of communities who live with the impact of partition. The thesis will begin with a negotiation of literary texts connected to Punjab and partition, but through contact with the larger project, there will be opportunities to engage with contexts of cultural partition in Northern Ireland and Palestine. The student will also be invited to conduct oral histories to collect 'unofficial' stories and narratives of partition to analyse alongside literary accounts. In the final phase of the project, there will be opportunities to co-design impact led research workshops with Churnjeet Mahn and the broader team.
The student's contribution to the project will be four-fold:
1. Contributing an interdisciplinary humanities-led perspective to issues of community division and dissent resulting from Partition in Northern Ireland, Palestine and India;
2. Delivering part of the overall project by co-designing and leading workshops in Glasgow around the theme of Punjabi Partition;
3. The training and developing of a doctoral scholar, who will be equipped with a range of interdisciplinary skills from the project, and who, through their own career development, will become one of the important legacies from the project.

WHO WILL BENEFIT FROM THE RESEARCH?
1) Publics and Communities, particularly those who have been socially excluded, disenfranchised or marginalised
2) Creative and Cultural Practitioners
3) Media
4) Non HES: Statutory, non-governmental and activist organisations working in the field of social justice, equality and diversity
5) Policy makers and bodies
6) Academic researchers in media studies, postcolonial studies, human geography, literary studies, visual cultures, drama and film studies, cultural sociology, social work, conflict resolution and cultural policy, in the UK, Northern Ireland, Palestine, India and internationally
7) Researchers involved in the project, notably the local Community researchers, Digital Researcher, PhD Students and Knowledge Transfer Researchers

HOW WILL THEY BENEFIT?
The project will improve understanding of:
- Disconnection, disenfranchisement and its effects
- The value of arts, media and creativity in addressing the challenges associated with 'disconnection'
- Effective qualitative methods for researching marginalised communities, reflective learning and new and innovative ways of working with disenfranchised communities
- The creative work, tools used and acts led by marginalised communities in historical and contemporary, national and international contexts
- The consequences of marginalised groups' creative acts for the arts and cultural sectors and for communities themselves
- Ways in which the arts and cultural sector might work with marginalised communities and create spaces for 'unauthorised' voices to be heard
- Ways to reduce social divisions and processes of exclusion
- Creative, ethical approaches for engaging with diverse communities in multiple, international contexts and of the potential impact on the way that people interact and connect within and across their various communities
- Research capacity building

WHAT WILL BE DONE TO ENSURE THAT THEY HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO BENEFIT?
-Our local research partners (e.g. Qattan Foundation and CRCI Punjab), are involved directly in developing cultural interventions and have close links with related ministries and the broader policy community.
-The International Advisory Group will meet annually and will include subject experts and community representatives. The IAG will be consulted regularly and kept informed.
-Community Stakeholder Activities will be held at the outset and during the lifetime of the project through a programme of workshops and consultations, and during the launch, dissemination and end of project stages.
- The PI and CoIs have strong experience of working with community groups in previous (including Connected Communities) projects and during the funded, collaborative RD phase.
- Co-production will enable awareness of the research, secure on-going commitment to it, and ensure it is locally relevant and has potential co-value embedded in the process. The resulting co-produced knowledge should be both relevant and acceptable to research users in the UK, Palestine, India, and beyond.
-The research, emerging findings and media communications will be produced in formats tailored to diverse, international audiences. The website will facilitate a long-term record of achievements, detailing and showcasing outputs, community engagement processes and debates.
- The Institute for Public Policy Research will work with us on crafting policy briefings designed for impact and on our media dissemination strategy.
-Findings will be disseminated to academics from diverse disciplines through conference presentations, articles in international peer reviewed journals and discoverable research mechanisms.
-The impact strategy will be evaluated on an ongoing basis. Community co-production activities will be monitored and feedback sought to inform regular review and updating of our strategy. A year after the end of the project, the strategy will be evaluated through an open-ended stakeholder questionnaire.