Grant Success for Three Members of the School of Politics and International Relations

We are delighted to announce the details of four recent grant successes in the School of Politics and International Relations, won by staff members Dr Neema Begum, Dr William Daniel and Dr Laura Martin. Details of their individual awards are below.

Inter-Minority Coalition or Conflict? Identity Formation and Inter-Minority Relations between Black and Asian Communities in the UK and US

Funded by the British Academy, Neema's project will use an interdisciplinary, cross-country approach to interrogate how identity formation and community has developed between Black and Asian communities in the UK and US. It will identify where interracial convergence and divergence exist in social and political attitudes, memory and popular representations.

The project will be implemented in collaboration with Dr Hannah Thuraisingam Robbins (Department of Music), Dr Uditi Sen (Department of History), Dr Tanika Raychaudhuri (Rice University) and Dr Nicole Burrowes (Rutgers University).  It will will start in April 2024 and run for two years. 

AI Campaigning in the 2024 US and UK Elections 

As part of the Leverhulme Trust’s Visiting Professorships, the Research Centre for the Study of Parties and Democracy (REPRESENT) will welcome Professor Barbara Trish (Grinnell College, Iowa) to the University of Nottingham for the 2024-25 academic year, under the coordination of Dr William Daniel.  Professor Trish is a noted teacher-scholar in American politics, with particular expertise on US political parties and the use of digital technology in campaigning.

During her visit to the School of Politics and IR, Professor Trish will conduct research on a new project on the comparative importance of artificial intelligence (AI) in the upcoming US and UK elections.

Queering the Commons: Overcoming polarisation with identity-based connections 

This project, led by Will Daniel, explores how politicians from different political parties – but with similar personal backgrounds – use personal commonalities as a way of building professional connections that can ultimately relieve contentious forms of polarisation. The project takes inspiration from scholarship on ethnic and gender identity’s effects on political behaviour that has been less explored for sexuality. It argues that identities that divide us in one setting might bind us in another.

Part of the Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowships, the project will start in February 2025 and conclude in January 2026. 

Women’s Rites: A Multidimensional Examination of Female Circumcision in Sierra Leone 

Laura's project explores the social, economic and political dimensions of why female circumcision (or FGC) rates remain so high (83%) in Sierra Leone. The project is partnered with a local Sierra Leonean NGO, Timap for Justice, and the University of Makeni, alongside local artists and will use arts-based and participatory methodologies to engage women about their experiences and perceptions of female circumcision, as well as local activists and campaigners working to eradicate the practice.

Funded by the British Academy, the project will start in April 2024 and run for two years. 

Congratulations from all at the School of Politics and International Relations.