UCL GRAND CHALLENGES
OFFICE OF THE UCL VICE-PROVOST (RESEARCH)
Executive Group
UCL Grand Challenge of Intercultural Interaction (GCII)
10.30am-12pm, Tuesday, 12 March 2013
Room 130, Foster Court
Minutes
Present
Dr Beverly Butler
Dr Henriette Bruun
Professor Susan Collins
Professor Simon Dixon (rep. Robin Aizlewood)
Dr François Guesnet (Chair)
Professor Stephen Hart
Dr Martin Holbraad
Alexander Katsaitis
Professor Axel Korner
Jacob Leveridge
Dr Amna Malik
Professor David Napier
Michael Reade
Dr Alexander Samson
Dr Ian Scott
Professor Jo Wolff
Professor Maria Wyke
1.
Apologies
Professor Robin Aizlewood
Professor Richard Bellamy
Dr Claire Dwyer
Professor Karen Radner
Nicholas Tyndale
Professor Claire Warwick
Matters arising from previous meeting (4 December 2012)
1.1
a)
Update on Yale-UCL collaboration
Julia Abbott (International Office) outlined the main features of the Yale-UCL
collaboration that aims to facilitate research collaboration and exchange visits
between staff students. The exact form of collaboration took many forms and
included joint research grant applications and three-month post-graduate
student exchanges.
b)
Since its initiation in 2009, the collaboration had moved beyond its origins in
cardio-vascular research and now includes a number of areas within the arts
and humanities such as history and philosophy. Currently the Centre for
Digital Humanities was working towards a joint research bid with Yale
although the funding councils could be resistant to funding overseas
researchers. Henriette Bruun advised that some funders such as the ESRC
and the AHRC were taking steps to make it easier to fund joint international
projects.
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c)
Members should contact Julia Abbott as soon as possible if they had an idea
for a collaboration. The process could typically take several months before a
collaboration or exchange actually took place.
d)
For further advice, members should consult the Yale-UCL collaboration
website, which was hosted by Yale, for further background details
(www.yale-ucl.org ) and contact Julia Abbott (j.abbott@ucl.ac.uk /ext. 5509).
1.2
Revised terms of reference
Members accepted the revised terms of reference for the executive group that
had been made in light of comments made about the use of the term ‘wisdom’.
UCL’s Research Strategy now appeared lower down in the series of points.
Members also welcomed the emphasis in the new terms of reference that
members should take an active role in the executive group.
1.3
a)
Improvements to GCII website
François Guesnet said that the GCII website needed revision to meet the
needs of researchers who were interested in cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Specifically the website needed to be clearer and more welcoming to visitors.
The new priority themes for GCII such as empathy also needed to be given a
stronger web presence.
b)
Ian Scott said that there was certainly a case to refresh the website; in
particular, the images on the GCII home page needed to be reviewed.
However, it was also important to maintain a unity of website design across
the Grand Challenges and Nicholas Tyndale (Director of Communications,
Grand Challenges) would need to be included in this exercise. Dr Guesnet
believed that improvements made to the GCII website would also benefit the
websites of the other Grand Challenges.
c)
Maria Wyke asked if any web support was available from the A&H/SHS
faculties. Jo Wolff said that assistance was available for website setup but not
for maintenance.
d)
Martin Holbraad (Anthropology) and Roselle Thoreau (Crucible Centre)
volunteered to form a small working group to revise the GCII website. The
group will be led by Francois Guesnet and supported by OVPR.

Action
Michael Reade to organise a meeting to discuss an action plan for this
project.
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2.
Short reports on funded activities
Members in receipt of GCII funding, had submitted written reports on their
projects. Summaries are given below:
2.1
Negotiating Religion (continued) – François Guesnet
There were three paths of activity:
A concluding conference, Negotiating Religion. Inquires into the History and
Present of Religious Accommodations to take place on 1 May 2013.
A volume, Negotiating Religion, will include contributions from the conference
in May and summaries of the previous workshops that were supported by a
GCII small grant.
A joint workshop organised by UCL and University of Cambridge: Religion and
the Idea of the Contemporary Research University will take place at
Cumberland Lodge, 23-24 May 2013.
2.2
Annual Lecture, Centre for Transnational History (CTH) – Axel Korner
Professor Larry Wolff, New York University, will deliver CTH’s Annual Lecture
2013: Western Perspectives on Eastern Europe: New Mental Mapping after
the Cold War on 14 May 2013. Professor Wolff will stay at UCL for two and a
half days, and will give a number of seminars. This additional time will also
give CTH the opportunity to explore plans for future collaboration.
2.3
Gendering the Colour Revolutions and the Arab Spring: feminist
perspectives on and from the Middle East and Central Asia
– Ruth Mandel
This conference took place in October 2012 and was a model example of
interdisciplinary and intercollegiate collaboration. The conference was coorganised and co-sponsored by individuals and departments at UCL, SOAS,
LSE and Cambridge. The presentations were all followed by extensive
discussion and debate about issues concerning changing ideologies and
practices of gender contemporary, predominantly in the Middle East and
Afghanistan. Currently the three primary organisers (from UCL, SOAS, and
Cambridge) are evaluating the possibility of an edited volume.
2.4
Shahrizor Survey – Karen Radner
This project will provide an analysis of geoarchaeological samples from the
Kurdish Autonomous Region of Iraq. The goal is to establish the climatic and
environmental conditions in the Shahrizor plain over the last 10,000 years
during which this region, one of the arenas of the “Neolithic Revolution”, was
continually inhabited by humans. The next step was to complete the
laboratory analysis of the samples. In addition, funding had recently been
secured from the British Institute for the Study of Iraq for further fieldwork in
autumn 2013.
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2.5
Digital Excursions and Preserving Digital Texts – Claire Warwick
Claire Warwick was unwell at the time of preparations for this GCII meeting.
Update reports will be distributed to members later.
2.6
UCL-Lancet Culture and Health Commission – David Napier
David Napier provided members with a verbal report on the Culture and
Health Commission, which is an integral part of Science Medicine and Society
(SMS) activity (see 2.7):
a)
The Commission has identified four themes for which texts are currently being
prepared:
Cultural competency
Human wellbeing
Structural violence
Cultures of care
b)
The skills of post-graduate researchers are being used to conduct community
research that will help UCL Partners (UCLP translates research into health
gains for patients and populations) serve the needs of local communities. This
approach will also help inform UCL development in Stratford which is led by
Nick Tyler (Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering, Crucible).
c)
A draft of the Commission’s report will be ready for the launch of SMS, 29-30
April 2013. A morning session will develop social networking activities and an
afternoon session will explore the Commission’s four themes.
2.7
a)
Science Medicine and Society (SMS) – David Napier
The SMS launch will allow for a number of themes and activities, which have
been raised by the SMS executive group, to be further developed:
b)

Stem cell and regenerative medicine has been identified as a subject for
the next UCL-Lancet Commission.

A collaboration with the Slade in the form of an exhibition on the victims
of torture. A symposium will also be organised.

The ‘wellness index’ as utilised in a number of Scandinavian countries.

Organ trafficking

Intellectual property and ways in which it related to the property and
knowledge of indigenous peoples.
François Guesnet noted that there were a number of SMS themes relevant to
GCII. David Napier emphasised that SMS interests were in no way fixed and
new ones could be developed in the future according to the interests of
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researchers. SMS also enjoyed some administrative support to assist in the
development of new initiatives.
2.8
SELCS Gained in Translation – Stephen Hart
This project, organised by the School of European Languages, Culture and
Society and funded as part of the "Intercultural Interaction" pathway of UCL's
Grand Challenges, articulates the concept of Gained in Translation in a
number of carefully-chosen events which celebrate poetry and the arts.
Professor Terry Eagleton will give the keynote at the one-day colloquium on
Gained in Translation (31 May 2013).
Stephen Hart said that the Gained in Translation initiative encouraged
researchers to think in larger terms hoped that this could lead to larger crossdisciplinary research grant applications following the modest funding that had
been received from GCII.
Ian Scott mentioned the successful presentation of Samuel Daniel's The
Tragedie of Cleopatra on 3 March 2013 by the Centre for Early Modern
Exchanges, initiated by Helen Hackett. The team had been asked to stage a
similar performance at Stratford-upon-Avon and other venues.
3.
Other current and prospective activity
3.1
a)
Digital Humanities Month
Michael Reade outlined plans for UCL’s Digital Humanities Month in April
2013. Melissa Terras, Centre for Digital Humanities, is convening this
themed month with support from GCII.
b)
The month will conclude with a professional facilitated £5,000 prize workshop.
Cross-disciplinary teams of researchers from across UCL will be asked to
formulate projects that would be judged by an expert panel.
c)
This is the first time that a themed month/research prize approach has been
used in GCII. Members were asked to contact Michael Reade
(m.reade@ucl.ac.uk / ext.28713) if they had an idea for a cross-disciplinary
research question, which they thought could be successfully addressed via a
similarly organised themed month.
3.2
GCII small grants scheme
Michael Reade presented a paper detailing the six GCII small grant awards
that had recently been made:

Transnational Slade: mapping the diaspora of an art school
(Pakistan/Sudan) (£4,932)
Amna Malik (Slade) & Melissa Terras (information Studies)

Ideas of African sculpture in archaeology and art in modern
Britain: Jacob Esptein, Flinders Petrie, Ronald Moody and Edna
Manley (£4,850)
Gemma Romain (Geography) & Debbie Challis (Petrie Museum)

John Donne’s Conversions, 1613–2013 (£1,082)
Daniel Smith (English) & Jason Peacey (History)
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
Coordination and Collaboration (£5,000)
William Steptoe (Computer Science) & Daniel Richardson (Cognitive,
Perceptual and Brian Sciences)

International and interdisciplinary conference “Trust and Distrust
in the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union, 1956-1991” (£5,000)
Alexey Tikhomirov (SEES) & Mary Fulbrook (German)

Increasing Awareness of Organ Donation in Black and Minority
Ethnic Groups (£4,816)
Cecil Thompson (Chair, UCL’s Race Equality Group) & Bimbi Fernando
(Renal Transplant Unit)
b)
François Guesnet emphasised the importance of creating new synergies that
produced genuine impact via the small grants scheme. A number of the
supported projects correlated closely with the GCII themes of empathy,
translation and culture & health. These themes should be mentioned in the
guidance for the next round of small grants.
c)
Ian Scott said that the next call for GC small grants will open in early to mid
April and decisions will be made in late June. These grants will pay for crossdisciplinary projects over a twelve month period from 1 August 2013 to 31July
2014.
3.3
UCL STEP (Science. Technology and Engineering Policy)
Jason Blackstock presented an outline of STEP and its aims:
a)
STEP will seek to create a policy engagement ‘lab’ or ‘incubator’ at UCL,
supported by a policy team, which will bring together researchers and policy
makers.
b)
There would be opportunities for researchers to learn about the problems
experienced by policy-makers and it was hoped that their insights will be built
into collaborations from the beginning.
c)
A post-graduate degree was envisaged and discussions were currently taking
place with the Policy School about a joint degree.
d)
Alex Samson noted that the Jill Dando Institute and the Department for
Science and Technology Studies were both engaged in addressing very
similar questions to STEP. Jason Blackstock said that he was already in
contact with both organisations at UCL.
e)
François Guesnet commented that it would be beneficial if the A&H and SHS
faculties could develop a similar policy initiative to STEP.
f)
Members were asked to contact Jason Blackstock
(jason.blackstock@ucl.ac.uk ) if they had any further questions about STEP or
suggestions for future collaborations.
3.4
China at UCL
In view of time restraints it was decided that this topic should be fully
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discussed at the next GCII meeting.
4.
New leadership themes
4.1
a)
Empathy
Tim Beasley-Murray had submitted a discussion paper, Empathy and the
Grand Challenges. There was agreement that this was a good theme for
GCII; there were a wide variety of interpretations and possibilities to explore.
b)
The recent small grant award for Coordination and Collaboration to William
Steptoe (Computer Science) & Daniel Richardson (Cognitive, Perceptual and
Brian Sciences) was noted as being very relevant to the empathy theme.
François Guesnet also thought that empathy had relevance for SMS. Ian
Scott mentioned Beverly Butler’s leadership of the empathy and wellbeing
theme within GCHW.
4.2
Dissent
In view of time restraints, it was decided that this topic should be fully
discussed at the next GCII meeting.
4.3
Wonderments of the Cosmos
Martin Holbraad introduced his paper, Wonderments of the Cosmos, which
built upon the work carried out in Anthropology over a number of years. It was
agreed that a number of discipline at UCL had strong interested in this subject
such as anthropology, astronomy, history and the Slade. A meeting would
take place shortly to discuss next steps with a view to making a crossdisciplinary research funding application.

Action
Jo Wolff noticed that there was a proliferation of initiatives within GCII and
consideration should be give to linking them together in a coherent way.
The Friday Forums convened by the Arts and Humanities Faculty Institute
of Graduate Studies (FIGS), which encouraged both staff and graduate
students to contribute to academic discussion, were mentioned as a
possible model.
4.4
Suggestions for new activities
a)
François Guesnet reported that the London Borough of Camden was
interested in holding joint events with UCL. Members were asked to contact
François Guesnet if they had any suggestions.
b)
Susan Collins suggested a series of ‘show and tell’ events whereby those who
had received funding from GCII could explain there projects to new people
c)
François Guesnet said that GCII should aim to have three major themes for
2013-14.
5.
5.1
Reports on bids to Provost
Dynamics of Civilisation
Maria Wyke reported that the bid had been submitted in October 2012. The
bid team had recently been asked to re-submit the bid with a reduced funding
request. If this bid was successful, the Centre for the Dynamics of Civilisation
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would launch in October 2013 and would convene a series of workshops and
facilitate a number of cross-disciplinary projects.
5.2
Institute of Cross-Disciplinary Research / Arcadia House
Ian Scott reported that Provost was disinclined to make decisions on very
large applications to the PSDF. The proposal is currently being considered by
DARO.
6.
AoB
The date of the next meeting will be arranged via email.
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