Multiple academic staff at the School of History, Archaeology and Religion granted research funding and an award nomination

Several academic staff at Cardiff University’s School of History, Archaeology and Religion have received funding awards for a variety of research projects, while another has been nominated for an award.

We chatted with each of our team to find out more about their recent achievements.

Professor Mary Heimann

What have you been awarded and how did your it come about?

I’ve brought in external funding from the Keston Institute to set up a 3-year postdoctoral research associate post in Religion under Communist Regimes in Central and/or Eastern Europe.

Keston is a charity, established in 1969, which seeks to promote and disseminate research relating to religion under Communist regimes. It has a long history of funding academic positions at the University of Oxford, the University of Sussex, Northwestern University and elsewhere.

The Keston Research Associate in Religion under Communist Regimes will be attached to the Central and East European Research Centre and to History.

What will your project entail, and what do you hope to achieve?

I will be the Principal Investigator, and the post will allow a junior scholar to join me. That will be someone who has just completed their doctorate to have three years to focus on publishing their first academic book while being allowed to undertake strictly limited teaching within their general area of expertise.

What inspired your research in your chosen field?

As someone who was lucky enough, upon completing my doctorate, to win a 3-year Research Fellowship at the University of Cambridge, I know how much an opportunity like this can mean to a young scholar. It was for this reason that I decided to set up a 3-year postdoctoral position like this here at Cardiff.

Professor Keir Waddington and Dr Jan Machielsen

What have you been awarded and how did your it come about?

We are part of a successful funding bid to Research Foundation (Flanders) for a project that explores how we integrate the histories of science and the humanities.

What will your project entail, and what do you hope to achieve?

The project urges us to revisit the humanities’ deep past with a fresh set of questions to explore how ideas and methods have been exchanged between the humanities and sciences in the past.

The collaboration is based in Ghent but also involves historians in the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany. We’re the only UK partner.

The project is not about theorising or historicising the division of ‘science’ vs. ‘humanities’ but to consider how we might develop new and different ways for them to speak to one another. It is an exciting opportunity to work with colleagues in Belgium and the Netherlands over three years

What inspired your research in your chosen field?

This builds on work as part of the ScienceHumanities initiative here at Cardiff University, co-directed with Martin Willis in School of English, Communication and Philosophy, which has been at the forefront of research at Cardiff on how we work across and between the humanities, social sciences and sciences.

It has explored how we work in interdisciplinary ways, providing the knowledge we’ve gained from our Wellcome funded research to the next generation of scholars on how to develop and run interdisciplinary projects.

It also builds on my [Keir’s] work on literature and science – I explore bad gothic fiction and what it says about science and medicine.

Professor Richard Madgwick

What have you been awarded and how did your it come about?

A Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) fellowship, awarded to Dr Lua Valenzuela-Sua (Fellow) and I (supervisor).

The grant (€276,000) will fund Lua to join Cardiff for 2 years to undertake OVIS: Origins of Variability in Island Systems. Unravelling livestock diet and mobility across the Bronze-Iron Age transition.

The application scored 98% and this is the fifth MSCA grant I’ve been awarded. The scheme has really enriched the School’s research environment, having brought people and projects from across Europe and North America.

What will your project entail, and what do you hope to achieve?

The project focuses on island economies in Sardinia, Mallorca and Menorca at the Bronze Age-Iron Age transition. This was a period of climatic change and economic upheaval with new networks being created across Europe. OVIS will assess how island economies and farming practices adapted in this changing world.

What inspired your research in your chosen field?

New advances in science, which have transformed the potential of research and massively enhanced interpretative resolution.

In this project we use isotope analysis to provide high resolution on how animals were managed, moved and fed throughout their lives, including detail on birth seasonality.

Dr Paul Webster

What have you been nominated for?

I was nominated, and a shortlisted finalist in the Learning and Work Institute Inspire! Tutor Awards for tutors and mentors supporting adult learning across Wales.

The nomination was made by Abdul Aldhfeiry, Anastazia Thomas and Lisa Mapley, mature students who completed their undergraduate degrees in our School in 2023 and have all gone on to postgraduate study.

Abdul, Anastazia and Lisa all began their degrees after completing the Exploring the Past Pathway to degrees in the School, a partnership between us and the university’s Division of Lifelong Learning. I’m the Pathway co-ordinator and work closely with the students during the pathway and after they progress.

What does this nomination mean to you?

In terms of what the nomination means to me, it was a great honour to be nominated for this award.

Working with students on the Exploring the Past Pathway is a real passion, and it’s so rewarding to see our students return to study and succeed in achieving their ambitions, building confidence and going from strength to strength as they do so.

The pathway provides an invaluable route for students who often thought that the possibility of studying at university was closed to them, and provides opportunities for widening participation in Higher Education and forging links with the community that are everything a university should be amidst the challenges of the modern world.

Tell us about some of the work you've done with adult learners.

I’m a personal tutor for students on the Pathway, and for students progressing from the Pathway to our School’s degrees, in particular in single honours History and joint honours programmes involving History.

I also provide support for all adult learners in the School as part of this role, whether or not they have previously studied on the pathway. This takes the form of personal tutoring and running support groups for students. These groups enable our mature students to engage with and provide mutual support for their peers.

Both personal tutoring and the group activities provide a supported environment in which I can provide guidance on support resources available within the university, both in relation to personal wellbeing and to study skills.

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