Research fellowships – Vital North Partnership

Refugee stories in the Seven Stories Collections: Exploring the Beverley Naidoo archive

How can children’s literature archives help us to understand what it’s like to be torn from your home as a refugee?

For her PhD project ‘The Other Side of Truth: agency, representation and belonging in Beverley Naidoo’s refugee fiction’, Helen King explores the role of children’s books and archives in shaping how we think about the refugee experience, and empowering children to engage creatively and politically with literature.

My project is a collaboration between the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics at Newcastle University, and Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books, within the Vital North Partnership. It is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council through the Northern Bridge Consortium and supervised by Dr Lucy Pearson (Newcastle University), Dr Kyle Grayson (Newcastle University) and John Coburn (Creative Director, Seven Stories). This builds on the longstanding relationship between the Children’s Literature Unit and Seven Stories, and makes use of a recently acquired archival collection to open up opportunities for community engagement.

Collections at Seven Stories. Image: Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children's Books. Photograph: Damien Wootten. — Image: Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children’s Books. Photograph: Damien Wootten.

Beverley Naidoo (pictured above by Linda Brownlee) donated her archive to Seven Stories in 2016. The Collection is an essential part of what Seven Stories do, and they hold archives from numerous authors with huge value, both for the general public and for research. Naidoo’s archive is a really important acquisition for Seven Stories, and contains research for and responses to her fiction, as well as material relating to her careers as a researcher, teacher and activist.

A South African author, Naidoo was exiled to the UK as a result of her anti-apartheid activism, and themes of displacement and the effect of totalitarianism and racism on children runs through much of her work. Her novel The Other Side of Truth won the Carnegie medal in 2000. This book tells the story of two Nigerian children who are forced to seek asylum in the UK due to their father’s critique of the military rule of General Sani Abacha in the mid 90s. Exploring themes such the loss of home, the impact of trauma and importance of the individual refugee story, this novel is as relevant today as it was 20 years ago, and forms the starting point for this research project.

Beverley Naidoo with children from the Academy at Shotton Hall. Image: Seven Stories

I am still in the early stages of my research, and already I have found so much thought-provoking and challenging material within the Naidoo archive. With a framework of postcolonial theory that examines how colonial dynamics have and still do affect our constructions of race, nationhood and citizenship in the UK, I am using Naidoo’s fiction and her archive to explore the following questions:

What does it mean to belong as a refugee child?
How can a children’s author represent voices that are marginalised, misrepresented and silenced by popular rhetoric and the media?
What agency can children have in the face of social inequality, either as creatives or as activists, and how can children’s literature give them this?
How can Seven Stories use the Naidoo archive to develop new creative engagement with their collections?

My time is spent between Newcastle University, the Seven Stories archive in Felling and their visitor centre in Ouseburn. I will be posting here from time to time as the project develops, and as the public engagement aspects of my project take shape over the coming months.

Catherine Johnson, Patrice Lawrence and Darren Chetty in conversation. Image: Newcastle University

The aims of this project follow on from the Diverse Voices? symposium in November 2017, and build on Professor Karen Sands-O’Connor’s time spent at Seven Stories exploring the links between activism and children’s writing in the Seven Stories archive. As author S.I. Martin explained at Diverse Voices?, ‘archives are a world that kids can write themselves into’, and provide huge potential for an engagement with books that is empowering for those young people who find themselves written out of British children’s literature.

Viewing the Naidoo archive as carrying such potential, this project will facilitate in Seven Stories finding new ways to bring the archive to the general public through exhibitions and engagement with groups from their local community who have experienced displacement themselves. Children’s literature archives are not simply slices of history, but are active sites of debate, creativity and activism through which children can be empowered to tell their own stories.

Find out more about Northern Bridge, and explore the Beverley Naidoo collection on the Seven Stories website.

Newcastle University’s Children’s Literature Unit launches new blog

Interested in children’s literature? Then have a look at the new Children’s Literature in Newcastle blog!

It’s written and maintained by postgraduate students and staff from Newcastle University’s Children’s Literature Unit Graduate Group. I’ll be contributing to the occasional post so I asked some of the other members of the group to introduce themselves, about their plans for the blog, and what they love about having Seven Stories in Newcastle…

Roisin Laing

First Children’s Literature in Newcastle blog post: Children in Nineteenth-Century Australia

I plan to blog about: My research into nineteenth-century records about the education of Indigenous Australian children in New South Wales.

Favourite Seven Stories experience: I attended a Children’s Literature Masterclass organised by Newcastle University’s Children’s Literature Unit in 2015 and enjoyed exploring the Seven Stories archives during this event.

Aishwarya Subramanian gives a presentation at a meeting of the Children's Literature Graduate Group. Image: Newcastle University — Aishwarya Subramanian gives a presentation at a meeting of the Children’s Literature Graduate Group. Image: Newcastle University

Jennifer Shelley

First Children’s Literature in Newcastle blog post: A Fresher at Fifty

I plan to blog about: As well as my diary talking about the experience of going back to study after a 28-year gap, I expect to be blogging about mid-twentieth century fiction for girls. Subjects are likely to include career novels, Noel Streatfeild, Mabel Esther Allan and, for local interest, Lorna Hill and Elinor M Brent-Dyer, the author of the Chalet School books.

Favourite Seven Stories experience: Chatting to staff about the exciting treasures in the archive and plans for the future.

Lucy Stone

First Children’s Literature in Newcastle blog post: Imagining Wordsworth

I plan to blog about: A workshop on archival research for doctoral students held by the Wordsworth Trust and Northern Bridge at Dove Cottage and the Jerwood Centre in the gorgeous Lakes village of Grasmere.

Favourite Seven Stories experience: Every experience at Seven Stories is my favourite! There are no words to describe the sheer joy and excitement of looking at Judith Kerr’s juvenilia.

One of Judith Kerr’s watercolours made as a child, included in her memoir Creatures (2013). You can view the original at Seven Stories.

Talking of blogs, the Vital North Partnership blog has now been live for 6 months and has published 14 posts. And remember to take a look at the Seven Stories Collections blog and their All the Family blog too!

The Research Excellence Framework and the Vital North Partnership

In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), Newcastle University submitted an Impact Case Study about the Children’s Literature Unit’s work with Seven Stories: Promoting the preservation, presentation and public understanding of children’s literature with Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children’s Books.

This Impact Case Study received a 4* grading, defined as ‘outstanding impacts in terms of their reach and significance’. This contributed to Newcastle University ranking first out of all UK HEIs for impact in English Language and Literature.

REF2014 really highlighted the excellence of the partnership between the two organisations and what we could achieve together. Following this REF2014 success, Newcastle University and Seven Stories’ Vital North Partnership programme began in 2015, and aims to strengthen and scale up our collaboration.

So, how did this partnership lead to a REF2014 Impact Case Study, and what have we been doing since then? Well, I gave a paper on that very subject back in October as part of a panel on REF Impact and the Heritage Sector at The National Archives and Research Libraries UK’s Discovering Collections, Discovering Communities conference. Take a look:

From Warhorse to the Wombles: Seven Stories and Newcastle University

Of course, Newcastle University has a number of strong partnerships with the cultural sector, and Seven Stories’ weren’t the only museum mentioned in their REF Impact Case Studies. And this reflects the submissions of HEIs across the country: 837 of the submitted Case Studies mentioned ‘museum/s’ and 40% of all arts and humanities Impact Case Studies involved museums in some way.

The National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement, reviewing this data, reflects that there are opportunities here to widen both the discipline base, create collaborations in new areas of museum practice, and broaden the approach to impact; I think that the Vital North Partnership is really helping Newcastle University to grasp the range of opportunities that working with Seven Stories presents.

Discovering Collections, Discovering Communities conference. Photo by Matt Blair.

Now, higher education funders and institutions are looking to the next REF in 2021. Lord Stern’s independent review of REF2014 was published in July 2016, and the four UK higher education councils are currently consulting on detailed arrangements for a second REF. We don’t know the details of REF2021 just yet, but the focus on research having impact beyond the academic environment and assessing this through Impact Case Studies looks set to continue.

Excellence in children’s literature is central to the Vital North Partnership’s vision. And thinking about the collaboration between Newcastle University and Seven Stories from the perspective of REF Impact, it seems to me that sustained and embedded partnership activity is an effective way of achieving and evidencing this.

The Vital North Partnership Pecha Kucha

New year, new blog post. And for my first post of 2017, I thought I’d bring you something a little different – a video! Here it is:

The Vital North Partnership (+19 other ways Newcastle University and Seven Stories are collaborating)

In 2016, I presented this Pecha Kucha about the Vital North Partnership between Newcastle University and Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books at two events; the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Common Ground event in June, and Newcastle University’s Working Together: Bringing About Change event in November. Both events explored collaborations and engagement in the humanities.

Pecha Kuchas are short, visual presentations. As you talk, you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. Your slides change automatically. And they’re more than a little tricky to deliver…

The Vital North Partnership (+ 19 other ways Newcastle University and Seven Stories are collaborating) is exactly what the title suggests: a presentation about 20 current Partnership projects. And what are those projects? Well, watch the video and find out!

With thanks to Jeff Wilson from the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, who produced this video.

Applications open for the David Almond Fellowships

David Almond (above, with Michael Morpurgo). Award-winning North East children’s writer. Patron of Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children’s Books. Honorary graduate of Newcastle University. So it seems only fitting that we named our annual fellowships in children’s literature in David’s honour!

Newcastle University and Seven Stories’ David Almond Fellowships aim to promote high-quality research into the Seven Stories Collection by supporting award holders to make a study visit to Newcastle. And there are so many amazing collections that you could research! Take a look at Seven Stories’ informative Collections blog for an insight into some of our holdings.

Collections at Seven Stories. Image: Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children's Books. Photography: Damian Wootten. — Image: Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children’s Books. Photography: Damien Wootten

We launched the David Almond Fellowships in 2012 to increase national and international access to Seven Stories’ Collection and build new links with researchers. So far, we’ve awarded 11 Fellowships and over half of our Fellows have come from outside the UK.

Lucy Stone, one of our 2016 award-holders, says of her David Almond Fellowship:

“To take up the pen, pencil or paintbrush proffers the chance to make sense of the beautiful, but also perplexing world into which children are born, grow and find their place as an adult. The Judith Kerr Collection contains a myriad of remarkable drawings, paintings and writings child Kerr crafted pre- and during her family’s exile from Nazi Germany. Thanks to a David Almond Fellowship, I had the wonderful opportunity this summer to examine Kerr’s juvenilia, now part of my doctoral research involving consulting archives across Europe and the US to determine what writing and drawing can offer refugee children. Everyone at Seven Stories and the Children’s Literature Unit were incredibly helpful and supportive; the Fellowship proved invaluable.”

And, applications for the 2016/17 David Almond Fellowships are now open! You have until 1 December 2016 to apply for visits to be taken before the end of August 2017. Have a look at the David Almond Fellowship Information 2016-2017 for full details of how to apply, and download the David Almond Fellowship Application form.

We would love to welcome you to Newcastle as a David Almond Fellow – and you could even research David’s collection…

For more information about the David Almond Fellowships, visit the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics website or contact Professor Kim Reynolds.

A first year and a first blog post

We’re now officially one year into our funding for the Vital North Partnership between Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books and Newcastle University. I thought this blog would be a good way to review what’s gone on over the past year…

The Vital North Partnership begins

The start of 2015 saw Newcastle University’s REF Impact Case Study about the Children’s Literature Unit’s work with Seven Stories receive a 4* grading, leading to the School of English ranking first in the UK for research impact.

This was fantastic recognition of our collaboration over the last 10 years, and led Seven Stories (with Newcastle University’s support) to make a Museum Resilience Fund bid to Arts Council England. This was for the Vital North Partnership, a project with the following aims:

To strengthen and scale-up Seven Stories’ partnership with Newcastle University
To build Seven Stories’ brand recognition and reach and develop new income streams
To secure a sustainable business model for Seven Stories as the national home for children’s books

We were delighted to be awarded funding, and the Vital North Partnership began…

From 2015 to 2016

It’s been a busy first year. Here are some of the highlights!

We were granted funding from AHRC and Innovate UK for a Knowledge Transfer Partnership between the School of English Literature, Language and Lingusitics and Seven Stories’ Collections and Exhibitions team.
We recruited a Vital North Partnership Manager (me!) to facilitate the project. I started in post in January 2016.
Seven Stories’ exclusive Michael Morpurgo: A Lifetime in Stories exhibition opened, supported by the KTP. The Vital North Partnership also supported a sell-out Christmas concert with Michael at St. Nicholas’ Cathedral, On Angel Wings.
We offered 4 joint public talks on children’s literature with expert Brian Alderson, and author Garth Nix.
Seven Stories’ Living Books project is ongoing: this is a development programme for early years settings and parents to share and enjoy books with young children. Newcastle University’s Centre for Learning and Teaching are helping to evaluate this project.

Living Books workshop — Image: Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books

The Collections team at Seven Stories have been supporting Professor Kim Reynolds’ research into Olive Dehn and Catherine Storr
We also collaborated around Professor David Leat’s Community Curriculum Making research: Seven Stories’ Learning and Participation team have attended meetings and events and contributed case studies.

Journey to Jo'burg performance — Image: Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books

Seven Stories and Newcastle University hosted Leverhulme Visiting Professor Karen Sands O’Connor from Buffalo State University. Karen spent her time here looking at race and diversity in the Seven Stories collection.
We jointly offered four David Almond Fellowships to support postgraduates and early career researchers to come and consult the Seven Stories collection.
Newcastle University students from the BA in English Literature and BA in Education visited Seven Stories as part of their course, and I gave a seminar on Seven Stories and reading for pleasure for the Educational Psychology doctoral trainees
Seven Stories have also been supporting student employability by offering placements: we’ve supported an undergraduate Research Scholarship with Speech and Language Sciences and we’re currently hosting a Santander University Internship.

Phew!

What’s next?

Now I’ve been in post for 8 months, things are really gathering pace. There are lots of projects in the pipeline and I’m planning to share activities as they happen via this blog. If you’d like more information about anything you’ve read about here, get in touch!

Between now and Christmas, I’ll be posting about opportunities through the Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership, sharing a Pecha Kucha I gave at the AHRC Common Ground event earlier in the summer about the Vital North Partnership and quizzing Research Associate Dr. Jessica Medhurst about all things KTP.

So a first year, and a first blog post. I’m looking forward to seeing what the next year has in store…