Impact case study database

This case study is related to a 2014 one, where a teaching resource piloted in Cornwall revealed the potential of object-based learning in sex education, and preliminary collaborations with museums in Plymouth, Truro and Exeter demonstrated the value of engaging young people with sexually themed museum collections. However, this new case study relies on a substantial corpus of new research (in addition to that which informed the previous case study) and reflects an entirely new body of impact. Since 2014, the Sex & History teaching resource piloted in Cornwall has been replaced by an entirely new suite of resources using new objects, and in collaboration with leading sex educationalists, a more robust method has been established and disseminated.

Empowering young people, teachers, youth workers and charities with innovative RSE resources

In 2014, Langlands, Fisher and Grove, in collaboration with two professional sex educators, devised an educational method based on historical objects embedded in a series of RSE resources for Key Stages 4 and 5. Now with an additional set of dedicated LGBT resources, produced in 2017 in collaboration with national educational charity Schools Out, these have been available in the UK and globally online since 2014 [ 5.1].

Teachers report that the resources ‘work incredibly well’ [ 5.2] and leading sex educationalists highlight their value in promoting cross-curricular approaches and giving teachers confidence by incorporating the ways they are used to teaching into the delivery of sex education [ 5.3]. They emphasise the benefits of ‘distancing the discussion’ around topics like pornography, making them easier to approach [ 5.3]. This encourages students who would otherwise be too embarrassed to talk [ 5.3] leading to a ‘much better and safer discussion than an open debate’ [ 5.3]. They add that the resources are unusual in providing ‘interesting and challenging resources that extend learning’ for pupils in KS5, making RSE more ‘than just a pastoral intervention, but actually an intellectual and interesting part of the curriculum’ [ 5.3]. This is supported by feedback from teachers and pupils: ‘It is fascinating to see historical objects used to discuss modern-day issues with clear links for students to follow. This will allow students to develop critical thinking and analysis skills *.*’ (Beck, secondary history teacher) [ 5.2]. ‘I overheard a boy telling his mum about it at the end of the day. He was really fired up about it. Sounds like an awesome session.’ (teacher, Bath) [ 5.2]. ‘Really, really great. Inspired a good discussion.’ (pupil) [ 5.2]

Sex & History has also proved effective in specialist educational settings. In 2016, a pupil referral unit in Exeter used the method in a week-long drama project with three pupils who had experienced forms of sexual exploitation. Reported outcomes include increase in confidence, ‘bonding’ and ‘promoting relationships between staff and students…so vital in the units’ [ 5.2] . In Cornwall, sexual health charity Brook used the method with a group of young fathers, reporting increased confidence in discussing sexual issues [ 5.2].  In Plymouth, as part of the ‘HOLD project’, pioneering social enterprise Effervescent Arts used the method from 2016-2020 with small groups of young people with experiences of severe childhood trauma, including domestic violence, substance abuse and sexual exploitation, resulting in six exhibitions/ installations at Radiant Gallery for periods of two to four months. The impact on the 39 children involved was substantial. Data collected six months after the end of the project showed significant increases in all attainment, wellbeing and behavioural measures [ 5.4], while the resulting exhibitions also had an impact on those who work with at-risk young people. Representatives from the NSPCC recommended that the ‘Poison’ exhibition (2017) be incorporated into the charity’s programme for continuing professional development, with a youth worker commenting: ‘This will help and further my understanding of hidden harm. I work with children who suffer from developmental trauma in schools. I think you could achieve a shift in educational understanding if you presented this in schools. It would beat the PowerPoint presentations I deliver on the subject *.*’ [ 5.4]

Since 2014, the teaching resources have been freely accessible worldwide via the TES website, from which they have been downloaded 1,318 times (as of December 2020), with a 4.8/5 star rating. The LGBT resources hosted by the University of Exeter have been downloaded 2,467 times (as of December 2020) [ 5.1]. The resource has been downloaded worldwide (e.g., in September-December 2020 alone, in Ireland, France, Iceland, Hong Kong and New Zealand). In France, the resources are being used in the creation of an association for the promotion of inclusive sex education [ 5.2].

The team has worked directly with more than 50 schools (2014-20) to deliver both training to teachers and RSE lessons to pupils [ 5.2]. However, the Sex & History method has been more widely disseminated across the country through its enthusiastic take-up by highly regarded external agencies. The Sex Education Forum (SEF) is the foremost umbrella network for RSE in the UK, dedicated to quality and equitable RSE, delivering lessons in schools as well as in-depth training to teachers. For example, one member of staff estimated she had delivered lessons to over 400 children and trained over 200 teachers in the past two years [ 5.3]. In addition, since 2015 SEF have integrated Sex & History resources into various training programmes, including: the government-funded anti-homophobic, -biphobic and -transphobic bullying programme delivered to over 800 schools through face-to-face training (2015-9); the core training package in all 38 secondary schools in East Sussex over a two-year period; and SEF’s national training portfolio, including approximately 20 one-day training sessions per year (each attended by about 30 people), reaching roughly 600 teachers annually, and 1000s over the past five years [ 5.3].

Another key organisation, School of Sexuality Education (formerly Sexplain), developed its programme in consultation with Sex & History, using the resources as part of its portfolio to deliver intersectional, feminist and sex-positive workshops since its inception in 2016. It is now a leading sex-education provider in the UK, working with 33,000+ young people in 200+ schools, delivering training for 250+ teachers, and featuring Sex & History in a PGCE short course at UCL Institute of Education [ 5.3]. The organisation’s co-founder and CEO notes that the ‘materials are cleverly crafted to allow young people to objectively discuss relevant social issues such as bodily autonomy, gender and sexual pleasure in a way that is removed from their personal lives and experiences… We have found Sex & History particularly useful in addressing anxieties around discussing porn… [it has] influenced our own practice in delivering sex education’ [ 5.3]. These organisations also highlight the uniqueness of Sex & History in its allowing teachers to integrate it into the broader curriculum, and helping them deliver LGBTQ-inclusive RSE, ‘a challenge for many teachers, particularly those who have not received training or who do not have support of senior leadership. The Sex and History resource filled a gap in that it looked more broadly at the social and historical context.’

In 2020, Langlands delivered teacher training via webinars, reaching an international audience: 20 members of the National Youth Agency (UK), 90+ teachers through National Education Union, 40 teachers in Hong Kong via the English Schools Foundation and 31 members of the UK Army Welfare Services (working in Cyprus, Kenya and Belize). [5.2]

Informing the development and delivery of curricula and new statutory requirements for comprehensive RSE provision

The impact of the Sex & History method on the delivery of RSE across the UK is widely acclaimed. In December 2017, it was commended by national charity the Family Planning Association for innovation and good practice in RSE [ 5.5]. In 2018 it was endorsed by Public Health England [ 5.6]. It is one of the featured resources on the PSHE Association website, and Sex & History lesson plans also feature in the Department for Education-recommended handbook Great Relationships and Sex Education (Hoyle and McGeeney 2019) [ 5.7].

As part of the development of a new statutory RSE policy in Wales, the team were invited to provide evidence at a Welsh Assembly expert panel in June 2017. The policy document informing the development of the new Welsh curriculum, including detailed guidance for schools, includes Sex & History as a case study of innovative and inclusive RSE [ 5.8]. The team also attended a UK parliament event in November 2017 that informed new guidelines on statutory RSE issued in 2019. Langlands and Fisher are regularly invited to contribute to policy and curriculum-building events for teachers, third-sector practitioners and government officials. These include the Healthy Sexual Development event for practitioners and teachers (Westminster, June 2017); Delivering Outstanding Sex and Relationships Education by Inside Government (provider of CPD for effective policy implementation to public and third sector – December 2018); Countdown to Statutory RSE with Sir Antony Seldon (Kingston, March 2019); PSHCE 200 Secondary Subject Leader Network (Hackney, July 2019) [ 5.9].

Generating new ways for museums to enhance health and wellbeing outcomes

In 2014, the Sex & History team curated the Intimate Worlds exhibition at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) in Exeter (April 5-June 29). With over 63,000 visitors, it was an important and innovative exhibition for RAMM [ 5.9] whose collections and content lead testifies that ‘Intimate Worlds provided an opportunity for RAMM to demonstrate to audiences and stakeholders the value and appeal of this type of subject matter, and its relevance… [it] helped to establish the status of the museum as a place for debate within Exeter .’ [ 5.10]

The exhibition and its potential to inform sex education attracted national and international media attention. It was the most-read story in BBC Education news for a week in April 2014 and showcased with vox-pop reactions on BBC Devon’s flagship breakfast show [ 5.10]. Its success shaped subsequent activities and policies at RAMM, including the sector-leading LGBT Rainbow Trail and the Queering the Museum project. [ 5.10] Following the exhibition, Langlands and the team were contacted by people across the museum sector, nationally and internationally, for advice on the display of sexually themed material, modes of youth engagement and the relationship between museums and RSE: curators at the Wellcome Collection sought their assistance in the development of the Institute of Sexology exhibition (London, 2014-15, 200,000 visitors); they were approached on an education programme regarding sexual health at the Women’s Museum of Denmark in Aarhus in 2015; and they collaborated on the ‘Sex in Six Objects’ project in Cambridge in 2016 [ 5.11].

Since 2018 the Sex & History method’s applicability to museums has featured on the Museum Studies MA programme at University of Leicester [ 5.11]. Stuart Frost, of the British Museum, evaluated the Intimate Worlds exhibition in a study exploring the potential for attitudes to sex and sexuality to be explored in UK museums [ 5.11]. The British Museum subsequently developed its own Let’s Talk about Sex programme, and has since collaborated with Langlands and the team in advising a group of museums in Berlin (2015 to present). This has resulted in a permanent activity for visiting schools at the Bode Museum; a major exhibition, The Eroticism of Things: Collections on the History of Sexuality, at the Werkbundarchiv in Berlin in 2018 and subsequently at the Erotic Art Museum (WEAM) in Miami Beach, Florida in 2019; and the introduction of object-based learning about sexuality at the WEAM, including indexing, researching, curating and exhibiting many objects from the Naomi Wilzig collection that have never previously been displayed [ 5.11]. The 2018 Museums as Spaces of Wellbeing report, produced by the UK’s Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance, features Sex & History as an example of best practice – further evidence of its wide-ranging impact on the museum sector [ 5.6].

Research by Galluzzo, Gill and Leith has informed new holistic approaches to happiness and wellbeing through engagement with ideas from ancient philosophy. Through the international network Modern Stoicism and a Shared Learning Project in collaboration with U3A Exeter transformative impacts have been evidenced.

Tim LeBon and Donal Robertson – two accredited psychotherapists who have been involved from the start in the initiatives of the Modern Stoicism network – emphasise in their impact statement that “the impact of the Exeter-based academics has been positive and transformative” and indeed “ phenomenal”, and identify three areas of impact [ 5.1]: increasing wellbeing for members of the public taking part in international activities and online courses; inspiring medical research to develop wellbeing scales and protocols; and opening up new pathways for holistic wellbeing counselling and psychotherapy for therapeutic practitioners.

Increasing wellbeing for thousands of people globally, through initiatives, online resources and co-produced research

1. The Modern Stoicism Project

Since October 2013, the Modern Stoicism Project has operated through three main channels: an annual introductory online course (Stoic Week) supplemented by focused four-week courses (Stoic Mindfulness and Resilience Training); an edited blog, Modern Stoicism, carrying short articles on Stoic ideas and life-guidance; and an annual public event (Stoicon), on Stoic philosophy and its practical applications. The huge appetite among the public for the ancient philosophy-based approach to wellbeing is demonstrated by the large number of people who follow the activity of the network: the website has 40,800 subscribers (and 30,000 viewers monthly), the Facebook Stoicism Group has to date nearly 84,000 followers, and the Twitter page over 24,000 [ 5.2].

The project expanded steadily and significantly throughout 2013-2020, with the number of people taking the annual online course growing from around 2,000 in the first year to more than 8,000 in 2018. Participants span all age groups, genders and continents [ 5.3]. The four-week course, devised by Donald Robertson with £4,000 funding from the AG Leventis Foundation (enabled by the unit), regularly attracts more than 1,000 participants [ 5.3; 5.4]. Two volumes of articles from the blog have been published in 2014 and 2016 by Patrick Ussher, a former Exeter graduate student. The annual Stoicon event has been held in London (2013-15, 2018), New York (2016), Toronto (2017) and Athens (2019) and participants regularly number more than 300. Galluzzo and Gill have run workshops (on social media; external goods; happiness; environmental responsibility) with small groups at each of the annual events, with written versions published in the blog. One significant spin-off of the network activities has been the creation, in 2017, of a non-profit limited company, based in Exeter (directed by Galluzzo and Gill, and by Leith as well until 2019). The company enables the network to gain financial support, mainly through private donations, and so fund both the activities and the underlying medical research.

The effectiveness of these initiatives and courses in increasing people’s wellbeing has been assessed over the years by LeBon and Robertson through direct engagement with participants and online surveys. All findings consistently show that engagement with Stoicism has generated considerable improvements in life-satisfaction – of about 14% as an average on the one-week course, and 27% on the four-week course [ 5.3; 5.4]. Free-form responses confirm the transformative effect that online courses in particular had on participants. One response describes the four-week course as “a life-changing experience”; another observes that it “empowered people to take charge of their own lives, their own selves” [ 5.4].

1. The U3A Shared Learning Project – ‘Happiness across the ages’

The three workshops run by Galluzzo between 2015 and 2019 for the U3A Exeter were attended by an average of 45 participants, with feedback emphasising their transformative effects on the audiences’ ideas and attitudes. Participants observed that the workshops “would improve standards of personal contentment from the point of view of being more reasonable in my approach to everyday matters”, that they “led to reflection of current difficult situation and challenged my instinctive response to this”, and “helped [me] to understand the relevance of ancient philosophy to my present way of life” [ 5.5].

The success of these interactive workshops led to the creation of an intergenerational project (‘Happiness across the ages’), modelled on the U3A Shared Learning Projects. Galluzzo, Djerasimovic and Leith worked with a group of six U3A members and eight Exeter students to provide them with tools to reflect on, and explore within their communities, experiences of happiness, supporting lifelong learning and wellbeing. Participants conducted independent research in ancient philosophy (guided by Galluzzo) and received training (led by Djerasimovic) in conducting qualitative social research projects. Data was generated through 18 original cross-generational interviews, based on research questions and the interview protocol jointly developed by the whole team. The project continued with great success despite the Covid-19 crisis, thanks to participants’ enthusiasm and commitment, concluding with a research report jointly produced by students and U3A members [ 5.6] Findings were also published in October 2020 in an article on the ‘Sources Online’ section of the U3A webpage [ 5.7].

A questionnaire-based evaluation of the project’s benefits [ 5.8] indicated the intellectual, social and interpersonal benefits of meaningful engagement, across two generations, with ancient philosophical thought. Both U3A members and students emphasised the transformative effects in terms of skill acquisition, with one U3A member describing the project as an “eye-opener in terms of skills and perspectives on happiness”, and one student observing: “This project has allowed me to gain a wider perspective, not just on happiness, but on life itself.” [ 5.8] For U3A members, the project provided an opportunity for stimulation, creativity and beneficial social interaction. For the students, the project offered a chance to grow personally and gain new perspectives on life: “Ageing is a taboo subject, so I really never got a chance to speak about it. However, this project … has given me the rare opportunity to speak to people of different generations, to understand their viewpoints and their perspectives. After listening to theirs, I feel like I have a better sense of what happiness is.” [ 5.8]

Inspiring research to develop wellbeing scales, protocols and tools

A notable feature of the Modern Stoicism Project is the scale and complexity of the assessment of the value of the activities in promoting wellbeing through self-reporting questionnaires. Questionnaires have been analysed by LeBon and Robertson, and the findings of the analysis have been published in the reports on the annual week-long course (by LeBon [ 5.3]), and on the four-week course (by Robertson [ 5.4]). In this context, a new, clinically relevant protocol has been designed and trialled [ 5.3]. The Stoic Attitudes and Behaviours Scale (SABS) is intended to track the specific effects of Stoic guidance in promoting wellbeing. The scale measures wellbeing and self-satisfaction through a series of parameters inspired by Stoic ethics, including flourishing, taking control of one’s life, developing positive emotions and reducing negative ones.

‘Happiness across the Ages’ produced a toolkit [ 5.9] for conducting intergenerational projects. This was aimed both at third-age-facing organisations looking to develop shared educational projects with and for their members and communities, and at academics trying to develop meaningful experiences for their students at the intersection of teaching and research. The toolkit has been endorsed by national U3A and will be hosted on their website [ 5.7]. In November 2020, one member of the team presented the toolkit to over 100 members of U3A, obtaining “positive, excited, fascinated” feedback [ 5.7]. The National Shared Learning Project Ambassador for U3A has described the project as “a national example of excellence by the U3A” [ 5.7]. The toolkit has been further disseminated and has already been endorsed by Generations Working Together, a Scottish charitable organisation, which expressed the intention of including it in their learning resources [ 5.7].

Influencing professional practice by promoting a more holistic and comprehensive approach to wellbeing and opening up new pathways for counselling and psychotherapy

In his impact statement [ 5.1], LeBon cites the increasing number of practitioners who are incorporating Stoic ideas into CBT and therapy as a result of participation in the Modern Stoicism’s activities and of attendance at his specialist sessions on Stoicism and therapeutic applications. Moreover, he mentions the creation of a professional Stoic-informed CBT supervision group. Finally, Robertson comments on the boom of publications on Stoicism and life-guidance (“a whole genre of self-help that barely existed before”) for which the Modern Stoicism project has been a catalyst [ 5.1].

Engaging the Public in Stoicism

The Modern Stoicism project has attracted extensive media coverage and public interest, both nationally and internationally [ 5.10], Gill featuring in an episode of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and Galluzzo interviewed for an article in the New York Times [ 5.10]. In his 2019 book The Stoic Atlas, Chuck Chakrapani, the director of the popular website The Stoic Gym and editor of the magazine The Stoic, reconstructs the history of modern Stoicism and locates in the research activities of the Exeter team the beginning of the Stoic renaissance in contemporary society [ 5.10].

Isayev’s impact activities have been based on both direct interaction with refugees and migrants, and collaboration with organisations and individuals taking the impact beyond her initial direct involvement.

Reshaping discourses of heritage and belonging with and in refugee camps

Isayev’s research is changing discourses relating to the refugee experience and increasing opportunities for self-representation by asylum seekers and refugees. Since 2015, Isayev has worked with Campus in Camps, an experimental educational platform working with West Bank refugee camps, and Decolonising Architecture (DAAR), which combines architecture, art and activism to deliver new forms of critique, political engagement and collective learning. In November 2015, she delivered two workshops at the Dheisheh refugee camp, where approximately 15,000 refugees live [ 5.1]. Drawing insights from her work on ancient migration [ 3.1], the workshops reconsidered contemporary concerns among displaced communities around heritage, belonging, identity, and borders. They looked at projects in public spaces which transgress existing social, cultural and political power structures that limit ‘minority’ place-making, and thus critique integration. They delivered new ways of representing camps and refugees to an audience of 60-80, which included volunteers, residents of camps, architects, community workers, academics and students [ 5.1]. Participating groups included Riwaq (a heritage rehabilitation and conservation organisation based in Ramallah and working with surrounding communities), Al-Finieq (a community and learning centre in the Dheisheh camp), and Detour (a community group that leads an alternative tourist tour through refugee camps and surrounding Palestinian region). According to DAAR founder Alessandro Petti, the workshops produced new ideas about constructing histories and alternative storytelling that were tested in touring through refugee camps. He stated that these ideas “will be used to conduct new tours with different audiences around the Refugee Campus” and anticipated that the new methods would affect 2,500-12,000 beneficiaries per year, including visitors, campus communities and guides [ 5.1].

Further engaging with the forms of alternative knowledge, representation and belonging within camps, in 2018 Isayev visited Beirut and Burje Refugee Camp to explore practices of self-archiving and potential for future archiving by camp residents. The visit led to an invitation to draw on her work on migration, hospitality and displacement [ 3.4, 3.6], and present at an annual gathering of professionals, academics, and students in the Beirut City Debates, an event dedicated to issues of urbanisation in the region [ 5.2]. This collaboration was extended into the GCRF-funded ‘Imagining Futures through Un/Archived Pasts’, with the Arab Palestinian Cultural Club based in Badawi camp in Lebanon as one of the partners. The latter commended the 2019 fieldwork at the camp and the project for “‘its focus on creative and participatory practices including photography, oral histories and creative writing, leading to workshops and exhibitions in the camp [which] will be of great interest and benefit to the members of the camp” [ 5.3].

Using art to promote reflection on and self-expression of displaced communities

Art is a powerful means of conveying messages and of self-expression, especially in emotional and challenging contexts. Isayev’s collaborations with creative practitioners have influenced their practices and contributed to the representation and public understanding of people who are displaced in Europe and the Middle East. Building on the success of her work with Campus in Camps, in 2017 Isayev co-founded (with architect Diego Segatto [Italy] and critical pedagogue Isshaq AlBarbary [Palestine]) Almaisha [ 5.4]. This initiative critically explores hospitality, collective learning and politics beyond the nation state, drawing on her research on ancient and contemporary perspectives on these issues [ 3.1; 3.2; 3.4; 3.6]. Almaisha delivered collaborative artworks and workshops in Germany (e.g. with Bauhaus Museum Dessau, to develop new forms of pedagogy that promote collective learning [ 5.5]), the Netherlands and Greece, plus joint initiatives between the UK and Palestine [ 5.4]. These activities have promoted the understanding of the experience of displaced communities in the 21^st century.

Isayev’s work with Almaisha has also enabled unique and profound opportunities for creative self-expression for refugees, while preserving understanding of the refugee experience. In 2018, Almaisha collaborated with the Office of Displaced Designers (ODD), an organisation that brings together designers from displaced and host communities in Lesvos. Here, Almaisha used collective practice also to enact Isayev’s findings on hospitality, agency and belonging, including ancient mapping [ 3.1, 3.4]. This resulted in transformational experiences for participants. An asylum seeker, Aref Husseini (who had previously described himself as an ‘uninvited guest’ on Lesvos), reported: “Personally it was an amazing experience for me … I learned to see the world from a new perspective when it comes to belonging and place, to understand in depth [and] I decided to study philosophy. ” [ 5.6] The ODD collaboration led to an exhibition on the island and the co-authorship of the volume Inhabiting (2018). This is part of Almaisha’s ‘collective dictionary’ series, following on from the Campus in Camps publications, which contain definitions of concepts created in the processes of collective practice and learning, and are themselves forms of alternative archiving [ 5.4].

Almaisha was also invited to join a collaboration with the Franco-Moroccan women's collective Calypso3621 ° on its programme Out.of.the.blue.map, which brought together artists, curators, researchers and activists to create an alternative map of the Mediterranean in order to address the issues of permanent liminality and the governance systems that affect its borders. Isayev was engaged by Calypso3621° because her “interdisciplinary and inter-practice approaches lead to collective learning and research beyond the academy” [ 5.5]. The resulting output is exhibitions in Morocco and Marseille, as part of the Manifesta13 2020 biennale, unfortunately postponed due to COVID-19.

Transforming perception of migration and refugees through educational activities and offering educational opportunities for refugees

Another important volume in the ‘collective dictionary’ series, which also features on the Campus in Camps website, was Xenia (2019) [ 5.4], co-written by Isayev, her Almaisha collaborators, and her 3^rd year BA and MA students on the Ancient Journeys and Migrants course at the University of Exeter. The course creates forms of practice-based and community-engaged learning and is a platform for collaborative activities that transform perceptions of migration and refugehood. In early 2019, Isayev worked with students to organise a project with a Palermo-based collective Giocherenda [5.7], comprising young migrants from several African countries who create games about storytelling and sharing, and engage communities in migration issues. The project focused on producing educational and creative opportunities to challenge attitudes and misconceptions about immigrants among children and the local Devon communities, building on Isayev’s work on refugee agency and displacement [ 3.2; 3.5].

Mustapha Conteh, a member of Giocherenda, visited Exeter in January-February 2019, where he worked with Isayev’s students to deliver day-long workshops with Year 7 pupils of Pilton Community College in Barnstaple, using Giocherenda’s method and other original activities to help pupils reimagine migration and movement. The experience positively contributed to pupils’ understanding and attitudes. Teachers commented that “…as a rural school in North Devon, pupils are not often confronted with ideas of migration, so it was good to challenge those ideas” and that “it has opened up some discussions in class in regards to migration and current news events”. [ 5.7]. Mustapha, who joined the programme driven by Giocherenda’s ambition to raise awareness about migration (he highlights one of the Barnstaple pupils noting that they thought “that only birds migrate”) described the visit as “enlightening” [ 5.7]. Giocherenda and Isayev’s students also worked with community organisation Refugee Support Devon (RSD), to organise a music jam session between students, locals and refugees.

Isayev acted as a trustee for RSD between 2015 and 2019. RSD attested to her contribution to the organisation’s strategic direction, informed by her research on the institutions of asylum and refugeehood [ 3.2, 3.4, 3.6], as being of great benefit, and especially her “spearhead[ing] the establishment of Exeter University as a University of Sanctuary”. “This has enabled a number of RSD’s clients to access scholarships at the university. Over the last year, four have been enabled to take up degree courses.” [ 5.8] Since 2017, the university has offered three scholarships per annum. A scholarship recipient has noted that the scholarship:

“removed the obstacle of accessing education as a refugee [and] allowed me to have a roof over my head in a warm room I can call my own for the first time on this continent. It also paved the way for me to focus on the things that matter the most and on a personal level, such as social integration and building a network. This scholarship allowed me to move on after the atrocities I have faced in my home country and abroad since 2011.” [ 5.9].

RSD’s chair also cites the benefit of the continuous link that Isayev provides “between RSD staff, volunteers and service users, [and] the university” [ 5.8], enabling learning experiences such as the music session, but also activities such as joint dinners and coastal walks (one of which in 2018 brought together around 35 refugee families, students and locals) [ 5.8].

The learning activities with RSD and Giocherenda in 2019 also led to an interactive summary The Storytelling Collective, created by students, which aimed to “establish refreshed methods of discussing migration, journeys and the stories and networks that are created through them” [ 5.7]. Exeter students and guests who organised and participated in these activities spoke about their transformational effect, not only by lending “more human, mental and emotional aspects to the themes and academic ideas we discussed in the ‘traditional’ lectures every week”, but also by having a significant effect on their personal, professional, and even political choices. In the words of another student: “The project and ideas surrounding it have permeated almost everything I have done since, and I am thankful for the awareness it has provided me.” [ 5.7]

Contributing to UK and international heritage policy

In 2020 Isayev was invited to contribute her expertise to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, to help shape UK policy concerning heritage and UN sustainable development goals [ 5.10]. On a supranational level, her research on migration and reading archives against the grain led to her invitation [ 5.10] by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction to join a UN Expert Panel in collaboration with the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, to develop a Words to Action Guide on ‘Using traditional knowledge for disaster risk reduction’. The guide provides advice to countries and practitioners on policies, programmes and innovative projects for mitigating, preparing and responding to various disaster risks. The guide will assist in the implementation of critical aspects of the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. [5.10]