Results and submissions : REF 2021

Breaking the impasse on global reparations for Afrikan enslavement

Submitting institution: University of Edinburgh
Unit of assessment: 26 - Modern Languages and Linguistics
Summary impact type: Societal
Is this case study continued from a case study submitted in 2014?: No

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1. Summary of the impact

Led by Dr Nicola Frith, and based on her research, the International Network of Scholars and Activists for Afrikan Reparations (INOSAAR) has broken an impasse between activists and academics over reparations for transatlantic trafficking in enslaved peoples. Firmly establishing itself as “the one platform that has opened up space to amplify the ideas of community-based knowledge producers”, INOSAAR has achieved vital trust between stakeholders in Europe, the Americas and, crucially, the Afrikan continent. Described by the Chair of the CARICOM Reparation Commission as having “ enriched” the reparations movement by giving “ global visibility to the broad spectrum of viewpoints and approaches” and by taking its message “ far and wide”, INOSAAR has resulted in a global declaration calling for the active participation of Afrikan states in the reparations movement, and secured the only platform for civil society at a United Nations meeting on the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-24). Within the UK, INOSAAR research was used by Lambeth and Islington councils to pass motions in support of reparatory justice, and initiate audits of all council property for links to the slave trade. INOSAAR subsequently assisted the Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW) in becoming the first national political party to call on the UK parliament to establish an All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for Truth and Reparatory Justice.

2. Underpinning research

While civil society activists have long advocated reparations as a means of redressing the structural inequalities arising from the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Afrikans, governments worldwide have largely failed to engage with the myriad ways in which the legacies of crimes against humanity are reflected in current social disrepair. By reducing the process of reparative justice to a question of financial recompense, the issue of reparations has been positioned in the public consciousness as backwards-looking, legally unfounded, and divisive. Writing in the Bulletin of Francophone Postcolonial Studies (3.1), Dr Nicola Frith stresses the detrimental impact that “ political silence” has had upon public understandings of reparations, summarising that this “ misunderstood and misrepresented subject […] tends to provoke uninformed kneejerk responses from public and politicians alike”. Although focused on the Francophone world, her research findings apply to the reparations context globally, widening our understanding of reparative justice beyond financial recompense to include commemoration, memorialisation and emphasizing reparative justice processes that are driven by grassroots-led affirmative action, education and cultural representation.

To date, France is the only European nation to have legally recognised the so-called “transatlantic slave trade”, and slavery, as crimes against humanity. However, when tracing the political history around reparations, Frith found that the French state had effectively silenced activists’ voices when confronting its past crimes. Funded by an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Leadership Fellowship, she spent over a year mapping memories of slavery in the French Republic today (grant AH/L003937/1 in 2014; grant AH/L003937/2 in 2015), using both contemporary interviews and political, media and legal archives to foreground the marginalised voices and complex and creative responses of grassroots organisations (3.2). As well as a digital map, outputs from the project included an academically-authored, public-facing report on the necessity of reparative action (3.3), and a co-edited volume examining, for the first time, the multiplicity of memories of slavery, and other forms of post-abolition labour exploitation, in the Francophone world (3.4).

As well as being silenced by politicians, Frith has found that activists have also been “ ignored academically, or worse, dismissed out of hand” (3.5). In an effort to facilitate constructive and equitable dialogue between academics and activists, she collaborated with Professor Joyce Hope Scott on a two-day conference in Edinburgh in November 2015, with the proceedings published in 2018 in a special edition of the Journal of African American History (3.5). The conference was crucial in building links with grassroots partners such as the Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition in Europe, laying the groundwork for the foundation in 2017 of the International Network of Scholars and Activists for Afrikan Reparations (INOSAAR), with Frith as Principal Investigator and Hope Scott as Co-Investigator. The Network is the only one of the AHRC’s 11 funded initiatives connected with the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent (AH/P007074/1) to engage with the issue of reparations, making it the only British Government-funded project of its kind.

Officially running between May 2017 and Feb 2019, but continuing to operate, INOSAAR brings theory into praxis on a global scale. The Network has held conferences involving grassroots activists in London, Birmingham and Porto-Novo, and participated in a symposium and march on Gorée Island, Senegal. It published a Global Report in September 2019, identifying learning points on, for example, the importance of cognitive justice and research from non-western-centric perspectives, the importance of language, and the acceptance of reparation as a global concern that requires a global response; one with “ the potential to offer creative and alternative models to our most pressing issues” (3.6).

4. Details of the impact

For decades, reparations activists have asserted their rights with reference to UN international law; however, European governments have yet to commit to any form of reparative justice programme. In the UK, entrenched divisions between activist and academic communities have been exacerbated by the latter’s support for the government’s longstanding refusal to heed calls for reparations. Putting into practice Dr Nicola Frith’s research on a wider definition of reparations, the International Network of Scholars and Activists for African Reparations (INOSAAR) has broken this impasse - the only group to have successfully brought together activists, academics, and other civil society groups from Europe, the Americas, and, crucially, the Afrikan continent. INOSAAR has been described by the Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition in Europe (PARCOE) as “ the one platform that has opened up space to amplify the ideas of community-based knowledge producers […] pioneering in providing global legitimacy and visibility to the broad spectrum of viewpoints and approaches to Afrikan Reparations among non-state and also state actors” (5.1).

Building a coalition of grassroots stakeholders

In under three years, as mapped by Frith on the network’s website (5.2), INOSAAR has developed a global community of over 30 member organisations committed to a shared set of Principles of Participation. Following a dialogue between UK groups and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) convened by PARCOE in November 2017, the Jamaica National Council on Reparations and the West Indies-based Centre for Reparations Research recognised the value of this Principles-based approach. Professor Sir Hilary Beckles (Chair of the CARICOM Reparation Commission) has written: “ *The reparation movement has been enriched by the work of INOSAAR, which has taken CARICOM’s message about why the Caribbean is justified in seeking reparation from the United Kingdom and other complicit States far and wide. By including grassroots organizations in its activities [its collective work] benefits society beyond the academy, in particular the International Social Movement for Afrikan Reparations (ISMAR), whose profile it has helped to raise.*” (5.3). In turn, ISMAR has called the Network a “ formidable new bloc” (5.4) and “a major new development of the intellectual arsenals necessary for tackling Afriphobia” (5.4).

Collaboration with Afrikan stakeholders

In September 2018 INOSAAR co-organised a major colloquium on reparative justice in Porto-Novo, Benin - one of the primary sites for transatlantic people trafficking - with the local civil society group Association Panafricaine pour une Réparation Globale de l’Esclavage. This three-day event attracted 150 delegates from 12 countries, including Benin, Ghana, Togo, and Nigeria, a mix of activists, artists, spiritual leaders, government officials, and traditional kings and chiefs. They collectively endorsed a global declaration calling upon “ Afrikan states and their diplomatic leadership to join with civil society […] to formulate policies and establish operational committees in order to institutionalise and advocate the claim for reparatory justice” (5.5). The declaration was signed on behalf of the High Council of the Kings of Benin by His Majesty Kpoto-Zounmè Hakpon III (5.6) who had previously publicly apologised for the role his ancestors played in trans-Atlantic trafficking in enslaved Afrikans.

Achieving an international platform for reparatory justice

The Porto-Novo Declaration has galvanised the international movement for reparation and fostered unprecedented transatlantic cooperation. The CARICOM Reparation Commission has committed to “ supporting all initiatives that will take this Declaration further” and to “ embrace every opportunity to seek [its] acceptance by the African Union, the CARICOM Parliamentary Committee on Reparation […] and other reparation committees” (5.3). The United Nations (UN) has become engaged in the research, firstly by inviting INOSAAR to a 2019 expert workshop on Reparations, Racial Justice and Equality convened by its Special Rapporteur on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. Later in the same year, with University of Edinburgh support, INOSAAR sent two activist members to the UN Regional Meeting for Africa on the International Decade for People of African Descent, a two-day event in Dakar, Senegal, organised by the UN Human Rights Office and African Union Commission (5.7). In this respect INOSAAR was exceptional in being the only group to have members of civil society and grassroots academia on the platform.

Influencing policy in the UK

As its international coalition has grown, INOSAAR has also influenced discussion of reparations policy in the UK. In July 2020, as the issue of British links to trafficking in enslaved Afrikans was brought into new focus by the removal of a statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol, Lambeth and Islington Councils passed motions on Atonement and Reparations for the United Kingdom’s Transatlantic Traffic in Enslaved Africans, which made specific reference to Frith and INOSAAR’s “ global process of engagement in the UK, the US, Africa, and the Caribbean” (5.8a & 5.8b). Both councils announced an audit of all public landmarks, statues, road names, and works of art in their respective boroughs for any links with slavery, and resolved to call on the UK government to establish a commission to study the impact of transatlantic people trafficking on political and economic life in the UK today, and an All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for Truth and Reparatory Justice (APPCITRJ) (5.8a & 5.8b). Frith and INOSAAR worked with the Green Party to pass a motion, based on the Lambeth and Islington Council motions, which was discussed at the national party conference in October 2020. Cllr Scott Ainslie, former Green Party MEP and currently a member of Lambeth Council, said INOSAAR’s expertise “ *has been key to successfully getting the Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW) to be the first national party to call on the UK parliament to establish the APPCITRJ. With INOSAAR’s help, we were able to not only get agreement on the wording of the motion, but their assistance in patiently dealing with the questions and concerns of the members of GPEW helped persuade and gain the support of the Greens of Colour, the Young Greens and a majority at conference (93%). This would not have happened without them.*” INOSAAR’S work with the Green Party, Ainslie said, “ has engaged a whole new generation in the need to atone and begin a process of reparatory justice in the UK and in the US” (5.9).

Establishing Scotland as a centre for understanding Iran through its cinema

Submitting institution: University of Edinburgh
Unit of assessment: 26 - Modern Languages and Linguistics
Summary impact type: Cultural
Is this case study continued from a case study submitted in 2014?: No

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1. Summary of the impact

In 2014, Edinburgh International Film Festival turned its lens on Iran, a country whose image is overwhelmingly negative across much of the world, particularly Europe. Drawing on her research into Iranian cinema, Iranian society and Islam, Professor Nacim Pak-Shiraz curated 23 of the Festival’s film screenings, many using the only copy in the world, and all Scottish premieres. Since then, her research has underpinned over 60 film screenings and events on Iranian film, largely as part of the Edinburgh Iranian Festival - Film Season (EIF-FS), gaining the trust of Iranian filmmakers and distributors to premiere work outside larger, more established festivals. This trust has proved vital in raising EIF-FS’s international profile and sustainable growth, taking it from a biennial to annual event respected for its non-Eurocentric approach to film, its celebration of female perspectives, and active engagement of audiences with filmmakers, curators, and researchers in understanding Iran through its cinema.

2. Underpinning research

It was while studying Arabic as a postgraduate student that Professor Nacim Pak-Shiraz first realised the powerful role that cinema played in shaping people’s understanding of her native Iran. Studying alongside Western peers, whose perceptions of the Islamic Republic were largely based on the 1991 Hollywood film, Not Without My Daughter, she was repeatedly asked about the reality of life, particularly as a female, in a theocracy. From a fascination with the power of Western media, and the way it continuously shapes the image of the ‘Other’, she developed a greater interest and expertise in the lesser-studied area of how ‘Others’ construct images of themselves. Since 2000, she has been studying Iranian cinema, with a particular focus on the role it plays in exploring the complexities of Iranian society and Islam.

The first of three main themes in Pak-Shiraz’s research is Iranian film directors’ treatment of religious and historical narratives. Her 2011 book, Shi'i Islam in Iranian Cinema: Religion and Spirituality in Film (3.1), is the only monograph examining the engagement of film with Islam to date, sparking debate about cinema’s compatibility with religion and spirituality. Latterly, her research on this theme has explored recent Iranian religious epics, including ‘Qur’anic Epics’, in an era during which the representation of religious figures, including prophets, in Islam has been particularly controversial, and the creation of religious films a highly sensitive undertaking. The research examines how, recognising the medium’s power, the Iranian theocracy has used cinema to provide an alternative image of Islam and its prophet to those presented by Muslim extremists and Western narratives, while also claiming to critically examine Muslim sources (3.2 and 3.3).

In her research on religious films, Pak-Shiraz looks at how Iranian cinema has become one of the very few in the Muslim world to have imagined and narrated stories of revered religious figures. In her work on constructions of masculinity in Iranian cinema - the second of her key themes - she demonstrates how recent Iranian films have skilfully used the cinematic language to narrate men’s stories of alienation and despair (3.4 and 3.5). Iran has been the focus of many studies on the subjugation and marginality of women, but little has been studied about the theocracy’s impact on male identities. In her research, Pak-Shiraz examines a number of recent films with men as the focus, from middle class men in vibrant Tehran to men on the fringes of society. Challenging stereotypes, she explores how such tales provide a more complex insight into masculine identities in patriarchal society than has been studied to date. One particularly innovative strand of her research is on female filmmakers’ representations of men.

The final theme of Pak-Shiraz’s research is on continuities and discontinuities in Iranian cinema over the last six decades (3.6). She examines the theme through post-2010 Iranian productions, including films by both the established ‘maestros’ of Iranian cinema, and those of the new generation of filmmakers, born after the Iranian Revolution and the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. Engagement with the filmmakers themselves, including some who have spent years in self-imposed exile, has enabled Pak-Shiraz to examine consistencies, breaks and gaps in the oeuvre. In this way, she has been able to trace the development of style, themes and cinematic language in Iranian films, from pre-Revolutionary times to the present.

4. Details of the impact

Home to the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the world’s longest continually-running film festival, Scotland has established itself as a leading centre for exploring global cultures through film. One of the key challenges in maintaining this position is gaining the trust of film producers and distributors to premiere new work, and of filmmakers and actors to participate in events, especially where this involves additional obstacles - such as visas and licence agreements - affected by fragile international relations. Over the past six years, research by Professor Nacim Pak-Shiraz has enabled the directors and curators of Scotland’s film festivals to premiere new work by Iranian filmmakers, show older work that has grown hard to access, and bring Iranian perspectives, especially female voices, into previously Eurocentric conversations. Her work has enriched the debate around cinema by presenting Iranian films neither as an annex to Western Cinema nor as a window to the 'exotic', but as a vibrant, parallel discourse on the medium.

In 2014, Pak-Shiraz programmed and led two 90-minute panel sessions based on her research at the 68th Edinburgh International Film Festival. She also worked closely with the Festival’s then Artistic Director, Chris Fujiwara, in planning its various Iran sections, comprising 23 screenings of 19 Iranian films. Most of the films had not been previously accessible or available in English subtitles, many comprised the only copy in the world, and all were Scottish premieres (many also UK premieres). Drawing on her research into religious and historical narratives and continuities and discontinuities, Pak-Shiraz was instrumental in persuading reclusive filmmaker, Ebrahim Golestan, to take part in a session bringing together masters of the past, a new generation of filmmakers, scholars, and Fujiwara, to evaluate the development of Iranian cinema. Audience feedback mentions the rarity of this opportunity, the draw of the directors’ “perspectives” and “personalities”, how interesting it was to see the “influence of censorship” and an appreciation of how “new cinema [has been] emerging from older stories (Golestan)” (5.1).

The following year, Pak-Shiraz’s research on constructions of masculinity was used in the programming of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, and as the main theme of the Edinburgh Iranian Festival Film Season (EIF-FS). Audience feedback was effusive; a typical email said “So wonderful to learn more about a country and people that have been traditionally shrouded in mystery to those in the west” (5.2). Of just over 200 people surveyed at eight film screenings and three post-screening discussions, 91% said that they had learned more about Iranian cinema, and 79% that they had learned more about Iran (5.3). Prior to Pak-Shiraz’s involvement, EIF-FS was biennial, but the cultural and commercial opportunities opened up through her research made it viable to run annually at the request of venue partner, Filmhouse. The 2016 Season was moved into a bigger screen (93 seats), all five films were sold out, and four post-screening events were programmed, including discussions with the filmmakers.

By 2018, Pak-Shiraz’s research on female filmmakers’ representations of men had gained the attention of Iranian female directors and their distributors. This made it possible to theme that year’s EIF-FS on Women Constructing Men, bringing together eight commercial and arthouse films at Filmhouse, including one screened in the venue’s largest, 280-seater space. The screening of Untaken Paths, a film not often included in festivals, attracted a particularly large number of Iranian-Scots living outside Edinburgh, due to the fame of its multi-award-winning Director, Tahmineh Milani, who took part in a post-screening Q&A. Writing to Pak-Shiraz about the “outstanding” Season, the filmmaker, critic, and curator of Channel 4’s major season on Iranian cinema, Mark Cousins, said: “I was very impressed … The thematic focus was clear and relevant, the choice of films was original and illuminating, and the thinking behind the event was rich and deeply informed. I pride myself … on knowing about Iranian film, but I learnt much from the screenings and discussions … The audiences were considerable and passionate, and it was a real coup to have Tahmineh Milani as a guest.” (5.4).

EIF-FS founding director, Sara Kheradmand, has publicly said that “We are not a typical Iranian Festival aimed at Iranians … The global issues, such as the [theme of domestic violence] in Untaken Paths, could be happening anywhere” (5.5). It is hardly surprising then that such themes have extended the impact of Pak-Shiraz’s research, and EIF-FS, beyond film audiences and the Iranian community in Edinburgh. Survey responses from the eight screenings curated by Pak-Shiraz for the 2019 Season show that, by the Edinburgh Iranian Festival’s 10th anniversary, 27% of the EIF-FS audience was travelling from outside Edinburgh and the Lothians to attend (14% from outside Scotland), with 62% of people having never attended before, and 84% likely or very likely to return (5.6). Kheradmand has written: “The film season is beginning to be recognised on an international level. We are definitely well known now by Iranian Film distributors from around the world, and our reputation and track record allows them to trust us and be willing to take part in the festival by sending us their films … The invitation of high profile guests, has only been successful because of [our] collaboration” (5.7). This was found to be particularly true when, in March 2020, EIF-FS was impacted by COVID-19 and the Iranian filmmaker and women's rights activist Mahnaz Mohammadi recorded interviews to be screened alongside opening feature, Son-Mother, when she could no longer attend in person to discuss her work in the context of Pak-Shiraz’s research.

As the international reputation of EIF-FS has grown, so too has Pak-Shiraz’s influence outside Scotland. She has spoken on her research themes in Turkey, the United States and Iran itself; running workshops on Iranian cinema at the 2017 Fajr International Film Festival in Tehran, for example. In turn, international recognition and activities have enabled her to draw more Iranian talent to Scotland, including multi-award-winning Iranian female actor Fatemah (Simin) Motamed-Arya as an Edinburgh International Film Festival jury member and ‘in conversation’ guest in 2018, and as EIF-FS co-curator and panellist the following year. Motamed-Arya has said “Nacim’s research on Iranian Cinema has enabled me to engage with audiences on a profound level, exploring together through film and dialogue the differences between how Iran and its people are perceived internationally and the more nuanced reality” (5.8).

For Filmhouse, which is the hub of both the Edinburgh International Film Festival and EIF-FS, Pak-Shiraz’s research has opened up new possibilities to engage audiences in film. This began in 2016 with Pak-Shiraz using her research on traditional Iranian performing arts to curate a pop-up exhibition of 13 posters from the cinema’s archives as a starting point to discuss Iranian history, politics and society - the first time the venue’s café space was used in this way. In the years since, the cinema has hosted an Iranian Animation Showcase (another first for UK audiences), and two EIF-FS photographic exhibitions in its café, the most recent in 2020 curated by acclaimed Iranian photographer and former photojournalist, Laleh Sherkat. The Director of Programming at Filmhouse has said “it was crucial for us that the Edinburgh Iranian Festival make its Film Season an annual event. The range of themes the research and knowledge of the region’s cinema has enabled us to address, in partnership with EIF-FS, has not only given us a sustainable Season that attracts both returning and new audiences, year on year - and industry guests of the highest calibre - but also new opportunities to use our space that helps us contextualise the films we show and maximise the potential of our building and its archive” (5.9).

Personalised speech synthesis improves quality of life, changes health legislation, ...

Submitting institution: University of Edinburgh
Unit of assessment: 26 - Modern Languages and Linguistics
Summary impact type: Societal
Is this case study continued from a case study submitted in 2014?: No

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1. Summary of the impact

Research on personalised speech synthesis has led to improved quality of life and commercial impact. A new spin-out company (SpeakUnique Ltd, attracting over GBP510,000 investment), established in collaboration with clinicians, provides personalised synthetic voices for users even when their speech is already degraded (e.g. as a result of motor neuron disease). As well improving as the quality of life of people who have lost their voice, the research has led to new legislation guaranteeing access to communication support for all patients suffering voice loss. King’s research has also underpinned commercial products and services offered by leading technology companies ObEN and Papercup.

2. Underpinning research

The multidisciplinary (Linguistics and Informatics) Centre for Speech Technology Research (CSTR) is a world leader in the automatic conversion of written language into speech, known as Text-To-Speech (TTS). Founded in 1984, CSTR currently houses 13 academic staff and 15 PhD students. King has been director of the Centre since 2011. Working collaboratively with a number of CSTR academics, notably Yamagishi, King has made important contributions to the development of personalized synthetic speech, where the resulting voice sounds like a particular individual (rather than an “off the shelf” voice). Key research insights include:

Adaptive statistical parametric speech synthesis

King and colleagues have developed novel mathematical methods and implemented them in their free-to-use TTS toolkits Festival [3.1] and Merlin [3.3] which adapt an “average voice” synthesis model (trained using speech from multiple speakers) to the voice of a new target speaker using much less speech from the target speaker compared with previous approaches [3.2].

Personalised speech synthesis

Using the adaptive framework (above), King and colleagues have developed algorithms and software that can automatically create a personalised synthetic voice for a target speaker using just a few minutes of data (“voice cloning”). King and colleagues demonstrated this approach by creating thousands of personalised synthetic voices [3.4] including for children [3.5]. Furthermore, the techniques developed in [3.2] work even with lower quality recordings (e.g. web videos) than was previously feasible for speech synthesis.

Voice reconstruction

King and colleagues built on the above research to develop personalised speech synthesis methods which enable voice reconstruction even when the target speakers already have disordered speech due to a neurological condition such as motor neuron disease [3.6]. The resulting synthetic speech repairs the disordered aspects, resulting in normal-sounding, intelligible, personalised speech.

4. Details of the impact

Impact on quality of life for people who are losing their voice

Research in CSTR, led by King, has made it possible to blend a range of donor voices to best approximate an individual’s own voice. This allows people to create a personalised synthetic voice, even if their own speech has already degraded. This development is especially useful for people with conditions like motor neuron disease (MND), who often experience degenerative speech loss.

King’s research developed into a collaboration with the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic at University of Edinburgh. The Speak:Unique project – which included a Scottish Government funded (GBP200,000) trial run in partnership with 4 NHS Scotland health boards – provided personalised voices to 168 MND patients using Assistive and Augmentative Communication (AAC) devices. This figure represents approximately 42% of those living with MND in Scotland in any given year [5.1]. Feedback from patients confirms that being able to use a personalised synthetic voice enabled them to retain a sense of self and dignity in the face of a devastating and incurable disease: they felt more “like themselves”, less controlled by their condition, more independent, socially capable, and closer to their loved ones. Patients reported:

“Where someone has lost their voice through a degenerative condition, um, it [the personalised voice] has got to create a more powerful link if it sounds something like the person. Because the emotional bond you have with someone you know, is their voice. It feels different to somebody else’s voice” [5.2, p. 5].

“My grandchildren said ‘It sounds just like Gramps!’” [5.2, p. 5].

“I mean, you are your voice, aren’t you? I mean you can sit in a wheelchair, but if you can still communicate then, it’s still you that’s doing the talking. So yeah, it’s really just that it’s ... it’s so your personality as well... it’s a huge thing to be able to still communicate and people know that it’s you that’s doing the talking and not a machine really. With it being your own voice, I think makes it even more you...” [5.2, p. 5].

Based on this initial application of King’s research in Scotland, SpeakUnique Ltd launched as a standalone spin-out company in June 2020. SpeakUnique Ltd aims to provide access to personalised synthetic speech for all AAC device users around the world. Users of their service include not only patients with MND, but also sufferers of multiple sclerosis (MS), cerebral palsy, Huntington’s disease, and vocal cancer [5.1]. Using King’s research, SpeakUnique Ltd is able to simulate all accents of English, including those of people for whom English is a second language, allowing it to be available to any English speaker globally. As of its launch, SpeakUnique Ltd employs 8 people and has attracted over GBP510,000 of investment (including approximately GBP200,000 in private investment), as well as awards from Innovate UK (GBP245,000); a Royal Society of Edinburgh Enterprise Fellowship (GBP65,000); an Emerging Innovation Award from Edinburgh Innovations (GBP1,500); and semi-finalist award in the 2019 Converge Challenge (winning prize value GBP50,000) [5.1].

Two major MND charities/organisations (MND Association and MND Scotland) as well as the UK-wide charity for people with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSPA) have agreed to cover the cost of SpeakUnique’s personalised speech synthesis for people in the UK [5.1]. The cost of a synthetic voice can also be reclaimed through NHS Scotland for individuals in Scotland who have or will lose the ability to speak, regardless of their medical condition ( see change to legislation below) [5.1]. In addition, SpeakUnique offers a service whereby currently healthy people can record and “bank” their voices, which can subsequently be used to create an accurate synthetic equivalent should they experience vocal loss in the future. From June 2020 to December 2020, SpeakUnique has created voices for people in 8 countries, trained over 150 healthcare professionals; it cannot disclose how many voices it created, but its website received over 35,000 visits and social media adverts have been viewed over 200,000 times [5.1]. Individual patients confirm significant benefits to their quality of life:

“I feel like I’ve saved an important part of me. Every time I use it [my SpeakUnique synthesised voice] it makes me smile.” [5.1]

“It’s so hard to lose speech, so anything that reduces that sense of loss helps.” [5.1]

“Several years ago, I participated in a voice banking research project [Speak:Unique], and spent an interesting afternoon recording phrases in a soundproof studio. I was motivated to do this partly because it seemed such a great innovation, and partly because I enjoyed public speaking and using my voice. I had no idea then that I would have a personal need of those recordings. But, last year I was diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease, and my speech has been badly affected. It has been hugely important to me to have been able to get help from the SpeakUnique development team, and to acquire a synthetic voice based on my own voice recordings. It makes such a difference to be able to retain some of my personal identity.” [5.1]

Impact on Scottish health legislation and public awareness

One of Speak:Unique’s earliest participants was MND patient and celebrated campaigner Gordon Aikman. Aikman, who died from MND in 2017, described how important it is “that patients don’t just get a voice, but get their own voice back” [5.2, p. 2]. Aikman was so impressed with the concept and the technology behind it that he lobbied to bring communication support and voice banking to wider public and policy attention. The result was an amendment to the Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc. and Care) (Scotland) Act 2016 to include routine provision of Communication Aids to patients of all conditions that cause difficulty speaking [5.3]. The Scottish Government, in its 2019 progress report on the provision communication equipment and support resulting from the Act, estimated the potential reach of the policy, as of February 2020, as “... around 27,000 benefiting from some type of AAC, with 2,700 benefiting from powered communication aids”. The significance of this policy change has been directly recognised by the Scottish Government, as captured by this tweet:

Figure 1 Tweet from Scottish Government (March 2019) “Communications equipment and support for those who have difficulty speaking has changed the lives of people like Craig. From 19 March, a new law means anybody who needs it must receive it”

Addressing the Scottish Parliament’s Health and Sport Committee on 26 January 2016, the Scottish Government Minister for Public Health said: “I also highlight the on-going work on voice banking, which is an important development in augmentative and alternative communication […] We thank Gordon Aikman for bringing the [Speak:Unique] research work to our attention” (Maureen Watt, Scottish Minister for Public Health, November 2014 to May 2019) [5.4, p. 18].

The resulting media coverage followed not only Aikman, but also other SpeakUnique users. BBC2’s documentary My Year with MND, showed SpeakUnique recreate the voice of Rob Burrow, a former Rugby League player diagnosed with MND in 2020; BBC2’s 2017 documentary MND and 22-Year-Old Me followed self-confessed “chatterbox” Lucy Lintott; BBC1’s Breakfast programme (2 June 2017) featured the creation of a synthetic Yorkshire voice for a man with MND; BBC1’s The One Show (20 June 2016) contained a feature in which Dr Michael Mosley described how Speak:Unique was helping MND sufferers by voice banking [5.5]. At least 20 major media articles have covered SpeakUnique’s work, including The Times; The Guardian; The Huffington Post; The Metro; ITV News and BBC News websites. This coverage brought personalised speech synthesis research, its benefits to AAC users, and the difficulties faced by people who have lost their voice through illness, to wider public attention [5.5].

Since 2016, a digital interactive display on Speak:Unique has featured as part of the National Museum of Scotland’s permanent collection (over 2 million visitors per year), highlighting the role of personalised speech in the development of communication. The Museum’s Principal Curator of Communications describes how Speak:Unique allowed the museum to meet several aims, including bringing the story of speech synthesis up to date [5.6].

Impact on commercial product development

In 2016, King was approached by USA-based company ObEN (100 employees; established 2014; attracted more than USD23.7million of investment). ObEN provides personalised digital avatars that “look, sound, and behave like users”. Personalised speech synthesis is “a key part” of their products [5.7]. King’s research, including the Merlin and Festival toolkits, “has been crucial in helping us achieve our aim of building a personalised voice interface to work with our projects” [5.7]. King’s work on expressive speech synthesis helped them “realise and improve our voice personalisation using a relatively small sample of audio recordings” [5.7]. ObEN’s work has been covered in Forbes, Venture Beat, Gizmodo, and MIT Technology Review. In 2019, ObEN used technology drawing on King’s research to produce digital avatars for the hosts of China Central Television’s Spring Network Gala (approximately 1.8 billion viewers). Personal AI (PAI) News (launched May 2019) is an iOS and Android news application with content delivered by the world’s first virtual anchor; PAI Care (launched March 2019) is a virtual assistant designed to monitor patients with congestive heart failure. “The fact that we were able to create these experiences is partly due to King’s research and his expertise in helping us improve our systems” [5.7].

King’s research also informed London-based company Papercup Ltd (67 employees; established 2017; attracted more than GBP10million of investment). Papercup allows online content creators to translate videos by generating personalised Spanish-language voices that sound similar to the original speakers. Since their launch, King has provided technical advice, based on his research, on systems and implementation. Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer confirms that they “would not have been able to build our state-of-the-art speech synthesis system without King’s research and expertise [...]” King’s work on “prosody and expressiveness in text-to-speech systems gave us inspiration for our own proprietary systems and models” [5.8]. As of October 2020, Papercup has translated many thousands of hours of video for its clients, generating over 60 million unique views via digital content channels such as YouTube. Clients include Sky News, with whom Papercup partnered during 2020 to bring a Spanish language version of their news channel to YouTube. In its first 12 months, the new channel has attracted over 96,000 subscribers and over 26 million views, with metrics indicating a long average channel watch time, evidencing significant engagement. Sky News said, “The overall average watch time and completion on our new Spanish Sky News channel is so far above and beyond what we had expected. That’s testament to the quality of the Papercup solution […] We now can get more bang for our buck using our existing content. And translating to Spanish is only just the first step. And it doesn’t stop with news; it can expand to sports, entertainment and educational content” [5.8].

Research into language evolution results in creation of new artworks

Submitting institution: University of Edinburgh
Unit of assessment: 26 - Modern Languages and Linguistics
Summary impact type: Cultural
Is this case study continued from a case study submitted in 2014?: No

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1. Summary of the impact

Kirby’s research on language evolution has led to creation of new artworks. In collaboration with Kirby, performance artist Hanna Tuulikki, and sound artists Tommy Perman and Rob St John drew directly on Kirby’s research on iterated learning, cultural evolution, ideophones and phonaesthemes to inform their artistic practice, and develop new material.

Kirby’s research has continued to help shape these artists’ practice in solo works: for example, St John’s art-geography installation with Tate Modern explores the relationship between language and landscape, and Tuulikki’s Deer Dancer exhibition explores the evolution of culture, gender performance, and iconicity (the correspondence between form and meaning).

2. Underpinning research

Edinburgh’s Centre for Language Evolution (CLE) is an interdisciplinary research centre which aims to understand the origins and evolution of language using a combination of laboratory techniques, computational simulation, and mathematical modelling. Growing from a preceding research unit founded in 1997, CLE currently houses 14 academic staff and 30 postgraduates. Working collaboratively with a number of CLE academics, notably Cuskley and Tamariz, Kirby has led the following underpinning research, for which key findings include:

Iterated learning

Kirby argues that iterated learning (a form of cultural transmission whereby an individual acquires a behaviour by observing it in another individual, who also acquired the behaviour through observation), may play an explanatory role not only in how languages change, but in how they originate. Compositionality – the idea that understanding the words black and gate allows us to understand potentially novel combinations such as black gate – has long been viewed as essential to the human capacity for language. Kirby has emerged as a leader in evolutionary linguistics due to his exploration of how iterated learning can account for the emergence of this compositionality [3.1].

A key feature of Kirby’s work is the use of iterated learning in experiments and computational simulations designed to identify how interactions between individuals using initially arbitrary and non-compositional pairings of signals (e.g. words) and meanings can lead to the emergence of compositional and structured communication at a population level [3.1, 3.3, 3.5].

More recently, Kirby has expanded this work in two main directions. First, he has shown that not only iteration, but also interaction (the way pairs of individuals communicate), and improvisation (the way individuals spontaneously create novel strategies for signalling) are crucial processes in language evolution [3.1]. Language structure is the result of the interplay of all three of these processes. Secondly, he has broadened out the research methods to include different modalities such as gesture [3.1], music [3.4], and graphical communication [3.2].

Phonaesthemes and cultural evolution

Most language is comprised of arbitrary pairings between the sound or look of a word and its meaning (e.g. street, road, and avenue have related meanings but different sounds; beat, bite and bait have different meanings but sound fairly similar), and any systematicity in the lexicon is very diffusely spread [3.5]. However, there are pockets of the lexicon where words with similar meanings tend to group together with words with similar sounds. One example is English words that begin with “sn”: many of these words related to the nose ( sniff, snot, snore, ...) These words are called phonaesthemes, and they seem to represent cases where the normally arbitrary nature of language breaks down. Kirby’s work looks at how the existence of these words might have been shaped by the process of cultural evolution [3.5, 3.6].

In some cases, the patterns we see reflect subtle cognitive biases connecting different modalities. These biases get amplified by the process of cultural evolution. In some cases, however, it is likely that patterns of phonaesthemes are a pure product of shared history: this allows us to see the fingerprints of cultural evolution directly in our lexicons [3.6].

4. Details of the impact

Kirby’s work with British and European artists explores his idea that ordered structure (e.g. language) can arise from disordered inputs via a process of cultural transmission over multiple generations.

Sing the Gloaming, Tommy Perman and Rob St John**

Having previously collaborated with Kirby on the BAFTA-winning Cybraphon, artist Tommy Perman contacted Kirby in 2015 to develop a new artwork for the Sanctuary festival – a unique, open-air, art initiative held in the Dumfries and Galloway International Dark Sky park. The 2017 Sanctuary festival called for pieces exploring the meaning of light, which could feature in a 24-hour “public art laboratory”. Together with artist Rob St John, they created Sing the Gloaming, a sound installation realising a specific research insight: what light-related phonaesthemes (e.g. gleam, glimmer, glow, etc.) can tell us about iconicity (the correspondence between form and meaning) in language and the process of language evolution. The installation featured a series of glowing sculptural objects with concealed tape decks playing vocal recordings of gl- phonaesthemes. Onsite interpretation summarised the link between the work and Kirby’s research, as did a legacy website and video [5.1]. The installation and video have brought the artwork and research context to approximately 1,500 [5.1; 5.2, p. 54]. Perman states:

“The idea for Sing the Gloaming first developed when I saw a diagram on light-related gl- Phonaesthemes from Kirby’s research. I was immediately caught by the idea that you could follow the trajectory of a language’s development via a 2-D map” [5.3]

A second iteration of the concept, Singing Glass, was commissioned by the Dundee Design Festival, which supports the city’s designation as a UNESCO City of Design. It was installed in a shop window as part of Dundee Design Factory (May 2018). In this version, Cuskley and Kirby’s schematic, redesigned by Perman, is displayed on the window. This window acts as a resonating speaker so that the words are sung to passersby. Organisers estimate that 1,050 people engaged directly with the work [5.4].

Figure 1. Singing Glass, Dundee Design Factory (May 2018) © Erika Stevenson

Design and build specialists, Old School Fabrications Ltd, who created this physical representation of Kirby’s research, confirm the project’s significant impact on their wider practice (“this project ... helped shape the way we think about designing and making things for other projects”) and in generating GBP14,000 of commercial income from other clients including exhibits for The National Museums of Scotland and Historic Scotland, which also used Corian (a synthetic material commonly used in the manufacture of worktops) in a similar way to that pioneered by its use for creating sculptural artworks in the Sing the Gloaming installation: “we simply wouldn’t have had these requests had we not been involved in representing Kirby’s research” [5.5].

In July 2020, the third incarnation of Sing the Gloaming saw the release of a vinyl record and accompanying booklet of artwork that drew directly upon Kirby’s research. Instrumentation was provided by St John, Perman, and Kirby, with additional input from Simon Lewin, whose new Blackford Hill record label chose the recording as its opening release. Vocal contributors included some of the most respected musicians in the Scottish independent music scene, including artists who have been nominated for the 2011 Mercury Prize (King Creosote’s Kenny Anderson); won the 2012 Scottish Album of the Year (Arab Strap’s Aiden Moffat); and shortlisted for the 2020 Scottish Album of the Year (SHHE’s Su Shaw). Building on Kirby’s research, each artist chose an illuminated location to record their gl- phonaestheme-derived lyric, evolving their performance from the recorded vocal of the previous contributor [5.6].

The record was critically acclaimed, being played twice on BBC Radio 3’s Night Tracks programme, and receiving positive reviews in over 20 publications, including: “A process of transmission and transmutation that glistens with suggestiveness and is glossed with charm” ( The Wire); “Electrifyingly good!” ( Electronic Sound); and “… we have a new appreciation for sound, language, and the origins of utterances. What was once dry and inaccessible has now become glamorous” ( A Closer Listen). In November 2020, the record project received the Creative Edinburgh 2020 Award for collaboration. Commercially, the vinyl pressing and accompanying booklet generated 70 pre-release orders and 127 sales from release in July 2020 until end of December 2020 (an uptake of 75% of available vinyl units); tracks from the record have been downloaded or streamed from Apple Music, Spotify, and SoundCloud over 1,400 times [5.6]. The recording also influenced the future direction of the record label on which it was released, with Blackford Hill’s owner stating that it “inspired my concept for my new record label by showing how geography and iterated interactions can positively influence music ... The project has had influence and resonance beyond its immediate critical and commercial success” [5.6].

Another output from the Kirby-Perman-St John collaboration is Concrete Antenna. This 2015 site-specific sound installation, commissioned by Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, explores “the relationship between place and [art], and the role of language as a collaborative act and cultural marker within that relationship” (St John) [5.7]. The installation resulted in a 2016 spin-off album ( Score Tae The Toor), featured on BBC 6 Music (2.56 million weekly listeners, first quarter of 2020), The Wire, Mojo, and BBC Radio 3 (where it was Late Junction’s record of the week), and a limited-edition book of writers’ responses to the installation [5.8].

The collaborations between Kirby, Perman, and St John are notable because the format, as well as the content, draws on Kirby’s research: multiple iterations around a single message [3.1]. Perman describes how “Knowing about Kirby’s work on iterative, interactive learning has helped shape the way I view and engage with artistic collaborations in general” [5.3]. St John credits Kirby’s work as being “part of the thinking” behind his subsequent solo works drawing on similar themes, such as his *Emergent Landscapes installation at Tate Modern, which attracted in excess of 1,500 visitors in three days [5.7].

Influence on Hanna Tuulikki

In 2017, Scotland-based UK-Finnish artist Hanna Tuulikki began a 9-month Leverhulme Trust funded Artist-in-Residence programme at Kirby’s research centre. The residency is documented on Tuulikki’s blog using visual poems and mind maps [5.9]. Her experience resulted in her creating a fully sketched out plan for a new multi-disciplinary performance artwork, HOST, and accompanying video installation, which “draws directly on core principles of Kirby’s work on language evolution: improvisation, interaction, iteration” [5.10]. The residency influenced Tuulikki’s thinking on “how culture evolves, how ideas evolve”, and inspired her to “think about language and culture in new ways” [5.10].

Kirby’s research centre has pioneered use of laboratory experiments and computer simulations in research on evolution of language, and these techniques led Tuulikki to develop new approaches to musical and visual composition. HOST’s soundtrack applies the “transmission chain” method [3.2] (each participant learns from behaviours produced by the previous participant) to vocal recordings, while its choreography draws on the “dyadic interaction” method [3.1] (two participants take it in turns to react to each other’s behaviour) [5.9, 5.10]. Tuulikki also used gestures, drawings, slide whistles, rhythm and vocalisations as a medium for transmission between singers, based on Kirby’s use of these modalities in research [3.2, 3.3, 3.4].

Subsequent to her residency, Tuulikki’s practice has continued to be influenced by Kirby’s research. Tuulikki now uses the dyadic interaction method as a standard part of her vocal workshops with students and the public (approximately 300 people thus far) [5.10]. Her recent artworks draw on conceptual insights from his research. For example, Tidesongs (2017) is a vocal composition responding to Scottish poet Alec Finlay’s Minnmouth collection. Tuulikki’s notes concerning the composition of this piece explicitly reference iconicity, ideophones, and cross-sensory perception [5.9]. Her Deer Dancer installation (Edinburgh, 2019; 4,747 visitors, including 400 at the opening) explores themes around our relationship to culture; iconicity and abstraction; and the evolution of gender performance. Tuulikki comments that these ideas in her work “were influenced by the Centre’s research ... Working with Simon made me realise language is just one cultural modality within culture more broadly. Looking at tangible forms evolving (e.g. gesture, drawing, rhythm, melody of the voice) [...] influenced my thinking around how culture evolves, how ideas evolve” [5.10] In 2019, Tuulikki was shortlisted for the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, one of the leading art prizes promoting emerging female artists.

Research on multilingualism enhances public perceptions, professional and commercial ...

Submitting institution: University of Edinburgh
Unit of assessment: 26 - Modern Languages and Linguistics
Summary impact type: Societal
Is this case study continued from a case study submitted in 2014?: No

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1. Summary of the impact

A centre dedicated to research and engagement on multilingualism, Bilingualism Matters (BM) has had impact in three main areas:

Public discourse: BM shaped the way multilingualism is presented and discussed through its significant engagement with the media, arts, and targeted events for parents and teachers in the UK; internationally, it established a model for public engagement via its 25 centres across Europe, Asia and North America.
Business: BM led to the creation of an award-winning social enterprise teaching languages to older people and dementia patients; BM drove the redevelopment of an English-language assessment tool for Pearson English.
Language policy in Scotland: BM informed the implementation of government strategy for language learning in Scottish schools; BM also highlighted the importance of supporting home languages in the Scottish Government’s strategy for integrating refugees.

2. Underpinning research

Research by Sorace and Bak has explored different forms of multilingualism across the lifespan, from simultaneous and consecutive child bilingualism, child second language learning at school, adult second language learning over different life stages, including cognitive ageing, stroke and dementia, and bilingualism in indigenous, immigrant and refugee languages. Key insights that have led to the specific impacts described in this case study are outlined below.

Adult language learning and non-balanced bilingualism

Much bilingualism research has focussed on early, simultaneous bilingualism: where a child is presumed to be exposed to roughly equal amounts of high-quality, native speaker input in multiple languages, from infancy. This research is sometimes perceived (by parents and practitioners) to have limited applicability to the more common UK experience of second language education, where linguistic input in the second language is limited, later, and less likely to come from native speakers. Sorace and Bak have applied paradigms from bilingualism research to adult language learners in a non-balanced environment, and showed a measurable improvement in executive functions such as attention, following a period of adult second language acquisition [3.1], even over short timescales: some effects were found after a one-week intensive (residential) language course [3.2].

Relatedly, Bak has examined bilingualism and language acquisition in healthy and pathological ageing. This includes the first study examining the impact of bilingualism on cognitive ageing controlling for childhood intelligence and therefore addressing the problem of “reverse causality” [3.3]. This study is part of a larger body of evidence, including studies of bilingualism in stroke, Frontotemporal Dementia and post-stroke aphasia, as well as theoretical papers explaining the importance of conducting studies in different populations, and the most thorough analysis to date of confounding variables in bilingualism research.

Interaction between first and second languages

Other work by the centre investigates the reciprocal effects of the first and second language in bilingual development. For example, Sorace synthesises the important strands of linguistic research conducted since the early 2000s on the sources of difficulties for bilingual children. She shows that the degree of similarity between the two languages does not correlate with ease of bilingual development: this depends on the type of language structure and on the frequency of exposure to both languages – something that parents and teachers are often not aware of [3.4].

A common misconception is that children who speak English as an Additional Language (EAL) will not only struggle to learn English (due to posited “interference” from the home language), but that any attempt to introduce additional languages at school will lead to further confusion. In work specifically focussed on the experiences of immigrant children, Sorace and Robinson found that children from refugee backgrounds, whose “home” or “family” language is not English, performed better on a Spanish learning task than children from otherwise monolingual backgrounds [3.5].

Political and social context of multilingualism

Further work by the centre has sought to draw these strands together and address the debate around the so-called bilingual advantage in a measured way. Bak and Sorace are clear that the most important benefit of bilingualism is the ability to use more than one language. Their research frames discussion around language learning in social and cultural context. For example, Bak and Mehmebegovic [3.6] explore the social underpinnings and implications of bilingualism research, challenging the idea of monolingualism as the normal or default state for a global population.

4. Details of the impact

Changed public discourse

Since August 2013, Bilingualism Matters researchers have shared their research on language learning and multilingualism in over 90 media articles for major international and national outlets. BM’s research has appeared on television (BBC1’s The Truth About Dementia, Trust Me I’m a Doctor), radio (BBC World Service – 1.3M weekly listeners, BBC Radio 4 – 10.9M weekly listeners, BBC Radio Scotland – 767K weekly listeners), and print/digital newspaper imprints (e.g., Newsweek, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Irish Times, and Het Parool (Netherlands)) [5.1, pp. 29–33].

Such media coverage has helped shape public discourse around bilingualism, for example in 2016, Sorace was quoted in an article on the benefits of bilingual education (“6 Potential Brain Benefits of Bilingual Education”) published by National Public Radio in the USA (NPR; approximately 18.2 million weekly website visitors). This was also shared on NPR’s Facebook page, receiving 23,000 likes, 13,000 shares, and 1,200 comments, with one reader stating:

“Being bilingual myself and CHOOSING to place my son in an immersion school is not even thought about elsewhere in other developed countries! It’s not only good for the brain, but also places a natural and HUGE emphasis on acceptance!” [5.1, p. 15].

Since August 2013, BM in-person public events have reached over 12,000 people (350 events for the public, parents, and education practitioners) [5.1, pp. 34–50]. Many participants at these events indicate BM has changed their knowledge of, or attitudes or actions towards multilingualism. For example, participants at school events held in Edinburgh in 2017 stated:

“Excellent talk! Received a lot of input on bilingualism and helped bust myths about it. Will persevere and get my child to be bilingual.”

“Made me realise how important bilingualism is for my family and I understand a bit better now, what to do to support my daughter” [5.1, p. 25].

The team’s collaboration with Theatre Sans Accents (an Edinburgh-based bilingual theatre company) and the Polish Cultural Festival Association culminated in 2018 with the creation of a new Edinburgh Multilingual Stories Festival (1,900 attendees over two years) [5.1, pp. 22–25]. Involvement in the Festival, and the research-based evidence conveyed through it, has inspired transformation in artistic practice and new artistic works, with a participating bilingual artist noting:

“… I am currently working on a very exciting project […] blending the musical traditions of Scotland and Northern Italy and using the dialect of my small town in Italy, in an attempt to preserve a ‘dying’ language whilst confirming the absolute need for blending cultures in art. In short, thanks to the festival, I have made multiculturalism and bilingualism a lasting feature of my artistic practice and my development of the concepts is ongoing” [5.1, p. 24].

BM has founded an international network of 25 similar centres promoting research-based public engagement in diverse national and local contexts (23 new branches launched since 2013; 16 in Europe, 5 in North America, 2 in Asia, with over 200 people worldwide delivering activities from their local branches) [5.1, p. 11]. These international branches draw on BM’s research and experience in influencing the public domain while adapting it to the local context. Professor Judith Kroll (UC Irvine), a psycholinguist instrumental in driving the development of the BM branch network in the USA commented:

“There is transparent communication between the branches and the network hub in Edinburgh. There is sharing of materials and ideas in the form of reports, newsletters, etc. But here is the point that is critical in my view: The amazing growth of the BM network to the level that exists in 2020 can be attributed to the idea that it provides a model but not a fixed template” [5.1, p. 14].

Impact on business

In 2015, following media coverage of Bak’s research [3.3] on languages and ageing, a former lawyer with an interest in languages was inspired to establish Lingo Flamingo, a Glasgow-based social enterprise providing language lessons for older people [5.2, 5.3 items 12–14]. The service has since expanded to include dementia patients and carers, with Bak and colleagues helping to design teaching materials and training. Lingo Flamingo works with over 30 national and local care providers such as Loretto Care, Alzheimer Scotland, Balhousie Care, and Renaissance Care and its activities cover 12 Scottish local authorities, spanning South Ayrshire and Glasgow City to the City of Edinburgh and Aberdeen City. The initiative has recently expanded into Southern England [5.4].

As of May 2020, Lingo Flamingo has delivered over 2,250 classes in 250 locations, and the benefits resulting from its activities, and the science underpinning these, have received media coverage from the likes of BBC2’s Trust Me I’m a Doctor and The Guardian (23M monthly online readership) [5.3]. The initiative has been praised by those witnessing the benefits it brings, with the manager of a Bonnybridge care home stating:

“Lingo Flamingo’s foreign language workshops have proved very popular with many of our residents. It is fantastic to see how they respond to the activities and the enjoyment they get out of every session. Dementia can be a very isolating and frightening illness and we are delighted to be working with Lingo Flamingo to help residents use these inspiring techniques to help slow down the effects of the disease” [5.3].

A family member of a Lingo Flamingo student called the classes “truly amazing”, stating:

“My mum was a great reader… and when she was diagnosed with dementia the reading kind of went away. But since going to the classes, she’s actually been picking up the magazine, and sitting, as she would have done at home, with the magazine on her knee, flicking through it” [5.3].

The scheme was runner-up in Scotland’s Converge Challenge 2015, it won the 2016 Scottish Young Edge award for entrepreneurs (GBP10,000), and it was named as one Nesta’s & The Observer’s “New Radicals 2016”, which recognised it as being an “organisation changing the UK for the better”. Scotland’s First Minister, Rt Hon Nicola Sturgeon MSP, said:

“Lingo Flamingo is a wonderful initiative, making education more accessible to vulnerable members in our society. It is another illustration of the great talent that we possess here in Scotland to address social challenges in innovative ways” [5.3].

In 2016, Sorace was approached by Pearson English, part of the world’s largest education company, Pearson plc (30,000 employees in more than 70 countries). Pearson commissioned BM to evaluate their new English Language Proficiency Assessment, drawing on BM’s peer-reviewed research. This “fed into the redevelopment of the product”, relaunched in late 2019, and “helped inform [Pearson English’s] future research direction” including their understanding of the number of hours required to make progress in a foreign or second language for primary-school-aged learners. Pearson also shared BM research [3.3, 3.4, 3.6] at international conferences for EAL teachers (estimated reach: 3,000 teachers across Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America), which “increases [the teachers’] motivation as well as their awareness of the relevant research” [5.5].

Changed Scottish language policy

Since 2013, BM has worked with Education Scotland (Scottish Government executive agency) and Scotland’s National Centre for Languages (SCILT) to support the implementation of the national 1+2 languages policy, in which all primary school children in Scotland learn two additional languages. According to Education Scotland, Sorace’s research on language learning in schools [3.4, 3.5], helped revise the policy around the second additional language and “gave us the confidence to change the implementation criteria […] allowing for more flexible models of delivery” [5.6] . The revised policy affects approximately 25,000 teachers and approximately 500,270 pupils in 2012 primary schools across Scotland. Uptake of the second language in schools has increased from 33% (2017–18) to 42% (2018–19): Education Scotland attribute this increase in part to the policy revision informed by Sorace’s work [5.6] .

BM research [3.2, 3.5] also informed how SCILT engage with parents and teachers about language learning: “The research of Sorace and her colleagues informed our approach to promoting language learning in Scotland: both the information we used, and the way we present it” (SCILT development officer). For example, BM research informed resources on SCILT’s website (approximately 4,500 visitors over 6 years) and an information leaflet about language learning, produced with the National Parents Forum of Scotland (approximately 3,000 copies distributed) [5.7].

SCILT were also a partner on Scottish Government’s “New Scots” strategy: a multi-agency programme of work around refugee integration. SCILT’s development officer notes that “research by the Bilingualism Matters team directly informed the implementation of national strategy around refugee integration, by contributing to the development of in-person and online training for education practitioners” [5.7]. The success of this online course (1,288 learners across UK, North America and Europe, as of December 2018) is cited in the Scottish Government’s progress report: at the start of the course, 13% teachers rated their confidence in supporting EAL learners as high, versus 62% at the course end [5.7]. More broadly, BM’s message that “maintaining one’s mother tongue does not hinder English language acquisition, and that multilingualism should be encouraged” was also referenced in the government review of “New Scots”, and in the renewed strategy for 2018–22 [5.8, p. 32]. BM’s work on “New Scots” is underpinned by their research on the wider context of multilingualism [3.6], in which they highlight the value of indigenous, migrant and refugee languages: the cognitive, psychological, cultural and social benefits of multilingualism are not dependent on the number of speakers or the prestige or economic and political power of a language.

Revitalising the Scottish Gaelic language through policy and education

Submitting institution: University of Edinburgh
Unit of assessment: 26 - Modern Languages and Linguistics
Summary impact type: Societal
Is this case study continued from a case study submitted in 2014?: No

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1. Summary of the impact

Research in Celtic and Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh has helped policymakers - and in particular the lead Gaelic development agency, Bòrd na Gàidhlig - address the fragile state of Scottish Gaelic, categorised by UNESCO as an endangered language. The research has influenced the Bòrd’s working processes and driven the direction of the third National Gaelic Language Plan approved by Scottish Ministers in 2018. Research providing the evidence that Gaelic Medium Education (GME) can improve pupil attainment has supported government investment in the retraining of teachers to meet the rising demand for GME across Scotland, and has successfully helped strengthen legal obligations in relation to GME. As a result in increased promotion and provision, Scotland saw a 34.4% increase in the number of pupils enrolled in GME between 2013 and 2020.

2. Underpinning research

Celtic and Scottish Studies (C&SS) at the University of Edinburgh is a leading centre for the study of the development of Scottish Gaelic and other Celtic languages. Researchers include Professor Robert Dunbar (2013-), Professor Wilson McLeod (2001-), Dr Fiona O’Hanlon (2010-2014) and Dr Stuart Dunmore (2015-2019). The team’s expertise takes in Gaelic languages, literature, culture and society from the late medieval period to the present day. This includes research on Gaelic policy structures and mechanisms, Gaelic Medium Education (GME), Gaelic broadcasting, and initiatives relating to the development of the Celtic languages, including in comparative contexts.

Language revitalisation - context and challenges

Having steadily declined in use over the course of the 20th century, Scottish Gaelic was categorised by UNESCO as ‘definitely endangered’, and spoken by only 1.2% of Scotland’s population, when the Scottish Parliament passed the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005. Established through the Act, Bòrd na Gàidhlig is the non-departmental public body responsible for preparing a National Gaelic Language Plan (NGLP) every five years, monitoring the Language Plans of selected public authorities, advising Scottish Ministers on Gaelic issues, and otherwise facilitating the promotion and use of Scottish Gaelic. C&SS studies on the history of Scottish Gaelic offer multiple insights into the significant sociolinguistic challenges faced by the Bòrd as it seeks to reverse the language’s long decline. Ranging from current speakers’ bilingualism to low levels of Scottish Gaelic literacy and community usage, McLeod (3.1) demonstrates that many of the challenges derive from the length of time Scottish Gaelic has been a minority language, in comparison to other Celtic languages such as Welsh and Irish, as well as public debate around its ‘national’ value, again in comparison to neighbouring countries. As shown by Dunbar (3.2), despite these differences, Scotland has followed a similar path to Wales and the Republic of Ireland in making language plans central to the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005, as well as prioritising language revitalisation. Drawing on work by McLeod, himself and others, Dunbar likens the Bòrd’s conception of the relationship between plans and revitalisation to the Catherine Wheel model developed by Catalan sociolinguist Miquel Strubell, “ a self-reinforcing process of expanded language acquisition and use”.

Assessment of policy and its implementation

As well as setting out the context in which Bòrd na Gàidhlig operates, C&SS research has critically assessed key aspects of the implementation of the 2005 Act, including the content and impact of Gaelic language plans: both the overarching National Gaelic Language Plan (NGLP); and those of selected Scottish public bodies. Some of this research was commissioned by the Bòrd, for example, a detailed evaluation of Scotland’s second NGLP in 2015. Co-written with the consultancy arm of the Welsh centre for language planning, Iaith, the resultant Final Report (3.2) draws on C&SS analysis (3.3; 3.4), as well as 211 online questionnaire responses, 12 stakeholder interviews and 7 focus groups. The Report shows close alignment between participants’ perceptions and researchers’ analysis of the Plan, especially around accountability, accessibility and community engagement, including the need to set clear benchmarks that go beyond the Plan’s “ mere circulation”.

Gaelic medium education and attainment

The research on the second NGLP reveals good levels of public confidence in the Plan’s objective to increase the number of children entering Gaelic Medium Education (GME) in Scotland. C&SS research has demonstrated the high attainment of GME pupils (3.5), with one key finding from a 2010 study for Bòrd na Gàidhlig being that primary school children taught in the Gaelic medium were comparatively more accomplished in English reading than those taught in English. Addressing the demographic and social challenges associated with teaching in a minority language at scale, the team partnered with researchers at the University of Strathclyde to undertake a comparative study of teacher education programmes adopted in Catalonia, the Basque Autonomous Community, Wales and New Zealand (3.6). Among other findings, the study concludes that proponents of minority language medium education need to understand what does, and what might, motivate teachers currently working in the ‘dominant’ language education sector to learn the minority language to the required standard and change their career path accordingly.

3. References to the research

McLeod, W. (2020). Gaelic in Scotland: Policies, movements, ideologies. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. eISBN: 978-1-4744-6241-9. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctv182jr5t (Can be supplied by HEI on request)
Jones, K., Williams, C., Dunmore, S., McLeod, W., & Dunbar, R. (2016, October). Assessment of the impact of the National Gaelic Language Plan. Retrieved from https://www.gaidhlig.scot/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Jones-et-al.-2017-Buaidh-a-Phlana-N%C3%A0iseanta-CR15-01-x2-National-Plan-impact.pdf
Dunbar, R. (2018). Organisational language planning: Gaelic language plans in the public sector, in M. MacLeod, C. Smith-Christmas & N. Carty (Eds.), Gaelic in contemporary Scotland: The revitalisation of an endangered language, pp.156-72. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. eISBN: 978-1-4744-2066-2. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctv8jnzt2.19 (Can be supplied by HEI on request)
McLeod, W. (Ed.). (2006). Revitalising Gaelic in Scotland: Policy, planning and public discourse. Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic Press (includes Dunbar, R. (2006) Gaelic in Scotland: The legal and institutional framework (pp. 1-23) and McLeod, W. (2006). Leasachadh solarachadh sheirbhisean poblach tro mheadhan na Gàidhlig: Duilgheadasan idè-eòlach agus pragtaigeach [Improving the provision of Gaelic-medium public services: Ideological and practical challenges] (pp. 25-47). ISBN: 978-1-9037-6559-3. (Can be supplied by HEI on request)
O’Hanlon, F., Paterson, L., & McLeod, W. (2012). The attainment of pupils in Gaelic-medium primary education in Scotland. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 16, pp.707-29. This paper reports on a 2010 study commissioned by Bòrd na Gàidhlig. DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2012.711807
McPake, J., McLeod, W., O’Hanlon, F., Wilson, M., & Fassetta, G. (2016). Professional development programmes for teachers moving from majority to minoritised language medium education: Lessons from a comparative study. Language Policy, 16, pp.79–105. DOI: 10.1007/s10993-015-9395-6 (Can be supplied by HEI on request).

4. Details of the impact

Since the establishment of Bòrd na Gàidhlig through the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005, colleagues in Celtic and Scottish Studies (C&SS) have been advising the Bòrd on the various and often challenging ways in which it can fulfil its aim of securing Gaelic as ‘an official language of Scotland commanding equal respect to the English language’. Between August 2013 and December 2020, this has included supporting new ways of working, the preparation of the third National Gaelic Language Plan, the promotion of Gaelic Medium Education (GME), and the retraining of 30 teachers to meet the rising demand for GME across Scotland. The researchers have also directly helped lawmakers strengthen education authorities’ obligations in relation to GME as part of the Education (Scotland) Act 2016. As a result, by the 2019/20 academic year, 5,152 pupils in Scotland were enrolled in GME, a 34.4% increase from 2013/14 (5.1 and 5.4).

Impact on Bòrd na Gàidhlig’s processes and the third National Gaelic Language Plan

C&SS and Iaith’s critical review of the second National Gaelic Language Plan (NGLP) (3.4) recommended that the next (third) NGLP should be much clearer in its setting of outcomes. The research acknowledged that, in part, this was predicated on the Bòrd changing its internal processes, for example around the collection, analysis, publication and sharing of data. In the third NGLP (approved by Scottish Ministers and published in March 2018; 5.2), the Bòrd committed for the first time to publishing an Implementation Strategy and has already taken steps to increase transparency and accountability, for example publishing the Plan’s consultation responses (5.3) and publicly live streaming its board meetings since May 2020. Writing about the many ways in which the research has been “ very beneficial to the Bòrd in advancing Gaelic development in Scotland on a number of different fronts, and in helping shape our strategic thinking”, the CEO of Bòrd na Gàidhlig has said “ The preparation of the 2018-23 plan was aided considerably by the evaluation report… [which] allowed us to sharpen our thinking in relation to identifying strategic priorities and articulating mechanisms for implementation, and also to address procedural aspects of our policy management, including working with public bodies and other important stakeholders” (5.4).

Alongside changing its own processes, Bòrd na Gàidhlig has also acted on C&SS’s recommendations around clearer and more inclusive articulation of Scotland’s shared priorities for Gaelic revitalisation. This is immediately evident in the way the third NGLP is laid out, with the introduction of five key messages for the people of Scotland placed before the ministerial foreword, beginning with the statement “ Gaelic belongs to Scotland” and culminating in a collective call for help and support. Addressing the conclusion in the 2016 research (3.4) that the second NGLP didn’t do enough to promote language use at a community level, particularly in the economically-challenged ‘heartlands’, the third Plan’s top two commitments under “ increasing the learning of Gaelic” are “ Gaelic in the family” and “ Gaelic medium workforce recruitment, retention, training and supply”. Among its key aims, which again are laid out early and clearly, are “ Vital developments in community, education, media and economy - Among these key commitments are taking a fresh look at supporting communities in areas where Gaelic is spoken by significant numbers… [and developing] the opportunities for economic benefits that accrue from Gaelic.” (5.2, p7).

Impact on trust in, provision for, and uptake of Gaelic Medium Education (GME)

As confirmed by the CEO of Bòrd na Gàidhlig (5.4), findings from the study (3.5) on attainment in Gaelic Medium Education are the key evidence underpinning the Scotland-wide promotion of GME and explanation of its benefits. On the Parentzone Scotland website, the Scottish Government executive agency Education Scotland answers the question “ Why should I send my child to a Gaelic Medium school?” by referring parents and carers to the research, adding “ This high level of attainment is a key attraction for parents in choosing Gaelic Medium Education” (5.5). The Gaelic resources provider, Stòrlann Nàiseanta na Gàidhlig, uses the research on two websites targeting different audiences: teachers with little or no previous knowledge of Gaelic (5.6); and parents with concerns about bringing their child(ren) up exclusively in Gaelic (5.7). The research is also widely used by other Gaelic organisations, parents’ bodies, Local Authorities and schools.

There has been a long-standing shortage of teachers qualified to work in GME. C&SS’s collaborative research on the feasibility of teacher retraining has led to the creation of a year-long, masters-level Gaelic Immersion for Teachers programme delivered by a partnership of the universities of Strathclyde and Edinburgh, with approximately GBP500,000 per year funding from Bòrd na Gàidhlig and the Scottish Government. Following a design phase in 2013-14 involving McLeod and Joan Macdonald (Gaelic Language Assistant, C&SS), the programme has run annually since 2014-15. Again as confirmed by the CEO of the Bòrd (5.4), the programme has now returned 30 teachers to teach through the medium of Gaelic in various Local Authority areas, from the Highlands to Dumfries and Galloway, including in a number of Scotland’s larger towns and cities.

In its own Gaelic Language Plan (SG-GLP, 2016-2021), the Scottish Government has formally acknowledged “ the importance of the pivotal role that teachers have in helping grow the number of individuals with the Gaelic language”, adding “ For this reason, we have supported the Gaelic Immersion for Teachers course and will continue to work with Bòrd na Gàidhlig and all those involved in teacher training to ensure that there are a range of opportunities for those considering entering Gaelic teacher training” (5.8, p34). Crucially, in terms of the continued use of the research by executive agency Education Scotland, the SG-GLP also commits to continuing to promote GME as a “ positive choice for parents”. In the year the SG-GLP launched, the research was instrumental in persuading lawmakers to strengthen education authorities’ obligations in relation to Gaelic Medium Education as part of the Education (Scotland) Act 2016, which provides a statutory process for requesting GME provision. Writing to McLeod about the research, the Act and its impact, John Finnie, MSP for the Highlands and Islands, noted “ The proposed amendment… had the effect of significantly strengthening the bill... This was based on your research… which demonstrated the need for a robust legal mechanism to guarantee access to Gaelic provision…. Since the Act came into effect, parents in different local authority areas have been able to invoke this provision in successfully persuading councils to offer Gaelic medium education” (5.9).

Who’s Watching Who? Creating New Drama and Film about East German Theatre Censor ...

Submitting institution: University of Edinburgh
Unit of assessment: 26 - Modern Languages and Linguistics
Summary impact type: Cultural
Is this case study continued from a case study submitted in 2014?: No

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1. Summary of the impact

Dramatist Peter Arnott and film-maker Susan Kemp used Laura Bradley’s research on theatre censorship in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) to create a play and a documentary film.

The project met the strategic aims of the Playwrights’ Studio Scotland by connecting playwrights with audiences, involving them in the creative process, and encouraging critical thinking about playwriting today and in the GDR.

While working on the play, Arnott reflected on his engagement with Bradley’s research in a blog that attracted 3,424 users. In total, 937 spectators booked tickets for events including play readings and film screenings, and the Scottish broadsheet The Herald called the film “a fascinating insight into the artistic process and its struggles” .

Both the play and the film changed audiences’ understanding of the GDR and promoted reflection on censorship, the ethics of theatrical representation, and the responsibilities of artists then and now. The project’s success led the Playwrights’ Studio to initiate an Advanced Playwright Development Programme that will complement its existing early career development opportunities.

2. Underpinning research

Bradley joined the University of Edinburgh in 2005 as Lecturer in German, progressing to Senior Lecturer (2011) and Personal Chair (2016). She published her research on theatre censorship between 2005 and 2013 in a monograph (3.1) and six articles in peer-reviewed journals. Her research and impact activities on East German theatre were supported by an AHRC Research Leave Award and AHRC Follow-On Funding for Impact and Engagement.

Bradley’s monograph investigates how GDR theatre censorship developed between the construction and fall of the Berlin Wall, how it was practised in six regions, and how it affected genres ranging from classical tragedy to contemporary drama. The research draws on primary sources from the German Federal Archive, the Stasi Archive, seven regional and city archives, and seven theatres, plus Bradley's interviews with theatre practitioners and censors. The sources include policy documents, internal Party and government correspondence, reports by Stasi informers, prompt books, rehearsal notes, audiovisual recordings, and transcripts of post-show discussions with spectators. No one had previously studied GDR theatre censorship on this scale, and Deutschland Archiv (2012) highlighted Bradley’s achievement in making the step change from individual case studies to analysis of the whole system.

Most recent publications on GDR performance come from practitioners with a vested interest in presenting theatre as a centre of resistance to the regime. By focusing on high-profile disputes, prevailing accounts perpetuate the notion that conflict between censors and theatres was the norm. Bradley challenges these assumptions by examining cases with different outcomes, ranging from production bans, through uneasy compromises, to official approval. She explores how GDR theatre practitioners participated in censorship and shows that conflicts ran along multiple lines, within and between Party and state institutions, and within theatres themselves.

Bradley also breaks new ground by exploring how the authorities’ denial of censorship affected the controls on theatre, the decisions made by officials, and the room for manoeuvre open to theatre practitioners. Censorship in the GDR was camouflaged and exercised through a complex web of institutions, and a euphemistic language evolved to describe and justify the system. By denying that censorship was practised, the regime could hold theatre practitioners accountable for productions even though they had been filtered through pre-performance controls. This exposed practitioners to considerable risks, even leading some to campaign for the legal imposition of censorship.

To summarize, the three central research insights that underpinned the impact are: (1) GDR theatre practitioners participated actively in censorship, as well as experiencing its restrictions on their work; (2) whenever GDR censorship was publicly visible, it had failed; and (3) the GDR authorities’ denial that they practised censorship exposed theatre practitioners to considerable risks, leaving them with all the controls of censorship and none of the guarantees. This nuanced approach is relevant to contemporary debates about censorship and free speech in other contexts.

4. Details of the impact

To mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 2014, Laura Bradley led an AHRC-funded project that commissioned Peter Arnott to write a play based on her research on GDR theatre and to share this creative process with audiences. Film-maker and academic Susan Kemp, who co-designed this public engagement project, made a documentary film investigating the relationship between Bradley’s research and Arnott’s play. These activities supported the Playwrights’ Studio Scotland, as project partner, in its mission to connect playwrights with audiences and encourage critical discussion about playwriting (5.1). In total, 937 spectators booked tickets for 13 events in Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews, and Leeds, including a launch event, rehearsed readings of the play-in-progress, and screenings of the film (5.2). The project blogsite (5.3) attracted 3,424 users taking part in 5,031 recorded sessions with over 11,000 page views (5.4, p.3). It connected Arnott with new audiences, with 3,243 sessions in Europe, 914 in the USA and Canada, and sessions in Australia and New Zealand (153), Latin America (78), Africa (29), India (23), and the Middle East (20; 5.4, pp.7-11).

While developing his play Ensemble, Arnott benefited from direct access to Bradley’s publications and the underpinning research, including archive sources translated for his use and interviews with leading GDR theatre practitioners (5.5). Bradley advised Arnott on his outline and three drafts, responding to his requests for information and suggesting changes to make the plot align with historical reality (5.5). In his first draft, Arnott created a piece of verbatim theatre, i.e. a play consisting entirely of quotations from Bradley’s translated archive sources and interviews (5.6). Spectators at the rehearsed reading of this draft at Orán Mòr (Glasgow, April 2015) repeatedly highlighted its authenticity, and 83% of those surveyed said that it had changed their understanding of the GDR (5.7, p.2). One spectator emailed Arnott to say that the play provided “a powerful insight into a subject we hitherto knew nothing about”, adding “ my husband, who is an avid reader, but only of non-fiction … found this experience of theatre so much more engaging than anything he’s been (dragged) to in the past” (5.7, p.26). The reading provoked a heated debate about Arnott’s juxtaposition of material about the Stasi prison with theatre practitioners’ testimony (5.7, 5.8). The Creative Director of the Playwrights’ Studio commented: “ The involvement of so many audiences, and the level of passionate debate the project provoked, demonstrates just how vital theatre is in bringing together the public with professional theatre practitioners” (5.1).

Arnott set his later drafts in a fictional theatre in January 1990, reducing and reframing verbatim material (5.6). The theatre practitioners in the play argue over what they should be performing, improvising scenes based on their experiences in the GDR (5.6). In total, 367 spectators booked tickets for rehearsed readings of the finished playscript in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and St Andrews (September 2015), and spectators argued that “ it showed complexity rather than simplicity, avoided cliché”, “ lead[ing] us away from simple stories about the Stasi” (5.7, p.67). The play’s exploration of GDR theatre prompted spectators to reflect on the value of art and the responsibilities of artists; one spectator wrote that it had reminded them “ why I became an artist and to [go to the theatre] more” (5.7, p.136). At the end of the project, Arnott – author of around fifty professionally produced plays – wrote: “ I’ve never quite had a ‘development experience’ quite like this one. For a start, its authorship is shared in an interesting and provocative way that I’m only beginning to understand … The result is Ensemble…a fictional play reinforced with serious and proper research of a kind that I could never have undertaken on my own – and with a breadth of humanity, I hope, that I don’t think I could have arrived at on my own” (5.3).

Kemp’s documentary film, Writing Ensemble (105 mins), was shot in Berlin, Dresden, Edinburgh, and Glasgow in 2014-15 (5.8). Kemp filmed encounters between Bradley and Arnott, and with the wider public, shaping a narrative about engagement with research contextualized through interviews with Bradley and GDR theatre practitioners, archive footage, and contemporary footage of key theatres. When the film premiered at the Glasgow Film Theatre in November 2016, a very positive 800-word review in The Herald (print circulation c.26,000) called it “ a fascinating insight into the artistic process and its struggles that works on different levels” (5.9). Approximately 266 spectators attended public screenings at venues including the Edinburgh Filmhouse, Glasgow Film Theatre, Hyde Park Picture House (Leeds), and Scottish Storytelling Centre (Edinburgh; 5.2). All those surveyed at the premiere thought that they had learned something from the film: about verbatim theatre, what makes plays dramatic, and how political context can affect plays and their reception (5.10). One spectator commented on “ how valuable a document the film is in terms of learning about dramaturgy and play-making” (5.10, p.1). Another emailed Bradley to say that she was due to visit Berlin to investigate her family history in the GDR, writing: “ I am so grateful for the glimpses into GDR life from [the] documentary, which has prepared the ground for my visit so very well”. She called the film “ incredibly insightful both for the insights into the theatre scene of the GDR and the creative process of Peter in making a new piece of theatre based on your research” (5.10, p.8).

The Creative Director of the Playwrights’ Studio comments: “ On our own, we would never have been able to deliver a project with these kinds of benefits to one playwright and to ourselves as an organisation” (5.1). Following the project, the Studio initiated a new Advanced Playwright Development Programme and is fundraising to provide fellowships and residencies for experienced writers. The Creative Director notes that this programme was “ *directly based on our learning from [the project]*” (5.1). The Studio collaborated again with Bradley on a symposium that promoted awareness of opportunities for collaboration between theatre practitioners and the HEI sector, using the example of the creation of Arnott’s play, as told through Kemp’s film. Eighteen playwrights and 13 academics attended (5.2), and 92% of those surveyed said that they had gained useful insights for their professional activity (5.7, p.200). Participants here and at other post-screening Q&As were fascinated by the audience’s heated response to Arnott’s first draft in the film; one commented that the contrast between artist and audience perceptions of the same work underlined the importance of public engagement (5.7, p.202). Of respondents, 83% said that they had learned new things from the film: about how GDR censorship functioned, the psychology of surveillance, the ethics of playwriting and research, and the complexities and possibilities of verbatim theatre (5.7, p.201). One commented that they had learned “ how powerful work can be made when universities and playwrights work together” (5.7, p.201).

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