Impact case study database

The impact of Bruley and Forster’s findings began with the community and activist response generated by the 2014 conference. Bruley and Forster guided and encouraged participation in a ‘Women’s Liberation Witness Day’ (June 2015), and five further ‘Witness’ meetings (2015-2017), which brought together local ex-activists to talk about their experiences in a public forum. As women gave voice to their personal testimonies, other long-forgotten activisms and fellow female campaigners were remembered. Word of mouth through Portsmouth’s tight-knit community, led to a proliferation of individuals, campaign leaders and supporters of marginalised groups to be interviewed.

Bruley and Forster considered these early testimonials when preparing the HLF bid. Based on the findings of their own research, they devised a way of transposing individual life stories onto more general struggles women faced living and working in a naval city, and then onto even broader national WLM concerns. They formed partnerships with the city’s history centre, schools, community centres, and the University of the Third Age (U3A) Portsdown branch, to continue the work. Bruley and Forster sought advice from other academics and extended the reach of the project. They contacted women’s ethnic minority groups in the city, involved the local council, reached out to a range of women’s campaigning groups (concerned with issues from pensions to plastics) and harnessed the strong city interest in local history.

The successful HLF grant bid (G1, awarded December 2017, GBP76,000) was entirely dependent on the convincing combination of Bruley and Forster’s initial research findings, their joint expertise, and the array of groups they had brought together to endorse its aims. The grant supported a committee of academics and local partners, and enabled a permanent voice to be given to female activists, creating an official record of the pioneering work of local women. Moreover, this project piloted a new methodology for engaging marginalised and underrepresented women's groups and local female activists. This involved training over 20 younger volunteers in interview techniques and Oral History practice, enabling them to interview nearly 60 older feminists, activists and women’s groups. This brought about cross-generational and cross-cultural understanding. Additionally, volunteers from the U3A assisted with archiving for the City’s History Centre. Such cascading of skills involved public bodies, local groups and interested individuals.

The project, with over 20 public talks, training events, community-centre visits and touring exhibitions, has rekindled interest in, and reawakened awareness of, a feminist history of late-twentieth-century Portsmouth. Lectures, ‘memory days’, touring exhibitions of the ‘talking table’, and a ‘teachers’ pack’, enabled local communities to hear these new narratives. This project has catalysed a shift in understanding and placed women’s pioneering action at the forefront of Portsmouth’s history. Not only has the lived experience of the city’s women been retrieved from the shadow of a male-dominated conventional history, but further layers have been added to it, revealing a multi-cultural history, paving the way for current generations to see their home city in a new, more inspiring light.

Increasing Awareness of Women’s Activism

The general programme of public lectures and informal events at various city venues, attracted audiences of up to 150, included women and men, age ranges of 8 to 80, with professional and amateur interest in local history. Attendees reported learning “A huge amount” [text removed for publication], with some expressing an intention to continue the work: “I’ll definitely be following up with some research of my own”. Older attendees, such as [text removed for publication], appreciated the recovered narratives which “brought back many memories and changes in society during my life [...] Children need to know this social history”. These events also inspired future women’s activism, as teenager [text removed for publication] said: “The lecture was extremely inspirational as it teaches women to stand up for their rights” (S6).

[Text removed for publication], a local councillor, said: “The booklet taught me incredible amounts. Also the diverse range of women. [...] The story about CND being a major presence in Pompey blew my mind.” Cross-generational education of women’s activism was evidenced, as [text removed for publication] explained how: “My daughter (11) and son (18) [...] were really impacted by all the stories and what women have done to improve life in our city. And impacted by CND and Mums being arrested!!” Augmented perceptions of Portsmouth women’s contributions are now a valued cultural history. [Text removed for publication] noted: “I found it both interesting and reassuring to hear of the project and its importance to those taking part [...] it should be a more important part of Pompey history [...] at the City Museum or a display at the Guildhall or other public places” (S6).

Enhancing Skills and Dialogue in Gathering Women’s Narratives

As part of the Project methodology, younger women were trained to interview older women. As well as providing concrete upskilling for this group, it also promoted intergenerational dialogue, and delivered a stimulus to further reflection. [Text removed for publication] commented: “It’s a really interesting project and I think that it’s something necessary for every community” (S6). All learnt new interviewing techniques, [text removed for publication] said, “I’m excited about learning new skills”, and went on to attend the oral training and videoing skills courses too (S6). Indrani Krishan was impressed by the achievements of women: “Each of them has different abilities, and they have accomplished their dream and stand as a woman” and was pleased to extend her skillset: “this event increases my knowledge of qualitative methods. As a PhD research student, I have learnt the techniques to conduct the focus group discussion, and it benefits me in the near future” (S5).

Augmenting Women’s Self-esteem and Social Acknowledgement

It was important to capture and record stories of women’s activism before these first-hand accounts were lost forever. Acknowledging women’s rights campaigning and battles for local improvements has elevated the self-esteem of older women, whose work traditionally took second place to men’s. Interviewee Pat Smith reflected upon her newly-awoken comprehension of her working life in the context of the national picture of women battling sex discrimination in the workplace: “This project [...] had a profound impact on me, a realisation of how far I have come personally and professionally since I first started work in 1977. [...] It has helped me to understand what discrimination means in the workplace and in life. It also made me feel very proud to be amongst other pioneering women, who lived in Portsmouth” (S5). The Project has had a broader impact too, as dispersed families have now understood, with great pride, the role played by their older female relatives. [Text removed for publication] noted: “It has been great for my family (living in different continents) to celebrate our Mum’s story” (S6). Such pride was especially clear in the ‘Testimonial Video’, which articulates how the Project empowered its participants (S2).

Interviewees have achieved recognition through autobiographical testimonies and understanding of their position in society. Rosy Bremer, a 1980s Greenham common activist, observed: “the only other time I have spoken about the work I did [...] was when I was being prosecuted and sent to prison. [...] I would be happy to think that children growing up in Portsmouth might be able to learn about some of the reasons people might oppose the military's actions against people in other countries. These opinions are little represented in the city. [...] The project definitely benefited me by benefiting the community and the city in which I live. Stories which were previously known to only a few women now have a greater chance of being told and being heard” (S5).

Extending Awareness of Ethnic Diversity

An unexpected but very welcome outcome of the project has been a hugely positive impact upon a number of minority groups in the Portsmouth area, including Chinese wives and Bangladeshi daughters (S4). The diversity of women’s lives and contributions in Portsmouth has achieved greater visibility, significance and acknowledgement. The testimony of Marie Costa, of the Nigerian Ebo people, chair of the Portsmouth African Women’s Forum, demonstrates how vital the collaborative nature of the project was to achieving this: “At first, we thought that this project has ‘nothing’ for us [...] However, as the meetings continued over the two years, we realised that perhaps we had a contribution to make to the project as we have been trying to re-shape Portsmouth to include women from Africa who [...] have enriched Portsmouth’s social, economic and cultural life.” By contributing their life narratives, women from the African Women’s Forum gained a sense of belonging: “With encouragement from the leaders of the Hidden Histories project, we began to feel part of it, enjoying the processes involved. We have grown in confidence, interacting with other women outside our comfort zone, learning their own achievements as well as verbalising our thoughts. Being recorded for the project, has made AWF members feel important and part of Portsmouth’s history.”

Like other women, Marie Costa understands how the Project has enhanced the profile and standing of women in Portsmouth: “I could not have envisaged the ultimate result and benefits of the project to members of African Women’s Forum – being involved in academic research, inclusion in the booklet written about Portsmouth’s Hidden History’ of activists women, names on plaque mounted in the centre of Portsmouth for posterity and the continuing building of positive relationship with our local University and City which we have come to call ‘Home’. We are thrilled [...]” (S5). The significance of this engagement was marked by the unveiling of a Project-inspired artwork celebrating participants’ autobiographies at the multicultural women’s group, ‘Chat over Chai’ on International Women’s Day, when attendees took pleasure in “seeing their names and trying to find words they had used in their interviews” (S3).

Contributing to Wider Understanding of Women’s Activism

This project has catalysed a shift in understanding and placed women’s pioneering action at the forefront of Portsmouth history. The project has impacted wider audiences of internationally-recognised museums and educational charities. The Imperial War Museum’s ‘Connecting, Sharing, Learning’ project will access the interviews to engage audiences aged over 70 who have been restricted by COVID (S8). The national women’s-rights charity, FiLiA, was drawn to engage with the Portsmouth example through the project’s outcomes, and is now planning to hold its national conference in Portsmouth (October 2021): *“We were especially interested and excited to promote the archive. To have this accessible resource available to the public is a huge benefit to women and I’m sure will be used by women from a variety of backgrounds” (*S10). In October 2020 they recorded a podcast about the Project: “Our Podcasts are [...] accessed by women across the globe. We typically get over 6,000 people accessing them [...] The connections made between women and the learning from the podcasts is [...] a way for Women’s voices to be heard. Our supporters tell us this [...] builds their knowledge and confidence in Women’s issues, history and rights” (S10).

Creating Enduring Memory

Art remains an important form of feminist expression. Mandy Webb, activist and textile artist, was inspired to create a “Wall of Words”: “As many of these women have protested at some time in their lives, I imagine they have made placards, they may even have painted graffiti, so I decided to put their own words in this style on the wall surrounding the plaque” (S3). This was developed as a commemorative poster and reproduced in the project booklet (S4). In recognition of the project’s significance to the city, Portsmouth City Council is sponsoring a permanent bronze, inspired by Webb’s artwork, in the Guildhall Square as a lasting legacy.

From its outset, this research was integrated into networks of translator training and professional representation, and has had a wide-ranging influence on policy makers, corporations and translators in the UK, Europe and Japan.

Transforming professional-education policy and practice across the EU

Since 2006, formal EU-wide policy on translator education has been centrally defined by the European Master’s in Translation (EMT), an educational division of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Translation. EMT accredits masters’ level translation programmes, against a 35-point Translation Competence Framework.

When this framework was reviewed in 2017, Rodríguez de Céspedes was invited onto the Expert Group for this process. Based on her recommendations, three new competence items were adopted, addressing the importance of acquiring modern translation technology skills (Point 15), monitoring on-going industry requirements (Point 27) and continuous professional development (Point 26) (S1).

The new competence framework (S2) is now mandatory for all 80 leading translation MA courses in the EMT network. It has particularly influenced the educational provisions of new member programmes accredited in 2019, prompting them to start new professionally-oriented modules. For example, Jagiellonian University recognised Rodríguez de Céspedes’ “great value to research on the use of technology tools in translator education” and “great contribution to the development of the framework”, as they revised their programmes in consequence (S3). As a result of this research, there has thus been a significant material change in translator-education policy, extending its reach across the entire EU and beyond.

Transforming professional policy in the UK

The Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) is the largest language industry association in the UK, with 90 corporate members (LSPs) and 3010 individual professional members (translators). Through its stringent member accreditation system, the ITI serves the GBP1.35 billion UK language market (the second largest in the world) as well as the international market, as a major source of highly-skilled translators.

From 2016, the ITI executive’s new Chair, Ms Sarah Bawa-Mason, (familiar with this research through employment at University of Portsmouth as a part-time translation lecturer), began to work actively to protect its members’ human agency and professional values from the perceived threat of automation. The ITI became a national collaborator from the initial stages of the UK-based research, and commissioned an industry report from the team in 2017, exploring industry stakeholders’ thoughts and attitudes about technological developments in the UK translation industry (S4). By August 2020, this report had been accessed online over 3500 times, indicating very significant penetration into the professional audience.

ITI used Sakamoto and Rodríguez de Céspedes’ research findings to launch a new public relations strategy, more widely disseminating the translators’ voice within the technology-driven LSP business landscape. Ms Bawa-Mason discussed the research at key venues for debate over technology in translation, appearing at ten international conferences in the UK, USA, Europe and Australia in 2018 and 2019. Ms Bawa-Mason noted that it was “Thanks to the work of Drs Sakamoto and Rodríguez de Céspedes” that she was able to make “strong arguments for the human’s position in the translation process alongside the technologies” (S5).

ITI also launched the ITI Research Network, a new member education division, with Rodríguez de Céspedes as one of the founding members and advisors. This has channeled research-based information from the academic community to its policy-making board as well as its individual members through their CPD programmes (see further below). This has engaged the ITI membership with wider perspectives on their industry and professional status, working to dispel some of the anxieties and misperceptions identified through the earlier research. The Research Network published two e-books of academic and professional contributions on their members’ Knowledge Hub, addressing The Human and the Machine and Ethics and Machines in an Era of New Technologies. The first of these has been accessed over 500 times. The Network’s reach has been cemented by further academic/industry crossovers, such as its 2020 ‘Faraday’ event. Here, 14 high-profile Translation Studies academics from 11 UK and European universities attended and showcased their cutting-edge research, confirming ITI’s newly-forged link with the high-quality research community (S5) .

Transforming UK practitioners’ understandings

The research team’s most recent recommendations were shared by Sakamoto with ITI members initially through a small CPD workshop in January 2020, with an audience of 50, and then through two articles in the ITI’s bi-monthly member magazine in March and July 2020. A subsequent ITI member webinar in November 2020 directly engaged 219 translators, and the recording was watched by a further 93 viewers by the end of the year, being the third most popular event of the year on the ITI’s busy webinar programme (S5). The workshop was also in demand in Europe: University of Ghent, Belgium, one of Europe’s leading translation education institutions, hosted Sakamoto’s webinar for its translation students in October 2020.

The workshops boosted the translators’ confidence in their decision-making about whether to take up post-editing work, and if so, how. Immediate feedback showed that half of the attendees confirmed their existing plan of not taking up post-editing work (“I think the webinar confirmed that PE is not something for me.” “I was thinking about it as I have recently been offered it but now I don't want to do it”), the other half were willing to take it up but with a stronger understanding of the issues (“I changed my mind that I won’t turn down flat MTPE assignments as long as I can agree on the pricing through a proper negotiation process as I leant in the workshop”, “I would probably raise my rates for MTPE”). It also influenced the Ghent translation students’ career aspirations by prompting them to think of good professional practices (“I will be more careful using free online translation tools”) and to strengthen their human translation skills (“I think I am going to try to use less MT when I do translations.”) (S6).

Transforming business practice in Japan

Transformation of translators’ practices requires corresponding efforts on the side of LSPs, their work commissioners. The research was extended to Japan, where an impact on LSPs was achieved by collaboration with the Japan Translation Federation (JTF), with support from external funding (G3). JTF is Japan’s only translation industry association, with 250 corporate and 300 individual members. The research assisted the JTF in fulfilling one of their missions, to provide reliable information to industry stakeholders, and, as its journal editor observed, it “has raised the Federation’s credibility as an information provider to its members and other industry stakeholders” (S7). Sakamoto co-authored an industry report on the JTF’s website (S8), as well as a feature article for the JTF’s bi-monthly industry magazine JTF journal (800 hard copies and 3,500 downloads) (S7). The Interpreting and Translation Journal (circulation 20,000), the only commercial translation-career magazine in Japan, also reported the findings (S9).

As a result, the research and its recommendations have begun to influence the way Japanese LSPs design their MTPE operations. One such LSP noted how the research brought them to recognise “the importance of open communication and clear agreement about new MT production procedures with clients”, and therefore to introduce a new pre-project client negotiation procedure in 2019. This enabled the clients “to achieve the expected quality and to get understanding about the rationale behind the pricing” and “has resulted in extremely positive feedback from them” (S10). These kinds of changes in LSPs’ operations are important for ensuring sustainable working conditions for individual translators and post-editors.

These impacts have led to an ongoing collaboration not only with ITI and JTF, but now also with UK’s LSP association (Association of Translation Companies) and the USA’s translator association (American Translator Association) to undertake a new research project about translators’ well-being and the future of their work (S5). This should have a continuing impact on the international cross-industry efforts to maintain a sustainable global workforce in the face of automation.

The knowledge content of Frost’s research has directly motivated and supported public research and writing, leading to engagement activities including an exhibition, a drama performance, and memorial projects, and contributing to a major shift in the Guild’s long-standing aims of raising awareness of Ruskin’s work and its contemporary relevance. Frost’s relationship with the Guild of St George began as part of the monograph research process, and has developed organically through years of co-working with its leaders and members, building a range of fruitful partnerships. The Guild’s profile of activity as a charitable organisation has grown under recent leadership, and it pursues an ambitious programme of cultural, economic, and social activities. These are centred primarily on its two major physical assets, the Ruskin Collection and the ‘Ruskinland’ estate in Worcestershire.

The Ruskin Collection is a major holding of art, sculpture, geological items, books, and other materials now leased to Museums Sheffield. Originally intended by Ruskin as a cultural gift to the workers of the city, it has been the centre of a programme of recent Guild events under the general label of Ruskin-in-Sheffield. ‘Ruskinland’ is a small landed estate of 100 acres (c. 0.4km²) within the Forest of Wyre, and under the label of Ruskin-in-Wyre, provides a focus for the Guild’s rural-oriented and craft activities.

Frost’s involvement in specific new Guild programmes arose because organisers identified his abilities to provide unique insights into how the Guild’s early history and Ruskin’s complex legacy of ideas can be negotiated in the present. Frost’s work in this area has helped inform members and local communities about the history of the Guild (S7), but also highlighted the painful impacts of the contradictions at the heart of Ruskin’s ideology. While making clear the damage caused by Ruskin’s suppression of working-class agency, Frost’s engagements have also emphasised the visionary status of Ruskin’s ideas on environmental sustainability and cultural outreach, and the continuing resonance of these ideas for the Guild’s present projects and future development (S3).

Ruskin-in-Sheffield

The Guild of St George and Museums Sheffield collaborated on a wide-ranging programme of activities under this label between 2014 and 2019. Frost contributed to the programme’s success by bringing an innovative historically-based direction to key events. [Text removed for publication], notes that Frost was invited because of “his groundbreaking research into the organisation’s early history” (S3). Focused on an agenda connecting environment, sustainability, community and wellbeing, Ruskin-in-Sheffield secured almost GBP150,000 in funding from local and national agencies, including a GBP67,100 Heritage Lottery Fund grant, and an Arts Council England award. This supported more than seventy-five distinct events in communities in and around Sheffield, engaging some thirty community groups, 150 professionals and volunteers, and an estimated 25,000 audience participants. The programme organisers summarised the events as having “engaged diverse audiences with where they live and involved them in their local futures; fostered new community connections to build resilient local networks; liberated new possibilities for interpretation and engagement with the Ruskin Collection; increased the number, diversity and capacity of the Guild’s network of Companions, extending the Guild’s impact and reach; [and] transformed perceptions of John Ruskin from local heritage figure to globally relevant, radical thinker” (S5).

In 2015, Frost helped to spark initial local interest by taking the lead in a campaign to restore the grave of the Guild Museum’s first curator, Henry Swan, and to create memorial plaques, one for Swan and one on the building of the original Guild museum (Britain’s first museum for working class people). The museum’s early history was complex. While Ruskin provided unprecedented free access to culture for the working folk of Sheffield, his wider ideology was inimical to working class agency. [Text removed for publication] say of Frost’s research: “its detailed coverage of the Guild’s deep roots in Sheffield and nearby Totley, its focus on the engagement of local, working-class people [...] and its radically revisionary account of the organisation’s structures, ideology, and practices was an exciting resource in terms of feeding an already-strong interest in Ruskin in the city” (S3). As part of Ruskin-in-Sheffield events in May 2015, Frost gave two public talks on the underpinning research in Sheffield and Totley (S7).

Frost also worked extensively with local historians keen to follow up the monograph research at a local level. One of these, [text removed for publication] produced a walking theatrical performance, ‘Boots, Fresh Air, and Ginger Beer’, which again drew directly on the monograph research (S6). The purpose of the performance was to present aspects of the early history of the community at the time and the way that it depicts the Sheffield working class culture. The performance offered a greater understanding about the austerity context and how the Guild fits in it. As [text removed for publication] observed, “It was due to Mark that not only was I able to put more flesh on the bones of the story but for the first time had the names of the original Sheffield people involved in the experiment. This meant I was able to build biographical detail for characters in the play. Mark shared many previously unexamined primary sources with me. The play had 4 performances in June 2015” (S4).

Inspired by Frost’s research, and again in close liaison with him, [text removed for publication] then undertook a detailed study of the Guild’s early Sheffield projects, Thirteen Acres: John Ruskin and the Totley Communists (Sheffield: Guild of St George, 2017). This study built on Frost’s monograph by focusing on local social history and investigating the lives and experiences of those involved in the Guild project. As [text removed for publication] notes, “throughout the research and writing, Mark generously shared more sources, discussed questions which arose, and generally encouraged my work. We were in email contact, sharing insights throughout the research and writing process. Mark also helpfully commented on my draft manuscript. The book – written as accessibly as possible for the uninformed reader as well as the academic – has been a best seller for the Guild of St George. Mark’s research and generosity has been invaluable for my own contributions to Guild history” (S4, see also S10).

Ruskin-in-Wyre

Frost’s research has also been key to the success of a range of projects between 2014 and 2019, illuminating and contextualising the historical development of the Guild’s estate. His discovery of the deliberately hidden history of William Graham, who had farmed at Ruskinland for eight years before leaving after his protest at mistreatment was suppressed, significantly shaped an exhibition at the local Bewdley Museum in 2014. [Text removed for publication], credits Frost’s input with a major role in “the authenticity and presentation of the exhibition as a whole”, and particularly notes that “the new information uncovered by Dr Mark Frost about the companion William Graham enabled Ruskin and the Guild’s links to the Wyre to be viewed in a new light” (S1).

Frost was invited to join the Ruskin-in-Wyre Steering Group from 2014 in order to provide insights into the Guild’s history that would shape the nature of its present activities, working to fulfil Ruskin’s pledge “to make some small piece of English Land, beautiful, peaceful and fruitful”, and, in the words of the organisers, “to provide opportunities for working people to cultivate land and reconnect with nature”. Frost’s work was pivotal in shaping the direction of travel of the project and in the realisation by the organisers that “Ruskin’s ideas remain relevant today and it is our mission to reinterpret them in meaningful, creative and productive ways for a new generation” (S8).

In recent years, Ruskinland has been the site of a series of major projects involving farming, heritage orchards, conservation management, woodworking groups, architectural projects, and cultural projects. These have led to the involvement of many workers and volunteers, as well as members of Worcs County Council, and the creation of art installations, museum exhibitions, and an ongoing series of workshops and weekly events (S9).

Frost’s research-based input was particularly significant to Ruskin-in-Wyre’s successful Heritage Lottery Fund bid for ambitious activities relating to forest management, farming, orchards, arts, and crafts. He wrote the historical background component of the bid, and had a significant advisory contribution to the whole document. As [text removed for publication], writes in his testimonial, “The information and insights contained in Mark's thorough and revealing piece of research were to become an important influence in developing the Ruskin in Wyre project and associated funding application to the Heritage Lottery Fund. The application was successful in unlocking around GBP90,000 of funding which has enabled the delivery of a 2-year programme of activities which began in April, 2017 to reveal and revitalise Ruskin's legacy in the Wyre Forest” (S2).

These activities have included the installation of a sawmill and the creation of workshops for architectural students from Hooke Park School of Architecture (whose students regularly work in the forest) and local woodworkers and craftspeople. Other activities centre around sustainable farming, orchard work, conservation management, and artistic workshops (S9). [Text removed for publication] goes on to say that “Mark's role has been vital [in] the development of the Ruskin in Wyre project by ensuring it was informed by a sound academic understanding of the origins of the Guild of St George and the previously unexplored complexities and controversies surrounding its early supporters. Without this important contribution, I very much doubt the project would have been as rich and valuable” (S2).

In October 2019 a commemoration project came to fruition with the creation of a memorial stone at the grave site of the Guild’s earliest agricultural companion in Bewdley, William Buchan Graham (c. 1846-1909), author of the suppressed article on the Guild’s mismanagement, and a leading critic of its failures. In parallel with the restoration of Henry Swan’s grave in Sheffield, this concrete impact of Frost’s research will preserve and communicate the memory of these significant figures into the future.

Due to Covid-19 impact activities came to the end of a cycle. However, Frost plans to reactivate these as soon as possible, and in particular to continue work on the creation of a walking trail in the Wyre Forest and Bewdley, and to further elucidate the Guild’s history there via a linked booklet and phone app.