Impact case study database

Brecht is one of the world’s most performed dramatists. The abiding power of his works across all literary genres rests on its combination of innovative aesthetic techniques with challenging socio-political analysis. He is also an iconic figure for the revolutionary Left. Parker’s research findings have attracted substantial attention internationally from communities interested in Brecht, and those working with his oeuvre. The research has achieved impact through two main routes. First, Bloomsbury’s marketing and sale of foreign rights of Bertolt Brecht: A Literary Life [1] enabled the biography to reach a significant general readership worldwide. Second, Parker enhanced the impact of the research via public engagement and collaborations with cultural institutions and creative practitioners, including a series of public lectures at the City of Augsburg’s Brecht-Haus.

The reach and significance of the impact is evident through: (1) the biography’s commercial, critical and public acclaim; and (2) the influence of the research on creative practice, including artistic interpretation and performance.

1. Commercial, critical and public acclaim: publishers, literary critics and readers

The biography represents a significant commercial success for the publishers. Bertolt Brecht: A Literary Life has also been published in German (Suhrkamp, 2018) and Czech (AMU Press, 2019) editions during the assessment period. Bloomsbury marketed a separate edition in India in 2017. [text removed for publication]

The importance of Parker’s original interpretation of Brecht’s life and work has been noted and described with near unanimity by critics in prominent international publications, including in The Sunday Times, Sydney Review of Books, Die Welt and the Washington Post [B]. Michael Hofmann’s review in the TLS was so unusually appreciative of the achievement – “not only the biography of a genius, but itself a biography of genius” - that the review was itself the subject of an editorial in the TLS, accompanied by a cover spread titled ‘New Brecht’ [B]. According to Hofmann, “we get a wholly fresh and absorbing sense of what it might have been like to be Brecht, from the sickly child to the prematurely old, dismally undiagnosed heart patient” [B] .

These new perspectives have enabled deeper and enhanced understandings of Brecht’s life and work, by a range of publics. For example, [text removed for publication] comments online: “I have read nearly every book about Brecht there is - academic and popular - so I delayed reading this until now[,] worried it would be the same old stuff - and there is not only much entirely new material that adds immeasurably to reaction to Brecht's work […] I cannot put it down - what it gets too is the flavour of the man and why he was irresistible” [C]. In The Guardian, novelist Gavin McCrea included [1] in his selection of best books of 2015, describing it as “a feat of scholarship that kept me busy for much of the year” [C].

The research underpinned a series of public events organised to accompany the publication of the biography. In the UK, these included an ‘in conversation’ about Brecht in light of the research in the biography with Tom Kuhn at the Birmingham Rep during its Brecht season in April 2014. The event attracted 40 people and included a Q&A. A recording has 227 views on YouTube [D.i]. Suhrkamp launched the book at the Berlin Academy of Arts, and Konstanze Becker of the Berliner Ensemble read extracts at the event before an audience of approximately 150 people (963 YouTube views by July 2020) [D.ii]. The launch of the Czech edition of the biography took place at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in November 2019.

During the review period the author appeared three times (2016, 2017 and 2018) as an expert speaker at public events at the Brecht-Haus organised by the City of Augsburg’s Brecht Research Centre and Brecht Festival. Together, the Research Centre, Brecht-Haus and Festival promote academic and public understanding of Brecht’s life and work. The public event in 2018 was a presentation of the German edition of [1], following its launch in Berlin. Jürgen Hillesheim, Director of the Brecht Research Centre, commented that “[t]he Augsburg public were able to participate in a guided tour through the biographer’s workshop, gaining unique insights into what it meant to write Brecht’s life.” [E.i] Each public event typically attracts between 40 and 80 people [E.i]. Hillesheim notes that “[i]nterest in Parker’s innovative approach to Brecht’s life and works has ensured that audiences at his talks are always at the high end and stimulate lively debate and press coverage.” [E.i] This new understanding of Brecht has been conveyed in a sequence of media articles following the events, published in the Augsburger Allgemeine [E.i]. A further output of the collaboration with Augsburg’s City’s Theatre was the publication of an extract from Parker’s research about Baal [4] in the Theatre’s programme advertising its new production for the Brecht Festival 2019 [E.ii]. Summarising the longstanding work with Parker, Hillesheim states that his contribution “has been exemplary in enabling the Brecht Research Centre to fulfil its mission to mediate between the academic and the broader public realm. Certainly, no speaker during the past decade has impacted more successfully in transforming public awareness of Brecht, both here in Augsburg and more generally in the German-speaking world.” [E.i]

The book has stimulated debate among political activists and commentators about Brecht’s relationship with official Communism during the Stalinist era and the legacy of European Communism, demonstrating clearly for the first time that Brecht was torn between loyalty to ‘real-existing’ Communist states and Trotsky’s critique of the USSR. For example, the research, as delineated in the book, was the subject of a discussion at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Saxony (a major political foundation engaged in education and critical analysis of contemporary capitalism) in October 2018 [F.i]. It was showcased in publications by the International Committee of the Trotskyist Fourth International, who described the book as “a highly readable and stimulating opener to the debate.” [F.ii] The Committee published an interview with Parker in which they probed the relationship of Brecht and his works to Stalinism [F.iii]. Political activist, journalist and member of the editorial board of the New Left Review, Tariq Ali, also broadcast an interview with Parker in his weekly spot ‘The World Today’ (June 2015), which had 2,287 YouTube views by September 2020 [F.iv].

2. Artistic interpretation and performance: directors, performers and artists

The research has informed new creative work about Brecht’s life, particularly the work of directors and actors. Heinrich Breloer’s two-part TV film Brecht (2019), broadcast in Germany by ARD in March 2019 (2,110,000 and 1,600,000 viewers) [G.i] and subsequently in Denmark, Finland and Spain, was significantly informed by Parker’s exchanges with the director and a reading of [1]. Burghart Klaussner, the great actor (cf. as Kurt Hahn, headmaster of Gordonstoun in season 2 of The Crown in 2016) who played the ageing Brecht in the film, explains how he prepared for the role: “Through the new book by Stephen Parker Bertolt Brecht: Eine Biographie , Parker shows him to be someone in a very fragile state of health, beset from the outset by heart and kidney problems.” [G.ii] [text removed for publication] In his review of the film in Der Spiegel, critic Volker Weidermann uses [1] as his key point of reference [G.iv].

Following an approach from the Berlin artist Florian Auer, winner of the 2017 Nordhorn Prize with a series of ‘Brecht’ pieces in which he explored the significance of Brecht’s tailored garments discussed in the biography, Parker and Auer engaged in a lengthy exchange of ideas. The discussions developed into Parker’s 1,000-word text ‘The Jacket’ for Virtual Poetry [H.i], a new book by Auer and editor Asya Yaghmurian. The book was commissioned as part of the prize and will be published by DISTANZ (Berlin) in April 2021. Text and images are combined using an overlay technique. The collaboration has, in turn, inspired Auer to produce a piece of Brecht-garment art for Parker. Auer writes: “your biography helped me a lot to define my ideas and to move on in deeper understanding of new way to look at Brecht.” [H.ii]

Neil Harris, dramatist and director with the Hong Kong Players community theatre group, has produced a radio play about Brecht in Danish exile, The Plum Tree, inspired by [1]. Harris wrote in 2019 of “reading [the] biography of Brecht with such excitement” and planning as a result to “create a stage play of some of what [the] book evokes, namely [Brecht’s] experiences in the various countries of his exile from Germany” [I.i]. Parker met Harris in Hong Kong and advised on aspects of the play, which led to the specifically Danish setting, the shaping of Brecht’s stage mannerisms and the individual characterisation of the four women in Brecht’s life at the time, Helen Weigel, Margarethe Steffin, Ruth Berlau and Elisabeth Hauptmann. A live reading of the play, directed by Jodi Gilchrist, was broadcast from Hong Kong’s Aftermath Bar on 2 August 2020 [I.ii]. Further performances are planned.

Context and summary of impact

Russia’s (dis)information campaigns in the last decade have generated major security concerns for governments across the EU and North America. For example, its online operations are viewed as a threat by 83% of the UK public (YouGov poll, 2018). When responding to those concerns, however, Western politicians, media and publics have lacked critical evidence about the precise nature of Russia’s media strategies, and about their influence on audiences. UoM’s underpinning research has addressed these evidence gaps. Since 2014, when disquiet about Russia’s activities escalated following its annexation of Crimea, the research has: provided systematic analysis demonstrating common tendencies both to misconceive Russian propaganda outlets’ modes of operation and to overestimate their effectiveness; shown how responses based on such interpretations have proved counterproductive; and empowered key stakeholders to correct their assumptions and improve their responses by promoting evidence-based alternatives. The significance and global reach of this work is demonstrated by the successful knowledge-exchange partnerships that Hutchings and Tolz have built with government offices in the UK and Norway, international think tanks, and print and broadcast journalists from multiple countries. Their research has informed the UK Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Commons Select Committee’s approach to Russian broadcasting targeting the UK and their expertise has been sought by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), by the EU’s counter-disinformation unit, and by media in the UK, USA, South Africa, Sweden and Turkey.

Shaping public debate and the practice of media professionals through international media engagement

Hutchings and Tolz are regularly consulted by Western media outlets as leading experts on Russian media strategies. Since the start of their ‘Reframing Russia’ (RR) project in 2017 alone, the team have authored 20 articles for media outlets, including The Washington Post (WaPo), HuffPost, Newsweek and The Conversation [A], and contributed expert commentary and analysis across leading outlets in the UK, USA, South Africa, Sweden and Turkey [B]. Informed by the research project findings, these contributions have challenged conventional wisdom about the nature of Russian propaganda. Impact is evidenced in three ways:

First, articles published in leading outlets have increased audience engagement with the subject matter and informed public debate. The articles were read by hundreds of thousands of people and commented upon on web-sites and social media by hundreds of people from across the world. An RR blog in WaPo (15/09/2018), which debunked politicians’ claims about the effectiveness of Russian propaganda, was in the top 10 of WaPo’s most read and commented upon daily blogs from 2018 (653 comments) [C.1]; an article in The Conversation (4/10/2018), related to output [5], that was critical of BBC coverage of Russia’s media environment had 100,522 reads [C.2]. Another Conversation article (5/4/2018) on Russian media manipulation was reprinted by Newsweek (6/4/2018). The article was read more than 15,000 times on The Conversation and Newsweek websites, and was shared 204 times on Facebook. It generated “This is a must read” Twitter messages [C.3].

Second, the research has informed and enhanced media coverage in leading outlets. RR’s high profile has led to frequent citation of its research outcomes in leading media outlets ( The Guardian; The Observer; NYT; The Daily Mail; MailOnline; Wired; London Review of Books) and requests for expert commentary [B]. HuffPost (21/05/2018), for example, commissioned an analysis by Hutchings of OFCOM’s investigation into RT, publishing his policy recommendations [B.11]; Wired (18/9/2017) sought and published Hutchings’ advice on identifying Russian online propaganda activity [B.24, C.4]. LRB (3/12/2020) solicited Tolz’s analysis of how the tendency to represent misinformation as, above all, a threat to democracy from foreign, authoritarian actors misidentifies the origins of the problem and potentially hinders the ability of democratic governments to address it [A.1]. These research-based articles have generated high audience reach and engagement. For example, with additional postings by HuffPost of [B.11] on Facebook, Twitter and Reddit, one of them had potential reach to HuffPost’s total online audience of 28,500,000 users [C.5].

Third, the research has shaped debate among journalists and informed their opinions and approaches to the subject matter. This snowballing of recognition and exposure enabled the team’s research to substantively influence the terms of the debate about Russian media among the international journalistic community. In this context, Hutchings was interviewed live on the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s leading current affairs programme, The Globe (14/12/2019) [D.1]. Tolz’s article in The Conversation (4/10/2018) led directly to her appearance on BBC’s Newsnight (9/10/2018), which prompted the first proper acknowledgement by the BBC, with Newsnight presenter (Kirsty Wark) referring specifically to Tolz, of the work of Russia’s opposition journalists in uncovering evidence of Russia’s role in the Salisbury poisoning [D.2]. Similarly, the RR blog in WaPo (27/03/2019) [A.5] correcting The Guardian’s inaccurate claim about the Russian media’s role in promoting Nigel Farage, generated a substantive online dialogue between The Observer journalist, Carole Cadwalladr, and research team members about their data interpretation [D.3].The Moscow correspondent of the Swedish public broadcaster SVT pointed out that, at a time when “it is difficult to get things right when we cover Russia”, reading RR project outputs and talking to its team encouraged him “to reflect on my area of coverage in a more analytical way”. He confirms that “the input that SVT has received from Reframing Russia has undoubtedly helped us in our effort to make our viewers better informed” [D.4]. The BBC Russian Service Moscow Bureau chief commented that the RR project “ made him reconsider how the relationship between facts and opinion should be understood by journalists” [D.5].

Enhancing professional and public understanding through targeted events

Hutchings and Tolz organized two major events to facilitate debate and promote engagement with the research on the part of journalists, civil servants, diplomats and members of the public. A public debate on Russia’s role in the global ‘information war’ (12/10/2017) featured renowned journalists and policy-analysts as speakers, including from The Independent, BBC and Chatham House. The event attracted approximately 100 representatives from the diplomatic community, NGOs, and members of the public and was covered by The Observer (14/10/2017). Participants confirmed that the event had clarified or changed their views and praised it for offering a “good balance” of opinions [E.1]. The second targeted event was a roundtable discussion on ‘populism, post-truth and challenges for journalists’ at Frontline Club, London (07/11/2019). This event brought together representatives of Russian and leading Western media, including the BBC, The Independent, ABC and Swedish public television, for an experimental dialogue across ‘battle lines’, to exchange views on how Russian and world media operate. Participating journalists confirmed that it was “ by far one of the most constructive forums in which I have participated in years” [E.2] and a major “building-bridges” initiative [E.2]. [text removed for publication]

Shaping the work of policy practitioners through evidence-based interventions

Hutchings’ and Tolz’s research has served as the basis for collaborations with the UK parliament; the UK and Norwegian Foreign and Defence Ministries; BBC Monitoring; and leading UK and Russian think tanks. These collaborations have informed professional understanding and practice among policy practitioners.

In the context of COVID-19, Hutchings and Tolz advised the UK DCMS Commons Select Committee about RT’s coverage of the pandemic. At a meeting (25/03/2020) with the Committee chair, Julian Knight MP, and the Select Committee’s Digital and Technology Policy Specialist, Hutchings and Tolz provided advice on whether RT should be referred to OFCOM in connection with this coverage. The Committee confirmed that this advice “fed into our future programming and so clearly made an impact” [F.1]. In April 2020, Hutchings and Tolz published a report on major shortcomings in the work of the EU’s main counter-disinformation taskforce in relation to COVID-19 coverage. On the basis of this report, members of the FCO’s diplomatic service and an FCO policy analyst who benefitted from the RR earlier policy blogs, solicited a meeting with Hutchings and Tolz to consult them on how to interpret Russia’s media activities around the pandemic (24/04/2020). In their words, they found the meeting “invaluable” [F.2]. The report was further endorsed by the UK’s leading security and defence think tank, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), whose Director for International Security Studies commented: “Responding effectively to Russia’s threat requires understanding the actual nature of that threat and how best to respond. The report offers useful contribution on both accounts” [G.1]. The significant debate aroused by the report resulted in an approach from the EU counter-disinformation unit, the quality of whose database was criticized in Hutchings and Tolz’s report. The unit sought advice as to how their methodology of identifying disinformation could be improved [G.2].

According to the Head of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs Research Group on Russia, Tolz’s invited lecture at the Norwegian Foreign Ministry (15/05/2014), based on output [1], helped in “ improving the understanding of local policy analysts and diplomats of the media’s role in shaping public attitudes towards migration in Russia and beyond” [F.3]. Cooperation with BBC Monitoring led to an internship at this organisation. It was filled by an RR-affiliated doctoral student who used it to produce reports on Russian media coverage of Russia’s corruption scandals for the FCO and MoD. BBC Monitoring confirmed that the student’s “ research made a distinct… contribution to enhancing the knowledge and understanding of UK policy makers and policy analysts regarding Russian media strategies” [G.3].

Other policy practitioners have consistently acknowledged that Hutchings’ and Tolz’s research has improved their understanding of how Russian media operate, using evidence from team research to inform their policy discussions. For instance, Moscow’s Analytical Centre for monitoring race-related crimes in Russia (SOVA) based their report on the impact of television on Russian public perceptions of race entirely on Hutchings’ and Tolz’s research within output [1], saying it “ significantly shaped” their “ understanding of the relationship between media coverage of racism and public attitudes… to the problem” [G.4]. [text removed for publication]. The fact that such outputs successfully challenged dominant perceptions is further reflected in the public endorsements of Hutchings’ policy-blogs (04/04/2018 and 10/04/2018) on “ rethinking the Russian propaganda machine” from a prominent Latvian politician (Veiko Spolitis, MP) and a manager of a leading European media-development company [text removed for publication] [H.2]. Spolitis, for example, agreed with Hutchings’ argument that “ we have to discard the idea that the Kremlin is in charge of a coordinated media machine”, adding that “in a hyper-networked world, reductive stereotypes on 2 sides feed one another, creating toxic spirals of mutual hostility” [H.2]. Evidence presented by Tolz in the Scottish Parliament (13/10/2018) about the exaggeration of RT’s influence on Western audiences resulted in acknowledgement and promotion of the finding by the Royal Institute of Royal Affairs, Chatham House, a key provider of policy-analysis for the FCO, which had hitherto subscribed to the opposite position [G.5].

The research addressed a crisis in support for victims of domestic violence with limited English language proficiency. The Office for National Statistics reported a 24% increase in domestic abuse-related crimes in the year ending March 2019. At the same time, demand for interpreter mediation is also high and required by 1 in 4 of all interviews conducted by the police in the UK. The diversity of service users accessing support in the charitable sector has also increased. In Manchester, one of the key research sites, over 150 languages are spoken. Despite this context of increased demand, there has been no systematic attempt to assess or address matters of interpreter mediation in charity support services for limited English language proficient survivors of domestic abuse. In the police context, HMIC’s forces-wide inspection of police response to domestic abuse acknowledged gaps in police practice in 2014, but little has been done to address them.

Tipton’s programme of research produced impact through a series of dissemination, consultation and training events jointly organised with the two partner organisations in the ESRC IAA-funded project work, and with others through collaboration with the Translation and Communication in Training (TACIT) research group at the University of East Anglia, UoM Law School, and the Greater Manchester Centre for Voluntary Organisation. The research has (1) improved the guidelines and training for professional interpreters; (2) facilitated service improvements in domestic abuse support services and the voluntary sector; (3) enhanced police procedures and policies, including the creation of a series of new protocols and resources; and (4) influenced professional training of interpreters.

1. Professional Interpreters: improved guidelines and training

The research facilitated the development of a set of co-produced guidelines aimed at interpreters with limited or no experience of working in domestic abuse settings. The guidelines were disseminated in April 2020 to the staff and freelance interpreters in key organisations working in domestic abuse settings which have local and national reach: Manchester City Council, Women’s Aid federation, Capita Translation, Recruitment Empire, Karma Nirvana, and SafeLives. Planned training on working with the guidelines (to be delivered by Tipton) has been delayed by COVID-19.

The guidelines are supporting improved delivery of interpreter provisions by raising interpreters’ awareness of the specificities of interpreting in domestic abuse settings, helping them to plan and respond to risk assessment strategies, and support a structured approach to understanding and eliminating victim-blaming behaviours from professional practice. Feedback on the draft guidelines was provided by PTMWA, SafeLives, and freelance interpreters through a series of workshops and training sessions held in June 2017 and July 2019. Due to adverse hot weather, only 16/50 registrants attended the July 2019 workshop; all 50 interpreters who registered received the guidelines and booklet of activities used at the event. The interpreters reported that the new guidelines would change their practice and that they would take up the recommendations, including: greater use of pre-assignment research (e.g. researching relevant Acts of Parliament as a source of terminology); accepting the need to interpret all questions even if service users have some English proficiency; and exercising more caution about the level of empathy expressed in interpreting assignments due to potential negative impact on the victim. A group of 10 professional interpreters involved in an experiment to test the draft guidelines also testified through post-hoc interviews that the guidelines had enhanced their knowledge and understanding of how to support victims and support services. Thus one noted, “ it is so complete and concise”, and another, “I found it really helpful especially the last one. How the same word has been translated (table in section 9)”, and “ Maybe I understood more the role of the women’s aid organization” [B].

2. Domestic Abuse Support Services and Voluntary Sector: service improvements

Improved support services for users with limited English language resulted from carrying out the research in partnership with PTMWA, a Manchester-based organisation providing DVA-related services for over 40 years. PTMWA supported approximately 3,000 women in 2017; 54% of service users are from BAMER backgrounds. To complement the guidelines for professional interpreters [A.i; see above], the research facilitated the development of guidelines for PTMWA staff in Manchester and in the wider Women’s Aid federation on effective working with interpreters [A.ii].

Prior to this research, PTMWA had long worked with professional interpreters, but had not had the opportunity to reflect on this work in a structured manner or engage in staff development on working effectively with interpreters. The research: enhanced the visibility of language support provisions in its management and staff development strategy; provided opportunities for staff to reflect on current practice; increased staff understanding of the impact of the lack of interpreter and staff training on interactions with victim-survivors; and demonstrated the value of volunteer interpreters in low-level and low-risk interactions.

PTMWA staff feedback reported that the research met an important aim of improving provision for interpreter needs. It also raised staff awareness of the importance of professional interpreter training, in particular the need for note-taking for accurate interpretation. The testing of the guidelines in 2019 “provided an opportunity for staff to reflect on different interpreter approaches […]. The incorporation of note-taking by some interpreters was deemed a very positive support for the interpreting process, with staff observing that it was not routinely used by interpreters they had worked with” [C]. Staff reported a change in practice by newly acknowledging the benefits of prior information on an interpreter’s experience in the sector and working with victims: “The guidance has enabled productive reflection on our interpreter booking processes and particularly prompted us to reflect on the questions we ask of interpreters (e.g. prior knowledge of the organisation, experience in these settings)” [C]. Knowledge about the extent of prior experience in the sector can help staff gauge and mitigate potential issues in advance of service user meetings, for example by reminding interpreters of the special sensitivities of the situation and types of approach to avoid. Another staff member commented: “ I wish I had come across [the guidance] many years ago. Having used the interpreting services over the years, this guide has helped me to reconsider ‘what to look out for’ – in terms of how the interpreters respond / communication and body language. I had always had a brief introduction and felt due to the limited time and rushing to complete the assessment I had not considered setting the scene by outlining the aims of the meeting” [C]. The service team manager commented: “ This is a brilliant resource that will enable best [practice] for MWA staff by giving them confidence on interpretation service and provide best support to service users. I’m unaware of any previous document on this subject, it is also [a] valuable training tool” [C]. PTMWA described the role of the research in enhancing its support for BAME communities: “In the past, many service users have complained about miscommunication due to language barriers, lack of understanding and biased interpretation. But following these guidelines will change the way we work and understand our BAME clients” [C].

The research sparked new collaborations between volunteer and professional interpreting services to improve the service to victims of domestic violence. The research co-production enabled PTMWA to initiate a volunteer interpreter scheme, supported by a training session with Tipton in Manchester in January 2017. The four volunteer interpreters who undertook the training were able to offer support at informal drop-in sessions. The promotion of female interpreters through the volunteer scheme is a positive step towards enhancing recruitment of future professional interpreters in the sector and in the local area. This is a significant shift in practice and approach by volunteers who often have limited means to engage in new training practices [C].

The guidelines developed through the partnership with PTMWA [A.i, A.ii] anchored the first joint event hosted by UoM and the Greater Manchester Centre for Voluntary Organisation (GMCVO) in February 2020, which put language support provisions on the local agenda, showcased the benefits of academic partnerships with charitable organisations and supported skills development for the voluntary sector in Manchester [D]. The event attracted approximately 50 registrations from a wide range of organisations. Through this event, the outcomes of Tipton’s research with PTMWA have helped participants become more confident in judging the language proficiency of non-professional interpreters in their organisation, inspiring participants “ to make improvements in their own organisations with regard to translation and spoken language interpreting” [D]. The event has been used to start a follow-on research project under the UoM-led AHRC Open World Research Initiative programme to develop organisational insight further in the region.

3. Police: new protocols and resources

The partnership with Cambridgeshire Constabulary responded to the challenges raised on multilingual service provision in the HMIC 2014 inspection by designing and delivering new staff training and development. The research findings shaped the Languages Working Group (established October 2015) set up by Cambridgeshire Constabulary and involving academics and representation from the National College of Policing, which produced revised guidelines on commissioning of interpreter and translator services for police forces. This work was progressed by the National College of Policing and developed and tested through the Transnational Organised Crime and Translation (TOCAT) project (led by the University of East Anglia) for the Home Office in 2017. It was then presented to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Modern Languages in the House of Lords in November 2018 with national roll-out in police training and practice in December 2020. Tipton’s research underpinned two joint training events at Cambridgeshire Constabulary in September 2015 and June 2017 [E.i] on interpreter involvement in investigative interviews, with 50 participants (interpreters and police officers) on each occasion. It also underpinned a training event in June 2019, ‘Early Identification of Honour-based Abuse’, delivered with UoM Law School through the N8 Policing Research Partnership [E.ii] (approximately 100 participants, including victim-survivors, police, probation officers and social workers).

The partnership with Cambridgeshire Constabulary led to the creation of a series of new protocols: a Data Processing Agreement between UoM and Cambridgeshire Constabulary, a Protocol for Victims regarding Release of Materials for Research Purposes and a Protocol for Interpreters regarding Release of Materials for Research Purposes [F]. The victims’ protocol placed particular emphasis on the public value of releasing data for research and improving services in the future. The protocols have since been used by the TACIT research group in supporting access to research data with Norfolk Constabulary, expanding research networks and leading to stronger inter-institutional collaboration on the content of the TACIT toolkit, which is used by Cambridge Constabulary and other forces. The research [2] has contributed to the publicly available toolkit resources on pre-interview planning for law enforcement officers [G], including Tipton’s examples on interviews on domestic abuse, with others in development. The examples formed the basis of exercises at a joint interpreter-police officer workshop in June 2019, with approximately 45 participants [H]. The toolkit was launched at this event and the contribution of Tipton’s research is acknowledged on the TACIT website [G].

Tipton’s research informed the development of the Manchester police staff development agenda, leading to two skills workshops organised in conjunction with the UoM Multilingual Manchester unit in March [I] and November 2016. The first involved 20 representatives from Greater Manchester Police and other organisations, including Capita TI and Refugee Action; the second involved 80 participants at Greater Manchester Police. Officers engaged in hands-on activities designed to simulate the interpreter’s work in notetaking to support better regulation of the amount and speed of information delivered. They were also introduced to strategies for handling common features of interlingual communication in police interviews.

4. Informing the professional education of interpreters (UK and Austria)

The research informed the development of a short-term academic partnership between the University of Graz and UoM to inform professional graduate training for Public Service Interpreting (PSI) at an international level. In Graz, Tipton delivered a module (20 hours in April and June 2017) on PSI practice to 12 MA students which drew on analysis of police interview guidelines and actual police interview analysis conducted as part of the research project. The module improved understanding of institutional policies and practices involving interpreters through cross-cultural comparison, through lectures and interactive workshops that were observed by local staff [J]. By the end of the input the students demonstrated, through written outputs and oral presentations, how they would apply certain research techniques (e.g. discourse analysis of police interview data) to the local contexts of service provision in Graz. Since 2015, Tipton’s teaching at UoM on PSI has drawn on data examples from police interviews and interpreter interviews from the project to support student learning in the professional practice of interpreting. More than 100 students took this module between 2015 and 2020. Knowledge exchange facilitated by the partnership with the University of Graz led to curriculum content enhancements in Manchester including the incorporation of authentic field data and simulated interpreting practice.

Context: The MigRom project was carried out in the context of increased European policy attention towards Roma communities in the years following EU enlargement in 2007 and the extension of freedom of movement to citizens of Romania and Bulgaria. Policymakers were concerned with addressing high levels of poverty, social deprivation and marginalisation among Roma communities. Policy interest was heightened by public debates in this period concerning the presence of Roma migrants in Western European countries, often centring on issues of community cohesion. In Manchester, Matras had been working with MCC since 2009, when the Council commissioned the Romani Project (led by Matras) to carry out research in the Romani community in Manchester’s Gorton South and make recommendations for a first engagement strategy (launched 2011). From 2013, MigRom built on this early research and collaboration by formalising the partnership with MCC and carrying out a substantial new programme of research and policy work.

**Pathways to Impact: In Manchester, the project used a co-production model in which Roma communities and local policymakers helped to shape the research, assess outcomes, co-deliver a pilot engagement strategy and devise new policy approaches. In addition to its work in Manchester and other areas of northern England, the project contributed to policy debate at a European level, engaging closely with the CoE to disseminate findings and recommendations [A, B]. The project also informed public debate via blogs, media articles and interviews, including in The Guardian [C].

MigRom research created demonstrable benefits for (1) Roma communities, (2) local government engagement strategies and (3) policymaking at a European level:

1. Roma communities in Manchester: capacity-building and enhanced self-representation

The arrival and settlement of Romanian Roma in Manchester from around 2007 triggered expressions of hostility from the public and suspicion from many public service providers, including schools, social services, children’s services, and the police. Lacking structured community representation, the Roma were unable to respond to allegations, forge constructive links with public service providers, and counteract negative images. The research opened a pathway to improve relationships between Roma and public service providers in Manchester by supporting access to key services and collecting and disseminating accurate information on Roma to service providers, as well as supporting the creation of community spokesmanship.

The project employed three outreach workers from the local Roma community and relied on the part-time contribution of an additional five Roma to support public engagement. Between September 2013 and late 2016, they ran weekly drop-in consultation sessions for Roma in which advice and support were provided on issues ranging from school registration, access to health care and other services, and access to employment, facilitating access to public services. Evaluation of the drop-in sessions was carried out for the periods (1) September 2013 to August 2014 and (2) September 2014 to April 2015. Between September 2013 and August 2014, 93 families accessed the drop-in sessions, many on a regular basis [D.i]. Between September 2014 and April 2015, meanwhile, 87 individuals accessed the sessions, 10 of whom were new clients [D.ii]. In the same period, 33 clients were informally trained to assist family members [D.ii]. Clients demonstrated increased confidence and a commitment to draw on their experience to support other community members [D.ii]. Reflecting on the project, one of the outreach workers commented: “I have seen changes within the community, brought about through work by the MigRom Project. The Project has helped find jobs, courses and education opportunities. The main focus of the Project is to build self-reliance within the community, building skills for people to apply and gain jobs for themselves. This has proved successful as many in the community are now employed” [E].

One of the key project deliverables was the establishment of a regular consultation forum to create a link between the Roma community in Manchester and MCC. In 2015, the community group Roma Voices of Manchester CIC (RVoM) was set up to deliver this aspect of the project. The project’s outreach workers and additional Roma community members were the founders and directors. The involvement of a group of young Roma in the project’s research and outreach work developed leadership capacity within the community [F]. MCC reported in 2016 that RVoM had been “instrumental in improving the representation of Roma people in the Council’s 2016 Communities of Interest report […] raising awareness of some of the highest priorities for Roma people in Manchester from their own perspective” [F; see also G, p. 84]. RVoM continued to provide advice to the Roma community in Manchester for approximately one year after the conclusion of the MigRom project in 2017, particularly concerning issues of citizenship and settled status in relation to Brexit. At the end of this period, the group’s activities were gradually scaled back, as a key objective of developing capacity and skills within the Roma community had been met.

The project’s work with schools was another important strand of community engagement. The project engaged intensively with two local schools, Cedar Mount Academy and Gorton Mount Primary, which each had up to 20% Roma pupils, through classroom observations and the delivery of Romani language-based activity sessions for pupils [H]. Teachers attended the activity sessions and the project team held regular meetings with school leadership teams to provide immediate feedback on the classroom observations. Together, these activities raised awareness of Roma culture and strengthened teachers’ aspirations for Roma pupils. At Cedar Mount Academy this engagement led to the discontinuation of a practice of segregating Roma pupils. The project also engaged with approximately 15 additional schools through pupil visits to UoM and training delivered to school staff on Romani history, language, and cultural particularities. These additional schools included Abraham Moss Community School, Levenshulme High School and Chapel Street, Heald Place and Divine Mercy primary schools. The project drew interest from schools beyond Manchester, leading to events with Coventry Secondary School, Essa Academy Bolton, and Oasis Academy Fir Vale in Sheffield.

Media engagement helped to give Roma migrants a public voice and brought to public attention alternative models of local engagement with Roma that counter hostility and forge constructive partnerships [C]. For example, Matras’s article in The Guardian, ‘A Roma reality check’ [C.ii], received 467 comments. A public event at UoM in February 2014 with Lord Blunkett, then MP, (‘Roma migration: a challenge or an opportunity for our cities?’) drew an audience of over 250 participants and received wide social media coverage.

2. Shaping local government engagement strategies in Manchester, Oldham and Bradford

In Manchester, the research enhanced local authority officers’ understanding of Romani history and culture, migration background and aspirations and needs. It helped to create links between council officers and Roma communities and shaped some of the general engagement strategies such as regular outreach programmes targeting Roma. Reporting on the outcomes of the project in Manchester in 2016, the MCC Equality Team stated that “[t]he opportunity to learn from the academic research component of the project has helped to build the Council’s awareness and understanding of a community in the city that it previously did not have extensive experience of working with” [F].The same report details the ways in which MigRom supported the achievement of MCC Equality Objectives for the 2016-20 period in a number of key areas. For example, the report states that new project data concerning Roma pupils in Manchester schools, published in [3] and [4], had increased MCC awareness of key issues affecting educational experience and attainment [F]. The project’s policy briefings (collated on the project website [C.iii]) had challenged cultural and social misconceptions about Roma people and had become useful tools for MCC officers when working with communities and developing service specifications [F]. New case studies and supplementary texts provided by the project researchers and RVoM had “[s]upported the accuracy and integrity of the Council’s reporting of Roma issues” [F].

In 2015 MigRom established a partnership with Oldham Council (OC). At this time Oldham’s Roma communities were growing and the Council sought engagement with the project to support its work with communities [I]. Drawing on the model developed in Manchester, the MigRom team delivered training to OC officers and partner organisations and ran drop-in sessions for Roma communities in Oldham between 2015 and 2017. The Head of Communities and Early Intervention at OC reported in 2017 that the partnership had supported the Council’s work in a variety of ways: “The partnership […] was invaluable in building the Council’s capacity to engage effectively with Roma people in Oldham, through improving understanding, facilitating dialogue and helping to develop relationships. It provided the foundations for the longer term engagement strategy with Roma people, including the decision not to have a separate Roma engagement strategy but to integrate it within a wider approach to emerging communities within Oldham” [I]. This approach, also adopted by MCC, implemented the recommendations arising from the research analysis [2], which found that Roma preferred not to see issues pertaining to their culture discussed publicly as policy issues and sought instead to re-privatise them, meaning that the pathway to equal participation meant the avoidance of singling out Roma as having a pre-disposition to disengage with particular services. Following the project, OC created a dedicated position for a Roma outreach worker and set up permanent communication channels to support local schools with a high population of Roma, as well as collecting up-to-date data on the local Roma population (which had previously only been listed by ‘nationality’, i.e. by country of origin).

In Bradford, the project team contributed to a series of learning events involving Council officers and strategic directors from the NHS and police, with the aim of challenging stereotypes and putting forward principles for an engagement strategy drawing on the research team’s work in Manchester. Approximately 200 people attended these events in early 2016 [text removed for publication].

3. Informing European Roma-related policymaking

The project had direct access to policy discussions regarding Roma migrants through its partnership with the European Roma and Travellers Forum (ERTF), an umbrella organisation of Roma NGOs with consultative status at the CoE. The research findings on the perception of Roma family structures and the contribution of remittances to the economic development of sender communities informed a number of representations made by the ERTF to CoE member states. Matras contributed to discussions of CoE’s Ad Hoc Expert Committee on Roma (CAHROM) between 2014 and 2015 and published a series of blogs and articles on the CoE’s initiative to create a European Roma Institute (ERI) [A]. These contributions questioned the proposed remit of the ERI, which included the licensing of research and teaching on Roma, on the grounds that this would threaten academic freedom in Romani studies. Matras’s contributions helped to shape the remit of the ERI, as a decision was taken to separate cultural production from academic research [A]. Matras was a member of the Steering Group of the joint CoE and European Commission European Academic Network on Romani Studies (EANRS) between 2012 and 2016. EANRS was established to facilitate dialogue and cooperation between academic researchers and policymakers, with the overall aim of supporting efforts to promote the social inclusion of Romani citizens in Europe. In 2016, Matras contributed to an EANRS open letter that criticised CoE public communications around issues of vulnerability of members of the Roma community to trafficking and forced marriage [B.i]. [text removed for publication]

Growing language diversity among the population brings challenges, especially in urban environments. These challenges include ensuring equal access to services, supporting confidence in cultural heritage and ensuring justice where language is used as indicator for entitlement to legal protection. During the assessment period, the MLM unit worked in partnership with a range of stakeholders, including local government, public service providers and legal practitioners. The research has achieved impact in three key ways: (1) It has raised awareness and recognition of language diversity in Greater Manchester and at a UK level, leading to policy outcomes; (2) It has informed and facilitated training and curriculum enrichment for supplementary, primary and secondary schools; (3) It has achieved legal justice for asylum seekers [text removed for publication].

1. Local and national policy stakeholders: enhanced awareness and recognition of linguistic diversityManchester: increased awareness and municipal policy outcomes

Drawing on the research and collaborative work within the MLM unit [1-3], Matras engaged with Manchester City Council (MCC) to promote improved recognition of Manchester’s linguistic diversity. The process involved dialogue, reciprocal learning and the involvement of MCC officials in MLM’s public events and activities addressing issues relating to language diversity in the city region. Since August 2013, MCC and MLM have collaborated on more than a dozen public events. MLM has contributed to open consultations with MCC officials and provided input into MCC reports and scrutiny committee meetings. Public events included Levenshulme Language Day (2015, 2017), UNESCO International Mother Language Day (2017-2020) and the launch of the LinguaSnapp mobile app in 2016, all of which included statements from key MCC officials. Responding to a proposal from Matras, Manchester adopted Language Day as an annual city-wide celebration, to which MLM contributes as part of a joint planning committee. In August 2019, MCC successfully applied for a Carnegie and Wolfson Foundation ‘Engaging Libraries’ grant to launch a programme of public events on language diversity in collaboration with MLM, based on a programme that Matras drafted.

In September 2019, MCC released a policy report on language diversity, the first of its kind in any major city. The report acknowledged the contribution of MLM and its research on Manchester’s public narrative on language diversity (e.g. the now ubiquitous motto ‘City of 200 languages’), as well as the benefits the MLM unit had brought to public services and MCC. The report noted that MLM had hosted events which “positively and proactively promote Manchester’s reputation as a hub of good practice around language diversity” [A, paragraph 2.5] and stated that “[t]he extensive body of evidence and analysis afforded to Manchester’s public services by the [MLM] project team continues to add value and insight to their undertakings.” [A, paragraph 2.7] The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Team, M:4 Communication and Language Support Service and Libraries are among the MCC services noted as benefiting from ongoing work with MLM [A, paragraph 2.7]. The report set in motion a consultation process for a City Language Strategy that is ongoing but has been delayed by COVID-19.

UK: improved policy recognition and measurement of linguistic diversity

The research led to a direct change in the language categorisation for the 2021 Census. Policy engagement in relation to the Census drew on the research [2], which critiqued the accuracy of the 2011 Census data on language by showing that the question on ‘main language’ other than English was subject to diverse interpretations and that only one main language could be chosen, which meant that multilingual households were not captured. In 2018, Matras and three colleagues from other UK HEIs established a campaign for revision of the question on language for the 2021 Census [B.i]. Drawing on [2], they advocated removing the term ‘main language’, which had been found to be ambiguous, and allowing respondents to report more than one language [B.i]. The call was supported by Shadow Immigration Minister Afzal Khan MP and the British Academy [B.ii], among others. In May 2020, Baroness Coussins of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Languages cited Matras’s research when raising the census language question in the House of Lords [B.iii]. In response to the campaign, in April 2019 UK Statistics Authority officials invited Matras to re-draft the user guidance notes on the Census language question. The re-drafted guidance notes [B.iv] now advise users that when thinking about ‘main language’ they should think of the one other than English that is ‘most natural’, which could be ‘the language used at home’. In April 2020 the Office for National Statistics invited Matras to comment on a draft for a language categorisation index in preparation for Census 2021. The language categorisation index was revised in response to Matras’s comments [B.v]. Over 60 corrections proposed by Matras have been adopted into the new index.

In May 2019 Matras further contributed to national policy debate by organising an event at the Houses of Parliament at which he called for a comprehensive policy to recognise the UK as a multilingual society and ensure that provisions are in place to protect the languages of all citizens [B.vi]. The event was hosted by Afzal Khan MP and RH Lord Blunkett of Brightside and included further members of both Houses of Parliament, representatives of the British Academy, the National Resource Centre for Supplementary Education, and advisors to the Department for Education and the APPG on Languages.

2. Education: new curriculum enrichment provision and training for teachers

The research examined the contribution of community-run supplementary school education to heritage language maintenance and the cultivation of language skills among young people in the Manchester city region [1-3]. Several thousand pupils attend supplementary schools in Manchester. Supplementary schools are community-run, independent organisations that teach elements of language and culture to children, alongside their regular education. In 2017, Matras set up the Supplementary School Support Platform [C.i] as part of MLM to provide curriculum enrichment sessions and teacher training. Between 2017 and 2019, approximately 460 supplementary school pupils (primary and secondary age) took part in curriculum enrichment sessions delivered by UoM researchers in the language taught at the school [C.ii]. Approximately 120 supplementary school teachers from across Manchester took part in MLM training sessions between 2018 and 2019 [C.ii]. Feedback has been positive, with participants in a teacher training session in March 2018, for example, commenting that they had learned new strategies that they would implement and that they valued the unique opportunity to exchange experience with other supplementary school teachers [C.iii]. In March 2019, participating pupils commented that the enrichment sessions were their first opportunity to engage in topics such as science in their parental (heritage) language, and that this would encourage them both to continue to develop their language skills and to think about careers in science [C.iv].

Since August 2013, MLM has carried out research-based engagement activities with primary and secondary schools in Greater Manchester and other parts of the North West. This programme of engagement has raised awareness of language diversity among pupils and teachers. Activities have included the use of online digital tools generated through the research ( LinguaSnapp) and documentation of the presence of different languages in the city’s public spaces through photography, short interviews and artwork. In summer 2019, for example, MLM ran a series of activities on campus and in Rusholme, Manchester, with approximately 200 pupils from Burnage Academy. Participants used drawing, photography and collage to create new work exploring their experiences of multilingualism. In 2017, a project carried out by MLM in partnership with Community Rail Lancashire, Arriva and St Peter’s Primary School in Burnley encouraged pupils to express their feelings about the railway through art in languages significant to them. The artwork, which was permanently displayed in Burnley Central station at the end of the project, reflects the diversity and heritage of the area through the languages represented. The project activities were documented in the form of pupils’ worksheets, artwork, and video [D].

3. Legal sector: achieving justice for asylum seekers

The research [5, 6] has benefited legal teams and a charity working with asylum seekers whose claims involve language assessment (LADO) carried out by government contractors. The research showed that the method used by government contractors, coupled with the absence of reliable linguistic comparison data for key relevant locations (especially in Syria and Iraq), had led to serious flaws in the LADO procedure. Expert advice on this matter was given to over 20 law firms and charities in the North West of England as part of the outreach and engagement work carried out through the AHRC Dialects of Kurdish project [G2] between 2014 and 2018. Through continued networking and training events (e.g. Garden Court North Chambers, April 2017; Kenworthy’s Chambers, September 2019) [E], the research provided approximately 150 legal practitioners with knowledge of how to challenge Home Office asylum decisions that rely on language analyses.

As a direct result of this activity, at least 16 rejections of asylum applications were overturned by the courts on appeal after lawyers relied on expert reports provided by Matras, including 12 cases between 2015 and 2019 [F]. Matras provided expert opinion and analysis for the cases of seven clients supported by Manuel Bravo Project, a charity that provides legal advice and representation to asylum seekers [G]. A Senior Immigration Caseworker at the charity reports that “Professor Matras’ reports had a significant impact on some of these cases, which, on the basis of his assessment, have been strengthened enough to warrant a grant of legal aid, were then taken up on appeal to the courts, and where in some cases the court overturned the original Home Office decision”, noting that this contribution “has not only impacted upon our clients’ lives, but also assisted Manuel Bravo Project enormously in allowing us to obtain expert advice which we may not have usually been able to access” [G].

Drawing on the research [5, 6], in January 2019 Matras launched the forensic linguistic consultancy MLM-Analysis within The University of Manchester [H]. MLM-Analysis has since received contracts from over two dozen clients (legal firms and charities). Matras’s contributions were also cited in a 2019 Guardian investigation into the use of LADO in the UK’s asylum processes [I]. Following this media coverage, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) invited Matras to provide evidence on the use of language analysis in asylum cases. The evidence submitted in 2019 included [F]. The ICIBI report [J], published in November 2020, cites Matras’s evidence.