Impact case study database

Background

In 2009 the Lincoln Castle Revealed Project (LCR) was first established to renovate the Norman Castle and Victorian Prison within, turning both into a high-class visitor and educational attraction. Lincolnshire City Council established an advisory panel consisting of three specialist academic advisors with the aim of winning Heritage Lottery Funding for the project. As a result of her expertise in prison history, Professor Brown was one of the three academics invited into the project. Other members included the Canon of Lincoln Cathedral, and Head of Buildings Archaeology at Oxford Archaeology. The advisory panel was central to the project, which obtained the first round of Heritage Lottery Funding awarded in March 2012. During 2013 and 2014 Professor Brown provided expert advice and support to the project focussing on the prison and exhibition content. The project and tourist attraction launched in April 2015 following GBP22,000,000 of investment made possible through the academic expertise and support provided. In a similar fashion, Brown’s research has also been used to expand wider public knowledge and understanding of prison and criminal history, including work to develop an exhibition on the Dartmoor riot of 1932 at the Dartmoor Prison Museum. A presentation to the Home Office linked the response to some of the rioters to contemporary fears about the motor car as a criminal tool.

Provision of academic expertise to secure Heritage Lottery Funds

Due to her research expertise on the historical prison and criminal justice contexts, Professor Brown was invited in 2009 to join the Advisory Panel of the Lincoln Castle Revealed Project alongside Professor Christine Carpenter (Cambridge University) and Dr Judith Rowbotham (Nottingham Trent University). Brown’s expertise was sought initially regarding enhancement of exhibitions on criminal justice in the women’s prison, already open to the public. However, when in 2010 the Ministry of Justice announced the Georgian Crown Court on the site was not going to be vacated for the project, a major and expeditious restructure was necessary; this shifted the focus of the interpretation from justice to punishment and the Victorian men’s prison on the site as a new heritage attraction. Brown’s expertise on the prison and advice on the feasibility of the shift, in terms of the historical potential of the site, enabled this major change to be achieved successfully and GBP12,000,000 to be obtained from the HLF to bring it to fruition. As has been observed by the Tourism Development Manager of Lincolnshire County Council who had primary responsibility for the project, at that point, ‘The whole £20 million project could have collapsed…but the speed with which you and the Advisory Panel were able to help us develop different themes was critical to getting the project back on track’ [A]. The securing of this funding in 2012 was critical to the overall ability to launch the LCR in 2015 and in securing its status as a high-level historical visitor attraction.

Provision of technical and expert support in project development

As the project developed, Brown supported and advised the freelance researchers and consultants engaged on the project and had a major role in the ultimate exhibition content by embedding the interpretation in authentic local historical evidence and steering the researchers away from stereotypical and sensationalist narratives, hence relating punishment in Lincoln to local contexts while highlighting its place in national narratives of interest to both local and tourist visitors. As one of the researchers stated: ‘Without your advice, we would have run the risk of telling a very different story which would have been full of myths and stereotypes about Victorian prisons. You were able to steer the interpretation away from these pitfalls. This meant that the stories that we told in the exhibition films, interpretation panels and other aspects of the site, including the pieces of theatre which were developed, were authentic and historically accurate’ [B]. The Tourism Development Manager [A], also confirmed that Brown advised on the case studies, exhibition text and film scripts, giving valuable insight on the varied local responses to the drive to take up what was called the separate system of prison discipline during the Victorian era. This was important as it highlighted the distinctiveness of the site in the face of the very strong narrative of national progress and implementation of the separate system and enhanced the way in which local and regional visitors could relate to the exhibitions.

Supporting the launch and ongoing vitality of the LCR project

The LCR project was opened in April 2015 and received 6000 visitors during the first two days and between 1 April and 16 July 2015 brought in revenue of GBP1,200,000. The project built a successful marketing strategy, which promoted not only the Castle site but also Lincoln and Lincolnshire nationally and internationally. It established the Castle site as a world-class tourist destination and has helped to make Lincoln financially sustainable. It brought together a range of major organisations to plan, fund and deliver this hugely significant heritage development, including the Historic Lincoln Partnership (the Cathedral, City and County Councils, English Heritage, Lincoln BIG and the University of Lincoln), the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Historic Lincoln Trust, Chaired by Lord Cormack, and Visit Lincoln. ‘ Brown in her capacity on the Advisory Panel worked with the LRC and the Historic Lincoln Trust to highlight historical narratives likely to be of greatest public interest to support promotional strategising.’ [A] The LCR attracted world-wide interest via extensive media coverage and social media. The project won numerous awards, including runner-up in the National Lottery Awards Heritage Category 2015 and winner of the British Guild of Travel Writers Outstanding UK Tourism project award 2015.

Since its opening in 2015 the Castle site has played a key role in driving an increase in tourism to the city of Lincoln, with visitor numbers and spend rising year on year. In 2018 GBP216,000,000 was generated for the local economy, a rise of 6% compared to 2017, following a similar rise the previous year. Whilst data does not break down the increase by attraction, it is fair to say the castle and its reinvigoration have played a key role in driving the increase of visitors to the region. [K]

Informing the development of other prison exhibits

More recently, Brown’s research on the major prison riot in Dartmoor Prison in 1932 [3] has been used to underpin an exhibition on the riot at the Dartmoor Prison Museum. Brown was approached by the curator of the museum to collaborate on this. Her poster-based exhibition (four A1 sized posters) was integrated into an exhibition of related artefacts. This was timed to coincide with the reopening of the museum following renovation in 2017. Since then, the museum receives upwards of 35,000 visitors a year. Brown was instrumental in constructing an enhanced exhibition dedicated to the Dartmoor Prison Riot of 1932 at the Dartmoor Prison Museum based wholly on her research . The curator of the museum stated that due to Brown’s material, visitors ‘have gone away with a better understanding and therefore a more memorable visit to our museum’ [C] and that the exhibition gave insight into the personal experiences of historically significant individuals.

Informing the public on important aspects of prison history

More generally, Brown’s research has improved public understanding of the prison and its relationship with crime and political contexts. Listeners to Radio 4 have heard about her work through three programmes, Rethinking Clink: History of Prison Reform (22 August 2016), Women’s Hour (4 August 2015) and Making History (5 June 2018), as well as Radio 3’s, The Egg Dealer (Sept 2019). A feature (and online podcast) in the BBC History magazine, the biggest selling popular history magazine in Britain, ‘Out & About: 19^th-century prison reform’ was published November 2013 and re-published in a crime & punishment special edition in November 2018, which included two further articles by Brown, including a timeline of ‘Justice through the ages’, since used on the History PGCE at Edge Hill University. Brown was also one of two academics discussing historical perspectives on current problems in British prisons in a further edition of *History (*November 2018). Because of her later work on Dartmoor convicts, she was invited through the History & Policy Network to give a session at the Home Office in 2017 and a blog in 2020. These publications and appearances in the media enabled her to reach a considerable public and professional audience, widening the understanding of prison history, riots and the part these play in our modern consciousness.

Background and Context

Renton’s impact activity enhanced international public understanding and policy debate on antisemitism and Islamophobia. This was achieved by promoting new paradigms, argumentation and evidence on the history of the two racisms, especially their relationship, and their influence on historical and contemporary political thought in Europe and global politics. He drew upon collaborations that he developed in international media before 2014 and built new collaborations based on this international reputation and activity in areas that tied directly to the international news cycle. During the census period for REF2021, he experienced a significant increase in direct approaches from media professionals. In addition, Renton established new collaborations to enable him to participate in policy debates in the UK and the European Union, greatly aided by his Jean Monnet and Visiting fellowships at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute, which specialises in bridging academic research and policy. The beneficiaries of the impact consisted of media producers and editors, in radio, television, and online press, who commissioned and were advised by Renton; UK and EU policymakers, including a Shadow Home Secretary and the EU’s first Coordinator on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life; organisers of public policy debates; and those who consumed and whose understanding were affected by these collaborations.

Enhancing public understanding of antisemitism and islamophobia

The major focus of Renton’s public engagement via media was the centenary of the Balfour Declaration on 2 November 2017 ( Ref 3). An Executive Producer with whom he had collaborated previously at Al Jazeera invited Renton to contribute to a documentary and flew especially to Florence to interview him. The Executive Producer had several discussions and “corresponded extensively” with Renton in the research for the film, which was entitled ‘Balfour Declaration at 100: Seeds of Discord’, and broadcast on all Al Jazeera channels on 31 October 2017. According to the Executive Producer, Renton ‘was integral to the research for the film, the writing of the script, and its production, especially his scholarship on the ideas that led to the Balfour Declaration and their consequences in Palestine.’ ‘Without his contribution’, they continue, ‘the documentary would not have been able to address the ways in which racism (antisemitism and Orientalism) affected the story that we documented.’ The programme was viewed by approximately 750,000 on Al Jazeera YouTube channels alone, which the executive producer states “is more successful than the average for our films”. Via television broadcasts, Al Jazeera reaches more than 270 million homes in 140 countries. Feedback received at Al Jazeera, included the audience comment that ‘The film helps to understand the history without propaganda.’ ( Source 3)

Renton also featured in a high-profile documentary produced by BBC Radio 4, ‘Balfour’s Promised Land’, which was broadcast on 5 December 2017. He advised the producer at BBC Worldwide on the subject, including a substantial telephone discussion, email correspondence, and a lengthy walking interview in London. The producer writes that Renton’s ‘original research on British understandings of Zionism and Arab nationalism helped us to address that important dimension that otherwise would not have been addressed, along with the way in which those conceptions contributed to the start of the conflict in Palestine.’ ( Source 2)

Based on his research reputation in this area, Renton’s research on the Balfour Declaration was profiled for an article in Germany’s leading Jewish newspaper, Jüdische Allgemeine, on 10 August 2017. This article was read by a producer at the German-language Swiss public radio broadcaster, Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen, who interviewed Renton as a result for a news item on the Balfour centenary. The author of the original profile piece published another article with Renton— an interview for the German daily newspaper, taz. die tageszeitung, on the day of the centenary.

Other follow-on impact activity stemmed from the BBC Radio 4 documentary. The Opinion Editor at the high-profile Israeli newspaper, Ha’aretz.com, saw that he was going to appear in the programme, and invited him to write an article. That piece, which was focused on the role of racial ideas about Jews and Palestinian Arabs, generated a significant amount of interest, with a response op-ed by another writer. The Ha’aretz.com Editor remarked that the article did ‘very well traffic wise’ and ‘pushed a lot of interaction on social media, as well as triggering Victor Kattan’s response op-ed, which I always think is a great sign that a piece is provocative and substantial.’ In all of Renton’s activity to mark the Balfour centenary, he focused on the insights published in Ref 3. Renton built further on the relationship with Ha’aretz to publish a piece on the relationship between antisemitism and Islamophobia, focused on the European far right and Donald Trump’s re-tweeting of ‘Britain First’ videos in December 2017. The two articles attracted between 17 and 21,000 international readers. ( Source 8)

Reflecting the rise in Renton’s public stature as a result of his media activity on his research on antisemitism and Islamophobia ( Ref 1 & 2), he was then invited to contribute to an article on the increase of antisemitism in Europe for The Sydney Morning Herald (September 2018), alongside, among others, the EU Commission’s Coordinator on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life. This activity followed other journalism by Renton, focused on his research into Islamophobia and surveillance. ( Ref 4) He penned articles for openDemocracy (September 2015), for which he began writing in 2010, and also Middle East Monitor, to which he was invited to be the writer of the month in March 2016 by a researcher with whom he previously collaborated at the London-based NGO, the Palestinian Return Centre (see REF2014).

On antisemitism, the BBC Worldwide producer with whom he worked on the Balfour documentary approached Renton, as ‘a result’ of the ‘positive experience of working with’ him, to support the planning of a major new series. ‘James was the perfect sounding board in the planning of the series’, he writes. ‘We had a number of preliminary discussions, including a face-to-face meeting in London, that helped me to clarify a number of questions, along with a briefing note that he wrote for me on the history of the Jewish conspiracy myth.’ Renton’s research, the producer explains, ‘on the ideas at the heart of history of antisemitism over the centuries in Europe, and its relationship with other racisms, provided dimensions that would otherwise have been absent from the series.’ The producer continues that the ‘outcome… was the inclusion of a range of critical issues in the scope of the series based on James’ research, which will enable us to attend to the particularities of antisemitism, but also its connections with other racisms.’ ( Ref 1 and 2)

Informing international policy debates on racism

In addition to this media work, Renton’s impact activity since 2014 has focused on interventions in policy debates on antisemitism and Islamophobia. His growing reputation in the field led to citations of his scholarship in policy reports: the Runnymede Trust’s, Islamophobia: Still a Challenge for Us All in 2017 ( Ref 1 & 4), and the Trades Union Congress’ Racism Ruins Lives, which recommended his Ha’aretz piece on the Balfour Declaration ( Sources 9 & 10). Rather than focus on such reports, however, Renton aimed to maximise his policy impact by developing a pro-active strategy of identifying and engaging with targeted policymakers and environments.

This policy work began with a one-to-one research briefing for the then Shadow Home Secretary in December 2015, concerning Islamophobia and surveillance ( Ref 4). Specifically, the briefing dealt with the ideas behind, and problems with, the UK government’s proposed Investigatory Powers Bill and Extremism Bill, based on the findings of Renton’s research in this area. The Shadow Home Secretary wrote that the meeting ‘was extremely valuable and helped shape my thinking’. In particular, it was ‘helpful in placing issues in a global context’. Buoyed by the success of briefing such a senior politician, Renton aimed to impact more directly on the policy process by securing a position in an institution at the heart of European policymaking. He successfully attained this goal by winning an extremely competitive Jean Monnet Fellowship (2016-2017) at the European University Institute’s Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS), which is focused on bridging academic research and policy practice. Every year, the RSCAS hosts a fellow from the European Commission, as well as a range of other figures from policy communities in and beyond Europe.

Renton developed a range of lasting relationships at the RSCAS, which led to significant impacts following his appointment by the Director as a Visiting Fellow (2017-). In 2017/2018, the EU Commission’s senior policymaker on antisemitism, the Coordinator for Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life, was a Fellow at the RSCAS. Following discussions with Renton on his antisemitism research and a public debate about antisemitism and Islamophobia, the Coordinator invited him to be part of an EU antisemitism policy workshop in 2018.

Through this policy forum, Renton succeeded in using his research on antisemitism and Islamophobia ( Refs 1 & 2) to influence the development of the EU’s new policy platform for combating antisemitism from the end of 2018. The Coordinator writes that ‘Renton’s arguments [at the workshop] about public education on the history of conspiratorial antisemitism and the relationship with other racisms contributed to my thinking on these issues.’ And, they continue, ‘[i]n turn, the landmark EU Council declaration on antisemitism in December 2018 … was influenced by my conviction that Member States should be invited to adopt a “holistic strategy to prevent and fight … antisemitism as part of their strategies on preventing racism, xenophobia … and point 11’s call to introduce training about all forms of intolerance, racism, and hate crime…’ Along with the Council’s 2020 declaration on mainstreaming the fight against antisemitism, the official principles set out in the 2018 declaration continue to be ‘the basis’, the Coordinator explains, ‘for the Commission’s work on antisemitism, and its collaboration with all Member States in this field, with a panoply of national initiatives and educational programmes.’

Establishing and launching MONITOR online magazine

Combined with this engagement with individual policymakers, Renton’s impact work at the RSCAS has concentrated on his role as the Academic Advisor for the first online magazine dedicated to bringing academic expertise on racism to global public debate with partners in civil society and policy communities: MONITOR Global Intelligence on Racism. Together with the Editor, Renton secured 14,400 euros from the RSCAS Director to launch the magazine in 2017/2018, which was renewed in 2018/2019, 2019/2020 and 2020/2021. The Director writes, “There is nothing quite like the Monitor available”, and as “the central scientific advisor to the project… He [Renton] brings his vast knowledge of the history of racism … to the project [which] guarantees consistent quality.”

By the end of 2020, MONITOR had published 38 articles, 19 podcasts (on Soundcloud, Spotify, and Apple Music, among others), and 36 videos. ( Source 11) The pre-launch event for the magazine took place at the UK Houses of Parliament in January 2018, featuring a presentation of the findings from Renton’s scholarship. ( Ref 1 & 2) In less than two years, from being a start-up with no networks or audience, the magazine attracted 105,000 page views from 80,939 readers, along with almost 20,000 additional engagements with additional media in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. ( Source 12) Moreover, the magazine has, according to a member of its international Editorial Board, ‘made a significant impact on public discussions about race and racism among key stakeholder communities internationally: civil society organisations, policymakers, and engaged citizens.’ ( Source 7)

In September- December 2018, Renton was resident at MONITOR, funded by a £10,000 grant from Edge Hill’s Impact and Knowledge Exchange Fund, with which he supported the expansion of the magazine’s global network of contributors, the work of the Editor, recorded podcast interviews, and developed planning for events to bring research insights to civil society organisations, policy communities and the public in 2019/2020. Events included a (pre-Covid-19) research briefing webinar and conference on social media and antisemitism in November 2019, funded by the European Association for Jewish Studies, attended by researchers from the UK’s Community Security Trust, and a three-day conference on race in history in November 2020 that was broadcast via the MONITOR YouTube channel. ( Source 11) In February 2020, Renton also co-authored with the Editor a policy-paper based on the social media and antisemitism event. In 2020, Renton supported the Editor’s production of the MONITOR video series on race and Covid-19, ‘The Cuomo Files’, and Black Lives Matter. ( Source 11) Using his growing media networks based on his various research impacts, detailed above, Renton promoted the magazine project through a range of media interventions, including an article in Ha’aretz, an interview with the UK ‘Voice of Islam’ radio station, and an article for The Big Issue North.

The Editor-at-Large for ARD German television states that MONITOR ‘is affecting public understanding around the globe in new and stimulating ways as to how these racisms connect with each other, and, importantly, how civil society and governments can fight against them.’ Renton’s contribution ‘based on his research into antisemitism and Islamophobia has an ongoing impact on this significant global project.’ ( Source 6) A member of MONITOR’s Editorial Board explains, ‘His scholarship in this area, especially the relational analytical framework that he has developed [ Ref 1 & 2], informs his collaborations with, and support for, the Editor.’ ( Source 7) The EC Coordinator for Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish life writes further that ‘an important outcome of Renton’s research [on antisemitism and other racisms over the longue durée- Ref 1 & 2] lies in his key role as academic advisor at MONITOR…, which has addressed these themes in in a range of multimedia publications for the public. These publications have brought the fruits of previously unknown research insights on the history of antisemitism to thousands …. extending public understanding of antisemitism’s history, and its relationship with other racisms.’ ( Source 5)