AHRC project award for 'Challenges to Biography: A Multidisciplinary Research Network'
In June Professor Ray Monk (Philosophy) and Dr Adrian Smith (History) were awarded £23,578 by the Arts and Humanities Research Council for a Research Networking Scheme, which will commence in January 2011.
The two-year project, 'Challenges to Biography: A Multidisciplinary Research Network', arises out of their experience working in this field: Ray is the acclaimed biographer of Russell and Wittgenstein, and is currently completing a life of the physicist Robert Oppenheimer; and Adrian has recently had published his second biography, Mountbatten Apprentice War Lord. The universities of Edinburgh and Nottingham are partners in the project, providing the location for symposiums in July and December 2011, prior to an international conference in Southampton the following year.
The first step in the project is to establish a website which, employing Web 2.0 technology, will facilitate an ongoing exchange of news and ongoing dialogue between academics, freelance writers, publishers, agents, and anyone else with a keen interest in biography and 'life writing'.
This has been a major area of academic interest over the past decade, and the new research network will undoubtedly enhance the study and practice of both biography and autobiography/memoir.