One of the most memorable scenes in the works of Charles Dickens has helped to inspire a new Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) project that uses the senses to bring research to life.

Researcher Claire Wood, from the University of York, decided that students would appreciate the power of the passage in Oliver Twist where Oliver asks for more food in the workhouse if they tasted the type of thin gruel he was seeking. So she made some.

It led to the exciting new Sensory Stories project that trains postgraduates to communicate their research with audiences in the wider community through appeals to the senses, such as taste, smell, vision and touch, and by making use of objects, public spaces, and performance.

The AHRC is funding Sensory Stories to develop the skills of research students in public engagement. This is one of the first awards to be made under a new AHRC Research training scheme aimed at encouraging post-graduates to share their research with non-academic audiences, and to engage with wider opportunities offered by public engagement. 

The funding bid was developed by Professor Jane Moody, Director of the University of York's Humanities Research Centre, with an interdisciplinary team of doctoral students, led by Claire Wood from the Department of English and Related Literature.

“I first became interested in communicating ideas through the body when teaching undergraduates,” says Claire Wood. “Sometimes they can find it difficult to get inside the social and historical world of the books we are studying. We are so familiar with the story of Oliver Twist asking for more food that we can easily forget its power and pain.”

“When I gave students the opportunity to taste authentic workhouse gruel, they immediately understood the pathos of the scene in a completely new way. It struck me that the body was a powerful interface for conveying research ideas to different audiences.”

Sensory Stories will be hosting a training day in January for 60 students from across the country. Specialists in media communication, theatre performance and the heritage sector will lead workshops that showcase dynamic, interactive techniques for presenting research stories to the public. Groups of students will then take their own sensory stories to a variety of local audiences, culminating in a research fête at the University next summer.

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Notes to editors:

Media Contact: Jake Gilmore, AHRC Communications Manager; T: 0797 099 4586,
E: j.gilmore@ahrc.ac.uk  

AHRC Collaborative Research Training Scheme - Public Engagement Training
The AHRC launched this Collaborative Research Training (CRT) scheme to address training needs in public engagement. This follows earlier decisions made by the AHRC to develop the CRT scheme in a more strategic direction in 2010 in order to address critical training issues in our community.  The AHRC identified a gap in the AHRC’s training strategy for postgraduates in terms of encouraging them to share their research with non-academic audiences, and to engage with wider opportunities offered by public engagement.  Researchers participating in Public Engagement activities may find they increase the relevance, impact, legitimacy, and reputation of their research.  In addition engagement can refresh the sense of value of research for researchers, provide an opportunity to learn from others, and develop skills relevant to their research and future career.

Arts and Humanities Research Council: Each year the AHRC provides approximately £112 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from languages and law, archaeology and English literature to design and creative and performing arts. In any one year, the AHRC makes approximately 700 research awards and around 1,300 postgraduate awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.