British Academy SHAPE Involve and Engage Grant

Earlier this year the team here at Loughborough University won a new grant from the British Academy: SHAPE Involve and Engage.

The aim of this fund is to:

“offer an exciting opportunity for humanities and social sciences researchers to push boundaries and seek imaginative new ways to engage with the public”.

Right up our street!

We are working with the world-renowned Royal Albert Hall (which is a source of great excitement for us!) on a project entitled ‘Strength and Combat at the Royal Albert Hall’.

Here is the abstract which describes our intentions:

The Royal Albert Hall opened in 1871 famously hosts iconic artists, political speeches, and the Proms. But also boasts a less well-known history in strength and combat sports, from bodybuilding’s first major contest in 1901, to the UK’s first sumo tournament and Nicola Adams’ WBO title defence. Confident that tracking and celebrating this under-researched story will shift our understanding of this most iconic of cultural buildings, this project works with the Hall’s newly rescued archive and reimagines this history through film, exhibition and contemporary performance.

We’ll be posting more updates here as the project comes together!