Nine projects awarded by UCL's Grand Challenges of Cultural Understanding

UCL's Grand Challenges have recently awarded nine interdisciplinary projects, totalling almost £40k, that address the theme of Cultural Understanding. The projects represented nine out of the eleven faculties, as well as Professional Services offices.

Cultural understanding involves navigating the complex differences between diverse perspectives. Most major societal issues of our time are inextricably linked to perceptions of cultural difference and of power relations between groups and cannot be properly understood without specific attention to these questions.

Speaking on the successful grants, Professor Audrey Prost and Professor Douglas Bourn (Co-Chairs of UCL's Grand Challenge of Cultural Understanding Working Group) commented: 

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"As the final Small Grants call for UCL's Grand Challenge of Cultural Understanding, we were amazed by the number of high-quality, collaborative proposals received. We invited applications addressing any aspect of Cultural Understanding's aims, with a particular focus on engaging UCL faculties that have had limited resources for, or prior involvement with this theme. It is inspiring to see so many of these faculties represented, navigating the complex differences between diverse perspectives and the evolving relationships among people, communities and cultures.

 

 

The funded projects will tackle pressing and topical issues - from indigenous-led cultural mapping and decolonising research practices to intercultural learning, maternity equity and Afro-Diasporic theatre. These initiatives bring fresh ideas and insights across UCL, and we look forward to seeing theme develop over the coming year and the impacts they will deliver"

Summary details of the projects awarded are below:

Intercultural Nutrition Education through Community Kitchens

£4,050

Professor Nephtali Marina-Gonzalez, Division of Medicine, Faculty of Medical Sciences
Sarah Beech, Pro-Provost (London) Office

Francophone and Anglophone Afro-Diasporic Theatre

£5,000

Dr Macs Smith, SELCS-CMII, Faculty of Arts & Humanities
Dr Hélène Neveu Kringelbach, Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Social & Historical Sciences

Bridging the Gap: Co-producing a Workshop to Support UCL Staff Returning to Work after Maternity Leave

£2,251.30

Dr Priya Rajyaguru, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Brain Sciences
Professor Charlotte Faircloth, Social Research Institute, Institute of Education

Mapped Intellectual Heritage Asset (MIHA) as a fundamental framework to decolonise practice and promote equitable participation in research

£4,908.01

Dr Francois Sicard, Arts & Sciences, Faculty of Arts & Humanities
Dr Duncan Hay, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, The Bartlett 

“My Data Story”: Understanding how missing data in maternity records reflects lived experience of exclusion and inequality

£5,000

Dr Louise Mc Grath-Lone, Social Research Institute, Institute of Education
Dr Talia Hubble, EGA Institute for Women's Health, Faculty of Population Health Sciences

"The Stories in our Stars"

£2,480

Dr Mark Fuller, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Faculty of Mathematical & Physical Sciences
Damian Sabatini, Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Social & Historical Sciences

Centring the Peripheries - Co-Designing Climate Learning with Marginalised Students

£5,000

Dr Vivek Ramachandran, Centre for Engineering Education, Faculty of Engineering 
Dr Aditi Kothiyal, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar

Indigenous-led cultural mapping for rematriation: from Baka communities around the Dja World Heritage Site, Cameroon, to the world

£4,941.71

Dr Andrew Reid, Institute of Archaeology, Faculty of Social & Historical Sciences
Professor Muki Haklay, Department of Geography, Faculty of Social & Historical Sciences
Hannah M. B. Gibbs, Extreme Citizen Science, Faculty of Social & Historical Sciences

Bridging Cultures Through Collaboration: A Framework for Intercultural Competency in Group Learning at UCL

£4,900

Dr Manjula Patrick, Arena, Vice-Provost (Education & Student Experience) Office
Professor Nephtali Marina-Gonzalez, Division of Medicine, Faculty of Medical Sciences