Research Question(s): How can Wordsworth's presentations of vagrancy inform our understanding of the criminalisation of homelessness today? - How did attitudes towards homelessness and vagrancy legislation change during the Georgian period? - How were these changes interpreted in Wordsworth's major literary works? - How can Wordsworth's presentations of vagrancy help us reflect on the language used to describe and legislate homelessness today? Context: The relationship between criminality and homelessness explored in William Wordsworth's Salisbury Plain poems provided the basis for my MA dissertation. My doctoral research will offer Wordsworth's writing on homelessness as a way of understanding the parallel between changes in moral and legislative attitudes towards vagrancy in the Georgian period, and the criminalisation of homelessness during the last decade, by focusing on the use of language. The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill 2022, for example, uses archaic descriptions such as 'rogues and vagabonds' which appeared in the Vagrancy Act of 1824, but have a decidedly different meaning in a contemporary context. The importance of recognising the circular nature of debates around criminality and homelessness provides the impetus for this study. Criticism of Wordsworth's poems during the late twentieth century included Jerome McGann's 'displacement' theory, which argued that they seek to 'occlude and disguise their own involvement in a certain nexus of historical relations.' (McGann, 1983). While this was useful in challenging the 'imagination-privileging' stance of Harold Bloom and Geoffrey Hartman (Bate, 1991), its focus on Wordsworth's shifting political perspective often results in a blind spot when assessing the poet's real potential to engage with moral and social issues. There remains a very limited base of scholarship which focuses on Wordsworth's engagement with the itinerant poor, and to my knowledge, none which aims to link this to modern perceptions of homelessness. Methodology: Historical and contemporary research- on the moral and social context and legislative changes around vagrancy in the late eighteenth century. This will include mapping the difference between what it meant to be homeless then and what it means today. Critical discourse analysis- of existing literary criticism on Romanticism, with a focus on those which explore the work in relation to homelessness and transience. Textual analysis- of Wordsworth's writing on the itinerant poor, with a focus on the language used in order to ensure an appropriate selection of texts for analysis. Impact: The research contributes to existing scholarship by enhancing understanding of Wordsworth's writing on homelessness from a historical and cultural perspective. Beyond the academic sphere, it seeks to stimulate public debate and challenge perceptions of homelessness by highlighting how language can be used, particularly through legislation, to reinforce negative stereotypes of those experiencing homelessness. Approaching these issues through the lens of poetry is useful because it helps us focus on individual experience rather than the sweeping generalisation of legislation. In addition to a traditional thesis, my research output will also be disseminated through an audio drama/podcast which explores the key themes to enable me to reach a wider audience.

Flatpack's Wonderland project has showcased Birmingham's powerful relationship to cinema and the importance of the medium to a diversity of people throughout the West Midlands. Citizens of Birmingham clearly had, and still have, a love of cinema that warrants documenting, researching and celebrating. Representation, identity and community can be interlinked through cinema, creating spaces of significance for marginalised populations to converge and celebrate a common cultural experience and shared identity. Local cinema specifically, offers opportunities of thematic specialisation and allows investment into community via diverse programming and alternative content that can provide education and creation of new audiences (Heredero Diaz et al. 2018). Rajinder Dudrah's research into Vilayati Bollywood's exhibition in Birmingham specifically proves the importance of cinema in relation to South Asian communities. Dudrah claims that "Bollywood cinema-going in Birmingham...embodies notions of diasporic belonging and a remaking of post-war urban British landscapes that sustain and develop Black British public spheres" (Dudrah, 2002). I will extend the Wonderland project through an exploration of queer cinema in Birmingham's post-war landscape as an aspect of cinema-going and exhibition history. The interrelation of place and queer cinema has been under researched and I believe there is justification for an exploration into the exhibition of queer cinema within Birmingham and the impact that this may have had on queer communities, especially those in specific areas of the City. Through this research I would hope to contribute a greater understanding of the ways in which exhibition of queer cinema may have impacted and held importance to the building of queer communities and queer identity both historically and in a more contemporary context, additionally this will inform future development plans for queer cinema. One of the aims of Wonderland is to explore the stories associated with cinema and how the medium has helped to shape the lives of the people of Birmingham. Birmingham is a city which is generally proud of its industrial heritage, strong connections to the Labour movement and its diverse cultural blend (Holt; Griffin, 2003). I believe this research will yield unique research related to these characteristics of Birmingham's heritage and culture with specific neighbourhoods having their own unique struggles and history additionally. The project will adopt a mixed methodological approach. I will interview members of Birmingham's queer community about their experiences of cinema and how this impacted their lives as queer Birmingham residents. A range of archives, including formal local and national in addition to personal archives, would be used as well. I would draw on ethnographic methods, including walking tours of places such as the 'gay village' in Birmingham, to gain a physical understanding of the place. Queer theory and cultural theory will be crucial to the methodological framing of this project. Prominent theorists in these fields of study such as Judith Butler and their studies into the theory of queer performance and Richard Dyer and Stuart Hall for studies into the representation and post-war community formations will offer significant contributions in terms of understanding the theoretical purpose of this research.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

This practice-based research project will use a collage-based approach in music composition to explore the history of past women composers and how this continues to frame living women composers and their work. The research builds on initiatives that promote classical repertoire written by women composers - International Alliance of Women in Music, BBC Forgotten Female Composers Scheme, the Donne Big List - whilst also acknowledging the disparity women composers continue to experience. This is seen in Donne's Global Repertoire Report (2021-2022) which found that only 7.7% of the repertoire surveyed was written by women composers. Existing feminist creative practice demonstrates how intertextuality can allow contradictions to be explored and new connections to form between texts from different time periods (Hidden Lives, Lane, 1999 and Mordacious Lips, To Dust, Palme, 2015). Furthermore, feminist musicology encourages further questioning of the imagery surrounding the "woman composer" and the ongoing consequences this has for contemporary music-making (Wollenberg, 2020 and Macarthur, 2010). Within my own creative practice, I have engaged with past women composers in order to reclaim role models whose contributions have been under-acknowledged. "Clara", a choral work exploring pianist-composer Clara Schumann's own internal conflicts around her compositional capabilities, also uses intertextuality by creating a patchwork libretto from Clara's diaries, correspondence and work dedications. As such, my project will explore: 1. How can a contemporary music composition practice engage with the history of past women composers? 2. What form of collage-based music theatre compositional aesthetic can be developed, from existing and new technical frameworks, to bring into dialogue the lives and narratives of women composers past and present? The project will culminate in a music theatre work for voice, chamber ensemble and electronics, applying the principle of collage to primary source text and recordings of music written by past women composers. Specific attention will be given to composers Fanny Hensel (1805 - 1847) and Marie Jaëll (1846 - 1925) who offer first-hand accounts of their ambitions and insecurities regarding composition. Contemporary responses to past women composers from the media will be used such as the negative assessment given by Thompson ("There's a good reason why there are no great female composers", The Spectator, 2015). The use of collage will act as a way of finding new meanings within historical documents (Phillips, A Humument, 2016) and will convey the fragmented retelling of women composers' contributions to the history of classical music. The approach will be evident in a patchwork libretto - created from relevant primary texts - and a sonic collage of recordings of music written by past women composers. The sonic collage will be created through applying a series of electroacoustic composition techniques to the recordings, such as using granular synthesis to create small grains or fragments of the original recordings. Consequently, the project will use a creative practice grounded in collage and music theatre to reframe the experiences and work of the selected women composers whilst also offering a space to reconsider how contemporary classical music relates to the history of women composers.