Communication and Creativity

Start date: 1 December 2023
End date: 30 November 2026
Funder: AHRC
Primary investigator: Professor Jane Plastow, School of English
Co-investigators: Dr Matthew Elliott, School of Performance and Cultural Industries
External co-investigators: Ms Lillian Mbabazi, Makerere University; Dr Kirrily Pells, UCL; Dr Simon Otieno, University of Nairobi

Value

£999,453

Partners and collaborators

University of Leeds, Makerere University, UCL, University of Nairobi

School of English building exterior

Description

Communication and Creativity: An Arts-Based Study Focusing on Marginalised East African Communities in Kenya, Uganda and the United Kingdom.

This project is concerned with communication and creativity, seeing the two as linked and essential to fully human development. It builds on seven years of work with marginalised communities in western Kenya and eastern Uganda where a communities recognised poor interpersonal communication as a problem and have asked for support in addressing it. In the UK we will be working with migrant communities of East Africans in Lincoln Green, Leeds, to understand how issues of communication and creativity apply when translated to a British context.

The project will work over three years in three locations: in the slum district of Walukuba/Masese in Jinja, Uganda, in six rural villages in Kisumu County in western Kenya, and in Lincoln Green in Leeds, one of the most deprived areas of the UK with the highest population of African descent in the city. It will work at three levels: among families, in schools and with community groups. The work will draw on arts-based methodology for both research and subsequent communication of findings within communities and to stakeholder and national arts communities, in relation to the schools and community programmes, building on expertise and positive impact created in preceding related projects.

Publications and outputs

Book (co-authored)

Journal Article (refereed)

Datasets

Website

Case Study Material