• The Gülen Movement in London and the politics of public engagement: producing 'Good Islam' before and after 15 July

  Tee, Caroline; University of Chester; University of Cambridge (Taylor & Francis, 2018-03-22)

  Since the failed coup of 15 July 2016, for which it is held responsible, the Gülen Movement (GM) has been in crisis. With no foreseeable future in its homeland, the GM is now tasked with regrouping abroad. This article investigates the GM in London, a city that, for various reasons, is likely to become a significant centre for Gülenist activity in the post-coup era. Taking the Dialogue Society (DS) as its focus, it investigates the prospects of the GM’s survival by analyzing its activities, both before and after the coup, in light of Mamdani’s discussion of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Muslims in the post9/11 world. The article shows how the GM has established itself as a voice of ‘good’ Islam in the context of British debates on Islam and radicalization. It suggests that the public presence the GM has established for itself through its public engagement activities in the UK could constitute a central part of its fight back against resident Erdoğan, and be catalytic to its creation of a dynamic future in exile.
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  English regional dialect lexis in the names and occupations of the Gloucestershire Cotswolds: a reassessment of the relationship between names and dialects

  Parkin, Harry; University of the West of England (De Gruyter, 2015-11-01)

  A number of surname-based studies have presented a relationship between medieval regional dialect lexis and the distribution of associated modern-day surnames. However, by carrying out localised research, it appears that the two might not be so closely linked as previously thought, with discrepancies in the distribution of regionally specific names and equivalent occupational descriptions. As a result, there seems to be a need to reconsider the connection between regional lexicons and corresponding name stocks, which may have been less closely related, at a period of non-hereditary by-naming, than current knowledge suggests.
• Software tools for big data resources in family names dictionaries

  Rambousek, Adam; Parkin, Harry; Horak, Ales; Masaryk University; University of the West of England (Maney Publishing, 2018-04-09)

  This paper describes the design and development of specific software tools used during the creation of Family Names in Britain and Ireland (FaNBI) research project, started by the University of the West of England in 2010 and finished successfully in 2016. First, the overview of the project and methodology is provided. Next section contains the description of dictionary management tools and software tools to combine input data resources.
• By any other name? The impacts of differing assumptions, expectations and misconceptions in bringing about resistance to student-staff ‘partnership’

  Healey, Ruth; Lerczak, Alex; Welsh, Katharine; France, Derek; University of Chester (McMaster University, 2019)

  Most of the existing literature on student-staff partnership explores the experiences of people who are keen to be involved and who have already bought into the ethos of students as partners. We explore the challenges of conducting student-staff partnership in the context of resistance. Specifically, we focus on the interpretations of ‘partnership’ by students and staff who were attempting to work in partnership for the first time. The views of the participants were captured during a six-month project in which four undergraduate students were employed to work with eight academics to re-design the second-year undergraduate curriculum on one programme. Notwithstanding an introductory briefing and on-going support, some participants showed indications of resistance. Our findings suggest that different perspectives on ‘partnership’ influenced participants’ experiences. We argue that assumptions and misconceptions around the terminology used to describe ‘students as partners’ practice may hinder the process itself, as some people may not ‘buy-in’ to the practice. However, despite the challenges of this project, the experience of being involved has led to reduced resistance and emerging partnership practices throughout the department.
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  Landscapes of Internment: British Prisoner of War Camps and the Memory of the First World War

  Grady, Tim; University of Chester (Cambridge University Press, 2019)

  During the First World War, all the belligerent powers interned both civilian and military prisoners. In Britain alone, over 100,000 people were held behind barbed wire. Despite the scale of this enterprise, interment barely features in Britain's First World War memory culture. By exploring the place of prisoner of war camps within the "militarized environment" of the home front, this article demonstrates the centrality of internment to local wartime experiences. Being forced to share the same environment meant that both British civilians and German prisoners clashed over access to resources, roads and the surrounding landscape. As the article contends, it was only when the British started to employ the prisoners on environmental improvement measures, such as land drainage or river clearance projects, that relations gradually improved. With the end of the war and closure of the camps, however, these deep entanglements were quickly forgotten. Instead of commemorating the complexities of the conflict, Britain's memory culture focused on more comfortable narratives; British military "sacrifice" on the Western Front quickly replaced any discussion of the internment of the "enemy" at home.

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