Principal and Co-Investigators
Emma Crewe (Principal Investigator)
Niraja Gopal Jayal (Co-Investigator)
Cristina Leston-Bandeira (Co-Investigator)
Mandy Sadan (Co-Investigator)
Ruth Fox (Co-Investigator)
Programme Manager
Richard Axelby (Programme Manager)
Partner Research Organisations
SOAS
Enlightened Myanmar Research Foundation, led by Myat Thet Thitsar
Forum for Social Studies, led by Meheret Ayenew
Funding Sources
AHRC
Project Period
Oct 2017 – Sept 2020
Global Research Network on Parliaments and People is based in SOAS University of London with network members from the University of Leeds and the Hansard Society in the UK, Jawaharlal Nehru University in India, the Enlightened Myanmar Research Foundation in Myanmar, and the Forum for Social Studies in Ethiopia. Encouraging collaboration between academia and the creative and cultural industries, the network enables researchers, artists and activists to discuss and imagine what democratic politics might look like in a more engaged and inclusive political world.
The Parliaments and People project proceeds from the belief that the arts and humanities have a vital role to play in strengthening democratic cultures. Multidisciplinary investigations that combine the social sciences, arts and humanities can reveal new perspectives and amplify the impacts of research findings in ways that are imaginative, creative and inclusive. Importantly, Professor Crewe explains, “in this project we are deliberately giving priority to those who don’t normally get grants; young women, those outside the capital, those who identify as an ethnic minority. We hope to contribute to three research agendas: creating opportunities for researchers who tend to get side-lined, deepening democracy through multidisciplinary arts and scholarship, and decolonizing international research.”