Funding Success: £480k secured from the ESRC to explore Indigenous contemporary art practice as a method to understand ecological challenges
Climate change represents an unprecedented global challenge, with its adverse impacts felt in various regions and sectors across the globe. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report further articulates that although vulnerable communities historically contributed the least to the global climate change, they are inordinately the most affected. While several related climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies have been put into practice, systemic barriers pushed vulnerable sectors to maladapt and subsequently hinder their successful implementation.
Dr Nicole Vitellone, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Social Policy, and Criminology, has been awarded £480k funding from the Economic and Social Research Council as part of the International Joint Initiative for Research on Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation and 2023 Exploration competition. This project, entitled ‘Relational Accountability of Mother Earth: Revitalising and Restoring the Land and Water’, will focus on developing climate mitigation strategies for water and food security risks for indigenous communities.
University of Liverpool represents the UK in the Can$5.12m (£2.93m) project supported by the national funders of New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) Canada, National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF), Swiss National Science Foundation (NSF), and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), joining a consortium of international partners based in Canada, South Africa, Switzerland, and a non-consortium partner, based in Mexico.
University of Liverpool will lead on the ‘Rethinking Water’ theme, analysing the power of art in enacting change. This theme enquires into the value of Indigenous contemporary art practice as a tool for intellectual inquiry on water and a means for understanding contemporary ecological challenges. The urgent need for interdisciplinary thinking provides an opportunity for collaboration with contemporary Indigenous artists, curators, and cultural institutions to critically rethink water as a concept in institutional settings, and how it is deployed and investigated in the production of knowledge.
Speaking of the funding award, Dr Nicole Vitellone, AF Warr Senior Lecturer in Sociology, shared:
“I am thrilled to be a part of this interdisciplinary, international joint initiative for high risk and high reward research working alongside international colleagues across the Arts, Sciences, Humanities, and Social Sciences.”
Professor Valsamis Mitsilegas, Dean of the School of Law and Social Justice, said:
“I would like to congratulate Dr Vitellone on this outstanding achievement, which is a testament to the rigour of sociological research within the School of Law and Social Justice, and its reach across the disciplines.”
University of Alberta is the leading institution on the project, with Dr Paulina Johnson as Principal Investigator. Co-Investigators are Dr Nicole Vitellone, University of Liverpool; Dr Rubina Setlhare, University of the Western Cape; Dr Natahnee Winder, Simon Fraser University; Dr Elisabeth Janssen, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology; Dr Bruce Damons, Dr Magda Minguzzi and team, Nelson Mandela University; and Professor Shirley Tate and Professor Isabel Altamirano-Jimenez, University of Alberta.
This award is thanks to the Government of Canada’s Can$92 million research funding supporting Canadian-led interdisciplinary, international research through the New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF). This combined investment supports 165 research projects through two separate NFRF competitions: the 2023 International Joint Initiative for Research in Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation and the 2023 Exploration competition.