History of Art PhD candidate Christina J Faraday has been selected as an AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker 2019.
BBC Radio 3, BBC Arts and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) have announced the ten 2019 New Generation Thinkers. These researchers from across the UK will have the opportunity to communicate their research by making programmes for radio and television for the BBC.
Christina Faraday, a History of Art PhD candidate, is especially interested in the ways that images and objects communicate. Her AHRC-funded PhD at the University of Cambridge researches ‘liveliness’ in sixteenth-century English art. It reveals that techniques used by writers to achieve vividness have parallels in the period’s visual culture, from portraits to book illustrations and monuments.
The New Generation Thinkers were selected after a national call for the best research ideas with the potential to be shared through the media. They will now have the opportunity to make programmes for Radio 3 and other outlets, as well as contributing to wider media through the AHRC and taking part in the 2019 Being Human Festival. In addition, the scheme partners with BBC Four, where some of the selected academics will be given the opportunity to present a programme for TV.
As part of the scheme, Faraday has already appeared on BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking, to discuss portrait miniatures. This grew out of her experience as a Curatorial Intern at the National Portrait Gallery, London, working on the exhibition 'Elizabethan Treasures: Miniatures by Hilliard and Oliver' (until 19th May). Her segment starts at 21:50: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0002mk2
Faraday said: “I'm really excited to have been chosen as a New Generation Thinker. My research is all about powerful communication and the many different forms it can take: visual as well as verbal. I can't wait to share these ideas with a wider audience.”