Prestigious Research Council grant for Rehana

Teesside University lecturer Dr Rehana Ahmed has been awarded a prestigious Early Career Fellowship, worth £48,000, by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to carry out research exploring literary representations of Muslim cultures and identities.

Her research will focus in particular on British writers of South Asian Muslim heritage, engaging with debates and controversies concerning the place of Muslims in contemporary multicultural Britain, as well as with the historical presence and practices of Muslims in Britain from the early years of the twentieth century.

Dr Ahmed is a lecturer in English Studies in the School of Arts & Media. Before coming to Teesside, she was based at the Open University and worked as a Research Associate on a three year Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project 'Making Britain: South Asian Visions of Home and Abroad,1870-1950'.

The project examined the contributions South Asians made to Britain’s literary, political and cultural life in this early period. Its second phase, ‘Beyond the Frame’, builds on the success of ‘Making Britain’ and extends the public reach and international impact of the project.

The touring panel exhibition ‘South Asians Making Britain, 1858-1950’, which Rehana co-curated, is visiting Middlesbrough and will be open to the public at Middlesbrough Central Library from 18 October until 15 November 2011.

The exhibition showcases the long history of South Asians in Britain and features the largely unsung contributions of Asians to many walks of British life, including sport, the arts, cultural and intellectual life, resistance and activism, and national and global politics.

Rehana is giving a curator talk for this exhibition on Tuesday 25 October at 7.00pm. All are welcome to attend. This event is also part of Black History month at Teesside University, which will see a series of events and activities promoting black and Asian history, culture and heritage.

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