Due to Covid-19, we are currently unable to use The REACH Space. REACH-XR has been developed as a digital version of the space, creating an interdisciplinary digital space to encourage new connections between researchers, students, community groups and artists.
More information will be available in September 2021 relating to how the REACH Space can be used throughout 2021/22.
What is the REACH Space?
Our unique space for Research and Engagement in the Arts, Culture and Humanities (REACH) is a creative and experimental hub for pop-up projects, events and conversations. Launched in October 2019, the space focuses on collaborative, interdisciplinary and socially engaged thinking, research and events aimed at making a real difference in the world. REACH is centred on inclusivity, wellbeing and sustainability, and provides a shared workspace for staff and students across the College and beyond.
Serving as a place of connection, collaboration and engagement across institutional, departmental and disciplinary boundaries, the REACH Space aims to bring about positive social change. Whether generating new research ideas, exploring experimental and creative research methods, or informing a project by building a community network, REACH is open to staff, students and external communities.
Through hosting local community groups and international friends in the REACH Space, we provide opportunities for knowledge exchange and allow a broader sharing of theory and practice. REACH is inherently disruptive, challenging the knowledge, experiences and perspectives of all those who use it, so enabling critical thinking and research rigour.
Our funding calls in 2019/20 and 2020/21 have focused on creative research project development activities that bring together researchers across disciplines with external partners, conversation-oriented activities with external communities about common research interests/challenges, and training bursaries focused on conducting or communicating socially-engaged research in digital environments.
How can you get involved?
- Use the space for a creative engagement activity in 2021/22. More information on how the space can be used will be announced in September 2021.
- Follow our Twitter for updates.
- Have an idea? Know a community group who could use the space? Want to host an event in the space? Get in touch.
- For all enquiries, email reachspace@kcl.ac.uk
Unfortunately, the REACH Space is not accessible to wheelchair users. If you are running a workshop or activity in the space, please communicate this to all attendees in advance of the activity. If you would like to discuss the accessibility of the REACH Space, please contact reachspace@kcl.ac.uk
2020/21 Projects
The REACH-XR Small-Scale funding call supported socially engaged research through providing opportunities for Arts and Humanities researchers at any level across two strands: Community Conversations (up to £400) and Digital Training Bursaries (up to £500).
Community Conversations - This strand was open to Arts & Humanities researchers at any level from postgraduate researchers, to early career staff to Professors, who would like to engage with communities with connected or shared practices, experiences, challenges or interests in order to instigate conversations and to seed relationships around a research problem, enquiry or theme of mutual interest. The overarching aim of activities funded should be to explore the potential for the community/ies to co-produce, contribute to and partner with an emergent or planned research project.
Funded Projects:
‘The Northern Lass’ Rehearsed Stage Reading - Josefina Venegas Meza (KCL)
Inequalities, Class and the Pandemic – Serena Iervolino (KCL)
Digital Training Bursaries: The COVID-19 pandemic caused us to confront how best to conduct socially engaged research in online fields and required us to develop new tools, techniques and skillsets as researchers.
This strand provided bursaries of up to £500 for researchers at any level to spend on online professional development opportunities that enhance their ability to conduct socially engaged research in digital environments.
Funded Project:
Social media training to assist with ‘Adoption Reckonings and Understanding Life Histories’ project– Professor Gonda Van Steen (KCL)
Following the success of the 2019/20 Adopt-a-Plant scheme, the scheme was adapted in response to Covid-19 to run within REACH-XR, the digital version of the REACH Space. All participants received an activity box including planting and craft materials, alongside a programme of online activities.
Adopt-a-Plant Project Report
Further information: Adopt-a-Plant Project
2019/20 Projects
The REACH Pop-up Research Fund was aimed at stimulating collaborations led by Arts & Humanities researchers and including those from other disciplines and/or from community organisations. Through fostering internal and external connections, projects generated opportunities for knowledge exchange and allowed a broader sharing of theory and practice.
The Community Conversations Fund was open to Arts and Humanities researchers at any level who wanted to engage with communities with connected or shared practices, experiences, challenges or interests. The call aimed to instigate conversations around a research problem or theme of mutual interest, with funded activities exploring the potential for communities to co-produce, contribute to or partner with a new research project.
Funded projects:
London Migrations Workshop (Centre for Early Modern Studies)
Networking and Coordination for PLuS Alliance Project Proposal (Dr Katrin Schreiter)
Art, Conflict and Remembering: The Murals of the Bogside Artists (Dr Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin, Dr Craig Larkin, Dr Rachel Kerr, The Bogside Artists)
The first iteration of the Adopt-a-Plant scheme was held in the REACH Space throughout 2019/20. The scheme was a wellbeing project that provided opportunities for King’s postgraduate researchers to network and socialise around shared experiences of researching at King’s, whilst cultivating plants and learning craft activities. Participants met every fortnight in the REACH Space, and feedback highlighted significant positive impacts on students’ wellbeing.
Adopt-a-Plant Project Report
Pop-up Research Fund Projects:
Between Lived Experience and Simulated Presence, led by Clara Jo (King’s Artist-in-Residence), Dr Lucia Valmaggia (KCL) and Dr Sarah Atkinson (KCL)
The Bahamas Film Culture Project (BFCP), led by Professor Erica Carter (KCL) and Dr Monique Toppin (University of the Bahamas)
As Happy As God In France, led by Dr Julia Pascal
Crafting a Circular Economy, led by Dr Lauren England and Designer/Maker Julian Leedham
2018/19 Projects
In early 2019, the AHRI established the first REACH Pop-Up Research call for research projects that would temporarily transform the space. Six interdisciplinary and socially engaged research projects took over the space and hosted a range of activities. These included immersive research experiments on video games, artist residencies to imagine a queer museum and a travelling library of magical objects. This work informed redevelopment plans for the space and generated a wealth of new connections and research outcomes including an anthology on algorithmic music by MIT Press, a potential symposium supporting emerging scholar-practitioners in dance, and new positions for students participating in King’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship.
Funded Projects:
The Jane Wildgoose Memorial Library, Mora School Women’s Group; Queer Museology; Critical Media Practice; Visualizing Intimacy in the Multiverse; and a Dialogue on Dance.
The Arts & Humanities Research Institute provides, through the REACH Space and other initiatives, a hub for our varied, socially engaged and interdisciplinary research. This unique space is one in which ideas can be turned into actualities and in which new collaborations can be activated.