King’s Lecturer in Twentieth-Century International History, Dr Bérénice Guyot-Réchard, was recently awarded the British Academy Rising Star Engagement Award (BARSEA) for her public engagement proposal on South Asia’s international relations. 

 “I’m thrilled to receive this Rising Star Engagement Award. It’s an exciting time to be working on South Asia’s international relations. We’re witnessing a surge of innovative research, often thanks to early career scholars who’re working with new archives and asking new questions. Meanwhile there’s a growing interest in South Asia among policy-makers and the wider public, partly because the region is home to several emerging powers and remains often volatile. The British Academy’s support will help me organise events to publicise exciting, cutting-edge research to policy-makers and on the long term, create platforms where researchers and policy-makers can connect to discuss South Asia’s international politics”, said Dr Guyot-Réchard. 

Dr Guyot-Réchard’s project will lay the foundation of a scholarly and public engagement community around the ‘New International Histories of South Asia’ (NIHSA) through a two-day research, brainstorming and public engagement workshop. The first day will bring together scholars across History, post-colonial IR, or political geography doing cutting-edge work on the sub-continent’s international environment, to debate new research frontiers. The second day will bridge the divide between academia, the public and policy-makers. It will consist of brainstorming NIHSA’s next steps, a research and policy-making training session, and a roundtable between participants and policy-makers on topics of interest to the latter.

BARSEAs are held for a 12-month period and provide funding of up to £15,000. They are designed to encourage wider engagement with the humanities and social sciences, within and beyond the academia through the organisation of events, training, and mentoring activities for a range of other early career researchers.