Impacts of COVID-19 on the cultural sector and implications for policy

About the project This project aimed to deepen understanding of the impacts of COVID-19 on cultural organisations, on the cultural sector workforce, and on audiences. There were three strands to this mixed methods research programme. The first examined the impacts on the cultural sector, analysing large data-sets including the ONS Labour Force Survey. These were […]

Ensuring respect for human rights in locked down care homes

About the project This research examined and interrogated decision making and working practices in care homes under lockdown, with a view to understanding how to embed robust human rights in care settings in the context of the extraordinary pressures created by the COVID-19 public health emergency. The research was conducted as an extension of the […]

Nature and Sustainability

Arts and Humanities research on Covid-19 often has a bearing on environmental sustainability and the relationship between the individual and their natural environment.  Research on how to help the creative industries weather the shocks of lockdowns has notably explored digital media as a low-carbon alternative to travel and designed digital platforms that enable new forms of virtual co-presence. Performance practitioners have also turned […]

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Pandemic & Beyond Response to Draft Terms of Reference for the UK COVID-19 Inquiry

Submitted 7 April 2022. This response to the COVID-19 inquiry draft terms of reference consultation is based on evidence drawn from a meta-analysis and ethics review of pandemic impact research, which has been jointly commissioned by the UK Pandemic Ethics Accelerator and Pandemic & Beyond, two UKRI/AHRC funded initiatives. The review is intended for submission […]

British Ritual Innovation under COVID-19

About the project BRIC-19 studied the creative adaptations made by diverse religious, faith and belief, and local communities across the UK. The project aimed to harness and share this learning to identify and understand the social benefits of ritual in the pandemic and nurture the work of ritual in British society moving forward. They worked […]

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The Digital Beyond. Has COVID-19 transformed digital memorialisation?

Dr Eleanor O’Keeffe worked as Post Doctoral Research Associate on the AHRC funded project British Ritual Innovation under COVID-19. Here, she discusses some of her research into digital adoption in response to the pandemic. Sequoia Nagamatsu’s 2022 novel How High We Go in the Dark, which was started before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, offers us […]

Digital, Regeneration and Experience Economy Modelling (DREEm)

About the project This study explored practical and innovative strategies undertaken by organisations during COVID-19 that sought to develop meaningful digital experiences and content linked to places. Using mixed methods, it collected and analysed data in three case study locations in order to measure the scale and characteristics of the UK experience economy, to understand […]

Places and Communities

The challenges of the pandemic have often demanded local and place-based responses that can speak directly to the needs of particular communities.  Through Arts and Humanities research, we now know more about the way in which local cultural ecologies and infrastructures function, including how these have been impacted by the crisis. Studies have emphasised the […]

Digital Theatre Transformation: A Case Study and Digital Toolkit for Small to Mid-Scale Theatres in England

About the project This project provided a roadmap for local and regional theatre companies to enable them to develop new, more flexible ways of working to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on live theatre. It investigated, and drew lessons from, the success of Creation Theatre (Oxford) and Big Telly (Northern Ireland), both of which […]

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The Arts and Humanities Contribution to Covid-19 Research and Recovery: a snapshot

by Pascale Aebischer, Des Fitzgerald, Sarah Hartley, Rachael Nicholas and Victoria Tischler In this blog post, we present a snapshot of what we have learned about the distinctive Arts and Humanities contribution to Covid-19 research and recovery and the positive impacts this research has had on society, culture, health and decision-making. The Pandemic and Beyond team has reached the end of the phase of work dedicated to bringing the researchers […]