EMOWELF · Emotional Welfare: From Brotherly Love to Fraternity

Emotional Welfare: From Brotherly Love to Fraternity

From 1.2.2015 to 31.1.2017, the experienced researcher served on a secondment from his home institution, the National University of Ireland Maynooth, as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie International Outgoing Fellow to the Wellcome Trust Centre of Excellence for the History of the Emotions at Queen Marys University of London. His British Centre webpage is found at: http://www.history.qmul.ac.uk/staff/profile/dr-david-lederer The primary goal of a strategic knowledge transfer from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotion back to the EU research area at Queen Marys initially entailed relocation for one year to the University of Adelaide, where the fellow also liaised with the other four nodes of the Centre at the Universities of Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. His Australian Centre webpage is found at: http://www.historyofemotions.org.au/about-the-centre/researchers/david-lederer/ This international affiliation exposed the fellow to cutting-edge methods at the Australian Centre’s four research strands on Change, Meanings, Performance and Shaping the Modern, as well as to the operation, organisation and administration of the world’s largest humanities research project. Additionally, as part of his own specialised interest in the activities of European missionaries as linguists, he conducted extensive archival research at the South Australian State Archives, the South Australian State Library and Lutheran Archives of Australia and Papua New Guinea and engaged with the indigenous communities of the Barngarla and Kaurna peoples as part of South Australian language reclamation initiatives and interviewed twice on Radio Adelaide’s Searchlight hour; podcasts found at: https://radio.adelaide.edu.au/revisiting-the-lutherans/ https://radio.adelaide.edu.au/the-meeting-of-cultures/ Links with the Department of Linguistics at the University of Adelaide have already facilitated one application for major project funding to the Australian Research Council for collaborative research on language reclamation, emotional well-being and mental health. His research and collaboration dovetails into a museum exhibition scheduled for October 2017 at the Barr-Smith Library to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. The exhibition entitled ‘Love thy Neighbour’ is designed and directed by the fellow to celebrate the global impact of the Reformation on community interaction, especially between European immigrants and the First Australians. All these activities add to a growing body of research augmenting and informing Australian government policies on indigenous connection to land through historical demonstration of linguistic and cultural continuity, with far-reaching implications for native title and indigenous rights. A revitalised sense of cultural awareness and self-respect promotes general mental health by injecting an organic historical sensibility into community development. As broader research indicates, these methods have a demonstrably positive effect on rates of suicide, obesity and educational advancement. Upon his return to the European Research Area, the fellow transitioned into another successful collaboration at the Emotions Centre in London, working closely with members and associates at the Centre and, more widely, the School of History, the university programmes in theatre and the performing arts and psychiatrists at the Wolfson Institute for Preventative Medicine (joining the latter two in the design of their newly established joint MSc in the Creative Arts and Mental Health), as well as British Psychological Association, History of Psychology Centre, University College London. London provided an overabundance of other collaborative opportunities, allowing the fellow to attend regular events at QMUL, UL, the Wartburg Institute and the European History Seminar, 1500-1800 at the Institute for Historical Research. Extensive research was also conducted at the British Library. Over the course of two years, the fellow co-organised two international conferences at the German Historical Institute in London, gave eleven public talks at conferences and sponsored events, submitted four scholarly articles and one edited collection on transnational history. As of his return to Ireland on 1.2.2017, outcomes arising from the award will be ongoing for some time, including: A monograph on the global history of suicide contracted for submission in 2017; a second comparative study of public vs. philanthropic welfare currently in preparation; an international panel on the history of humane societies organised for the annual conference of the early modern section of the German Historical Association (associated with a future proposal for major project funding); a paper on missionaries accepted for the annual conference of the German History Society of the UK/RoI; a proposed parallel exhibition celebrating the anniversary of the Reformation at the home institution. At the end of his term as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie International Outgoing Fellow, the project’s objectives have been completed and in many cases exceeded. Demonstrably, the project remains ongoing and active, a circumstance which will invariably lead to continued outcomes over the coming years. For example, the experience researcher is now leading a collaborative research project on Lifesaving and Humane societies, one grant proposal was tendered and a second is in the planning stages. In this regard, the fellowship itself represents a major career milestone and a significant contribution to European research, contacts and networking internationally.

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