Post-doctoral researcher Dr Lauren Working made a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker

Dr Lauren Working, a post-doctoral researcher working with Exeter Fellow in English Professor Nandini Das, has been named as a BBC and Arts and Humanities Research Council New Generation Thinker for 2021.

The New Generation Thinkers are ten of the UK’s most exciting early career researchers. They will be given the prestigious opportunity to communicate their research on BBC radio and television. They will also receive unique access to training and support from AHRC and the BBC.

Dr Working and her fellow New Generation Thinkers have been chosen out of hundreds of candidates for their ability to communicate passionately complex ideas and change the way we think.

Dr Working works with Professor Das exploring travel, transculturality and identity in England (TIDE) in the 16th and 17th centuries. She comments: ‘I’m delighted to join this cohort of New Generation Thinkers and to take part in a scheme that will enable me to share my research with a broad audience. The English colonial past and the afterlife of empire is at the forefront of much cultural and political debate today. I will be exploring how artefacts such as still life paintings and Indigenous featherwork can shed light on the entangled histories of plantation and English heritage, and offer evidence of the impact of colonialism on Tudor and Stuart life.’

Previous New Generation Thinkers have gone on to become prominent public figures as well as the face of major documentaries, TV series, and regular figures in public debate.

We look forward to watching and listening to the programmes that Dr Working produces for the BBC in the coming months.