This area is complete and will have no future activity.
The five World War 1 engagement centres provided UK-wide support for community groups and activities to commemorate the centenary, and complemented other related Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) activities.
Five First World War engagement centres were created:
A key focus for them was to provide UK-wide support for community groups funded through a range of Heritage Lottery Fund funding programmes, via the First World War: Then and Now community grants scheme. Their support and expertise enabled them to connect researchers from universities with communities, by disseminating their interests together.
Each of the five engagement centres had a set of themes and areas of expertise on which they were able to provide support to communities across the UK who were thinking of carrying out commemorative activities relating to the centenary of the First World War. These themes continually evolved during the course of the centenary in the light of interest from community groups.
The engagement centres supported a wide range of community engagement activities across the UK from 2014 to 2021, connecting academic and public histories of the First World War as part of the commemoration of the war’s centenary.
The five centres offered research and support for specific themes.
The University of Birmingham, in collaboration with Cardiff, Durham, Manchester Metropolitan, Newcastle, Birmingham City, Wolverhampton and Worcester universities.
The centre offered research support and guidance for community groups around the First World War in general, and in particular around the following themes:
For more information:
University of Kent, in collaboration with Leeds, Brighton, Portsmouth Universities and Queen Mary, University of London.
Gateways contains a range of expertise which helped community groups explore the following areas:
For more information visit Gateways to the First World War.
University of Hertfordshire, in collaboration with Universities of Central Lancashire, Lincoln, Exeter and Essex.
How did war affect daily life between 1914 and 1918 and what was the legacy of the conflict? This centre aimed to encourage community research into questions such as these and has particular expertise in:
For more information:
Watch the video by Adam Jones-Lloyd, made for the Everyday Lives in War Engagement Centre in which Tony Dyer, a flight test engineer builds a replica First World War Sopwith Camel seat.
More films from the centre are available on their Everyday Lives in War YouTube channel.
Queen’s University Belfast, in collaboration with universities of Ulster, Newcastle and Wales and Goldsmiths College University of London.
The Living Legacies First World War Engagement Centre in Belfast explored the enduring impacts and legacies of the First World War and how it lives on in the twenty-first century.
The centre was interested in helping communities to:
It has particular expertise in the following areas:
For more information:
University of Nottingham in collaboration with Oxford Brookes, Manchester Metropolitan, Nottingham Trent and Derby universities.
The centre’s key thematic interests included:
For more information visit The Centre for Hidden Histories.
Email: voices@contacts.bham.ac.uk
Email: gateways@kent.ac.uk
Email: firstworldwar@herts.ac.uk
Email: livinglegacies@qub.ac.uk
Last updated: 11 September 2024
