Current Research Projects
IWM is currently engaged in four major research areas.
Reappraising the First World War
The 2014 centenary of the outbreak of the First World War is expected to bring renewed public interest in this enduringly prominent subject, and our public galleries on this theme are to be redeveloped. We are informing this work through our Reappraising the First World War Research Network, comprising IWM, the History Department of Queen Mary, University of London and King's College London’s Department of War Studies.
A programme of monthly seminars will run from autumn 2010 for two years. As well as covering familiar themes, it is hoped these seminars will throw new light on less well-known areas. Notice of forthcoming seminars in this series will be posted on our Seminars and Conferences page.
The representation of British twentieth-century colonial history in film
We are currently undertaking three initiatives related to this topic:
- Colonial film: moving Images of the British Empire is an AHRC project initiated by Professor Colin MacCabe of Birkbeck University, involving a new assessment of relevant archive films.
- In development with the Universities of Bedfordshire and Rawalpindi is a project to investigate the service of Indian troops with the British Army during the Second World War, with filmed interviews using archive film as a stimulus.
- An in-house cataloguing and research project on the output of the South-East Asia Command Film Unit is furthering understanding of the 'forgotten war' against Japan in Burma and beyond, and will assist future work on post-war nationalism and decolonisation in this region of the world.
The creation and exploitation of visual imagery
Our exhibition programme has been a primary driver for research into the art collection, focusing on a number of significant official war artists: the output of the First World War artists, women war artists and contemporary commissions are the principal subjects under review. The creation of our publicity collection - posters, proclamation and other printed ephemera - is a further priority research area.
Other research is looking at the contrast with work created outside of the official programmes and on how official programmes respond to the wider historical contexts and drivers. A lecture series recently delivered by Art Curators for Kings College War Studies’ MA course draws together new research in this area.
Acquiring and documenting evidence of Nazi persecution
The Holocaust Exhibition - opened in 2000 - initially drew on loans of collections of artefacts and documents from 88 institutions and 27 individuals. A concerted effort at acquiring historical artefacts and documents – principally from camp survivors and former refugees to this country has resulted in increased holdings.
We are the foremost authority in the UK on Holocaust-related artefacts, and a dedicated team in IWM’s Research Department contributes actively to the scholarship of this period. We have a long-running partnership with Royal Holloway University of London, whose Holocaust Research Centre holds regular seminars at IWM. We are also a partner in Beyond Camps and Forced Labour: international research into survivors of Nazi persecution, the series of academic conferences which have been held triennially at IWM since 2003.
For more information about research at IWM, read our Research blog or contact research@iwm.org.uk.