Humanities and Social Sciences

Accent Bias Britain

• Accent Bias Britain is large-scale research that identifies the prevalence of accent bias in the UK, and how it affects professional hiring contexts, specifically in law.  
• As background, a 2006 survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that 76 per cent of employers admitted discriminating against candidates based on their accent, while only 3 per cent of employers recognised accent as a protected category.
• The project investigated current attitudes to accents through surveys and experiments, and examined the role of unconscious accent bias in the evaluation of job candidates.
• The research has gained considerable attention in the media, ie the BBC, the Daily Mail and the Law Gazette.
• The researchers are working closely with many different partners and sectors, including The Social Mobility Commission, The Sutton Trust, Government departments, the Civil Service, and many more.
• The Accent Bias team has developed easy-to-use training tools for use by professional recruiters as well as law students. 

Find out more about Accent Bias Britain.

Building resilient coastal communities

• Pollution from historic coastal landfills (CHLs) poses a significant risk to the environment, particularly in the context of climate change.
• Ongoing research led by Professor Kate Spencer investigates the interconnected challenges of climate change, coastal flooding, erosion, and the legacy of historic waste in the UK, focusing on building resilience for coastal communities and ecosystems.
• The research aims to highlight the urgent need for scalable coastal resilience measures to address the accelerating risks of climate change, identifying gaps in current shoreline management policies that fail to account for legacy coastal waste.
• CHLs pose a significant threats to both aquatic ecosystems and human health, impacts need to be understood to create readily available methodologies for solution.
• Professor Spencer and her team’s ongoing research has led to increased awareness of the issues surrounding CHLs at the local and national levels. 
• Government bodies like DEFRA are now informed by this research, leading to best-practice guidelines in the waste industry. The work has influenced waste management policies and has contributed to steering committees within DEFRA. Additionally, the research has been featured in public media.

Find out more about Kate Spencer's research.

• Hidden in Plain Sight uses science to unlock stories.
• Advanced technologies like 3D microscopy, Micro-CT scanning, DNA analysis and XRF uncover the hidden lives of sacred and historic books and objects.
• From Islamic talismans and Jewish Bibles to Reformation-damaged texts, Korean sutras and Buddhist sculptures, the project spans continents and faiths.
• Historians, scientists, conservators, librarians, and faith leaders join forces across UK universities and libraries to preserve and understand our shared heritage.
• Organised into three research strands:
• Reformations uncovers alterations made to books during religious reforms.
• Jewish/Christian Books investigates texts remade for new religious settings.
• Talismanic Use examines non-European sacred scriptures used as parts of complex rituals and embedded into statutes and amulets.
• Pilot research exposed Thomas Cromwell’s secret portrait pasted into Henry VIII’s Bible and unearthed evidence for the parallel use of English and Latin in Tudor churches.
• Exhibitions include the reunion of Henry VIII’s and Cromwell’s Great Bibles after 500 years.

Find out more about Hidden in Plain Sight.