Research leadership – Professor Stuart Taberner (University of Leeds) presentation at the AHRC Subject Associations Event September 2013

1. Research Leadership
Stuart Taberner
University of Leeds

2. My Project
• Contemporary German-language literature and
transnationalism
• Fairly conventional literary project looking at the way
transnationalism – the interaction between the
renewed/continued importance of the nation-state and
‘global society’ – plays out in contemporary German-
language writing.
• Fairly conventional outcomes: a monograph, conference
papers, and organisation of seminars

3. Academic Activities
• Organising a series of interconnected workshops on
‘German-language literature and transnationalism’ at the
German Studies Association Conference, USA, 2013
• Organising a series of interconnected workshops on
transnationalism across literatures at the American
Comparative Literature Association, USA, 2014
• Seminar series in Leeds with ‘big names’ in Comparative
Literatures and World Literatures (David Damrosch, etc.)
• Creating a BA programme for English and World
Literatures at the University of Leeds, including European
languages, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, etc.

4. Impact Activities
• Working with the Cape Town Holocaust Centre on public
outreach with the SA heritage sector (how to present
trauma, cosmopolitanism, intercultural and transnational
interactions in present-day globalised society)
• Working with the Institute for Reconciliation and Social
Justice at the University of the Free State (how to use
literature, memorials, and other cultural ‘inputs’ to improve
dialogue between diverse communities)
• Exhibition on German/SA ‘coming-to-terms with the past’
in an era of ‘globalised/transnational memory’ discourses

5. Leadership Dimensions (Academic)
• To develop leadership internationally (working with US
and Canadian colleagues on the seminar series at GSA)
• To develop leadership beyond my discipline (working with
colleagues from across literatures on the ACLA seminars)
• To develop a more intensive academic (rather than
managerial) form of leadership across my own institution:
‘big names’ seminar series, often not relating directly to
my own research
• Developing more coherent and ‘joined-up’ leadership
around research-led teaching: BA programme linked to
development of research agenda in SMLC at Leeds

6. Leadership Dimensions (Impact)
• Developing leadership in relation to non-academics – the
director and staff at the Cape Town Holocaust Centre.
• More broadly, developing leadership in relation to people
working across a variety of heritage and public
engagement institutions, developing an academic vision
that can be translated into ‘impact’
• Developing leadership skills in relation to running a
large, diverse and international team of academics and
non-academics to produce an exhibition that will reach
25k+ people in the UK and SA. Managing the media and
public aspects of this.

7. Initial Concerns
• What happens to the research if I am spending so much
time/effort being a ‘leader’?
• What kind of leadership: academic (breaking new ground)
or ‘managerial’ (organising other colleagues)?
• What kind of leadership is appropriate for a senior
academic, as opposed to an ECR?
• How can I ‘do’ leadership in innovative ways (not just
organise conferences...)?
• How do I ‘insert’ myself as a ‘leader’ into other
disciplines/international academic discourses?
• How to I project credibility amongst non-academics?

8. School of something
FACULTY OF OTHER
My Formulations
• Leadership definitely squeezes out research – embrace this!
• Try to bring ‘managerial leadership’ in line with ‘academic leadership’:
the ‘originality’ of my research relates to the tension between
cosmopolitan idealism in the era of globalised memory discourses and
the exigencies of nation-building: assembling colleagues at the GSA and
ACLA to explore this notion across literatures; leading ECRs on
developing its potential as a focus for impact work in SA
• For a senior academic, ‘innovative’ leadership is integrating research
with impact and creating teams of academics and non-academics.
• Credibility: small steps, careful planning, broad discussion, willingness
to learn as well as lead!

9. School of something
FACULTY OF OTHER
What We May Lose
• Research projects become more complex and more ‘social science’
• Our ‘lone-scholar identity’ may be challenged and even undermined
• We may become adept at ‘gaming’ the system: i.e. ticking the
‘leadership box’ without doing much actual leadership (or research)
What We May Gain
• The challenge of thinking differently, and the satisfaction of developing
other people’s careers
• Sustainability deriving from the creation of structures and teams
• Bigger, interdisciplinary teams, combining academics and non-
academics, research and impact

10. Further Questions for Discussion
• Must 'research leadership' always involve 'directing'
other people? I.e. can 'leadership' mean pursuing a
lone-scholar project that opens up new ways of thinking
while explicitly challenging other researchers to 'follow'?
• What is the difference between leadership and
facilitation?
• How do we 'scale up' our own leadership (i.e. move from
leading small groups to big groups; disperse leadership
functions across others in larger groups)?
• How do we continue as academics even as we become
'research leaders'
School of something
FACULTY OF OTHER