Redell Olsen, Co-Principal Investigator

REDELL OLSEN is a poet and writer who often works with film and performance. She is interested in the emerging critical space between academic and creative practice, innovative and interdisciplinary writing. Her past film and performance projects include: ‘Newe Booke of Copies’ (2009) and the collaboratively realised ‘The Lost Swimming Pool’ (2010). Her scholarly articles include essays and conference papers on sound and poetics, the painter Grace Hartigan and Frank O’Hara, Susan Howe, feminism and poetry and film.

Research Assistant: Rosalind White

Dr. Rosalind White is Postdoctoral Research Associate on ‘Finding Middlemarch in Coventry’. Her doctoral thesis, ‘In My Mind’s Cabinet’, is an intimate exploration of natural history that examines the lives of its practitioners beyond the impact of conventional watersheds. She has a forthcoming chapter in A Cultural History of Insects in the Age of Industry (Bloomsbury Academic 2022) and co-wrote Pre-Raphaelites in the Spirit World (Peter Lang 2021), a study of the unpublished séance diary of William Michael Rossetti. She can be found on twitter @DrRosalindWhite.

Project Partner: Coventry Archives

We are delighted to partner with Coventry Archives and Nuneaton Museum and Arts Gallery for our project’s collaborative online exhibition. Take part be registering your interest in one of our upcoming workshops, for which all details can be found on our Events tab.

Providing insights into the history of the city and its citizens – from medieval times to the present day, Coventry Archives houses a huge range of primary and secondary source material.

Particular highlights of the collection include our internationally important collection of medieval manuscripts giving an unrivalled glimpse into the administration of the city from its earliest recorded times. Our earliest record is dated 1182.

Our automotive collection contains a huge range of books and journals on the cycling and motoring industry in Coventry such as Motor, Autocar, Cycling, Bicycling News.

Whether you’re researching for school or college projects, university dissertations, family history, the history of your house or just want to know more about our fascinating city, Coventry Archives is an invaluable free resource and an essential destination.

To find out more including how to make an appointment or search the online catalogue, please go to the Coventry Archives homepage.

Project Partner: Dash Arts

We are delighted to work with Dash Arts on The Great Middlemarch Mystery. Part-immersive theatre experience and part-mystery game, this multi-location production puts a modern twist on George Eliot’s Middlemarch and its story of the hopes, dreams, disappointments and scandals lived out within a Midlands town.

Taking place 7 – 10 April 2002, as part of Coventry UK City of Culture 2021. Tickets will go on sale in early 2022.

Do you want to take part? Check out our participation opportunities for this project.

Dash Arts creates exceptional artistic experiences that bridge divides across art forms, cultures, languages and communities. Over the last 15 years, we’ve created award-winning new work with over 9,000 artists and participants for audiences of over 350,000 worldwide. Our international productions, live and digital events and education programmes expand the way we see the world. Dash Arts is led by Chief Executive and Artistic Director Josephine Burton.

Ruth Livesey, Principal Investigator

Ruth is Principal Investigator of the AHRC Leadership Fellowship, ‘Provincialism: Literature and the Cultural Politics of Middleness in Nineteenth-Century Britain’. She is Professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature and Thought in the Department of English, Royal Holloway, University of London. Her work adapting and co-writing the Great Middlemarch Mystery with Josephine Burton forms part of the larger AHRC funded engagement project ‘Finding Middlemarch in Coventry 2021′.