New Generation Thinkers 2021

Title

First
Broadcast

Comments

A Brazilian Soprano In Jazz-age Paris

20220502

Xang䀀 (the god of thunder) and Paso рaကigo', composed by the Cuban Moises Simons, were two of the numbers performed by Elsie Houston in the clubs of Paris in the 1920s. Also able to sing soprano in Portuguese, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Russian, Elsie's performances in Afro-Brazilian dialects chimed with the fashion for all things African. Adjoa Osei's essay traces Elsie's connections with Surrealist artists and writers, (there are photos of her taken by Man Ray), and looks at how she used her mixed race heritage to navigate her way through society and speak out for African-inspired arts.

Adjoa Osei is a researcher based at Trinity College, Cambridge. She was selected as a 2021 New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to turn research into radio. You can hear her discussing the career of another singer Rita Montaner in this episode of Free Thinking https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m0010q8b and taking part in this Free Thinking discussion From Blackface to Beyonc退 https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m000tnlt

Producer: Ruth Watts

Adjoa Osei celebrates Elsie Houston, who mixed Afro-Brazilian folk with European opera.

African Cinema, Nationhood, And Liberation

20220427

Africa's first filmmakers boldly revealed how, and why, colonialism lived on after the independences. Sarah Jilani takes a closer look at the works of Ousmane Semb耀ne and Souleymane Ciss退. The Malian director's 1982 film Finye (the Bambara word for wind) considers students as the winds of change, whilst Semb耀ne's Mandabi, made in 1968, takes its title from a Wolof word deriving from the French for a postal money order - le mandat postale. Adapting his own novel about the frustrations of bureaucracy, the Senegalese director made the decision to make the film in the Wolof language.

Sarah Jilani teaches at City, University of London and was chosen as a 2021 New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council which makes research into radio. You can hear her discussing another classic of African cinema on Free Thinking in this episode about Touki Bouki https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m0013js4

and Satyajit Ray's Indian Bengali drama Jalsaghar, which depicts a landlord who would prefer to listen to music than deal with his flood ravaged properties https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m000v9gj

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Sarah Jilani on the lessons about power in films by Ousmane Sembene and Souleymane Cisse.

Alexander And The Persians

20220504

What made him great? Celebrated as a military leader, Alexander took over an empire created by the Persians. Julia Hartley's essay looks at two examples of myth making about Alexander: The Persian Boy, a 1972 historical novel by the English writer Mary Renault and the Sh?n?meh or Book of Kings', an epic written by the medieval Persian poet Abdolghassem Ferdowsi.

Julia Hartley lectures at King's College London. She was selected in 2021 as a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council which turns research into radio. You can hear her in this Free Thinking discussion Dante's Visions https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m000zm9b and in another episode about Epic Iran, Lost Cities and Proust https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m000xlzh

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Julia Hartley asks why we call Alexander the Great.

Contesting An Alphabet

20220426

Images of Cyril and Methodios adorn libraries, universities, cathedrals and passport pages in Slavonic speaking countries from Bulgaria to Russia, North Macedonia to Ukraine. But the journeys undertaken as religious envoys by these inventors of the Cyrillic alphabet have led to competing claims and political disagreements. Mirela Ivanova's essay considers the complications of basing ideas about nationhood upon medieval history.

Mirela Ivanova teaches at the University of Sheffield and was selected as a New Generation Thinker in 2021 on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, which turns research into radio. You can hear her discussing Sofia's main museum in this episode of Free Thinking https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m000wc3p

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Mirela Ivanova on the countries claiming to be the birthplace of the Cyrillic script.

John Baptist Dasalu And Fighting For Freedom

20220429

An 1856 portrait shows a 40-year-old man from Benin who managed to secure his freedom after being captured. Dasalu was taken from Dahomey to Cuba, alongside over five hundred adults and children in the ship Grey Eagle. Once in Havana, he worked for the Count of Fernandina but managed to get a letter to a missionary Charles Gollmer back in Africa. Jake Subryan Richard's essay traces the way one man's migrations reveal the shifting boundaries of slavery and freedom.

Jake Subryan Richards teaches at the London School of Economics and was chosen as a New Generation Thinker in 2021 on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Council, which turns research into radio. You can hear him discussing his research in a Free Thinking episode called Dr Johnson's Circle https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m000vq3w and in another episode looking at Ships and History https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m001626t

Producer: Ruth Watts

Jake Subryan Richards reads the letter sent by a captured man who arrived in Cuba in 1854.

Opium Tales

20220505

In 1821, Thomas de Quincey's Confessions of an Opium Eater paved the way for drug memoirs, but how do contemporary novelists help us see the global opium trade in a different way? Fariha Shaikh's essay looks at the novel An Insular Possession published in 1986 by Timothy Mo, and at Amitav Ghosh's trilogy which began in 2008 with Sea of Poppies. She also quotes from her researches into The Calcutta Review, Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country and the book Tea and Coffee written by the campaigning vegetarian William Alcott as she make links between tea, sugar, opium, addiction and trade.

Dr Fariha Shaikh teaches in the Department of English Literature at the University of Birmingham. She is a 2021 New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to turn research into radio.

Producer: Robyn Read

Fariha Shaikh reads accounts from Thomas de Quincey (1821) to Timothy Mo and Amitav Ghosh.

Pause For Thought

20220506

From full stops to emojis, a Tudor letter to texting - how has the use of punctuation marks developed over the centuries? Florence Hazrat thinks about the way brackets help us understand the pandemic. The first parentheses appear in a 1399 manuscript by the Italian lawyer Coluccio Salutati, but - as her essay outlines - it took over 500 years for the sign born at the same time as the bracket, the exclamation mark (which printers rather aptly call `bang`) to find its true environment: the internet.

Florence Hazrat is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, University of Sheffield. She is a 2021 New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select ten academics each year to turn their research into radio.

Producer: Robyn Read

Florence Hazrat looks at the history of punctuation marks (such as brackets) and emojis.

Ruffs In Jamestown

20220428

The discovery of goffering irons, the tools used to shape ruffs, by an archaeological dig in North America, gives us clues about the way the first English settlers lived. Lauren Working's essay looks at the symbolism of the Elizabethan fashion for ruffs. Now back in fashion on zoom, they were denounced by Puritans, shown off in portraits of explorers like Raleigh and Drake, and seen by the Chesapeake as a symbol of colonisation, whilst the starch was used for porridge at a time of scarcity and war.

Lauren Working teaches at the University of York and was chosen in 2021 as a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council which turns research into radio. You can find another Essay by Lauren called Boy with a Pearl Earring https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m0014y52 and hear her in a Free Thinking discussion about The Botanical Past https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m000wlgv

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Lauren Working on what fashion reveals about life for C16 English settlers in America.

The Paradox Of Ecological Art

20220503

Sculptures like mouldy fruit, sea creatures that look like oil, blocks of ice carved from a melting glacier and transported to a gallery, reforesting a disused quarry: Vid Simoniti looks at different examples of environmental art and asks whether they create empathy with nature and inspire behaviour change or do we really need pictures of loft insulation and ground source heat pumps displayed on gallery walls?

Vid Simoniti lectures at the University of Liverpool. He hosted a series of podcasts Art Against the World for the Liverpool Biennial 2021. He was selected as a New Generation Thinker in 2021 on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council which turns research into radio. You can hear him taking part in this Free Thinking discussion about Who Needs Critics? https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m000w5f3

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Vid Simoniti considers eco-art from Olafur Eliasson to videos by Bo Zheng.

Walking With The Ghosts Of The Durham Coalfield

20220425

Comrade or 'marra' in north east dialect, and the 'dharma' or the way - were put together in a portmanteau word by poet Bill Martin (1925-2010). Poet and New Generation Thinker Jake Morris-Campbell reflects on this idea of Marradharma and what it offers to future generations growing up in the post-Brexit and post-industrial landscape of the north east. In his essay, Jake remembers the pilgrimage he made in 2016 carrying Bill Martin's ashes in a ram's horn from Sunderland (Martin was born in a nearby pit village) to Durham Cathedral.

Jake Morris-Campbell teaches at Newcastle University and was selected as a New Generation Thinker in 2021 on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. You can find him discussing ideas about darkness in a Free Thinking discussion recorded at Sage Gateshead as part of Radio 3's After Dark festival, and looking at mining, coal and DH Lawrence https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m000xmjy

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Jake Morris-Campbell carries the ashes of poet Bill Martin from Sunderland to Durham.

Episodes

Title	First Broadcast	Comments
A Brazilian Soprano In Jazz-age Paris	20220502	Xang䀀 (the god of thunder) and Paso рaကigo', composed by the Cuban Moises Simons, were two of the numbers performed by Elsie Houston in the clubs of Paris in the 1920s. Also able to sing soprano in Portuguese, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Russian, Elsie's performances in Afro-Brazilian dialects chimed with the fashion for all things African. Adjoa Osei's essay traces Elsie's connections with Surrealist artists and writers, (there are photos of her taken by Man Ray), and looks at how she used her mixed race heritage to navigate her way through society and speak out for African-inspired arts. Adjoa Osei is a researcher based at Trinity College, Cambridge. She was selected as a 2021 New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to turn research into radio. You can hear her discussing the career of another singer Rita Montaner in this episode of Free Thinking https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m0010q8b and taking part in this Free Thinking discussion From Blackface to Beyonc退 https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m000tnlt Producer: Ruth Watts Adjoa Osei celebrates Elsie Houston, who mixed Afro-Brazilian folk with European opera.
African Cinema, Nationhood, And Liberation	20220427	Africa's first filmmakers boldly revealed how, and why, colonialism lived on after the independences. Sarah Jilani takes a closer look at the works of Ousmane Semb耀ne and Souleymane Ciss退. The Malian director's 1982 film Finye (the Bambara word for wind) considers students as the winds of change, whilst Semb耀ne's Mandabi, made in 1968, takes its title from a Wolof word deriving from the French for a postal money order - le mandat postale. Adapting his own novel about the frustrations of bureaucracy, the Senegalese director made the decision to make the film in the Wolof language. Sarah Jilani teaches at City, University of London and was chosen as a 2021 New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council which makes research into radio. You can hear her discussing another classic of African cinema on Free Thinking in this episode about Touki Bouki https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m0013js4 and Satyajit Ray's Indian Bengali drama Jalsaghar, which depicts a landlord who would prefer to listen to music than deal with his flood ravaged properties https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m000v9gj Producer: Torquil MacLeod Sarah Jilani on the lessons about power in films by Ousmane Sembene and Souleymane Cisse.
Alexander And The Persians	20220504	What made him great? Celebrated as a military leader, Alexander took over an empire created by the Persians. Julia Hartley's essay looks at two examples of myth making about Alexander: The Persian Boy, a 1972 historical novel by the English writer Mary Renault and the Sh?n?meh or Book of Kings', an epic written by the medieval Persian poet Abdolghassem Ferdowsi. Julia Hartley lectures at King's College London. She was selected in 2021 as a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council which turns research into radio. You can hear her in this Free Thinking discussion Dante's Visions https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m000zm9b and in another episode about Epic Iran, Lost Cities and Proust https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m000xlzh Producer: Torquil MacLeod Julia Hartley asks why we call Alexander the Great.
Contesting An Alphabet	20220426	Images of Cyril and Methodios adorn libraries, universities, cathedrals and passport pages in Slavonic speaking countries from Bulgaria to Russia, North Macedonia to Ukraine. But the journeys undertaken as religious envoys by these inventors of the Cyrillic alphabet have led to competing claims and political disagreements. Mirela Ivanova's essay considers the complications of basing ideas about nationhood upon medieval history. Mirela Ivanova teaches at the University of Sheffield and was selected as a New Generation Thinker in 2021 on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, which turns research into radio. You can hear her discussing Sofia's main museum in this episode of Free Thinking https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m000wc3p Producer: Luke Mulhall Mirela Ivanova on the countries claiming to be the birthplace of the Cyrillic script.
John Baptist Dasalu And Fighting For Freedom	20220429	An 1856 portrait shows a 40-year-old man from Benin who managed to secure his freedom after being captured. Dasalu was taken from Dahomey to Cuba, alongside over five hundred adults and children in the ship Grey Eagle. Once in Havana, he worked for the Count of Fernandina but managed to get a letter to a missionary Charles Gollmer back in Africa. Jake Subryan Richard's essay traces the way one man's migrations reveal the shifting boundaries of slavery and freedom. Jake Subryan Richards teaches at the London School of Economics and was chosen as a New Generation Thinker in 2021 on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Council, which turns research into radio. You can hear him discussing his research in a Free Thinking episode called Dr Johnson's Circle https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m000vq3w and in another episode looking at Ships and History https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m001626t Producer: Ruth Watts Jake Subryan Richards reads the letter sent by a captured man who arrived in Cuba in 1854.
Opium Tales	20220505	In 1821, Thomas de Quincey's Confessions of an Opium Eater paved the way for drug memoirs, but how do contemporary novelists help us see the global opium trade in a different way? Fariha Shaikh's essay looks at the novel An Insular Possession published in 1986 by Timothy Mo, and at Amitav Ghosh's trilogy which began in 2008 with Sea of Poppies. She also quotes from her researches into The Calcutta Review, Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country and the book Tea and Coffee written by the campaigning vegetarian William Alcott as she make links between tea, sugar, opium, addiction and trade. Dr Fariha Shaikh teaches in the Department of English Literature at the University of Birmingham. She is a 2021 New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to turn research into radio. Producer: Robyn Read Fariha Shaikh reads accounts from Thomas de Quincey (1821) to Timothy Mo and Amitav Ghosh.
Pause For Thought	20220506	From full stops to emojis, a Tudor letter to texting - how has the use of punctuation marks developed over the centuries? Florence Hazrat thinks about the way brackets help us understand the pandemic. The first parentheses appear in a 1399 manuscript by the Italian lawyer Coluccio Salutati, but - as her essay outlines - it took over 500 years for the sign born at the same time as the bracket, the exclamation mark (which printers rather aptly call `bang`) to find its true environment: the internet. Florence Hazrat is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, University of Sheffield. She is a 2021 New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select ten academics each year to turn their research into radio. Producer: Robyn Read Florence Hazrat looks at the history of punctuation marks (such as brackets) and emojis.
Ruffs In Jamestown	20220428	The discovery of goffering irons, the tools used to shape ruffs, by an archaeological dig in North America, gives us clues about the way the first English settlers lived. Lauren Working's essay looks at the symbolism of the Elizabethan fashion for ruffs. Now back in fashion on zoom, they were denounced by Puritans, shown off in portraits of explorers like Raleigh and Drake, and seen by the Chesapeake as a symbol of colonisation, whilst the starch was used for porridge at a time of scarcity and war. Lauren Working teaches at the University of York and was chosen in 2021 as a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council which turns research into radio. You can find another Essay by Lauren called Boy with a Pearl Earring https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m0014y52 and hear her in a Free Thinking discussion about The Botanical Past https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m000wlgv Producer: Luke Mulhall Lauren Working on what fashion reveals about life for C16 English settlers in America.
The Paradox Of Ecological Art	20220503	Sculptures like mouldy fruit, sea creatures that look like oil, blocks of ice carved from a melting glacier and transported to a gallery, reforesting a disused quarry: Vid Simoniti looks at different examples of environmental art and asks whether they create empathy with nature and inspire behaviour change or do we really need pictures of loft insulation and ground source heat pumps displayed on gallery walls? Vid Simoniti lectures at the University of Liverpool. He hosted a series of podcasts Art Against the World for the Liverpool Biennial 2021. He was selected as a New Generation Thinker in 2021 on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council which turns research into radio. You can hear him taking part in this Free Thinking discussion about Who Needs Critics? https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m000w5f3 Producer: Luke Mulhall Vid Simoniti considers eco-art from Olafur Eliasson to videos by Bo Zheng.
Walking With The Ghosts Of The Durham Coalfield	20220425	Comrade or 'marra' in north east dialect, and the 'dharma' or the way - were put together in a portmanteau word by poet Bill Martin (1925-2010). Poet and New Generation Thinker Jake Morris-Campbell reflects on this idea of Marradharma and what it offers to future generations growing up in the post-Brexit and post-industrial landscape of the north east. In his essay, Jake remembers the pilgrimage he made in 2016 carrying Bill Martin's ashes in a ram's horn from Sunderland (Martin was born in a nearby pit village) to Durham Cathedral. Jake Morris-Campbell teaches at Newcastle University and was selected as a New Generation Thinker in 2021 on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. You can find him discussing ideas about darkness in a Free Thinking discussion recorded at Sage Gateshead as part of Radio 3's After Dark festival, and looking at mining, coal and DH Lawrence https://www.BBC.co.uk/programmes/m000xmjy Producer: Torquil MacLeod Jake Morris-Campbell carries the ashes of poet Bill Martin from Sunderland to Durham.