'Writing Sri Lanka' is an 82,000 word monograph - already half complete - that is due to be published by Routledge in 2006. The book constitutes a comparative study of the construction of place in the work of resident and migrant Sri Lankan writers in relation to two factors: first, competing constructions of home and homeland and secondly, the internal and external displacement generated by the civil war. Both these factors hfave led to complex literary negotiations of territory and belonging, and reformulations of the constructions of the insider and outsider which intersect with - and can entrentch or challenge - cultural formulations of national identity and ethnicity. It will be seen that both literature and critical reception of texts do not simply relfect but are themselves constitutive of territorial relations. Further, in comparing 'resident' constructions of space, place and home with 'migrant' representations, I question the very basis of the distinctions between the two categories and work towards formulating alternative models of identity and belonging.

The Governance of Sociotechnical Transformations (GoST) project will focus on transformation processes in three areas of crucial relevance to sustainable development, relating in particular to pressing imperatives in countries of the Global South: energy systems, agriculture, and urban digital infrastructures. Each implicates intricate North-South linkages that must be better understood for global sustainability efforts. Adopting a systematic comparative approach, GoST will use sociotechnical imaginaries as a conceptual tool to make sense of how collective imaginations of transformation have determined present conditions. Many challenges in the three focal areas are related to the prevailing imaginary, and solutions may require radically new imaginaries. Through analysis of two interlinked parameters of transformation (dimensionality and temporality) across five nations (Germany, India, Kenya, UK, US), leading research centers in each will examine, in cooperation with key stakeholders, the differences between imagined and experienced states in each focal instance of transformation in each country. By rethinking transformation through these lenses, GoST presents a methodologically innovative, integrative, empirically grounded approach that goes beyond usual characterizations of transformation as a linear process of development. Expected outcomes and impacts: GoST will demonstrate feasible choices among alternative pathways for enacting socially progressive transformations towards sustainability, producing insights of immediate practical importance regarding how such transformations can best be governed in each selected area: by whom (Call Theme 1), to what ends, by what means (3), and with what welfare consequences for affected groups (2).

All students will be engaged in the co-design of their own research projects in collaboration with the UK Food Systems Academy which is the gateway for students to supervisors and core project ideas (project kernels). Early in Year 1, students will select from a catalogue of project kernels that will form the basis of their rotations with potential supervisors. Following the rotations, thesis proposals will be finalised in a capstone two-day Project and Thesis Proposal Intensive Workshop with partners from the Food System Academy. PhD research projects topics will be finalised at the end of year 1, and will initiate at the beginning of year 2.

The central problem in the calculus of variations is to minimize a given function (often called functional or energy) globally or locally over a given space. This can range from the problem of finding the shortest path joining two points on a given surface to the problem of finding the director field in a liquid crystal having minimum total energy. When one attempts to systematically investigate questions of this type it becomes increasingly important not only to find a minimizer [if exists] but also to study the full set of such minimizers and its key properties, e.g., how large it is: finite or infinite? Does it entail certain symmetries? It is in addressing questions of this type that one is immediately led to investiage the way and form in which the energy and the underlying space interact with one-another globally (this brings in the mathematical concept of topology). A particular class of problems that the proposed research directly relates to arise in nonlinear theory of elasticity. Here the response of an elastic material when subjected to external excitations [applied forces or boundary displacements] is described through minimization of the elastic energy which is defined over the infinte dimensional space of all possible deformations. Equilibrium states then correspond to various classes of minimizers (global or local in suitable norms) or extremals (which merely make the energy stationary along all hypothetical variations). Being elastic means that the energy functional directly depends not on the deformation itself but on the deformation gradient (that at each spatial point is a 3 X3 matrix). The particular choice of the material (e.g., metal vs. rubber) enters only through the constitutive assumptions dictating and affecting the choice of the stored energy density (that is a function on the latter space of matrices). To make a successful modelling and analysis it is very important that the properties of the stored energy density reflect and are fully aligned with physics and not simplified for the sake of convenient and easy mathematics. This when ignored will have grave consequences in the study of questions relating to multiplicity of equilibrium states, exchange of stability (e.g. in problems of buckling and hysteresis), dynamic stability, formation and nature of singularities (e.g. fracture and cavitation), etc. It turns out that the general framework for which these stored energy densities should fall into is that of quasiconvexity discovered and introduced by Morrey through the apparently independent route of studying lower semicontinuity in suitable weak topologies in calculus of variations. Unfortunately despite the intensive investigations in the past 60 years in the calculus of variations supplemented by the discovery of the tight relation between quasiconvexity and constitutive assumptions on elastic materials about 40 years ago, quasiconvexity still is poorly understood and very few genuine examples of such functions are known to us. The situation is partly due to the peculiar way in which quasiconvexity is defined and partly due to having no efficient way of deciding whether a given function is quasiconvex or not. It is thus fair to say that as such quasiconvexity truely remains a mysterious property! The purpose of this research is to investigate this notion further and address some of the open problems that lie at its heart. This will be combined with a systematic study of the topologies of the underlying spaces of orientation-preserving and volume-preserving maps that are of massive importance not only in elasticity theory but in function theory, geometry and analysis. It is expected that the results of this investigation will lead to devising new methods and techniques in handling questions on quasiconvexity, regularity theory and topology and will open new frontiers in the subject. On a larger scale this will be of great interest to applied mathematicians, material scientists, and biologists.

"Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people." As the famous Abraham Lincoln quote states, we as citizens are at the core of democracy. Every few years we hold fair and free elections to choose a government which represents us, rules on our behalf, protects our basic human rights, and enables everyone to participate in the political process. Every day we are - maybe unconsciously - benefitting from living in a democracy. That includes, for example, freedom of political affiliation, being allowed to engage in political action, freedom of speech, and a free press. Historically, there have never been more countries self-identifying as a democracy than today, and yet democracies are losing the support and trust of their citizens. In the United Kingdom, voter turnout, trust in politicians and democratic institutions as well as satisfaction with democracy have been declining steadily since the 1950s. Today about half of UK citizens are not satisfied with the way democracy works. Considering the numerous political scandals in recent years (e.g., Partygate), these trends are not surprising. However, they are nonetheless damaging for the functioning of democracy. At the same time, elected politicians are frequently verbally and/or physically harassed. For example, one in six tweets received by MPs are abusive. Individuals are less likely to vote than in the past and seem to be withdrawing from the political process. But, at the same time, individuals freely express their opinions through insults or attacks. Previous research has explored motivation for engaging in this type of behaviour, yet the perception and justification of these incidents has been studied less. How do ordinary citizens perceive these incidents? Are they justifiable depending on who attacks and who is attacked? Are these incidents damaging for democracy, acceptable within a democracy, or even necessary to protect democracy? This research aims to explore how individuals perceive and potentially justify attacks on politicians and supporters of political parties. Specifically, it examines the relationship between individual's moral justification of violence and their endorsement of democratic values and adoption of a democratic identity. That is, how does valuing democracy impact our perception of what is wrong and what is right how we treat others in society, and how we treat our elected officials? Does valuing democracy lead to a more inclusive group identity, that is creating a group based on shared democratic values instead of specific political viewpoints? Does a democratic identity impact how we judge the use of political violence? The proposed research will use a mix of experiments, questionnaires, interviews, and mass data analyses to explore these questions. Pilot data shows that on average individuals do not highly value politicians, that they find it more acceptable when politicians are harmed compared to other social groups like homeless individuals and that political persuasions of victims justify harming them. It further shows that if individuals value democracy they treat individuals of different political persuasions more equally, that is their judgment of whether an act is morally acceptable or not, is less driven by characteristics of the victim. Obtaining a more comprehensive understanding of how valuing democracy impacts moral judgements and dissolves group boundaries can in the long term help us to explain the current political climate and potentially enable us to develop methods to strengthen our democracy.