Donna Yates awarded €1.5m European Research Council Starting Grant

We are delighted to share the news that Dr Donna Yates has been awarded a large European Research Council Starting Grant to explore the role that objects play within transnational criminal networks.

Donna’s 5 year project will also look at the broad question of “can objects cause crimes?” Using methodologies for understanding the relationships between objects and people, and how networks form from these relationships, Donna and her team will follow the pathways of what they’ve termed “criminogenic collectables”: objects of desire and collecting that seem to, at times, inspire crime. Specifically, they will be looking at the movements of cultural objects, fossils, and collectable rare wildlife starting in the Americas, the South Pacific, and Africa.

Donna’s team includes Prof Simon Mackenzie of the Trafficking Culture Project and Dr Annette Hübschle of the University of Cape Town.

More information about this award can be found on the European Research Council Website: https://erc.europa.eu/news-events/erc-2018-starting-grants-results

The full list of ERC Starting Grant recipients is available on this PDF: https://erc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/document/file/erc_2018_stg_results_all_domains.pdf

*Photo Credit: Bogdan R. Anton from Pexels