UEA and The BBC Archive

Sandy Balfour’s Collaborative Doctoral Award was co-designed by the University of East Anglia and the BBC Archive. His doctoral research was concerned with poetry on BBC television, 1936-2009.

Sandy says: “Working with the BBC gives my project a scale and intensity that might be missing in a ‘purely’ academic environment. The fact that it is a collaboration means I am able to adopt a less tightly bound approach to research; I have been able to take time to think about – and research – the breadth of the subject before narrowing down the actual questions my research will seek to answer.

… having the BBC as a partner in this research has given me a status and access that I would not otherwise have had – to archives to decision makers and to undocumented histories within the BBC.

[Working with the BBC also means that] my research has a context and an audience beyond the academy.

[My CDA also offers] a whole variety of options [for the future]. The end of my doctoral award coincides with the 100th anniversary of the BBC; there will be opportunities for professional engagement in policy, in programmes and in first research and writing about broadcasting and history.”