Dr Marc Stears has been awarded an AHRC Fellowship for ‘Festivals of Freedom: Culture, Democracy, and the Making of the Free World’ for the period from 1 January to 31 March 2011.

This study examines the cultural celebrations that followed the allied victory in the Second World War, concentrating especially on the American Freedom Train in 1947 and the Festival of Britain in 1951. By comparing and contrasting these events both with each other and with a series of related celebrations in Western Europe and Australia, the study aims to enrich our understanding of key disputes in political ideas and their representation at this critical juncture in recent democratic history.

Professor Marc Stears is Professor of Political Theory, University Lecturer, and Fellow, University College