Corinne Fowler (Ed)

Professor Corinne Fowler is a research expert at the University of Leicester, and is Director of Colonial Countryside: National Trust Houses Reinterpreted. Professor Corinne Fowler is an expert in the legacies of colonialism and postcolonialism to literature, heritage and representations of British history. She co-founded and led the Centre for New Writing for 6 years, where she bought together writers and researchers to commission over 100 creative works. As a former teacher, Corinne combined teaching and research to create 'Colonial Countryside: National Trust Houses Reinterpreted', a child-led history and writing project supported by a panel of experts in British imperial history and funded by Arts Council England and Heritage Lottery. Colonial Countryside worked with 100 Primary pupils in England and Wales to explore National Trust houses' connections to empire. It also commissioned 10 creative pieces, to be published in an illustrated book by Peepal Tree. The project also produced curriculum change in 63 schools, which now study materials produced by a history teacher called Dan Lyndon Cohen. Lyndon Cohen's materials have allowed thousands of pupils to access the history of empire and to understand how colonialism shaped their local cities, towns and counties. The Colonial Countryside project also enabled 11 historic houses to address their African, Caribbean and East India Company connections. These included Penrhyn Castle, funded by Clarendon sugar plantations in Jamaica and Basildon Park, bought and built with East India Company money by Sir Francis Sykes.