The Bad Bridget Experience

坏布丽吉特的经历

• 批准号: AH/V011391/1
• 负责人: Elaine Farrell
• 金额: $ 10.23万
• 依托单位: Queen's University Belfast
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FV011391%2F1
• 关键词: Bad; Bridget; Experience

The Bad Bridget Experience comprises five creative encounters. It centres around an innovative museum exhibition and immersive sensory installation at Ulster American Folk Park, an open-air National Museum NI museum in Omagh, County Tyrone. This is complemented by online content that brings aspects of the museum exhibition and installation, and original content, to an international audience. Alongside the online and in-situ encounters are an engaging and creative Education Programme aimed at teenagers, and a reflective and emotive Community Programme with female participants. The Bad Bridget Experience is based on the AHRC-funded research project, 'Bad Bridget': criminal and deviant Irish women in North America, 1838-1918. The Bad Bridget Experience brings the academic research to a wider public audience for the first time and conveys a more nuanced understanding of the Irish migrant who departed Irish shores than previously known. It presents a seldom told alternative to the 'American dream'. The project centres around emotions as a means to engage, educate and stimulate reflections. Visitors and participants will learn of the emotions of emigrants before their departure from Ireland, their hopes that they could make something of themselves in the new world, their sense of responsibility towards their families at home, and the economic desires of those who helped fund their passage abroad. It will explore disappointment experienced after migration. Poverty remained a feature of many Irish immigrants' lives. Having spent everything on the passage ticket and provisions, they had little on arrival. Life abroad presented new challenges including a very different climate and unfamiliar working and living environments. Job opportunities for girls and women were also limited and, as the academic research uncovered, treatment and conditions were heavily dependent on employers and circumstances. Migration was not unaffected by heartbreak. Partners, relatives and friends who promised to migrate never appeared. The migration of pregnant unmarried women shows that the concept of leaving Ireland to avoid the shame of pregnancy outside marriage predates the 20th century. Relationships also broke down abroad; our research shows that Irish women were the most likely migrant group to be deserted by their husbands. For much of the 19th century, infant mortality was also higher in Irish families than any other ethnic group. The loneliness, poverty and lack of support networks led to criminal and deviant behaviour, as made clear by heart-breaking statements of many of those who ended up in courts and prisons, which will be used to good effect as part of the Bad Bridget Experience. Irish migrants who left rural Ireland were thrust into urban America. The immersive sensory installation seeks to confront visitors with the sights, smells and sounds of 19th-century New York. While historical research to date has focused on chain migration, where one migrant assisted a relative or friend to travel abroad, our research reveals a more complex picture. Those who offered assistance were often in poor circumstances themselves, able only to offer a floor to sleep on for a few days rather than to facilitate a gradual acclimatisation to North America. The transient existence of many Irish immigrants also meant promises of assistance were not fulfilled because new arrivals could not track down contacts.Irish migrants also experienced judgement. Stereotyping and discrimination against the Irish presented challenges. The Bad Bridget Experience allows space for reflections on similarities between migration in the past and today. The research also showcases resilience, perseverance and determination, evident in Irish female migrant's survival strategies. Sometimes strategies were deviant or criminal, but not always, and the exhibition allows visitors to engage with the diversity of responses to opportunities and challenges in the 'New World'.

Bad Bridget的体验包括五次创造性的邂逅。它围绕阿尔斯特美国民俗公园的创新博物馆展览和身临其境的感官装置展开，阿尔斯特美国民俗公园是泰隆县奥马市的一个露天国家博物馆NI博物馆。与之相辅相成的是，在线内容将博物馆展览和装置的方方面面以及原创内容带给国际观众。除了在线和现场接触，还有一个针对青少年的引人入胜和创造性的教育方案，以及一个有女性参与者的反思和情感社区方案。《坏布里奇特经历》是根据AHRC资助的研究项目《坏布里奇特：1838-1918年间北美的犯罪和离经叛道的爱尔兰女性》改编的。Bad Bridget的经历第一次将学术研究带给了更广泛的公众受众，并传达了对离开爱尔兰海岸的爱尔兰移民比之前所知的更细微的理解。它代表了一种鲜为人知的替代“美国梦”的方式。该项目以情感为中心，将其作为一种参与、教育和激发反思的手段。参观者和参与者将了解移民离开爱尔兰之前的情绪，他们希望在新世界有所成就，他们对国内家庭的责任感，以及那些资助他们出国旅行的人的经济愿望。它将探索移民后所经历的失望。贫穷仍然是许多爱尔兰移民生活的一个特征。他们在船票和补给上花了所有的钱，到达时几乎没有什么。国外的生活带来了新的挑战，包括非常不同的气候和不熟悉的工作和生活环境。女孩和妇女的就业机会也有限，而且，正如学术研究发现的那样，待遇和条件在很大程度上取决于雇主和情况。移民并不是没有受到心碎的影响。承诺移民的伴侣、亲戚和朋友从未出现过。怀孕的未婚女性的移民表明，离开爱尔兰以避免婚外怀孕的耻辱的概念早在20世纪之前。在国外，关系也破裂了；我们的研究表明，爱尔兰女性是最有可能被丈夫遗弃的移民群体。在19世纪的大部分时间里，爱尔兰家庭的婴儿死亡率也高于其他任何种族。孤独、贫困和缺乏支持网络导致了犯罪和越轨行为，许多人在法庭和监狱中发表的令人心碎的声明清楚地表明了这一点，这些陈述将作为Bad Bridget经历的一部分产生良好效果。离开爱尔兰农村的爱尔兰移民被迫进入美国城市。这个身临其境的感官装置试图让参观者感受到19世纪纽约的景象、气味和声音。虽然迄今为止的历史研究主要集中在连锁移民上，即一个移民帮助亲戚或朋友出国旅行，但我们的研究揭示了一个更复杂的图景。那些提供援助的人自己的情况往往很差，只能提供一块地板睡几天，而不是帮助他们逐渐适应北美。许多爱尔兰移民的短暂存在也意味着援助承诺没有兑现，因为新来的人无法找到联系。爱尔兰移民也经历了评判。对爱尔兰人的陈规定型观念和歧视带来了挑战。Bad Bridget的经历让我们有空间反思过去和今天的移民之间的相似之处。这项研究还展示了韧性、毅力和决心，这在爱尔兰女性移民的生存战略中可见一斑。有时战略是越轨的或犯罪的，但并不总是，展览让参观者参与到对“新世界”机遇和挑战的多样化反应中。