Dr Emma West, a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of English Literature, talks about the role that archives play in her research on this month’s Modernist Podcast.

In it, Emma discusses how archival discoveries inspired her current project, Revolutionary Red Tape: How state bureaucracy shaped British modernism, which explores how public servants and official committees helped to commission, disseminate and popularise British modernist art, design, architecture and literature. With a panel of other researchers, Emma discusses the challenges and rewards of engaging with archival materials, as well as her plans to develop new methods for reading official documents.

To hear more, please visit the Modernist Podcast website, or listen to the episode on Soundcloud or iTunes.