A Loughborough University student is looking for participants to take part in a new research study which explores the events of the Birmingham Riots in 2011.

PhD student Sophie-Louise Hyde, School of the Arts, English and Drama, aims to gather informal interviews from witnesses to gain a deeper insight and transform the voices of Birmingham’s community into poetry.

The study will result in a new and original collection of verbatim poetry that is representative of the engaged communities. Ideal candidates for the study may have worked, lived or been in the city during the events in August 2011.

Sophie comments: “I want to talk and really listen to those members of the city’s community who were involved in or affected by these events and understand their stories. I want to do their stories justice in this poetry collection and I want to transform their voices in this new and original way.

“I hope that this collection will do something to address the under-representation within the media of those individuals and communities affected by the riots. I also hope to engage more people with poetry and literature by being more accessible to, and characteristic of, the communities it represents.”

Informal interviews will be held from Monday 10 August 2015 onwards and will last no longer than 30 minutes. These can be arranged to suit the participant.

Participants must be aged 18 or over and have experience of the 2011 riots as a direct result of living, working or being in the Birmingham area.

Participants can withdraw at any time and all information shared will remain anonymous. This study has been given full ethical clearance by Loughborough University’s Ethical Clearance Sub-Committee.

If you are interested in helping by taking part in the study, please send your contact details and a few sentences about your experiences to Sophie-Louise Hyde at s.hyde3@lboro.ac.uk