A research project probing Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, for his works' "colonial stereotypes" has been found to have cost taxpayers almost £1 million.
The three-year project, "Remediating Stevenson: Decolonising Robert Louis Stevenson's Pacific Fiction Through Graphic Adaptation, Arts Education and Community Engagement", is being propped up by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)'s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for an eye-watering £809,334.
And its researchers at the University of Edinburgh have been travelling across the world in order to study how the Victorian author treated indigenous populations in Pacific islands like Samoa and Hawaii.
The project's website says: "Given that educational institutions throughout the world are actively engaged in decolonising their curricula, Stevenson's work and legacy present a particularly valuable focus of inquiry."
University of Edinburgh researchers can expect to travel across the world to research Stevenson's "colonial stereotypes"
Wikimedia Commons/Flickr
While Stevenson treated local people "with considerable agency and dignity", the website adds, his works include "many of the colonial stereotypes typical of fin-de-siècle [end-of-century] Western literature".
One of the aims of the project is to develop "the first ever graphic adaptation" of Stevenson's Island Nights’ Entertainments stories in Samoan and Hawaiian.
The stories, published in 1893 - The Bottle Imp, The Isle of Voices, and The Beach of Falesá - all focus on Pacific indigenous characters and locations.
The six-figure-valued project has seen its researchers host "arts education workshops" across Hawaii, Samoa and Scotland.
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Images posted to social media by the research group show the extent of their travels across the Pacific
Instagram/Public domain
And next year, its team will be holding conferences in the three locations in which stakeholders are "invited to reflect on their own experiences of remediating [Stevenson's] creative outputs in the contemporary cultural landscape."
Images posted to social media by the research group show the extent of their travels across the Pacific, including a range of sunny snaps from Samoa and Hawaii as their project continues.
The scheme has particular relevance to the University of Edinburgh - Stevenson had studied there, and died in Samoa in 1894 at 44.
A Freedom of Information request from the Taxpayers' Alliance revealed the extent of the spending; its investigations campaign manager Joanna Marchong said: "Bureaucrats who insist on funding this nonsense should be told to walk the plank.
"Taxpayers will be up in arms about the huge amounts of money wasted... The civil service has been splurging cash on right-on rubbish and pointless projects."
A UKRI spokesperson said: "UKRI invests in a diverse research and innovation portfolio.
"Decisions to fund the research projects we support are made via a rigorous peer review process by relevant independent experts from across academia and business."
GB News has approached the University of Edinburgh for comment.
