About Us
The Institute for Collaborative Research in the Humanities at Queen’s came into existence on 1 August 2012. Its first Director is Professor John Thompson.
The Institute provides strategic leadership at Queen’s to support and enhance world class interdisciplinary research in the Humanities at all levels, from postgraduate training and early career research through to the development of large-scale collaborative research projects of exceptional scope and importance. It encourages and promotes cross-School, cross-Faculty and inter-institutional collaboration that leads to high-quality research outputs with significant impact on society.
Humanities research at Queen’s encompasses a wide range of disciplines, including core research activities in the Schools of Creative Arts, English, History and Anthropology, and Modern Languages and strands of work in other Schools including PISP, Law, SSPSW and GAP. In addition to supporting innovative research collaborations across these Schools, the Institute encourages cross-campus research collaborations with colleagues from all branches of the social, natural and physical sciences and with professional subjects, as appropriate.
The Institute identifies opportunities for training, mentoring, and knowledge-exchange across the Humanities, thereby enhancing postgraduate employability and career prospects as well as contributing to the social and economic well-being of all communities with whom researchers in Humanities at Queen’s might connect, from the local to the global.
As an important aspect of this work, the Institute will lead and manage the substantial commitment made by Queen’s as a member of a proposed consortium with Newcastle University and Durham University to the current AHRC Block Grant Partnership process.
Core Activities
Priority Research Theme
The Institute’s core activities are to support excellent research in the Humanities, and to prioritize and support cutting-edge collaborative research and teamwork on a flexible set of broadly interdisciplinary themes. There is an annual priority theme which is led by two Institute Fellows from different subjects at Queen’s. Through close consultation with the Director and with the support of their Schools, the two Fellows are facilitated to dedicate their time for that year to drive a comprehensive research programme on that theme in the Institute.
The priority theme for each year is normally chosen and announced at least 9 months in advance of its adoption and delivery, to be followed immediately by a competitive application process through which the two Institute Fellows are appointed to lead that research programme.
The Institute’s core activities in the 2013-14 academic year will support excellent collaborative and interdisciplinary research in the Humanities on the theme of:
Cross-currents in global humanities: communicating the challenge of cultural exchange beyond borders
The concept of global humanities has gained much currency in recent times . But what constitutes the global? How is the global mediated at a local level? How can we interpret the ideal of global humanities as an opportunity for greater international co-operation and cultural exchange that moves beyond a narrow economically-focused understanding of the global? What value might we then place on the connections that can be forged through local-global interchange and cross fertilization in the Arts and Humanities? These are some of the challenging questions that Arts and Humanities scholars across the world are currently debating and they now provide the Institute for Collaborative Research in the Humanities at Queen’s with the basis for its annual research theme in 2013-14.
During the academic year 2012-13, following initial consultation between the Director, the Dean and relevant Heads of School in core areas, the priority theme of the Institute in its first year is: