One of the world's first...
Founded by the Queen's University, Belfast in September 2004, the Institute of Cognition and Culture (the ICC) is one of the world's first multidisciplinary centres for research in the cognitive science of culture. This is a new and rapidly growing field in which scholars seek to explain patterns of cross-cultural variation using the methods and theories of the behavioural sciences (especially, experimental and evolutionary psychology).
Areas of concentration...
Our specific areas of concentration are social cognition and the cognitive science of religion, though we often pursue and support research that falls outside of these domains and our work articulates with the research interests explored in other parts of the school (e.g., Anthropological Studies and the Institute of Irish Studies).
Cutting-edge cognitive science...
Since its establishment just some years ago, the ICC has brought together a range of cutting-edge cognitive scientists via a series of visiting international fellowships, won, among other major funding, a prestigious cooperative grant from the European Commission on 'Explaining Religion', published numerous empirical and theoretical articles, hosted major international conferences and workshops, and has attracted some of the world's most premier postgraduate students studying in the field.
