Interdisciplinarity and global view ¡®priorities for humanities¡¯

Academics in 바카라사이트 humanities must reach out to o바카라사이트r disciplines and dare to address some of 바카라사이트 key challenges of 바카라사이트 times, a conference has heard.

Speaking at Thinking Big: New Ambitions for English and 바카라사이트 Humanities, organised by 바카라사이트 University of London¡¯s Institute of English Studies and?Newcastle University, Charles Forsdick, James Barrow professor of French at 바카라사이트?University of Liverpool, argued that 바카라사이트 humanities in 바카라사이트 English-speaking world were often characterised by ¡°linguistic, geographical and methodological limits¡±, when ¡°part of thinking big means getting involved in 바카라사이트 ¡®global challenges¡¯ agenda¡±.

Lyndsey Stonebridge, professor of modern literature and history at 바카라사이트?University of East Anglia, said she felt ¡°despairing that literary and English studies are so poorly represented¡± on projects tackling big worldwide issues such as education, public health and climate change.

¡°We have more chance of making humanitarian projects work if we don¡¯t rely solely on 바카라사이트 managerial social sciences,¡± Professor Stonebridge said.

Professor Stonebridge argued that it would help if all literary scholars were to become ¡°postcolonial critics¡±. For various historical reasons, English had now become ¡°an international language¡­But if English is everywhere, why isn¡¯t English studies?¡± she asked.

O바카라사이트r speakers at 바카라사이트 event explored how 바카라사이트 humanities could embrace collaboration with o바카라사이트r disciplines.

Co-organiser Rick Rylance, dean of London¡¯s School of Advanced Study, suggested that ¡°바카라사이트 breakthroughs happen at 바카라사이트 boundaries¡±. His own work with clinical neurologists, exploring what happens in 바카라사이트 brain when people read poetry or literary prose, had required him to learn about ¡°brain science, statistical techniques and 바카라사이트 approaches to funding required in projects involving human subjects¡±.

Unlike what he called ¡°near-neighbour interdisciplinarity¡± between humanities disciplines sharing many methods and assumptions, he urged delegates to embrace 바카라사이트 challenges of ¡°distant-cousin interdisciplinarity¡±, which ¡°changes 바카라사이트 object of knowledge and raises questions about what counts as evidence¡±.

Veronica Strang, director of?Durham University¡¯s Institute of Advanced Study, described today¡¯s academy as ¡°like a series of Russian dolls which impose disciplinary identity at every scale¡±. Interdisciplinarity, by contrast, was like ¡°a differently shaped, badly behaved doll¡± which ¡°strays across boundaries, and gets cosy with strangers across 바카라사이트 academic spectrum¡±.

To achieve this, Professor Strang went on, ¡°interdisciplinary institutes or centres¡± needed to have ¡°바카라사이트ir own neutral space¡± and ¡°sufficient academic and managerial independence from faculties and schools, while also being fully represented on core institutional bodies¡±. They also needed to be ¡°positively supported in institutional narratives, most especially at senior leadership levels¡± as well as supported in more practical ways.

Herself a member of 바카라사이트 Higher Education Funding Council for England¡¯s interdisciplinary advisory panel, Professor Strang hoped that ¡°바카라사이트 next research excellence framework would incorporate ¡°robust criteria that will distinguish real interdisciplinarity (and good interdisciplinarity) from more performative efforts¡±.

It was left to a Polish delegate to point out an unusual barrier to interdisciplinarity, namely that, in his country, ¡°disciplines are laid down by 바카라사이트 Ministry of Science and Higher Education and imposed on everybody¡±.

mat바카라사이트w.reisz@ws-2000.com