17. September 2008 13:12
Stakeholders and researchers gather to discuss the future of Humanities research in Europe
4th HERA Annual Conference - “European diversities – European identities” and the 1st European Conference for Collaborative Humanities Research (ECCHR)
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Humanities research provides an understanding of “who we are”, “where we come from” and “where we are going”. As globalisation breaks down national boundaries and creates multi-cultural societies “identity” becomes a more complex and multi-faceted concept.
Humanities scholars from across Europe will convene at the 4th HERA Conference “European diversities – European identities” in Strasbourg, on 8-9 October 2008 to showcase some of the best collaborative work dealing with identity from different national, ethnic, religious or linguistic angles.
The conference will introduce two new large-scale research programmes in the Humanities fields on “Cultural Dynamics” and “Creativity and Innovation” that will be launched early 2009 by the HERA consortium of 13 national funding organisations. These two programmes will address key issues on the past and future of European identities.
The aim of the conference is two-fold: 1) to demonstrate the best cutting-edge humanities research in Europe and 2) to encourage fruitful exchange between researchers and policy-makers as for the best ways of supporting new research.
The upcoming event marks for the first time the gathering of the major public research funders for the Humanities in Europe (The EC Framework Programme, the European Science Foundation, COST, and HERA) to explore these new links.
Early-career researchers will speak at a plenary session about their visions of contributions for the new Research Infrastructures to Humanities research and will present their work poster session.
The issues of regional diversities of Europe will be debated in a session on the constituent parts of European identity, for example the circumpolar North (Professor Gisli Palsson, University of Iceland, EUROCORES research programme BOREAS), the Mediterranean between Europe and the Muslim World (Dr. Thierry Fabre, Maison Mediterraneenne des Science de l’Homme, FP6 Project “Ramses2 ”) or South Eastern Europe (Central European University). In another session, archaeologist Dr. Marie-Louise Stig Sorensen from University of Cambridge (FP7 Project "CRIC") will discuss how identities and cultural heritage are re-constructed after violent conflicts (e.g. Spanish Civil War and the Bosnian War).
Going back in time, the roots of European identities can be linked to the history of migration and co-existence of different cultures. This topic will be further discussed by Professor Walter Pohl, Austrian Academy of Sciences, the winner of the prestigious Wittgenstein Prize. His presentation will deal with the formation of ethnic identities in Early Middle Ages: how were new communities formed, how did old communities survive, how were foreign peoples integrated?
Since many of the “priority themes” in our modern-day Europe – be it security or environment – lead to complex research questions that demand an interdisciplinary approach the conference will devote three sessions including “On global changes and challenges”, where scholars will touch on the “human element” in the exploration of outer space and the role of ethical values in security studies.
In the session “Environments: Humanities research explores new faces of the environment”, Professor J.H.F. Bloemers, Emeritus Professor of Archaeological heritage management at the University of Amsterdam and the Chair of the ESF-COST “Landscape Studies”, will talk about the emerging interest in cognition-based approaches to the study of landscapes bringing together the arts (including architecture and urban planning), cultural, social, behavioural and cognitive sciences.
The last two sessions will be devoted to the theme of globalisation of humanities research, where participants will contemplate the future of the humanities research in Europe and in the world.
The upcoming Strasbourg conference will feature seven successive sessions and over thirty speakers – researchers supported by different public research funders for the Humanities in Europe. Others speakers will also include Jean-Michel Baer, Director, Science, economy and society Directorate – DG Research, Prof. Philip Esler, Chief Executive of the Art and Humanities Research Council and the Chair of the HERA Network Board, and Professor Alain Peyraube, CNRS, member of the ERC Scientific Council as well as the representatives from COST and ESF.
FOR PROGRAMME AND MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE CONFERENCE, PLEASE, CLICK HERE
Media contact:
- Ms. Julia BomanE-Mail
