07.02.07 Paper 06/RC/12

Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities

Report for College Research Committee, 7 February 2007

1. IASH Activities

Since my last report to CRC in mid-November, the Institute has organised the following events, in addition to the Institute’s regular programme of Work-in-Progress seminars, Enlightenment and Life Writing Workshops and STAR meetings:

30 November A symposium to mark the launch of “The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature”

19 January A Speculative Lunch on the topic of “Sacred Space”. Following this meeting, the group is arranging to meet on a monthly basis to talk further about the topic and explore common interests.

27 January A seminar by Dr. John Calder, on “From Shakespeare to Beckett: pre- Enlightenment to post-Enlightenment”

A leaflet has been produced with details of the Institute’s Spring Programme (copies available at the meeting) and abstracts of the workshops are available on the IASH website.

2. Meeting of Directors of UK and Irish Institutes for Advanced Studies

Following the event which IASH hosted in November, we have organised a second meeting to be held at the British Academy on 6th February. 16 Institute Directors will be attending, an indication of the considerable interest in the possibility of the formation of a Consortium of Research Institutes. Dr. Robin Jackson, Chief Executive of the British Academy will be joining the group for part of the meeting.

3. Other Meetings and Links

I attended the Board meeting of the CHCI (Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes) in Harvard in December. It was agreed that the 2009 CHCI Annual Meeting will be held in Edinburgh, provisionally around the theme of “Enlightenments”.

I have had discussions with representatives of the University’s Emeritus Professors, led by Professor Colwyn Trevarthen, who are seeking official recognition for their status within the University. They will hold a meeting in the Institute on 22nd February and a regular monthly meeting at IASH thereafter; I have made it clear that they are welcome to take part in any Institute events which may be of interest.

The Institute is hosting the Tanner Lectures on Human Values, first delivered in Princeton University in 2005-6, by Professor Emma Rothschild. The lectures entitled “The Inner Life of Empires” will be given in the Playfair Library on 5th and 6th March at 5.15 p.m.

Professor Tony La Vopa, Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the Institute, with colleagues in Philosophy and History, is organising a two-day conference on “Philosophy in the Enlightenment” on 23rd/24th April.

Sally Hobson, the Edinburgh International Festival's Programme Development Manager, has been appointed the 2007 Creative Fellow at IASH. Her appointment marks a departure in the direction of the fellowship. She will undertake research to develop further the philosophy and approach behind the outreach and educational work undertaken by the Edinburgh International Festival, and explore this potential for the people of Scotland in future years.

4. Conference on “Belonging in the New Europe: A Scottish Perspective”: 13-14 September 2007

It was decided to postpone the conference, which had been provisionally scheduled for 2nd May, until 13-14 September. The focus of the conference has been narrowed and will now address “Belonging in the New Europe: A Scottish Perspective”. Neal Ascherson has been invited to give a keynote lecture on 13th September and there will then be a full day’s discussions on 14th September. These will centre on three panels: “Structures of Belonging”, “Narratives of Belonging” and “Sites of Belonging”. I would welcome suggestions for possible participants.

5. Timetable for Processing Visiting Research Fellowships and Mellon Fellowships

As agreed at the last meeting, the timetable for the processing of Fellowship applications will be as follows:

28 February Deadline for receipt of VRF applications

9 March Deadline for receipt of Mellon applications

16 March Applications sent to School Research Directors for assessment

4 April Deadline for return of assessments from Schools

We will accordingly be sending the relevant applications to each School Director of Research and would be most grateful for your comments and gradings by 4 April.

If you know that you will not be available to look at the applications between 16 March and 4 April please let me know and nominate a deputy in your School who can undertake this task.

6. RAE

I will table at the meeting a list of IASH Fellows, sorted by Schools and in some cases subject areas, who have been at the Institute since the last RAE census date. I would welcome CRC requests for other information that we might be able to provide that would be useful for the RAE5 submissions that cannot otherwise be obtained from the IASH website.

7. IASH Fellows – a list of current Fellows is attached (Appendix 1), for information.

Susan Manning

January 2007

Appendix 1

IASH FELLOWS IN RESIDENCE, FEBRUARY 2007

Name Affiliation Research Project

Dr. Alexander Buczynski / Croatian Institute of History, University of Zagreb / David Hume's stay at the Viennese court, and the military organisation of the Scottish Highlands in the Eighteenth Century
Ms. Kristin Cook / STAR Research Officer / Jefferson, 18th Century Literary Studies and Transatlantic Performativity
Dr. Beth Cross / Centre for Educational Sociology, Moray House School of Education, Edinburgh / Migrations of Meaning in post colonial and post industrial contexts: children's perceptions of authority, identity and agency in changing literacy landscapes
Professor William Dominik / Department of Classics, University of Otago / Rewriting the Past: Rome in the Punica of Silius Italicus
Professor David Finkelstein / Social Sciences, Media and Communication, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh / Migration, Identity and Scots-New Zealand: Print Culture Traditions, 1860 – 1980
Dr. Randy Gordon / Independent Scholar,Dallas, Texas / Connection between the core Humanities, Law and Democracy
Dr. Claudia Heide / History of Art, University of Edinburgh / The cultural appropriation of Islamic Spain: Anglo-American perceptions of al-Andalus (c.1800-1900)
Ms. Sally Hobson / Edinburgh International Festival / Edinburgh Festival Creative Fellow
Dr. Christopher Ivic / Dept. of English and Communication, State University of New York, College at Potsdam / The British Union: The Production, Circulation, and Reception of Ideas
Professor Tony LaVopa / Department of History, North Carolina State University / Conceptions of masculinity and the self in the Enlightenment
Professor Simon Conway Morris / Evolutionary Palaeobiology, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge / Gifford Lectures: "Darwin 's Compass: How Evolution Discovers the Song of Creation"
Dr. Marta Moskal / Centre for European Studies, Jagiellonian University, Krakow / Migration, identity dynamics and constructions of social differences, the case of Polish-speaking migrants, migrants' mass media, migrants' integration.
Dr. Roxana Preda / University of Edinburgh / American Gothic fiction in the 20th Century
Dr. Endre Sashalmi / Medieval and Early Modern History, University of Pécs, Hungary / State-building and Political System in the Russian Empire, 1547-1864
Dr. Robert Savage / Irish Studies, Boston College / Television and Irish Society, 1962-1972
Dr. Nóra Séllei / Institute of English and American Studies, University of Debrecen / Moments of Being, or Patterns of Self-Creation in Virginia Woolf’s Autobiographical Texts
Dr. Alexandra Shepard / Faculty of History, University of Cambridge / Perceptions of worth and social status in early modern England
Dr. Scott Spurlock / New College, University of Edinburgh and Scottish United Reformed and Congregational College, Glasgow / The Self-Construction of Lay Roman Catholic Identity in Covenanted and Interregnum Scotland (1638 -1660)
Dr. Karina Williamson / Department of English Literature, University of Edinburgh / 18th Century Studies, and colonial and post-colonial Caribbean history and writing.
Dr. Zhao Guangxu / Shanghai Maritime University / A Hermeneutic Study of William Wordsworth's Incarnational Poetics

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