Humanities World Report
A proposal
Poul Holm
Professor, Trinity College Dublin
Arne Jarrick
Professor, Stockholm University
• A global overview of the state of humanities
around 2010
• Emerging trends and current challenges to
humanities research
• Of use to the research community and to
academic leaders and research policy
stakeholders
• The report will cover the humanities broadly
defined – but not overlap with the UNESCO
social science report. The report defines the
humanities as covering the following broad
disciplines: history, social anthropology,
archaeology; philosophy, religious studies;
aesthetics, media studies, literature, art;
linguistics
• HWR aims to set a baseline against which
future developments in the world of
humanities may be evaluated
– institutional conditions for humanities research
– identify selected emerging fields of research in the
Humanities world-wide
Methodologies
• Quantitative observations on institutional
conditions for research, research fields,
publications and academic careers
• Qualitative studies of research
themes/problems/theories and findings rather
than specific disciplines. The report will
consider the implications for contemporary
and future humanities research of technology,
interdisciplinarity and social conditions
Sources
• National and international reports on the Humanities
• Case studies of selected institutions and individuals
– Key statistics for Humanities faculties at 50 top universities selected to
represent all continents
– Research as presented on the web sites of 50 universities around the
world.
– Publication profiles of 500 selected humanities researchers around the
world
• Conference topics of international research conferences
• Interviews with selected thought leaders; questionnaires to editors
of highly ranked scientific journals in the Humanities and directors
of humanities research institutes around the world
• Supplementary information may be gathered by drawing on
UNESCO’s experience with reports on the status of the social
sciences
Thematic focus points
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Digital technologies
Converging humanities
Translational research practices
Humanities Research Institutes
Academic freedom and the role of the
individual scholar
• Research impact and metrics
• The report to be published in the autumn of
2013
• Work will begin in 2011 and last two years. An
initial data gathering exercise and the writing
of the draft report will be completed within
the first 12 months. The draft report will be
the focus of a series of intensive consultations
in the following 6 months. The final report
work will take up another 6 months
• Staff
– 2 postdocs, 1 rapporteur, ½ secretarial assistant
• Funding
– Initial funding (€220,000)
• Svenska Riksbankens Jubileumsfond
• Sveriges Vetenskapsakademi
– Total cost estimated €500,000