HUMANITIES RESEARCH CENTRE
Annual Report 2002-2003
In 2002-2003, the Humanities Research Centre had a most successful programme of public
events, attracting scholars of the highest international profile. The Centre also significantly
developed its overall contribution to university research strategy through publications (a
newsletter and website development funded by a £17,000 HEROBaC grant) and by the
establishment of the Arts Faculty Research Committee.
Lectures and Seminars
The 2002-2003 HRC Visiting Fellow in February was the Kenyan writer and scholar, Ngugi
wa Thiong’o, who teaches at the University of California, Irvine. The main event was a
public lecture chaired by Professor Neil Lazarus, entitled, ‘Wealth, Power, Values and the
Language of the Imagination’. Some two hundred people attended the lecture in the Arts
Centre conference room. Professor Ngugi’s graduate and undergraduate classes were also
very lively and extraordinary well attended. Sixty postgraduates from all over the university
(Humanities, Law, Politics etc.) participated in a two-hour discussion of Ngugi’s work,
convened by Professor Lazarus. Over one hundred undergraduates, in a class studying
Ngugi’s novels, had the benefit of the writer discussing the creative process with them. His
visit highlighted the strength of interest, university wide, in issues of post colonialism and
writing, and will help to stimulate further research.
The eleventh Donald Charlton Lecture, entitled ‘The Written Word at the Age of its Technical
Reproducibility: Literature in the Printing Shop (XVIth-XVIIth Centuries)’ was given by
Professor Roger Chartier of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. Professor
Chartier’s sparkling lecture, chaired by Professor Colin Jones, attracted more than one
hundred people and led to a lively discussion with Warwick colleagues on the history of
readership and book publishing.
In the course of the academic year, the Centre also organised and supported a variety of
conferences and symposia: ‘Literature-Science: between the disciplines’, organised by
Charlotte Ross (HRC Doctoral Fellow); ‘Medicine and the Media’, organised by Vicky Long
(HRC Doctoral Fellow); ‘Romantic Conflict’, organised by Dr Jackie Labbe (English);
‘Justice, Equality and Dependency in the Postsocialist Condition: A Symposium on the Work
of Nancy Fraser’, organised by Terry Lovell (Sociology); ‘Warwick Symposium on Parish
Research’, organised by Dr Beat Kumin and Dr Peter Marshall (History); ‘Classical
Association Conference’, organised by Dr Stanley Ireland (Classics); ‘Erotic Disguise
(Un)dressing the Body in Jamaican Dancehall Culture’ - Walter Rodney Lecture given by
Professor Carolyn Cooper’, organised by Dr Gad Heuman (Caribbean Studies); ‘Italy and the
European Powers: The Impact of War’, organised by Professor Julian Gardner (Renaissance
Studies); ‘Patients’ Body Perceptions’, organised by Dr Hilary Marland (History of
Medicine); ‘The Language of Utopia’; organised by Dr Andrew Laird (Classics)
The Interdisciplinary Research Seminar
The Centre also sponsors an ‘Interdisciplinary Research Seminar in the Humanities’, which
this year saw the launch of a revised structure. Two series were held, ‘Arts of War’ in the
autumn term, organised by Dr Michael John Kooy (English) and ‘Images of China’ in the
spring, organised by Dr Anne Gerritsen (History).
Doctoral Fellowships
This year, the Centre has continued to sponsor two (internal) Doctoral Fellowships. The
Fellows contribute to the life of the HRC by organising a one-day post-graduate
interdisciplinary conference, and are given financial support for their PhD dissertation
research. The two fellowships for 2003-2004 were assigned to Eleonora Belfiore (Cultural
Policy Studies) ‘Cross-national Cultural Policy Research: the methodological challenge’ and
Sasha Handley (History) ‘Perceptions of the Supernatural in the Long Eighteenth Century’
Warwick Humanities Series
The Warwick Humanities Series, published by the Humanities Research Centre in
collaboration with Ashgate, aims to bring together innovative work of a high academic
standard which crosses disciplinary borders in the Arts and Humanities. It provides a forum
for volumes exploring new dimensions of cultural history from the early modern period to the
present, and for works that investigate aspects of contemporary cultural production within and
across national boundaries. The series reflects the breadth of the interdisciplinary work
carried out at Warwick's Humanities Research Centre, and includes work of both European
and extra-European scope. The series is edited by Dr. Loredana Polezzi (Italian Studies) Dr.
Karen O’Brien (English & Comparative Literature) and Dr Sam Haigh (French). The series
received a number of new book proposals. A collection of essays on Italo Calvino and a
monograph on George Eliot and European culture have already been approved for
publication, while proposals for volumes on Umberto Eco, Borges, Silone, Political Theatre
and Cold War Literature are being evaluated, amongst others.
New Developments in Research Strategy
In 2002-2003, the HRC took a number of important initiatives that melded with overall
university research strategy. In March 2003, the Arts Faculty Research Committee was
established and in May Dr Margot Finn was elected as chair of that committee for 2003-2004.
This important new initiative seeks to promote research within the Faculty of Arts at all levels
and to support a high quality research environment within the Faculty; to provide a forum in
which Faculty-wide research issues can be addressed (e.g. the strategic implications of larger
funding opportunities, interdisciplinary bids and specific research initiatives); and to provide
a Faculty voice on research issues, especially to external funding bodies, but also internally.
This is particularly important in light of the fact that the AHRB will become the Arts and
Humanities Research Council by the end of the next academic year. It was also seen as
important to establish an Arts Faculty body to complement and interact with the Social
Studies Faculty Research Committee which plays a vital and proactive role in the research
activities of its own faculty, to liase with the University Research Strategy Group, which was
convened for the first time in the summer term 2003, and to inform the Arts Faculty
representatives who sit on the above Group.
A representative from each Arts Faculty Department sits on the Faculty Research Committee
in addition to the Faculty Chair and the Faculty Research Link Officer.
The HRC also provides funds for another research planning group convened by Dr Margot
Finn and Dr Karen O’Brien, in which younger scholars in Humanities meet to discuss the
possibilities of future interdisciplinary collaboration. Both of the above groups report to
Professor Palmer’s research strategy group.
The Humanities Research Fund, administered by the Centre, continued to give support for
research projects, conference travel and unusual publication expenses. The fund has been in
operation since October 2001.
In this period, the HRC also successfully bid for a £17,000 grant from the HEROBaC budget.
This initiative, developed by Dr Perrin, the Research Development Manager (Arts) gave
funds for three important ‘outreach’ initiatives: to develop the HRC website, to publish an
HRC newsletter that focuses on the research achievements and interests of the Humanities
faculty and to provide funds to invite a further speaker to the HRC. The HRC administrator
Ms Sue Dibben and Dr Liese Perrin worked on upgrading the website, and Dr Perrin took the
leading responsibility for commissioning and editing articles for the newsletter. At the
moment of writing, in August 2003, we are awaiting copies of the newsletter, which will be
mailed out to some 2000 people (research on target audiences took place in May). This is an
excellent initiative and I hope that there will be funds to continue editing the newsletter,
perhaps in an expanded form, on an annual basis.
Future Projects
The HRC programme for 2003-2004 will continue to set high standards. Professor Efrain
Kristal, Chair of Comparative Literature at UCLA will give the next Donald Charlton Lecture
entitled ‘Borges and Translation’. We are looking, in conjunction with the Arts Centre, to
invite Iran’s two leading women filmmakers, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad and Samira
Makhmalbaf, to the university to screen and discuss their new films. We had asked the
distinguished playwright, novelist and critic Ariel Dorfman (currently at Duke University) to
be the 2003-2004 Visiting Fellow. He has accepted our offer, but wishes to defer until 20042005 due to a pressure of commitments in the next twelve months (three plays being staged
on Broadway and in London, a television series to write and a novel to complete). We are
thus looking to secure our Visiting Fellow for 2003-2004 and have invited the novelist
Vikram Seth. Our current strategy, which has been most successful over the past three years,
is to invite some of the world’s most important creative artists for the post of Visiting Fellow.
We have managed this so far on our very small annual budget. Indeed, as can be seen above,
the Centre overall achieves a very great deal with few resources and a small staff that
comprises the director, the secretary/ administrator, Ms Sue Dibben and Dr Liese Perrin.
Professor John King
HRC Director, 2002-2003