Opening remarks on theme of ‘Cultural Encounters’

Sean RyderChair, HERA Network Board

London Briefing SessionLondon 15th March 2012

Cultural EncountersUnderstanding ‘cultural encounters’ requires that

we:• Think historically• Think spatially• Think about cultural forms: communication,

representation, language, literature, art, media, institutions, etc.

• Think theoretically

Cultural Encounters focus areas

• Call text lists possible themes and questions to be addressed by ‘Cultural Encounters’ projects

• Not prescriptive or exhaustive, only a set of suggestions!

Cultural Encounters focus areasa. Cultural encounters over time and space:• Role of CE in social imaginaries / imagined communities• Drivers of CE• Contribution of arts• Cultural transformations• Lessons of CE for shaping societal values• Cultural consequences of globalisation

Cultural Encounters focus areasb. Social and political dimensions of CE:• Historical models of cultural integration – successful and

unsuccessful• Dynamics between integration and difference• Influence of policy• Concepts of tolerance and pluralism• Linguistic diversity: effects and policy implications• Identity, belonging, citizenship

Cultural Encounters focus areasc. Translation, interpretation, mediatisation:• Adapting cultural practices as a result of CE• Transformative effects of translation• CE as stimulus to creativity• Music, art, performance, literature as barrier or facilitator• Effects of media, digital and otherwise

Think about:• Collaboration– Collaboration should give a particular added value to

questions of culture, identity, creativity, innovation. Addressing familiar questions in new ways impossible for an individual researcher.

• Interdisciplinarity– Not a requirement or a doctrine, but an ambition to challenge

the familiar and the conventional– Interdisciplinarity rather than simple ‘multi-disciplinarity’. Not

just combining the insights of disciplines, but reaching insights which move the boundaries of the disciplines.

Think about:• Internationalisation– A requirement. Like interdisciplinarity, research across

national boundaries should have the capacity to unfix the assumptions which form the vision-limits and comfort-zones of specific traditions and identities.

• European added value– Why will this multi-national research and partnership make a

difference? Why is it something that can’t simply be done with local or national funding? Also: this criterion not about “European” topics, but about the better research made possible though collaboration among researchers based in Europe.

Think about:

• Transferring/exchanging the knowledge– How can your research process and/or results be linked and

disseminated to wider world outside the academy? Possibility for mutually-enriching collaboration with non-academic partners.