Research
Our humanities staff carry out research in a wide range of academic disciplines which are brought together in the Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities Research Institute (SSAHRI).
The Institute includes world-leading and internationally rated research in History, Literature, Philosophy and other Humanities subjects.
Visit the Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities Research Institute (SSAHRI) website.
Humanities research areas
History
Research leader: Professor Jonathan Morris
E-mail: j.2.morris@herts.ac.uk
In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, History built upon its grade of 5 in the 2001RAE to be ranked 7th equal out of 83 submissions. 70% of historical research at Hertfordshire is internationally excellent or world-leading, while Hertfordshire is the only unit of assessment in Britain, apart from top-ranked Imperial College, to have the entirety of its submission rated as internationally significant at 2* or above. Over £2.5 million peer-reviewed research income was awarded to projects involving group members between 2001 and 2007. There are currently three main research clusters within the History Group:
- 18th and 19th Century England - Regional and Community History
- 20th Century Britain and Europe
Each cluster is home to several large publicly-funded research projects including the award-winning Old Bailey Online (Professor Hitchcock); Changing Landscapes, Changing Environments (Dr Davies/Professor Cragoe, now at the University of Sussex) and The Cappuccino Conquests (Professor Morris). Current staff research interests include projects on the social history of crime in 18th century London, digital humanities, the persistence of witchcraft in the nineteenth century countryside, the history of spinning in Europe, and television as a medium for Cold War propaganda in Britain. It also has a special interest in Hertfordshire history, co-ordinating the Heritage Hub and the De Havilland airfield history project.
Literature
Research leader: Dr Andrew Maunder
E-mail: a.c.maunder@herts.ac.uk
The research interests of the Literature Group range widely: over time, from Renaissance to postmodern and post-colonial; over forms of literary works, from seventeenth century manuscripts to crime fiction, from Victorian poetry to contemporary novels. The group has particular strengths in: English literary and intellectual history, 1550-1720; Victorian literature and culture; twentieth century literature; modernism; popular culture; sexuality, gender and national identity; post-colonial writing and theory.
Research areas include
- Renaissance literature
- Victorian literature
- Twentieth-Century literature
- Post-colonial
- Literature and film
Linguistics
Research leader: Dr Marjolein Groefsema
E-mail: m.groefsema@herts.ac.uk
The Linguistics Group consists of active researchers with expertise in a number of areas. In the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise, Linguistics research was recognised as being research of national excellence with some international excellence, and was awarded a 3a rating. To support research, Linguistics holds research seminars of papers by prominent external speakers as well as by staff and research students. Other activities include the organisation of conferences, for example, a recent Child Language Seminar in collaboration with the Psychology Unit.
Research areas include
- Bilingualism
- Second language acquisition
- Lexical semantics
- Pragmatics
- Historical linguistics
Philosophy
Research leader: Professor Dan Hutto
E-mail: d.d.hutto@herts.ac.uk
Philosophy research was rated 4 in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise and has attracted external funding from such bodies as the AHRB, the German Research Board and the Mind Association. The vibrant research culture shows itself in the range of activities organised by the Centre for Normativity and Narrative. The Centre has hosted several major conferences, including ‘The Extended Mind: the Very Idea’ and ‘Kant’s Philosophy of Value’ and also organises a weekly term-time research seminar with staff, students and prominent external speakers. Staff interests include ethics, epistemology and the philosophy of history, mind/cognitive science, religion, science and mathematics. Staff also research figures such as Davidson, Kant, Kierkegaard, Lakatos, Sellars and Wittgenstein.
Research areas include
- Diagnosis of the problems of personal identity
- Silence and certainty: understanding the religious
- Pyrrhonism: Philosophy or therapy?
- Kierkegaard, indirect communication and selfhood
- Subjectivity and consciousness: problems for Searle and physicalist accounts