Interdisciplinary collaboration
Researchers in SSAHRI are involved in a wide range of interdisciplinary collaborations, both within the Institute, across other Research Institutes within the University and with external partners.
Examples of our collaborations
The Heritage Hub
The University of Hertfordshire Heritage Hub fosters historical awareness in community, public policy and commercial settings.
The Hub is a broad, multi-disciplinary umbrella, including staff from:
- Humanities
- Business
- Creative Arts
- Education
- Geography
- the Centre for Sustainable Communities
Our relationships with community organisations have led to collaborative research, such as the de Havilland Airfield Reminiscence Project, and opportunities for students to learn about Hertfordshire’s history, volunteer with local history groups and gain an insight from heritage case studies across the region.
With funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Connected Communities scheme, the Heritage Hub has a programme of activities and events to expand these opportunities and develop new partnerships.
Towards an Embodied Science of InterSubjectivity (TESIS)
Towards an Embodied Science of InterSubjectivity (TESIS) is an integrated Marie-Curie ITN programme to investigate the foundations of human sociality.
The University of Hertfordshire node is headed by Philosophy professors Shaun Gallagher and Daniel Hutto.
The project brings together the complementary expertise of 13 European research institutes, clinical centres and private enterprises that span the biomedical sciences and the humanities.
TESIS provides critical mass in the fields of:
- philosophy
- cognitive neuroscience
- developmental psychology
- psychiatry
- societal outreach
Anarchy in the Organism
Professor Simeon Nelson's project Anarchy in the Organism is a Wellcome funded project undertaken in collaboration with the University College Hospital Cancer Centre, London.
Working with UCL’s Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging and the Group of Social Studies of Science and Technology from the Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona, Simeon’s project uses complexity theory to confront the possible meanings of cancer from a scientific, ethical and existential perspective.
COST Action on the Dynamics of Virtual Work
Our Business School’s Creative Industries Research and Consultancy Unit will be leading a major new international COST Action on the Dynamics of Virtual Work, led by Professor Ursula Huws and supported by Professor Keith Randle.
'Virtual work' is defined as work that is carried out using a combination of digital and telecommunications technologies and/or produces content for digital media.
This ground-breaking network brings together experts from around 22 European countries, and will also include participation from Universities in the USA, Canada, Australia, India, China and Brazil.
The value to the economies of participating countries of the four year project is estimated at €88 million.
This project will bring together leading figures in the fields of communications, creative industries, cultural studies, digital media, economics, employment, geography, gender studies, industrial relations, innovation. management, sociology and technology.
The different fields will work together to consolidate theory, map this emerging field, support early stage researchers and develop new research agendas.
Research students
Many of SSAHRI’s research students also engage in interdisciplinary projects.
Recent collaborative PhDs have been written by students working across history and psychology and philosophy and psychology.
Shaw's Corner
Working with the National Trust at Shaw’s Corner, an Arts and Humanities Research Council-sponsored collaborative PhD project supervised by Dr Pat Simpson explores some of the ways in which the objects displayed at Shaw’s Corner, the home of the playwright George Bernard Shaw now overseen by the National Trust, helps create our understanding of the author.
Shaw was acutely attentive to his literary image. Working with National Trust volunteers, PhD student Alice McEwan’s research helps both Shaw scholars and the public at large gain new insights into the playwright’s work and the environment in which he lived.