"CRASSHing" into Cambridge

Launch of the new Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities

Today at the British Academy in London, the University of Cambridge launched a major new initiative: a Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH). The new Centre will be a major research institute comparable to those in Berlin, Jerusalem, Canberra and Stanford, and will support a number of interdisciplinary research projects.

CRASSH Director, Professor Ian Donaldson, took up his appointment on 1 January 2001.

"The establishment of this new Centre will be of immense benefit to all those working in the arts, humanities and social sciences within Cambridge and, we hope, beyond," he said. "It will help break down the artificial barriers at present separating departments, schools and faculties, and encourage the development of genuinely interdisciplinary programmes of research, which may in turn affect the structures of university teaching. And it will attempt to link work proceeding within Cambridge."

The University's Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Professor Hugh Mellor, chairs the two committees which oversee the running of the Centre, and has been a driving force behind the setting up of CRASSH.

"The University has done a marvellous job of attracting external research funding for the sciences; I want to see us match that for non-science subjects," he said. "We need to see more support at all levels, including better working facilities and funding for graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and visiting scholars. We need equivalents, in other subjects, of the laboratory and other communal research facilities that scientists take for granted, such as those we are creating at CRASSH."

Interdisciplinary conferences, seminars, colloquia and public lectures will be hosted by CRASSH independently and in conjunction with other institutions.

A Visiting Fellowship programme will be set up and the Centre will also become a clearing house for academics providing information on research grants and fellowships in the arts, humanities and social sciences. It will also offer advice on organising conferences, seminars and workshops, and associated publications.

It is hoped that many of CRASSH's activities will also attract the interest and collaboration of those working in the sciences, creative arts and various other professional disciplines and public life.

The new Centre will build on Cambidge's strong track record in the arts, social sciences and humanities exemplified by figures such as Empson, Richards and Leavis in literature; Moore, Russell and Wittgenstein in philosophy; Maitland, Butterfield and McNair in law; Needham and Elton in history, and Keynes in economics. Today, one in seven of the Fellowship of the British Academy has a Cambridge affiliation. In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise, 13 of the 26 subjects in the School of Arts and Humanities and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences achieved a rating of 5*. Nine out of 26 received a rating of 5.

Two new publications are also being launched today (Tuesday 20 February 2001):
Innovation and Creativity - a celebration of the arts, social sciences and humanities at Cambridge
Find an Expert - the Press Centre's Media Guide to Expertise This is a web-based guide and can be found at www.cam.ac.uk/mediag uide/