New centre to advance cutting-edge research in humanities

New centre to advance cutting-edge research in humanities

Scholars and academics must learn how to boost public awareness of cutting-edge humanities research, according to the director of a new centre at the University of Queensland.

"The public profile of Arts research is a real problem. Whereas science can point to newsworthy inventions, I think humanities scholars must learn how to present their work to the public," said Professor Graeme Turner, who will head the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies to be established in January 2000. "I think they have underestimated what they have achieved in the past because they produce ideas rather than products in many cases."

Professor Turner said the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies (CCCS) aimed to develop research culture and profile in the Faculty of Arts, support improved research grant performance, assist staff with publishing and professional opportunities and increase postgraduate enrolments. He said the Centre would build on current research strengths in the ?new humanities' (cultural studies, critical and literary theory, and film and media studies) which in recent years had become growth areas attracting outstanding scholars and in which Australia had had an impact internationally.

The Centre is jointly funded by the Faculty of Arts Executive Dean's Strategic Reserve, the Vice-Chancellor's Strategic Development Fund and the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research). It will develop a clearly-defined shopfront for research in the humanities at the University.

"The Centre could become an engine for driving research outcomes within the Faculty of Arts in the way the big Cooperative Research Centres are in sciences," Professor Turner said.

He said the Centre would tap into the expertise of overseas and interstate researchers through a visiting fellows program as well as offering residential schools and master classes. It would also address public awareness of research in the Arts with a public lecture program featuring the work of UQ humanities scholars.

"Lively presentations will encourage members of the public and the University community to come along, and we will use the lecture series as a springboard to raise the external profile of our researchers," he said.

The Centre's first major event will be an international conference on television preceded by a master class for postgraduates and early career researchers. "The conference will look at the history of television and ask whether it has a future after 2000 as new technologies are taking a lot of television's audience away. There are debates about what television is going to be like in the future and what role it will play in our culture," Professor Turner said.

For more information, contact Professor Graeme Turner (telephone 3365 2589 or email graeme.turner@mailbox.uq.edu.au).