ECHIC Conference Reminder

We look forward to seeing all members this coming April at the 2018 ECHIC Conference "Equip and Engage: Research and Dissemination Infrastructures for the Humanities", co-hosted by the Faculty of Arts of KU Leuven and the KU Leuven Libraries, 4-6 April 2018.

The “Equip and Engage” Conference will offer an excellent opportunity to network and coordinate with colleagues on all questions concerning the infrastructures of production and dissemination of knowledge in the Humanities at large. The diverse panel discussions and project presentations as well as the annual ECHIC meeting will allow you to keep up to date with current questions, problems, and developments particularly in the role of digital scholarship in addressing questions of accessibility, long-term sustainability, democratisation and public engagement.

Keynote speakers are Jane Ohlmeyer, Erasmus Smith’s Professor of Modern History and Director of Trinity Long Room Hub at Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) whose talk will address Supporting Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, and Martin Paul Eve, Professor of Literature, Technology and Publishing at Birkbeck, University of London (UK), who will speak on Open Access and the Humanities: Economic Distribution and Political Will.

At the Annual Meeting (Wednesday 4th, April, 10:00-12:00) the assembly will nominate two new members of the Executive Committee. ECHIC is interested in hearing from its members with suggestions for self-nominations or nominations. Please send your suggestions to the current President at: silvana.colella@unimc.it

Towards FP9: online consultation and the role of SSH

-- The public consultation on the next EU Research & Innovation programme, launched by the European Commission, is still ongoing. Though many of you may have received the invitation already, we wish to remind you that the deadline is approaching (March 8, 2018). Your feedback is important. You can find the Consultation Questionnaire here:

-- The fifth external SSH stakeholder meeting was held in Brussels on January 18, 2018. Among the items discussed at the meeting was the need to further develop opportunities and tools for SSH, as the structure of the new Work Programme is being defined, with the aim of securing more funding for targeted SSH Research and Innovation. ECHIC is collaborating with EASSH to provide some targeted comments and recommendations to the B6 Unit, especially as regards the new research programme which will have a strong ‘social’ dimension. The European Commission is currently considering three major areas of intervention, under the working titles of “Democracy”, “Social Transformations” and “Cultural Heritage”. EASSH has launched a consultation among its members to collect their feedback and views on the above mentioned research areas. Therefore, we ask all ECHIC members to weigh in on:

1. whether the above research areas are broad enough to include the best possible participation of all SSH disciplines;
2. how to design a stronger, SSH-led cluster of research areas, paying specific attention to the issue of “Democracy”; 
3. how to ensure that humanities disciplines and approaches are duly taken into account in all the three areas identified as priorities.

These widely drawn areas/topics could form the basis for an entire ‘societal challenge’, with related sub-themes, in the future research programme. It is therefore essential that we offer our contribution to the shaping of this research agenda. EASSH has produced two position papers -- “FP9 must invest in Research for a Democratic Union and the European Social Dimension” and “FP9 ‘s ambitious aims for societal impact call for a step change in interdisciplinarity and citizen engagement” -- that contain a number of useful suggestions. You can find the papers here: 

Please send your comments, feedback, ideas and suggestions to info@echic.org by February 25, 2018. We apologise for the short notice, but things are moving fast.

We want to hear from you!

ECHIC invites all members to contact our Admin with any updates concerning events, projects, awards, as well as funding and collaboration opportunities that you would like to promote on our website. 

ECHIC Admin Appointment

My name is Maria Paola Svampa, and I will be the new Administrative Assistant for the ECHIC consortium. I will be taking over Nadia Cornettone’s duties as Administrator for the year 2018. All inquiries and announcements concerning events and projects should be directed to me. I am a doctoral candidate at Columbia University where my research focuses on the intersections of poetry, physiology, and dance. 

February 2018

This Newsletter is published by the European Consortium for Humanities Institutes and Centres.

For more information please visit our website echic.org 

Contact ECHIC

Silvana Colella, ECHIC Chair 
Humanities Department
University of Macerata
Italy

Maria Svampa, ECHIC Administrative Assistant

info@echic.org

 +39 0733 258 4062
http://studiumanistici.unimc.it

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