The humanities are human-centred disciplines that are engaged in the study of how people process and document the shared human experience through culture, history and language. The humanities offer a long-term historical perspective fostering the growth of self-aware, outward-looking, and creative societies. Across the island of Ireland the humanities have been central to creating and maintaining Ireland’s significant cultural reputation at home and abroad, evidenced through the events, surveys and research conducted by our Working Groups.
IHA Working Groups
Background
IHA Working Groups are supported by the IHA Co-Ordinator and report back to the IHA Board. The IHA’s Working Groups are constantly evolving. The Higher Education & Research Strategy WG came to a natural conclusion on publication of ‘By imagination we live’: A strategy for the humanities, 2020–2030. The Funding for Early and Mid-Career Academics in Ireland WG disbanded on publication of their position paper in June 2022.
A WG, established in June 2023, on Research & Innovation was formed in response to the announcement that the Government of Ireland would amalgamate the Irish Research Council and Science Foundation Ireland to create a single funding agency.
The IHA Board also established Working Groups on interdisciplinary focus areas: including the Digital, Environmental and Medical Humanities.
Environmental Humanities
Established in 2020 to advocate and mediate on the importance of arts and humanities disciplines in understanding environmental challenges such as climate change. The WG examines significant topics through open dialogue including Humanities for the Anthropocene in May 2021 which sought to galvanise conversations and collaborations between humanities researchers across Ireland. Co-organised with the Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork.
In 2022, the WG co-organised an event with the Australasian Council of Deans of Arts, Social Sciences & Humanities (DASSH), and the Scottish Arts & Humanities Alliance (SAHA). The event Can a crisis of climate change be solved without the arts and humanities? brought perspectives from Scotland, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand together to reflect on the contribution of the human-centred disciplines to addressing the ecological challenges we face, to interrogate our relationship with the planet and its resources and to seek new solutions for a better future.
The WG is planning a public symposium in Spring 2024 at the Royal Irish Academy.
Medical Humanities
Established in 2019 to represent the breadth and depth of medical and health humanities research across the island of Ireland. The WG organised a Medical Humanities research survey, which intends to provide an insight into the breadth and depth of Irish humanities research related to the areas of health and medicine.
