Annual Report Groningen Research Institute for the Study of Culture (ICOG) 2014 www.rug.nl/research/icog Index 1. About ICOG 2 Mission 2 Who are we? 2 Composition of staff 2 The 4 Research Centres – Mission and Themes 4 2. Research within the Research Centres of ICOG 8 Research Centre Arts in Society 8 Research Centre for Historical Studies 9 Centre for International Relations Research 10 Research Centre for Media and Journalism Studies 12 3. ICOG in society 13 Research Centre Arts in Society 13 Research Centre for Historical Studies 14 Centre for International Relations Research 16 Research Centre for Media and Journalism Studies 16 Narratives 18 Culture in the mirror: A firm base for cultural education 18 Governance and Sustainable Society in Indonesia 20 Annual Report ICOG 2014 1 1. About ICOG Society; the Research Centre for Historical Studies, of associate professors and post-docs (here: positions can play a vigorous role in stimulating the Centre for International Relations Research, researcher) is small – even inexistent in some new research orientations and grant capture. Mission and the Research Centre for Media and Journalism centres; this is a disadvantage, as staff in these Studies. This new organisation structure was The Groningen Institute for Research on Culture further implemented in 2014. In December 2014 a (ICOG is its Dutch acronym) is the largest of the ICOG Staff fifth research centre was created, the Center for three research institutes in the Faculty of Art. ICOG research on the Americas: this interdisciplinary counts 239 members, among which 87 PhDs. centre brings together research on the US, Canada and Mexico, enhancing the international visibility ICOG hosts research in a wide range of disciplines of research in this field conducted in Groningen. As belonging to the humanities, including: the study this centre was established in December 2014 only, it of history, of international organizations and is not included in this annual report. international relations, of regions and landscapes, of the America’s, of the arts (literature, the fine arts, Director of the research institute is Prof. E.J. Korthals film/visual arts, music, theatre and architecture), Altes. The coordinators of the research Centres are: and of the media and journalism. What connects our Dr. P.J.D. Gielen (Research Centre Arts in Society), disciplines is their shared interest in culture, with its Prof. R.M. Esser (Research Centre for Historical manifold expressions and defining conditions, and Studies), Prof. J.H. de Wilde (Centre for International their interest for peoples’ capacity for imagination, Relations Research), Prof. M.J. Broersma (Research creativity and meaning-making, currently and Centre for Media and Journalism Studies), Prof. W.M. in the past. To address urgent challenges, such Verhoeven (Center for the Americas). as the pressures on social connectivity and the ICOG has two coordinators: M.R.B. Wubbolts, MA, sustainability of societies, a better understanding who is also in charge of the PhD’s organisation, and of cultural factors and their underlying historical, N.A. Zadorina, MA. ecological, economic, social, and technological The proportion of male and conditions are dearly needed. Here lies a core task Advisory Board: female staff for the humanities, which hold up a critical mirror Dr. S. Corbellini (Chair); Dr. E.M.A. van Boven; Prof. to society, interpreting and questioning its value dr. W.J. van Bekkum; Prof. dr. E. Gualtieri; Prof. dr. L. orientations and their concrete manifestations. Lobo-Guerrero; Dr. M.K. Baar; Prof. dr. M.J. Broersma; Prof. dr. C.W. Bosch; Drs. S. Kamerling. The aim of the research institute is to support and stimulate its members in their on-going projects Composition of staff and new research initiatives; to provide a nourishing As appears from the table below, the 4 research environment, as well as effective supervision and centres have different sizes. In practice, the monitoring for PhD’s ; to allow correct registration composition and focus of the centres appears of research activities and outputs; and to foster the to work well: the centres are to a great extent dissemination of research and co-operation with connected to teaching programmes or clusters of partners in society. related programmes, fostering a sense of cohesion Who are we? and shared interests. In 2013 ICOG was re-structured and divided into The table also shows that, overall, the number 4 research centres: the Research Centre Arts in 2 Annual Report ICOG 2014 Annual Report ICOG 2014 3 The 4 Research Centres – Mission and neuroscience and evolutionary biology into become meaningful in networks of exchange • History and Theory of European Integration Themes humanistic research on culture and the arts. within or crossing borders. The theme is embedded • International Relations and Security Studies • ‘Arts and Narrative’ studies the negotiation of in Groningen’s research strength in the history • International Political Economy The following section presents the mission statement values, subjectivity and identity construction of regions and in the new research area of the • Humanitarian Studies and main themes of the four research centers. through narrative art and storytelling. circulation of knowledge. • ‘Visual Arts, Architecture and Urbanism’ studies • ‘Thinking about History and Historical Culture’. The Research Centre for Media and Journalism Studies Research Centre Arts in Society the history of art, art criticism and architecture. aim of this research group is twofold: to surpass the From social media to print, from websites to Throughout the ages, the arts have fulfilled vital • ‘Beyond Horizons in Cultural Transfer’ studies limits of one single historiographical perspective television, from search engines to radio: media functions in society, helping shape and critically minor and mixed language communities as and to analyze human memory as it manifests itself are at the heart of contemporary life. They have reflect on ways of doing and thinking, values, (emerging) transnational and transcultural space. in (auto-)biographical writing, historical products a major impact not only on how we communicate and world views. In recent decades, the arts have • ‘Cultural Landscapes’ studies historical and of individuals or groups that collect, record or write with one another but more broadly in terms of undergone radical transformations and rapidly cultural landscapes, landscape biographies, ‘their own’ history such as game designers, historical how societies are organised, culturally, politically adapted to phenomena such as globalization, and conducts comparative and interdisciplinary novelists and film producers. and economically. In the Centre for Media and digitization and other technological developments, research on castles, country houses and landed Journalism Studies (CMJS) we research historical and the democratization of creative channels. estates in past and present. Centre for International Relations Research and current developments in media production Notions of artistic autonomy, forcefully promoted The Centre for International Relations Research and audience practices, emerging and established in the nineteenth century, are being contested or Research Centre for Historical Studies (CIRR) studies orders of governance in time and media platforms and technologies. We critically revived in philosophical and ideological discourse. Research in this Centre spans the broad time range space. How do people organize themselves in interrogate the role that media, journalism and In the light of these changes the position of the arts from Classical Antiquity to our own time, focusing terms of cooperation and conflict? How did they digital culture play in an increasingly mediatised in society requires new forms of conceptualization, on the cultural, social, political and economic do this in the past? How will they do so tomorrow? society. definition and legitimatization. diversity of Western societies, with expansions to The comprehensiveness of this perspective should the non-western world (notably South East Asia, be understood in the context of the intellectual The research is organised around four themes that The Research Centre for Arts in Society studies South Asia and Africa). It also covers issues such as history of International Relations Theory (IR). IR as each in its own way addresses the vital importance transformations in the fields of the arts in our current post-colonialism and transnationalism. a discipline is itself a product of time and space, of media and journalism for society: societies and in the past. The centre analyses these characterized by (mainly) Western academic changes in seven interdisciplinary theme groups, all Three research groups facilitate interdisciplinary thought institutionalized since the late 19th Century. • Media and journalism as a cultural form: Focuses connected to international networks, and most of and international research and bring together in a on the historical and contemporary development of which combine theoretical and empirical research, regular research seminar promising postgraduate CIRR analyses world politics, the world economy media and journalism, addressing changes at the including applied and commissioned research: students as well as experienced researchers: and societal identities as constructs with a past and level of content (form and style), technology (the a present in varying spatial settings. Some of the role of new platforms), and the role