Annual Report Groningen Research Institute for the Study of Culture (ICOG) 2017 Contents 1. About ICOG 4 Mission 4 Who are we? 5 Composition of staff 5 The Five Research Centres – Mission and Themes 5 Phd Programme 10 Funding 10 Research Integrity 10 Goals and results 11 2. Research within the research centres of ICOG 12 Research Centre Arts in Society 12 Research Centre for Historical Studies 13 Centre for International Relations Research 14 Research Centre for Media and Journalism Studies 15 Research Center for the Americas 16 3.ICOG in society 17 Research Centre Arts in Society 17 Research Centre for Historical Studies 18 Centre for International Relations Research 19 Research Centre for Media and Journalism Studies 20 Research Centre for the Americas 21 Narrative 23 Gelukkig Gezond! Histories of healthy ageing 23 Cover image ©RU, photo: Carolien Fijt 3 and their interest in peoples’ capacity for 1. About ICOG imagination, creativity and production of meaning, currently and in the past. To Mission address urgent challenges, such as the pressures on social connectivity and The Groningen Institute for Research on the sustainability of societies, a better Culture (ICOG is its Dutch acronym) is the understanding of cultural factors and largest of the three research institutes their underlying historical, ecological, in the Faculty of Art. ICOG counts 205 economic, social, and technological members. 119 PhD candidates are conditions are much needed. Here lies associated with the institute. a core task for the humanities, which hold up a critical mirror to society, ICOG hosts research in a wide range interpreting and questioning its of disciplines belonging to the value orientations and their concrete humanities, including: the study of manifestations. history, of international organizations and international relations, of regions The aim of the research institute is to and landscapes, of the Americas, of the support and stimulate its members in arts (literature, the fine arts, film/visual their on-going projects and new research arts, music, theatre and architecture), initiatives; to provide an intellectually and of media and journalism. What nourishing environment, as well as connects our disciplines is their shared effective supervision and monitoring interest in culture, with its manifold for PhDs; to allow comprehensive expressions and defining conditions, 4 registration of research activities and to teaching programmes or clusters of outputs; and to foster the dissemination related programmes, fostering a sense of research and co-operation with of cohesion and shared interests. partners in society. The table also shows that, overall, the Who are we? number of associate professors and post-docs (here: researcher) is small – ICOG consists of five research centres: even inexistent in some centres. This the Research Centre Arts in Society; the is a disadvantage, since staff in these Research Centre for Historical Studies; positions can play a vigorous role in the Research Centre for International stimulating new research orientations Relations Research; the Research Centre and grant capture. for Media and Journalism Studies; and the Research Center for the Americas. The proportion of male and female staff features in the table below (page 6). Board Director of the research institute is The Five Research Centres – Prof. R.M. Esser. The coordinators of Mission and Themes the research centres are Professor A.S. Lehmann and Prof. P. Valdivia Martin The following section presents the (Research Centre Arts in Society), Dr H.G. mission statement and main themes of Knoeff (Research Centre for Historical the five research centres. Studies), Prof. L.E. Lobo-Guerrero (Centre for International Relations Research), Research Centre Arts in Society Prof. M.J. Broersma (Research Centre for Throughout the ages, the arts have Media and Journalism Studies), Prof. L.C. fulfilled vital functions in society, helping Bieger (Center for the Americas). ICOG shape and critically reflect on ways of has two coordinators: M.R.B. Wubbolts, doing and thinking, on values, and world MA, who is also in charge of the PhD’s views. In recent decades, the arts have organisation, and A. Duiveman, MA. undergone radical transformations and rapidly adapted to phenomena such Advisory Board as globalization, digitization and other Prof. S. Corbellini (Chair), Dr N.S. Baadj, Dr technological developments, and the M.L. Thompson, Prof. Dr T.A.C. Witschge, democratization of creative channels. Dr J. Hönke, Dr K. Mierau. Notions of artistic autonomy, forcefully promoted in the nineteenth century, are being contested or revived in Composition of staff philosophical and ideological discourse. AAs appears from the table below, the In the light of these changes the position five research centres have different of the arts in society requires new forms sizes. In practice, the composition and of conceptualization, definition and focus of the centres works well: the legitimatization. centres are to a great extent connected 5 The Research Centre for Arts in Society • ‘Art, Medium, and Moving Images’ studies transformations in the fields of studies the impact of social and the arts in our current societies and in the technological developments on artistic past. The centre analyses these changes media, on the production of mixed in seven interdisciplinary theme groups, media and on inter-art relationships. all connected to international networks, • ‘Arts, Culture, and Cognition’ aims to and most of which combine theoretical integrate in meaningful ways relevant and empirical research, including developments within neuroscience and applied and commissioned research: evolutionary biology into humanistic research on culture and the arts. • ‘Art and Institutional Change’ studies • ‘Arts and Narrative’ studies the the institutional context of the arts (art negotiation of values, subjectivity and worlds, policies, actors, networks and identity construction through narrative values) and the influence of economic, art and storytelling. political, social and technological • ‘Objects of Art and Architecture’ developments on the arts. studies approaches in art and architectural history to open up 6 diachronic perspectives on the objects of societies from antiquity to the of art and architecture, their particular present. It addresses explicitly the role agencies, and the networks they exist in. of literary, artistic and religious culture • ‘Beyond Horizons in Cultural as the historical and cultural roots of Transfer’ studies minor and mixed the present-day relationship between language communities as (emerging) politics, state and society. transnational and transcultural space. • ‘Regions, Networks, Mobility’ is • ‘Cultural Landscapes’ studies based on the idea that money, goods, historical and cultural landscapes, news, knowledge and beliefs function landscape biographies, and conducts and become meaningful in networks of comparative and interdisciplinary exchange within or crossing borders. research on castles, country houses and The theme is embedded in Groningen’s landed estates in past and present. research strength in the history of • ‘Music, Sound, and Culture’ studies regions and in the new research area of audio cultures and the dynamics through the circulation of knowledge. which sounds and sonic structures are • ‘Thinking about History and articulated with, afformeanings to, or Historical Culture’. The aim of become agents of material processes. this research group is twofold: to surpass the limits of one single historiographical perspective and to Research Centre for Historical analyse human memory as it manifests Studies itself in (auto-)biographical writing, Research in this Centre spans the historical products of individuals or chronological time range from Classical groups that collect, record or write ‘their Antiquity to our own time, focusing on the own’ history such as game designers, cultural, social, political and economic historical novelists and film producers. diversity of Western societies, with expansions to the non-western world Centre for International Relations (notably South East Asia, South Asia and Africa). It also covers issues such as Research post-colonialism and transnationalism. The Centre for International Relations Research focuses on understanding Three research groups facilitate orders of governance in time and space. interdisciplinary and international With a particular interest in theoretical, research and bring together in a methodological, and policy innovations regular research seminar promising in the study of international relations postgraduate students as well as and politics, CIRR concentrates its experienced researchers: attention on the history and theory of international relations, the history and • ‘Sustainable Societies: Past and theory of European integration, European Present’ studies forms and practices, politics and culture, international arrangements, cultures and institutions political economy, security studies, and which explain and contribute to the humanitarian action. social coherence and sustainability 7 CIRR encompasses a wide range of International Relations, sociology, expertise including area studies cultural theory, philosophy, and (Europe, Asia, Latin America, Middle history), and diverse methodological East and Africa), the social and perspectives (qualitative, quantitative human sciences (political science, and visual approaches). It contributes to SWOT analysis Strengths Weaknesses • Research productivity and international