Research

Newcastle University's strengths in humanities-focused research are wide-ranging. We work alongside and across the more discipline-focused schools to build on this established record of research excellence. The institute builds new research collaborations between scholars in different disciplines, students and partners.

Our most important role is to create a vibrant, supportive and inclusive environment for new ideas to emerge. We work with our sister institutes to catalyse new partnerships across the faculty, the university and beyond. We aim to support research that expands interdisciplinary horizons that have the potential to innovate and transform.  

Find out more about humanities-led interdisciplinary research at Newcastle University below. This includes information about our current and past projects, partnerships, strategic themes, cross-faculty methods hub and our Challenge Labs that involve students in our research community.

If you have an idea for a project, please consult the Research Support and Funding information and contact us.

Research Themes

Each year, the Humanities Research Institute highlights key research themes for the coming academic year. These are multifaceted topics that are addressed collaboratively by teams or networks of researchers and their partner organisations. These are themes that are often supported by external funding programmes. They demand challenge-led research that requires interdisciplinary methods and expertise.

Research and Education Culture

The Humanities Research Institute works alongside the Institutes for Creative Arts Practice and Social Science to create a space for reflecting on the values and ethos that shape our integrated culture of research and education. Slow scholarship, equality, diversity, inclusion and allyship, intergenerational and environmental justice, and creative mapping for quality time release are at the heart of our discussions around how we can best create and sustain an open, equitable culture of research and education. This includes leading the move towards open research that promotes participation, transparency, accessibility and reusability of work. Open research, or open science, promotes the co-creation of knowledge across communities. It aims to make this knowledge as widely accessible to as many people as possible. The values, ideas and methods that underpin open research bring into focus the research/education interface as a space of possibility. 

Mapping Expertise

In our role as connector and convenor, the Humanities Research Institute carries out regular mapping exercises that aim to chart expertise across the university. This might be done by theme, by shared methodologies, or by location.

These mapping exercises combine a deep-dive approach to the specified theme alongside a holistic overview of the breadth of expertise across the university in this same area. The aim is to foster a more cohesive and interdisciplinary research environment by enabling members of our research community to seek out like minds and to know what is going on in other parts of the university.

To find out more about our current mapping exercises, see below.

Methods: Training and Knowledge Exchange

Innovative, interdisciplinary research requires professional development and training in skills and methods. The Newcastle University Methods Hub is a multidisciplinary initiative funded by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Research Institutes. The Hub illustrates the broad scope of research methods being developed and applied across the university. It creates a forum for critical interdisciplinary and methodological debate, opportunities for skills training, and knowledge exchange.

Policy Pathways and Engagement

Contributing to evidence-based, policy-relevant research is a key aspect of the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty vision for research impact and engagement. Policy Pathways is a project hosted by the HaSS Research Institutes that aims to support colleagues working to develop policy-relevant research and establish partnerships with stakeholders in the policy sector.