BACKGROUND
ECHIC is a university-based initiative to organise European Research Institutes and Centres for the Humanities.
The profile of the humanities in Europe today has become a contested space that is often the focus of polemical debates but seldom the object of rigorous scientific discussions.  The traditional identity of the humanities has been challenged by external factors linked to current scientific and technological developments in both the bio-genetics and information technology fields. These challenges result in the need for new inter-disciplinary dialogues and productive forms of convergence across disciplines which have been historically kept apart. Moreover, faculties of the humanities throughout Europe are also undergoing increasing economic and political pressure to fit the requirements of global neo-liberal economic systems that often narrow down the scope of higher education in the humanities, questioning both the European tradition of free and universal education rights and also the national basis of organisation of research and teaching in the field.
Far from being just a crisis, we think that this set of circumstances and historical conditions offers productive conditions to renew the profile, the identity and the function of the humanities in a globally linked, fast-changing and technologically mediated world. This consortium rests on the double assumption that effective international and intra-European networking in defence of the humanities, on the one hand, and interdisciplinary research across the field of the humanities, on the other, can play a significant role in shaping this debate about the humanities today and offer workable alternatives to the renewal of the field. The consortium pursues the highest international standards of excellence with a spirit of innovation and exploration of new research areas, but also with an acute sense of the social and political relevance of the humanities in Europe today.

AIMS:
The aims of the proposed Consortium are threefold:
•           To speak up on behalf of members in dialogues with ESF, EU and other funding and policy-making bodies to canvass the need for humanities research; to be able to speak on behalf of the humanities and develop a language for the (position of) humanities institutes in European universities today.
•           To organise an annual humanities conference at a member institution, which would involve all the main partners, including funding and policy-making bodies at the European and the national levels.
•           To establish a network across the EU to lobby for the humanities in Europe today; to prepare collaborative projects and activities and set up an effective networking system with other international networks in the humanities, such as CHCI and others.   
The proposal to set up this Consortium will be discussed at the Founding Conference for ECHIC, to be held in Dublin on February 23-25, 2011.

THE INITIATIVE to establish ECHIC is taken by :

• Centre for the Humanities  at Utrecht University
  
• Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität
• Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
• Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane, Fondazione SUM, Firenze
• Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin
• Université Paris-Diderot (Paris 7)
   

AN EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE takes care of preparations for the Conference:

Chair: Poul Holm (Dublin)
Secretary: Rosi Braidotti (Utrecht)
Treasurer: Marxiano Melotti (Firenze)

ECHIC IS SUPPORTED BY:

• Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, Birkbeck College, London

• Centre for Advanced Studies, The University of Nottingham, UK

• Centre for Law and the Humanities, Birkbeck College London

• CRASSH--the University of Cambridge's "Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities."
• Ljubljana Institute for the Humanities   
• School of Advanced Studies, University of London
• School of English at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
• Scuola Superiore di Studi  Umanistici, Bologna 
• The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at The University of Edinburgh
• University College London

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FOUNDING CONFERENCE
DUBLIN, 23 – 25 FEBRUARY 2011

The purpose of the conference is to be a forum to raise important issues in the field of arts and humanities, and in particular to decide to set up a consortium of European humanities institutes and centres.

The conference will have three components:

1. Academic papers on topics of general concern to European humanities
2. A poster session with information on humanities centres and institutes
3. A business session to decide on the establishment of ECHIC

It is intended to publish a selection of papers in a peer/reviewed journal dedicated to arts and humanities.

Conference Programme

Biographical Details of Speakers