Our Approach
Key Principles
Where possible, we will share provision with other partners within the University (including the other Divisions), in the rest of the public sector, in the private sector and in industry, capitalising on links established through the Division’s Knowledge Exchange and Public Engagement with Research activities.
The Humanities Division takes advantage of its location at the intersection of its faculties to offer training in areas and skills that transcend their individual boundaries, informed by the annual research themes of The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH).
Pursuing a research project in the humanities is transformative. It can also be an isolating experience, and present particular challenges at key moments of transition. The Division’s programme will help students to support each other as ‘rounded researchers’ and prepare them ‘to contribute to the development of other researchers in their turn’.[1]
[1] Lia Blaj-Ward, ‘Skills versus pedagogy? Doctoral research training in the UK Arts and Humanities’, Higher Education Research & Development, 30:6 (2011), 705. The acuteness of this issue has been acknowledged by the AHRC in its report on Support for Arts and Humanities Researchers Post-PhD available at the following web address: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/documents/project-reports-and-reviews/support-for-arts-and-humanities-researchers-post-phd-final-report/.
Researcher development in the Humanities Division aims not only to satisfy the requirements and initiatives of the sector (including AHRC/RCUK, the QAA, Athena SWAN, Public Sector Equality Duty, and the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers[1]) but to contribute to the national and international agenda for inclusive, innovative and entrepreneurial researcher development and training.
[1] Available at the following web address: https://www.vitae.ac.uk/policy/vitae-concordat-vitae-2011.pdf.