Research

St Cuthbert’s is a large multi-disciplinary scholarly community of 1200 students: over 200 of these are postgraduates, many from overseas. The Senior Common Room (SCR) has over 200 members from university departments and also from the professional world and the local community, including alumni; their work and interests span a very wide range, including archaeology, modern languages, Old Norse, mathematics, astronomy, psychology, education, business, policing and prisons. As part of the University’s Research Strategy, colleges play an increasing role in the support of research activities and in linking research with education. The Principal, Elizabeth Archibald, is also a Professor in the Department of English Studies. She is responsible for the development of research activities in the college, in collaboration with the Vice Principal/Senior Tutor, the Assistant Senior Tutor, the SCR Committee and the Postgraduate Representative of the JCR.

The Principal
Elizabeth Archibald is a medievalist who works both on comparative literature and on social and cultural history; her current project is on baths and bathing in the Middle Ages. She has published widely on the Arthurian legend, and is President of the British Branch of the International Arthurian Society. She is a member of the University’s Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, the Centre for Medical Humanities, and the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing, and is working with them on research events at Cuth’s also open to the wider university community.

Institute of Advanced Study
Cuth’s regularly hosts a visiting Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies, who lives in the college and engages both formally and informally in our research activities. This year our IAS Fellow was Professor Alia Al-Saji, a philosopher at McGill University, who participated in the IAS theme Time. Next year our visitor will be Professor Tom Mole, also of McGill, an English scholar specializing in Romanticism and Byron, and the IAS theme will be Light. We also host an artist in residence every year: this year it is the Norwegian painter Roar Kjærnstad.

Postgraduate Research Fora
We have recently launched a series of Postgraduate Research Fora at which both postgraduates and SCR members give brief talks on their current research; some undergraduate finalists also participate. Topics have included King Arthur, Molière, galaxy formation, Austrian novels, fellowship among knights and among hobbits, philosophy, and landslides. In the upcoming event ‘One Slide Says It All’, any member of Cuth’s can encapsulate their research in a single image or set of images.These informal sessions allow research students to practice presenting their projects to non-specialists; students discover what SCR members work on; undergraduates gain a better understanding of what research involves; and the whole community benefits from interdisciplinary discussion.

Symposia on ‘Sense, Sensation, Emotion’
We have recently launched a series of interdisciplinary symposia on ‘Sense, Sensation, Emotion’, bringing together speakers with very different perspectives. We began with ‘Colour and Vision’ (in collaboration with St Chad’s); the speakers were an artist, a blind person, a synaesthetic, a neuroscientist, a theologian, a medievalist, and a physicist. Next came ‘Taste’, with a scientifically trained food and flavour specialist from London, and a local team working on appetizing recipes for head and neck cancer patients, including ‘The Chemical Chef’ who produced some amazing samples. In April we have a symposium on ‘Remorse’, ranging from medieval incest stories to modern Irish politics, and we also plan a session with researchers from the Leverhulme-funded Durham research project ‘Hearing the Voice’. These symposia will continue next year, in collaboration with the Centre for Medical Humanities and the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing: we shall explore more of the senses, and also return to Colour and Taste, which have proved very rich and exciting research areas.

Lectures and Debates
Cuth’s sponsors numerous lectures open to anyone interested. This year’s topics have included the Northern Lights, work for reconciliation by Israelis and Palestinians bereaved in the conflict, the value of prisons, and political speechwriting. Next year we plan to start a series of informal debates on ‘Difficult Questions’ across a wide range of fields.