The Future of the Historical Humanities

University Library Leiden - Friday 20 April, 15.00-17.00 hrs. The Initial Training Network MITT and Leiden University invite you for a panel discussion on the future of the historical humanities in- and outside the world of academic research and education. The year 2014 will mark the beginning of Horizon 2020, the next Framework Program for Research and Innovation of the European Union. The plans and preliminary papers on Horizon 2020 define a number of challenges concerning research and the market, industrial leadership or societal questions of sustainability, climate, (social) security, ageing and inclusive societies. The changing focus in the academic world and the European Research Area will present the humanities with a major challenge. Especially those domains that concentrate on the culture, art and literature of historical periods will have to rethink and redefine their strengths and relevance for the societal challenges that are addressed in Horizon 2020. In what way can the humanities provide a scientifically and socially meaningful contribution to the Program? Now that national research budgets are decreasing rapidly, this European framework and its various funding programs will have an enormous impact on national and local academic policy. Therefore, the humanities will have to (re)assess their contribution to research as well as its public understanding and societal relevance. Scholars have to find new ways to secure and strengthen their position for the benefit of new generations of scholars. The MITT- panel will address these urgent issues in a discussion that brings together experienced researchers in the field of medieval studies and PhD-students that will form the new generation of scholars.

Panel Drs. Annemarie Bos (Director Humanities of Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) Prof. dr. Wim Blockmans (medieval history, former rector of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Wassenaar) Prof. dr. Catrien Santing (medieval history, Director Onderzoekschool Medivistiek) Prof. dr. Reindert Falkenburg (art history, Dean of Arts and Humanities, Vice Provost for Intellectual and Cultural Outreach, New York University, Faculty Abu Dhabi) Prof. dr. Hans-Jochen Schiewer (medievistische Germanistik, rector Albert-LudwigsUniversitt Freiburg) PhD-students from the MITT-network

The panel is chaired by prof. dr. Wim van den Doel (Dean of the Humanities, Leiden University).

Programme 14.30 15.00 15.30 17.00 - Doors open and coffee - Introduction - Discussion - Drinks and music

Attendance is free, but please send a notice to luicd@hum.leidenuniv.nl Practical information Attendance is free, but please send a notice to luicd@hum.leidenuniv.nl The panel discussion will take place in the University Library Leiden, Witte Singel 27 Leiden.

MITT (Mobility of Ideas and Transmission of Texts) is a Marie Curie Initial Training Network, funded under the 7th European Framework programme. The MITT-project brings together five expert teams from the Universities of Antwerp, Freiburg, Lecce, Leiden and Oxford to provide substantive and methodological training on late medieval intellectual history, philosophy and literature to a cohort of twelve earlystage researchers. MITT focuses on the medieval dynamics of intellectual life and literature in the Rhineland and the Low Countries, nowadays divided over five countries (Switzerland, France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands) but one cultural region in the later Middle Ages. http://www.mitt-itn.eu/