Past SWWDTP research clusters
Cymraeg
Discover more about our past student-led research clusters.
This research cluster draws together a number of interconnected ideas and concepts, including:
The aim of the cluster is to explore the relationship between human beings and the natural world over time, across disciplines, and beyond the confines of academia. It assesses the impact of humans and animals upon the environment, and examines cultural representations of what has come to be known as ‘landscape’.
One aim of the cluster is to build on the reputation of the South West as a locus of environmental activism and green ideas, as exemplified by initiatives such a
Read more about Figures in the Landscape
Follow on Twitter: @inthelandscape
Rethinking Community is a network of researchers whose research interests, projects, methods, and/or backgrounds broadly interact with the idea of community. The cluster welcomes researchers of all disciplines and time periods. It encourages us to think critically and reflexively about:
The cluster asks:
The cluster runs a range of activities, including monthly discussion groups and work-in-progress sessions. For the academic year 2021-2022, they are planning a seminar series of guest speakers and are looking to establish our own blog. We also host regular coffee mornings to check in and chat with colleagues!
All welcome! Please get in touch at via rethinkingcommunitynetwork@gmail.com
Follow on Twitter: @swwdtp_rcn
Created by our students, the cluster explores gender and sexuality related themes across a range of disciplines.
Read the Gender and Sexuality blog
Follow on Twitter: @swwgender
How is change conceived, imagined, experienced and evaluated?
‘Understanding Change’ examines a question at the heart of much Arts and Humanities research: how, why and with what effect does change occur?
Discussion explores political, social, economic and cultural transformation in the past, present and future and critiques theoretical and empirical approaches made across disciplines.
Follow on Twitter: @changecluster
How have pre-modern ideas and materials been received and reinterpreted over time?
‘Pre-Modern Encounters’ considers conceptual and practical approaches to materiality, to the identification and interpretation of heritage objects, and the imperative for a productive exchange between academic and public priorities.
Read the Pre-modern Encounters blog
How have, and will, the arts and humanities inform our understanding of science and technology?
‘STEAM Subjects and Objects’ considers to what extent scientists learn from researchers in the arts and humanities, and how might the arts and humanities be used as a way of communicating and thinking about scientific discovery?
What can theory learn from creative practice and vice versa?
‘Theory and Research in Practice (TRIP)’ explores the following questions:
Read more about the TRIP Cluster
Follow on Twitter: @TRIPcluster
Created by our students, the cluster takes the body as its theme and embraces it in all its different modes of being and ways of being studied. This includes:
The initial key research focuses identified, include:
Follow on Twitter: @EmbodimentDTP
The ‘TRAM’ cluster’s core aims are to consider notions of translation, representation, adaptation, and mobility in increasingly globalised settings. Given the ever-changing current political climate, the cluster comes together to look at different modes of (self)-representation, and how these have been embodied and re-fashioned primarily in literature, visual culture, social media, and the press.
Today’s radically shifting political contexts and ideologies make the values of this cluster all the more relevant and engaging.
Follow on Twitter: @TRAMcluster
The ‘Politics, Community, Culture’ cluster focuses on political/politicized communities and cultures, as well as the politics of culture and community more broadly. The cluster aims to bring together interests in grassroots organizing, identity construction and collective narratives. These can be formed in different localities, and in response to different political events, movements and processes.
The cluster asks questions such as:
The cluster explores these themes through a variety of approaches, ranging from participatory, practice-led and community-based methodologies, to those more conventional in academia.
The Rethinking Eurocentrism research cluster provides knowledge-sharing, learning, and solidarity for those whose research, interests or identities reflect the world beyond Europe. Rethinking Eurocentrism offers participants across various disciplines a space to centre ways of thinking, being, and doing from the Global South and Indigenous Nations.
Created by our students, this interdisciplinary cluster brings together scholars across the arts and humanities to analyse how events are remembered and memorialised.
The research cluster seeks to understand the impact of memory on culture, society and politics through the exploration of topics including, but not limited to:
Read more about Visit Memory Studies
Follow on Twitter: @MemoryStudiesSW
This cluster explore all forms of creativity in academic research, working across multiple disciplines. It is particularly interested in examining the following questions:
The cluster believes that practice-based and creative research methodologies, as fairly new branches in academia, still need to unleash their potential and shape the research landscape. For this reason, the Creativity in Research cluster encourages the dialogue between practice-based projects and more traditional research: the objective is to provide people with tools to look at problems and questions from more nuanced angles and perspectives.
The cluster looks for, discusses, and promotes approaches and methodologies that can be borrowed from creative practices and the arts, and be applied to other fields and forms of research.
Read more about Creativity in Research
Follow on Twitter: @creativity_dtp
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How can the arts & humanities contribute to the life sciences, medical practice, and our understanding of health, both in theory and in practice?
The Health Humanities Cluster brings together researchers from across both the sciences and the arts and humanities to discuss, collaborate on, and investigate a wide range of questions on the theme of health, including:
Follow on Twitter: @HealthClusterSW
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