Established in 2022, the Engaged Humanities Lab at Royal Holloway is an interdisciplinary initiative designed to foster and promote challenge-led, collaborative research, projects, and partnerships. In line with the School of Humanities ‘Engaged Humanities’ strategy, a key aim of the Lab is to encourage activity which highlights the vital role the Humanities and cognate disciplines have in addressing the challenges of our times and making a positive contribution to society.
The Lab is not a physical entity but rather a rolling and flexible programme of activity designed to create the intellectual space and supporting culture for the development of ambitious Engaged Humanities projects. The Lab’s activities range from events and workshops focused on collaborative research, public engagement, and civic initiatives, through to funding schemes which enable colleagues to pilot co-created Engaged Humanities projects with a range of external partners.
At its core, the Lab has three missions:
Challenges: to increase the amount, scale and scope of Humanities derived, challenge-led collaborative research activity at Royal Holloway.
Collaboration: to support colleagues in developing collaborative research projects, building external partnerships, and co-creating impactful, public facing research outputs.
Communication: to equip Humanities scholars with the skills, tools, and opportunities to disseminate their research to new and wider audiences.
While the Lab is based in the School of Humanities, its activities and funding schemes are open to all cognate disciplines. The Lab also works closely with a range of external partners. It is directed by Dr Matthew Smith and has been supported by Charlotte Gauthier, Johti Kirby, Charlie Mills and Angela Platt. The Lab was co-founded with Dr Christopher Daley.
