The Centre conducts historical research into an array of European intellectual traditions and cultural forms. It focuses on the discourses in which these forms of thought and culture were formulated, the networks in which such discourses circulated, and the larger cultural and political contexts in which they functioned. The Centre’s focus on European discourses is acknowledgment that intellectual history is regional, and that the vocabularies in which current cultural, political and religious issues are framed emerged at a particular time and place — in early modern Europe — even if these vocabularies have been transmitted into the present by unresolved conflicts rather than by uninterrupted traditions.
The Centre is engaged in several research programs:
- The history of European political and philosophical thought, under the leadership of Professor Ian Hunter, with particular emphasis on early modern Germany and Britain.
- The history of European understandings of sexuality, under the leadership of Professor Peter Cryle, with particular emphasis on nineteenth-century France.
- The history of religious thought, under the leadership of Professor Philip Almond, with particular emphasis on seventeenth-century Britain.
- British literary history in the period between 1700 and 1960, under the guidance of Professor Simon During.
This research has given rise to collaborative projects such as the Persona of the Philosopher in Early Modern Europe, Feminine Sexual Pathologies, and the History of Theory.
In pursuing its agenda the Centre has constituted a distinctive research milieu through, the support of postdoctoral fellows, the affiliation of research scholars, and the supervision of postgraduate students. Our key activities include themed public seminars, in-house work in progress seminars, a program of workshops and conferences, and active participation in national and international research networks.
