In 2022 the Humanities Research Centre welcomes scholars from across the world and across disciplines who will lead us in exploring a topic that will not stand still.

Mobilities means a multitude of things. Some definitions of ‘mobility’ in the Oxford English Dictionary are:

• ‘The ability to move or to be moved; capacity for movement or change of place’.
• ‘Ease or freedom of movement; capacity for rapid or comfortable locomotion or travel’.
• ‘The ability or tendency to change easily or quickly; changeableness, instability; fickleness’.
• ‘Tendency or susceptibility to rapid emotional change; impressionability; excitability. Now rare’.
• ‘Chiefly Sociology. The ability or potential of individuals within a society to move between different social levels (more fully vertical mobility) or between different occupations, etc. (more fully horizontal mobility); the ability or potential of a workforce to move from place to place’.
   

We interpret the term broadly, and acknowledge the growing use of ‘mobility’ and ‘mobilities’ as key descriptive and theoretical terms in the humanities and social sciences. The theme will be taken up by scholars who address the concept in creative and interdisciplinary ways, and across a variety of topics including migration, asylum, tourism, transport, urban mobility, career mobility, social mobility, emotion and affect, and the exchange and transmission of goods, services, and ideas.

In line with the suggestive multivalence of the word itself, HRC scholars in 2022 consider ‘mobility’ socio-politically, physically, mentally, as a local or global phenomenon, in different cultures and different historical periods. Some seek to investigate the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic has affected our social, physical, and psychological mobility, and the way we are likely to act and think about mobility and immobility in the future.

The theme will generate rich discussion and debate, and we invite you to participate in our events and activities throughout the year.

See our group of Visiting Fellows for 2022 here. 

Applications for the 2022 Humanities Research Centre Visiting Fellowship Program – on the theme of 'Mobilities' – have now closed.