Social Sciences & Humanities
Working Group
Chair: Raúl Sánchez Prieto
Raúl Sánchez Prieto is professor of German and Dutch linguistics at the University of Salamanca, Spain, and the head of the Department of Modern Philology. He is also coordinating the EC2U University Alliance in Salamanca, where he was involved from the beginning. Prof. Sánchez has been principal investigator in several third-party funded local, regional, national and European research projects and has extensively published on contrastive linguistics and sociolinguistics.
He has been representing the University of Salamanca in various task forces and working groups of the Coimbra Group since 2012.
Vice Chair: Natasza Styczyńska
Dr Natasza Styczyńska is an assistant professor at the Institute of European Studies of the Jagiellonian University. Her academic interests include party politics, nationalism, populism and Euroscepticism in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. She leads JU team in H2020 REGROUP Rebuilding Governance and Resilience out of the Pandemic research project and is a director of studies of Una Europa Joint BA in European Studies at Jagiellonian. Previously, she participated in numerous research (H2020, Polish National Science Center, UK Economic and Social Research Council, Jean Monnet Networks) and educational projects (Jean Monnet Module, EurAsia Erasmus Plus Capacity Building Project, Visegrad Fund).
Focus of Working Group
In the forthcoming years, the Coimbra Group Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) Working Group (WG) will continue its focus on tasks and activities related to research and education, as well as outreach and visibility. However, its primary objective will be to support the SSH research initiatives of member universities.
To achieve this, the WG will organize seminars and conferences on the implications of multidisciplinary SSH research projects within CG universities. Additionally, the WG will prioritize the collection of new data and the provision of increased research opportunities. It is worth noting that new research themes, including digitalization, machine learning, the ongoing situation in Ukraine, narratives in climate change, and emergent crises and conflicts within societies, will feature prominently in SSH activities from 2024 to 2026. These new topics will address the current surge in AI within the SSH, societal crises, and the concept of solidarity. The SSH WG will also focus on redefining the role of languages in modern society.
Secondly, building on the insights gained from seminars and conferences, the WG aims to develop successful research proposals for international funding bodies, such as EU funding bodies. Previously, the multidisciplinary requirements of EU calls have posed challenges for SSH scholars. Therefore, the WG will emphasize a multidisciplinary research approach and highlight the collaborative nature of SSH to tackle this issue. Additionally, the WG will disseminate information on timely research funding opportunities across member universities and actively participate in the CoARA (Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment) Working Group “Evaluating SSH research globally”.
Thirdly, the SSH WG will serve as an overarching and coordinating structure in the research and educational domains of SSH within the framework of the European Universities Alliances Initiative. Consequently, the WG will act as a liaison between different working groups (self-steering committees/virtual institutes, etc.) from Alliances associated with the Coimbra Group.
Priorities for 2024-2026
- At least one international conference per year will be organized and the proceedings published.
- As an important long-term goal, the WG will look into general themes and specific calls in which SSH research undertaken at CG Universities might find success. Prior work on funding proposals has been conducted, in connection to meetings and conferences.
- An inter-European University Alliances coordination committee will be set up for exploring, mapping and then planning future inter-Alliance activities.
- We will continue to stress the role of SSH for postgraduate and doctoral education and increase our levels of collaboration with other CG representatives at the home universities, if possible via Blended Intensive Programmes (BIPs). We will use BIPs for intra-CG cooperation on postgrad and doctoral levels.
Recent highlights
- CG Conference “Reflecting on peace in Ukraine: long term narratives, wars of disinformation, peace diplomacy and peace building” (23-24 January 2023, Brussels).
- Inter-European Universities Alliances International Conference “New Narratives for a Damaged Planet: Humanities and Social Sciences Perspectives on the Climate Crisis” (16–17 November 2023, Jagiellonian University, Kraków).
Ongoing/forthcoming activities
2024 – 2025
- Educational Workshop on changing times in the SSH (AI – big data – ChatGPT) at Charles University in Prague (Fall 2024, one and a half days).
- SSH conference “Old Cities, Former Capitals and the Nation-State Building in Europe (18th-20th centuries): regional and national identities” (Fall 2024 or Spring 2025).
- Actively taking part in the CoARA WG “Evaluating SSH research globally”.
2025–2026
- SSH conference “Thinking between/beyond languages” (Spring 2025 or Fall 2025, host university tbd).
- Conference “Concept of solidarity in Europe – a transdisciplinary approach” (Fall 2025 or Spring 2026, University of Pavia).
Contact person at the CG Office: Manuel Daporta Cendán (daporta-cendan@coimbra-group.eu)
