Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities

The Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities is an interdisciplinary research centre within the University of Cambridge. Founded in 2001, CRASSH came into being as a way to create interdisciplinary dialogue across the University’s many faculties and departments in the arts, social sciences, and humanities, as well as to build bridges with scientific subjects.

Directors

Ian Donaldson, 2001–2003
Ludmilla Jordanova, 2003–2005
Mary Jacobus, 2005–2011
Andrew Webber, 2009–2010
Simon Goldhill, 2011–2018
Tim Lewens, 2014–2017
Jan-Melissa Schramm, 2017–2019
Steven Connor, 2018–2022
Joanna Page, 2022–present
Stuart Hogarth, 2023–present
Management Committee

For the current CRASSH Management Committee, please on the official website.

Research projects

CRASSH is and was home to numerous major, long-term research projects and centres.
Current projects

Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy
* Minderoo Centre is primarily funded by Minderoo Foundation which is primarily funded by Andrew Forrest, Chairman of Fortescue
Cambridge Digital Humanities
The University of Cambridge Centre for Geopolitics
Global History Lab
Roam Within
Nasawe’sx ya’yu’cenxi – Weaving Our Own Justice

Past projects

Centre for the Study of Existential Risk
Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence
Beyond the Cold War: Toward a Community of Asia
Crossroads of Knowledge in Early Modern England: The Place of Literature
Expertise Under Pressure
Genius Before Romanticism: Ingenuity in Early Modern Art and Science
Making Visible: The Visual and Graphic Practices of the Early Royal Society
Qualitative and Quantitative Social Science: Unifying the Logic of Causal Inference?
Bible and Antiquity in 19th Century Culture
China in a Global World War II
The Concept Lab
Conspiracy and Democracy
Conversions
The History of Cross-Cultural Comparatism
Limits of the Numerical
Seeing Things: Early Modern Visual and Material Culture
Technology and Democracy
Visual Representations of the Third Plague Pandemic
Centre for Global Knowledge Studies
Centre for the Humanities and Social Change, Cambridge
Giving Voice to Digital Democracies: The Social Impact of Artificially Intelligent Communications Technology
The Global as ARTEFACT: Understanding the Patterns of Global Political History Through an Anthropology of Knowledge – The Case of Agriculture in Four Global Systems from the Neolithic to the Present
Religious Diversity and the Secular University
Research Networks

The CRASSH Research Networks Programme supports groups of Cambridge graduate students and faculty members working together with a common interdisciplinary research interest, bringing together early-career researchers, established academics and guest speakers on particular research topics for a year of collaborative work.

Events and Initiatives

The CRASSH events and initiatives programme showcases arts, social sciences and humanities research.

Fellowships

CRASSH offers a number of Fellowship programmes. These schemes allow a community of scholars to interact in an interdisciplinary research environment.

Alison Richard Building

At the beginning of 2012, CRASSH moved into the new Alison Richard Building at the West Road gateway to the University’s Sidgwick Site, the main base for humanities and social science teaching and research at Cambridge. The building was designed by Nicholas Hare Architects and received a commendation at the 2013 Civic Trust Awards. The Centre’s relocation put CRASSH alongside the major regional studies centres as well as the Department of Politics and International Studies. The building is also home to Edmund de Waal's first piece of public sculpture, A Local History, a commission of three vitrines filled with porcelain and sunk into the pavement outside the building.