Rationale

The European Humanities Research Centre is affiliated to the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages and represents European humanities within the University of Oxford. It is part of Oxford's network of collaborative interdisciplinary clusters devoted to the study of Europe, including the Modern European History Research Centre (affiliated to the Modern History Faculty), the Oxford Centre for Medieval History, the Centre for Early Modern Studies, Italian Studies at Oxford, the European Studies Centre and the Russian and Eurasian Studies Centre (the latter two centres based at St Antony's College). Whereas the many of the centres just mentioned focus mostly on history, politics and the social sciences, the EHRC's primary domain of research is culture. 

The EHRC understands 'culture' in the broadest possible way. It explores all its manifestations, from language and literature to film and the media, from pop culture and everyday experience to religion, philosophy and science. The EHRC incorporates all disciplinary approaches relevant to the critical study of culture, including those of history, anthropology, sociology and semiotics. In addition to viewing 'European culture' as inevitably plural, the EHRC sees it as an essential part of 'global culture' and consistently explores Europe's many cultural interactions with other parts of the world.

The EHRC's role is that of a catalyst of interdisciplinarity and internationalism in the study of European cultures at Oxford. Firstly, the EHRC interconnects the remarkable variety of research interests of Oxford's different Modern Languages Sub-Faculties. Secondly, it links the activities of the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages with those of other Oxford faculties, departments and research centres. And thirdly, it stimulates interaction in the study of European cultures with institutions and scholars outside Oxford, both in the UK and abroad.