Research

Research in Humanities focuses on understanding the contemporary human condition from the dual perspectives of Human Security and Human Communication. Interdisciplinary research is undertaken in Applied Linguistics, Politics, English, History, Sociology, Languages and International Relations, with reference to Africa, America, China, Europe and the Middle East.

Human Security

Research in Politics and International Studies (including International History), focuses on Human Security as the over-arching conceptual framework for structuring research activities.

With the development of economic globalisation and open, social networks the worlds of humanitarianism, development, human rights, social justice, conflict and business are now necessarily integrated with agendas traditionally focused on military security and territorial issues.

Research is frequently carried out in demanding conditions and is wide-ranging in geographical scope. A key methodological approach is to focus on relationships between local and non-local/international actors in order to move beyond assumed problem identification and inferred community needs towards more participatory and demand-led modes of research and action. Taking novel approaches to the analysis of Human Security issues has generated new insights, understandings and interpretations.

Human Communication

Using combinations of corpus linguistic, functional, genre-based, lexicographic and translation approaches, research in English Language and Linguistics aims to understand Human Communication through projects relating to academic, business, digital, personal and literary contexts. Much of this work has implications for educational practice.