The Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) was established in 2001, with the objective of creating interdisciplinary dialogue across the many departments and faculties of the School of Arts and Humanities and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and to forge connections with science subjects. Since then, CRASSH has grown into one of the largest humanities institutes in the world, with a global reputation for excellence.
CRASSH’s mission is to promote and support research innovation in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. It equips researchers to design and lead ambitious, interdisciplinary projects that make significant contributions to knowledge and bring effective social change. It champions research that experiments with creative forms of communication, explores inclusive forms of collaboration with a wide range of practitioners and participants, and engages with new publics in the UK and across the world. CRASSH also provides a space in which researchers from many different disciplinary backgrounds come together to think creatively and critically about the ethics and politics of research.
CRASSH hosts a broad range of research projects and centres as well as postdoctoral researchers working on individual projects. It runs a series of events and initiatives that facilitate connections between researchers across many different disciplines, bringing these together with practitioners and participants from other sectors of society. Its research networks bring together Cambridge postgraduate students, postdocs and established academic staff across a range of disciplines in a varied programme of seminars, reading groups, workshops and other activities that run throughout the year. CRASSH runs several fellowship schemes designed both for early career scholars at Cambridge and for visiting scholars from around the world.