The AHRC supported three workshop initiatives during 2004 and 2005. The reports and specifications drawn up as a result of these intiatives were considered in late 2005.
Arts, Humanities and Medicine
The AHRC in association with the Nuffield Trust, held a series of developmental workshops brought together researchers from arts and humanities medical backgrounds to discuss common themes of: Narrative Histories; the Face; Medicine Gender and Sexuality; Medicine, Trust and Professional Identity, and; Medicine and Human Nature and explore new areas of research.
It was agreed not to invest further funds from the AHRC's strategic resources in this area, however the initiative was succesful in creating capacity in the area and it is envisaged that further activity may be supported by grants under the AHRC's responsive mode scheme.
The Interactive Mind
The series of workshops on the The Interactive Mind explored the interactive conception of mind, how our minds are shaped by the details of our gross bodily form, our habits of action and intervention, and the enabling web of social, cultural, and technological scaffolding in which we are historically, evolutionarily, developmentally, and here-and-now situated.
It was agreed not to invest further funds from the AHRC's strategic resources in this area, however the initiative was succesful in creating capacity in the area and it is envisaged that further activity may be supported by grants under the AHRC's responsive mode scheme.
Stages of Life
The Stages of Life initiative was a series of workshops which explored aspects of life and its representation/narration from the unborn to death, and the afterlife. Numerous themes were explored including the ways in which life stages are experienced; the changing patterns of experience and behaviour associated with different ages and the ways in which the nature of the life cycle and its different stages have been understood.
Whilst deciding not to fund Stages of Life as a research programme, Council agreed that co-funding the cross-Council New Dynamics of Ageing (NDA) programme would offer significant opportunities for arts and humanities to network and collabroate with colleagues in other disciplines in a high important, interdisciplinary field. By co-funding the NDA programme the AHRC hopes to further support the significant capapcity and enthusiasm in the research community that has been built up through development activity on the 'Stages of Life' intiative.