University of Helsinki
Researchers in the humanities and social sciences are often asked, whether their research is scientific and objective or just descriptive and speculative. This panel, featuring researchers from the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, sheds light on the actual research practices in these fields. How do the Collegium Fellows combine rigorous methodology and creativity in their work? What is curiosity-driven research in practice? What is the role of experimentality – including failed experiments? Which comes first: methodology, curiosity, or science policy?
Speakers:
Patricia Garcia’s field is comparative literary studies. Her research focuses on narrative spaces and their intersection with other fields such as the fantastic, feminisms, and urban history. In contrast to most literary scholars who study the unprecedented growth of Europe’s urban centres in the 19th century in relation to the realist novel, she examines how the same realist writers explored an alternative form of expression through their fantastic fictions.
Kollegium Talks is a discussion series hosted by the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies and Think Corner. In the spring 2019 Kollegium Talks events, scholars of the Helsinki Collegium share their experience on negotiating between curiosity and discipline in research. It is often emphasized that curiosity in natural sciences leads to great discoveries and, ultimately, useful applications, but what is the role of curiosity in human and social sciences? How do researchers in these fields manage the need to stay open to the unexpected while grounding their work in systematic methods? Are today’s academics still allowed to be led by mere curiosity, or must they conform to the demands of applicability and strategic career calculation?