Human(e) AI
Powerful new AI applications promise to enhance productivity, enable novel forms of creativity, and save lives. However, it is also clear that they generate new problems and challenges. Most prominently, large AI ...
Core themes in Humanities
The Faculty of Humanities is committed to strengthening the sustainable basis for education and research, interdisciplinary collaboration and societal impact. We pursue this within the faculty, across the university and at a national level.
Six core themes
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Cultural Heritage and Identity
Cultural heritage shapes daily life, giving deeper meaning to the ordinary, providing a sense of temporality, and contributing to the existence of (sub) groups and individual identities. -
Digital Citizenship
Digital technologies are fundamentally changing how we organise democratic governance and legal systems. Our digital and networked world offers innovative new tools and unprecedented access to information and ... -
Empowering Language
Empowering Language unites language and literature researchers committed to building a society that fosters strong language and literacy skills and that allows people to express themselves, expand their horizons, ... -
Health Humanities
Creative approaches are necessary to manage the care needs of aging societies and to address rising rates of mental distress and chronic disease. The expertise of humanities researchers is especially useful for ... -
Environment and Society
In the midst of a climate crisis, understanding how humans interact with the environment is more crucial than ever. Environment & Society connects research, education, and transdisciplinary collaboration to explore ...
National collaboration
An important impulse for national collaboration in programmatic research came from the government’s Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) Sectorplan. The UvA has used this funding to develop strategic research and impact policy for thematic, interdisciplinary team science, aligned with the strategic agenda of the AIHR. The four sector plan themes (Humane AI, Heritage, Digital Citizenship and Language and Culture) are structurally embedded in the faculty research organisation, complemented by two additional faculty themes: Health Humanities and Environment & Society.
Impact
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Impact story: Creativity & GenAI
GenAI offers unprecedented opportunities for content creation, but what are its risks and ethical issues? UvA researchers investigate this from a wide range of perspectives and disciplines. -
New research priority area: Shaping Interfaces Between Science and the Public
The new research priority area (RPA) Shaping Interfaces Between Science and the Public will be launched, which aims to establish a Public Methodology Centre to strengthen the relationship between science, citizen ... -
Unique reconstructions: view the history of UvA buildings in 3D
What did the building of the new University Library look like in the past when it was still a hospital? How did the Oudemanhuispoort come into existence? And what used to be hidden behind the pyramid of the BG5 ... -
Border closures during COVID briefly reduced support for immigrants and the EU
The sudden closure of internal European borders during the COVID-19 crisis had not only practical consequences, but also changed how people thought about immigration and Europe. Recent research from the University of ...
Interfaculty research priority areas
In addition to the core themes, humanities researchers also participate in the interfaculty research priority areas of the University of Amsterdam.
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Decolonial Futures
The Decolonial Futures Research Priority Area establishes collaborations on decolonial research across the Humanities, Law, and Behavioural and Social Science Faculties. The RPA understands ‘coloniality’ as a form of ... -
Global Digital Cultures
Global Digital Cultures constitutes a vibrant, interdisciplinary research community for comparing and analysing the profound changes brought about by digitisation around the globe. -
Amsterdam Centre for European Studies
ACES is the University of Amsterdam's centre for research, events and public debate about Europe, the EU, its policies, cultural and socio-economic trends -
Brain & Cognition
Cognition is a broad area of study that encompasses observation, thought and action, as well as emotion, consciousness and movement. In short, all the mental faculties that allow humans to interact normally with ... -
Energy transition through the lens of Sustainable Development Goals
Energy transition through the lens of Sustainable Development Goals (ENLENS) is one of the interfaculty research priority areas of the University of Amsterdam. -
Artificial Intelligence for Health Decision-Making
This research initiative aims at strengthening the responsible development and application of AI in healthcare. Designated a UvA Research Priority Area, it brings together UvA researchers from the fields of Science, ... -
Organizational Ethics
Organizational Ethics is one of the UvA Research Priority Areas. A multi-disciplinary team of researchers from across law, humanities and the social and behavioral sciences collaborates to understand structural ... -
Shaping Interfaces Between Science and the Public
This research priority area aims to establish a Public Methodology Centre to strengthen the relationship between science, citizen science, social debate and various professional practices.