St John's Research Centre
...advancing knowledge through inter-disciplinary research and dialogue.
The Research Centre was established in 2001:
to provide focus and support for the College's intellectual and academic life as it already exists and to support new research, particularly of an interdisciplinary nature which might otherwise be unfunded, and to enhance the College's role in promoting first-class innovative research in the University of Oxford and the academic community at large.
The Research Centre programme includes projects, workshops, seminars and lectures, and a prestigious annual lecture series, as well as offering opportunities for visiting scholars to spend time in the Centre. In the last five years, the programme has included work on Arabic poetry, European law, plasma-astrophysics, and European forests, among other issues. Current projects funded by the Centre include research on reading, formal Darwinism, and global youth. The Balzan project, jointly funded by the Balzan Foundation and by the College, is also part of the Research Centre.
The Centre is housed opposite the main College at 45 St Giles. The current director is Professor Linda McDowell.
Annual Lecture
The Centre hosts an annual lecture. The first lecture was given by Baroness Onora O'Neill in October 2010. In 2011, the lecture was given by Professor Colin Blakemore on 20 October. Find out more in the Research Centre Events and Workshops section.
Visiting Research Associate Scheme
The Research Centre welcomes applications from academic members of staff in universities other than Oxford who wish to spend a period of sabbatical leave in Oxford. Find out more in our Vacancies section.
Available Now
'A G Stromberg - First Class Citizen, Second Class Citizen. Letters from the GULAG and a History of Electroanalysis in the USSR'. The semi-biographical book, resulting from a St John's College Research Centre project (2007-2009), presents the complete set of 74 surviving letters written by Stromberg to his wife during this period. The authors include several St John's Fellows: R G Compton (Fellow and Tutor in Chemistry), A S Kabakaev (former Research Centre Fellow), M T Stawpert (former History Undergraduate) and G G Wildgoose (former Junior Research Fellow).
Find out more about the project or buy the book.
