Care for the Future: Thinking Forward through the Past is one of four Arts and Humanities Research Council themes developed by the AHRC Advisory Board and Council in consultation with key partners and Subject Associations. The themes aim to promote innovative interdisciplinary and collaborative research that fosters knowledge exchange within and between research institutions and the wider world.
The relationship between the past, present, and future shapes our understanding of the world around us. Whether it is the perceived consequences of past events, the urgency of present concerns, or the challenges of real or imagined futures, the structures of time intersect with and inform our sense of ourselves in a myriad of ways. Care for the Future: Thinking Forward through the Past affords an opportunity for researchers in the arts and humanities to explore the dynamic relationship that exists between past, present, and future through a temporally inflected lens.
In exploring the question of whether and how understandings of the past – distant as well as recent – may provide pathways to the future, the theme will further consider the consequences of selectivity – whose voices are heard and whose are silenced by the past, as well as those which questions are asked about the past and those which are not. It will encourage researchers to explore different approaches to writing the past and how these may extend or restrict the possibilities of historical and critical interpretation.
Such perspectives are encompassed by five core areas of potential engagement, which have been developed through consultation with the Advisory Group and the broader research community:
- Questions of temporality and history
- Inter- and cross-generational communication, justice and exchange
- Trauma, conflict and memory: transitions to new futures
- Environmental change and sustainability
- Cultural notions of the future
At its heart, Care for the Future encompasses questions around what is meaningful about continuity and change.