History
The Old Observatory in Uppsala, picture from around 1880. Photographer: Osti, Heinrich. The image is taken from Alvin, Uppsala University Library's collection.
The Centre for Integrated Research on Culture and Society (CIRCUS) is a centre established by the Board of Uppsala University in November 2017, placed in the Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences. The aim was to stimulate and develop problem-driven, cross-cutting research on cultural and social themes and to promote research collaborations within the Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences in the first instance, but also with the other disciplinary domains at Uppsala University.
Promoting research cooperation in the humanities and social sciences
The establishment of CIRCUS was preceded by a long process of preparations conducted by a working group for promoting research cooperation in the disciplinary domain. Already during the time of the working group, funding calls were issued for research networks, organised by the working group. After the office started up in January 2019, operations gradually broadened to include more forms of support and other activities and initiatives, all intended to reinforce the development of inter- and multidisciplinary research collaborations across subject, faculty and disciplinary domain lines at Uppsala University.
Broader remit – to stimulate research collaborations across all of Uppsala University
CIRCUS was evaluated in 2021 with the participation of a panel external to Uppsala University. The evaluation and its subsequent processing led to a decision in June 2023 on new instructions for operations in the period 2024–2028. The new instructions emphasise the centrality of CIRCUS’s base in humanities and social sciences research. At the same time, the new instructions broaden CIRCUS’s remit by directing that, proceeding from this base, CIRCUS is to stimulate collaborations that span the entire breadth of research at Uppsala University.
The name and acronym CIRCUS
The name Centre for Integrated Research on Culture and Society and the associated acronym CIRCUS were coined by Anders Ekström, who was a member of the working group that developed the proposal to establish CIRCUS. CIRCUS’s symbol was designed when the office became operational in January 2019. It was designed by Torbjörn Gozzi, designer at Uppsala University at that time, in close cooperation with the first Director of CIRCUS, Claes-Fredrik Helgesson. In the symbol, they wanted to capture encounters between differences in a form that playfully alluded to formal elements that we associate with the traditional circus.
