50 years of research at IASH

Timeline

To mark 50 years since our foundation in 1969, we have made a short film about research at IASH, profiling two recent projects by 2018-19 EURIAS Junior Fellow Dr Isabel Kusche and 2018-19 Daiches-Manning Memorial Fellow Dr Elizabeth Ford. Dr Kusche reflects on her investigations of big data analytics and the relationship between politicians and voters, including the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Her project at IASH aimed at an assessment of possible consequences of big data analytics for the linkage between politicians and voters in the context of election campaigns in European countries. It focused on existing formal and informal institutions that influence both the availability of big data and the actual realization of a potential to target small groups of voters differentially. Dr Ford examines the musical culture of coffee houses and taverns in eighteenth‐century Edinburgh; her IASH project focused on the musical life of Edinburgh in informal extra-musical spaces - the tavern and the coffee house - and the musical environment that led to the formation of the Edinburgh Musical Society. Collaboration with the AHRC-funded Space, Place, Sound, and Memory: Immersive Experiences of the Past resulted in a virtual reality recreation of the sound environment of the Cross Keys tavern, as shown in the film.

Thanks to all the Fellows who participated, and to the College Research Office in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences for their generous support.

We've also delved into our archives to create an interactive digital timeline of the past half-century at IASH, from our earliest days at 12 Buccleuch Place to our newly refurbished premises at Hope Park Square. Images, memories, anecdotes, events and much more are all available to explore. Please click here to view the timeline.