About

History and Launch of the Centre for Cross-Cultural circa Nineteenth-Century Research (c19c)

The founding event of ‘c19c’ took place in St Andrews in May 2017. It was the initiative of Professor Mary Orr, the newly appointed Buchanan Chair of French, fully supported by Professor Will Fowler (Head of School of Modern Languages, 2013-2018). As a researcher in cross-disciplinary nineteenth-century French studies, Mary Orr had identified the wide-ranging research expertise in the nineteenth-century in many disciplines at St Andrews, but no group brought them together. As a researcher in nineteenth-century Mexican history, Will Fowler welcomed the new opportunity to create a vibrant and interdisciplinary research group committed to advancing our knowledge of the nineteenth century from a cross-cultural perspective. The 35 colleagues who came to the first meeting quickly established a monthly lunchtime seminar in 2017-18 to share their research interests. To extend these through invited speaker and other activities, Mary Orr successfully applied with Will Fowler to the University of St Andrews in April 2018 for official Centre status for c19c. The rest is ongoing history!