Institute of Cornish Studies Research

The Institute of Cornish Studies’ research strategy within the School of Humanities and Social Science (HuSS) is closely aligned with that of History (at both Streatham and Cornwall Campuses). However, the Institute’s interdisciplinary perspective ensures that it has multiple links to other research activities with HuSS (for example, ethno-politics) and to research interests in other Schools/Departments at the Cornwall Campus (notably the emphasis on ‘place and identity’ in English and Geography). This interdisciplinary focus (and its international leadership role) is also apparent in the annual volume, Cornish Studies, which publishes articles across a wide range from historical and Cornish-language studies to contemporary cultural studies.

Since the early 1990s, the Institute has focused its research work on the history and culture of modern and contemporary Cornwall. The three core staff –Philip Payton, Bernard Deacon and Garry Tregidga – publish widely on all aspects of Cornish society, culture and politics. Research at the ICVS includes work on politcs, migration and the Cornish diaspora and has been supported by significant amounts of external funding (£500K since 2003), notably for the Cornish Audio Visual Archive and the Cornish Communities Programme.

The Cornish Audio Visual Archive is an innovative programme for the study and documentation of the oral and visual culture of Cornwall. It draws heavily on oral history research techniques, and has already created a multigenerational profile of Cornish life in the twentieth century. The Cornish Communities Programme is an on-going study of migration from Cornwall to other parts of the British Isles and to overseas destinations in the nineteenth and early twentieth-centuries. Like CAVA, it has forged important links with voluntary societies in Cornwall. These initiatives will enrich and be enriched by the oral and public history of Anna Green and the peoples’ history interests of Ilan Pappé.

Other current research at the Institute includes biographical studies of the poet and writer, John Betjeman, and the Liberal politician, Isaac Foot. Cornish links with Australia are also the subject of on-going research. The Institute plays a key role in HuSS’s engagement with the wider community; its AHRC-funded knowledge transfer project with the Royal Cornwall Museum has set the benchmark in this area of activity.   

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