Iain Hampsher-Monk, born in London, UK, in 1946. Ph.D. from the University of Keele. Professor in Political Theory at the University of Exeter.
Fellow (1 September 1994 – 30 June 1995)
The year has proved tremendously stimulating and fertile in developing new contacts and projects, and moderately successful in developing existing ones. My work with the nucleus “The History of Dutch Concepts” included several presentations, a chapter and editorial input into the forthcoming volume of essays which will be the first collaborative English-language survey of Begriffsgeschichte. I have also become involved in one of the working-groups within that overall programme – the one on Republicanism.
As regards my own work I have completed a chapter on Anglophone historiography of ideas for a volume I am editing with a colleague “The History of Political Thought in National Context”. This emerges from an international conference held in Exeter in November. Other work includes several chapters of an ongoing study of Edmund Burke, the Anglo-Irish statesman and political thinker, and a major entry for the international Encyclopaedia of Philosophy.
The synergy provided by NIAS is evidenced by two completely new projects. Firstly, the European Republicanism network, conceived and initiated at NIAS by Martin van Gelderen, Hans Bödeker and myself which attracted a large European Science Foundation grant, and will lead to major publications. Secondly, the Evidence and Inference group which was initiated by William Twining and sought to explore the thesis that all disciplines face essentially similar problems in dealing with the assessment and deployment of evidence through a series of papers from diverse scholars. Once again a volume is in prospect.