Research Centre – CENTRUM

CENTRUM’s Objectives

The research centre shall:

• Formulate applications and attract grants for research projects on centrality.
• Accommodate large research projects and conduct high quality research.
• Increase the exchange of professional information between archaeology and history within the cultural archive department.
• Strengthen the visibility of the museum’s research into centrality in museum and university circles through networking, publications, seminars, etc.
• Convey the research results to the public and thereby contribute to the current debate about centres and centralization.

Research Field

The research centre explores the relationship between centralization and decentralization within the physical and theoretical fields. The physical side is site specific and touches on current debates such as the attractiveness of centres and the depopulation of outlying areas. The theoretical aspect considers current focus points such as identity and marginalisation.

The centre connects itself to the museum’s overall research focus, the significance of place in the interaction between people and landscape. The landscape – which includes the urban landscape – constitutes a framework and conditions for people’s activities and identity, but at the same time, people have shaped and affected the landscape through their daily lives, production and expansion, ideologies and planning.

By incorporating a chronological framework which covers the periods from ancient times through to the present day, and using an interdisciplinary approach which includes archaeology, history, placename studies and various scientific disciplines, significant transformation points can be separated and analysed. The research centre can consequently nuance the current debate on the various facets of centrality.

The research centre is led by Mads Runge, Ph.D. and also consists of a number of internal and external researchers involved in projects associated with the centre.

The centre is organisationally placed within the Cultural Heritage department, where Jens Toftgaard, Ph.D. is the manager.