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A spotlight on our innovative Transformative Humanities programme
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A panel of our leading academics shared Durham’s fresh approach to humanities thinking.
Transformative Humanities links together all research and related activities, engaging with all our learning and research communities, from undergraduates to professional services, and postgraduates to academic members of staff. It also provides a thinking space for sustainable research from ancient medieval worlds through to contemporary questions.
Durham University Business School was the venue for this year’s meeting of Convocation. Alumni joined an expert panel and members of our leadership team for a thought-provoking discussion, exploring how humanities unifies a wide variety of themes, crossing boundaries and bringing transformative dimensions to thought, research, and interdisciplinarity.
Professor Janet Stewart, Executive Dean (Arts and Humanities) chaired the discussion. Professor Edith Hall, Professor Alex Broadbent, Professor Anna Rowlands, and Professor Simon James drew on their unique experiences and expertise to bring insights to contemporary questions.
Transformative Humanities draws on our innovative, impactful work from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. It allows us to communicate and develop a coherent approach to producing work that matters. It enables us to harness the power and effectiveness of our disciplines of Classics, English, History, Modern Languages, Music, Philosophy, and Theology and Religion. Through Transformative Humanities we can ask difficult, challenging questions from a whole range of perspectives. From ancient Mesopotamia and the experience of fieldwork in the Middle East, to 19th century English literature and rigorous philosophical thinking. In so doing we can enrich, shape, and change lives.
Our speakers
Professor Janet Stewart, Executive Dean (Arts and Humanities)
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After joining our School of Modern Languages and Cultures (MLAC) in 2014, Professor Stewart founded the Centre for Visual Arts and Culture. She served as head of MLAC from 2015-2018, before becoming Executive Dean for the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.
“With a framework like Transformative Humanities, we’re constructing the spaces in which we can have these collaborative conversations between disciplines, and with other sectors as well.”
Professor Edith Hall, Department of Classics and Ancient History
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Professor Hall’s research, publications and public engagement have always put urgent contemporary issues at the centre of the radar, using ancient Greek and Roman culture to sharpen modern thinking on ethnicity, gender, social class, mental health and the environment.
“I’ve done a lot of thinking about classical presences, how women have been classicists, how working class people have often been incredibly informed about the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. How ancient ideas about things like democracy and freedom have lessons to tell today, and have affected debates on colonialism, imperialism, gender.”
Professor Alex Broadbent, Department of Philosophy
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Professor Broadbent directs the Centre for Philosophy of Epidemiology, Medicine, and Public Health, a joint enterprise between Durham and the University of Johannesburg. He engages with policy and litigation around public health, and publishes widely.
“The point for me around Transformative Humanities is specifically about crossing that gap between disciplines. And I think this goes broadly across the humanities – there are many more ways in which what we do is more relevant than we think. My hope and belief is that Transformative Humanities provides a vehicle for us to articulate that.”
Professor Anna Rowlands, Department of Theology and Religion
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Professor Rowlands is a leading political theologian who works at the interface of political and social theory and Christian theology. Since March 2023 she has helped to shape the future of the Catholic Church on a prestigious two-year secondment to the Vatican.
“The interdisciplinarity of Transformative Humanities provides insight - the very thing we’re meant to do – knowledge, insight, wisdom, depth, the pursuit of truth. We do that better when we do it in collaboration. I think I’m a better scholar and writer for working in a non-academic and collaborative context.”
Professor Simon James, Department of English Studies
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Professor James’ research focuses on the literary culture of the nineteenth and early twentieth-century periods. He is the former Head of our Department of English Studies, and the lead for the Durham Commission on Creativity and Education, a joint research initiative between Arts Council England and Durham University.
“Having written a PhD on Victorian fiction, I spent a lot of time thinking about economic inequality, childhood, education, class and social mobility. I’ve then had the opportunity to think about those kinds of things in public policy, rather than just within English literature. I share that sense of seeing how transformative engagement with the arts, with literature, can be.”
The evening was hosted by our Vice-Chancellor and Warden, Professor Karen O’Brien and University Secretary, Dr Amanda Wilcox. Professor O'Brien shared some of the highlights of the previous academic year.
The event was organised by Lucian Hudson, Director of Advancement, Marketing and Communications and his team, supported by Event Durham.
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Find out more
- Find out more about our speakers, Professor Janet Stewart, Professor Edith Hall, Professor Alex Broadbent, Professor Anna Rowlands, and Professor Simon James
- Learn more about Transformative Humanities
- Read our key University publications at your leisure
- View our current research