Growing Humanities: Flourishing Futures in Challenging Times
About this Event
Growing Humanities: Flourishing Futures in Challenging Times
Higher Education Conference
29th June 2026, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London
Across the UK and internationally, Humanities disciplines are navigating a period of profound challenge. Declining enrolments, funding pressures, restructuring agendas, and persistent political and media narratives that question the value of Humanities study have created an uncertain landscape for students, educators, and researchers alike. Yet this moment is also one of possibility. The Humanities continue to generate transformative knowledge about culture, history, language, ethics, creativity, and human experience—knowledge that is indispensable for understanding complex global challenges and imagining more just and sustainable futures.
This conference invites participants to explore the theme of Growing Humanities. We deliberately use the concept of growth in expansive and critical ways. While growth is often framed within neoliberal economic logics—metrics, recruitment numbers, income streams, and productivity—this event seeks to foreground alternative understandings. Growth may be intellectual, cultural, social, pedagogical, civic, ecological, or personal. It may involve deepening rather than scaling; collaboration rather than competition; or transformation rather than accumulation. Growth might also mean resistance: protecting spaces for critical inquiry, creativity, reflection, and intervention in contexts where they are under threat.
We aim to create a space that both celebrates the enduring importance of Humanities disciplines and collectively plans for flourishing futures. The conference will bring together academics, professional services colleagues, students, sector leaders, policymakers, and community partners to share ideas, practices, and strategies that support Humanities education and research in Higher Education.
Provisional Programme
9-9.30 Registration and Coffee
9.30 - 9.45: Welcome (Lucy Bond, Head of Humanities, University of Westminster)
9.45 - 11 Session 1: Translating Humanities (Chair, Alexa Alfer and Juliet Vine)
Omri Asscher (Bar-Ilan University) – “The Humanities’ unique edge in the age of AI: Translation studies as a case in point”
Christophe Fricker (University of Bristol) – “Translation is what we do when we stop kidding ourselves”
Ye Tian (University of Leeds) – “Translation, Creativity, Serendipity: Slow Translation as Resistance”
11 - 11.15 Break
11.15 - 12.45 Session 2: (Re)Valuing Humanities
Abel Beserra (University of Sao Paulo) – “Beyond Measurable Value: Negativity, the Subject, and the Ontological Case for the Humanities”
Zahid Naz (QMUL) – “The Useful University? Higher Education Policy and the Struggle for Purpose”
Charlotte Fraser (University of Sussex) and Clara Vlessing (University College Dublin) – “On ‘On (Not) Sleeping with Your Students’: Self-Actualisation in the Unsexy Humanities”
Michelle Tambosi (University of Sao Paulo/ University of Birmingham) – “Poetry as Method”
12.45 - 1.30 Lunch
1.30 - 2.30 Session 3: Plenary and Workshop
Plenary: Chris Newfield (Independent Social Research Foundation) – “Society Wants Some Answers: The Future of Literary knowledge as a University Institution”
Workshop: Lesley McKay (University of the Highlands and Islands) – “Mapping Belonging: Creative‑Critical Methods for Exploring Emotional Geographies of Belonging and Place”
2.30 - 3.45 Session 4: Histories and Environments
Ruth Graham (Family History Federation) – “Translating scholarship for community engagement: public humanities practice in family history societies”
Shiuli Saral (Independent Researcher) – “Thinking in a historical crisis: pathways for a historical response to climate change”
Mark Borthwick (Open University) – “‘Revival Through New Breath: Oral Tradition as an Alternative Model for Humanities Knowledge’”
3.45 - 4 Break
4 - 5.30 Session 5: Humanities on the Frontline
David Christoper (University of Leicester) – “Foundation Studies in a Shrinking SHAPE Landscape at the University of Leicester”
Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (UCL) – “Cultivating a Culture of Innovation in Arts and Humanities Education: Lessons from the UCL Centre for Humanities Education”
Nate Johnson (Postsecondary Analytics) – “Love’s Labor’s Swamped: How ‘Florida Man'; is Reshaping the Humanities in the 21st Century”
Amal Hlioui (L’Institut Supérieur des Sciences Humaines de Tunis) and Khaoula Zitouni (Manouba University) – “Teaching Migration Studies in the Age of AI and Post-truth: Critical reflections on situated pedagogical practices and future prospects in Tunisian Higher Education”
5.30 - 6.30 Drinks and networking
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00
