Continuing Collaborations at TORCH
This term we’ve been able to safely welcome speakers and audiences in person at a small number of our events, and we’re excited to see our partner organisations hold performances and exhibitions in their physical spaces again.
We’ve continued to use digital formats so that our events can reach the widest possible audience, and our YouTube channel has amassed 44,600 views over the course of the last term with conversations on everything from vaccine hesitancy to medieval Iberian art.
Humanities Cultural Programme
Continuing its programme of research-fuelled public events, the Humanities Cultural Programme hosted Big Tent! Live Event conversations with Benjamin Zephaniah, James Attlee, Lolita Chakrabarti and Nana Oforiatta Ayim. Meanwhile, a number of HCP projects have been working towards public performances, with the Diversity and the British String Quartet Symposium recently giving a platform to new compositions by state school students.
- Recently, acclaimed poet Benjamin Zephaniah spoke with Malachi McIntosh, addressing contemporary racism, learning to think for (and write like) yourself, and facing the future with hope. Watch the conversation here.
- Dyslexia at Oxford launched their documentary project to nuance the narrative around dyslexia, rooted in the stories of 21 individuals within the Oxford community. You can watch the documentary film here, or read more about those involved.
Knowledge Exchange
Our Knowledge Exchange Fellows have been working with partners ranging from the Department of Education to the English Folk Dance and Song Society this term, with Dr Arlene Holmes-Henderson contributing to a report on developing speaking skills in schools and Dr Alice Little launching a podcast series on the history of English Folk Music.
- Professor Samson Kambalu’s new solo exhibition, New Liberia, opened at Modern Art Oxford, and we were delighted to host this discussion between Kambalu and chief curator Emma Ridgeway on the exhibition’s background. Kambalu's piece Antelope was one of two winners of the prestigous Fourth Plinth comission, and a model can be seen in the New Liberia exhibition.
- A Farewell to Zoom? brought to a close our Theatre Knowledge Exchange Series, as Head of Digital Engagement at the RSC, Sarah Ellis, and Artistic Director of the Old Fire Station, Jeremy Spafford, spoke with Professor Wes Williams and Professor Emma Smith about what digital theatre has taught us and what questions it has raised.
Networks and Programmes
As well as our ongoing programmes and interdisciplinary research networks, this term we launched Critical Thinking Communities for doctoral students, and Interdisciplinary Futures projects for undergraduate and masters students. In these groups, students have thought through interdisciplinary approaches to Forgotten Christianities and developed an international poster exhibition, Archival Post.
- Race and Resistance welcomed Professor Dan Hicks to speak on Museum Decolonisation and the Restitution of Cultural Heritage. Watch the event again here.
- The Environmental Humanities programme supported The Humanities in Deep Time conference, where speakers considered their disciplines within deep time thinking (recordings available soon). A second conference, Uprooting the Anthropocene, is still to come.
International
As international travel becomes possible again, we have held funding rounds for the Paris-Oxford Partnership and the Oxford and UdK Berlin Partnership, and look forward to working with the successful applicants as they build international collaborations.
- The Greek Studies Now network continued their work on contemporary Greece, with webinars on race, HIV/AIDS, and a digital open mic of creators reflecting on modern Greece.
- The Oxford-Berlin Creative Collaborations podcast has showcased work on AI and creativity this term, asking how AI can make stories and affect their reception.
We hope you stay safe and well this summer and look forward to sharing with you all that we have planned for next year.
