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Convocation: Panel Discussion and Annual Review of 2024
24 February 2025 - 24 February 2025
6:00PM - 8:30PM
Durham University Business School, The Waterside Building, Riverside Place, Durham DH1 1SL
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Free
Convocation: Panel Discussion and Annual Review of 2024
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Vice-Chancellor and Warden, Professor Karen O'Brien
Our Vice-Chancellor and Warden, Professor Karen O’Brien, invites you to join her on Monday 24 February 2025 on campus for this year’s meeting of Convocation.
As part of the evening, Professor Janet Stewart will chair a panel of leading academics who will discuss the subject of Transformative Humanities.
Following the panel discussion there will be a University update by Professor O'Brien.
On conclusion of the evening’s formalities, there will be light refreshments served and the opportunity for socialising and networking with alumni.
Doors open at 5.30pm for a 6pm prompt start.
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- For further details on Convocation, including who is eligible to attend, please visit our governance pages
- Explore the topic of Transformative Humanities
Speakers
Professor Janet Stewart
Executive Dean (Arts and Humanities)
Professor Stewart joined Durham in 2014 as Professor of German and Visual Culture in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures (MLAC). She was the founding Director of the Centre for Visual Arts and Culture, and served as Head of MLAC from 2015-2018, before becoming Executive Dean for the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Her research interests lie in visual culture, the energy humanities and Austrian and German cultural history.
Professor Edith Hall
Professor, Department of Classics and Ancient History
Professor Hall has published over 30 books on aspects of ancient Greek and Roman literature, philosophy, history, to list but a few. As well as her academic research, she advises theatre companies, contributes to radio and television programmes, and campaigns to improve access to classical subjects in state schools across the UK. Recent achievements including her election as a Fellow of the British Academy in 2022, and receiving the prestigious Classical Association Prize in 2023.
Professor Alex Broadbent
Professor of Philosophy of Science, Department of Philosophy
As well as his position within our Department of Philosophy, Professor Broadbent is a Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg. He is also Director of the Durham-Johannesburg Centre for Philosophy of Epidemiology, Medicine, and Public Health. He publishes opinion pieces on the interface between science, humanities, and policy, and engages with policy and litigation in relation to epidemiology and public health.
Professor Anna Rowlands
St Hilda Professor of Catholic Social Thought & Practice, Department of Theology and Religion
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, contributing her expertise to the General Secretariat of the Synod, and the Dicastery (Department) for Integral Human Development of the Holy See (Vatican).
Professor Simon James
Professor, Department of English Studies
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. He has also contributed to UP North Culture + Knowledge: Growing Opportunities in the North East alongside other leaders and experts in culture, academia, government and industry.
Transformative Humanities
Transformative Humanities brings together distinctive approaches to humanities research and education within the academy and across a wide range of partners and communities. Inflected across and between disciplines it focuses on six thematic areas including Social Justice, Community and Policy; Digital Humanities and Culture; and Creativity, and Heritage.
Professor Edith Hall, Professor Alex Broadbent, Professor Anna Rowlands and Professor Simon James on our panel of leading academics will bring their unique experiences and expertise in this field to the table.
Professor Edith 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. She will draw on her current position, leading a programme delivering courses that use classical sources for developing skills and competencies in His Majesty's Prisons across the United Kingdom.
Professor Simon James will highlight his work leading research projects with The Durham Commission on Creativity and Education (2017-present) and Child of the North (2025). Posing questions surrounding human creativity, such as 'does our current education system do all it can to encourage children and young people to be creative and to think creatively?', he will discuss potential impacts for teachers, cultural organisations and policymakers.
Professor Anna Rowlands has been working as an adviser within the Vatican, enabling her to give unparalleled insights. She will discuss the unprecedented global listening process with grassroots Catholics that the Vatican has been engaging with over the last three years. The Church faces, in a vast intercultural context, many of the same issues facing our political cultures: questions of trust, power, participation, and building a community of communities for the common good.
Professor Alex Broadbent directs the Centre for Philosophy of Epidemiology, Medicine, and Public Health, a joint enterprise between Durham and the University of Johannesburg. He publishes in philosophy, epidemiology, medicine, and law journals, and has engaged with policy and litigation around public health. He will talk about the prospects for bringing the humanities and sciences closer together, for practical as well as intellectual benefits. He may even suggest that humanities and science faculties should be combined.