What Have the Humanities to Teach the Modern University?

Universities are associations of researchers, teachers and students who see themselves as inclusive and outward-looking, proactive, creative, and restless in the pursuit of excellence. They are also institutions which are often seen as exclusive, inward-looking, conservative and complacent. This seminar explores the relationship between the association and the institution, arguing that it is much more than a matter of insider/outsider perspective, and discusses what the Humanities have to contribute to the evolving philosophy and ethics of the institution, its processes of debate and decision making, and its interaction with the wider world. Part of the Humanities and the Public Good (www.torch.ox.ac.uk/publicgood) series.

Presenter: Dr. Teresa Morgan, Lecturer in Ancient History and Associate Head of Humanities (Undergraduates), University of Oxford

Respondents: Professor Stephen Whitefield, Professor of Politics, University of Oxford
David Ford, Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University and Director, Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme

Chair: Sir Jonathan Phillips, Warden, Keble College Oxford