Message from Thomas Schmidt and Jayne Hindle, School of Arts, Languages and Cultures

17 May 2024

This week Head of School Thomas, and Jayne, Head of School Operations, look back on recent launch, awards and showcase events, and give an update on changes to the School leadership team.

And all of a sudden, it seems like summer! Looking out of the office in Sam Alex onto a sun-drenched Alan Gilbert Square recently, the campus felt truly alive and vibrant. 

As ever towards the end of an academic year, there are plenty of occasions to mark high points and special achievements. The week before last, Thomas attended no fewer than three fabulous events over two days that brought home how lucky we are to have students and colleagues who make a real difference in the outside world. 

First, he went out to Gorton Monastery to see Andy Burnham launch Manchester Camerata's National Centre of Excellence for Music and Dementia, co-sponsored by the city, the NHS, the National Academy for Social Prescribing, and the University (Creative Manchester and the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health). Thomas was truly moved to see this project – which has been long in the making and which will touch the lives many dementia sufferers and their families – come to fruition. 

The same evening, Thomas attended the University's Venture Further Awards honouring a truly impressive array of start-up businesses by students across all three Faculties and areas ranging from travel apps to health and social care. To top it all off, the next day saw the Making a Difference Awards ceremony, recognising the fantastic social responsibility initiatives of the University community. It was an experience that made him both proud and humbled to be a member of the University, with so many colleagues and students going the extra mile to make a positive impact on local and global communities. 

Closer to home, following on from a highly successful launch in 2023, SALC hosted its annual Research Showcase earlier this week, with staff from all departments joining for presentations and discussion on their cutting-edge research, this year with ‘Arts, Languages, Culture and the Environment’ as the overarching theme. 

And as the Research Showcase proved such a success, we are this year pairing it with a Social Responsibility showcase later in June, celebrating the work we do with schools and young people, promoting equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), and collaborating with the creative sector. In the meantime, we are of course all looking forward to the next high-profile event for the University’s bicentenary, the Universally Manchester Festival from 6 to 9 June. SALC and our staff are heavily involved in a large number of activities over the weekend, much of it channelled through Creative Manchester, Manchester Histories and the Martin Harris Centre. 

Within the School, a number of changes to the leadership team are imminent. No fewer than five Heads of Departments or Institutes will hand over the baton to their successors and enter a period of well-earned research leave. We welcome David Alderson as Head of English, American Studies and Creative Writing (replacing Ian Scott); Philipp Roessner as Head of History (replacing Anindita Ghosh); Andrew Koontz-Garboden as Head of Linguistics and English Language (replacing Professor Eva Schulze-Berndt, from 1 February 2025); and David Berezan as Head of Music (replacing James Garratt). The new director of the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI), replacing Larissa Fast, has been advertised externally, with an appointment to come soon. Finally, we welcome Thea Cameron-Faulkner as our new Director of Social Responsibility, replacing Simon Parry. Sincere thanks are due to the outgoing Heads and Directors who have worked tirelessly on behalf of their areas and the School more widely. 

Looking forward, the School is making a number of changes to its programme and course unit provision under the banner of the University-wide Teaching Sustainability initiative. Following the closure of the flexible honours pathways which had recruited very few students (and saw even fewer complete), we are looking at making the best possible use of staff time (both academic and PS) – which is a scarce and pressured resource – while maintaining or improving the coherence and richness of our provision and the student experience. This is going hand-in-hand with curriculum reviews in some departments and a School-wide review of workloads. 

Following a visit by members of the leadership team of the Faculty of Arts and Law at the University of Birmingham, we recently hosted a visit of PS colleagues from the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures at the University of Leeds. We had very useful discussions about sector and local challenges, and shared ideas on new processes and practices that are working for each of our areas. We are hoping to extend this collaboration with other Universities building on this visit. 

We are receiving very positive feedback about our Student Support Hub and are working with colleagues from the University Centre for Academic English (UCAE) to maximise the use of the Hub for our pre-sessional students this summer. The Hub area which adjoins our Lime Café is not only a great point of contact and information for our student community, but also serves as a lively meeting point for students to gather and host events. Most recently we have started to join up our Language Café events in that space with Stellify activities. 

Finally, we’d encourage all colleagues who haven’t done so to read the latest update from Patrick Hackett regarding ongoing protest activity on the campus. It includes advice on practical steps we can take to help mitigate the impact of the activities, and links to further information on the University’s Report and Support service and the Students’ Union Advice Centre, which are available for staff or students who have any concerns. 

Best wishes, 

Thomas and Jayne