Spotlight On...Liam Harte

Professor Liam Harte, Director of Teaching and Learning in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, talks about his role and a major upcoming research project. 

You are about to step down as School Director of Teaching and Learning. Please can you tell us a little about the challenges and successes you have experienced in this role?

There have been many challenges during my three-year stint as Director, from steering the School through its first ever Periodic Review in 2015-16 to dealing with the impact of the recent industrial action on student attainment and progression. In terms of successes, I’d point to the introduction of our Flexible Honours scheme, which broadens student choice by enabling Single Honours students to take a Minor alongside their Major subject, and to the strides we’ve made in improving our record of graduate employment, as measured by the annual Destination of Leavers in Higher Education (DLHE).

But the very fact that the DLHE will be replaced by the Graduate Outcome survey from 2019 is a reminder of the relentless pace of goalpost-shifting in higher education. I must admit that I’m concerned about the effects of the market mentality on the ethos of universities. Markets leave their mark, and every form of valuation is an encroachment on values. Plus, the bureaucratic burden imposed by measures such as the Teaching Excellence Framework risks distracting us from our core activities in teaching and research. Speaking of research, the other great challenge I’ve faced as Director is finding time to actually do some, so I’m looking forward to getting refocused after I step down. 

What’s the key project you’ll be working on over the next few years?

I’ve recently been awarded a £1m grant by the AHRC to undertake a three-year project entitled 'Conflict, Memory and Migration: Northern Irish Migrants and the Troubles in Great Britain'. The project’s primary aim is to examine the complex and distinctive interrelationship between the Troubles in Northern Ireland and the shaping of distinctive forms of Northern Irish migrant subjectivity in Great Britain. A secondary aim is to use the Northern Irish migrant experience as a lens through which to glean new insights into the domestic significance of the history and memory of the Troubles in Britain. I think it’s a timely project, given the widespread ignorance within Britain of the complex history, culture and politics of Northern Ireland. We saw evidence of this lack of knowledge and understanding during the formation of the minority Tory-DUP government last year, and it continues to characterise the Brexit negotiations and much media coverage of them. 

What piece of research that you’ve worked on here at Manchester would you say has been the most rewarding for you and why?

In 2015, I was privileged to see one of my books become the basis for an AHRC-funded stage play, My English Tongue, My Irish Heart, which had a successful month-long tour of the UK and Ireland. Working in collaboration with a professional playwright and theatre production company was exhilarating and at times nerve-wracking. It was fascinating to see my research findings being moulded into a dramatic narrative, and then watch as a group of talented actors transformed the materials further during the rehearsal process. 

But I’d say the most rewarding aspect of the whole project was observing the reactions of audiences to the performances in different venues. Many people forged a strong emotional connection with the play, seeing aspects of their personal or family experiences of migration reflected in the storyline, whereas others spoke of how it prompted them to reflect on their attitudes towards the intensifying anti-immigrant feeling in Britain and elsewhere in Europe. 

What’s the last book you read, and would you recommend it?

I’d highly recommend Mike McCormack’s Solar Bones, an enthralling novel about time, love and death in the west of Ireland. It’s as much a work of poetry as it is fiction, with a prose style that has a mesmeric rolling rhythm to it.