Innovating in the Humanities: introducing our new campaign

We are delighted to launch a new communications campaign called 'Innovating in the Humanities'.

The series - which can be found here on Medium: https://medium.com/innovating-in-the-humanities - explores examples of innovative research from across our faculties which is making a tangible impact on the world.

Professor Abigail Williams, Associate Head of Research and Innovation for the Humanities at Oxford University, introduces the series in an article which explores how and why the humanities are such a deep source of innovation.

She writes: "A number of themes recur in these articles. A theme of trying to tackle the hardest problems. Of rethinking everything. We see the importance of collaboration and working with other disciplines and sectors to cross-fertilise ideas. Innovation comes from researchers reaching beyond academia to partner with a broad range of sectors, from governments to schools to cultural organisations.

"But the series also shows how innovation comes from focusing deeply on a discipline and pursuing knowledge, often without a clear ‘innovation’ agenda. Interestingly, this often leads to the most innovative insights. Many of the research outputs in this series didn’t start from a goal to tackle a particular problem — rather, they came as a by-product of our mission to pursue and further our understanding of the world and humanity for its own sake." 

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