The last year has brought extraordinary challenges to societies and cultures, as well as bringing long-standing crises and predicaments to the foreground in new ways. In this series of five podcast episodes, launched in May 2021, we aim to open up conversations about how arts and humanities research might respond to these challenges – and about the futures we want to see for arts and humanities.

Each podcast episode presents a conversation between two University of Leeds researchers or stakeholders, in which they discuss what their area has learned from the events of the last year; what new research questions and methods they see emerging; and what we can do now to create the future we want to see.

This second conversation brings together Janet Watson, Professor in the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies and Co-director of the Centre for Endangered Languages, Cultures and Ecosystems at the University of Leeds, and Dominic Gray, Projects Director at Opera North. Janet and Dominic discuss issues including: the value of collaboration for research and for artistic endeavours; connections between language, poetry, culture, politics and ecology; the use of poetry and song in political movements; the value of improvisation, and of exploring diverse cultural models. 

This is one of five conversations to be released over May and June 2021, which are available via major podcast platforms. If you’d like to comment on any of the issues raised on social media, use the hashtag #ArtsAndHumanitiesFutures and follow us on Twitter and follow us on Twitter @LeedsAHRI. For more information on the Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute, please visit: https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/leeds-arts-humanities-research-institute.