On January 27th, 2014, TORCH (the Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities) hosted an event titled “What It Means to Invest in the Humanities.” The discussion brought together leading scholars from the arts, sciences and beyond to consider the role of the humanities in addressing contemporary challenges. Introduced by Andrew Hamilton, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and chaired by Professor Shearer West, Head of Humanities Division at the University of Oxford. The event begins with a short presentation by Dr Earl Lewis, President of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, called In Everyone’s Interests: What it Means to Invest in the Humanities, followed by responses from, and a round-table discussion involving, one of the UK’s most eminent scientists, the chief arts writer from the Guardian, a renowned author and the director of a higher education policy think tank.

You can watch a two-minute highlight video of the event here: http://torch.ox.ac.uk/publicgoodhighlights. Watch the video of the entire event here: http://torch.ox.ac.uk/publicgoodfull.

The next event in the series is “Science and the Humanities: Two Cultures or a Shared Enterprise?”. This event will take place on Tuesday, February 11. All events are free and open to all.