Students from the School of Social Sciences and the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures have taken part in a creative internship with SICK! Productions, a North Manchester-based arts organisation, to gain hands-on experience in research, storytelling and film production.

Now in their third year, the Creative Track internships offer students the opportunity to spend two weeks working with SICK! Productions in collaboration with video production company Freshrb. The interns are given a creative brief to research and produce a short film, developing their ideas with support from industry mentors.

This year’s interns created Manchester Through Her Eyes, a short documentary exploring the internationalisation and interculturality of Manchester, focusing particularly on North Manchester. The film follows the story of a young Italian woman of West African descent who has chosen to make Manchester her home, offering a personal perspective on identity, community and belonging in the city.

The cohort of students included Abigail Elias and Sofia Sarosh from the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, and Jude Pfieiffer, Jasmin Khaled Araby Aly and Lailah Boateng from the School of Social Sciences. The experience gave them the opportunity to develop practical creative media skills while engaging with local communities and reflecting on the real-world stories that shape Manchester’s cultural life.

Since its launch in autumn 2025, The Fellowship Academy has offered Fellows dedicated time, space, and support to pursue ambitious research. It has also fostered new collaborations and innovative thinking about their future work.

The programme has brought together researchers from different parts of the Faculty, forming a dynamic community committed to sharing ideas, expertise, and experiences across disciplines.

Interviews reveal how the Academy has facilitated both professional growth and personal development, enabling Fellows to undertake pioneering research, broaden their networks, and gain new insights from colleagues. A key recurring theme is the importance of community, bringing talented individuals together to learn, address common challenges, and achieve excellence within the Humanities.

Recorded at the Humanities Fellowship Academy Conference in June 2026, the video captures the enthusiasm, teamwork, and optimism that marked the inaugural year of the Humanities Fellowship Academy.

• Watch the Interview here

Professor Stacey is among 92 distinguished academics made Fellows by the British Academy in 2026. The Fellowship recognises her outstanding contributions to research and scholarship in the field of gender and sexuality studies for more than four decades and reflects both her international influence in the field of cultural studies and The University of Manchester's continued excellence in humanities research. 

Since joining Manchester in 2007, Professor Stacey has built an internationally recognised body of work across cultural studies, gender and sexuality, film theory and the visual arts. She is currently Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Sexuality and Culture in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures. 

Her academic journey began in the 1980s as a postgraduate student at the University of Kent, where she studied for the UK’s first Women’s Studies MA, and later as a doctoral candidate at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, University of Birmingham. During this period, she also co-taught adult education classes for the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA), including pioneering lesbian and gay studies courses.  

She has built a body of work influencing cultural, feminist and media and film studies. Her key publications include Star Gazing: Hollywood Cinema and Female Spectatorship (1994), Teratologies: A Cultural Study of Cancer (1997), Global Nature, Global Culture (2000), and The Cinematic Life of the Gene (2010). She has also co-edited important collections in feminism, screen studies and queer theory. 

Jackie has worked for more than three decades to establish interdisciplinary research centres and teaching programmes in gender and sexuality, forming international academic collaborations and partnerships with Manchester’s civic and arts organisations. Her research in film and visual culture aims to link aesthetics and politics to social change using feminist and queer frameworks. 

Alongside her research, Professor Stacey has made a significant contribution to academic publishing and scholarly leadership. She served as co-editor of the journal Screen from 1994 to 2024 and was co-editor of Feminist Theory between 2006 and 2012. Having qualified as a Groupwork Practitioner, with Group Analysis North in 2018, she has introduced new pedagogic methods into the classroom and the postgraduate annual Sexuality Summer School at Manchester, which she has led since 2008. 

Speaking about her fellowship, Professor Stacey said: 

The British Academy is the UK's national academy for the humanities and social sciences. Fellowship is awarded to scholars who have achieved distinction in their field and represents one of the most prestigious accolades available to researchers in these disciplines.

The MOU was formally signed at the National Art Centre, Tokyo (NACT) on May 23^rd.  It brings together three organisations with a shared ethos around the power of creativity and culture to support health and wellbeing, and with a research focus on the infrastructure, cross-sectoral partnerships and strategic support required for this work to flourish. Creative Health and Wellbeing is a key research theme for Creative Manchester, and we work closely with Greater Manchester Combined Authority and local partners in the delivery and evaluation of creative health across Greater Manchester. At Tokyo University of the Arts (TUA), the Art-Based Communication Platform for Co-Creation carries out collaborative research across the fields of art, welfare, healthcare, and technology. The team at TUA already work closely with the National Centre for Art Research, which strives to become a driving force in the sustained advancement of art, improve the social value of art, and work toward a future in which everyone can discover new values and potential through art.

The team in Japan have explored international approaches to creative health and social prescribing, including previous study visits to Greater Manchester, whilst developing the concept of cultural prescribing, which aims to create connections between people through culture and move towards a more inclusive society, ‘where everyone has a space to belong, a role to fulfil, and the chance to lead a full, healthy, and meaningful life on their own terms.’  Find out more about cultural prescribing here - First Steps in Cultural Prescribing, Art-Based Communication Platform for Co-creation

Given the similarities between creative health and cultural prescribing, there are many opportunities to learn from each other as we strive to demonstrate and articulate the value of fully integrating creativity and culture into our health and social care systems.

Whilst in Japan for the signing ceremony we were invited to speak at the NCAR Co-creation forum ‘Enhancing Wellbeing with Museums – Place-Based Co-Creation in the UK and Japan’ at the National Art Centre, Tokyo, and the International Social Prescribing Conference at Kyoto University. At both events we encountered enthusiasm for this work across the creative and cultural sectors, but also from healthcare, local authorities and policymakers keen to develop innovative approaches to social issues.

Creative Health and Cultural Prescribing in Japan

During the trip we were introduced to varied examples of creative health and cultural prescribing in practice in Japan, and we began to build a picture of the infrastructure supporting this work, along with ideas for future collaboration.

Creative Ageing

A key driver of cultural prescribing in Japan is the super-ageing population. With over 30% of the population over 65, this brings challenges for health and social care systems and local authorities. Although average life expectancy is among the highest in the world, healthy life expectancy is on average ten years less, and many older people live with long term conditions. For example, one in five over 65s live with dementia.

Zuttobi is a joint project between Tokyo University of the Arts and Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum based in Ueno, Tokyo, developed in collaboration with nearby healthcare and social welfare institutions. Clinicians, curators and researchers worked together to design a creative ageing programme that could promote wellbeing and social connection through the museum collections, and that was fully accessible to people living with dementia and their carers.

 A further programme, Uenobi, has been newly launched based on the cross-sectoral collaboration fostered by Zuttobi to include other assets in the Ueno district, including the Zoo and local and national museums of Japan, establishing a cultural prescribing network. The team have published a handbook to support implementation and through the Art-Based Communication Platform for Co-Creation are exploring how the model could be replicated in other parts of the country.

At prefectural level, local government funded-cultural institutions are supporting residents to age well in their communities. During our visit we were introduced to the work of Kanagawa Arts Theatre, which, among of range of activities designed to promote inclusion, runs popular theatre and dance programmes specifically for older residents, including the internationally recognised Challenge of the Silver.  Similarly, Saitama Arts Theatre runs a Dance for Parkinsons programme, working closely with the local public health office, and has expanded its long-standing Saitama Gold Theatre programme for older adults to an experimental programme, Company Grande, designed to be fully inclusive of residents of all ages, abilities and backgrounds.

Fostering connection

Alongside a rapidly ageing population, loneliness and isolation is a priority area for Japanese policymakers. Whilst this can be linked to older age, particularly in rural areas where younger people are moving away to larger cities for work, it is an issue affecting people of all ages. Latest statistics gathered as part of a national strategy to address loneliness and isolation found that 40% of the population report feeling lonely.

Many of the projects we heard about were therefore focused on community-building, connection and providing a sense of meaning and purpose. Examples included initiatives such as community allotments, communal studio spaces, neighbourhood festivals and community arts groups. A more unusual example was Tokyo University of the Arts’ Goat’s Eye project, which aimed to build links between residents and the student population through the care of community goats at Toride campus, north of central Tokyo. As well as providing a focus for shared activity, the project has sparked several new creative initiatives, including a calligraphy club (using goat hair to make the calligraphy brushes) pottery club (using goat droppings to produce a glaze) and a culinary club, where residents explore recipes based on the wildflowers and crops consumed by the goats.

Museums and galleries supporting health and wellbeing  

Similar to the Whitworth Art Gallery, and Manchester Museum, museums and galleries are recognising their potential to support wellbeing and rethinking their relationships with their local communities, working to ensure their programmes and offers are inclusive and accessible to all. In Fukushima, to the north of Tokyo, the prefectural museum has played a vital role in supporting those affected by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent nuclear incident. The museum has been central to capturing the way of life and preserving the memories of communities evacuated as a result of the nuclear incident. The relationships formed through this process have informed new ways of working with residents that link local heritage, nature and wellbeing.

Common goals and next steps

Whilst in our brief trip we were only able to scratch the surface of the wealth of creative health activity taking place, we identified some themes that were common to both Japan and the UK. In particular, creative programmes targeting older adults, creative activity to promote and support mental health and wellbeing and creative and cultural assets as central to community-building and placemaking. We could also observe similar challenges related to the development of a sustainable infrastructure for creative health, including the need to build cross-sectoral partnerships and work across different policy domains, and to articulate the evidence and value of this way of working.

Building on UoM’s existing research evaluating the integration of creative health into systems, and TUA’s focus on joined-up system design, the MOU provides an excellent opportunity for comparative policy research. We can also look across the University’s cultural institutions, and our partners in the wider Greater Manchester creative health ecosystem to identify where we might co-create programmes and interventions with our counterparts in Tokyo and develop new approaches to design, implementation and evaluation. For example, CreaTech (the combination of creativity and technology) is an area with significant potential for collaboration as a growing element of Greater Manchester’s Creative Industries, a key theme of Creative Manchester and a specialism of Tokyo University of the Arts.

We look forward to fostering new links between researchers in both universities to build an interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral and international creative health collaborative, evidencing the value of creativity and culture for health and wellbeing.

The Nicholl Fellowships, established by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, seeks to identify and encourage talented new screenwriters from across the globe. Partner institutions may recommend up to two screenwriters per year to submit a feature screenplay to the Nicholl Fellowships.

At the University of Manchester recommendations will be made by Gonzalo Maza and Jonathan Hourigan, screenwriters and lecturers in the Centre for New Writing. Gonzalo is the co-writer of Una mujer fantástica (A fantastic woman), winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2018. Maza, a member of the Academy, said:

If you would like to be considered, view more details about how to apply.

Hourigan notes that “We're confident of receiving some strong submissions from our MA Screenwriters but in this, the first year of our partnership, deadlines are tight and the criteria strict, so do read the guidelines and criteria carefully.”

Up to five US$35,000 Nicholl Fellowships are awarded annually. Fellows receive ongoing mentoring from Academy members and networking opportunities from the Academy.

Nicholl Fellows participate in pitch workshops, media training sessions, meet-and-greets and more. They also receive ongoing career advancement support through the Gold Alumni Network Program, which provides continued access, opportunity, professional development and education for alumni of the Academy’s global talent development programs.

All Nicholl Fellows' screenplays are archived in the Academy Collection and are accessible through the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library.

The program was endowed by Gladys “Gee” Nicholl in honour of her husband, writer-producer Don Nicholl. The Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting program has awarded 191 fellowships since 1986.

For more information, visit the Nicholl Fellowships website.

Running from 2025 to 2027, Tuning into Opera is exploring four research themes:

• Opera in Greater Manchester: History, perceptions and visibility
• Place-making and storytelling: Reflecting local identity through opera
• Inclusion and accessibility: Breaking down barriers and opening doors
• Innovation and technology: Imagining the future of opera-making

The project takes a mixed-methods approach, combining surveys, interviews, workshops and creative collaborations. So far, this has included public surveys exploring perceptions of opera and career accessibility, artist and researcher roundtables and stakeholder interviews across the region’s cultural sector. Together, these activities are helping to build a nuanced understanding of opera’s current position in Greater Manchester and its future potential. At its core, this is a project about listening: listening to audiences, to those who feel excluded from opera, and to those already reimagining what it can be.

The project’s themes came into particularly sharp focus at a recent public workshop: Future of Opera: Human–AI Improvisation, held at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in May. The event formed part of both Tuning into Opera and the OperAI: Future of Opera series and explored how digital technologies might reshape opera as a more participatory artform.

Opera meets AI: experimentation and participation

The workshop featured a live demonstration of scenes from an immersive sci‑fi opera developed by Dr Alexandra Huang-Kokina, Bicentenary Fellow in Music at the University of Manchester and Operactive Arts.

Audience members were not passive observers. Asked to become Yōkai – playful spirits influencing events – they used their smartphones to submit emoji-based emotional responses and vote on key narrative decisions. This input was aggregated through an ‘emotion engine’, which shaped the performance in real time, affecting scenography, timbre shifts and even the fate of characters within the story. For performers, this created a responsive and partially improvised environment, where they adapted not only to each other, but to audience input mediated through AI.

In conversation: AI, creativity and the future of opera

The performance was followed by a panel discussion to reflect on the broader implications of AI for opera. The conversation featured Dr Alexandra Huang-Kokina, Bob Holland, Executive Producer at English National Opera, Dr Jennifer Cearns, Lecturer in AI at The University of Manchester, and Cliona Cassidy, one of the event’s performers, a soprano, composer and experimental vocalist. It was chaired by Lauren Monaghan-Pisano, Director of Strategy and Partnerships at ENO.

Dr Alexandra Huang-Kokina framed the workshop’s performance as a cultural intervention: opera was used as a medium through which to explore and communicate the role of AI in society. She emphasised that this is particularly important given that public discourse often positions AI as inherently threatening. By embedding AI within an artistic context, she suggested, we can create a platform for more nuanced and imaginative engagement.

Another key theme was the move from linear narrative structures to interactive ‘storyworlds’, which Alexandra likened to gaming environments. The panel reflected on how this approach can reposition opera as an immersive and participatory experience, where meaning is co-produced rather than delivered. They noted that such an approach opens up new possibilities for audience engagement, while also prompting important questions about how creative control is balanced and how authorship is remunerated within more collaborative forms.

The discussion also touched on the practicalities of integrating AI into live performance. The use of mobile phones, for example, enables real-time interaction and participation, while also introducing considerations around audience focus.

The panel also reflected on the wider implications of applying technologies such as emotion recognition and data aggregation in live performance contexts. In particular, they reflected on how audience responses – such as emoji inputs – are translated into collective datasets that shape the performance, raising questions about how individual emotions are represented within aggregated data. The discussion also looked ahead to more advanced forms of audience sensing, including biometric tracking and facial recognition, highlighting the importance of consent and critical reflection when incorporating these technologies into live cultural experiences.

Questions of access and inclusion – central to Tuning into Opera – also formed an important part of the discussion. AI and digital technologies can be seen as offering new pathways into opera, particularly for younger audiences and those with limited prior exposure. At the same time, the panel recognised that not all audiences will have equal access to or feel comfortable with digital participation.

Continuing the conversation

As Tuning into Opera moves forward, these questions will remain central to the initiative’s research and engagement work. Over the coming year, Tuning into Opera will continue to develop workshops, consultations and collaborations across Greater Manchester, working with communities and partners to explore how opera can become more inclusive, responsive and relevant.

The Human–AI Improvisation workshop offered one possible vision of opera’s future. More importantly, it demonstrated the value of bringing research, creative practice and public engagement into dialogue.

If you are interested in being part of this conversation, we would love to hear from you. Get in touch by emailing tuningintoopera@eno.org.

About the Author

Dr Kamila Rymajdo is a writer and academic. She is an Honorary Research Fellow within the Music Department at University of Manchester and works as a Research Associate for English National Opera. She is also Leader in Residence at the University of Lancashire for her contribution to music journalism. Previously, she was a Research Fellow at University of Lodz.

About ENO

English National Opera are the national opera company dedicated to creating extraordinary encounters with opera, on stage and beyond. Founded in 1931 as Sadler’s Wells Opera to make opera accessible to all, we continue that mission today by presenting opera that’s different, creatively daring and inclusive. From performances at the London Coliseum and in Greater Manchester, to work in schools, communities and public spaces across the country, we are committed to reaching and reflecting the full diversity of our nation.

About Creative Manchester

Creative Manchester is an interdisciplinary platform based at The University of Manchester. The platform champions research in creativity and creative practice, bringing together research communities with external stakeholders to explore new research areas and address strategic opportunities. Please visit the Creative Manchester website for more information.

The panel event brought together leading physicists and artists underneath the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank, a UNESCO World Heritage site, to explore the interactions between art and science, the positive friction and overlaps between their practice and the benefits of interdisciplinary collaboration.

The Solstice and Equinox Series brings innovative creative artists to The University of Manchester's four cultural institutions. Each of our unique cultural institutions – the Whitworth, the John Rylands Research Institute and Library, Manchester Museum and Jodrell Bank Centre for Engagement – focus on building civic, national and international partnerships to advance the social, environmental and individual wellbeing of our communities.

The evening began with an opportunity for guests to view the Cosmic Titans exhibition, on display at Jodrell Bank until 7^th September 2026 as part of their ‘Curious Universe’ series. Cosmic Titans was co-developed by artists and physicists at The University of Nottingham’s ARTLab, a dedicated space to encourage and study interactions between artists and physicists. Co-founded by Prof Silke Weinfurtner and Dr Ulrike Kuchner, physicists at The University of Nottingham, the space highlights the potential of creativity in accelerating innovation and the widening of scientific participation in the arts.

Following the exhibition viewing, attendees were invited to the Space Dome for the keynote panel discussion, ‘Interdisciplinary approaches to Quantum’. After an introduction by Prof Tim O’Brien, Director of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Engagement, the audience welcomed Prof David Olusoga OBE, Prof Weinfurtner, Dr Kuchner and renowned artist, Conrad Shawcross RA to the stage.

Prof David Olusoga began discussions by mapping the division between the arts and science replicated in our culture and education system, which ignores the potential overlaps they share. Drawing on the historical figure of the polymath, Prof Olusoga established the historical and social significance of collaboration between the often-divided fields.

The panel discussion was centred around the shared collaborative experience between Prof Weinfurtner, Dr Kuchner and Conrad Shawcross. As co-founders of ArtLab at the University of Nottingham, Prof Weinfurtner and Dr Kuchner had invited Shawcross to become one of the first resident artists of their space.

The panellists discussed the cost of the division between science and art that is hard-wired into our culture and thought. The panel talked of the ‘catastrophic’ impact of STEM on the arts, and the narrowing specialisation of scientific careers with seniority. By bringing creative practice and art into science, the panel highlighted the two-way benefits of collaboration, not only in mediating abstract concepts to wider audiences but the benefit of artistic representation of scientists themselves.

The panellists then concluded with reflections of their experience collaborating, before opening the discussion up for questions from the audience.

Following the panel discussion, attendees were invited to enjoy a DJ set and multimedia performance by Matthew Woodham, another ArtLab resident artist and contributor to Cosmic Titans. Audiences were given a demonstration of the technology and science behind the piece, which used an interferometer, a device used to measure the interaction of light waves, to produce music and visual displays.

‘Cosmic Titans – in-conversation with David Olusoga’ was hosted in partnership with Jodrell Bank Centre for Engagement as a part of Creative Manchester’s Solstice and Equinox series. To find out more about future events in this series and many more, sign up to our mailing list. 

Currently a Professor and Head of Enterprise (Academic) at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), Michelle will take up her new roles on 14 September 2026.

As Director, she will lead the strategic direction and development of the University’s Creative Manchester interdisciplinary research platform, bringing together academics, cultural partners and communities to advance creative research, practice and innovation. She will also be responsible for fostering partnerships, strengthening external engagement and enhancing the University’s impact across the creative and cultural sectors.

Michelle brings considerable research and creative industry engagement experience to the role. Her research practice explores audience response to live and recorded music, neurological response to music listening, music and time, perception of contemporary music, entrepreneurship, and music and Parkinson’s disease. 

Her research on ‘What makes live music special?’, in collaboration with the University of Manchester, was featured in UK Research and Innovation’s ‘101 jobs that change the world’ series. She was Principal Investigator of the £1 million RNCM StART Entrepreneurship Project, exploring the most effective ways to train creative industries students in entrepreneurial skills.

She is a Fellow of Enterprise Educators UK (EEUK), chaired the subject association for music in higher education, MusicHE, and was a member of the Advance HE Aurora Advisory Group.

Her publications include multiple journal articles and book chapters, and a co-edited volume entitled Music and Time: Psychology, Philosophy, Practice. She is joint Editor-in-Chief of the journal Psychology of Music.

Michelle won the I Love Manchester Alan Turing Award in 2025 for innovation, creativity and smart thinking, and was a finalist in the Northern Power Women Awards in the People with Purpose - Public Sector category in 2026.

Professor Fiona Devine, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Manchester, said:

Michelle said:

Lost & Found in Translation (L&FIT) is a collaborative network of postgraduate researchers (PGRs) and early career researchers (ECRs) initially based across the four North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (NWSSDTP) institutions. The network brings together researchers whose work involves qualitative interviews conducted across diverse languages, settings and disciplines.

The initiative was founded by Dr Ruth Abou Rached, Lecturer in Arabic Cultural Studies (and scholar of Translation Studies) at the University of Manchester. Recognising that many PhD researchers were engaging with issues of translation often outside of Translation Studies, she identified a gap: cross-language research practices vary significantly across disciplines, yet opportunities for shared reflection were limited.

L&FIT began as a small group of scholars from across the NWSSDTP which includes Manchester, Liverpool, Lancashire, Lancaster and Keele Universities. These researchers initially came together to deliver a workshop at the Methods@Manchester 2025 Methods Fair. What followed was not a one-off event, but an ongoing conversation that continued well beyond the Fair itself.

Building on this momentum, the group secured a Methods North West Catalyst Grant in summer 2025. This funding supported a programme of three workshops (February, April and May 2026) and a conference in June 2026. From the outset, the diversity of the network was striking, with participants drawn from disciplines including Biology, Human Geography, Business, Politics, Literature, IT and Translation Studies. Guest speakers from the Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies supported the network by sharing their own expertise while signposting the group to the latest translation research publications.

By the second workshop, the network had already expanded beyond the NWSSDTP region, welcoming contributors from institutions in China and Morocco, alongside a visiting scholar from the United States. The third workshop deepened these conversations further, focusing on the role of the researcher within the research process, and on how to ethically represent the communities involved in cross-language research.

The L&FIT Conference

The conference programme reflected the breadth and ambition of the network. Originally planned as a one-day event, it expanded into a two-day format - including an online component - to enable wider participation.

Topics ranged from AI algorithms and idioms, speech recognition and sign language, to research in conflict zones and the emotional complexity of interviews that extend beyond words. Participants also critically examined broader structural challenges, including how the ‘big social sciences’ engage with cross-language production, interpreters being seen as a problem, not a help,  when ‘money talks’ in different languages; academia ‘stuck’ in English.

A practising translator described the event as “diversified, well-structured and highly relevant to the current state of the Translation field”, highlighting the way it opened up new perspectives on both the challenges and possibilities of working across languages.

For those involved in organising the conference, the experience was equally significant. One Year 3 PGR reflected on the “professionalism and attention to detail demonstrated at every stage”, describing it as “the best experience I have had across no fewer than ten conferences and workshops this year.”

Why has L&FIT resonated so strongly?

Reflecting on the network’s success, Dr Abou Rached describes L&FIT as “academic community development in action”. Its impact, she suggests, stems from a combination of open collaboration, institutional support, and a shared recognition that translation is a vital component of academic research practice. Together, these elements have created “rich potential to become a sustainable hub of knowledge-sharing in the methods area and beyond.”

This sense of community is echoed by participants. One doctoral researcher noted that involvement in the network had encouraged greater reflexivity in their work, particularly in “keeping grassroots voices at the centre of research”. Another highlighted the personal significance of these connections, explaining that the network “made me feel less alone… and part of a community.”

Where next?

What began as a group of ten researchers across five North West universities has grown into an international network of around 50 scholars. Participants now span regions including North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Egypt), the Gulf (Qatar), China and beyond.

The network’s momentum has attracted strong support from the wider academic community. A guest speaker praised its success in “bringing together such a diversity of disciplinary perspectives” and emphasised the importance of sustaining this energy into 2026–27.

For many involved, the value of L&FIT lies not only in intellectual exchange but in the sense of belonging it fosters. As one Year 2 PGR reflected, being part of the network has been “truly inspiring” and has “renewed my enthusiasm for translation studies” another valued “how researchers from a wide range of fields are all, in different ways, contributing to language and cultural accessibility.”

Looking ahead, the network plans to first extend these conversations through a dedicated blog, continuing to create space for dialogue, reflection and future collaborations.

Where can I find out more?

You can read more about the workshops and conference here, and while L&FIT does not yet have a LinkedIn page, you can explore posts from the conference, panel by panel, and post by post, here!

Rather than focusing on high-level geopolitics, the event highlights the role of brokers, translators and traders who operate in “contact zones” such as border markets, development projects, restaurants and cultural settings. Through these stories, the event aims to show how global processes are shaped through everyday encounters, negotiations and exchanges. 

The screening will examine how these actors mediate communication, navigate cultural differences and shape understandings of “global China” on the ground. Organisers hope the event will prompt discussion on how power, knowledge and relationships are formed across borders in practice. 

The event is open to researchers and those interested in global migration, China studies and the social dynamics of international engagement. You can register for remaining tickets here.

• Tell us a bit about yourself and the roles you have had before joining the University

I have worked in Higher Education for the past five years at Leeds Conservatoire and BIMM University, so stepping into the University of Manchester as the Martin Harris Centre Receptionist has been fairly smooth. 

I enjoy working alongside creative people and I particularly love supporting students, because I felt like I didn’t connect with the staff of my university and I want them to have a better experience than I did. So far, it’s been very enjoyable working at MHC as part of a larger team than what I’ve been used to. Joining in September, at the busiest time of our year, was challenging!

My previous role was also very student-focused, I used to be on first name basis with most of the students I’d deal with day to day. It’s helped me become a great people person, which I’ve found benefits me greatly in my current work.

I have a degree in Music Technology, which gives me a very broad understanding of different aspects of music, musicology, and sound engineering, and all of this contributes to my understanding of creative courses at degree level. 

• Aside from typical administrative work, what’s one aspect of your role that others may not be aware of?

One aspect of my job with the MHC is running the Box Office for several events that are held throughout the academic year, such as the MUMS Opera performance of Hansel and Gretel, the MUMS Chamber Orchestra Concert, and the Quatuor Danel Beat the Rush Hour concert. It’s a nice departure from being behind a screen and is a great chance to interact with MHC visitors and support creative events happening at the University.

• So, what do you get up to outside of work? 

Aside from using my degree in my day job, I also have perform and release music regularly under  the name Isaac Malibu. I am also currently singing at the Luminiscence Light Show”at Manchester Cathedral, running until June, and I have bookings at House of Social and Matt and Phreds in the next few months. As well as the live performances, I am in the studio writing and recording music for my own projects and also creating tracks for other singers. II also organise events, curating lineups and showcasing s talent across the north.  

We’re delighted to announce that we’ve signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tokyo University of the Arts and The National Center for Art Research, Japan.

On Saturday, 23 May 2026 at The National Art Center, Tokyo (NACT), Japan, Prof John McAuliffe, Associate Vice President (Cultural Portfolio), signed a Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of Creative Manchester, at The University of Manchester. 

This landmark agreement commits the University to collaborate in a three-way partnership with the “Arts-Based Communication Platform for Co-creation to Build a Convivial Society" at Tokyo University of the Arts (TUA) — commonly known as the ART-based Platform for Co-creation — and the National Center for Art Research (NCAR), part of the National Museum of Art, Japan.

As part of this MoU, the three partners (UoM, the ART-based Platform for Co-creation, and NCAR), will work collaboratively with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) GM Place Partnership, to strengthen international research collaborations

The formal signing ceremony took place following the NCAR Co-Creation Forum Vol.2: Enhancing Wellbeing with Museums ―Place-Based Co-Creation in the UK and Japan.

Prof John McAuliffe, Associate Vice President (Cultural Portfolio), Prof Sook-Kyung Lee, Director of The Whitworth, Dr Hannah Waterson, Research Associate – Knowledge Mobilisation and Julie McCarthy, Strategic Lead for Creative Health at the GMCA presented as part of the event exploring Creative Health initiatives from Manchester.

The event drew 150 guests to The National Art Center, Tokyo, and  over 700 registered for the online event. The afternoon focused on knowledge exchange around Creative Health and Social Prescribing, along with discussion around future collaboration and shared research opportunities.  

Colleagues were also invited to speak at the Kyoto University International Social Prescribing Conference (ISPC 2026), alongside academics from TUA and NCAR. The conference brought together people from across the world interested in social prescribing and non-medical approaches to health and wellbeing. The University of Manchester and GMCA, joined Tokyo University of the Arts and NCAR for a joint session at the conference, exploring differences and similarities in the UK and Japan. They discussed supporting community-based groups to deliver the work and the role of museums and galleries. 

Image Credit: Yumi Saito

Decades on, observing some Manchester students, it doesn’t seem like we’ve made much progress. The assumption existed then, and seems to exist today, that just because students are surrounded by people from different countries, they’ll implicitly learn how to manage exchanges, they’ll ‘figure it out’. There is little indication, though, that this is the case.

Communicating across languages and cultures is complex. It involves awareness, understanding, adaptability, a willingness and confidence to step out of our comfort zones.        

This matters because what could be a strength, can easily become a silent barrier to learning and participation. In my experience the challenges of communication often become most pronounced during groupwork, especially where there is a shared, assessed outcome.

To gain a better understanding of these communication difficulties and how we can support students to overcome them, my colleague Rachel Heasley and I worked closely with students and academics in FSE.

We observed and analysed how groups of students, who didn’t know each other, communicated when completing a task. Through student consultations we then explored our observations.

A few themes emerged:

• some students speak less, not because they lack ideas, but because they’re shy or worried about being misunderstood because of their language skills
• others take over unintentionally because silence is interpreted as agreement or disinterest
• cultural norms influence the language students choose to disagree, question or express uncertainty.

What is clear, though, is there’s a willingness to make it work. Students just don’t know how to with confidence. For most, this needs to be explicitly taught. Without it, students likely default to what feels safest – talking only with familiar peers.

With that knowledge, we created two targeted interventions: a 120-minute workshop and a 60-minute self-directed resource.

Both feature videos of Manchester students sharing real-life stories – honest reflections of the awkward moments and the breakthroughs. They’re accompanied by interactive and reflective tasks, which guide students to think about their own communication styles, assumptions and strategies and reach a shared understanding of how to communicate in groups.

In semester one, we piloted these with two year-one undergraduate courses in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Department of Materials, each cohort comprising roughly 140 students.

The timing was deliberate. We didn’t want to wait until students were struggling, we wanted to address it head on, aiming to normalise the idea that communication is a skill to be worked on, it’s not something you ‘have’ or don’t. Exposing students to this early in their academic studies gives them time to hone their skills before completing higher stake group assessments in years two and three.

Student response was overwhelmingly positive with over 90% of students reporting that they would recommend the workshop or self-study resource to another student. There was a notable shift post workshop in both students’ preparedness and confidence levels, with the percentage more than doubling.

Following up with students a month on, one student shared:

Another described beginning to find their voice:

Academics noticed the difference too. Compared with previous cohorts, they reported students participating more equally and taking greater responsibility for group dynamics. They also observed a shift in tone with clearer, more respectful communication, and a greater appreciation of the challenges others might be facing. With less time spent managing group conflict and troubleshooting communication breakdowns, the ‘wins’ were obvious.

Moving forward, if we want students to communicate confidently, we need to create the conditions for that to happen. That means moving beyond assumptions, recognising that diversity alone doesn’t guarantee meaningful interaction, and it means equipping students – all students – with the skills they need to navigate difference, not avoid it.

Further Reading:

• exploring the self-directed resource
• connect ruth.fordham@manchester.ac.uk   rachel.heasley@manchester.ac.uk

Acknowledgements:  Thanks to Dr Katherine Harrison and Dr Barbara Waters for collaborating on the pilot and their year one undergraduate students on EARTH11300 and MATS11701 for taking part and providing valuable reflections.

Andrew Melchior is a British-German creative technologist with over 25 years at the intersection of music, technology, and art. As CTO of Massive Attack and founder of Genotone Ltd, he has spent his career building the infrastructure that connects creative practice to emerging technology, from pioneering work on one of the world's first artist websites with David Bowie in 1999 to encoding Massive Attack's Mezzanine into synthetic DNA with ETH Zürich. 

Andrew advises the UK government's Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s Working Groups on AI and copyright, representing coalitions of over 30,000 artists through the Music Managers Forum, Featured Artists Coalition, and AFEM. He is a leading voice on artist provenance, AI transparency, and the future of creative rights in the age of generative AI. 

At the heart of the visit was the major public lecture Proof of Human: AI, Copyright, and the Fight for Creative Authorship, which took place at the heart of the Innovation District at SISTER. 

In this special lecture and discussion, Andrew Melchior presented a compelling case for strengthening creative authorship in the era of generative AI. 

Drawing on his experience advising UK government technical working groups on AI and copyright, Melchior explored how large-scale AI systems trained on vast datasets of copyrighted material, often without consent or compensation are disrupting established frameworks for protecting creative work. He argued that the challenge facing artists today is not only legal but infrastructural: without reliable systems to verify authorship and trace creative lineage, existing rights regimes cannot be effectively enforced. 

Following the lecture, he was joined in conversation by John McGrath, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Factory International, and responded to audience questions. 

Earlier in the day, Melchior lead an interactive masterclass for undergraduate and postgraduate music and composition students. 

The session focussed on practical workflows for producing and releasing music while maintaining provenance and control of intellectual property in a rapidly evolving AI landscape. Students engaged directly with Melchior and explored the real-world implications of emerging technologies on their creative practice. 

The visit also included a roundtable discussion bringing together academic experts and policymakers. They examined the relationship between music, culture, technology, and Manchester’s creative heritage; the impact of AI and other technologies on the creative industries and mechanisms to protect the rights and livelihoods of creative practitioners. 

This visit was part of Creative Manchester’s ongoing commitment to fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and critical debate at the intersection of culture, technology, and society.

My name is Callum, and I am a master's student studying Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of Manchester. Since December 2025, I have been on placement with Creative Manchester, where I have supported and learned about the wide range of activities the platform undertakes. This has included gaining insight into how Creative Manchester operates as a research platform within the University, and how this work translates into exhibitions and public events.

My decision to return to university was driven by a strong interest in how creative practice and the arts can contribute to health and community regeneration and particularly how communities can work collaboratively to create meaningful change. I have worked in different organisations around Community Collaboration and wanted an insight into what the University does to engage with the community and different engagement approaches. When the opportunity to apply for a placement with Creative Manchester arose, I recognised it as an ideal way to explore how academic research and cross-sector collaboration can influence community development both within the University and across the wider region. The organisation’s strong network of community and arts partners made the placement feel like a perfect fit.

During my time at Creative Manchester, my role focused on supporting the delivery of events and exhibitions developed through both internal research and external partnerships. I contributed to audience engagement evaluation, assisted with social media promotion in the lead-up to events, and supported the organisation of activities from early planning stages, such as researching venues, coordinating catering, and drafting event briefs, through to acting as an ambassador on the day.

Two particularly memorable projects that demonstrate the depth and impact of Creative Manchester’s work were the International Women’s Day event held in collaboration with MACFEST (Muslim Arts and Culture Festival) and the Hulme Nannas' exhibition of (in)visibility, community and urban change.

The Hulme Nannas' exhibition of (in)visibility, community and urban change was a community-focused project involving women over the age of 50 living near the University. Created by author and artist Anthea Cribbin, and led by researchers Tina Cribbin and Niamh Kavanagh, the exhibition explored The University of Manchester's position within Hulme, an area historically marked by deprivation but now undergoing significant regeneration and gentrification. The project provided a platform for local residents to share their perspectives, raising important questions around place-making, identity, and community voice during periods of substantial change.

International Women’s Day 2026 ripple effect: Co-researching work, precarity and contribution in later life, was the largest event during my placement and highlighted Creative Manchester’s commitment to inclusivity and accessibility. Thoughtful considerations, such as providing takeaway food options during Ramadan, helped ensure all attendees could fully participate. The event featured a panel discussion on inequalities in employment for women over 50 in Manchester, from the project Uncertain Futures, alongside contributions from local residents involved in the research. Performances from artists within Muslim and Turkish communities added a celebratory dimension, showcasing the strength of collaboration between the University and its wider community. It was a diverse, inclusive, and genuinely collaborative event, and a great example of Creative Manchester at its best.

These examples are just two of the activities I was able to get involved in during my time at Creative Manchester. There where lots of other events that took place from AI in Music through to Creative Inspiration from Plants, Memorial Launches and research symposiums. Alongside this, I supported a diverse range of exhibitions from Moss Worlds, through to Biblical Women. The diversity of activities that took place where really interesting and showed different approaches delivery, teaching me a great deal

This placement has helped me develop both my confidence and my commitment to working collaboratively with communities to address challenges around health, equality, and access to the creative industries. I have gained valuable insight into how meaningful partnerships can bridge the gap between academic research and real-world impact. The work undertaken by Creative Manchester is vital in fostering these connections, and it has provided me with approaches and perspectives that I will carry forward in my future work.

I am extremely grateful for my time at Creative Manchester. The team were welcoming, supportive, and deeply passionate about their work. I would strongly encourage anyone who has not yet attended one of their events to do so, they cover a wide range of topics and are consistently engaging and inspiring. The exhibitions in the Samuel Alexander Building’s glass corridor are also not to be missed; having worked with the team, I now appreciate the care and effort that goes into curating and regularly updating this space.

For anyone considering a placement that offers genuine insight into community engagement, academic collaboration, and creative approaches to complex social challenges, Creative Manchester is an opportunity not to overlook. It has been an incredibly valuable and rewarding experience, and I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the entire team for hosting me.

Find out more about Student and Graduate opportunities with Creative Manchester.

Dr Alberto Esu, Lecturer in Classical Greek History in the Classics, Ancient History, Archaeology and Egyptology Department at the University of Manchester, has been awarded a prestigious fellowship to participate in research activities for the Phyle Project: Revitalizing Democracy in Theory and Practice. The project explores the history of civic offices in ancient Greek democracies and their relevance to contemporary republican and democratic theory.

One of only 12 fellows worldwide, Dr Esu was awarded the fellowship of 24,000 USD through nomination and competitive selection by an international committee of senior scholars. The fellowship is funded by the International Balzan Prize, which was awarded to Professor Josiah Ober for his leading contribution to the history of Athenian democracy.

As an award-holder, Alberto will support the research activities of the Phyle Project over the next three years until 2028, including participating in a workshop at Stanford University and a final conference in Athens. His studies will explore how Greek democracies structured civic offices, arguing that institutional design—especially limited and well-defined authority—was central to democratic resilience.

Reflecting on the award, Alberto said:

Find out more about the project.

The award-winning festival, which is supported by Arts Council England, features a vibrant programme that highlights the library network’s full offer, across wellbeing, culture and creativity, digital and information, and, of course, reading.

Festival of Libraries won Best Event at the Manchester Culture Awards 2024 and was named the second Most Inclusive Literature Festival by Inclusive Books For Children in 2025.

Creative Manchester has curated a series of four free events for the Festival programme, showcasing our research, in partnership with the Centre for New Writing and the Linguistic Diversity Collective.

Writing for Wellbeing workshops will see poets from the Centre for New Writing run two sessions at Stockport and Manchester libraries, exploring how creative writing can positively impact wellbeing.

The Linguistic Diversity Collective will present ‘Roots, Resistance, Reinvention: Exporing Jamaican Patois/Patwah [Creole]’ which will explore how dictionaries define words and will take place at the Old Trafford Library. This interactive event will explore the meanings, uses, origins, and evolution of Jamaican Patwa. It draws on research from Dr Serge Sagna, of the Linguistic Diversity Collective and is aimed at all generations of people of Jamaican descent living in Manchester along with members of the wider public who would like to learn more about Jamaican Patwa / Patois. All are welcome.

‘Tasting Children's Literature - An Edible Readathon’ will provide a family-friendly, immersive session exploring foods in children's literature. The workshop will engage children in drawing pictures of and telling stories about the foods that come to life in their favourite stories, as well as the foods that mean most to them and their communities.

Find out more about the University’s Festival of Libraries workshops and book your free places by visiting Eventbrite.

Organised with help from the Department of Computer Science, ‘Music and Manchester: The Past, Present and Future of the Computer in Electronic Music’ addressed the city’s contributions to electronic music from an interdisciplinary perspective. The event explored the themes in computer science, musical composition and history, and asked what Manchester’s past can tell us about the future of machine‑assisted creativity. 

Manchester’s influence on popular music has long been celebrated, with bands such as Oasis, The Smiths and Joy Division/New Order cementing the city’s reputation. Furthermore, Manchester’s contributions to computing are well known, with the University of Manchester celebrating 75 years since the development of the Turing Test this academic year. However, far less attention has been afforded to the intersection of these two histories, the city’s contributions to electronic music.  

The event addressed three main components of this musical relationship: the early development of electronic music and Turing's work in Manchester; electronic music facilities and research at The University of Manchester throughout the years; and contemporary human-machine collaborations shaping the future of electronic music.  

The event began with a welcome address by Creative Manchester Director, Professor John McAuliffe, before Dr Riza Batista-Navarro (Senior Lecturer in Text Mining and Creative Manchester Theme Lead for Creative Industries and Innovation/CreaTech) introduced the aims and speakers for the day.  

The first lightning talk was delivered by Dr Jonathan Swinton, a former mathematical biologist and author of Alan Turing’s Manchester. Dr Swinton highlighted that Turing himself was not especially interested in musical composition. Instead, it was the need to market computers that encouraged early experiments in using machines for entertainment. While Turing did not compose electronic music, contemporaries such as Christopher Strachey were instrumental in developing some of the earliest computer-generated works. 

Dr Iain Emsley (Research Software Engineer, Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies, University of Warwick) then turned to the representation of sound in computing, drawing on the archive of Eric Sunderland, a maintenance engineer on Manchester’s Atlas machine who created polyphonic music using the computer. Dr Emsley highlighted the challenges of researching such archives, which are often incomplete: while numerical data survives, the sounds and voices those numbers once represented are frequently lost. 

Manchester’s electroacoustic heritage was explored further by Professor David Berezan (Professor of Electroacoustic Music Composition and Director of the Electroacoustic Music Studios and MANTIS). Professor Berezan traced the history of the University’s electroacoustic studios, founded in 1967, from sparse archival records in the 1980s through a period of rebirth from the early 1990s to the present. These developments led to the founding of the MANTIS Festival and the NOVARS Research Centre in 2007, with a strong emphasis on taking electronic music out of the studio and into live performance. 

Subsequently, Professor Frank Boons (Professor of Innovation and Sustainability, The University of Manchester; Professor of Political Economy of Sustainability, Maastricht University) reflected on his personal journey with electronic music. Drawing on Zen Buddhist teachings from Shunryū Suzuki, he described a ‘second beginning’ with music later in life. Professor Boons considered the concept of the ‘musical centaur’, a human musician assisted by a machine, alongside the risk of ‘reverse musical centaurs’, where humans become appendages of uncaring machines. 

The final lightning talk was delivered by Dr Alexandra Huang-Kokina (Bicentenary Fellow in Music), who offered a glimpse into the future of machine involvement in music. Discussing her research project OperAI, an immersive opera with live audience interaction, Dr Huang-Kokina explored the artistic and technical challenges of integrating AI into performance. She also previewed her forthcoming project, ‘Emotion Engine’, which creates a real-time feedback loop between audience response and stage design, concluding with the question: “If the stage can finally listen, what will audiences say?” Dr Huang-Kokina’s work will be further discussed at the forthcoming research café, Future of Opera: Human-AI Improvisation, on 19 May 2026.

Following the lightning talks, a panel discussion featuring Dr Alexandra Huang-Kokina, Dr Iain Emsley, Professor Chenghua Lin (Professor of Natural Language Processing) and Dr Jemily Rime (Professor of Electronic and Produced Music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama) and chaired by Professor Sean Bechhofer (Professor, Department of Computer Science). The panellists discussed what the role of machines should be in music production.  

Following the event, attendees were invited to view Turing – Machine, a sound installation by Professor Frank Boons that articulates the evolving ways in which humans and computers interact, and an interactive two-player musical Turing test by PhD student Harry O’Brien. 

To stay informed about Creative Manchester’s work in the Creative Industries and Innovation/CreaTech theme, as well as our other events and activities, please sign up to our mailing list.

This notable three-way partnership is centred on creative health and will help to foster a deeper academic and cultural exchange between Japan and the UK in this area of research. It will form the basis for future research collaboration and knowledge exchange.

Greater Manchester (GM) is recognised as a national and world reference for creative health. Building on a long history of arts and health work, GM launched its Creative Health Strategy in 2022, with ambitions for GM to become the world’s first Creative Health City Region. The GM Creative Health Place Partnership continues to support the development and delivery of creative health activity across Greater Manchester.

As part of this MoU, the three partners (UoM, the ART-based Platform for Co-creation, and NCAR), will work collaboratively with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) GM Place Partnership, to strengthen international research collaborations.

The agreement will be formally signed in Tokyo on 23 May 2026, following the NCAR Co-Creation Forum Vol.2: Enhancing Wellbeing with Museums ―Place-Based Co-Creation in the UK and Japan, at The National Art Center, Tokyo, where colleagues from The University of Manchester will present on creative health initiatives in Greater Manchester.

Whilst in Tokyo, The University of Manchester and GMCA colleagues have been invited to speak at the Kyoto University International Social Prescribing Conference (ISPC 2026), alongside academics from TUA and NCAR.

The University of Manchester is proud to work collaboratively with a number of renowned teaching institutions across the globe, with several partners located in Asia including Manchester-Chinese University of Hong Kong, Manchester-Ashoka University, Manchester O.P. Jindal Global University, Manchester-IISC Bangalore and Manchester-Manipal Academy of Higher Education.

The University collaborates with other institutions around the world at a faculty level through impactful MoUs, ensuring colleagues can collaborate with global peers in their field and access the resources they need to co-create cutting-edge research.

The Faculty of Humanities was a founding member of the Global Humanities Alliance, a partnership that includes the University of Melbourne, University of Toronto, University of Nairobi, Ashoka University, Mahidol University, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Universitas Gadjah Mada and The University of Manchester.

The University of Manchester is globally renowned for its pioneering research, outstanding teaching and learning, and commitment to social responsibility. We are a truly international university – ranking in the top 50 in a range of global rankings – with a diverse community of more than 44,300 students, 12,800 colleagues and 585,000 alumni. 

Harriet Hillier, a second-year undergraduate student in Music at the University of Manchester, has been awarded the Stuart Hall Essay Prize for 2026. The prize, worth £2,000, is open to UK-based academics, students, journalists and other writers aged 18-30, and aims to stimulate new contributions to the areas of political, cultural and educational research pioneered by the Jamaican-British cultural theorist and sociologist Stuart Hall.

Harriet’s essay, ‘Choosing a Nation: Identity, Belonging, and Representation in International Sport’, was the unanimous choice of the judging panel. The essay focuses in particular on fencing, a sport at which Harriet has represented Great Britain in international competitions.

The judges, Professor Catherine Hall, Professor Jo Littler and Professor Kennetta Hammond Perry, gave the following comments on the prize-winning essay: “This essay applies Hall’s conjunctural method to read culture at the intersection of political, economic and ideological forces. The case study is of fencing as an international sport and the author applies their experience of it as a participant to discuss what it means to represent a nation at this time, in a post-Brexit world in which borders have become ever more problematic, where sport is transnational yet aims to figure as a key symbol of national unity, and athletes adopt strategic nationalities in order to gain funding enabling them to compete. The essay is beautifully written and engages throughout with different aspects of Hall’s thinking – put to work in relation to the specificity of now. The moment – it is argued – is one of both crisis and opportunity: it raises the question as to what kind of nation we want to be, and insists that the nation’s story can be retold. We appreciated its extrapolation of the hybrid histories of the sport, its grasp of the neoliberal dynamics shaping its present, and its deft threading through of personal experience to tell the story on multiple levels”.

The winning essay has been published on the Stuart Hall Foundation website.

The Nanjing Hydropolis Spring School took place between 22-31 March and was organised by the School of Architecture and The Confucius Institute at the University of Manchester. It aimed to offer an insight into the historic city of Nanjing and people’s life through its water infrastructure to help participants’ understanding of relationships between urban space, ecological processes and social activity.

The programme, which was open to students and recent graduates of the University of Manchester, took 16 participants into the deep ends of water infrastructure in the historic city of Nanjing. Students observed and discussed water infrastructure with planners, designers, government officials and NGOs for an exploration of the relationship between water, the city and its people.

The group was taken to many sites designed by faculty of the hosting institution, Southeast University. This included drainage pump stations on Jiangxin Island, renovation projects on Qinhuai River in Nanjing, Little Qinhuai in Yangzhou and a café on top of the pump station that allows the public access to an important infrastructure of the island. The renovation projects along the Little Qinhua River also provide public spaces like an exhibition hall, a hotel and office buildings. 

Prior to the site visits, participants had the chance to hear from the designers about their design concepts and the consideration of the historic landscape and eco-system. They also visited ecological sites such as the Apricot Blossom Lake from the recycled water from Nanjing Iron and Steel Works and a small animal farm on-site. The Jiangbei Water Source Heat Pump station uses river water to provide heating and cooling to thousands of households and businesses. Seeing the river dolphins (known as Finless Porpoise) returning to the world’s third largest river, the Yantze, after extinction was the highlight of the trip for many.

Inspired by these innovative projects with the smart design and humanistic approach to water infrastructure, participants, together with their Chinese teammates, created models to reflect their observations and presented their analysis to the expert panel on the final day. 

The programme attracted the attention of local media and received coverage in the Nanjing Express and the Nanjing Morning Post – with millions of views on Chinese social media.

Nanjing Hydropolis was funded by Young Envoys Scholarship, China and the China-Britain Business Council.

From January to July 2025 broadcaster and producer Karen Gabay carried out research as part of a Simon Industrial Fellowship with the Creative Manchester platform and the Music Department, School of Arts, Languages and Cultures at The University of Manchester. 

As part of the fellowship Karen Gabay produced a podcast series entitled ‘You Ought To Know’ that will be published across various platforms, with the first episode premiering on 23 March 2026. Each podcast captures a conversation with musicians that have had and continue to have a significant impact on British popular music. These conversations were recorded at public engagement events as well as in intimate one-on-one settings across Manchester.

You can listen to and watch the podcast episodes on various platforms. To be notified of new episodes subscribe to Karen Gabay’s Substack and the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures’ YouTube channel.

The first podcast is a recording of Karen Gabay’s panel event on Reggae and Dub-Poetry in the UK with Lovers Rock legend Sylvia Tella, Dub Poetry great Levi Tafari and Reggae and Hip Hop artist J.Chambers in the Manchester Museum in June 2025. This episode will premiere on 23 March 2026 at 3pm. You can watch the premiere on this link.

The second episode explores the history of Black British Gospel Music and was recorded in Low Four Studio in Deansgate in May 2025. Manchester musician Luke Smith, gospel pioneer Juliet Fletcher, Mancunian vocalist Yvonne Shelton and Kingdom Choir member and founder of Manchester Inspirational Voices Wayne Ellington star in this episode to be released a few weeks later.

The third podcast episode features a conversation with renowned Soul singer-songwriter and former Ikette PP Arnold known for her work with Paul Weller, Peter Gabriel, and Jimmy Cliff. The recording took place across three sessions at The University of Manchester and Versa Studios Manchester, the iconic home of Granada Television in July 2025.  

The final episode of this series was recorded in July 2025 and features Manchester singer-songwriter Daley. It explores how the musician’s alternative soul and R&B sound is influenced by Black British musicians and led him to pursue collaborations with soul great Jill Scott and UK artist Marsha Ambrosius of Floetry.

These episodes form the beginning of a series of conversations around the unsung legends and influential artists in the UK music industry. Future episodes will be released on Karen Gabay’s channels in the coming months. This bonus content includes in-depth conversations with the Queen of Northern Soul Gloria Jones (Tainted Love) and earlier podcast guests Sylvia Tella and Luke Smith on their lives and work in the Black British music industry. It also features an intimate one-on-one discussion with Sananda Maitreya, who is considered a musician’s favourite and trailblazer in redefining Soul for British audiences.

Throughout her fellowship, Karen was able to build on her interest in uncovering and showcasing forgotten artefacts of Black music history and gained access the British Pop Archive in the John Rylands Library for further archival research. This allowed her to amplify the voices of those working within the UK music sector, in particular Black vocalists, and industry professionals, who have heavily impacted popular music in the UK and globally. She explored how different cultural spaces in Manchester have played a significant role in the lives of these musicians and their path in the music industry over the decades. 

Secondary outputs of the project include Karen Gabay’s reading list and a playlist providing the musical soundtrack for exploring the recent past and present of Black British music and its influences, which can be accessed via her LinkTree.

This Simon Industrial Fellowship laid the foundations for documenting alternative music histories in the UK. It explored and applied ethical and collaborative methods of archiving personal stories of a demographic, who have suffered from experiences of institutional exclusion, absence of fair accreditation and missing commercial opportunities due to their race or geographical location. It is taking steps towards righting wrongs of the recent past and gives talented but previously overlooked creatives a platform to tell their stories on their own terms. 

As such it reasserts the relevance and significance of the John Rylands’ British Pop Archive and is adding more diverse and nonetheless equally relevant archival artefacts to its catalogue. This work aligns with the University’s renewed strategic focus on archives and just archival practices to celebrate, document and bring to the fore the stories that make Manchester the city we know today. 

Creative Manchester were delighted to host ‘Unlocking Historical Archives with AI', an event addressing the opportunities and challenges that AI presents to researchers and practitioners working with archives, how AI can drive greater accessibility and utility of archives for new groups of users, and what future archives might look like as a result of further developments in AI.  

Hosting speakers from The University of Manchester, the John Rylands Research Institute and Library, Manchester Histories and The University of Glasgow, the event aimed to generate interdisciplinary and cross-institutional conversations about AI’s place in the present and future of the archival sector. 

With the University celebrating 75 years since Alan Turing’s seminal paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence this academic year, Creative Manchester also hosted the ‘AI at Manchester’ exhibition in the Samuel Alexander Glass Corridor. Attendees of ‘Unlocking Historical Archives with AI’ were invited to attend a private viewing of the exhibition, which spotlighted 20 early career researchers from across the University exemplifying creative research approaches to AI.  

The event began with an introduction by Creative Manchester Deputy-Director, Dr Constance Smith. A round of lightning talks commenced with Dr Benjamin Wiggins (Senior Lecturer of History and Library & Archive Studies), who provided an overview of how AI-powered tools such as Transkribus, a cooperatively run transcription tool, are transforming the accessibility of archives, though with significant consequences for climate, data scale and research practice. 

Subsequently, Dr Riza Batista-Navarro (Senior Lecturer in Text Mining and Creative Manchester Theme Lead for Creative Industries and Innovation/CreaTech) presented her research on how natural language processing (NLP) can help to make ‘community-generated digital content’ (CGDC) more searchable and queryable. Focusing on the UKRI-funded ‘Our Heritage, Our Stories’ project, Dr Batista-Navarro presented an approach to CGDC which uses NLP to recover valuable information often lost in its metadata. 

Prof Hannah Barker (Professor of British History) then gave a historian’s perspective by highlighting the work of the OHOS/Manchester Histories Champs Camp Archive Project. The ongoing project seeks to reinstate Moss Side’s Champs Camp, the UK’s first Black-led boxing gym, as a significant chapter in Black British history. Prof Barker highlighted the ethical considerations of using AI in approaching CGDC, with there being both opportunities to uncover hidden histories alongside ethical risks regarding copyright and data protection. Overall, Prof Barker concluded that researchers must take an informed, empathetic approach to using AI in archives.  

An interdisciplinary perspective was once again provided by Dr Thomas Flavel (Creative Manchester Research Associate), who gave a demonstration of the methodological approach used in the Creative Manchester-supported MediaQuery reseach project. Dr Flavel gave insight into how AI models can be used to annotate multimodal data in the form of TV shows. By analysing audio, video and subtitles, researchers can conduct large-scale analysis of on-screen representation (such as Bechdel tests) with greater accuracy than simply analysing screenplays.  

The round of presentations was concluded by Prof Guyda Armstrong (Professor of Italian and Director of the John Rylands Research Institute and Library), Principal Investigator of ‘Envisioning Dante, c. 1472-c. 1630: Seeing and Reading the Early Printed Page’. Prof Armstrong presented takeaways from this ongoing project, which uses cutting-edge machine learning computational technologies and image matching to study the material features of the early printed page for almost the entire body of prints of Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’. 

The lightning talks were followed by a panel discussion featuring Dr Ben Wiggins, Dr Riza Batista-Navarro, Prof Hannah Barker, Prof Lorna Hughes (The University of Glasgow) and Rachel Hetherington (Manchester Histories), chaired by Dr Constance Smith. The panellists responded to some of the provocations raised in the lightning talks and further discussed what the future of archives might look like. An audience Q&A followed the panel discussion.  

Dr Gail Millin-Chalabi (Head of Digital Reach, The University of Manchester Library) concluded the day’s programme with a talk on how the Library’s digital archives and digitisation services could enable further research innovation in this rapidly developing interdisciplinary field. 

To stay informed about Creative Manchester’s work in the CreaTech theme and our other events and activities please sign up to our mailing list. 

Sir John Tomlinson and Dr Joshua Brown, Lecturer in Composition at the University of Manchester, both spent their formative years in rural East Lancashire, Oswaldtwistle and Bacup respectively, and their shared Lancastrian heritage and dialect inspired them to work together on new music that celebrates this region. The Wanderer – the commissioning of which was funded by the Vaughan Williams Foundation – is a song cycle for bass soloist, orchestra, and choir setting four poems by 19th century writer Edwin Waugh, who was often referred to as the Lancashire Burns.

Edwin Waugh wrote poetry in the distinct dialect of East Lancashire. Each song paints a picture of a wandering figure reflecting on first love, city versus rural life, the pain of loss, and the healing power of nature.

Sir John Tomlinson and the Hallé Youth Orchestra and Choir, conducted by Euan Shields, will premiere The Wanderer at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester on Sunday 22 March.

Information about the upcoming premiere can be found here: 

https://halle.co.uk/event/youth-showcase-2026/  

Find out more about Josh Brown’s works here: https://composersedition.com/joshuabrown/

The CreaTech Network series returns in 2026, led by Digital Futures in collaboration with Creative Manchester and the Turing Innovation Catalyst. This three-part event series, running between February and June 2026, is designed to strengthen connections across the CreaTech ecosystem in Greater Manchester and the North West, and to support collaboration between the University and the wider creative and cultural industries community.

The theme of this year’s series is Creativity and AI, exploring how artificial intelligence is shaping creative and cultural practice. Across a series of in-person events, the programme brings together researchers, creatives, technologists, and industry partners to examine emerging opportunities and challenges. The 2026 series will focus on AI in entertainment, cultural heritage, and free and open-source tools.

If you’re curious about what’s coming in 2026, take a look back at previous CreaTech Network events from 2024 and 2025, which explored AI across music, publishing, fashion, and other creative areas. Those past programmes show the exciting mix of ideas, collaborations, and experiments that have shaped the Network and give a hint of the conversations and creativity to expect this year.

Creativity and AI: Entertainment

🗓️🕒 Thursday 26 February l  14:30 - 17:00 
📍Contact Theatre, Space 0, Oxford Rd, Manchester M15 6JA

The first event of the 2026 CreaTech Network Series will focus on how AI is currently being used across the entertainment sector, particularly in film, television and games. It will look at practical uses of AI in areas such as animation, screen production and creative workflows, alongside some of the challenges this raises for creative practice.

Hear from academic and industry speakers in short lightning talks, followed by a panel session and an open Q&A inviting audience participation.

Sign up now – tickets are selling fast!

Creativity and AI: Cultural Heritage

🗓️🕒 Thursday 30 April  l  14:30 - 17:00 

The growing use of AI in cultural heritage raises important questions around data, ethics and partnership. This event examines how galleries, libraries, archives and museums are working with AI, and the implications for practice.

🔗Tickets available

Creativity and AI: Free and Open-source AI Tools and Platforms

🗓️🕒 Thursday 25 June  l  14:30 - 17:00 

What role do free and open-source AI tools play in creative and cultural practice today? This event examines how open technologies enable collaboration and shared innovation.

🔗Tickets available

This year will be the 10th International Mother Language Day observed in Greater Manchester, a celebration of the cultural diversity and vast number of languages spoken across the city region.

Creative Manchester, one of the University’s research platforms, will offer a series of events to mark the occasion in collaboration with partners and colleagues. All events are free to book, and all are welcome. 

• 19^th February 2026 - International Language Exchange - Join the Language Society and the International Society in the Student’s Union to celebrate International Mother Language Day with an international language exchange! This event will be a great chance to meet new people whilst speaking together in a new or familiar language. There will be optional activities including zine making for you to join in with, centred around the theme of languages and the linguistic diversity of our community. The event will take place from 2pm in The Nest.
• 21^st February 2026 - Linguistic Landscapes in Manchester and Beyond - Join the Linguistic Diversity Collective for a talk by Dr Serge Sagna, Prof. Tine Breban and Dr Simone de Cia to mark International Mother Language Day 2026. This talk centres around the multilingual public signs found across towns and cities, and what they tell us about language domination and language policy in Manchester and beyond. This event will be held in Manchester Museum from 11am – 12pm.
• 21^st February 2026 - Looking for Languages – Family-friendly trail at Manchester Museum - The Linguistic Diversity Collective invites you to a free, family-friendly language themed trail around Manchester Museum to celebrate International Mother Language Day 2026. Grab your activity sheet and follow the language-themed trail around the museum’s enchanting collections, thinking about your own language(s) along the way. 

To find out more about International Mother Language Day and the city’s celebrations, visit the Manchester City of Literature website. 

The conference will host workshops on how the classical past can help us address the challenges and pressing problems facing our planet and global society. The conference Presidential Address from ancient historian and broadcaster Professor Michael Wood, and Keynote Interview with the scholar Professor Jo Crawley Quinn, will showcase our commitment to knowledge exchange and public engagement.