鈥楾here are places still where a thought might grow鈥� 鈥� Professor John McAuliffe reflects on his tenure as Creative 黑料网吃瓜爆料 Director
As one of the founders of Creative 黑料网吃瓜爆料, Professor McAuliffe has played a crucial role in taking the research platform from its beginnings in 2021 to being an integral part of the University鈥檚 2035 strategy. He reflects on interdisciplinary discussions, creating connections in a 鈥榖ig civic鈥� University and city region and how his experience in partner-enabled learning will shape his new role as Associate Vice-Chancellor Cultural Portfolio.
In October 1949, philosopher Dorothy Emmet convened an interdisciplinary discussion at the university on 鈥榤ind and computing machines鈥�. Participants included another philosopher, a chemist, a mathematician, a zoologist.
And Alan Turing who, a year later, published his speculative 鈥楥omputing Machinery and Intelligence鈥� paper in Mind. In the paper鈥檚 鈥榠mitation game鈥�, Turing鈥檚 first request of his machine respondent is not mathematical, or zoological, or even philosophical: it was interdisciplinary, to ask it to write a sonnet, although it is unclear if Turing ever discussed his 鈥榠mitation game鈥� test with a poet.
This was just one of the field-shaping papers he published at 黑料网吃瓜爆料. Another, on morphogenesis, originated in conversation with colleagues from the Botany Dept next door to his building, Coupland 1.
In the 1949/50 academic year Turing had opportunities to think with colleagues like Emmet. She saw the University had role in enabling the convening and adjacency which could make things happen. Emmet鈥檚 model for collegiality and leadership in a university still applies: 鈥榓dministrators whose hearts are with the anarchists, and anarchists who can have a heart for the administrators鈥�.
At a 鈥榖ig civic鈥� University like 黑料网吃瓜爆料, we now award degrees to the same number of undergraduates (c.17,000) as were graduated nationally in 1950, and across a much wider range of disciplines, with many more links to our city-region and to international networks. But even as the work and scale of a University like this has grown, it remains uniquely populated by experts who are interested in finding new ways of understanding and re-imagining the world.
Since Creative 黑料网吃瓜爆料 started in 2021, we have 鈥� alongside the other platforms, Digital Futures, Healthier Futures and Sustainable Futures 鈥� depended on the appetite for connection across disciplines, which remains just as potent as in Emmet and Turing鈥檚 黑料网吃瓜爆料. Knowing how busy our disciplinary working days and weeks are, at Creative 黑料网吃瓜爆料 we have looked to engineer meaningful ways to connect researchers from both sides of the Oxford Road, or from different buildings, or from different floors of the same buildings, to enable cross-disciplinary inquiry.
Just as importantly, we have focused on our research鈥檚 potential impact, especially in the region, and whether we can respond positively to the changing and challenging context in which SMEs here work. With our partners, we have mapped the sector and sought to understand better what creative and cultural industries and our communities need in terms of research. As with our interdisciplinary conversations, we know this has to be a two-way street, and we want our city-region partners to know that our resources can be useful to their plans and projects. Just as, for University colleagues, we draw on this network to find a sector or community partner who will add a dimension as they design their research.
As Director, almost every week, I have had a memorable one-to-one meeting with a newly arrived colleague or with an arts organisation in Greater 黑料网吃瓜爆料, or set up a facilitated workshop, or an innovation lab, or chaired a lecture, or contributed to an exhibition-associated roundtable or a research caf茅. I have often quoted the Belfast poet Derek Mahon鈥檚 line 鈥� 鈥楾here are places still where a thought might grow鈥� 鈥� with the 鈥榖ig civic鈥� university in mind. Our weekly Creative 黑料网吃瓜爆料 team meetings (and our social media) record and amplify the vitality of interdisciplinary research on our chosen themes, creative industries, CreaTech, our civic agendas, on creativity in the context of health and social care, areas which often overlap.
I have had the pleasure of working with a brilliant team, led by Anne-Marie Nugnes, in developing Creative 黑料网吃瓜爆料. We have also been part of and benefited from a wider University effort to rethink the University鈥檚 civic role. Our cultural institutions in particular have pioneered this convening and partnership work, with both a local and a global lens, for many years; in my new role with them, I will be bringing five years of 鈥榩artner-enabled learning鈥� with Creative 黑料网吃瓜爆料 to bear. And I will be hoping to contribute or eavesdrop still on the many conversations the platforms will convene in future.