Global Humanities Alliance forges new collaborations
08 Oct 2025
Manchester and partners sign Memorandum of Understanding, underscoring a shared commitment to fostering research, teaching, and global dialogue on the most critical social and political challenges of our time.
The Global Humanities Alliance (GHA), a collaboration of eight international partner universities, including Manchester, has taken a significant step forward in its mission to address complex global challenges through humanities and social sciences research and education.
At its annual meeting hosted by Universitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta in Indonesia, GHA scholars, academic leaders, and researchers from all eight partner universities convened in person for the first time. The group signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), underscoring a shared commitment to fostering research, teaching, and global dialogue on the most critical social and political challenges of our time.
The GHA is an initiative of the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Arts and participating institutions include the Melbourne, Manchester, Ashoka University (India), Mahidol University (Thailand), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (Chile), Universitas Gadjah Mada (Indonesia), University of Nairobi (Kenya) and University of Toronto (Canada).
The Alliance's collaborative efforts are driven by over 90 academic and professional staff across partner institutions, organised into focused working groups. These groups address critical areas such as public humanities, decolonising knowledge, digital transformation, and sustainability and climate change.
North and South perspectives - and more
Current GHA projects include a collaboration that will examine the impact of climate change narratives on young adults’ worldviews and mental wellbeing, and road test strategies to improve their resilience. An interdisciplinary team will survey university students aged 18 to 25 in Melbourne, Toronto, Manchester, Santiago, Nairobi and Yogyakarta.
The Alliance is also considering how universities can creatively and ethically approach the use of AI in teaching and learning, discussing changed thinking about the learning process, flow-on impacts on the environment and the potential for AI technology to create new global inequalities.
In a move to enhance its global outreach, the GHA launched its official website and established a new social media presence during the annual meeting. These digital platforms, coupled with the Alliance's ongoing engagement and outreach efforts over the past year, reaffirm its dedication to elevating the global profile and impact of the humanities.
Alongside the meeting, the GHA convened a panel discussion on international collaboration from global north and south perspectives. Several of the working groups participated in the Go South conference hosted by Universitas Gadjah Mada.
For more information about the GHA and its initiatives, visit: