Message from the Vice-President and Dean

27 Jul 2026

In her last message until September, Fiona reflects on the end of the academic year and graduation, highlights recent partnership activity, and marks senior leadership changes and colleagues’ achievements.

Dear All

This is my final message of the academic year, and by the time you read this I will just have begun my holiday in northern Spain. Thankfully, I will not be near any of the terrible wildfires devastating parts of the country. There is no doubt the climate is changing.

Graduation celebrations

I hope everyone enjoyed our graduation ceremonies. These occasions are always among the most rewarding moments in the University calendar. They remind us so clearly of the purpose of our work which is to support students as they learn, grow and prepare for the next stage of their lives.

Seeing our graduates celebrate with family and friends is a privilege, and I hope they leave us not only with excellent knowledge and skills but with confidence, curiosity and a strong sense of what they can offer the world.

Visit of President of Tokyo University of the Arts

Earlier this month I joined colleagues in welcoming Katsuhiko Hibino, President of Tokyo University of the Arts, to Manchester. The visit followed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the University, through Creative Manchester, Tokyo University of the Arts and the National Center for Art Research, Japan.

The partnership is focused on creative health and the opportunities for deeper academic and cultural exchange between Japan and the UK.

The programme included a welcome at the Whitworth Art Gallery, a personal tour of the Beneath the Great Wave: Hokusai and Hiroshige exhibition at the Whitworth, which is brilliant by the way, and a meeting before President Hibino visited Creative Health projects with Greater Manchester Combined Authority Place Partnership colleagues.

It was a valuable opportunity to build on an emerging international relationship which brings together research, culture and civic partnership in a very Manchester way.

Bank of England book launch

The MoU is one of two excellent recent examples of how partnerships can bring our academic community into conversation with wider audiences. Late last month I spoke at the launch of Money: The Inside Story at AMBS, held in partnership with the Bank of England.

The event brought together University colleagues, Bank of England economists, regional business and policy stakeholders, and sixth-form students for an accessible discussion about how money works, why it matters, and how the financial system is changing. It also continued the University’s relationship with the Bank of England, centred on the Teach Economics programme, and reflected our role as a civic convenor of open, evidence-based conversations on issues that shape people’s lives.

A new home for the Geography Department

With other members of the Faculty Executive I recently enjoyed a tour of the newly refurbished Rutherford Building, which is the new home for our Geography department.

The refurbishment is an important demonstration of investment in high-quality facilities for colleagues, and it was wonderful to see how carefully the work has respected the character and heritage of the building while creating attractive, practical open plan office and meeting spaces.

I hope Rutherford will prove to be a very good base for Geography, supporting colleagues and postgraduate researchers as the department begins this next chapter. You can join Professor Will Fletcher, Head of Geography, for a short video tour of the building.

Teaching Sustainability project completion

The Teaching Sustainability project is now nearing its conclusion. This has been an important Faculty and School-wide piece of work focused on how we create a more attractive and sustainable undergraduate and postgraduate taught portfolio so that we continue to attract and retain students, provide the best student experience we can and manage staff workloads while innovating in an increasingly competitive environment.

It has been so interesting to draw on longitudinal data looking at patterns and trends of recruitment at programme level and discuss them with Heads of Department along the way. Our work now becomes business as usual. I want to thank everyone who has contributed to the project, including members of the project taskforce and Languages subgroup, and wider academic and PS colleagues in our Schools and the Faculty Office, for their commitment, patience and hard work.

This has been a significant undertaking, and it will stand our Faculty and Schools in good stead as we continue to respond to the challenges facing the sector. The key is not to need to undertake this exercise in another 10 years.

Our new Vice-Dean for Research and Innovation and new Head of SALC

I am very pleased that Professor James Evans has been appointed as our new Vice-Dean for Research and Innovation. James will move from his current role as Associate Dean for Research and take up the Vice-Dean position on 1 August. As Professor of Human Geography in SEED, his research on smarter and more sustainable cities, urban experimentation and his interdisciplinary partnership working is strongly aligned with the ambitions of the University and Faculty.

I would like to thank Professor Maggie Gale for her outstanding contribution as Vice-Dean for Research and wish her every success as she becomes Head of SALC. I am also grateful to Professor Thomas Schmidt for his leadership of SALC and for everything he has done for the School and the wider Faculty.

Recognition and awards

I was delighted to see Professor Jackie Stacey elected as a Fellow of the British Academy, one of the highest honours for scholars in the humanities and social sciences. Jackie’s work has made an outstanding contribution to cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies, film theory and the visual arts over many years.

Congratulations to Dr Saskia Warren, Reader in Human Geography, who is a member of the Justice, Arts, Memory, Migration (JAMM): Creating Solidarities across Borders management committee. The project has been awarded €170,000 in its first year by The European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST), bringing together researchers, artists and cultural practitioners across Europe to advance arts-based research in migration and heritage studies.

Well done to Professor of Political Science, Rachel Gibson, who has received an APEX (Academies Partnership in Supporting Excellence in Cross-disciplinary research) award of £190,105 from the British Academy, Royal Academy of Engineering and Royal Society, alongside Dr Riza Batista-Navarro in Computer Science. Their project, Political Rhetoric and Influence on Social Media (PRISM), will explore whether successful online political influencers in the US and UK use a distinctive rhetorical style or ‘brand’ to engage audiences and communicate during political events.

It is also great to see Dr Aarti Krishnan in the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIOIR) secure £223,288 from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) for REVIVE: Just Restoration and Equitable Value Chains for Inclusive, Viable Mangrove Ecosystems: The case of Malaysia, working with Dr Mehebub Sahana in Geography. The project brings together expertise in environmental change, development and value chains, and is a strong example of research addressing sustainability questions with both local and global significance.

Finally, I want to offer my sincere thanks to everyone across the Faculty for your support, collegiality and hard work over the last year. I hope you can take a proper break over the summer, have a chance to relax and unwind, and return in September refreshed for the new academic year.

Regards Fiona