Arts & Humanities Alliance
About
Mission
The Arts and Humanities Alliance is a UK organisation that represents the broad span of Arts and Humanities subject associations and learned societies. The AHA exists to facilitate the exchange of views between subject associations and provide a coordinated voice with which to articulate the collective values and concerns of our disciplines to policy makers and public bodies. AHA currently represents nearly 50 associations with a combined membership of more than 20,000.
History
The Alliance was initially formed as the Arts and Humanities User Group (A-HUG) in 2008. It first emerged out of a joint intervention by the Council of University Classical Departments, the British Philosophical Association and the Society of Legal Scholars, when they voiced their collective concerns to the AHRC about the European Science Foundation’s European Research Index in the Humanities (ERIH). In its first years A-HUG’s role was principally to co-ordinate subject association meetings with one another and with the AHRC. Working across a range of subject associations we successfully encouraged the AHRC to withdraw from involvement with ERIH.
Our Work
Over time, we have addressed concerns such as: changes in RCUK and AHRC funding policies, REF and impact, open access, recruitment trends, graduate funding, and the status of British International Research Institutes. In 2016, the Alliance submitted a response to the Green Paper on Higher Education entitled 'Fulfilling our Potential'. It is currently represented on the UUK Open Access Monographs Subgroup and is centrally involved in the British Academy Flagship Skills Project. In all these areas AHA articulates and defends the specific needs and practices of the arts and humanities.
Past Chairs
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Susan Bruce, University English and Martin Halliwell, English Association (2016-2022)
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Peter Mandler, Royal Historical Society (2012-2016)
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Robin Osborne, Council of University Classical Departments (2008-2012)
AFFILIATES
African Studies Association of the UK
Architectural Humanities Research Association
Association of Adaptation Studies
Association for German Studies
Association for Publishing Education
Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland
Association of University Professors and Heads of French
British Association for American Studies
British Association for Applied Linguistics
British Association for Canadian Studies
British Association for Chinese Studies
British Association for Jewish Studies
British Association for Korean Studies
British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies
British Association for the Study of Religions
British Society for the History of Science
British Society for Middle Eastern Studies
British Philosophical Association
Council for British Archaeology
Council of University Classics Departments
Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas
Linguistics Association of Great Britain
Music Mark - the UK Association for Music Education
National Association of Writers in Education
Philological Society of Great Britain
Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies
Society for Latin American Studies
Society for Old Testament Study
Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies
Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies
Theology and Religious Studies UK
TROPO UK: The Association of Teachers and Researchers of Portuguese Language in the UK
UK Association for Language Testing and Assessment
UK Council of Area Studies Associations
If you represent a learned society that is not yet a member, please contact t.pitman@leeds.ac.uk to join. Membership is free. We hold one meeting per semester, run events and campaigns, and coordinate action via a jiscmail list and a WhatsApp group. You can also follow us on Bluesky @artsandhums.bsky.social.
Activities
AHA News
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In Summer 2024, we worked with the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) to ensure that case studies emphasising the social and economic value of the arts and humanities throughout the UK were included in welcome packs sent to all MPs, new and old, returning to Westminster in early September. In particular, these included a case study on the development of a craft ale based on medieval recipes developed by a colleague in Classics at the University of Leeds (see the welcome pack for the MP for Leeds North East), and work conducted by the School of English at the University of Sheffield on mental health and narrative methodologies (see the welcome pack for the MP for Sheffield Central). All of the case studies we submitted can be found on the CaSE website by searching through the different regional categories. We have 3 case studies in the Yorkshire and Humber section (Classics, English and Philosophy), 2 in the Wales section (Archaeology and English), 1 in the Scotland section (English), and 1 that appears in both the Scotland and the South East sections (English). Thanks to all who managed to submit their case studies at such short notice.
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Read our recent response to the REF2029 Open Access consultation. We are pleased to note that plans for radical changes to OA for long-form outputs have been paused and will not come into effect until the next REF cycle.
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Listen to the BBC Radio 4 Front Row programme with Samira Ahmed on 17 April 2024 for an interview with Professors Jo Fox (Dean of the School of Advanced Study, University of London) and Anna Vignoles (Director of the Leverhulme Trust) discussing the current situation where cuts are being made to arts and humanities courses at 50 institutions in the UK. AHA's Emma Cayley and others fed into the fact-finding work behind the programme.
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Our most recent affiliates' meeting, specifically focusing on the question of advocacy for arts and humanities, taking the lead from the Arts & Humanities Advocacy workshop organised by the School for Advanced Study at the University of London , was held online, 9-10:30am, 27 September 2024. The date of our next meeting will be in late 2024 (tbc).
AHA Statements & Correspondence
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AHA Open Letter to the Secretary of State for Education, the Rt. Hon. Bridget Phillipson, regarding cuts and closures across UK Higher Education and their impact on arts and humanities subjects in particular - 2 February 2024.
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AHA letter to the University of Central Lancashire on their planned cuts to a wide range of humanities disciplines - 5 November 2024.
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AHA, UCFL, Institute for English Studies, English Association and University English letter to the University of Surrey on their planned cuts to Modern Languages and English Studies - 24 April 2024.
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AHA response to the REF2029 Open Access consultation - 17 June 2024.
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AHA letter to the University of Kent on their planned cuts to a wide range of Arts and Humanities disciplines - 11 February 2024.
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AHA statement re Oxford Brookes University's cuts to English, History, Film and the closure of Music - 20 November 2023.
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AHA letter to University of Aberdeen re review and potential closure of Modern Languages degree programmes - 20 November 2023.
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AHA response to the FRAP (Future Research Assessment Programme) report - 6 October 2023.
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AHA letter to Australian Catholic University re planned redundancies - 20 September 2023
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AHA statement on "low value" degrees - 21 July 2023.
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AHA letter to University of East Anglia to protest redundancies in American Studies - 13 February 2022.
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AHA letter to Dominic Raab MP regarding funding for the British Council – 10 June 2020
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AHA Brexit statement – 3 December 2018.
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AHA statement on vetoing of Australian Research Council grants - 6 November 2018.
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AHA letter to British Academy re BA Institutes & Societies – February 2016 (and BA response).
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AHA response to Green Paper consultation, Fulfilling Our Potential' – 2015.
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Academy of Social Sciences presentation to AHA – November 2014.
Resources
Advocacy
CAMPAIGNS AND REPORTS BY AHA AND AFFILIATES
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NEW: The British Philosophical Association is organising the first British Philosophy Fortnight from 17-30 March 2025, designed to promote philosophy in the UK. They will hold a launch event in Parliament and also launch the social media hashtag #PhilosophyMatters to gather and display all the brilliant UK philosophical activity and show how philosophy inspires people and shapes society.
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NEW: The University Council For Languages, the Institute for Languages, Cultures and Societies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London and the British Academy have most recently released a 'Plan for Concerted Collective Action' to defend the place of Modern Languages in Higher Education (November 2024).
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The Royal Historical Society has recently released a report entitled 'The Value of History in UK Higher Education and Society' (October 2024) to underscore the popularity of history in society as a whole and defend its place in Higher Education.
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The Arts and Humanities Alliance successfully lobbied for the inclusion of seven arts and humanities case studies were featured in the Welcome Packs developed by the Campaign for Science and Engineering for MPs, old and new, returning to Westminster in September 2024.
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The Association for Art History runs an annual Art History Festival for the public which celebrates and explores the histories of art, design and architecture showing how these subjects help us to better understand the world around us. See their report of the hugely successful 2023 event for more details. They are also currently running the Art History Now campaign to celebrate their 50th anniversary. This includes a growing series of videos of art history graduates talking about their various careers in and outside of the art field.
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The Advocating Classics Education website, led by Edith Hall and funded by the AHRC, provides a hub for discussion, sharing and dissemination of news, information, ideas and resources in relation to the study of Classics.
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University English runs the #Englishcreates campaign to champion, defend and expand access to the study of literature in English (in all its forms, regionalities and nationalities), particularly for year 12 and 13 students wanting to study English at university. It is particularly attuned to reaching its target audience via social media.
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The English Association runs the 'Skills for the Future of English' project to provide information that teachers of English at all levels can use to articulate the value of the study of English to their students and create programmes of study that embed skills that help students thrive in the age of AI. And they also run a series of lunchtime public talks on collaboration called Thinking Forwards.
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The Council of University Classical Departments has produced a set of statistics relating to the study of Classics at UK universities (2023-24).
Toolkits
HELPING A&H DISCIPLINES TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE IN HIGHER EDUCATION
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The following organizations have all recently developed useful toolkits to help academics and departments defend themselves from threatened closures and redundancies. They also help focus attention on developing more positive narratives around A&H:
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Association for Art History toolkit. See also their list of Art History Advocates and video interviews about careers in Art History.
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Study the Humanities, an initiative of the National Humanities Alliance Foundation, serves to strengthen humanities recruitment efforts across the USA. It has produced the Study the Humanities Toolkit.
Resources
USEFUL MATERIALS PRODUCED BY OTHER ORGANISATIONS
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The British Academy has recently launched a really useful new tool to map 'cold spots' in SHAPE provision across the UK.
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The School of Advanced Study, University of London, in partnership with the British Academy and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, runs the Being Human Festival every November to engage the general public with arts and humanities research around the country.
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The Campaign for the Arts in conjunction with the University of Warwick has recently produced a report called The State of the Arts (2024) which provides excellent data on the under-investment in the arts, including in HE, in the UK today.
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The House of Lords Library also has a similar report on the 'Contribution of the Arts to Society and the Economy' (2024) on its website.
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The British Academy alongside partners at the University of Oxford has recently launched a platform called 'The SHAPE of Research Impact' which allows users to explore the stories, successes and cumulative societal benefits of UK research in arts, humanities and social sciences. It also includes a great amount of quantitative data. A narrative report, also called The SHAPE of Research Impact (2024), provides a more interpretative approach to the same data, while their SHAPE Observatory hosts a wealth of data relating to the health and development of arts, humanities and social science disciplines in the UK.
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The British Academy also runs Connected Knowledge, a communications campaign dedicated to celebrating how interdisciplinary research and learning, especially linking SHAPE and STEM, shapes the world.
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Historic England has a section on its website focusing on The Economic Value of the Heritage Sector with links to extensive data. The related annual report is entitled The Heritage Sector in England and Its Impact on the Economy (2024).
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Higher Education Policy Institute report: The Humanities in the UK Today: What's Going On? (2023), by Marion Thain, with Susan Fitzmaurice, Jo Gill, Jeremy Gregory, Nigel Harkness, Gail Marshall, Murray Pittock and Andrew Thorpe.
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Mapping UK Arts & Humanities Research Infrastructure (2023), AHRC-sponsored project led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London.
Other Institutions
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The Wales Arts and Humanities Alliance (WAHA) was set up in July 2023, bringing together Wales's nine universities to drive collaboration and advance arts and humanities research and innovation in the country.
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The Scottish Arts and Humanities Alliance (SAHA) is a joint initiative of Scottish Higher Education institutions, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities. Established in 2019, it aims to give a public and collective voice to the Arts and Humanities in the context of Higher Education in Scotland, promoting more widely the contribution of arts and humanities disciplines to positive change in society, to economic progress and to cultural understanding.
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The Irish Humanities Alliance / Comhaontas Daonnachtaí na hÉireann (IHA) is a joint initiative of humanities researchers within higher education and research institutions across the island of Ireland and the Royal Irish Academy / Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann to champion humanities research and scholarship in Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Contact
The co-chairs of the AHA for 2022-25 are
Professor Emma Cayley
(University Council For Languages)
e.cayley@leeds.ac.uk
Professor Thea Pitman
(Standing Conference of Latin American Studies)
t.pitman@leeds.ac.uk
Follow us on Bluesky @artsandhums.bsky.social
And on X @ArtsandHums
