Global challenges through a cultural lens

Many of the issues we face, from the personal to the global, have a cultural dimension. Whether the issue is related to health, environmental change, or trauma caused by political upheaval or conflict, different cultural approaches will enable individuals and groups to respond to and engage with challenges in distinctive ways. 

Through creative projects and engagement, our researchers and practitioners are harnessing culture as an agent of change. 

Addressing the challenge 

Our academics are engaged with culture in all its forms, whether analysing it or creating it. 

Through the Cultural Institute, we work extensively with the creative and cultural industries. Together we produce research which helps people to understand, interpret and imagine solutions to key global challenges. 

We have strengths across environmental humanities, medical humanities, digital cultures, conflict, cultural policy and language. Our researchers are developing cultural solutions that bring about change through shaping behaviour, understanding or wellbeing. 

We are continually looking to spark innovative collaborations, harnessing the skills and talents of Leeds researchers to explore new areas and dare to take risks. 

Our collaborations are enabling us to strengthen our existing links within the creative and cultural industries, as well as building new partnerships in these areas. For example, the University is working with schools and public health practitioners in India, Malawi and Uganda to explore the use of the creative arts as an educational tool to improve sexual and reproductive health amongst adolescents.

Cultural engagement

In order to set standards for the responsible adoption of technology and user experience, the Centre for Immersive Technologies, in partnership with the Cultural Institute, is helping to understand the benefits and limitations of using immersive technologies to support cultural engagement.