Humanitas Programme


The Humanitas Programme is a series of Visiting Professorships at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge in England, intended to bring leading practitioners and scholars to both universities to address major themes in the arts, social sciences, and humanities.
Appointed for a given academic year, each Humanitas Visiting Professor delivers a series of events ranging from lectures to workshops, masterclasses, recitals and symposia. Lectures and symposia are filmed and available online to audiences throughout the world
Created by Lord Weidenfeld in 2010, the Humanitas Programme is funded by a number of donors and managed by the London-based Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust. The Humanitas Programme is run in close collaboration with TORCH and CRASSH Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities
The Humanitas Programme often draws media attention for its topical and high-profile speakers, such as Eric Schmidt sharing a positive outlook on the impact of new technologies on our world, or Murray Perahia exploring the personal and universal in the work musical genius, or Shirin Neshat discussing the formation of her artistic identity.
Its Visiting Professorships have touched upon topics ranging from the complexity of narrating history to the challenges of sustainable development in the 21st century.

List of Humanitas Visiting Professorships

Visiting Professorship in Architecture University of Oxford, Brasenose College
Visiting Professorship in Chamber Music University of Cambridge, Peterhouse
Visiting Professorship in Chinese Studies University of Cambridge, St Catharine's College
Visiting Professorship in Classical Music and Musical Education University of Oxford, St John’s College
  • 2012-2013: Imogen Cooper, Schubert
  • 2013-2014: Midori, Bach, Brahms, Music Education and Community Engagement
  • 2014-2015: Ian Bostridge Why Winterreise? Schubert’s song cycle, then and now
Visiting Professorship in Comparative European Literature University of Oxford, St Anne’s College
  • 2010-2011: James Wood, Everything, Nothing, Something; ‘Melville and the New Atheists; Jens Peter Jacobsen and the contradictions of atheism; ‘Tolstoy’s Third Way Lecture; An answer vouchsafed them: Virginia Woolf’s mystic God; Beckett and Nothing,
  • 2011-2012: Ali Smith, On Time, On Form, On Edge, On Offer, and On Reflection
  • 2013-2013: Don Paterson The Domain of the Poem
  • 2014-2015: Javier Cercas The Blind Spot
Visiting Professorship in Contemporary Art University of Oxford, Magdalen College
  • 2010-2011: Thomas Struth, Do pictures contribute to identity and cultural difference?
  • 2011-2012: Shirin Neshat, Images and History
  • 2012-2013: William Kentridge, Thinking On One's Feet
  • 2013-2014: Vik Muniz Class Dismissed... Art, Creativity and Education
  • 2014-2015: Maya Lin Between Art and Architecture
Visiting Professorship in Drama University of Oxford, Brasenose College
Visiting Professorship in Economic Thought University of Oxford, All Souls College
Visiting Professorship in Film & Television University of Oxford, St Anne's College
Visiting Professorship in Historiography University of Oxford, Trinity College
Visiting Professorship in the History of Art University of Cambridge, Clare College
Visiting Professorship in the History of Ideas University of Oxford, Merton College
  • 2012-2013: Lorraine Daston, Nature’s Revenge: A History of Risk, Responsibility, and Reasonableness
Visiting Professorship in Intelligence Studies University of Oxford, All Souls College
Visiting Professorship in Interfaith Studies University of Oxford, Lady Margaret Hall
  • 2010-2012: Jan Assmann, Ancient Egyptian Religion
  • 2011-2012: Lord Sacks, A Jewish Theology of the Other
  • 2012-2013: Abdou Filali-Ansary, Beyond Apologetics: Approaching Religious Traditions Through Modern Disciplines
  • 2013-2014: Rowan Williams, Faith and Power
Visiting Professorship in Media University of Cambridge, St John’s College
  • 2010-2011: Mathias Döpfner, ‘The Freedom Trap’, ‘The Internet – a Liberating or Enslaving Machine?’ and ‘Can Journalism be Free in the Digital Age?'
  • 2011-2012: Manuel Castells, Communication Power in the Network Society
  • 2012-2013: Eric Schmidt, Our Connected Age
  • 2013-2014: Alastair Campbell, A Life at the Nexus of Media and Politics
Visiting Professorship in Museums, Galleries, and Libraries University of Oxford, Balliol College
  • 2010-2011: Glen D. Lowry, The Abodes of the Muses: Theorising the Modern Art Museum
  • 2011-2012: Malcolm Rogers, The Art Museum in the 21st Century
  • 2012-2013: Ivo Mesquita, Contemporary Art and Globalisation
  • 2013-2014: Michael Govan, A Voice from the Pacific: Re-envisioning the Art Museum
Visiting Professorship in Opera Studies University of Oxford, New College
Visiting Professorship in Rhetoric and the Art of Public Persuasion University of Oxford, St Peter’s College
Visiting Professorship in Statecraft and Diplomacy University of Cambridge, Pembroke College

Visiting Professorship in Sustainability Studies University of Cambridge, Trinity Hall
Visiting Professorship in Voice and Classical Music University of Oxford, New College
Visiting Professorship in War Studies University of Cambridge, Churchill College
Visiting Professorship in Women’s Rights University of Cambridge, King’s College