Topics: Culture

Enough of Him - A production written by May Sumbwanyambe, Assistant Professor in Humanities at Northumbria University (© Sally Jubb Photography)

Assistant Professor and playwright is recognised at national theatre awards

Assistant Professor in Humanities at Northumbria University and award-winning playwright, May Sumbwanyambe, has won recognition from the UK Theatre Awards for his latest production Enough of Him.

Early morning sun shines down on Sycamore Gap, one of the iconic sites of Hadrian's Wall (and also famous from its starring role in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves). Photography by Simon Bradfield.

EXPERT COMMENT Sycamore Gap: what the long life of a single tree can tell us about centuries of change

Only a few individual trees could be rightly labelled as world famous, but the tree at Sycamore Gap along Hadrian’s Wall in northern England was one of them. No wonder its recent felling provoked public outcry and collective mourning.

Northumbria University graduate Alice Kershaw is pictured with her work, Discarded Bottles.

Fine Art alumni secure prestigious regional residency

Two of Northumbria University’s Fine Art graduates are being supported by the New Graduate Award scheme developed and hosted by Middlesbrough Art Week (MAW).

With the Story Chair are Andrew Weatherhead and Pearl Saddington from the National Trust, Dawn Harrison from Changing Lives, Jon Canessa from Newcastle Cathedral, Dr Angelika Strohmayer from Northumbria University and furniture maker, Nick James.

The tree that’s helping women in the criminal justice system tell and own their stories

The ‘Story Chair’ programme is a creative collaboration between social justice charity, Changing Lives and the School of Design at Northumbria University and is supported by the North East Probation Service.

Fine Art student Sophie Bass prepares for the graduate exhibitions. All photography courtesy of Baltic/Barry Pells.

Students prepare to REVEAL graduating exhibitions

Graduating artists from Northumbria University’s Fine Art programmes are preparing to showcase their work in a multi-site exhibition which includes Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art and spaces across the University’s Newcastle City Campus.

New report highlights the power of partnership

New report highlights the power of partnership

A new report published today - By All, For All: The Power of Partnership - has mapped for the first time a decade of AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) funded community and cross-sector collaborative research and development (R&D) projects.

Saturday Club Masterclass at Northumbria University: Young people took part in a cycle-inspired masterclass led by industry experts and attended by BMX star, Kriss Kyle. Photo by Eilidh McKibbin.

Northumbria joins National Saturday Club network to offer creative opportunities for teenagers

Young people from across the North East aged 13 to 16 are being given the chance to experience art and design activities at Northumbria University as part of the National Saturday Club programme.

More than a million listeners have already heard May Sumbwanyambe's work on BBC Radio 4 with his latest play, Back Home, highlighting the elephant ivory debate.

Creative writing lecturer’s new play highlights elephant ivory debate

A Northumbria University lecturer, who is also an award-winning playwright and radio dramatist, is preparing for his latest play to be aired on BBC Radio 4.

Participants of the RECLAMA project highlighted food and gastronomy as a key aspect of their cultural heritage to celebrate.

Research documents rich heritage of Afro-descendant women living in Ecuador

Celebrating and sharing the lived history of Afro-Ecuadorian women, passed down through generations via the spoken word, is the objective of a collaborative research project led by Northumbria University and Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador, alongside partners from the Mujeres de Asfalto collective, a Black feminist creative arts organisation.

Two ‘sister quilts’ have been created in Newcastle and Istanbul featuring symbols, words and shapes inspired by resistance against poverty, threats to women’s safety and the rupturing of traditional gender roles.

Technology and traditional craft combine to highlight women’s safety

An intercontinental project by a Northumbria University researcher is using traditional crafting techniques and the latest technology to explore the international issue of women’s safety.

Left to right: Dr Claudine van Hensbergen, Ruth Sheldon and Adam Goldwater of Great North Museum: Hancock and Dr Gareth Roddy.

Northumbria University chosen as a national hub for festival of humanities

The Being Human Festival, held across the country each November, demonstrates and celebrates the ways in which humanities-based subjects, which include language and literature, history, geography, philosophy, archaeology, anthropology, law, religion and art, inspire and enrich our everyday lives.

Haydn Brown, who will graduate from the Fashion Communication programme this summer, won the Fashion Communication Portfolio Award.

Four Northumbria students scoop awards at Graduate Fashion Week

With 26 talented Fashion students from Northumbria University making it on to the shortlist for awards, there were high hopes for success at this year’s Graduate Fashion Week.

The Speaking of Prejudice research project is one of 12 chosen to be the subject of an exhibit at the British Academy Summer Showcase in London this week.

New research reveals prejudice against people with Northern English accents

People form judgements about others from the way they speak, yet listeners are often unaware of their deeply embedded ‘implicit’ biases.

Northumbria University staff and alumni have prepared work for the exhibition at Aydon Castle. L-R: Rickard Whittingham, Josh South, Philip Luscombe, Anthony Forsyth, Mac Collins and Joe Franc.

Historic castle will host design exhibition

A collaboration between English Heritage and Northumbria University’s School of Design has produced a new exhibition for an historic Northumberland castle.

Street sign with the inscription Ukrainian Independence Street in the center of Riga. Shutterstock

EXPERT COMMENT: Ukrainian Heroes Street: the ideology behind street name changes

When a new regime comes to power, it usually asserts its symbolic control over public space by renaming streets that referred to the values and heroes of its predecessors.

Thanks to a grant from UK Aid, academics from Northumbria University have spent time working with environmentalists and the local community close to the northern coast of Kenya, to help establish a new Heritage Boat Building Training Centre.

Heritage boat building will support mission to reduce plastic pollution

Academics from Northumbria University have travelled to Kenya to help establish a new Heritage Boat Building Training Centre which will use indigenous knowledge and skills to transform single use plastics into traditional sailing vessels.

The Pantheon in Paris by Nikitin Mikhail (Shutterstock).

EXPERT COMMENT: Josephine Baker: what it means to enter France’s hallowed Panthéon

As Josephine Baker is honoured as a national hero in France, Dr Laura O'Brien, Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at Northumbria University, provides expert commentary on the Panthéonisation process and its origins.

The Death Positive Library Project unites libraries in Newcastle, Kirklees in Yorkshire and Redbridge in London, with a research team from Northumbria University.

Northumbria research team celebrate library project award win

A collaborative research project which promotes libraries as compassionate spaces to support conversations around death, dying and bereavement, has been recognised with a national health and wellbeing award.

The Deep Discoveries project was launched to explore ways of creating a computer vision search platform that can identify and match images across digitised collections on a national scale. © The National Archives, V&A, and RGBE

Design meets artificial intelligence to create new visual search engine

Novel methods of searching the nation’s gallery, library and museum collections could soon be revolutionised by a visual search platform designed in collaboration with Northumbria University.

From left to right, actor Chris Connell, Associate Professor Steve Gilroy, actor Dave Johns, Dr Heike Pichler, actor Sharon Percy and actor Jackie Lye.

Famous faces prepare to take to the stage to bring a research-based performance to life

Award-winning North-East actors have joined forces with academics to showcase stories of true Geordie grit – and the dialect used by the generation behind tales from post-war Tyneside.

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