Change is happening too fast for some, not fast enough for others. Whether it’s personal or political, social or scientific, change is what we want, but also what we fear.

On 15 October 2015, the Newcastle University Humanities Research Institute held a public debate on the challenge of change, and how the arts and humanities can help us to understand change, represent it, and perhaps even make it happen. The event was part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council Tenth Anniversary Debates on ‘The Way We Live Now’.

Speakers

Philippa Gregory, internationally best-selling historical novelist, whose books include The Other Boleyn Girl (made into a TV drama and a major film) and, most recently, The Taming of the Queen.

The poet, playwright and broadcaster Lemn Sissay MBE, whose books include Rebel Without Applause, Listener and Refugee Boy and who in 2015 was elected Chancellor of Manchester University.

The journalist Emma Tucker formerly a correspondent in Brussels and Berlin, and since 2013, deputy editor of The Times.

David Armitage, Lloyd C. Blankfein Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History at Harvard University, an authority on British, imperial and global history, as well as co-author of the recent polemic on the importance of history to civil society, The History Manifesto (2014).