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I have been a member of staff at Liverpool Hope since January 2012, and I am now Head of the School of Humanities, Subject Lead for English and an Associate Dean.<\/p>\n
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From my contribution to\u00a0Foundations of Hope: Reflections on 20 Years at Liverpool Hope University<\/em> (2022):<\/p>\n There\u2019s a well-known essay from 1939 by Abraham Flexner called \u2018The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge\u2019, which speaks very sensibly about how universities and researchers should conduct themselves: it emphasises \u2018the overwhelming importance of spiritual and intellectual freedom\u2019; it argues that if subjects \u2018bring satisfaction to an individual soul bent upon its own purification and elevation\u2019 then that \u2018is all the justification that they need\u2019; and it states that \u2018An institution which sets free successive generations of human souls is amply justified\u2019.\u00a0 Here, research and learning is treated with respect and it does not have to be \u2018useful\u2019 in any narrow, reductive sense.\u00a0 Our research publications, and our students\u2019 degrees, are<\/em> useful, important and relevant, and the research has \u2018impact\u2019; but teaching and research is in the first instance conducted from, with and for a love of the subject.\u00a0 Our graduates are forces for good in the world, and they change lives, but they study here because they are passionate about the subject and they work with staff who convey their own enthusiasms.<\/p>\n \u2018The University\u2019s distinctive philosophy is to \u201ceducate in the round\u201d \u2013 mind, body and spirit \u2013 in the quest for Truth, Beauty and Goodness.\u2019\u00a0 Beauty is not ignored.\u00a0 I came to Hope for the first time a decade ago for my interview, and I didn\u2019t know Hope or Liverpool at all; it was a pleasant summer day and I noted how green the campus was \u2013 I was shown inside the buildings too but it\u2019s the grounds that I remembered most, as well as the kindliness of Bill Blazek, who acted as my guide.\u00a0 It was rather a change from Queen Mary, University of London, where I had been teaching for a year on the Mile End campus, a cramped campus with barely a tree.\u00a0 The School of Humanities is located around the Literary Rose Garden at Hope Park and the natural environment is an important part of our teaching and research as well as our working environment (most of our offices and teaching rooms look out onto trees and flowers).\u00a0 This campus has ducks, foxes, owls, even green parakeets \u2013 one of the early wonders of my time here was the day when a big white rabbit appeared outside my groundfloor window and proceeded to run around the campus while various over-confident rugby players tried to catch it.\u00a0 Then \u2013 and even more so now \u2013 that white rabbit seemed important.\u00a0 Something for the magician or for Alice in Wonderland.\u00a0 The rabbit had escaped from a nearby garden and enjoyed its great escape until the following day when it was returned to its young owner.\u00a0 When I gave my inaugural professorial lecture recently, a toad entered the building and had to be persuaded to stay outside.<\/p>\n Hope has created the right environment for learning and teaching, and for the enjoyment of discovery.\u00a0 The Sheppard-Worlock Library is central to that.\u00a0 It is a wonderful resource for research, teaching and studying.\u00a0 It\u2019s a beautiful place for working, especially at the desks overlooking the quadrangle, offering a very beautiful, if distracting, view for staff and students.\u00a0 As a cricket fan, I\u2019ve always enjoyed the fact that the library is named after an England cricketer, David Sheppard (a bishop too, of course, but a cricketer first).\u00a0 The library is also the venue each year for the May Day Madrigals, which are a highlight of life at Hope, and if the weather is fine (which it usually is) you can enjoy the early morning sun, the quadrangle garden, the 1920s vernacular architecture and the birdsong competing with the singers.\u00a0 And then, afterwards, enjoy the free breakfast in the common room.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A lovely morning for May Day Madrigals @LiverpoolHopeUK<\/a> accompanied by birdsong pic.twitter.com\/MNSBDiQOp8<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Guy Cuthbertson (@guywjc) May 2, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n