Humanities Cultural Programme Visiting Fellowships 2019-2023

The Humanities Cultural Programme was delighted to welcome Estella Tse, the renowned Virtual / Augmented Reality Creative Director & Artist. Based in Oakland, CA, Estella integrates emerging VR/AR technologies and visual storytelling into a new art form. Estella has been an artist-in-residence with Google, Adobe, Cartoon Network Studios, performs and speaks internationally. She strives to inspire new ways to connect, educate, and build empathy with her work in creative innovation. 

Over the 2021/22 academic year, Katie Melua joined the Humanities Cultural Programme as a Visiting Fellow. Katie Melua collaborated with a select group of students and faculties from Oxford University and Oxford community organisations to create an original musical story inspired by Professor Peter Frankopan’s best-selling book, The Silk Roads. The unique songs-based project was presented at Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre on Thursday 28 April 2022.

Katie Melua said “I believe that songs are one of the most potent carriers of culture, human experience, and story-telling. I have forever felt that universities are the source of cutting-edge thinking and cultural development, but rarely do I see the two playgrounds of musical artistry and academic study come together. I have practices and theories learnt over the years that I was excited to share with these young creatives, and I enjoyed learning from them and being challenged by them. 

I have great respect for traditional forms and exploring new ways of composing.  As an immigrant moving from Georgia to the UK at a young age, I have a deep respect for how culture moves across land, time, and space, and I turned to Professor Peter Frankopan’s The Silk Road as a source of inspiration for a very unique journey with the students and faculty of Oxford University.”

John Pfumojena joined the Humanities Cultural Programme as a Visiting Fellow for 2022/23. John is a distinguished Zimbabwean Composer, Theatre Director, accomplished Actor and Researcher with music published by Warner Chappell Music (Warner Music Group).

John Pfumojena’s research interests are anchored within Intercultural Collaboration in the creative arts, with a focus on the intersection of music, theatre,  and cultural diversity. Mr. Pfumojena delves into the dimension of decolonizing the pedagogical landscape, primarily within the domains of music and drama training and education. His ground-breaking approach, integrates the oral and improvisational traditions of Southern Africa with modern performance practice and technology, thereby serving as both stimulus and foundation for the evolution of an inclusive, collaborative, modernistic music and theatre sphere. John Pfumojena’s academic inquiries encompass the exploration of material culture with a specific focus on the representation of Zimbabwean Mbira instruments within the confines of museum spaces. The intersection of research and practice emblematic of his multifaceted contributions to academic and creative realms

Distinguished British theatre and opera director Katie Mitchell was a Visiting Fellow 2020-2021

Mitchell’s work is well known to audiences across the globe. In a career spanning 30 years she has directed over a hundred productions, including text-based theatre, opera, installations and multimedia work. From her early days as an assistant director with Paines Plough and at the Royal Shakespeare Company to her recent success with La Maladie de la Mort, created at Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris, and Orlando at Berlin’s Schaubühne, Mitchell has become renowned for bold and innovative productions. Working with classic texts as well as with contemporary writers, Mitchell has collaborated with the Royal Opera House, the National Theatre, RSC, and the Royal Court as well as theatres across Europe to produce work which provokes and inspires. Her many awards include the Evening Standard Best Director Award and the British Academy President’s Medal. In 2009 she was presented with the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to theatre.

John was a Visiting Fellow in 2022. John is an Ivor Novello award-winning composer, saxophonist, record producer and educator whose work spans across musical genres from classical to contemporary pop. John is the composer of operas, around fifty concert works and over 100 film and TV scores including the theme to BBC1's Silent Witness and the epic score to Simon Schama’s A History of Britain. He is the recipient of an Ivor Novello award and two Royal Television Society awards for Best Music.

John was appointed the youngest ever Professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, starting the saxophone department at the age of 26, and his teaching has produced many of the leading players of today, including current Decca artist Jess Gillam. At Guildhall, John is Director of The Leadership Academy and he is Professor of Music & Interdisciplinary Practice, leading The Bauhaus Band, a 16-piece ensemble that brings together students from the Jazz, Classical and Composition Departments. John is also a professor of Electronic & Produced Music in the Electronic and Produced Music Department, and of Saxophone in the Wind, Brass, Percussion Department, where he leads the teaching of the Masters saxophone students.