| | by admin | | posted on 13th August 2025 in Power to Protest | | views 55 | |
The University of Bradford launched the UK's first School of Peace Studies in 1973, combining interdisciplinary scholarship with Quaker-inspired practical peacebuilding; its 50th anniversary in 2023 celebrated five decades of teaching, research and community engagement.
The University of Bradford established the Department (now Division) of Peace Studies in 1973, the first dedicated peace-studies unit in any UK university. Its founding grew from a concentrated push in the early 1970s by activists, academics and local supporters who wanted an academic home for the study and practice of peace. Fundraising, public campaigning and cross-sector alliances turned an idea into a university department that aimed to bridge theory and practice.
The first postgraduate intake began in October 1974 and undergraduate teaching followed soon after. Early colleagues described the atmosphere as experimental and energetic — an “education for liberation” approach that deliberately mixed scholarship with practical training in mediation, community work and development. That balance between critical inquiry and hands-on skills became a defining feature of Bradford’s approach.
Quaker organisations were central to Bradford’s establishment. The Quaker Peace Studies Trust, set up in the early 1970s, raised significant seed funding and helped secure an endowed chair; Friends contributed not only money but institutional support, networks and a steadying ethical framework that shaped governance and curriculum priorities. The Trust’s archives and ongoing engagement testify to a persistent and practical friendship between the Society of Friends and the department.
That link was intellectual as well as financial. Quaker ideas about mediation, conciliation and education for social change informed early debates about pedagogy and purpose. The appointment of Adam Curle as the department’s first professor — a scholar-practitioner with close Quaker sympathies — helped cement an ethos that emphasised grassroots engagement, ethical responsibility and scholarship in the service of communities. As one contemporary account records, Curle insisted the project was not “primarily intellectual” but born of a sense that they “cannot resist the obligations imposed upon us by our experiences in this darkening world.”
Adam Curle’s tenure set a tone of imaginative, practice-oriented scholarship. He argued that peace studies should combine theory with the skills needed for mediation, development and conflict transformation, and he modelled an engaged intellectual life that moved between classrooms, communities and international practice. Colleagues remembered him as “very charismatic, inspirational and imaginative,” a figure who encouraged students to take ethical questions seriously and to connect study with action.
Curle’s writings and public addresses framed the department as an ethical response to global tensions, shaping curricula that taught negotiation, community work and practical research methods alongside historical and theoretical perspectives. His influence helped attract students committed to both learning and service, and it set a precedent for academics who wanted their work to be relevant outside the academy.
From its inception Bradford emphasised an interdisciplinary curriculum: history, sociology, international relations and development studies were taught alongside negotiation, mediation and community-based methodologies. This curricular breadth enabled graduates to move into roles across the UN, NGOs, mediation services and local community organisations, carrying with them a mix of critical reflection and practical competence.
The department’s readiness to engage public audiences and pursue policy-relevant research sometimes provoked controversy, but that edge also strengthened its reputation for robust inquiry. Over the decades Bradford developed international links, practitioner training programmes and policy-facing research that kept its work connected to real-world peacebuilding challenges and local civic needs.
In 2023 Bradford marked fifty years with conferences, public lectures, alumni reunions and events that drew former staff, students and Quaker partners together to reflect on the school’s history and future. The jubilee programme combined scholarly panels with community-facing activities, underscoring the department’s twin commitments to academic rigour and social engagement. A reception at the House of Lords and regional gatherings highlighted both local roots and global reach.
Fifty years on, a unit that began as a radical experiment is now widely recognised as a durable institution whose alumni work across diplomacy, NGOs, mediation and community organising. The Quaker Peace Studies Trust remains a visible partner, and Bradford continues to balance critical scholarship with practice-oriented teaching aimed at peaceful transformation. The golden jubilee offered a moment to celebrate achievements and to ask how peace pedagogy should evolve amid digital change, climate pressures and new forms of violent conflict.
Looking ahead, Bradford faces questions about adapting pedagogy to new challenges: digital-era peacebuilding, climate-related conflict, decolonising curricula, and inclusive community-rooted reconciliation. The Division’s history — Quaker support, an activist orientation and an emphasis on mediation — provides a distinctive platform for tackling these questions.
The task now is to sustain imaginative, practice-led learning that prepares graduates to work across sectors: policymakers, mediators, community organisers and researchers. If the past fifty years teach anything, it is that committed scholarship allied to practical engagement can change both minds and institutions — and that the quiet work of building relationships, like Quaker practice itself, remains central to the long project of peace.