New Generation Thinker: Dr Christopher Harding

The School of History, Classics and Archaeology is proud to report that Dr Christopher G. Harding, a Lecturer in Asian History, has become one of ten academics from across the UK to be named ‘New Generation Thinkers 2013’.

The competition, which is organised by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC), attracts hundreds of entries from early-career researchers.

The aim is to find the academic broadcasters of the future.

Academic research for radio and TV

Having won through the competition’s challenging, six-month selection process, Dr Harding will spend a year working with Radio 3 and BBC Television Arts to develop his research ideas into radio broadcasts and, potentially, a short film.

His research focuses on the cultural dialogue which took place between the Western world and Asia, especially Japan and India, in the late 19th and 20th centuries. In particular, he is interested in how religion, psychology and psychiatry have become intertwined, changing the way we think about spiritual versus mental and emotional health.

Dr Harding will debut on Radio 3's arts and ideas programme, ‘Night Waves’, next month.

Ground-breaking ideas

Matthew Dodd, Head of Speech programming, BBC Radio 3, said in a press release:

"This year's applicants showed a sharp sophistication about how their research might make strong programmes - and a real willingness to reach beyond academia into the lives of our audience, and to find new formats to do that”.

Professor Rick Rylance, Chief Executive of the Arts & Humanities Research Council, added:

“This is generation three of the New Generation Thinkers and our hope is that the previous winners and the newcomers will continue to spread the word about the enormous public appetite for hearing about arts and humanities research”.