Faculty of Arts Teaching and Learning Conference

About the conference

[…] intellect too, I repeat, has its beauty, and it has those who aim at it. To open the mind, to correct it, to refine it, to enable it to know, and to digest, master, rule, and use its knowledge, to give it power over its own faculties, application, flexibility, method, critical exactness, sagacity, resource, address, eloquent expression, is an object as intelligible […] as the cultivation of virtue, while, at the same time, it is absolutely distinct from it. 
—John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University (London: Longman, 1891 [1852]), pp. 122-23

Educating is always a vocation rooted in hopefulness. As teachers we believe that learning is possible, that nothing can keep an open mind from seeking after knowledge and finding a way to know it. 
—bell hooks, Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope (New York and London: Routledge, 2003), p. xiv

In 2025, the Faculty of Arts invites its educators and education support staff to a two-day conference on the value of education. In this second iteration of the Faculty of Arts Teaching and Learning Conference, we invite educators and education support staff to revisit the fundamental premises of our work. Is it true that our aim is to help students ‘open their minds’, as defenders of liberal education have argued for at least 150 years? Can we be confident that the ‘cultivation of intellect’ and ‘seeking after knowledge’ remain ends in themselves in the age of Generative AI? Whatever our aims are, how can we enact them in the twenty-first century classroom?

The conference will be held on Tuesday the 28th of October and Wednesday the 29th of October 2025. This year, the first day of the Teaching and Learning Conference will be held in conjunction with the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences (MDHS). The shared day will feature cross-faculty paper sessions and workshops, and the poster session with reception, along with other events to be announced.

As well as providing a stimulus to the intellect, the conference will provide an opportunity for professional advancement. Submissions will be peer-reviewed, and accepted presentations can support you in your confirmation, promotion or job applications.

Abstracts

You can view all 2025 conference abstracts here.  You can see the conference themes along with submission guidelines for abstracts here.

2025 Conference program

You can view the 2025 conference program here.

Register your attendance

Registrations are now open, please register here.

Registration closes Monday 27 October.

Past conferences

Information about previous conferences, including past programs and abstracts, can be found in this section.

  • The Faculty of Arts Teaching and Learning Conference 2024 was an exciting opportunity to share practices, directions, and scholarship and build connections with teaching staff across the Faculty. The conference showcased teaching expertise, noting that participation in conferences is a measure of recognition of educational expertise and influence in the University’s Academic Career Benchmarks and Indicators. The conference also acted as a forum for collaboration, with roundtables and panels that discussed the most important issues affecting education in the Faculty.

    The conference welcomed Professor Sandra Phillips as Associate Dean Indigenous who delivered the keynote presentation titled Keep the Fire Burning: Fire as metaphor for curriculum renewal that respects Indigenous Peoples, Cultures, and Knowledges in the Arts.

    The conference took place in-person on Level 1 and Level 5 in the Arts West Building on Tuesday the 22nd and Wednesday the 23rd of October 2024.

    The two-day conference program can be found here. The abstract for each conference presentation can be read here.