Leading with Authenticity: Professor Shearer West 

This week’s quote comes from last week’s Leadership Lab interview with Professor Shearer West, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds, aligning with World Creativity and Innovation Day. In her quote, Professor West discusses the importance of the arts and humanities: 

An Advocate for the Arts 

Professor Shearer West became Vice-Chancellor of Leeds in 2024, having previously served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nottingham and Provost at the University of Sheffield. At Nottingham, she was a passionate advocate for equity, diversity and inclusion, helping the institution become the first to achieve the Gold Athena Swan award for its work advancing gender equality across higher education and research.  

An accomplished art historian, she has authored nine books and numerous scholarly articles and previously led the History of Art Department at the University of Birmingham. In the most recent Leadership Lab, she reflects on ways in which her Art History degree prepared her for a leadership role, as it taught her a range of different roles and responsibilities from a young age. She recalls that its varied nature, requiring her to study history, and work with art galleries and the business and cultural engagement industries gave her a solid background to become a leader. 

Leadership Grounded in Empathy and Resilience

Luke Sewell, Laidlaw Scholar at Durham University, explored how the arts and humanities have been undermined in his research: “Many journalists and politicians have painted a negative picture of the Arts and Humanities as being ‘Mickey Mouse’ fields, denoting a lack of value to graduates in their futures.” However, in her quote, Professor West holds the importance of studying the arts and humanities, which can help us navigate challenging topics and culture wars. Studying arts can often give us empathy, critical analysis skills and the ability to think through different perspectives and stories over time, getting to the roots of these wars. The arts in general can also help us to have a dialogue and create shared spaces of connection. 

This perspective resonates strongly with the Laidlaw Value of Curiosity and the Oxford Character Project Leadership Virtue of Transcendence. Being Curious means asking questions and engaging in dialogue to overcome polarisation. Transcendence means maintaining creative ways and solutions. 

A Call to Reflect

As we consider Professor West's leadership approach, take a moment to ask yourself: How have the arts played a part inyour leadership journey? 

Discover Scholars' Research in the Arts and Humanities: 

Luke Sewell: How does Arts and Humanities Influence Public Policymaking? 

Alice Bai: Settlement Orientations and Ethnic Identifications of the Chinese Cuban Diaspora: The Case of the Eng Herrera Family

Eavan O'Keeffe: Language and the Nation: The Rise of Ethnolinguistic Nationalism and its Consequences for Understanding the Monolingual Paradigm

Laurence Gawne: John Milton - Liberty, Freedom of Expression and the Transatlantic Dialogue 

Aishat Olawumi: Exposing Hidden Realities: How Visual Art Reclaims Black Women's Bodies from Medical Abuse

Rachel Ngai: Many Crowns of Violets---Classical Reception in Queer Readings of Virginia Woolf 

Felicia Gan: Nabokov's Butterflies: The Literary, Philosophical, and Scientific