Humanities Cultural Programme Archive (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.

Her work has been featured on Forbes, CNet, The Australian, and more.

VR Reel: https://estella.link/vrartreel

Social Media: @estellatse

Over the 2021/22 academic year, Katie Melua joins us as a Humanities Cultural Programme Visiting Fellow. Katie Melua will collaborate with a select group of students and faculty 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. This unique songs-based project will be presented at Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre on Thursday 28 April 2022.

Katie Melua says: “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’m excited to share with these young creatives, and I’m also looking forward to learning from them and being challenged by them. 

I have great respect for traditional forms, which we’ll look at and explore alongside newer ways of composing. We’ll explore where words meet music, the sound design of lyrical composition, and how to weave great stories into the form. 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 have turned to Professor Peter Frankopan’s The Silk Road as a source of inspiration for this very unique journey with the students and faculty of Oxford University.”

Katie Melua is one of Britain's most successful musical artists, having sold in excess of 11 million albums and received over 56 platinum awards. The 36-year old is originally from Tbilisi, Georgia and moved to the UK at a young age where she studied at the acclaimed Brit School of Performing Arts. 

John Pfumojena joined the Humanities Cultural Programme as Visiting Fellow for 2022/23.

Elected Visiting Fellow at Exeter College, Oxford University for 2023/24.

John is a distinguished Zimbabwean Composer, Theatre Director, accomplished Actor and Researcher with music published by Warner Chappell Music (Warner Music Group).

Research Interests

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