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Who we are

Meet our directors and discover the interdisciplinary expertise SIAH can offer you.

Our directors

Will May (Director)

Will is a Professor of Modern and Contemporary Literature and is committed to exploring how the arts and humanities can change the way we understand problems and how we try to solve them. He has longstanding connections to arts organisations in the region, including advisory board roles at Artful Scribe and Winchester Poetry Festival, and has built research partnerships with a wide range of partners, from think-tanks to theatres, and local government officers to primary schools. Previous interdisciplinary projects have helped build a regional mentoring scheme for young writers, and the Diverse Capacities network for freelance creative practitioners working in the Solent.
 

Larry Lynch (Deputy Director)

Larry Lynch joined Southampton in 2019 as Professor of Performance Writing and Head of Winchester School of Art – a role he held for 6 years, whilst also serving as an Associate Director of the Web Science Institute, member of the John Hansard Gallery Strategic Board, and Co-Artistic Director of the AI & Arts Festival. Prior to Joining Southampton, he was Director of Education and Executive Director of the Belarus Free Theatre and led several art schools. He was a distinguished international visiting fellow (2024-25) at Nanjing University in China. He is a poet, artist, and occasional essayist, and is increasingly involved in psychoanalysis as a both a social and clinical practice. He also often works in curatorial and editorial roles.

 

Dan Ashton (Associate Director)

Dan Ashton supports SIAH's work on cultural and creative industries organisations, and co-leads our Creative and Culture Policy Network.

 

Mike Bintley (Associate Director) 

Mike Bintley supports SIAH's environmental projects, bringing together creative practitioners with researchers focused on biodiversity, climate, and environmental policy. 
 
 

Joseph Owen (Associate Director)

 
Joseph Owen develops SIAH's expertise in culture-led solutions for place-based research, and works across the Faculty to develop links between research and policy.
 
 

Kwame Phillips (Associate Director)

 
Kwame Phillips builds collaborations with civic partners and community groups to develop SIAH's work on culture, inequality and place. 
 
 

Joan Tumblety (Associate Director) 

 
Joan Tumblety develops SIAH work on culture and wellbeing, and connects researchers and educators across medicine and other sciences with arts and humanities methods and approaches. 

 

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