The UK's first Peace Studies school

The University of Bradford launched the UK's first School of Peace Studies in 1973, combining interdisciplinary scholarship with Quaker-inspired practical peacebuilding.

Origins of the school

The University of Bradford established the Department (now Division) of Peace Studies in 1973, the first dedicated peace-studies unit in any UK university. Its creation followed a determined early 1970s push by activists, academics, and local supporters who wanted an academic home for the study and practice of peace. Fundraising, public campaigning, and cross-sector alliances turned that vision into a department designed to bridge theory and practice.

The first postgraduate intake began in October 1974, with undergraduate teaching soon after. Early colleagues described an experimental and energetic atmosphere — an “education for liberation” that blended scholarship with practical training in mediation, community work, and development. That balance between critical inquiry and hands-on skill became a defining feature of Bradford's approach.

Quaker connections

Quaker organisations were central to Bradford's establishment. The Quaker Peace Studies Trust, founded in the early 1970s, raised significant seed funding and helped secure an endowed chair. Friends offered not only financial backing but networks, institutional support, and an ethical framework that shaped governance and curriculum priorities. The Trust's archives reflect a sustained partnership between the Society of Friends and the department.

The link was intellectual as well as financial. Quaker commitments to mediation, conciliation, and education for social change informed early debates about pedagogy and purpose. The appointment of Adam Curle as the department's first professor, a scholar-practitioner with close Quaker sympathies, cemented an ethos grounded in grassroots engagement and ethical responsibility. As one contemporary account records, Curle insisted the project was not “primarily intellectual” but born of a sense that they “cannot resist the obligations imposed upon us by our experiences in this darkening world.”

Adam Curle: Words and influence

Adam Curle set a tone of imaginative, practice-oriented scholarship. He argued that peace studies must unite theory with the skills required for mediation, development, and conflict transformation. His career moved fluidly between classroom, community, and international practice, modelling an engaged intellectual life.

Colleagues remembered him as “very charismatic, inspirational and imaginative,” encouraging students to take ethical questions seriously and connect study with action. His leadership attracted those committed to both learning and service, establishing a precedent for scholarship that remained relevant beyond the academy.

Teaching, research and impact

From the beginning, Bradford emphasised interdisciplinarity. History, sociology, international relations, and development studies were taught alongside negotiation, mediation, and community-based methods. Graduates moved into roles across the UN, NGOs, mediation services, and local organisations, equipped with both critical insight and practical competence.

The department's willingness to engage public audiences and pursue policy-relevant research sometimes provoked controversy. Yet that edge strengthened its reputation for rigorous inquiry. Over time Bradford built international partnerships, practitioner training programmes, and policy-facing research that kept its work grounded in real-world peacebuilding.

The 50th anniversary and legacy

In 2023 Bradford marked 50 years with conferences, public lectures, alumni gatherings, and events bringing staff, students, and Quaker partners together. The jubilee blended scholarly reflection with community engagement, reaffirming the department's twin commitments to academic rigour and social purpose. A reception at the House of Lords highlighted both local roots and global reach.

What began as a radical experiment is now a recognised institution whose alumni work across diplomacy, NGOs, mediation, and community organising. The Quaker Peace Studies Trust remains a visible partner, and Bradford continues to balance critical scholarship with practice-oriented teaching aimed at peaceful transformation.

Further directions

Looking ahead, the Division faces new questions: digital-era peacebuilding, climate-related conflict, decolonising curricula, and inclusive community-rooted reconciliation. Its history — shaped by Quaker support, activist energy, and a commitment to mediation — offers a distinctive foundation.

If the past fifty years teach anything, it is that scholarship allied to practical engagement can reshape institutions as well as minds. The quiet labour of building relationships, echoing Quaker practice itself, remains central to the long project of peace.