The Edinburgh Futures Conversations have a history of bringing multiple voices together to speak on issues of urgent concern – academics, artists, activists, leaders, makers, writers. For this season, we wanted to give a primary voice to poets. Poetry has the unique power of being able to connect deeply and simultaneously across our personal experiences of education, its place in our social and political worlds and our hopes for its future. For these reasons, Edinburgh Futures Institute commissioned three of our most interesting and engaging poets – Marjorie Lotfi, Joelle Taylor and JL Williams – to write original pieces on each of the key themes covered in the Conversations: the future of education in the context of crisis, of utopia and of artificial intelligence.
Professor Sian Bayne, Assistant Principal Education Futures, University of Edinburgh
