The University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School has appointed South African poet and academic Dr Athol Williams as its first Poet Laureate, marking a notable development in the integration of the humanities into business education.
According to an official announcement from Saïd Business School and reported by the University of Oxford, the honorary role is the first of its kind within a global business school context. Dr Williams, who serves as a Senior Fellow of Management Practice in Strategy, is expected to advance the use of poetry as a pedagogical tool in leadership development. His appointment reflects a broader institutional recognition that disciplines traditionally positioned outside business education may contribute to leadership capabilities such as judgement, ethical reasoning and empathy.
Dr Williams stated that “compassion, judgement, connection, are going to become more critical for leaders”, adding that leadership education must cultivate these human capabilities alongside technical expertise. He further argued that poetry offers a distinctive means of engaging with ambiguity and human experience, noting that “great leaders are ones who can relate to other people in meaningful ways” and that poetry provides a resource through which such relational understanding can be developed.
An established South African poet with multiple published collections and more than one hundred poems in literary journals, Dr Williams has already incorporated poetry into teaching and public engagement at the School. His academic practice includes lectures and discussions that position poetry as a method for engaging complexity, particularly in decision making contexts where clarity is not immediate.
The initiative has been supported by the School’s leadership. Professor Mette Morsing, Interim Dean at Saïd Business School, observed that poetry remains underutilised within business education despite its capacity to “sharpen perception, strengthen critical thinking and deepen empathy”. She further suggested that poetry has often been treated as peripheral in organisational contexts, rather than as a potential catalyst for innovation and transformation.
From a southern African perspective, the appointment carries broader significance. Dr Williams’ presence within a leading global institution reflects the increasing visibility of African intellectual and creative traditions in shaping contemporary leadership discourse. In this context, poetry is not framed solely as an artistic practice, but as part of a wider epistemic tradition that values narrative, reflection and relational understanding. Such approaches resonate with diverse knowledge systems across the African continent, where meaning making often extends beyond purely instrumental or technocratic frameworks.
The development aligns with wider shifts in higher education, both globally and within Africa, where interdisciplinary approaches are increasingly emphasised. Scholars and institutions have argued that leadership in complex and unequal societies requires engagement with ethical, cultural and social dimensions that cannot be addressed through technical training alone.
While the long term impact of the Poet Laureate role remains to be assessed, its introduction signals an evolving approach to management education. It also highlights the contribution of African scholars to global academic practice in ways that are both contextually grounded and internationally relevant.
