Adam Curle Archive and Book Collection

Archive reference: CUR

Professor Adam Curle was the first Chair of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford. His archives and books are vital resources in understanding his ideas and his great influence on peace-making, conflict resolution, and peace education.

Adam Curle's inaugural lecture, The Scope and Dilemmas of Peace Studies, inspired Number 47 in our 100 Objects series.

About Adam Curle

Charles Thomas William (Adam) Curle was born in 1916. He studied anthropology at Oxford then served in the British Army during the Second World War. He returned to the world of social psychology with work at the Tavistock Institute, followed by appointments as Lecturer in Social Psychology at Oxford, Chair in Education and Psychology at Exeter University, consultant on education policy in Pakistan, and Professor of Education at the University of Ghana. He set up the Harvard Center for Studies in Education and Development in 1962.

In 1973, he was appointed as the first professor of Peace Studies at Bradford University, where he remained until 1978. An active member of the Society of Friends (Quakers), he was particularly involved in mediation and reconciliation in areas of conflict, working as a mediator and promoter of peace in India and Pakistan, Nigeria/Biafra, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Bosnia and Croatia. He wrote widely on the theory and practice of peace-making, and in 2000 received the Gandhi International Peace Award. He died in 2006.

This Guardian obituary by Professor Curle's colleague Tom Woodhouse offers a personal insight.

The Archive

The Archive consists of books, articles, lectures and poems by Professor Curle, as typescripts, manuscripts, offprints, and press cuttings, plus reviews of his writings.

The Book Collection

The published books include books by Adam Curle, some translated editions, and other publications by him, including journal articles, conference proceedings and contributions to edited books.