Professor Tim Luckhurst

Head of South College and Associate PVC Engagement, Durham University
Tim is Principal of South College, Durham University and Associate Pro Vice Chancellor Engagement. He is an academic member of Durham University’s Centre for Modern Conflicts and Cultures. Tim is also a member of the Editorial Board of The Conversation UK, an independent source of news and views, sourced from the academic and research community and delivered direct to the public.
An award-winning journalist for BBC News and Current Affairs and former editor of The Scotsman newspaper, Tim began his career on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and went on to work as a producer, reporter and editor in Washington DC, the Middle East and Europe. He was a member of the team that designed and launched BBC Radio 5 Live. Prior to entering journalism, he was an adviser to the Right Honourable Donald Dewar MP when he was Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, 1985-1988. Between 2007 and 2019 he served as Professor of Journalism and founding Head of the Centre for Journalism at the University of Kent. He was also a founder and director of KMTV, a local television station for Kent.
He is a newspaper historian and campaigner for press freedom. His research focuses on the depiction of dissent in British and American newspapers in the First and Second World Wars. He is the author of Reporting the Second World War – The Press and the People 1939-1945 (Bloomsbury Academic, 2023), War Correspondents (1914-1918 Online The International Encyclopaedia of the First World War, 2016) Responsibility without Power – Lord Justice Leveson’s Constitutional Dilemma (Abramis Academic, 2012) and This is Today – A Biography of the Today Programme (Aurum Press, 2000). Tim makes frequent appearances on TV and Radio for BBC Radio, LBC, Talk TV, and GB News