THE FOUNDER AND CHIEF CONVENER OF THE GLOBAL SOUTH NETWORK SHORTLISTED FOR THE “OSCARS OF HIGHER EDUCATION” – TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION AWARDS 2026

The Global South Network (GSN) is delighted to share that Dr Nauman Reayat, Founder and Chief Convener of the Global South Network, has been shortlisted for Outstanding Research Supervisor of the Year at the Times Higher Education Awards 2026, widely known as the “Oscars of Higher Education.”

For GSN, the recognition speaks to something larger than an individual achievement. It reflects a belief that strong research cultures are not built by surrounding ourselves only with people who think as we do. They are built when people with different experiences, assumptions and ways of seeing the world are willing to remain in serious conversation with one another. Intellectual openness matters most when it is tested: when another discipline asks a question we had not considered, when a different cultural or professional background changes how a problem is understood, or when an argument challenges our own position. That idea is built into the way GSN works.

Created by and for the Global South while bringing together participants from both the Global South and Global North, the Network has sought to widen not only whose voices are heard, but which voices are able to meet. Its activities cross disciplines, institutions, professions, generations and geography, while also bringing together people across nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, culture and ideology. The breadth of that exchange is visible in the Network itself. Researchers from the social sciences, arts and humanities, and business actively participate in its activities, including those working in Business, Criminology, Law, Political Science, International Relations, Sociology, Media, and Health, Caring and Well Being. Its geographical chapters extend across South Asia, the Middle East, (South) East Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Latin America.

The value of this approach becomes clearest when dialogue is hardest. During the Russia-Ukraine war, GSN hosted a guest lecture involving the Supreme Court of Ukraine. At the height of the Middle East crisis, it separately created opportunities for engagement with the Supreme Constitutional Court of Palestine and the Supreme Court of Israel. GSN has conducted three North–South Judicial Dialogues. The first judicial dialogue brought together supreme courts from 13 countries across the Global North and Global South in January 2025. The second judicial dialogue, held on 15 September 2025, brought together European and non-European supreme administrative courts. The third judicial dialogue, titled “Backsliding of the Rule of Law”, took place on 16 March 2026 and involved supreme courts from 13 countries.These activities did not assume that deep disagreements could be wished away. Their significance lay in something more demanding: the refusal to accept that disagreement must make serious conversation impossible. The same commitment can be seen in participation across the Network. Around 70% of participants in GSN activities since its launch in March 2023 have been women. Its programmes have also repeatedly made room for thoughtful discussion of issues that can be easier to avoid than confront, including interfaith relations, sexuality and some of the world’s most sensitive conflicts.

GSN’s work with doctoral researchers brings these principles into practice in another way. Through the International Interdisciplinary PhD-in-Progress Seminar Series, PhD researchers can discuss developing work with people they may never otherwise have encountered: fellow doctoral researchers, early-career academics, mid-career and established scholars, judges, practitioners, policymakers and other professionals. An emerging argument can therefore move beyond the boundaries of one supervisor, one department or one discipline and be tested before people approaching the same question from very different intellectual, professional and geographical perspectives.

This matters because tolerance is not the same as agreement. Nor does constructive debate require people to dilute deeply held views. It asks something more difficult: to listen carefully, question one another seriously, disagree without hostility, and remain open to the possibility that another perspective may reveal something we had not seen before. That is perhaps the most important thread running through the Network’s work. GSN is not simply trying to connect people who already understand one another. It is trying to create the conditions in which people separated by discipline, profession, geography, culture, faith or worldview can still think together. Difference, in that sense, is not something to be managed out of the room. It is one of the reasons the room needs to exist.

The University of Leicester, where the GSN is housed, highlighted Dr Reayat’s leadership of the GSN as a particularly pioneering part of his work in creating a globally connected, intellectually rigorous and highly supportive research environment. Professor Sir Nishan Canagarajah, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leicester, said:

“At Leicester we pride ourselves on our super supportive community, and so it is wonderful to see Dr Reayat recognised for going above and beyond to create such a rich and highly supportive research environment for his students, and in particular, his leadership of the Global South Network.”

Reflecting on the shortlisting, Dr Nauman Reayat, Founder and Chief Convener of the Global South Network, said:

“When I founded the Global South Network, the ambition was never simply to organise a seminar series or to create a space for one particular group. The wider aim was to build a platform through which people working across different disciplines, institutions, countries and professional settings could come into meaningful conversation with one another.

GSN therefore operates through a range of activities involving academics at different stages of their careers, judges, practitioners, policymakers and other professionals. Our work with PhD researchers is one particularly important part of that wider mission.

Doctoral researchers are often producing ambitious and original work, but their opportunities to discuss developing ideas can sometimes remain confined to supervisors, departments or immediate disciplinary circles. Through the PhD-in-Progress series, we try to widen that conversation. A researcher may present unfinished work and receive comments not only from another doctoral researcher, but from a mid-career or established scholar, a judge, a practitioner, a policymaker, or someone approaching the same problem from an entirely different discipline or part of the world.

But the exchange is not one-directional. Established scholars and professionals also encounter new evidence, new methodologies, new arguments and new ways of looking at familiar problems through doctoral research. Researchers from the Global North and Global South can compare how apparently different institutions, concepts and challenges develop across contexts. That mutuality is central to GSN.

Just as importantly, we have tried to create a culture in which difference does not have to become division. Our activities bring together people of different nationalities, cultures, ethnicities, religions, genders and ideological positions. They may disagree, sometimes quite fundamentally, but the purpose is to create conditions in which disagreement can remain thoughtful, respectful and constructive.

Healthy debate is not the absence of disagreement. It is the ability to question one another seriously without denying one another dignity.

For me, that matters enormously. Universities should not simply produce knowledge; they should also help people learn how to live intellectually with difference. Healthy debate is not the absence of disagreement. It is the ability to question one another seriously without denying one another dignity.

A PhD can sometimes be an intensely solitary journey. One of the things we have tried to demonstrate is that it does not have to remain confined within those boundaries. Connecting doctoral researchers with people beyond their immediate institution, discipline and career stage can create confidence, relationships and intellectual opportunities that may continue long after a single seminar has ended.

I therefore do not see this shortlisting simply as recognition of one individual. I see it as recognition of a much wider community: every doctoral researcher who has trusted us with work that was still developing; every peer commentator and discussant who has engaged with it constructively; every mid-career and established scholar who has shared expertise; and every judge, practitioner, policymaker and professional who has brought perspectives from beyond academia into our conversations.

I am also conscious that this shortlisting marks several firsts at Leicester. I am grateful for that, but I hope its more lasting significance is that it shows what can happen when we invest seriously in research communities rather than only research outputs.

Those encounters can change research. Sometimes they can also change how we understand one another.

What matters most to me is that people who might otherwise never have encountered one another are now exchanging ideas. A doctoral researcher can find themselves in conversation with an established academic or senior practitioner; a legal scholar may encounter an anthropologist, economist or psychologist; and someone working in one part of the world may discover that what appeared to be a local problem has unexpected parallels elsewhere. Those encounters can change research. Sometimes they can also change how we understand one another.

I am deeply grateful for this recognition. Above all, it reinforces my belief that supporting researchers is not only about supervising individual theses. It is also about building the communities, relationships and spaces through which ideas can travel, between disciplines, generations, institutions, professions, cultures and different parts of the world.”

The shortlisting therefore represents an important moment not only for Dr Reayat, but for the wider GSN community and for the doctoral researchers, academics, judges, practitioners, policymakers and other professionals who continue to contribute to its activities. It is also a reminder of something at the heart of the Network’s work: research becomes richer when knowledge crosses boundaries, and communities become stronger when people learn to disagree without ceasing to listen. It is also a reminder of something at the heart of the Network’s work: research becomes richer when knowledge crosses boundaries, and communities become stronger when people learn to disagree without ceasing to listen.