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Public Engagement
  1. Queen Mary University of London
  2. Public Engagement
  3. Opportunities
  4. Being Human Festival

Being Human Festival

Being Human Festival is the UK's national festival of the humanities led by the School of Advance Study at the University of London, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy.

The Festival brings together universities, museums, galleries, creative organisations, and community groups to run over 300 public engagement activities which showcase humanities research in ways that are accessible to the public.

Being Human at Queen Mary

Since 2015, the Centre for Public Engagement have been supporting Queen Mary researchers to run activities as part of Being Human Festival. The Festival offers our researchers the opportunity to:

  • Develop an exciting public engagement activity/event that can have positive impacts on their work
  • Get involved with a nation-wide showcase of humanities research
  • Develop public engagement skills with tailored support from the CPE 

You can get a taste of some of our previous Being Human Festival programmes by watching our video from the 2019 'This Time It's Personal' Festival Hub above that we ran in collaboration with Kings' College London. 

Being Human 2023

During Being Human Festival 2023 (9-19 November) Queen Mary researchers will reflect on the theme of 'Rhyme or Reason' and celebrate the humanities through a range of events and activities.

Take a look at what's on.

Portraits of commemorated thinkers in gold frames situated against a colourful background

Great and Good?

Whose lives do we remember as ‘great’ and why?  Join two experts in the history of humanism and freethought – Clare Stainthorp (Queen Mary University of London) and Madeleine Goodall (Humanists UK) – for discussion and hands-on activities at this family-friendly event where we will think together about notions of the ‘great and good’, inspired by the history of Conway Hall. Workshops take place on 11 November.
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Black and white photo of a man standing in front of a number of analogue clocks each showing different times

Re-Sounding the East End

'Everything is different, nothing has changed’ is the first ever sound art installation at Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives and draws on newly digitized oral history recordings of Jewish and Bengali migrants to Tower Hamlets. Join the artists, Alastair Levy, Emily Peasgood and Syma Tariq for an introduction to their work, along with curators Tamsin Bookey and Professor Nadia Valman, postcolonial scholar Dr Rehana Ahmed and broadcaster Alan Dein. Takes place 16 November. 
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‘Early Modern Latin in London’ Walking Tours

Join this walking tour of Early Modern Latin in London – the City’s best-kept secrets hidden in plain sight. The City is full of Early Modern Latin (from the 16th-18th centuries): in large letters on public monuments, in poetry, and in other writing from the period which celebrates or commiserates life in historic London. Tours take place on 11 November and 12 November.  
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A women in a long pink and grey coat and strappy silver sandals pushes a shopping trolley across the centre of a spiraling concrete ramp

Mobile Home Fashion Studio and Screening

Have you ever wanted to be part of your own Vogue-inspired fashion shoot? Are your clothing choices inspired by different cultures and the hybrid cultures of London's street style? If so, award-winning German artist and photographer Catrine Val would like to arrange a photoshoot with you! Catrine will share some of her work and the stories she collects during these photoshoots at an in-conversation screening.
Pop-up studio: 9-15 November Screening: 18 November
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