The Public Engagement with Research unit’s Festival team is delighted to introduce a new name for what has been known as Human Worlds Festival since 2014: Southampton Arts and Humanities Festival.
This name change reflects a commitment that the festival had already cemented in the last few years: to showcase research from both the Arts and the Humanities across the University, with collaborators and local cultural venues. It is also a way of clarifying the essence of the festival and facilitating engagement with the wider public who are interested in the Arts and/or the Humanities, not only at a local level but internationally, thanks to the expansion of the festival on its official website and the new online audience gained over the last year.
Moreover, the new name aligns the event with its sibling, the Southampton Science and Engineering Festival (SOTSEF), also organised by the Public Engagement with Research unit and which takes place every March. It also showcases a recent partnership with the brand-new research champion of the University, the Southampton Institute for Arts and Humanities (SIAH), which has the same mission as the festival: to support and showcase the Arts and Humanities research conducted at the University of Southampton.
The new name is accompanied by a tagline which highlights the new holistic focus of the festival: from worlds, ‘the humanities and beyond’ to ‘the human within’, and the role the Arts and Humanities have in shaping how every individual sees the world around them.
The Southampton Arts and Humanities Festival (11-20 November) is now open for event and activity submissions from staff and students. You can apply for a digital festival activity or for an in-person activity for the special Hands-on Humanities Day here.
Watch the name launch video below, and follow PERu on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to stay up to date.
