Working in the humanities means uncovering fascinating secrets and stories. It means challenging received ideas, and finding new perspectives on histories, cultures and languages. It means working with archives and collections, and gaining access to places, ideas and knowledge that are often off-limits and ‘hidden’ for the vast majority of people. In 2015, we want to share the excitement and intrigue of working in the humanities with the broadest possible public. In doing so, we also want to learn from them.
With this aim in mind, the theme that we have settled on for this year’s SAS and Senate House Library contribution to the Being Human festival of the humanities is Hidden and Revealed.
People are invited to respond to this theme freely and imaginatively. Possible points of departure however might include the capacity of the humanities to:
- Reveal hidden and forgotten narratives, cultures, histories, and languages.
- Reveal hidden spaces/places/locations.
- Reveal new ways of understanding and probing difficult problems.
- Reveal new ways of seeing, understanding, questioning.
- Reveal new perspectives on life, death and other core aspects of ‘being human’.
- Reveal and challenge secrets, censorship, and things that people would rather keep hidden!
The humanities have an immense capacity to explore and reveal the secrets of the human condition – the essence of what it means to ‘be human’. For the Being Human festival 2015 we want to celebrate the huge range of work that is being done in this field within SAS/SHL itself.
Opportunities:
A number of direct opportunities to get involved with the Being Human festival will be revealed very soon. In the meantime if you have any programming ideas of your own please get in touch with Dr Michael Eades, Cultural and Public Engagement Manger and festival curator: michael.eades@sas.ac.uk