Celebrating the success of hands-on Humanities Day 2022
Hands-on Humanities Day is the University’s annual family-friendly day celebrating the world of the humanities and arts. Avenue Campus was buzzing with more than 320 people attending the event on Saturday 19 November.
Over 170 exhibitors, staff and students at the University of Southampton and members from local communities brought to life 40 exciting activities that generated a buzz around Avenue Campus. The programme included a wide array of different topics spanning from archaeology, history and philosophy to modern languages, linguistics, writing and music, through to the arts, with the inclusion of science and technology. Exhibitors and visitors were supported by a small, dedicated team of volunteers alongside the UoS Festival team at the Public Engagement with research unit (PERu), and a crew of enthusiastic student ambassadors.
Since its launch in 2014, Hands-on Humanities Day has grown in popularity and the use of Eventbrite as a ticketing and promotion tool has also gained us new visitors. Attendees came from across Southampton but interest extended wider with visitors from Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Bristol, Yeovil and Cardiff, and with some people travelling from as far away as Middlesex, Essex and Lancashire!
Dr Silvia Lanati, Senior Public Engagement Manager (Ops) and UoS Festival lead, said:
“This year’s edition felt like a turning point for Hands-on Humanities Day. We saw extensive participation across the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, the event sold out 2 weeks ahead of time with a number on the waitlist. This happened quickly showing that Hands-on Humanities Day is becoming another “favourite” across the annual events on offer in Southampton."
Visitors encountered an exciting variety of experiences, including:
- adventuring through the stars in the Soton Astrodome
- creating an archaeological site in Minecraft
- being surrounded by Monarch butterflies in the Digital Humanities Igloo
Attendees were able to immerse themselves in:
- Mexican Day of the Dead celebration
- unearth artifacts
- understand the resilience of native languages
- get creative while speaking on the radio or writing a poem or letter
Folkloristic dancing with Bournemouth-based Colores Mexicanos and ancient Chinese Qigong exercising with the Confucius Institute proved extremely popular. Visitors and the event teams generated a vibrant and colourful community-driven experience in Avenue campus outdoor courtyard.
Hands-on Humanities Day is the concluding event of Southampton Arts and Humanities Festival. The event was supported by Southampton Institute for Arts and Humanities (SIAH). Hands-on Humanities Day is included in the programme of Being Human festival, the UK's national festival of the humanities, led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy.
Hands-on Humanities Day will return in November 2023 to conclude the 10-days celebration of Southampton Arts and Humanities Festival 2023.