This free online masterclass will explore how best to promote your public engagement activity so that it reaches your intended audience and has the maximum impact. It will also cover ideas for generating local and national media around your research and event.

Led by the Being Human Festival team, Dr Michael Eades will share tips on promotion, communication and reaching intended audiences, while Professor Sarah Churchwell will discuss ways to make academic research converge with the media agenda. Organisers from last year’s festival will also give flash talks that provide helpful insights and tips from their Being Human events, which included hosting popular activities for families and local communities.

Throughout there will be opportunities to get involved in the conversation and ask questions. Attendees will also be emailed a masterclass pack full of helpful information and toolkits on the topic.

Although this event is aimed at those taking part in this year’s Being Human festival, it may also be of interest to those generally thinking about public engagement in the humanities.

Speakers:

• Professor Sarah Churchwell is the director of the Being Human festival. A prominent advocate for literature and the humanities, Sarah appears regularly in the media and writes for both academic and non-academic audiences.
• Dr Michael Eades is manager and curator of the Being Human festival. He has also run numerous public engagement initiatives such as ‘Bloomsbury Festival in a Box’ which engaged socially isolated people with dementia.
• Dr Misha Ewen is a Hallsworth Research Fellow at the University of Manchester. She ran a popular family history workshop for the 2019 festival entitled ‘Discovering Caribbean Family Memories’, which featured in the Manchester Evening News.
• Dr Elaine Canning is Head of Cultural Engagement and Development at Swansea University and has led several successful Being Human festival hub programmes, including their 2019 family-friendly programme of activities that included museum takeovers, plays and a big book treasure hunt.

Joining the event:

This event is free, but booking is required. It will be held online with details about how to join the virtual meet-up being circulated via email to registered attendees. The masterclass will begin at 11:00am, but you will be able to join the event’s online waiting room from 10:30am.

Book now