Melbourne | Being Human Festival 2021

The Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne hosts the international hub of the UK's Being Human Festival 2021, 11-20 November.  Exploring the theme of 'renewal', the hub offers a range of online events and activities celebrating the breadth, diversity and vitality of the humanities.  A special festival Hub in Glasgow is exploring climate change and the environmental humanities, tying in with the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) taking place in Glasgow (1-12 November 2021).

The past twelve months have brought enormous challenges across the globe. The impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular, have been world-changing and are far from over. Whilst we continue to live through a moment of unprecedented challenge, strain, and change, however, one thing is clear for many people: whatever follows on from Covid-19 must, if nothing else, be an opportunity to do things differently. Whether in relation to our political systems, the cities in which we live, the ways in which we work and spend our leisure time, or our relationship with the planet and the natural world, the current historical moment offers an opportunity to rethink, to do things differently, to renew. In 2020 Being Human festival imagined ‘New Worlds’. In 2021 it is time to renew our sense of Being Human.

At the Melbourne hub, be guided by Indigenous experts on connecting with and contemplating Country. Travel across the globe in an interactive 360-degree film or stay local and take a Shakespearian tour of Melbourne. Hear up to the minute expert analysis on the COP26 summit and contribute your own story of climate activism. 

While the international hub of the Being Human Festival 2021 is hosted in Melbourne, a range of events are taking place across festival hubs in Coventry, Lincoln and Swansea in the UK. Check out the full programme here. A special festival Hub in Glasgow is also exploring climate change and the environmental humanities, tying in with the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) taking place in Glasgow (1-12 November 2021).

The Being Human Festival is the first and only national festival of the humanities in the UK. Founded in 2014, the Festival demonstrates the breadth, diversity and vitality of the humanities, and that research in the humanities is vital for the cultural, intellectual, political and social life. It is a successful large-scale, national public engagement festival taking academic research out into all corners of the community providing refreshing new perspectives on research. It is supported by the School of Advanced Study at the University of London in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy.