Festivals, symposia and political documentaries: the Annual Fund supports innovative projects across Humanities

Each year, the Annual Fund supports projects across the University that benefit the wider student experience. The philanthropic support of alumni and friends specifically aids initiatives across the campuses that would not otherwise receive support. At the end of term, three projects originating from the College of Humanities were awarded funding.

The successful projects are a humanities mini-festival in Cornwall, a political documentary and a postgraduate conference focused on environment and the arts.

The University of Exeter has been awarded funding to hold a series of events as part of the UK’s first ‘Being Human’ inaugural festival of the humanities, which will run from 15 – 23 November 2014. Exeter’s mini-festival, 'From a Cornish Window: Individual, Landscape, Community', will take place at the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro and will champion the excellence of humanities research being undertaken at the University’s Penryn Campus.

The support of the Annual Fund will enable the mini-festival to extend its impact to include employability and outreach dimensions, creating a legacy for undergraduate students and the local community. A series of undergraduate led creative-writing workshops will be based around the texts discussed in the mini-festival’s public talks. The creative responses produced in these workshops, will be assimilated into the public exhibition at the Royal Cornwall Museum, as a way of exploring how local schoolchildren relate to their environment, and how literature can assist them in making creative sense of this experience.

The festival is being organised by Dr Kate Hext, Dr Chloe Preedy, Dr Chris Stokes and Dr Andrew McInnes. Dr Kate Hext, a lecturer in English at the University of Exeter said, “This is a very exciting opportunity for us to bring our research to life, working with the fantastic Royal Cornwall Museum. During the festival we will be giving talks, curating an exhibition trail and visiting local schools to explore - through literature, local history, and art - how personal identity is shaped through the places we live in."

Support has been awarded to the creation of a political documentary film by History and Politics undergraduates at the Penryn campus. Following the leading candidates across the six seats in Cornwall in the run up to the 2015 general election, the project will enable students to build strong links with local politicians, develop journalistic and research skills and improve their understanding of the Cornish political landscape.

Another project to gain funding is a one day symposium for South West humanities postgraduate students entitled ‘Green Connections: Environmental Response and the Arts’. The conference will centre on responses to our contemporary environment. The event aims to facilitate collaborations between academics and practitioners outside of Higher Education, to develop critical and creative responses and potential solutions to the representation and communication of environmental issues, to foster connections between participants who share a ‘green’ agenda and to showcase existing research, projects and practices in the South West.

The Annual Fund raises unrestricted funds from alumni, parents, staff and friends of the University. To find out more about the projects it supports, visit the Alumni Giving pages of the website. Applications to the Annual Fund can be made at any point in the year and money is awarded on a termly basis.

Date: 8 July 2014