Human Rights in Action, Doping, Autism & the Importance of Green Spaces among Highlights of Sheffield Hallam’s Festival Programme this November.
As in previous years, Sheffield Hallam University will again be organising the Sheffield Festival of Social Science in conjunction with The University of Sheffield and supported by the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC). Over 30 events will take place across the City during an 8-day period between Saturday 2nd November and Saturday 9th November 2019, organised by researchers from both institutions from a range of academic fields including sociology, psychology, education, law, human rights, geography and sustainable energy.
Researchers from Hallam will be delivering 10 events at this year’s festival in a range of university and non-university venues with 70% of the events programme taking place off-campus as part of the university’s commitment to be an active community stakeholder, leading locally whilst engaging globally.
The event will open on the morning of Saturday 2nd November with an exhibition symposium at the Winter Gardens (pictured) featuring no fewer than five displays from both universities. Hallam will have three events which will be available to view during the festival week.
Sociologist Peter Thomas will be showcasing work he has recently completed with a number of colleagues in an exhibition entitled “Steel City to Northern Poorhouse” exploring economic decline in the city and the impact of low-paid work coupled with limited trade union power. The exhibition will also explore the reasons why Sheffield has suffered more than most other major cities in this regard.
Geographer Naomi Holmes will present a collection of landscape photographs from around the city and surrounding countryside and ask visitors for their opinions on which landscapes they particularly like and why to build up a picture of the public’s perception of green spaces. In a similar vein, Land Law Specialist Jill Dickinson will be presenting selected entries from a children’s picture competition looking at the “Future of Green Spaces” and how young people perceive and value parks.
Other events for young people include a Key Stage 3 History project organised by Janice Haigh and Deborah Ballin which will run in local schools during the festival week. Entitled “Guardian Angels” this will be an interactive workshop where students will explore stories of children that suffered with tuberculosis in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and they will produce an audio story box. Local A Level Psychology students will be invited to Heart of the Campus on Tuesday 5th November to explore brain functionality in the university’s state of the art psychology laboratories, gaining an insight into what studying Psychology at degree level may entail.
Arguably the most compelling events of the festival programme are the Global Human Rights Showcase and Gaming for Clean Sport. A number of colleagues from the Helena Kennedy Centre including Dr Sunita Toor, Dr Craig Paterson, Sou Brogan and Sue Bulley will present a showcase of the action research that has taken place across the world in Britain, India and Southern Africa in relation to Human Rights during a full-day session on Wednesday 6th November in the Charles Street Building.
Dr Toor will be showcasing work undertaken in India to prevent and reduce domestic violence against women including training police personnel in how to deal with crimes against women. Sue Bulley will present details of a recent Masters’ course field trip to Lesotho looking at how the donation of shoes has enabled more children to attend school and the availability of an innovative type of slow cooker known as the Wonderbag is making cooking safer and quicker, reducing serious injuries from cooking over naked flames and allowing women more free time to perhaps undertake some paid work and increase living standards. Audience members will be able to sample food prepared using the Wonderbag. Dr Craig Paterson and Sou Brogan will present work undertaken to combat modern slavery in South Yorkshire. This workshop will incorporate a live performance from Mama Africa.
On Saturday 9th November, Social Psychologist Lambros Lazuras will present “Gaming for Clean Sport” as part of a double header event with Dr Christian Reynolds of The University of Sheffield at the National Videogame Museum. During three one-hour sessions, visitors will have a chance to play a simulation where they are faced with a series of dilemmas regarding the use of performance enhancing drugs which will unleash a series of consequential scenarios depending on the decisions that are taken. This game is an output from a European Union supported programme that Dr Lazuras has been delivering and is completely ground-breaking in its nature.
Other events taking place as part of the festival include a diverse panel of autistic people describing their experiences and how they see the world in “Missing Autistic Voices” on Saturday 2nd November. On Sunday 3rd November, Dr Will Eadson of the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) will present a workshop looking at community energy initiatives in Yorkshire and the Humber with the objective of establishing a community energy hub in Yorkshire and the North East.
All Sheffield Festival of Social Sciences events are free of charge and the varied programme means that there is something for everyone wherever your interests lie. For full details of all Sheffield Festival of Social Science events, visit the website here.
The Sheffield Institute for Policy Studies 