Past Events
Our programme in recent years has featured several public-facing events designed to engage non-specialist audiences with current research in Classics. Highlights have included an event asking ‘Why Do We Need Monsters?’ which led to a whole series of spin-off activities, including Making Monsters, a published volume of creative writing and accessible academic essays edited by Emma Bridges and Djibril al-Ayad. You can read more about the research behind the event here.
Our Ancient Magic Halloween event brought together researchers, writers, and a public audience of around 140 people for a closer look at magical beliefs and practices in the ancient world and today. We have also hosted events showcasing the work of creative practitioners who are inspired by the ancient world, such as this ‘in conversation’ evening with Barefaced Greek.
In recent years the ICS has also worked in partnership with the Being Human festival of humanities research, led by our School of Advanced Study colleagues. For the 2018 festival we delivered (at St. Margaret’s House in Bethnal Green) Weaving Women’s Stories, a series of creative events looking at the connections between textile-making and storytelling in women’s lives in the ancient world; and in in 2019 we partnered with the Little Angel Theatre in Islington for Making Medusa, a family-friendly puppet-making event.
Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor, the ICS had available for 2020 only two awards to celebrate and support outstanding public engagement work in classics (broadly defined). The awards were open to individuals based in the UK who have delivered a public engagement project which aims to share their own research with non-specialist audiences.
A podcast of the 2020 Public Engagement Awards Event held on 10 September 2020 is available via the link below