Edge Hill Uni hosts Festival of Ideas

Edge Hill University’s second annual Festival of Ideas returns this month, exploring a theme of ‘Identity and Belonging’ through its programme of debates, talks, films, exhibitions, round-tables and performances.Highlights include a poetry evening with Roger McGough soundtracked live by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s Ensemble 10/10,  The Festival of Ideas draws on academic strands within the University’s three research institutes, The Institute for Creative Enterprise (ICE), The Institute for Public Policy and Professional Practice (I4P) and The Postgraduate Medical Institute (PGMI).It will cover a diverse mix of subjects, spanning health and wellbeing, psychology, public and social policy and race and gender identity.  For theatre and performance lovers, the festival will feature film screenings of A Quiet Passion by acclaimed Liverpool filmmaker Terence Davies, and In Flux: The Queering of Race and Gender by filmmaker and Edge Hill senior lecturer Rosa Fong.There will be recordings of two plays by Edge Hill Performing Arts academics and students: They Shoot Dogs, which explores post traumatic stress disorder, and Sowing Seeds, performed at a community farm near to Edge Hill, to promote sustainability.  The performance programme will include Exclaim!, a showcase of creative student work, Cartref from Theatr Gadair Ddu, a new theatre company based in Liverpool and Rhuthun, Wales, which focuses on the experiences of the Liverpool Welsh community during the interwar period; and Edge Hill alumna, TV’s Phina Oruche exploring identity struggles in her own one-woman show. Exhibitions include Zahir Rafiq’s British Contemporary Islamic Art which explores the theme of British Muslim identity by expressing traditional Islamic motifs through Western art styles, and In Context which brings together Jigsaw, a collective of four artists from India and the UK who work in a jumble of genres; drawings, prints, archives, collages, poems and texts. Professor George Talbot, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) & Dean of Arts & Sciences said: “The Festival is a response to public discussions about, and intellectual speculation on, what makes us who we are. It is a platform for communication, aiming to inspire innovation and cross-disciplinary collaboration within and between people engaged in healthcare, policy-making, the arts, and the wider public audience.” The full Festival of Ideas programme and booking details can be found here.