Being Human Festival
Celebrating research with the public through the UK’s national festival of the humanities.
Funded by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) through the Arts and Humanities Research Council and British Council, Being Human is an annual festival of the humanities that takes place at a whole host of universities, presenting hundreds of free events across the UK and beyond.
In 2025, for the first time, Cardiff University and Swansea University led a collaborative festival hub with events and activities designed to amplify marginalised voices and encourage a more inclusive and equitable society.
The festival celebrated the ways in which humanities researchers inspire and enrich our everyday lives, help us to understand ourselves, our relationships with others, and the challenges we face in a changing world.
About the Festival
Each year, the festival invites researchers at universities and other research organisations to collaborate with local community and cultural partners to create exciting and engaging free events for public audiences and share ideas for mutual benefit.
Watch a short video of highlights from around the UK of Being Human 2025
The 2025 festival was delivered alongside Swansea University, and a host of community and third sector event partners, around the theme of ‘Between the Lines’ - a space of obscured histories and tacit meanings. Through creative exploration of history, society, culture, and politics, we explored traditionally sidelined stories in ways to challenge and disrupt dominant narratives.
Together, we hosted 13 events over a 10-day festival period and engaged 605 members of the public in humanities research in and around Port Talbot, Swansea and Cardiff.
2025 Festival highlights
Our festival programme drew on a range of research spanning health and wellbeing, politics, activism in disability and LGBTQ+ rights, identity and self-expression.
Our free public events included creative and storytelling workshops, guided walking tours of queer city landmarks and two exhibitions.
An immersive sound and photography installation at Chapter Arts Centre, in partnership with Wales Council of the Blind, Sight Life, and Anglia Ruskin University, shared stories of people who are blind or partially sighted and the impact this has on their lives. A dedicated workshop for mental health professionals raised awareness to improve mental health support and access to services for those living with sight loss.
The festival programme also included a creative celebration marking 30 years of the Disability Discrimination Act alongside creative workshops, led by disabled artists and researchers, to honour the activism that led to the Act, and reflect on its legacy and the progress of disability rights since 1995.
The festival offered opportunities for people to share their thoughts, ideas, and experiences, and to help shape and contribute to our impactful research.
Our free public events were aimed at a range of ages, as well as underrepresented groups.
Working with Schools
Our dedicated school engagement sessions supported the key themes and areas of learning within the curriculum in Wales.
Young people from three local secondary schools were invited to Cardiff University campus for a workshop to create awareness of political satire as a tool for engaging with politics and society, and highlight its significance as a powerful form of political dialogue. Students were supported to create their own satirical cartoons and writing that responded to political challenges of the 21st century.
Steeltown Schoolkids Exhibition showcased the voices and visions of young people from Port Talbot, created in collaboration with 200 children from local primary schools. Hosted at The Art Space, Port Talbot, the exhibition explored the town’s past, present, and imagined futures. The exhibition invited people to connect through creativity, sharing stories of play, identity, aspirations, and growing up in a steel town. Read the blog.
We supported Year 10-12 secondary school students from Ysgol Plasmawr on a guided tour by the Queer Emporium, followed by a creative workshop. Young people aged 14+, who identify as LGBTQ+ or allies, were invited to share their own Cardiff City stories and participated in visual storytelling through collages of urban and selfie photography.
"This was a great and creative day for self-expression in a warm and safe and nurturing environment" Teacher, Ysgol Plasmawr
Making a difference
Through our partnership with Swansea University, festival events succeeded in opening up research areas, collections and spaces not normally experienced by public audiences.
Being Human Festival presented an opportunity to demonstrate the power and impact of diverse and meaningful collaborations that are not only beneficial to each partnering organisation, but also to the communities that we serve in south Wales.
All our festival events engaged researchers and broader communities in making a difference. In the rapidly shifting times in which we live, our humanities research continues to inspire and enrich our everyday lives and help us to understand ourselves and our relationships with others.
Our local community projects
We use our wide range of expertise to support and deliver impactful community led projects alongside student and staff volunteers.
