The Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Education at Canterbury Christ Church hosts expertise across the full human experience and creativity, with subject knowledge in different subjects and disciplines ranging from Archaeology to Visual Communication. This two day festival celebrates our rich contribution to heritage, faith, creativity and culture with a wide range of activities, aimed at diverse audiences. Academic staff and students will offer engaging, lively and inspiring sessions that showcase the work we do at the university.

Events on Friday 21^st October

On Friday 21^st October we will be hosting several public talks. All are free to attend. Simply click on the relevant button to be taken through to a booking page. 

Postgraduate Poster Session

Verena Holmes Building

An all day event which takes the form of an exhibition of posters, showcasing our postgraduate research students' work.

Walk the University Labyrinth

12:30pm, outside the Verena Holmes Building

Explore the university’s turf labyrinth, sited in the Priory gardens. In an informal introduction to labyrinth walking, we will explore the potential uses of the space, including creative thinking,reflection and wellbeing. Bring a notebook in case inspiration strikes!  

Animating a Rube Goldberg machine

1pm, Daphne Oram, DO.0.26

The workshop will include a basic look at Adobe Animate and animation principles to allow visitors to animate a basic Rube Goldberg machine. Visitors will be introduced to the work of Rube Goldberg and discover how he influenced creative ideas of many animations and films over the years. By the end of the session, visitors will have animated a simple Rube Goldberg machine and exported this as an animated gif.

What can we learn from history about being homeless?

4:00-5:00pm, Verena Holmes Building, VH.0.04

In this talk and the accompanying workshop, Dr Hitchcock will explore the historical experiences of begging and vagrancy across more than three centuries. Together we will look at how the image of "rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars" disguised the harsher realities of mobile poverty, and talk about what the poorest did to survive, and sometimes even to thrive, in an uncertain world of strangers. Britain developed an early example of a welfare state, but did it reliably help the very poorest? What constituted "social justice" for vagrants, and did wealthier Britons pursue it? Come along to this session for some answers.

Us in the World

5:00-6:00pm, Verena Holmes Building, VH.1.07

This event is a truly international celebration of language, poetry, dance and theatre. In the main part of the programme, those attending are invited to read a poem from anywhere in the world, in any language, and if the poem is not in English, read a translation. The event celebrates diversity and peaceful coexistence. As Mahmoud Darwish said, “Poetry and beauty are always making peace. When you read something beautiful you find coexistence; it breaks walls down”.All welcome.

The Prime Minister and the Professor

6:00-7:00pm, Verena Holmes Building, VH.0.04

In this talk, Professor Kevin Ruane (author of Churchill and the Bomb, a BBC History “Book of the Year”), explores the relationship between Winston Churchill and the Oxford scientist F. A.Lindemann, known almost universally as the “Prof”. For over thirty years, from the 1920s to the 1950s, the Prof was amongst the very closest of Churchill’s personal friends as well as his scientific advisor as Prime Minister during the Second World War and later in the early Cold War. In that key advisory role, and taking advantage of his intimate association with Churchill, Lindemann arguably exercised more influence over government than any scientist before or since– an influence that was both positive and, some areas, highly controversial and even dangerous.