The Faculty of Humanities, Researcher Development Team have launched an exciting new programme of activities to encourage and enable early career researchers in the Humanities to engage new audiences in their research.

First up, Humanitas Brew gives an opportunity for the public to hear about research on humanities-related topics and directly interact, discuss and provide feedback to researchers over a coffee or a beer transforming what has usually being regarded as something that takes place on campus and among academics into a new leisure activity. Venues for the Humanitas Brew events are carefully chosen to ensure that the research presented is relevant to the audience members’ lives and interests. Researchers are also free to present in their own native language to reach out to a wider range of communities. The first event took place on Saturday 17 August at the Molly House in the Gay Village with postgraduate researchers Jaime Garcia-Iglesias and Jessica Mancuso presenting on timely and thought-provoking topics.

And what did the presenting researchers think? Jaime said, “The Humanitas Brew launch event has been a highlight of my PhD. It gave me the opportunity to share my research with the public and really think about how to make my work accessible and share impact of my project. In addition, it also gave me the opportunity to establish connections with non-higher-education institutions that are very valuable for my future.”

Find out more about how the Humanitas Brew event unfolded here.

Secondly, the All FM Spanish Radio Show, with Cecilia Ramos welcomes all Spanish speaking early researchers to talk about their research. This is a great opportunity for the research carried out in the faculty to reach the growing Spanish speaking community in Manchester. The programme has an average of 14,000 listeners.

In July, research fellow in criminology, David Buil Gil, spoke with Cecilia about crime in Manchester and in August, Jaime García-Iglesias talked about the Spanish-speaking community in Manchester and HIV.

Other forthcoming initiatives include:

• Got a Minute? which encourages researchers to produce a one minute video about their research to engage with the public via social media channels, raise their professional profile and increase online presence.
• Not Safe for Publication, a podcast series launched a year ago and run by Humanities students. So far, they have produced 16 podcasts and welcome all Humanities early career researchers to become guest speakers. This is a great opportunity to reach wider audiences.

For more information about the Humanities Public Engagement Programme for early career researchers, visit here or get in touch with Hellen Parra Flórez (hellen.parraflorez@manchester.ac.uk)