Haunting the Archives

This free event is part of Being Human Festival, the UK’s national festival of the humanities, taking place 7–16 November 2024.

Being Human is led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, with generous support from Research England, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. For further information please see the Being Human Festival website here; or the full list of Being Human: Bath events here

Haunting the Archives engages and empowers young people in the process of history making. Inspired by the metaphor and the practice of ‘haunting’, it invites us to think differently about history, to ask which stories are told, which are obscured, who is given permission to tell them, and how we might re-shape them collectively.

Young people will learn how to excavate stories hidden in historical archives of Bath heritage sites, led by their own interests in uncovering hidden human and natural histories. Inspired by the stories they uncover, Haunting the Archives supports young people to devise creative practice to bring the histories they have uncovered to life, for example writing diary entries of people depicted or excluded in portraiture and photography; writing letters between different historical actors to empathise with their lived experiences; or creating collage from reproduced archival text and images to explore connections, entanglements, and intersectional histories.

This event is aimed at 14-18 year olds.

Tickets are FREE and must be booked in advance here.

The Being Human: Bath accessibility guide can be downloaded here.

Image credit: Adobe Creative Stock