Events

Booking for these events is now available.

  • Historical walking tours

    Walking tour, Monday to Friday, 1 to 2 pm

    A week of hour-long lunchtime walks on different aspects of Bristol's history.

Monday 16 November

  • Are we human or are we cyborg?

    Lecture, 6 pm

    This interactive discussion and analysis of cyborg stories and images both ancient and modern will explore what they tell us about being human and will try to answer the question ‘Are we human or are we cyborg?

  • Breathing and breathlessness

    Discussion, 7.30 pm

    As part of the InsideArts festival of the arts and humanities, and under the umbrella of the national Being Human festival, core staff from the Life of Breath project offer an evening examining breathing and breathlessness.

  • Brithop: Regional rap in post-colonial Britain

    Lecture, 8 pm

    This talk by music lecturer and hip-hop scholar Justin Williams aims to survey hip-hop in post-colonial Britain with numerous examples to explore the state of the United Kingdom through some of its most artistically articulate voices.

Tuesday 17 November

  • What do we owe climate change refugees?

    Discussion, 12.30 pm

    Professor Chris Bertram and Dr Megan Blomfield (Philosophy, University of Bristol) talk about the ethics of what we owe to people who are displaced from their home countries by the effects of climate change, followed by open discussion.

  • ‌Recital of pre-Renaissance music: The clavisimbalum project

    Music concert, 4.30 pm

    David Catalunya will perform a short concert on the hammered clavisimbalum, his most recent and innovative project, and discuss with his audience the research that brought it into being.

  • John Constable, the ‘natural painter’?

    Lecture, 6 pm

    The recent purchase by Tate Britain of Constable’s great painting, Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows (1831) provides an opportunity to look anew at Constable’s landscape art.

Wednesday 18 November

  • Lunchtime music concert

    Music concert, 1.15 pm

    A varied programme, with music from Bill Wheelman’s Riverdance to Pirates of the Caribbean played by the University of Bristol Brass Band.

  • Meek's Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, 2010)

    Screening and discussion, 5 pm

    The film will be discussed in relation to the contemporary state of the Western genre and how it has been used and understood in recent years, as a particular intervention into the genre by a distinctive female filmmaker, and in relation to a number of other historical and cultural contexts.

  • Snapshots: Does every picture tell a story?

    Lecture and discussion, 6 pm

    This InsideArts event thinks about the historical value of family photographs and amateur photography.

  • Buddhism, mindfulness and Being Human

    Panel discussion, 5 pm

    A panel discussion on the techniques of mindfulness, in both their traditional Buddhist and modern secular forms.

  • A Buddhist cosmology in food

    Film screening and discussion, 6.30 pm

    This series of short documentaries looks at the world through the eyes of the Buddhist food makers of South and Southeast Asia.

  • Being at sea

    Lecture, 6 pm

    A series of short talks by two literature specialists, a poet and an ocean rower, on how the experience of being ‘at sea’ is imagined and recorded.

Thursday 19 November

  • Why languages matter

    Talk, 1 pm

    In an age that is frequently defined as post-national and mobile, it is surprising that fewer students are drawn towards the study of Modern Languages within the UK. The talk addresses this question by examining the relevance of the study of languages and cultures in a world increasingly defined by the pace of globalization.

  • Immersive cinema event

    Immersive cinema event, 2 pm

    This immersive cinema event shows two short films Ours and The Soft Side of Heavy in an atmospheric world. It provides a personalised cinematic journey for everyone.

  • Leafing through Renaissance Italy

    Workshop, 5 pm

    The Special Collections of the University Library hold a wealth of rare books printed in Italy during the Renaissance, ranging from the great works of literary giants, such as Dante and Ariosto, to medical treatises and technical manuals.

  • 'Ocean Hell’: the rise and fall of Norfolk Island, the Azkaban of the British Empire

    Lecture, 6 pm

    Throughout the nineteenth century, Norfolk Island was regarded with horror as simply the worst place on earth. This talk will explore western ideas about prisons and prison reform and suggest reasons for the collapse of attempts to use religion to cure criminals.

  • The Quipu Project

    Lecture, 7 pm

    The Quipu Project is a transmedia documentary project (a partnership between the University of Bristol and Chaka Studio) which makes visible the stories of 300,000 women and 20,000 men who were sterilised in Peru in the mid-1990s. This event will consists of the presentation of some of the testimonies, and discussion of the issues they raise within their historical, political and global contexts.

  • Moving people: Perspectives on Bristol, slavery and migration (African Connections)

    Panel discussion, 6.30 pm

    In African Connections, we want to ask what debates about slavery might mean for migrant communities in Bristol today, and how we might take the interwoven legacies of slavery, colonialism and migration forward to think about the issues affecting our city in the contemporary period.

Friday 20 November

  • Music concert by the University Singers

    Music concert, 1.15 pm

    The University Singers perform Mozart's Missa Solemnis in C, K337 and motets by Brahms and Bruckner.

  • Rome, Open City

    Film screening, 8 pm

    This screening will be of a new print and will be followed by a discussion of the legacy and meaning of the film with Italian cinema expert Catherine O'Rawe (University of Bristol), leading Resistance historian Phil Cooke (Strathclyde) and historian of contemporary Italy and memory John Foot (University of Bristol).

  • Choreography for theatre: Some experiments

    Performance, 8 pm

    An evening of ambitious student works by the University of Bristol's second year Choreography for Theatre students.

Saturday 21 November

  • Archaeology in action

    Archaeology symposium, 10 am

    A one-day event exploring the exciting research and discoveries made by archaeologists in Bristol. Speakers from Bristol Museums and the University of Bristol will present their latest projects and share their experiences of archaeology in action.

  • Choreography for theatre: Some experiments

    Performance, 2 pm

    An afternoon of ambitious student works by the University of Bristol's second year Choreography for Theatre students.

  • Fanon in Bristol (African Connections)

    Screening and discussion, 3 pm

    Join us for an evening of film and discussion based around the teachings of Frantz Fanon. Fanon, a forefather of contemporary black liberation movements, wrote extensively on the psychological, political and ethical urgencies of black identity in a white world.

Sunday 22 November

  • Poetry workshop (African Connections)

    Poetry workshop, 12 pm

    Join us for a free poetry workshop, focusing on Bristol’s BME communities. Acclaimed local poets Edson Burton and Miles Chambers will lead participants through their own poetic works and voice.

InsideArts exhibitions

The way we watched

This exhibition is informed by conceptual work in the field of television and memory in order to explore how individuals remember past television programmes, particularly those that date from the heyday of collective viewing that is often associated with light entertainment.

A trading journey

Inspired by the themes that emerged from the 34,000 images digitised by ‘Historical Photographs of China’, photographer Alejandro Acin has been photographing some of the most important markets in Guangzhou, creating a visual narrative based on the routine trading activities of market traders and their relations with their environment.

School of Modern Languages photographs

This exhibition will take place at the Students' Union from Monday 16 to Friday 20 November.

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