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The which this year celebrates its 20^th anniversary, is an annual celebration of research and knowledge about humans, with events free and most open to everyone.

Dr Corinna Patterson of Bangor University’s School of History, Law and Social Sciences explains, “With 'My Local Area' as the festival’s theme, both institutions felt this was the perfect opportunity to showcase the best of Welsh academic contributions within the social sciences, in areas such as history, law, the economy, Welsh society and the Welsh language. It’s also an opportunity to showcase the amount of collaboration taking place across Wales, and a number of these events will take place in both Bangor and Cardiff.

The festival will kick off in Bangor by celebrating diversity in our Welsh communities at the launch event 'Celebrating Heroes and Sheroes' run by Race Council Cymru. Another event will explore how folklore and tales can play a part in Law in 'Tales, Trials and Environmental Justice: Accessing Law Through Storytelling'.

At Pontio, Bangor University’s Arts and Innovation Centre, an art exhibition will reflect and comment on the demise of the Welfare State and social inequalities, and a showing of the operatic monodrama Bhekizizwe, an operatic monodrama by Mkhululi Mabija (librettist) and Robert Fokkens (composer), produced by Opera’r Ddraig will facilitate a discussion around immigration, diversity and racism.  Walking tours will explore Bangor’s Jewish history, whilst an introduction to an interactive website with data on your local area aims to help us understand Welsh Places. A ‘zine’ workshop will see academics, artists, activists and students join together to explore the history of Welsh wool and its links to transatlantic slavery.

The significant role of SMEs in the UK economy will be discussed by Dr Mahshid Bagheri and Dr Siwan Mitchelmore from Bangor University Business School, and other events will highlight how sociology is being taught in Welsh at A level using cartoons, how Universal Basic Income could be a potential solution to climate change, or why not come along to spend the evening playing a new board game at Bangor University’s Teras cafe, designed to spark conversations about public services, public spending choices, and policies for building prosperous, resilient, and globally responsible societies? 

Professor Andrew Edwards, Pro Vice-Chancellor for civic engagement said, “The festival, which involves many local partners, hopes to explore current social issues and demonstrate how central the social sciences are in understanding our society and in finding ways to make our society stronger and healthier.

"This is a great opportunity to share with the public, young and old, how interesting, innovative and relevant social science research is to all our lives and our society – there are so many wonderful events happening in this festival – so do please join us!”

To view the full programme visit: /esrc/esrc-festival-of-social-sciences