The 2023 Festival of Social Science

The festival explores the world of social science, giving researchers the opportunity to share their research with non-academic audiences and to make new and long-lasting connections. It includes wide-ranging topics, from how society has shaped our local areas to behaviours that help fight climate change. This year many of the events focus on lifelong wellbeing, exploring mental and physical health at all ages and celebrating the 75th anniversary of the NHS.

The festival runs from Saturday 21 October to Friday 17 November with events across the UK, both virtually and in person, for all ages and tastes.

At the University of Salford, we have 17 events taking place as part of the festival, with a mix of in person, online and hybrid events taking place on campus, within the Salford community and across Greater Manchester. Here is a flavour of the topics you can explore; Wellbeing and Older Women at Work, The Power of Nature in Enhancing Wellbeing, Neurodiversity in the Criminal Justice System, Celebrating Communities of Kindness, Salford Photo Stories, and the Relationship between Gardening for Wellbeing and Asylum.

Our highlight event is The Barbara Project, a theatrical outreach project, which explores themes around peoples' relationships with dementia conditions and is a collaboration between University of Salford Dementia Associates and theatre maker Mark Croasdale.

Information on all the events can be found on the festival website here.

We have been working in collaboration with University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University to deliver a ‘Manchester Festival’. The Launch event for this is taking place at Manchester Museum on Wednesday 11 October between 2-4pm. If you would like to attend please register on Eventbrite here.

If any of the events sound appealing and you would like to attend you can register on Eventbrite or get in touch with the individual event organisers listed on the festival website. For general questions relating to the festival please contact Holly Flynn-Piercy (h.flynn-piercy2@salford.ac.uk) or Dan Williamson (d.williamson2@salford.ac.uk).

We encourage you to attend as many events as you can and to promote the events to your colleagues, friends, and partners. We look forward to welcoming you to what promises to be a great festival!  

Best wishes,

The Festival Team