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Published: 23 May 2019

Festival of Research 2019

Over 200 guests and internal delegates participated in the third annual Festival of Research, hosted by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University on January 24 2019, to celebrate the fantastic research taking place in the arts, humanities and social sciences at Surrey.

The Festival was well attended by staff and students from across the Faculty鈥檚 nine schools and departments and the wider university. Also in attendance were distinguished visitors from business, public bodies and the local community, including the Deputy Mayor, Councillor Richard Billington, and Deputy Mayoress, Lynda Billington.    

The Festival included an exciting mix of discussion panels and presentations, designed to showcase the innovative interdisciplinary research at Surrey within the Faculty.

A new addition to the Festival this year, were two showcase presentations namely 鈥楰ey Research Methodologies Transferable across Disciplines鈥 and 鈥楻esearch Grant Success Stories鈥. Researchers also presented highlights of their current research in two themed discussion panels 鈥 鈥楢spects of Wellbeing and Ill-Health鈥, and 鈥楤eing Human in a Technological Age鈥.  These generated interesting discourse between the panellists and sparked thought-provoking questions from the audience. 

We were delighted to welcome Professor Diane Watt, Professor of Medieval English Literature, from the School of Literature and Languages to deliver this year鈥檚 public lecture entitled 鈥楾he Dark Ages of Female Imagination鈥 which received a fantastic response.

Two lunchtime demonstrations were held by researchers in the Department of Music and Media; Kirk Woolford and Professor Tony Myatt did a virtual reality demonstration on their 鈥楴ext Generation Immersive Experiences鈥 project; and David Frohlich conducted a demonstration on 鈥楢ugmented Book and Sentimental Audio Memories System鈥, co-delivered with Caroline Scarles from the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, which is part of his 鈥楴ext Generation Paper鈥 project.

鈥淎 thoroughly worthwhile, thought-provoking and interesting day.鈥

In addition, a staff research exhibition and a Faculty postgraduate researchers鈥 poster competition allowed staff and students to display their research, with Professor David Sampson, the University鈥檚 Vice-Provost for Research and Innovation, presenting this year鈥檚 postgraduate research student winner, Gloria Crabolu with her prize. 

There was plenty of opportunity for delegates to network and connect with colleagues across different disciplines throughout the day, igniting ideas for collaboration. 

Since the Festival, we have been collating feedback from attendees which has been extremely positive. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to share their thoughts on the day.

鈥淕ood to see efforts to build connections across the Faculty - the diversity of presentations were applicable way beyond the Faculty鈥.
 
鈥淎 truly university-level festival!鈥

The Faculty鈥檚 research team would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone involved in this year鈥檚 Festival. We hope to see you next year!

If you have any feedback or would like to get involved with next year's event, please contact fassresearch@surrey.ac.uk.

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