Researchers and public to explore what it means to be human at national humanities festival

Published On Wed 10 Jun 2015 by Grant Hill

Frankenstein author Mary Shelley’s formative experiences in Dundee will be revisited at the UK’s national festival of the humanities later this year.

The University of Dundee will host ‘Mary Shelley’s Dundee: Re-animating a City’ as part of the Being Human 2015 festival. The festival will see events take place at 41 universities and other organisations across the UK from 12th to 22nd November.

The Dundee programme includes the production and exhibition of an original comic, theatrical adaptations and immersive film screenings that will explore Shelley’s teenage years in Dundee in the 1810s. They will also consider the ongoing impact of her best-known novel, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818) on modern writers, artists and filmmakers.

Dr Daniel Cook, Lecturer in English at the University, said, “We look forward to bringing new attention to the life and works of Mary Shelley, the mother of modern science fiction, at a time of substantial civic and creative regeneration taking place in a city that she says stirred ‘the airy flights’ of her young imagination’.”

‘Mary Shelley’s Dundee’ will champion the excellence of humanities research being undertaken in Scotland and help to demonstrate the vitality and relevance of this today. Forty-one grants have been awarded to universities and cultural organisations across the UK to participate in the 11 days of Being Human.

The grant will help the University bring together researchers and the local community to engage with the Humanities. ‘Mary Shelley’s Dundee’ will be part of a national programme of big ideas, big debates and engaging activities for all ages.

Dr Chris Murray, Senior Lecturer in English at Dundee and Director of the Scottish Centre for Comics Studies, added, “The novel Frankenstein has had a very long legacy, and has inspired many adaptations in other mediums, from theatre, to film and comics.

“The comic we are creating as part of the Being Human Festival explores Dundee’s impact on Mary Shelley. The timing of this is particularly meaningful, as it just over two hundred years since Mary Shelley left the city, and this year the University launches its new Science Fiction Masters, which will complement the innovative Masters in Comics Studies.”

Now in its second year, Being Human is supported by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and the British Academy (BA) with support from the Wellcome Trust. The festival will inform, extend and ignite contemporary thinking and imagination around the humanities.

During the inaugural festival in 2014, more than 160 free events shared the best and most challenging thinking in the humanities with audiences across the country. Extending beyond face-to-face interactions in the UK, the festival crossed borders on the web, reaching more than 2.2 million across Twitter and website visitors from around the globe.

More information is available at www.beinghumanfestival.org.

For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
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University of Dundee
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