The British Academy Ideas Festival - Saturday

SHAPE Room | 12:30 – 13:15

Professor Ian Apperly FBA, Lou Chandler, Dr Gavin Stewart

Chair: Hayley Clarke

As more people identify as neurodivergent, understandings of ADHD and autism are shifting fast. This panel brings clinical research and lived experience into one conversation, examining how ideas of neurodiversity are evolving socially and culturally – and what that means for building environments that genuinely support inclusion, agency and belonging.

SHAPE Room | 13:30 – 14:15

Winner of the 2025 British Academy Book Prize, Professor Sunil Amrith joins British Academy CEO Hetan Shah for a wide‑ranging conversation on history, climate and global inequality. Drawing on ‘The Burning Earth: An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years’, this discussion explores how the past can sharpen our understanding of today’s climate crisis – and why research is crucial in shaping public debate.

SHAPE Room | 15:30 – 16:15

Dr Thomas Feretti, Professor Damian Grimshaw, Sarah O’Connor

Chair: Manjiri Kulkarni Carey

AI is rapidly reshaping everyday life – from how we study and work to how we communicate and create. This panel cuts into what that shift means, tracking how skills, roles and workplace cultures are being rewritten. Put your questions to our expert panel as we explore what must be protected, challenged and redesigned to keep creativity, autonomy and humanity alive in the age of AI.

SHAPE Room | 16:30 – 17:00

John Bernard and Dr Karen Simecek

John Bernard performs spoken‑word poetry shaped by personal experience and the social realities facing young people in Coventry today. Introduced by Dr Karen Simecek, the performance connects creative expression with funded research to empower young voices.

Radhakrishnan Room | 12:00 – 12:45 and 16:00 – 16:45

Dr Catalin Brylla and Professor Anica Zeyen

Can digital media become a powerful tool for connection, confidence and inclusion? Co‑created with blind and visually impaired people, in this hands-on workshop you’ll make accessible videos, audio stories and visual content. Test how digital storytelling can disrupt exclusion, build community and express identity and belonging.

British Academy / Leverhulme Small Research Grant

Radhakrishnan Room | 13:15 – 14:00

Dr Razia Sultanova

Experience this immersive session bringing women’s devotional practices from the Balkans into focus through sound, space and everyday ritual. Set within recreated domestic settings, it centres recitings of the Qur’an, women’s singing and shared musical practice, alongside photographs, manuscripts and familiar objects. Through embodied listening and collective call‑and‑response, the session foregrounds how religious knowledge is lived, sustained and passed on through community.

British Academy / Leverhulme Small Research Grant

SHAPE Room | 14:30 – 15:15

Dr Anita Sethi

Tap into the energy of the Summer Solstice in this creative writing workshop, using the changing of the seasons as a backdrop for exploring identity, place and belonging. Through shared prompts and playful experimentation, bring your own experiences into a conversation with the natural world at its brightest moment.

British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (celebrating 40 years of British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships)

Radhakrishnan Room | 14.30 – 15.30

Dr Marilina Cesario, Dr Xiaojun Luo, Dr Jamie McPhie

Across disciplines and histories, trace the strange and revealing moments where interpretation slips. In this interactive event, explore how skies become dragons, images tell different stories depending on who’s looking, and algorithms misread the very people they are built to serve. Join this active group discussion, sharing your own reflections on where meaning goes astray.

No. 11 Lobby I 11:00 – 17:00

Dr Clelia Clini

This drop‑in activity spotlights how British Sikh artists responded to the 2020-21 Indian farmers’ protest, one of the largest social movements in India since Independence. Through placard‑making and visual expression, explore how art becomes a tool for solidarity, protest and identity – and how the legacies of empire still shape political engagement in the UK today.

British Academy / Leverhulme Small Research Grant

No. 11 Lobby I 11:00 – 17:00

Uncover BIRI’s global work to protect cultural heritage and spark international collaboration. With nine institutes spanning the Mediterranean, Black Sea and southern Europe, north and eastern Africa, Turkey, the Middle East, Iran and Central Asia, discover powerful connections, untold stories and extraordinary archives from across the world.

Wohl Gallery I 11:00 – 17:00

Drop into a café designed for curious minds: meet new people and discuss the ideas that have sparked your mind at the Festival. Share perspectives, explore new thinking, and leave with fresh insights from the community.

Lecture Room I 11:00 – 17:00

Professor William A. Callahan

How do societies decide who belongs? Moving from the Tang dynasty in China to today’s culture of social media and cosmetic surgery, this short film shows how something as small as a nose can shape ideas of difference, status and power.

British Academy Global Convening Programme, Knowledge Translation Grant

Lecture Room I 11:00 – 17:00

Professor Sandra Sequeira

What happens when movement becomes survival? This short film looks at how conflict, climate shocks and insecurity are reshaping lives across Sub‑Saharan Africa – transforming communities, livelihoods and ideas of belonging. Explore what integration can look like in fragile contexts – and what these shifts mean for the continent’s future.

British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship

Waiting Room I 11:00 – 17:00

Dr Argenis Ramirez Gomez

What happens when technology is deliberately made to feel unsettling? Working with speculative design and imagination, you’ll create fictional “creepy” devices from the future, using them as tools to reflect on what ethical, responsible and humane technology should – and shouldn’t – look like.

British Academy / Leverhulme Small Research Grant

Gallery I 11:00 – 17:00

Dr Ruth Woods

How are beliefs formed, challenged and changed through everyday encounters with different viewpoints? Grounded in experiences in contemporary Britain, our researchers ask visitors to share the moments and relationships that have shaped their own belief journeys.

British Academy / Leverhulme Small Research Grant

Gallery I 11:00 – 17:00

Fatima Rezai

What is involved in the everyday, often invisible, labour of caring for ourselves and others? And how do people adapt, reorganise routines and make decisions when plans are disrupted? Reflect on how care shapes daily life – and why recognising it matters for building more supportive social systems.

UK Young Academy

Library I 11:45 – 11:55

Professor Ian Apperly FBA discusses how we work out what other people are thinking – and why that matters for empathy. Drawing on cognitive research into “mind‑reading”, look at how we infer others’ thoughts in everyday life, and what this reveals about our emotional connections and social interactions.

Library I 13:45 – 13:55

Dr Natasha Robinson explores how histories of apartheid, protest and solidarity are embedded in London’s streets. By tracing sites linked to the UK’s Anti‑Apartheid Movement, learn how marginalised histories in public spaces can shape identity, belonging and civic engagement today.

Library I 14:45 – 14:55

Professor Shadreck Chirikure FBA brings the past into sharp focus, showing how ancient societies managed resources, adapted to environmental change and balanced sustainability with growth. As we face environmental crisis, what can past successes and failures teach us today?

Library I 15:35– 15:45

Professor Sir Jonathan Bate FBA turns attention to Hamnet Shakespeare – the son whose death cast a long shadow over William Shakespeare’s life and work. Drawing on literary history, biography and close reading, the talk probes what can – and can’t – be known about the real Hamnet, opening fresh perspectives on grief, creativity and how lived experience feeds artistic imagination.

Library I 16:15 – 16:25

Dr Antonino Di Raimo asks ‘What if your body remembers more than your mind can explain?’ Using creative, community-driven methods to explore how everyday spaces shape the way we feel, move and exist. Rethink body mapping through the lens of the built environment and open fresh ways to understand the connection between place, experience and identity.

Meeting point: Waiting Room I 11.30 – 13:00

Please note this is an offsite walking tour

Dr Natasha Robinson

London comes to life in this off-site walking tour, where streets tell stories of migration, resistance, and solidarity. Moving through key sites linked to the UK’s Anti‑Apartheid Movement – from Trafalgar Square to Parliament Square – the tour connects political history to the present moment, showing ways marginalised histories can shape identity, belonging and civic engagement today.

British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (celebrating 40 years of British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships)

Meeting point: Waiting Room I 13:30, 14:45, 16:00

Discover the extensive art collection and historic architecture of 10–11 Carlton House Terrace on a guided tour with Academy experts.