Summer Showcase 2025 Schools' and Colleges' Day

The British Academy’s free festival of ideas returns on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 June. Through interactive exhibits and workshops, inspiring performances and screenings, and thought-provoking talks, our funded researchers will share their innovative social sciences and humanities research that is shaping the society we live in – and informing the one we want to create.

On Friday 20 June, 9am-1pm, our Schools’ and Colleges' Day will encourage students (age 14+) to explore subjects beyond the curriculum and engage with each exhibit and to ask questions of researchers which we hope will expand their thinking about what to study in the future, or what unexpected career prospects they may lead to.

Come along, try something new, and be inspired to think differently about the world around you.

Eight interactive exhibits will bring to life the latest research shaping the world today, and students will see them before they open to the public. A series of interactive workshops will engage students' creativity, engage their questions about future study, and offer insights into the unexpected career prospects they may find.

These exhibits will take students back to an ancient Roman laundry, through the Great Plague of 1665-6, across the fashion of 1800s ballrooms, around an iconic Birmingham bus route and into the soundscape and lights of Antarctica’s Aurora Australis. Learn to make your own comic, navigate gender inequality in sport, and sample the evocative tastes of UK-Chinese food. Our digital exhibits will explore the clothing of Muslim men at Jummah (Friday prayers), as well as a VR reimagining of a baroque chapel.

Workshops will engage students with issues from the world around us, such as species extinction and natural history, while creative writing activities will have them noticing the beauty in the every day and celebrating the life of the late Benjamin Zephaniah Hon FBA.

• It's free to attend.
• Be the first schools and colleges to step inside our Grade-I listed, Nash-designed building following its £10m transformation of our lower-ground floors into three new event spaces.
• An opportunity for students to meet with researchers working at various career stages, to discuss their funded work, and gain insight and advice on further study and work options.
• Travel bursaries are available for state schools and colleges based outside London and for those unable to travel via public transport (application at point of booking). London schools can apply to TFL for free/discounted travel.
• Offers insights into a wide range of social sciences and humanities subjects, including plenty beyond the KS3 and KS4 curriculum. Subjects in this year's programme include: Creative Writing; History, Classics, and Archaeology; Marketing, Enterprise and Tourism; Geography, Classical Studies, Architecture; Media, Culture, and Creative Industries; and Modern British History.

“Lots of it was so interactive 😊” — (School student)

“Our students had an amazing experience – particular highlights [was] the workshop What Are the Humanities (and Where Can They Take You?)” — (Teacher)

“I never really knew what researchers did before. So, the main thing has been learning about that. That it’s an actual job, being able to do something you are really, really interested in and passionate about” — (School student)

“Just visiting [10-11 Carlton House Terrace] is a unique experience for [the students]. Online just wouldn’t give them the same life experience” — (Teacher)