Events Calendar

A double-bill of outstanding jazz as part of the Sounds of Denmark Festival, featuring some of the finest musicians from one of Europe’s most creative and vibrant jazz scenes.

Tonight opens with the warm, melancholic folk-influenced Nordic-jazz noir of tenor sax-led Cecilie Strange Quartet, followed by cinematically influenced, dreamy original soundscapes and trip-hop grooves from Astral Cinema.

To mark the centenary of the RRS Discovery, the exhibition will draw on material from the National Oceanography Library archive to highlight something of life on board in the 1920s.

The University's Palestine Solidarity Network and Palestine Solidarity Society invite all students and staff to join weekly Tuesday vigils in solidarity with Palestine. The vigils provide a welcoming space to discuss current events, engage in open and truthful discourse around Palestine, and empower those who feel helpless to stand together for justice and peace.

Venue: Lecture Theatre B, East Building, Winchester School of Art / Online via Teams

Speaker: Angela YT Chan, Artist in Residence

This presentation introduces Angela's work as an independent research-artist specialising in climate change through one of her longer-term projects.  

Critiquing a ‘sustainable military’ (2022-) is an artistic investigation into militarism and the colonial legacies of the climate crisis.  

By studying the UK military's net-zero goals for 2050 against the timeline of climate history, Angela's work engages with collaborators in activism, science and technology studies, and journalism.   

More about the speaker: Angela YT Chan, Artist in Residence on SOUNDSCALE with University of Southampton and Critical Infrastructures and Image Politics / CIIP, WSA. angelaytchan.net 

Material Interests

Hear from leading artists and other world-changing practitioners across the fine arts and related industries in this flagship speaker series organised by the Department of Art and Media Technology and co-sponsored by Southampton Institute for Arts and Humanities. 

Who Runs this session: Research & Innovation Services (RIS)

Who can attend:  All staff and PGR's 

This session provides an overview and starting-point for those new to Public Engagement with Research (PER).  We will explore the dynamic contexts of PER within higher education, potential purposes and publics, methods of engaging, and key considerations for planning and evaluating - taking a life-cycle approach.  We will also sign-post to further support and opportunities.              

Learning Outcomes: 

By the end of this session you will be able to:

·       Define public engagement and its significance in the higher education context.

·       Appreciate the range of motivations for engaging and how these are applicable to your context.

·       Describe the public engagement lifecycle and what’s needed for high quality engagement.

·       Identify appropriate audiences/publics to engage with in your context.

·       Demonstrate knowledge of different activities/approaches that might be effective when engaging with 
        different audiences/publics.

·       Consider ways to evaluate the success of your engagement.

·       Access additional tools, resources and support.

If you have any questions relating to the session, please contact the facilitator. 
If you have any questions relating to booking on to the session, please contact CHEP@Soton.ac.uk and one of the team will assist you. 

Feel the fire of Vivaldi

Baroque brilliance returns to Turner Sims as award-winning ensemble La Serenissima light up the stage. They present a rare and thrilling programme of Vivaldi’s music for plucked and bowed strings. Joining them is Italian mandolin virtuoso Raffaele La Ragione.

Hailed by The Telegraph for ‘whipping up a storm with Vivaldi,’ La Serenissima is the UK’s leading voice in Italian baroque. Their performances are bold, fresh, and full of energy. Every note is brought to life from original manuscripts, making each concert a deep dive into musical history with a modern heartbeat.

Founded in 1994 by violinist Adrian Chandler, the group has racked up Gramophone Awards, chart-topping albums, and millions of streams. Their recordings are regulars on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM, and beyond.

Named after Venice – Vivaldi’s magical hometown of canals and creativity – La Serenissima is on a mission to share the Red Priest’s genius with the world.

Don’t miss this electrifying celebration of Vivaldi’s legacy.

Undergraduate Open Day will be taking place across our Southampton and Winchester campuses including Highfield, Boldrewood, Avenue, NOCS and WSA. Prospective students and their guests are invited onto campus to come and experience what University of Southampton has to offer, with a full programme of talks, tours and other activities for them to explore. We'll be welcoming around 6000 guests onto campus!

For more information please contact randcevents@soton.ac.uk

Students and alumni, if you’re looking for opportunities with global or national recruiters, SMEs, third sector or charity organisations, the All-Sector Autumn Careers Fair will offer you a vibrant mix of employers to discover. Make sure you book to attend so you don’t miss out!

Why Attend?

• Explore opportunities: Discover a variety of work experience vacancies and graduate roles.
• Network: An invaluable opportunity to connect with employers and find out more about company culture, learning and development opportunities and gain an insight into available roles

This event will be taking place in Garden Court, Building 40. To receive reminder emails, updates, exhibitor information and more, book onto the event via MyCareer.  

The Successful Futures Pathway supports students to reflect on their career ideas and plan how they are going to develop their skills within and outside of their curriculum while at university. 

This session is specifically for Personal Academic Tutors who are important part of the process. The session will provide PATS with an introduction to the Successful Futures Pathway and provides the information they need to have meaningful conversations with students about the pathway.

PATS are requested to talk to students about the Successful Futures Pathway in an early PAT meeting so that students have as long as possible to take action to develop skills they need for their career idea.

Educational Aims:

• Raise your awareness of the Successful Futures Pathway, the Southampton Skills Model, and curriculum skills mapping
• Develop your understanding of how you can use the Successful Futures Pathway to support your PAT sessions and conversations
• Provide you with the means to signpost students to the Careers, Employability and Student Enterprise Service

Much loved Yorkshire folk duo, Belinda O’Hooley & Heidi Tidow, have made the momentous decision to say farewell for now to explore other adventures that are beckoning to them.

To help their incredibly loving and loyal audiences process this news, they are embarking upon one last tour of all their favourite venues from over the years.

They have been performing together for 15 years, in hundreds of venues and festivals across the UK and Europe. They have recorded eight studio albums and have achieved four BBC Folk Award nominations. They are known for composing ‘Gentleman Jack’ as the BBC/HBO drama theme tune.

Belinda and Heidi’s boundless songwriting has been described by The Guardian as ‘exceptional’ and The Independent as ‘defiant, robust, northern, poetical, political folk music for the times we live in.’ Moving, melodic, dramatic and tender, from stories of parenthood, the call of a song thrush, to a portrait of the last days of a touching relationship between their neighbour Matthew and his beloved Alsatian, Ted, and even a collaboration with Gentleman Jack herself, Suranne Jones on ‘The Ballad of Anne and Ann’, they explore, consider and connect subjects and stories in a distinctive, inventive and memorable way.

Belinda and Heidi have the originality and skill to invite comparison with the most celebrated harmony duos. 6 Music’s Tom Robinson says ‘They sing together in the way families do. Normally, you only get that closeness in the voices with family bands like The Coppers or The Watersons.’

Widely acclaimed for the rare beauty of her sound and her enchanting presence on stage, Irina Kulikova has established herself as one of today’s leading guitarists.

Irina Kulikova presents an evening of sublime music for the guitar including classics by composers Sor, Mangore and Aguado.  These are interspersed with works dedicated to her by a range of composers.

Who Runs this Retreat: The CHEP Team

Who can attend: Please note that these Writing Cafes are open to all staff with academic writing tasks to complete, whatever your job family or pathway.

More about the Writing Cafes

Plan in protected time to write with one of our upcoming Writing Cafes. 

Join focused writing sessions and connect with fellow writers in a productive environment.

Whatever you are working on, these Cafes will provide structured space to write in friendly and supportive company. 

Each session has dedicated facilitators, who will help you get organised in advance, plus some short sessions throughout the day on goal setting, evaluation and planning your next steps.

Tea/Coffee & Biscuits will be available throughout the day. You will need to bring your own packed lunch. 


If you have any questions relating to the writing cafe's please email CHEP@soton.ac.uk and the team will assist you. 

This training session is designed to prepare researchers to participate in the Meet the Scientist component of  LifeLab 

The aspects covered and the skills developed will be also useful in other engagement contexts.  

This course is suitable for:

 - Academic staff
 - Research staff
 - Doctoral researchers from any discipline - Researchers (PhDs, Post docs, academic staff)
 - Technical staff from any level and any discipline - anyone who wants to find out more and become more confident in talking about their work

Further Information
You can book to attend this session via staffbook. 
if you have any queries relating to the booking process please contact: CHEP@soton.ac.uk
If you have any queries relating to the session itself please contact the event facilitator listed below

Workplace stress conversations for line managers

You know the importance of addressing workplace stress and are familiar with the workplace stress assessments having read the guidance and/or having done the training. You just need some extra tips on things to look out for when having a workplace stress conversation. 

This course will help you to:

• Know the different responses you might get when having a workplace stress conversation.
• Put in place mitigations for common challenges you may face.
• Know the skills needed for a successful workplace stress conversation.
• Know what support is available to all staff.

Important information:

• Please be in a suitable space for cameras to be on and to talk in group discussions.
• Due to the sensitivity of discussions, this training will not be recorded. This includes the use of AI meeting notes which will be removed from the session. Training materials will be sent to attendees after the session.
• Our sessions have a minimum of 8 attendees. If the session does not reach this, we will cancel and provide an alternative to those who have booked.
• We have lots of content to get through so we will use all of the time.  

Undergraduate Open Day will be taking place across our Southampton campuses including Highfield, Boldrewood, Avenue and NOCS. Prospective students and their guests are invited onto campus to come and experience what University of Southampton has to offer, with a full programme of talks, tours and other activities for them to explore. We'll be welcoming around 6000 guests onto campus!

For more information please contact randcevents@soton.ac.uk

This course provides an introduction to National Pupil Database (NPD), an administrative data resource covering the education system in England.

It is suitable to anyone intending to undertake quantitative research on the school system in England. No prior knowledge of the NPD or statistical code is required to access the course.

The course is being run by the National Centre for Research Methods, which is based in the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Find out more and register: https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/training/show.php?article=14154

Entanglement, Topological Quantum States of Matter, and the “Second Quantum Revolution” by Nobel Laureate Professor Duncan Haldane, Princeton University.

The laws of quantum mechanics were discovered during a brief period starting one hundred years ago, and have survived all challenges, but some of the unexpected things they allow are only now being discovered. In particular, the strange property of “quantum entanglement” (pointed out by Einstein, as a property of quantum mechanics he felt had to be wrong) has been experimentally validated, and is central to current attempts to build powerful “quantum computers”.   It is also central to “topological quantum states”, which some believe hold the key to scalable quantum computing.

Our Speaker: Duncan Haldane is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics at Princeton University. In 2016 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his groundbreaking contributions to condensed matter physics. He obtained his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Cambridge in 1978 and joined the Princeton faculty in 1990. In addition to the Nobel Prize, he has also won several other prestigious prizes such as the Dirac Medal and Prize of the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics and the Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Physics Prize from the American Physical Society.

To purchase your ticket (£5pp) please visit the Turners Sim website STAG Public Lecture 2025 - Turner Sims

The Engineering & Physical Sciences Autumn Careers Fair will offer a vibrant mix of employers to discover. Make sure you book to attend so you don’t miss out!

Why Attend?

• Explore opportunities: Discover a variety of work experience vacancies and graduate roles.
• Network: An invaluable opportunity to connect with employers and find out more about company culture, learning and development opportunities and gain an insight into available roles

This event will be taking place in Garden Court, Building 40. To receive reminder emails, updates, exhibitor information and more, book onto the event via MyCareer.  

This introductory workshop will explore how to design engaging formative tasks which enable students explore the appropriate use of GenAI in their studies. Examples of best practice will be shared, at varying scale, from simple online activities to seminar group activities and larger scheduled tasks which link to summative assessments.

By building GenAI competency into formative assessment tasks, participants will create opportunities to critique and discuss academic integrity and model sound practice with GenAI for their students.

This workshop will explore why formative assessment and formative feedback matters, how to scaffold tasks which are appropriate in scale and link to summative learning outcomes. Participants will end the session with a prepared formative tasks that they can implement with students.

Developing your practice on this topic aligns to Advance HE Professional Standards Framework V4 & K4.

By the end of the event, participants should be able to: 

1. Identify and apply principles of effective formative assessment design that support student engagement with GenAI tools

2. Evaluate a range of scalable formative activities that model appropriate GenAI use and link meaningfully to summative assessment outcomes.

3. Design formative tasks that scaffold GenAI competency while fostering critical discussion around academic integrity and disciplinary relevance.

4. Critically explore how formative feedback and task design can be used to build student confidence, promote reflective practice, and support the ethical integration of GenAI into academic work

British jazz pianist and composer Julian Joseph and his exciting trio perform new jazz that explores immersive soundscape technology.

Described as a revolution in the way we perceive sound, this is a must see and hear. New music has been specifically composed by Julian to show how emotion and drama can be enhanced by the immersive technology. He and his trio marry acoustic sound with digital processing capability that can be achieved on the fly; in a split second.

Recognised as one of the finest jazz musicians this side of the Atlantic, Julian has been a towering figure in jazz for over two decades. He has devoted his long career to championing music, both across the UK and into the far corners of the world.

He has forged a reputation with his formidable skills as a composer and phenomenal performer. He is a highly knowledgeable and engaging broadcaster, musical ambassador and cultural advocate.

He is joined by Alok Verma on tablas, percussion and voice, and Kaidi Akinnibi on tenor saxophone.

Tonight’s performance links to the awarding of an honorary degree from the University of Southampton which Julian Joseph receives in Summer 2025.

This year's annual F. T. Prince Memorial Lecture will feature guest speaker Mary Jean Chan. It is organised in partnership with the English Department, School of Humanities (FAH) and Winchester Poetry Festival.

More details will be added here in due course.

For more information, please contact fahevent@soton.ac.uk. 

Undergraduate Open Day will be taking place on our Winchester School of Art campus. Prospective students and their guests are invited onto campus to experience what WSA has to offer, with a full programme of talks, tours and other activities for them to explore. We'll be welcoming around 250 guests onto campus!

For more information please contact randcevents@soton.ac.uk

One of the most distinctive voices in jazz and improvised music today, Laura Jurd’s unique approach to the trumpet is celebrated in the work that she creates.

Laura’s love of folk traditions can often be heard in her music, alongside a background in classical composition, taking twists and turns that both invite surprise and evoke the inevitable.

In the past couple of years, Laura’s love of traditional music has deepened having played alongside the likes of Irish fiddle player Ultan O’Brien and English accordionist Martin Green (one third of super-group Lau). This autumn sees Laura returning to the stage, presenting her astonishing new album, ‘Rites & Revelations’ release due October 2025. The music takes the listener on a journey of ritual and catharsis, propelled by the world-class rhythm section of Ruth Goller – bass and Corrie Dick – drums, alongside strikingly brilliant folk musicians Ultan O’Brien and Martin Green.

2025 Fellowship Month 2025 kicks off at the University of Southampton on Monday 3rd November. 

This session includes a networking session with tea and coffee, where you can meet other early career researchers and RFD staff, a welcome from Ying Chen (Head of Research Funding Development), and a keynote speaker who will take you through their own fellowship journey.

This session is suitable for final-year PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, research technicians and early-career researchers. 

This short insight session is designed to provide a quick checklist for anyone setting up or reviewing any form of oral assessment. Topics will include various options for oral assessment; assessment purpose; organization and preparation; preparing students for oral assessment; student anxieties; inclusivity and anticipatory duties.

By the end of the event, participants should: 

-          Know the central issues for setting up effective oral assessment

-          Identify options for further support with oral assessment  

In person workshop 

Session repeated on 10 February

In this workshop, colleagues will work with one of their existing assignments. In the workshop, we will deconstruct the task(s) required by the summative assessment and consider activities and subsequent feedback that can be designed to develop students’ knowledge and understanding of the task. We will give some practical examples of how this has been implemented elsewhere at Southampton and offer some guidance on best practice to scaffold feedback for building student confidence in the summative assessment.

Developing your practice on this topic aligns to Advance HE Professional Standards Framework V2, K2, A3.

By the end of the event, participants should:

-          Identify the core skills and knowledge students need to demonstrate to be successful in the summative assessment

-          Understand how scaffolding of feedback and development towards the summative assessment can be applied in practice

-          Have one or more actions to implement in their teaching to help prepare students for the summative assessment

A high energy 100% jazz show for jazz fans, rock fans and everything in between.

Jazz Sabbath is a jazz trio from the UK, helmed by pianist Adam Wakeman (Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne’s solo band since 2004). They play new jazz arrangements based on Black Sabbath songs. Jazz Sabbath explores the boundaries between jazz and the songs that defined heavy metal.

They have released three albums since 2020 which all charted high in the Billboard Jazz Chart. Their music streaming count is in the millions. All three albums got special Record Store Day Mono editions, which sold out within days.

Jazz Sabbath present themselves as a jazz trio formed in 1968 and the original writers of the tracks later made famous by Black Sabbath. They have played at international jazz festivals and toured worldwide since 2022. Almost all twenty-nine shows on their 2025 EU/UK tour sold out well in advance.

Over 200.000 people watched the live stream from their show at the Leverkusen Jazz Festival in Germany and a million have since.

Join two of the most revered female singer-songwriters for an evening of unparalleled music.

Appearing together on stage for the first time, Beth and Judie perform songs such as ‘Stay With Me Till Dawn’, ‘Sand and Water’, ‘Bring The Rain’, ‘This Kiss’ and their stunning collaboration, ‘Safe’. Alongside their musicians, this is set to be a beautiful night of lyric, song and harmony.

Beth Nielsen Chapman is an American singer and songwriter who has written hits for country and pop music performers. She was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2016. She is a two-time Grammy Award and an ACM Award nominee. She won the Country Music Association Award for Song of the Year in 1999 for writing Faith Hill’s ‘This Kiss’. Judie Tzuke is an English singer-songwriter. She is best known for her 1979 hit ‘Stay with Me till Dawn’, which reached number 16 on the UK singles chart.

This exhibition will look at the Hartley Library through its five distinct phases of development from pre first world war, through the Turner Sims and Gurney Dixon work of the 1930s and 1950s and on to the 1980s and the 2000 wrap around extension.  It will include a selection of items from our Archives and Special Collections, new digital content in response to the material in the archives alongside future development ideas.

There will also be a chance to view alumni memories of the Hartley Library, part of our Hartley History Postcard collaboration with ODAR, the Office of Development and Alumni Relations.

Who Runs this Retreat: The CHEP Team

Who can attend: Please note that these Writing Cafes are open to all staff with academic writing tasks to complete, whatever your job family or pathway.

More about the Writing Cafes

Plan in protected time to write with one of our upcoming Writing Cafes. 

Join focused writing sessions and connect with fellow writers in a productive environment.

Whatever you are working on, these Cafes will provide structured space to write in friendly and supportive company. 

Each session has dedicated facilitators, who will help you get organised in advance, plus some short sessions throughout the day on goal setting, evaluation and planning your next steps.

Tea/Coffee & Biscuits will be available throughout the day. You will need to bring your own packed lunch. 

If you have any questions about the Writing Cafe, please email CHEP@soton.ac.uk and the team will assist you. 

Run by Southampton Health Technology Assessments Centre (SHTAC) - An introduction to the basic concepts of health economics evaluation.

About this course

This course provides an introduction to the basic concepts of health economics evaluation. It is for anyone who needs to understand the principles of health economics and how or when they are used in evaluating the costs and benefits of healthcare interventions and particularly for those used in the UK health service. The course is interactive and includes practical exercises. On completion of the course participants will be able to understand health economic evaluation terminology,  basic concepts and interpret aspects of a health economic evaluation. All participants receive a PDF course pack including useful tools and resources to use in health economic evaluations.
 

Who is this course for?

Anyone interested in health economics and how it is applied. Previous delegates have been:

•    principal investigators adding a health economic evaluation to their research
•    researchers
•    PhD and MSc students
•    academics
•    clinical trialists
•    health and social care workers
•    pharmaceutical employees
 

Learning outcomes

After completing this course, you will understand:

•    the basic concepts of health economics
•    how to measure health outcomes
•    how to measure costs
•    cost effectiveness analyses in decision making
•    reviewing economic evaluation
 

Course details

• 12 and 19 November 2025

• 09:00 – 13:00

• this is an online course conducted via Zoom

• 8 learning hours
   

Fees

• full time students: £150

• academic/public sector: £225

• private sector: £325

For more information and to book a place please visit our website.

Coping with stressful situations for student facing staff (Academic Staff)

This session is IN PERSON and is held on Highfield campus (Room TBC). 

An in-person workshop that covers keeping yourself well while dealing with difficult conversations and maintaining boundaries. You will learn practical tips that can be incorporated into practice and be given the opportunity to explore scenarios and identify unhelpful thinking.

This course will help you to:

• Know the boundaries and what actions to take when they are blurred.
• Recognise how different interactions impact on our thoughts, feelings and actions.
• Apply different strategies to reduce the impact.
• Know what support is available to you and students when needed.

Important information:

• Our sessions have a minimum of 8 attendees. If the session does not reach this, we will cancel and provide an alternative to those who have booked.
• We also run a version for non-academic staff, please make sure you are booked on the right one. 

Undergraduate Open Day will be taking place on our Winchester School of Art campus. Prospective students and their guests are invited onto campus to experience what WSA has to offer, with a full programme of talks, tours and other activities for them to explore. We'll be welcoming around 250 guests onto campus!

For more information please contact randcevents@soton.ac.uk

An interactive performance that blends poetry, rap, and music for a tongue-in-cheek rock show perfect for little people aged 0 to 5.

Poet and performer Arji Manuelpillai and jazz and rock guitarist Matt Smith join forces to create this unforgettable show full of energy, rhythm, and fun.

Sing along to timeless favourites like ‘Old MacDonald,’ ‘Wheels on the Bus,’ and ‘Sleeping Bunnies,’ all with a fresh, exciting twist that will have both children and grown-ups bopping along.

Fellowship Month at the University of Southampton is designed to give you the information and knowledge needed to plan and develop your next application to take your research career to the next level. 

The Funder Focus sessions are a great way to learn more about the specific schemes on offer across the research landscape, ranging from post-doc fellowships through to prestigious early career researcher opportunities.   

Hear from our Research Funding Development team about the fellowship and first grant opportunities from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Economics and Social Research Council, British Academy and Leverhulme Trust, an outline of the support available to you from central services and schools, and time to ask your questions. 

 This session is suitable for final-year PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, research technicians and early-career researchers. 

This session will be repeated on the 3rd December at Highfield Campus

Intrigued by using objects to enhance your teaching, but don’t know where to start? Want to explore simple yet effective ways of using object-based learning to bring concepts and ideas alive, as well as spark discussion and engagement? 

This lunchtime workshop introduces you to teaching with objects: it will cover the rationale for using objects in education settings, provide a hands-on experience with real artefacts to give a sense of what this approach looks and feels like, and highlight digital resources from galleries and museums around the world that can fit into your teaching practice. This introductory session will provide examples and tools that you can use immediately, as well as the foundation for deeper engagement via future workshops through CHEP if desired. No prior experience with object handling is expected or required.

By the end of this event, participants should be able to:

- Understand how objects can represent, convey, and express ideas or concepts in your field, as the basis of designing and modifying teaching activities (aligned with dimension A1 in the Professional Standards Framework 2023)

- Identify which kinds of objects might be more relevant for different topics and teaching modes as you choose approaches that are appropriate for your field (aligned with dimensions A2 and K1 of the PSF 2023)

- Know where to turn for free virtual (i.e. digitised) objects from existing galleries and museums that are relevant for your field (aligned with dimensions A5 and K4 of the PSF 2023)

- Become aware of available apps and tools for digitising your own objects, and incorporating them into your teaching practice (alighted with dimensions A5 and K4 of the PSF 2023) 

Fellowship Month at the University of Southampton includes several in-person, hands-on sessions to help support you in your fellowship journey, while providing you the opportunity to meet and network with colleagues with a similar interest in moving to the next stage of their career.   

The prestigious Future Leaders Fellowships aim to develop the most talented early career researchers across all disciplines, and the Research Funding Development team provides cohort support to our applicants each year. This session will provide an overview of the scheme and what makes a Future Leaders Fellow, a Q&A with a current Southampton FLF awardee, and an exploration of the internal expression of interest process which will open later this year.   

This session is suitable if you have at least 2+ years of postdoctoral experience. Please do not book onto this session if you do not match the criteria. 

Prepare to be transported by the extraordinary, beautiful and ethereal sounds of ice.

The ice music pioneer, Terje Isungset, returns to the UK with his quartet, featuring voice, ice harp, ice horn, iceophone, ice percussion and ice bass.

This ice concert is a tribute to the most important thing in the whole world – nature. It is based on music from Terje’s albums, ‘Winter Songs’ and ‘Beauty of Winter’, alongside new material from their ‘Ice Quartet’ album, released in November 2024.

The instruments are made during Terje’s annual Ice Music Festival in Norway. They are carved and crafted using only natural frozen ice from the lakes.

​Please join the Evaluation Community of Practice Teams channel for full information and joining instructions.

 Evaluation Community of Practice - Home

Who Runs this session: Research & Innovation Services (RIS)

Who can attend:  All staff and PGR's 

This session provides an overview and starting-point for those new to planning a Public Engagement with Research (PER) event. 

Together with our Festival Operations experts, we will explore the dynamic contexts of PER within higher education, methods and key considerations for planning engaging events, potential audiences and publics, and examples of effective evaluation. We will also sign-post to further support and opportunities.

Learning Outcomes: 

By the end of this session you will be able to:

·       Define public engagement and its significance in the higher education context.

·       Appreciate the range of motivations for planning engaging events and how these are applicable to your context.

·       Describe the public engagement lifecycle and what’s needed for high quality engagement.

·       Identify appropriate audiences/publics to engage with in your event context.

·       Demonstrate knowledge of different activities/approaches that might be effective when planning events.

·       Consider ways to evaluate the success of your engagement.

·       Access additional tools, resources and support.

If you have any questions relating to the session, please contact the facilitator. 

If you have any questions relating to booking on to the session, please contact CHEP@Soton.ac.uk and one of the team will assist you. 

Addressing workplace stress training

For all staff and managers

Stress will impact how we feel physically, emotionally and the way we process information. Without a break or recovery from it, it will impact our health long term. Stopping or reducing the causes of stress is the most effective action we can take. The sooner we take action; the sooner we prevent illness. 

At the university, we all have a responsibility to assess and manage workplace stressors. To put people at the core of what we do, it’s important that we look after our health and wellbeing at work. We also have a legal duty of care to assess and manage workplace stress, and this training will show you how. 

This course will help you to:

• Know what workplace stress is and the consequences it brings.

• Use a stress assessment to identify the causes of workplace stress and plan actions to reduce it.

• Identify ways to reduce stress and build up personal resilience.

• Know what support is available to you when you need it.

Important information:

• Please be in a suitable space for cameras to be on and to talk in group discussions.
• Due to the sensitivity of discussions, this training will not be recorded. This includes the use of AI meeting notes which will be removed from the session. Training materials will be sent to attendees after the session.
• Our sessions have a minimum of 8 attendees. If the session does not reach this, we will cancel and provide an alternative to those who have booked.
• We have lots of content to get through so we will use all of the time.  

Please note, if you attended workplace stress risk assessment, or workplace stress awareness training in 2024 you will not need to attend this as the same key messages are within this training.

Three of the UK’s most celebrated folk and jazz musicians come together to create mesmerising, lyrical music.

Three of the UK’s most creative, multi award winning musicians create music that weaves together the essence of folk and jazz.

Two time winner of the BBC Folk Awards Singer of the Year, June Tabor rose to fame in the mid ‘70’s. She has maintained a high profile career ever since, working with the likes of Maddy Prior and the Oyster Band amongst many others. Listed in the BBC’s 100 Jazz Legends, Iain Ballamy is one of the UK’s most celebrated jazz musicians and composers. Welsh pianist Huw Warren’s distinctive and enticing music has led to collaborations with Maria Pia de Vito, Mark Feldman and Erik Truffaz.

Drawing on original compositions, traditional folk songs and reclaimed standards, Quercus create a magical atmosphere. They combine June’s passionate voice with Iain’s glorious melodies and Huw’s off-kilter musicality. Together they create beautifully poignant music that tells life’s bittersweet tales.

Workplace stress conversations for line managers

You know the importance of addressing workplace stress and are familiar with the workplace stress assessments having read the guidance and/or having done the training. You just need some extra tips on things to look out for when having a workplace stress conversation. 

This course will help you to:

• Know the different responses you might get when having a workplace stress conversation.
• Put in place mitigations for common challenges you may face.
• Know the skills needed for a successful workplace stress conversation.
• Know what support is available to all staff.

Important information:

• Please be in a suitable space for cameras to be on and to talk in group discussions.
• Due to the sensitivity of discussions, this training will not be recorded. This includes the use of AI meeting notes which will be removed from the session. Training materials will be sent to attendees after the session.
• Our sessions have a minimum of 8 attendees. If the session does not reach this, we will cancel and provide an alternative to those who have booked.
• We have lots of content to get through so we will use all of the time.  

Who Runs this session: Research & Innovation Services (RIS)

Who can attend:  All staff and PGR's 

This session is delivered in collaboration with the Disability and Neurodivergence Staff Network and aims to provide an introduction to enable better understanding and consideration of the needs of people with lived experience of disability and neurodivergence when planning and delivering Public Engagement activities.

Learning Outcomes: 

This interactive and discursive session will:

• Introduce and provide opportunities to discuss some of the key socio-cultural challenges for people with lived experience

• Explore what this means for better public engagement practice for those who deliver engagement activities and those who take part in engagement activities

• Encourage greater awareness and for attendees to leave with a pledge that will further support individual practice and impact positive behaviour change.

If you have any questions relating to the session, please contact the facilitator. 

If you have any questions relating to booking on to the session, please contact CHEP@Soton.ac.uk and one of the team will assist you. 

The following session will provide participants with an introduction to supporting Autistic students at the University. 

It will include interactive case studies and discussions and will encourage participants to reflect on their roles and how they can provide better experience for Autistic students.

By the end of this event, participants should be able to:

-          Feel confident in basic understanding of Autism.

-          Be able to identify barriers some autistic students may face at university.

-          Reflect on their own practice and role at University and consider ways in which they may be able to make this more inclusive and supportive for neurodivergent students.

Session led by:

Anna McCann, Beth Lawson & Lizzie Nash (Student Disability & Inclusion)

The perfect opportunity to have some special time with your baby, connecting through music and sensory play.

Presented by Concerteenies, this relaxed concert will offer a calm and welcoming environment for you to share with your baby. Join Annabelle Lawson (piano), Meera Maharaj (flutes) and creative practitioners Polly Ives and Sarah Carroll for lullabies as we slow down and cosy up for winter. With sound-healing percussion including gongs, sansula and koshi chimes, bubbles, scarves and more!

Experience the beloved Christmas tale of redemption and goodwill through the power of cinema and sound.

The classic 1951 film Scrooge, starring the legendary Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge, is brought to life with live music. An enchanting newly orchestrated live score is performed by the three-piece FB Pocket Orchestra. Let their reimagined music and atmospheric sound effects immerse you in Scrooge’s journey with the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.

Expect exquisite musicianship, enchanting visuals, and a fresh take on Dickens’ timeless story.

About FB Pocket Orchestra

At the heart of ‘Scrooge Live’ is the FB Pocket Orchestra, a trio of highly skilled musicians who bring a fresh perspective to live performance. Celebrated for their meticulous attention to detail and creative versatility, the ensemble transforms classic works into immersive musical experiences. Their approach combines thoughtful arrangement, skilled transcription, and seamless production to deliver performances that resonate with audiences in intimate and impactful ways.

A warm evening of stunning festive music from the multi-prize-winning Connaught Brass.

Christmas is a time for tradition. This cracker of a programme romps through the exuberant final chorus of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and seasonal Tchaikovsky. Traditional tunes and baroque classics are rounded off with the seasonal favourite ‘Have yourself a merry little Christmas’.

Connaught Brass are quickly making a name for themselves as a fresh talent in the chamber music world. They have already made their debut at the Lucerne Festival and London’s Wigmore Hall. Their ability to manipulate and unify sound earned them 1st Prize in the Inaugural Philip Jones International Brass Ensemble Competition (2019) and the Royal Overseas League Mixed Ensemble Competition (2022). Vibrant, spirited and bold, Connaught Brass place emphasis on their friendship with one another to showcase their individual musical personalities within a unique collective sound.

Join us for music that gift wraps festive joy with interludes of serene reflection.

We are delighted to welcome back Cara Dillon, possessed of one of the most celebrated folk voices to have come out of Ireland, with her popular annual Christmas show ‘Upon A Winter’s Night’.

Cara and her band will once again capture the magic and mystery of Christmas with a collection of songs ancient and modern providing a welcome reminder that the festive season can be about more than just commercialism. A far cry from ‘Jingle Bells’ and ‘Santa Baby’, Cara is joined by her wonderful band who weave Celtic and folksy rhythms alongside reverent and atmospheric carols, while Cara holds the darkness at bay with the purity of her voice.

Cara occupies a position at the very top of the folk genre, with a career spanning 30 years. This extraordinary Irish singer has captivated audiences, won many awards, and achieved exceptional acclaim. Mojo magazine describes her as having ‘quite possibly the world’s most beautiful female voice’.

She remains a towering figure in the Irish folk scene, bewitching audiences and critics with her spellbinding voice. More recently, three of her songs were featured on the hit comedy ‘Derry Girls’. Her seminal 2024 release, ‘Coming Home’, was shortlisted for ‘Album of the Year’ at the 2024 NI Music Prize.

Cara invites us to step away from the noise of the season and rediscover the quiet magic at its heart – an invitation that, for many, has become an essential part of Christmas itself.

Who Runs this session: Research & Innovation Services (RIS)

Who can attend:  All staff and PGR's 

This session provides an overview and starting-point for those new to Public Engagement with Research (PER) and working with Children and Safeguarding. We will explore ideas, best practice and how to evaluate working with children to engage them with your research. We will also sign-post to further support and opportunities.

Learning Outcomes: 

By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Demonstrate knowledge of different methods to successfully engage children with science

• Demonstrate understanding of best practice when engaging with children

• Define and understand the importance of safeguarding when working with children

• Show evidence of planning realistic and achievable ways to engage with children

If you have any questions relating to the session, please contact the facilitator. 

If you have any questions relating to booking on to the session, please contact CHEP@Soton.ac.uk and one of the team will assist you. 

Afel Bocoum brings the soul of the Sahara to Turner Sims!

An unforgettable night of music as legendary Malian guitarist and songwriter Afel Bocoum brings the hypnotic rhythms of ‘desert blues’ to life.

Hailing from the town of Niafunké on the banks of the Niger River – whose other honoured son is the late, great Ali Farka Touré – Bocoum carries the torch of a rich musical legacy. He joined Touré’s band at just 13, and has since carved out his own path, blending traditional Malian sounds with blues, folk, and global influences.

His breakthrough album ‘Alkibar’ (1999) captivated audiences worldwide, and his latest release, ‘Lindé’ (2020), cemented his place among the greats of West African music. Collaborations with stars like Damon Albarn and Toumani Diabaté have only added to his global acclaim.

In this rare UK appearance, Afel Bocoum performs with his trio. They offer an intimate and powerful experience that will transport you straight to the heart of the Sahara. Don’t miss this chance to witness a true master of desert blues live on stage!

Two extraordinary artists join forces to perform one of the greatest song cycles.

Internationally renowned tenor Allan Clayton has a magnetic stage presence and and extraordinarily flexible and consistent vocal range. He is the recent winner of the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera for his role in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s new opera ‘Festen’ at Royal Ballet & Opera, Covent Garden. He performs repertoire from the Baroque through to works by the leading composers of today. Tonight, he combines with another giant of the classical music world, pianist Paul Lewis. Together they bring Schubert’s setting of 24 poems by Wilhelm Müller to life.

Composed in 1827, just a year before Schubert’s premature death, ‘Winterreise’ is by turn highly emotional, desolate and spare. Writing to his friend and fellow composer Josef von Spaun Schubert declared: ‘I will sing you a cycle of eerie songs. I am keen to see what you will make of them. They have affected me more than any other songs’.

Who Runs this session: Research & Innovation Services (RIS)

Who can attend:  All staff and PGR's 

This session provides an overview and starting-point for those new to Public Engagement with Research (PER) and working with Children and Safeguarding. We will explore ideas, best practice and how to evaluate working with children to engage them with your research. We will also sign-post to further support and opportunities.

Learning Outcomes: 

By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Demonstrate knowledge of different methods to successfully engage children with science

• Demonstrate understanding of best practice when engaging with children

• Define and understand the importance of safeguarding when working with children

• Show evidence of planning realistic and achievable ways to engage with children

If you have any questions relating to the session, please contact the facilitator. 

If you have any questions relating to booking on to the session, please contact CHEP@Soton.ac.uk and one of the team will assist you. 

This training session is designed to prepare researchers to participate in the Meet the Scientist component of  LifeLab 

The aspects covered and the skills developed will be also useful in other engagement contexts.  

This course is suitable for:

 - Academic staff
 - Research staff
 - Doctoral researchers from any discipline - Researchers (PhDs, Post docs, academic staff)
 - Technical staff from any level and any discipline - anyone who wants to find out more and become more confident in talking about their work

Further Information
You can book to attend this session via staffbook. 
if you have any queries relating to the booking process please contact: CHEP@soton.ac.uk
If you have any queries relating to the session itself please contact the event facilitator listed below

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Evaluation Community of Practice - Home 

​Please join the Evaluation Community of Practice Teams channel for full information and joining instructions. 

Evaluation Community of Practice - Home

This training session is designed to prepare researchers to participate in the Meet the Scientist component of  LifeLab 

The aspects covered and the skills developed will be also useful in other engagement contexts.  

This course is suitable for:

 - Academic staff
 - Research staff
 - Doctoral researchers from any discipline - Researchers (PhDs, Post docs, academic staff)
 - Technical staff from any level and any discipline - anyone who wants to find out more and become more confident in talking about their work

Further Information
You can book to attend this session via staffbook. 
if you have any queries relating to the booking process please contact: CHEP@soton.ac.uk
If you have any queries relating to the session itself please contact the event facilitator listed below