Portsmouth professors on display at the British Academy Summer Showcase 2023

The British Academy, the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences, has now revealed the full programme of events for its annual Summer Showcase in London on Saturday 17 June – a free festival that brings together leading lights from across the SHAPE disciplines (Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts for People and the Economy) and big names from the cultural sphere.

For the first time, the Academy will also be working with the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) on a series of film screenings. Offering the chance to hear directly from academics at the forefront of new research in the SHAPE subjects, the events will be a mix of in-person and online.

One of the screenings is the award-winning animation ‘Art and Gender in South Sudan’ by Professor Tamsin Bradley and Dr Louis Netter from the University of Portsmouth

‘Art and Gender in South Sudan’ reflects on and explores violence against women in South Sudan, through research by Professor Bradley, Professor of International Development Studies in the School of Area Studies, Sociology, History, Politics and Literature, which has then been put into an animation produced by Dr Netter, Senior Lecturer in Illustration in the School of Art and Design. The animation has received awards at several international film festivals.

Professor of International Development Studies,Tamsin Bradley said: "Art in South Sudan allows those that make it to imagine a different, more secure life. Art also offers researchers on the outside a way to understand the complexities of life and resilience."

The following passage was shared by a married woman thirty-three years of age living in Juba, South Sudan. She is a bed sheet embroiderer. The art form is known locally as Milaya.  Here she describes how she draws on her imagination to create designs that are beautiful: “The eye is the strongest thing …. You draw anything that comes to mind … every woman is doing embroidery, no woman is idol because it is important in the life of a woman, when you come to that age you start to draw meaning, the skill will come to your mind.”

All live events will be free to attend and selected events will remain accessible on the British Academy’s YouTube channel after the Showcase. Booking is recommended.