Photo credit: Edvard Badoyan
Photo: Edvard Badoyan
Hosted by the AUSTRALIAN COLLABRATORY FOR
ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY, URBAN AND CULTURAL HERITAGE
at the University of Melbourne 
January 20 & 21, 2016

Applications for students are still open!
See the APPLY tab for details.   

Do you....

  • Like thinking about the big questions?
  • Love playing with language and ideas?
  • Want to know how things got to be the way they are, and how they might change?
  • Love subjects like creative writing, history, architecture, literature, media studies, philosophy, ethics, classics, SOSE, languages, religious studies, politics, drama and art? 

 

  • Start Year 11 or 12 in 2016?
  • Like the idea of studying Arts at uni, but are not sure how you will turn this into a job? 
  • Want to make a difference in the world?
  • Maybe all of the above?

....then the Australian Youth Humanities Forum is for YOU!

At this free program you will get to meet lots of other school students with a passion for the humanities just like you, as well as current undergraduates and people working in humanities-related fields. 

You will get to hear from writers, policy advisers, curators, art critics, speech writers, ethicists, broadcasters, historians, festival directors, political analysts, poets, publishers – the list goes on!    
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Part festival of ideas, part careers fair, the Australian Youth Humanities Forum is an exciting new initiative that will offer a Humanities counterpart to the highly successful National Youth Science Forum. Now in its second year, the 2016 Forum will bring together 100 year 11 and 12 students for two full days of guest lectures from professionals working in humanities-related fields, interactive tutorials and round table discussions with current undergraduate students in the arts from universities around Melbourne.

Some speakers are among Australia’s best known and most influential public figures. Others are less well known, but are doing exciting and important work which shows how the humanities can make an impact in the world. They will share their own stories to illustrate the many varied and valuable directions that an arts degree can take you. Participants will be exposed to a thought-provoking exchange of ideas with some of Australia’s leading public thinkers and humanities practitioners through keynote lectures addressing the relationship between creativity, critical thinking and citizenship. Students will have the opportunity to ask practical questions (How can I become a festival director? An international development consultant? A curator, writer or ethicist?) and intellectual ones (What is the relationship between literacy and democracy? What is the importance of history in society? How do the arts contribute to social change, and how can I join in?)

The Forum addresses a substantial need affecting many VCE students. Future Arts students often state a desire to make some kind of social contribution after graduation but lack knowledge about how they can use degrees in the humanities to build careers which effect social change. By setting sessions devoted to the career pathways of humanities-trained professionals alongside prominent speakers’ reflections on the humanities in community life, the forum aims to equip participants with both practical information and civic inspiration.
Our speakers will explain how they got to do what they are doing, and why they think it matters.