READ WRITE HEAR

READ WRITE HEAR

A “Being Human” event, 9 November 2025

Reading isn’t just about what’s on the page. It also depends on how, where, and with whom it happens.

These days, most reading is silent and solitary. But that hasn’t always been the norm—and it still isn’t the only way to read. In churches, schools, theatres—and in bedtime stories at home—reading can be a shared, spoken, physical act, shaped by voice, gesture, and setting.

This event invites participants to explore different ways of reading: aloud, in groups, in ceremony, in performance. How does the method change the meaning? What do we lose—and gain—when we read differently?

Join Dr Elspeth Jajdelska, Senior Lecturer in English & Creative Writing at the University of Strathclyde, for READ WRITE HEAR—an interactive event that brings together literature, history, and live reading practice. Choose from different reading ‘stations’, take part in discussion, and leave with a book to keep. Whether you’re curious about old texts, group reading, or the power of voice, this is a chance to encounter reading in a new way.

A Note for Members of Faith Communities—or the Spiritually Curious

READ WRITE HEAR is being hosted at St Michael and All Saints, Tollcross, in Edinburgh. Ceremonial spaces—churches, synagogues, mosques, and beyond—remain some of the few places where reading aloud is still taken seriously. It’s expected to speak into lives, to carry meaning, to shape a moment shared by a gathered community. Reading in these contexts is shaped by ritual, by place, and by expectation.

Whether you’re steeped in scripture, drawn to texts that carry meaning, or simply interested in how reading takes on meaning in communal spaces, this event offers a chance to reflect, try things out, and hear text differently in your context.

Part of the Being Human Festival 2025

This event is part of Being Human Festival, the UK’s national festival of the humanities, taking place 6 - 15 November 2025. Led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, with generous support from Research England, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. For further information please see beinghumanfestival.org.