This week it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in the Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences hub as the Society’s Christmas extravaganza took place.

With all years communing to ‘deck the hub’, students enjoyed festive food from mince pies to stollen, all joining in with Christmas crafts to decorate the LANS Christmas tree.

Christmas party
Felt robin on a christmas tree

LANS students had the opportunity to visit BOM (Birmingham Open Media) and have a behind-the-scenes guided tour of current exhibitions including ‘Beholder’, a VR experience exploring beauty from autistic perspectives. Students discussed the interface between technology and art with BOM’s Engagement Producer Chloe Lawson. Students were also introduced to the BOM Plus scheme which invites 16-24 year olds to collaborate with artists, scientists and technologists and learn about producing events and exhibitions within a budget.

“It was a new and different experience that I doubt I would have found if not for LANS. The exhibitions are very interesting and raise a lot of questions. Coming to BOM has made me wonder about things that I have never considered before such whether it is possible to present experiences of autism through artwork.” - Sam Nead, first year.

Demonstration at Birmingham Open Media

Exciting news! LANS are funding students to attend The Liberal Education Student Conference next year. The conference will be held at Bard College in Berlin between 2-5th of May 2019. The conference title is: “Liberal Education: In Conversation with Today’s World of Tomorrow”. This will be the fourth LESC conference and is a great opportunity for LANS students to meet with other students on Liberal Arts and Science programs. 

To be considered for a place you must submit a 500-word proposal for an academic contribution or artistic work addressing these topics. If you are interested in taking part, please discuss your proposal with the LANS team first (deadline is 20 January). This opportunity is available to students from across the year groups. See the conference website for more information about writing a proposal: http://www.lesconference.eu