Sheep grazing at Bath City Farm © Shutterstock   This year’s national festival of the humanities, Being Human , is drawing ever closer, and it’s time to share some early news and highlights as activities begin to develop across the UK. Being Human 2021, led by the University of London’s School of Advanced Study, will take place from 11 to 20 November and will explore the theme ‘renewal’ – from renewed relationships with the environment and climate change, to renewed identities, narratives and histories.

Hermann-Hinrich Reemtsma (centre) with Reemtsma family members and representatives from the foundation on a visit to the Warburg Institute in summer 2019 .    A world-class institute for the study of art and culture, that tracks themes and symbols across time and space, is set to benefit from a £3m investment by a German foundation. This gift, the largest ever donation to the University of London, will secure the future of the Warburg Institute and help it to reach new people.

Professor Katherine Harloe has been appointed director of the University of London’s Institute of Classical Studies ( ICS ), the national centre for research in the Classics at the School of Advanced Study, succeeding Professor Greg Woolf. She is currently professor of Classics and intellectual history at the University of Reading, and will take up the role in October 2021.

Call for papers or presentations Overview The Government is committed to ‘levelling-up’ the UK, by tackling inequality and disadvantage between regions and within them. The University of London and its member institutions are working with the Mayor of London to organise a series of roundtables, to be held in September 2021, on how we can best ensure that levelling-up works for the whole country, including London. We would like to invite academic researchers in London and beyond to submit ideas for short papers and presentations. Background