University of Birmingham
M4C CDA Hay Festival and Reading in the Digital Age PhD
I am a first year PhD student exploring the contributions that Hay Festival has made in shaping cultural and critical understandings of reading today and how this might be changing in a digital era. My project aims to provide a detailed reflection on the new venues, communities, publication routes and reading experiences that the Internet and social media have enabled literary festivals. It will provide an in-depth academic history of Hay Festival and the evolution of its live events strategy, contributing to both the story of arts organisations in modern Britain and the emergence of literary festivals as an international phenomenon in an era transitioning to digital connectivity.