Developing STEM public engagement through comedy

Project leader(s): Chris Douce Judith Taylor

Theme: STEM engagement
Project faculties: STEM Research, Enterprise and Scholarship
Status: Current
Date: March 2026 to February 2027

Communication and presentation skills is an important and essential element to doctoral training. The university help students to develop those skills by providing opportunities to enable students to share their work with others through events such as PhD student conferences. During these conferences, students will summarise the aims and objectives of their research through poster presentations. These events are often hugely nerve wracking for students. Given the importance of communication skills to the career of any academic, and the importance of reaching public audiences, the development of a short 6 week experiential course entitled ‘Developing STEM public engagement through comedy’ will be developed. The intent of this course is to apply concepts from ‘stand-up comedy training’ to develop the confidence of doctoral students.

The project will begin with a period of intense scholarship, where a variety of different materials are studied: texts that describe performance and humour, and formal academic articles that explore the topics of science communication, public engagement and pedagogy using stand-up comedy.

A draft curriculum for a 6-week programme will be created and refined through a face-to-face workshop with key stakeholders to ensure that the materials align with graduate school aims and objectives.

STEM doctoral students will then be invited to submit applications to join an online ‘public engagement through comedy pilot programme’. From the applications, 7 students will be selected. They will be informed that the programme is also a scholarship project.

The programme, which comprises of 6 sessions, will run for 6 weeks leading up to the date of a PhD student conference, where students will be invited to apply what they have learnt in poster session .

After the session, student will be invited to participate in an online focus group to gather feedback and experiences about their experience on the programme.