Event Report: Insights Festival 2026

21 April 2026

On Friday 27 March, Reuben College held its fifth Insights Festival. This annual event invites Reuben members to take part in an evening that showcases research and celebrates the work and interests of the College community. Reubenites contributed presentations, stalls, and displays on both academic work and extracurricular interests, creating an interactive and engaging experience for everyone who attended.

Activities

College President, Professor Lord (Lionel) Tarassenko, opened the evening with a warm address. Students then took to the floor with presentations, covering topics from exploring sustainability in African art and fashion to visual representations of the Black body in modern medicine. 

After presentations ended, the hall turned into a lively space. Stalls from students and fellows invited attendees to interact and engage with a range of subjects, from the cultural heritage of cheese through to a myth-busting game focused on cancer facts. There were several creative displays, including projects from Reuben Art Society, a showcase of the top entries from the College Art Competition, and the opportunity to craft 'pom-pom bacteria'. 

Two students stand behind the Space Lab stall the Insights Festival and speak to attendees

Students hosting the prize-winning Space Lab stall. Image credit: Simon Devenport.

Prize winners

At the end of an evening of research engagement (and free refreshments), judges' prizes for the presentations were awarded to Akintomiwa Akinnimi, Christina Arguello, Toussaint Miller, and Alistair Reid. The judges' favourite stall was The Budget Game: Crisis Edition: an activity whereby participants were asked to budget their expenses according to various situations they were put in (such as being part of a family heavily impacted by the climate crisis). 

These were followed by winners picked by the audience:

  • Space Lab: From Cell to Seeding to Art for top stall (a stall that focused on technologies developed to enhance plant growth in space)
  • A Love-is-Blind-style presentation about encoder and decoder models (see the script) 

The Insights Festival continues to be an event that celebrates the incredible diversity of the work across our community, while also providing a valuable opportunity for College members to practise public engagement in a supportive environment.