OxHRH Communications Manager and RightsUp podcast producer, Kira Allmann, led a workshop on ‘The Art of Podcasting’ at The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH) Public Engagement Summer School on July 29th, 2015.

The TORCH Public Engagement Summer School is a five-day programme offering training for humanities researchers on how to reach a wider public audience. OxHRH produces a variety of multi-media content, ranging from seminar podcasts to webinars and online workshops. This year, the new OxHRH RightsUp podcast series received funding from the AHRC-TORCH Graduate Fund.

Allmann produces RightsUp with Laura Hilly and Max Harris. Her podcasting workshop focused on how to take a research project or academic lecture and re-package it as an accessible and engaging podcast.  The session took participants through the podcast production process, from planning and scripting to recording, editing and broadcasting.  Summer school students were introduced to podcasting as a relatively low-cost, high-impact option for sharing their research.

The workshop drew from lessons learned in producing the successful RightsUp series, and Allmann fielded questions about the production process, journalistic ethics and technical training. Students participated actively in the workshop, asking questions, pitching their own podcast ideas, and starting a podcast script.

RightsUp is a podcast series dedicated to bringing together international and interdisciplinary perspectives on human rights law, featuring interviews with experts, academics, practitioners and policy makers on contemporary human rights issues. The first three episodes are available for download on iTunesU and the Oxford Podcasting Service. The fourth episode, on the death penalty, will be released in August.