Fancy meeting an anarchist, chatting to a female police officer or hearing what it is like to be an immigrant in the UK?

A Human Library is opened in the Ivor Crewe Lecture Hall Foyer at the University of Essex’s Colchester Campus from 12noon to 4pm on Friday 30 January to give people a chance to understand and find out about people with a potentially very different view on the world. The aim is to bring together people from different backgrounds to foster interaction and challenge prejudice.

Those taking part include students, staff and members of the local community including people from Colchester Mind and homelessness charity Emmaus Colchester.

‘Human books’ which you can take out and chat with in the Foyer come from all kinds of backgrounds with people with different religions, political beliefs, personal situations, nationalities and sexual preferences represented.

The event is part of Holocaust Memorial Week at the University of Essex.

Professor Rainer Schulze, who founded Holocaust Memorial Week at the University of Essex, said: “The Human Library is about challenging prejudices and discrimination through face-to-face open and respectful conversations. Like last year, students at Essex leapt at the chance of borrowing “human books” and interacting with them: there was a real buzz – which shows on the one hand how vital such face-to-face encounters are. The informal feedback that I received showed that both the “human books” and their “readers” left the event enriched by the experience.”