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Open lectures: Autumn term 2021

Every term, the University organises free open lectures on a wide variety of topics and aimed at a general audience.

Most require tickets (available on individual event pages) but some do not. Where tickets are needed, this is also indicated in the publicity.

Upcoming events

There are no events to show here right now. Please check back another time.

Past events

Thursday 9 December 2021 3pm

Dr Tasia Scrutton discusses the grief journal of C.S. Lewis following the death of his wife.

Wednesday 8 December 2021 5pm

Join us for our Physics Winter Webinar as we uncover the secrets of the nanoworld using electron microscopy.

Wednesday 8 December 2021 4pm

This talk will focus on the social reforms in Greece during and after Covid-19.

Monday 6 December 2021 6.15pm

This session will highlight a range of Jack and Maria’s personal and professional experiences with disability in science, being and working with LGBTQ+ people and how intersectionality is viewed today in education and wider society.

Saturday 4 December 2021 1.30pm

In a world where AI, VLEs, Zoom etc. seem to be everywhere, meet Kamishibai, a centuries-old Japanese storytelling tradition which is being revived for modern international audiences.

Thursday 2 December 2021 7.30pm

Most people hardly know what groundwater is, how it got under our feet, where it is going and how vulnerable it is. Barney will attempt to explain all in 40 minutes!

Thursday 2 December 2021 6.15pm

If you are not a believer, why be agnostic rather than an atheist? Join the discussion with the Royal Institute of Philosophy.

Wednesday 1 December 2021 1pm

Professor Carol Brayne CBE, Professor of Public Health Medicine at the University of Cambridge, will present her work at this Open Lecture

Tuesday 30 November 2021 7pm

Prepare to be inspired by Paralympian Beth and Mo who are founder members of York RaceRunning Club (the sport is now called Frame Running)

Tuesday 30 November 2021 6pm

What do our historical actors mean when they ask us to tell ‘balanced’ histories of pesticides?

Thursday 25 November 2021 6.30pm

Professor Sarah Brown describes the conservation of the St Cuthbert window in York Minster at this year's Merchant Adventurers' Arts Discovery Event

Thursday 25 November 2021 6pm

Join members of our Teaching and Learning Team for this online lecture exploring the intersections of disability and technology and how we can improve inclusion through universal design.

Thursday 25 November 2021 2.30pm

Using recent British political developments this roundtable brings together experts to challenge assumptions about the links between security, migration, and development made by Britain, the EU and beyond.

Wednesday 24 November 2021 4pm

York Sociology Department Lecture Series is joined by Carrie Benjamin.

Tuesday 23 November 2021 6.30pm

Forensic psychiatrist, Gwen Adshead, has spent thirty years providing therapy inside secure hospitals and prisons. Hear her stories of cruelty and despair but also of change and recovery.

Tuesday 23 November 2021 6pm

Nicole Brown discusses what it means to be different in contemporary higher education.

Thursday 18 November 2021 2.30pm

As Part of the Grief: A Study of Human Emotional Experience we welcome Karen West and Eve Wilson as they speak about the Bereavement Supporter project.

Wednesday 17 November 2021 5pm

Adam Phillips delivers his Autumn Term lecture

Wednesday 17 November 2021 4.30pm

Join us to hear from lawyers, business owners, chemists and circular economy experts as we discuss the damaging impacts of single-use plastics

Wednesday 17 November 2021 4pm

Marcus Milwright discusses the cache of ancient parchment fragments recovered from the Great Mosque in Sana‘a’ in Yemen, which included two folios with elaborate architectural designs.

Wednesday 17 November 2021 4pm

York Sociology Department Lecture Series is joined by Meghan Tinsley as she questions how remembering the past might pave the way for a more critical, less cohesive understanding of the present.

Wednesday 17 November 2021 4pm

In this session Graeme will explore the role of Human Resource management in the M&A process, from target identification through to integration, and why it is important to have HR involved in the transaction from the outset.

Thursday 11 November 2021 6pm

In the third in a series of Arctivism Conversations a panel of artists and activists from the Amazon will discuss their survival strategies and their struggle against the destruction of their environment.

Wednesday 10 November 2021 5pm

Join us for the first of the Physics Winter Webinar series and explore the world of designer materials.

Wednesday 10 November 2021 4pm

Join Constance Smith, lecturer at University of Manchester as she talks about the afterlife of Grenfell Tower.

Monday 8 November 2021 7pm

Directors of the think-tank ‘Compassion in Politics’, experts on climate science, philosophy and a founding member of the Southall Black Sisters join us to discuss their thoughts on how compassion can transform our politics, our society and economy

Thursday 4 November 2021 7.30pm

York Society of Engineers is joined by Norman Simpson

Wednesday 3 November 2021 6.30pm

This Talk has been postponed. Further details coming soon.

Wednesday 3 November 2021 4pm

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected us all, join Professor Dingwall as he looks at how this crisis has been managed and what can we learn for the future.

Wednesday 3 November 2021 4pm

Jane Hawkes looks at recent engagements with Anglo-Saxon art, focussing on its visual effects.

Wednesday 3 November 2021 4pm

Join Ali Siles from the National University of Mexico as he explores the production and experience of masculinities among Mormon men in the contemporary context of Mexico City

Wednesday 3 November 2021 2pm

Human rights defender and researcher Abdul Kalam Azad will discuss the impact of the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens on the Miya Muslim minority in Assam, northeast India.

Thursday 28 October 2021 7pm

Join University of York Labour Club in this talk by councillors who discuss the challenges and opportunities that come from local government and their messages to those who may wish to get involved.

Thursday 28 October 2021 2.30pm

Join us as we introduce a model of grief and adaptation to loos, and walk through seven Healing Milestones that promote adaptation to loss.

Wednesday 27 October 2021 5.30pm

The early medieval Northumbrian kingdom stretched across much of the central part of Britain. To its north and west, it looked towards lands that were, or became, part of the Gaelic-speaking world.

Wednesday 27 October 2021 5.30pm

Robbie Shilliam joins us in discussion with Sam Wetherell to talk about black British history, the rise and fall of the welfare state and Britain's present political crisis.

Wednesday 27 October 2021 4pm

Join Katherine Davies as she explores the ways that Brexit is entangling with people's existing lives and relationships

Wednesday 27 October 2021 2pm

Join us online for the IGDC virtual Annual Lecture in collaboration with MigNet.

Tuesday 26 October 2021 6.30pm

As part of our Black History Month programme, join us to hear Professor Kehinde Andrews talk about his recent book The New Age of Empire.

Monday 25 October 2021 6.30pm

Join our panel of experts as we investigate the countless hidden threads running throughout British history that have long been forgotten or erased over time.

Friday 22 October 2021 6.30pm

With an election looming in Brazil, more and more focus is being put on the South American giant. At stake is the soul of a nation, torn between the far right Jair Bolsonaro and recently released from prison Lula da Silva.

Thursday 21 October 2021 6.30pm

Join us to celebrate the opening of the University's newest college, Anne Lister College. Find out about Anne Lister’s life and legacy and explore the making of Gentleman Jack with our panel of experts.

Thursday 21 October 2021 2.30pm

Join Professor Rupert Read to explore eco-grief and how we must address the approaching pandemic of grief.

Wednesday 20 October 2021 4pm

Drawing on a range of visual culture including photography, film, cartoons and fine art, the seminar will explore the many meanings of the female body in 1950s Britain.

Wednesday 20 October 2021 4pm

Drawing on a range of narratives and experiences, this seminar highlights nuances and complexities around people’s shifting and at times ambivalent relationships with alcohol during a period of unprecedented social change.

Wednesday 20 October 2021 4pm

Richard ran Sky Bet, one of Leeds largest employers, for around 13 years, and will give his perspectives on growing a betting business, the ethical challenges, and the pros and cons of different regulatory options.

Wednesday 20 October 2021 2pm

Human rights & environmental lawyer Monica Lopez will share the experience of engaging social movements in the protection of their rights.

Wednesday 20 October 2021 2pm

Join Dr Collins as she discusses her work on the overlap between race and vulnerability to the physical and governance-related aspects of climate change

Tuesday 19 October 2021 6.30pm

Reportage artist George Butler talks about his work drawing on front lines, in refugee camps and on the move.

Wednesday 13 October 2021 6.30pm

What does the Bank of England actually do? How has its role changed over the years? And how could its resources be best deployed in confronting the problems of our age?

Wednesday 6 October 2021 4pm

Join Dr Raphaël Nowak as he makes the cases for musical genres as a cultural category.

Wednesday 6 October 2021 4pm

By reviewing approximately a century of cement and concrete in Switzerland, this talk will examine the relations between institutions, discourse, and technology as they intersect in the material.

Monday 4 October 2021 6.30pm

Join us for the Society for Legal Scholars’ Inaugural Baroness Hale Lecture to hear Baroness Brenda Hale in-conversation about her upcoming memoir Spider Woman: A Life.

Wednesday 29 September 2021 4.30pm

As part of National Inclusion Week, the life-changing journeys of student mothers are focused on in this talk, including that of the speaker, a single mother and student who gained a new career as an academic.

Wednesday 29 September 2021 4pm

Why is our current political climate so polarised? Why do many people feel alienated from political discourse? Does politics still have the power to improve people’s lives?

Thursday 23 September 2021 1.30pm

In Great Big Green Week, join Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York, and key leaders from across the church, science, politics and campaigning in conversation about the moral, scientific and ethical case for urgent action on climate change at COP26.

Thursday 23 September 2021 12pm

In the second in a series of Arctivism Conversations a panel of artists and activists will discuss the politics of hope and how hope has emerged as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Thursday 23 September 2021 9am

A virtual project conference which focuses both on the nature and purpose of administrative records of the northern province and their value in writing the history of northern societies and institutions.

Wednesday 22 September 2021 2pm

Learn how a tract of arable land has been transformed into a thriving biodiverse habitat of lake, lagoons, wet meadows and grassland.

Friday 17 September 2021 6.30pm

Recently, race has become increasingly important in the British consciousness. Join us in looking back on the changing in racial attitudes of Britain in the past few years and how they have impacted our society.