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Open lectures: Semester 2 - 2024-25

Every semester, 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. Look for the 'Book tickets' button on the web page. 

Upcoming events

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

Past events

Wednesday 20 August 2025 1pm

Riley Miladi explores artist-centric machine learning tools, balancing innovation and creativity in production at CoSTAR Live Lab’s public talk.

Wednesday 30 July 2025 7pm

James Fearnley, after 35 years studying propolis, launches BeeArc to address humanity's crises through deeper understanding of bees and nature.

Tuesday 22 July 2025 1pm

This talk by Dr. Li will focus on land degradation in drylands, and the ecological impacts of large-scale ecological projects in China’s drylands.

Thursday 10 July 2025 2pm

A public talk exploring Digital UX in Arts and Cultural events from the perspective of people with Learning Disabilities and/or Autism.

Saturday 5 July 2025 5pm

Join us for an evening of poetic celebration with performances from Jason Allen-Paisant, Anthony V. Capildeo and Maya Caspari. Optional Dress Code: Bling up the North.

Saturday 5 July 2025 11am

How do we keep the creative spark alive, nurture a love of writing in children, or regain that love as adults?

Thursday 3 July 2025 2pm

Zahra Montazeri, a computer graphics researcher, presents her latest work on realistic cloth rendering and geometry simplification.

Thursday 3 July 2025 1pm

This webinar presents findings on UK police responses to county lines, highlighting inconsistent safeguarding and calling for national guidance.

Thursday 26 June 2025 1pm

The seminar explores how EU accession reshapes environmental governance, highlighting legal reforms, sustainability, and Serbia’s regional integration challenges.

Thursday 19 June 2025 1pm

This seminar explores how generational and cultural factors influence Right to Repair perceptions, practices, and participation in Türkiye and the UK.

Tuesday 17 June 2025 6.15pm

This lecture explores how bacteria and viruses evolve, shaping social life through water infrastructures, disease spread, antimicrobial resistance, diet, and pollution.

Tuesday 17 June 2025 1pm

Discover how Sri Lanka’s ancient tank systems offer nature-based solutions for climate resilience, livelihoods, and sustainable water management.

Wednesday 11 June 2025 2pm

CoSTAR Live Lab is excited to welcome Dr Phil Coleman for an exciting public talk exploring the innovative L-ISA technology by L-Acoustics.

Friday 6 June 2025 6pm

Objects reveal rich histories through their materials, crafting, and use, offering insights into past lives, beliefs, and interactions.

Tuesday 3 June 2025 5pm

This lecture provides a unique opportunity to hear from a senior diplomat from Indonesia - the world's 3rd largest democracy, 4th most populous country, and 10th largest economy.

Tuesday 3 June 2025 12pm

Designing Futures explores interdisciplinary collaboration in design education, uniting STEM, humanities, and industry through talks, discussions, and a lunch reception.

Thursday 29 May 2025 9.30am

Join us for an event which connects sustainability researchers and practitioners to explore future built environments through discussions, partnerships, and thematic sessions.

Wednesday 28 May 2025 6.15pm

Curtis Chin’s memoir explores growing up Chinese American in 1980s Detroit, his family’s restaurant, and his journey as a writer.

Thursday 22 May 2025 5pm

Curators Tracey Bashkoff and Dr. Vivien Greene discuss the Guggenheim’s Orphism exhibition, exploring its themes, origins, and artistic impact.

Wednesday 21 May 2025 5pm

In collaboration with Comma Press, the EUTERPE project is honoured to present a panel on Palestinian British voices.

Wednesday 21 May 2025 3.30pm

This presentation reinterprets secularization, showing how modern cultural systems function as secular substitutes for religious meaning frameworks.

Tuesday 20 May 2025 5pm

A poetic performance-lecture exploring language, feeling, and vulnerability—where words meander, evoke, and create meaning beyond the literal.

Monday 19 May 2025 5pm

Join the EUTERPE Spring School opening evening exploring multilingual translation, with talks and readings.

Wednesday 14 May 2025 12pm

This webinar explores the BIG Argument, its development, and role in supporting scalable AI safety across sectors and methodologies.

Tuesday 13 May 2025 7pm

A delve into the research featured in Channel 4's 'Swiped' documentary and the links between sleep and mental health.

Tuesday 13 May 2025 6.30pm

This talk explores how psychedelics support trauma healing by reshaping social roles, perceptions, and rituals beyond medical frameworks.

Thursday 8 May 2025 6pm

This lecture explores children's protest history, their rights to peaceful assembly, and how cities can support youth activism safely.

Wednesday 7 May 2025 5pm

Coinciding with the publication of T.J. Clark’s Those Passions: On Art and Politics (Thames & Hudson, 2025), Adam Phillips and Clark will be in conversation about art, politics, and psychoanalysis.

Tuesday 6 May 2025 10am

Dr Lucy Martin explores feminist crisis responses to global permacrisis, highlighting research on effective, equitable, and joyful solutions.

Thursday 1 May 2025 5.30pm

Join Writers at York for a Water Poetics reading with Dr. Briony Hughes, featuring poetry, discussion on hydropoetics, and a water-writing demonstration.

Thursday 1 May 2025 5pm

This lecture explores how two Renaissance English writers used Italian culture to justify England’s conquest of Ireland in the late 1500s.

Tuesday 29 April 2025 6.30pm

Come join York's Drug Science Society for a public lecture on art, altered states, and the therapeutic potential of creativity with the phenomenal multi-media artist Harry Pack!

Tuesday 29 April 2025 5.30pm

Professor Marion Turner explores late-medieval views on fiction, its relationship to poetry, rhetoric, and ethics, focusing on Chaucer and reader emotions.

Friday 25 April 2025 6.30pm

Sir Paul Nurse in conversation with The Times Science Editor, Tom Whipple

Thursday 24 April 2025 12pm

This webinar explores the global impact of reduced aid under Trump, featuring expert insights on development and humanitarian consequences.

Tuesday 22 April 2025 6.30pm

Dr. Humpston explores hallucinations as perceptual convictions, challenging sensory definitions and examining links to selfhood, psychosis, and psychedelics.

Wednesday 9 April 2025 7pm

While the popularity of the ‘Chocolate Orange’ has made Terry’s a famous name, it is not widely known that the firm’s origins go back to a York apothecary business opened in 1767.

Wednesday 9 April 2025 6.30pm

Philosopher Doreen Fraser explores explanations for mathematics' success in science, questioning whether it has a rational basis or remains mysterious.

Wednesday 9 April 2025 6.30pm

Join Dr James Cubiss to explore how precision laser systems can be used in nuclear physics research.

Thursday 3 April 2025 4pm

Are bookstagram, booktok, and booktube worth it? Has it changed the way we interact with books and reading?

Thursday 3 April 2025 3pm

Join a lecture and workshop on co-creation in sustainability with Professor van Zeijl-Rozema, exploring theory, practices, and academic development.

Wednesday 2 April 2025 6.30pm

Find out about the scientific goals, design, and experimental setup of the Electron-Ion Collider, an advanced accelerator.

Wednesday 2 April 2025 2pm

A public talk by Kit Monkman (Viridian FX) about recent collaborative work with Phoenix Dance Theatre.

Thursday 27 March 2025 6pm

This event explores the literary canon's ideological history, its role in literary study, and the melancholy of canonicity through Micromodernism.

Wednesday 26 March 2025 6.30pm

Dr. Valery Radchenko will discuss how medical radionuclides are designed and made in order to advance medical imaging and targeted cancer treatment.

Wednesday 26 March 2025 4pm

This talk explores how music streaming platforms reshape global music production, distribution, and consumption, highlighting power, inequality, and cultural impacts.

Wednesday 26 March 2025 3.30pm

Sociologist, Dr Samuel Burgum, presents an alternative account of the real lives of London's squatters: their ambitions and struggles.

Tuesday 25 March 2025 6.30pm

Lois Shearing explores how far-right movements recruit women online, exposing their roles, misogyny, and strategies to counter radicalisation.

Thursday 20 March 2025 5.15pm

Rebecca Buxton talks about how women in philosophy initiatives promote inclusion but may hinder lasting integration by focusing too much on gender identity.

Wednesday 19 March 2025 6.30pm

Join Alistair Boxall for a lecture on chemical pollution in Yorkshire’s rivers, its impact on wildlife, and practical steps to reduce contamination.

Wednesday 19 March 2025 6.30pm

By harnessing the process that powers the Sun and stars, fusion has the potential to provide a safe, abundant source of low carbon energy. The first of its kind, STEP is a programme that includes building a prototype fusion powerplant in the UK.

Tuesday 18 March 2025 7.30pm

Join the York Drug Science Society at the University of York for a free public lecture on psychedelic experiences with biologist and author Dr Rupert Sheldrake.

Wednesday 12 March 2025 6.30pm

Explore how we're discovering the origins of the elements that make up our world by recreating stellar reactions in the lab.

Tuesday 11 March 2025 12pm

Find out more about sustainable careers: part of International Women's Day.

Thursday 6 March 2025 2pm

A public talk by Florian Block (dock10 and University of York) about AI innovation in live virtual production.

Wednesday 5 March 2025 6.30pm

Historian Sarah Lonsdale explores five women’s inspiring efforts to reclaim and protect the wild, challenging societal norms worldwide.

Wednesday 5 March 2025 6.30pm

Join Dr Christian Diget to explore how atomic nuclei are made, from astrophysical processes to cutting-edge experiments. Journey through the nuclear chart, to discover the properties of the building blocks of our universe.

Wednesday 5 March 2025 5.30pm

Join University of York researchers from the Departments of Psychology and Sociology as they discuss the psychology of eating - or choosing not to eat - meat and meat-based substitutes.

Tuesday 25 February 2025 6.30pm

Dr Stuart Higgins will introduce some of the core ideas around biomedical engineering, and discuss some of the active research being carried out at the School of Physics, Engineering and Technology.

Tuesday 25 February 2025 6.30pm

Join York's Drug Science Society as Dr Simon Erridge prodives a comprehensive overview of the current UK medical cannabis landscape.

Friday 21 February 2025 6.15pm

This talk explores Britain-India relations (late Victorian-Edwardian) through art and music, highlighting empire grandeur, colonial fantasies, and anti-imperial critiques.

Wednesday 19 February 2025 5pm

Join the Department of English and Related Literature for the second in a series of three lectures this year by Visiting Professor Adam Phillips, writer and psychoanalyst.

Wednesday 19 February 2025 3.30pm

How do institutional gender regimes affect formal reporting processes for sexual harassment?

Tuesday 18 February 2025 6.30pm

Queer as Folklore is an exhilarating journey across centuries and continents which reveals the unsung heroes and villains of storytelling, magic and fantasy.

Tuesday 18 February 2025 5.30pm

Join the Centre for Medieval Studies for a talk that explores how early Islamic garrison cities and palatial projects stimulated innovation in the art, architecture, and craft sectors.

Wednesday 12 February 2025 6.30pm

Humans have long been designing and constructing robots, but could a robot create other robots to cope with unfamiliar environments? Join Dr Edgar Buchanan Beruman to explore the exciting Autonomous Robot Evolution project.

Wednesday 12 February 2025 5pm

Fashion and cartography, rooted in practical geometry, shaped national identities and shared overlapping influences, explored through Dior’s legacy.

Thursday 6 February 2025 7.30pm

Dr Rob Harvey, Head of Production Systems at Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd will describe this vision to provide clean, affordable energy for all.