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Open lectures: Summer term 2020

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

Wednesday 30 September 2020 4pm

Keith Rozelle leads an online workshop teaching you how to create a multi-purpose pitch for your business.

Tuesday 15 September 2020 4pm

Unfortunately this event has been postponed and will be rescheduled. Check here for updates.

Friday 14 August 2020 1pm

An expert panel explore the practice of leadership within the international human rights movement, for the launch of the working paper "Human Rights Leadership - Towards a research and practice agenda in challenging times."

Thursday 30 July 2020 12pm

Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven chairs a panel discussion surrounding the economic and financial consequences of the current Covid-19 pandemic on women and how it has exacerbated gender inequality.

Wednesday 29 July 2020 3pm

Our expert panel share their takes about the recent tensions in the Korean Peninsula in this event co-hosted with UNA-York.

Tuesday 21 July 2020 7pm

Award-winning BBC broadcaster Emily Maitlis and journalist Isabel Berwick of the Financial Times discuss the fine art - and often chaotic result - of the interview.

Friday 17 July 2020 1pm

The session will go over the five domains of breathing, thinking, eating, body awareness and relationships, and how connecting mind and body through meditative practices can build resilience.

Thursday 16 July 2020 3pm

An expert panel share their takes on the COVID-19 pandemic and the effect it will have on how we view health governance and how it will transform society.

Wednesday 15 July 2020 4pm

Gavin Milligan discusses risk and mitigation in the agri-food system, and the role of circular economy principles in increasing the resilience of individual businesses.

Wednesday 15 July 2020 1pm

The Battle of Warsaw (August 1920) was described by JFC Fuller as one of the “decisive battles of History.”

Monday 13 July 2020 1pm

Understanding the relationship between the city and social life. Reflections on the production of space and the practice of everyday life. The lecture will question for whom the city is made, and how its inhabitants make the city their own

Monday 13 July 2020 9.30am

York's Professor Kiran Trehan, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Partnerships and Engagement, will chair a discussion of new and innovative approaches to engagement influence in an upcoming webinar.

Friday 10 July 2020 1pm

This talk shall look at the construction and interiors of the iconic monument in Red Square, illuminating the complex layout, the murals, whose beauty was an allusion to the garden of Eden...

Wednesday 8 July 2020 1pm

This lecture will reflect on some classic theories of cultural production, such as Adorno's work on 'The Culture Industry', and ask how we can bring these theories into the present

Tuesday 7 July 2020 4pm

Andri Georgiadou discusses redesigning how we work, reconfiguring social structures, and the impact this would have on how and where we work.

Tuesday 7 July 2020 3pm

Dr Jessica Omukuti discusses COVID-19's projected impact and climate justice implications as well as exploring the economic downturn from emerging from COVID-19 adversely impacting communities and households in the Global South

Monday 6 July 2020 1pm

Friedrich Nietzsche notoriously proclaimed that “God is dead”. This talk will investigate this striking idea and look at a range of late 19th century responses to the decline of Christian belief

Wednesday 1 July 2020 4pm

Andy Wright shares his views on the world of sustainable business and discuss lessons he has learned along the way.

Wednesday 1 July 2020 1pm

This talk shall discuss Peter Paul Rubens as an avid and enlightened collector, revealing him as a connoisseur of antiquity, a true Renaissance man, a big-hearted admirer of his peers' work, and a patriot of his native country.

Monday 29 June 2020 1pm

This session introduces Digital Marketing concepts and strategies including web-based platforms, social media and transmedia storytelling.

Friday 26 June 2020 1pm

The Berlin Blockade was the first major crisis of the Cold War. What did Stalin try to end 4 Power occupation of Berlin? In what ways did the Soviet siege affect Berliners?

Thursday 25 June 2020 12pm

University of York Global Alumni Association welcomes speakers from diverse media backgrounds to share their expertise on how the global pandemic has changed our media consumption.

Wednesday 24 June 2020 4pm

Leigh Smith from Jaguar Land Rover shares his people development model to address the challenges posed by technology transformation.

Wednesday 24 June 2020 4pm

This talk focuses on an art project titled “Row” by a Malawian art group called Ozhope Collective.

Tuesday 23 June 2020 6pm

Our panel share their takes on the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent protests against police brutality and how it will transform politics.

Monday 22 June 2020 1pm

An accessible talk on getting started with a novel. The material will include figuring out what a story needs, how to write a good first line, and how to think about ideas such as pacing the conflict of the piece.

Friday 19 June 2020 11pm

Watch the Hull York Medical School Lecture from February 2020

Friday 19 June 2020 11pm

Watch one of our 15-minute talks from this year's YorkTalks

Friday 19 June 2020 11pm

Watch one of our 15-minute talks from this year's YorkTalks

Friday 19 June 2020 11pm

Watch one of our entrants for the '3-minute thesis' competition in June 2019

Friday 19 June 2020 11pm

Watch one of our entrants for the '3-minute thesis' competition in June 2019

Friday 19 June 2020 10pm

Professor John Schofield asks whether something as recent as 1970s graffiti by the Sex Pistols can be of archaeological interest, and how the heritage sector might treat such works.

Friday 19 June 2020 10pm

Watch one of our 15-minute talks from this year's YorkTalks

Friday 19 June 2020 10pm

Watch one of our 15-minute talks from this year's YorkTalks

Friday 19 June 2020 10pm

Watch one of our entrants for the '3-minute thesis' competition in June 2019

Friday 19 June 2020 10pm

Watch one of our entrants for the '3-minute thesis' competition in June 2019

Friday 19 June 2020 9pm

This public lecture by Professor Tony Venables, BP Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford, looked at the economics that underpins city performance and discussed the policy challenges that cities face.

Friday 19 June 2020 9pm

Professor Rob Marchant (Department of Environment and Geography) delivers his YorkTalk ‘The mountains and people of Africa: creating a more sustainable future from the ground up’ at the University of York, January 2020.

Friday 19 June 2020 9pm

Dr Penny Bickle (Department of Archaeology) delivers her YorkTalk ‘Counter culture: unearthing the truth about complexity, diversity and inequality in Neolithic times’ at the University of York, January 2020.

Friday 19 June 2020 9pm

How can computers decode diseases? Could simulations help us stop the spread of illness without medication or vaccines?

Friday 19 June 2020 9pm

Agata Lambrechts from the Department of Education discusses some of the reasons why less than 1% of the 25.5 million refugees in the world have access to higher education opportunities

Friday 19 June 2020 8pm

The Dyslexic Professor shares his personal insights from being a dyslexia survivor; how his experiences at school shaped his career and how his decision to disclose his disability has reshaped his understanding of dyslexia as a superpower

Friday 19 June 2020 8pm

Professor Nik Brown (Department of Sociology) delivers his YorkTalk ‘Bodies, bugs and hospital architectures: Designing healthcare for the post-antibiotic age’

Friday 19 June 2020 8pm

Professor Kevin Killeen (Department of English and Related Literature) delivers the YorkTalk: ‘The doctor of everything: the teeming world of a 17th century physician’

Friday 19 June 2020 8pm

Tamsyn Kiss (Environment and Geography) shows us the muddier side of academic research in this fascinating bitesize talk, which takes us underground to explore the fascinating world of earthworms and their different roles in enriching our soil.

Friday 19 June 2020 8pm

Join Lucilla Lanzoni (Psychology) as she explains how her research can help to improve communication with people with brain damage, and what effect this increased understanding of the brain's function can have on future artificial intelligence

Friday 19 June 2020 7pm

Dr Anna Einarsdóttir (York Management School) delivers the YorkTalk ‘Yet another meeting: are LGBT+ networks inside the NHS breaking the mould?’ at the University of York, January 2020

Friday 19 June 2020 7pm

Dr Fay Bound Alberti (Department of History) delivers her YorkTalk ‘Challenging the face race: creating a new emotional framework for face transplants’ at the University of York, January 2020

Friday 19 June 2020 7pm

From the size of an entire room, all the way to a jean’s pocket - we all want our devices to keep getting smaller...

Friday 19 June 2020 7pm

Marc Green presents their research on Beyond the Decibel: Are There Better Ways to Measure Sound for York 3MT

Friday 19 June 2020 6pm

Frances Atkins, Michelin-starred chef of the Yorke Arms, speaks on the role that women have played, historically and now, in the male-dominated world of cookery.

Friday 19 June 2020 6pm

Professor Mike North (Department of Chemistry) delivers his YorkTalk ‘The carbon dioxide refinery: turning the challenge of climate change into a solution’

Friday 19 June 2020 6pm

Jonathan Haskel presents the Ken Dixon lecture in May 2019

Friday 19 June 2020 6pm

Professor James Chong (Department of Biology) delivers his YorkTalk ‘Energy down the drain: how microbial communities can aid us in turning wastewater into low carbon energy’

Friday 19 June 2020 6pm

Farid Chenoune, Institut Français de la Mode, speaks on sexual status of the courturier at the time of Christian Dior

Wednesday 17 June 2020 4pm

Fiona Charnley discusses creating new value from Circular Process and Product Innovation and Circular Business Models.

Wednesday 10 June 2020 4pm

Claire Paxman shares her experience and expertise on using product innovation to change the face of cancer.

Thursday 4 June 2020 4pm

Mamta Singhal shares her experience and expertise on behaviours that champion workplace diversity and equality.

Tuesday 26 May 2020 6.30pm

Exploring the meanings of loneliness across times and cultures, Fay Bound Alberti asks what history might reveal about lockdown loneliness during, and after, Covid-19.

Tuesday 26 May 2020 4pm

Snehasish Banerjee offers insights into how society can tackle the menace of fake news.

Wednesday 20 May 2020 7pm

This talk will share the modern science of pulsations, their analysis with different techniques and how new asteroseismic research is contributing to a revolution of understanding of stellar interiors.

Wednesday 20 May 2020 4pm

Yannis Salavopoulos discusses the trends that will reshape the financial, banking and investments industries in the near future.

Monday 18 May 2020 11am

This free webinar will consider innovation to address the issue of pollution of farmland with plastics from AD digestate.

Tuesday 12 May 2020 7pm

Dr Kate Lancaster, Department of Physics, tells us the story of how, in the absence of a lab the size of a star, we are attempting to make fusion into an energy source for the future

Thursday 7 May 2020 12.30pm

Join YESI for the third online event under the 'Ask the Author' series. During the series, you will have the chance to discuss - with the authors - the findings of recently released papers from the University of York.

Friday 1 May 2020 12.30pm

During this event Professor Jane Hill and Dr Sarah Scriven will discuss their paper titled 'Incorporating connectivity into conservation planning for optimal representation of multiple species and ecosystem services.'

Wednesday 29 April 2020 6.30pm

Actor, comedian and writer Robert Webb joins us to discuss his new novel, Come Again. Set partly at the University of York in 1992, Webb’s debut novel is both funny and genuinely moving

Thursday 23 April 2020 12.30pm

Explore the impact of COVID-19 on the UK food system