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Open lectures: Summer 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

Wednesday 28 July 2021 5.30pm

Learn to sing the oldest song in English, in a guided historical ‘imagining’

Wednesday 14 July 2021 12pm

Artists and activists will discuss the role art has played in keeping civic spaces open in the pandemic.

Thursday 24 June 2021 5.30pm

Discover how small portable objects enabled biblical sites to be relocated in Early Medieval Europe.

Wednesday 23 June 2021 4pm

Join us in this masterclass as Chidubem Nwafubo discusses how businesses in Yorkshire are using the circular economy to deal with climate related and environmental issues.

Wednesday 16 June 2021 5pm

In this lecture, Orietta Da Rold will consider the critical knowledge of paper, tell some of the hidden stories of this material, branching out to how the idea of paper in the medieval period shaped modernity.

Wednesday 16 June 2021 4pm

There has never been a more important time in our lives to prioritise learning skills and abilities which help us to face the future, join us as Dr Glenda Rivoallan discusses this and more

Tuesday 15 June 2021 6pm

The Departments of Philosophy and Physics at the University of York proudly present their Annual Royal Institute of Philosophy / Institute of Physics Public Lecture on the Philosophy of Physics

Monday 14 June 2021 12pm

An expert panel discuss digital exclusion for people with severe mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic

Thursday 10 June 2021 5pm

Professor Derek Attridge explores the achievements of Afrikaans literary writing since the end of apartheid, and broadens the discussion to consider the issue of minor languages in the context of world literature.

Thursday 10 June 2021 3pm

Dr Lucy Selman presents findings from current research into grief and bereavement during the pandemic.

Wednesday 9 June 2021 4pm

The circular economy has transformed from a resource management strategy into a worldwide concept, join us in this Masterclass as Pauline Deutz looks at the expectations, social benefits and the environmental gains.

Tuesday 8 June 2021 5.30pm

This lecture focuses on the philosophical and architectural entailments of the classical science of optics of the Arab polymath Alhazen (Ibn al-Haytham; b. ca 965 CE in Basra, d. ca. 1040 CE in Cairo).

Wednesday 2 June 2021 5pm

Adam Phillips is a psychoanalyst as well as one of the most influential essayists and thinkers writing today.

Wednesday 2 June 2021 12pm

Experts discuss the limits to urban revolution in Turkey

Friday 28 May 2021 12pm

Internationally renowned human rights defender and lawyer Azza Soliman will discuss the current state of civil society in Egypt.

Thursday 27 May 2021 5.30pm

Professor Gordon Campbell draws on the final twenty lines of Milton’s ‘Il Penseroso’ to discuss the 'garden hermit'

Wednesday 26 May 2021 4pm

Join Professor Stephen Perkins in this Masterclass presentation as he explores the issues surrounding top salaries

Tuesday 25 May 2021 3pm

Accomplished researchers from three UKRI Mental Health Networks come together to impart what they have learnt about loneliness in the UK during the pandemic based on their latest, separate studies.

Thursday 20 May 2021 2.30pm

An introduction to the Continuing Bonds model of grief.

Wednesday 19 May 2021 2pm

Due to unforeseen circumstances, this event has been postponed until October 2021.

Tuesday 18 May 2021 7.30pm

Find out about the history, design, delivery and future of York Guildhall from a client, design team, contractor and future occupier perspective

Tuesday 18 May 2021 7pm

Join us on a trip of scientific discovery with an application scientist through the medium of circus!

Thursday 13 May 2021 2.30pm

Douglas Davies presents a discussion of ‘death cleaning’ and ‘life’ clearing’ as issues of minimal versus maximal ‘stuff’ as we sort things out in anticipation of our own death

Wednesday 12 May 2021 4pm

Tom Goodfellow and David Jackman discuss the crucial rule of capital cities in the production of dominance and the politics of maintaining it.

Thursday 6 May 2021 6.30pm

Join Fatima Manji, award-winning broadcaster and journalist who anchors the UK's Channel 4 News, and discover the exciting opportunities and challenges of the world behind our nightly news.

Thursday 6 May 2021 4.30pm

In the first of an annual series of lectures on current issues in law and commerce, Professor Steven L Schwarz discusses the challenge of regulating global stablecoins.

Thursday 6 May 2021 2.30pm

Dr Edith Steffen presents the latest in the 'Grief: A Study of Human Emotional Experience' series of lectures

Thursday 6 May 2021 1pm

Diane Coyle, an expert on the digital economy, will explore why digital technology is rewiring the economy - especially now so much activity has been driven online and what economists are learning about its consequences

Tuesday 4 May 2021 6.30pm

Do Jesus's teachings add up to a coherent moral system, still relevant today?

Thursday 29 April 2021 7pm

This lecture offers living examples from Scotland of combining human rights leadership at local, national and international levels.

Thursday 29 April 2021 6.15pm

Does virtual reality involve illusory or hallucinatory experience of things that are not present, or does it involve veridical experience of virtual objects?

Tuesday 27 April 2021 7pm

Free and exclusive documentary screening followed by a panel Q&A with director Dan Laughton and Heroic Hearts UK

Tuesday 27 April 2021 6.30pm

Join Gavin Esler as he discusses his new book; a book about history, but also about the strange, complicated identity of Britishness.

Wednesday 21 April 2021 6pm

Join the York Politics Society as they discuss the continued injustices the BAME community face following the US Presidential election and change in leadership

Wednesday 21 April 2021 4pm

Join Tracy Walters in this Masterclass presentation as she explains how we can build both personal and organisational resilience

Tuesday 20 April 2021 6.30pm

Find out more about the sounds a 3,000 year-old mummy would have made and compare them to today's sounds

Tuesday 13 April 2021 2pm

The Resources and Waste Strategy for England will require all English local authorities to collect food waste separately by 2023...

Thursday 8 April 2021 7.30pm

Tom Plowman talks about one of the more recent systems that Labman have produced, in a record turnaround of 4 weeks - the Rapid Sample Reformatter