Open lectures: Spring term 2022
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
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‘Parallels with the Pandemic’: Living through Coronavirus and World War Two – similarities and differences
During the two years of the Coronavirus pandemic, many comparisons have been drawn between the experience of living through Covid and living through the Second World War...
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Communing with the dead online
Joel Krueger discusses how chatbots might play a useful role within a broader repertoire of grieving practices.
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Uncontrollable Women: In-conversation with Nan Sloane
Nan Sloane brings to light the stories from the women who were supposed to leave politics to men but instead they spoke, wrote, marched, organised, asked questions, challenged power structures, sometimes went to prison and even died.
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Hope and the Imagination with Leena Dhingra
Join Leena Dhingra (author and actor) as she discusses ‘Hope’ in the context of the ‘Imagination’.
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Levelling Up and Net Zero: BioYorkshire and the Bioeconomy
This lecture will explore the ethos of biology to benefit society: from lifesaving medicines, to new products and crops, and addressing waste and pollution.
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“What am I doing when I laugh at others?”
Lucy O'Brien talks about the act of laughing at others' missteps or failures, and considers how we should think about such acts.
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International Womens Day celebration in Computer Science
A series of talks from women working in the field of computer science.
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POSTPONED - Who makes the decisions during childbirth and how?
Who makes the decisions during labour and birth and how do they do it?
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One-day Open Symposium on human computer interaction and user experience
The Computer Science Department host a one day symposium on recent research in human computer interaction (HCI) and user experience (UX).
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Dependable real-time systems: The past, the current and the future
Iain Bate explains why the time events in computer systems can be important and how, over time, we have to rethink our approach to timing and system assurance
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Imagining microplaces: From Medieval into the present
Placing our histories is always key to understanding the past. But what happens if we focus in at the smallest scale: on a specific street or square, a doorway, tree or vantage-point – a microplace?
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Will Web 3.0 save us from Climate Disaster? A journey through the lens of building optimisation
Follow Mark as he walks you through a physical building showing you how to sustainable optimise buildings in ways we cannot possibly imagine right now.
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Putin's war in Ukraine: A historian's view
Dr Shane O'Rourke talks about the Ukraine crisis from a historian's perspective.
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Nicaraguan women: Voices of resistance to authoritarianism
Human rights and environmental lawyer Mónica López Baltodano and film-maker Khristine Gillard, will discuss the civic struggle against the construction of the Grand Interoceanic Canal in Nicaragua.
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Hope and the Imagination with Tabish Khair
Join Tabish Khair (author) as he discusses ‘Hope’ and the ‘Imagination’.
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Global supply chains: Broken or bending
A discussion about global trade and supply and the blockage of the Suez Canal with Evergiven.
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Experimental quantum technologies
Join us for our Physics Winter Webinar as we explore cutting-edge quantum technologies.
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Communicating proprioception in physiotherapy by video
This seminar investigates how patients and clinicians have had to collaboratively establish the patient’s proprioception via video since the Covid-19 pandemic.
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CANCELLED - Psychedelics and anomalous experience: From neurodivergence to the transpersonal
Now that the psychedelic renaissance has found its way out of the birth canal and enters its childhood there is an ever-increasing need for psychedelic psychotherapy, integration, sitting, welfare and aftercare.
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Under the Blue
Join Claire Chambers (York) and author Oana Aristide as they discuss Oana’s new novel ‘Under the Blue’, drawing on themes of pandemics, climate change and ‘Hope’.
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Hope in the context of citizenship and statelessness
Abdul Kalam Azad, Maureen Grant and Jacqui McKenzie in conversation with people working on the Windrush cases.
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Dogger Bank wind farm project
Find out more about the Dogger Bank Wind Farm, which will be the world's largest offshore wind farm when completed in 2026, generating enough renewable energy for 6 million UK homes.
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Back to the future: Psychedelics as treatment
Dr Goodwin gives an update on the potential therapeutic value of regular and low doses of psychedelics in the treatment of psychopathologies.
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RESCHEDULED - Bridge masterclass
Join the Bridge Society for a Bridge masterclass with Phil Godfrey - English National Pairs winner!
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An evening with Paul Attinello: A psychology of the politics of AIDS
In commemoration of LGBTQ History Month, York Politics Society warmly welcomes you to an event with Newcastle University lecturer Paul Attinello, on the political psychology of the AIDS crisis.
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Queering international development
How to queer International Development? What are queer critiques of developments?
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'The Whistler of Cubism'? Reviewing Duchamp from the perspective of law
Michael White discusses Duchamp's submission of a urinal to an exhibition and the subsequent questions of obscenity and infringement of intellectual property rights
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Marriage is between two people, not three: Complexities of modern attitudes toward marriage in the US
A discussion about how attitudes toward same-sex marriage in the US have shifted quickly over the last few decades.
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Psilocybin: Where are we, and where we are going?
This talk will discuss recent results from the Compass P-TRD trial (psilocybin therapy for treatment resistant depression)
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A carbon literacy taster session on equity and climate justice
How much do you know about climate change and social justice? Try our quiz in this Carbon Literacy taster session.
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Localisation from an international big picture perspective
Exploring how to shift from global to local through inspiring localisation stories & discussion of the emerging localisation movement
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Opportunities for the local circular economy through urban vertical farming
What if we could use the concept of the circular economy to ensure that the wastes from one part of a city could be used in another part?
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Crowdsourcing your business growth
In this session we explore the future of entrepreneurial support and how you can use the insights from the ever-growing entrepreneurial ecosystem in your business to really drive success.
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POSTPONED - Building Yorkshire’s Bioeconomy
Why is the Bioeconomy an important economic opportunity for the Yorkshire region? Find out how the Biorenewables Development Centre (BDC) is working with local businesses to develop novel bio-based products to make this opportunity a reality.
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Sustainability Forum
Join our discussion about the University's new Sustainability Plan
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Managing the campus to encourage biodiversity
A discussion on the range of habitats, plant and wildlife to be found on campus and how it is managed to promote and increase biodiversity.
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We are Suma: A democratic workplace without bosses
Imagine a workplace with no bosses, where everyone has equal pay and an equal say.
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Afghanistan: The people the West left behind
Dr Sara de Jong sheds light on the situation of the people in Afghanistan that the West left behind.
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Strange Matter: Investigating strange quarks
Join us for our Physics Winter Webinar exploring the fundamental particle, the strange quark: from strange matter in neutron stars to new, cutting-edge experiments here on Earth.
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‘I met a swell Sheik on Saturday’: Male homosexual sex work in interwar Scotland
While the legal notables of interwar Scotland viewed male homosexual sex work as ‘plumbing the depths’ of moral turpitude, the lives of the young men who sold sex on the streets of Glasgow and Edinburgh were much more human, complex and colourful...
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Ask a Historian
Historian Greg Jenner bounces through a wide range of subjects – from ancient jokebooks, African empires, and bizarre tales of medicinal cannibalism, to the invention of meringues, mirrors, and menstrual pads.
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Carbon capture
George’s talk will cover carbon capture technology in general, with some insights into C-Capture’s technology
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Film costumes and feeling in British Cinema from the 1930s to 1950s
What can we learn about the relationship between film costume, and the historical study of emotions between the 1930s and 1950s?
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POSTPONED - The Ten-Minute Ulysses
Critics and artists from across the Faculty of Arts and Humanities will present short talks and musical turns on some aspects of James Joyce's Ulysses
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Diversifying business models to address economic, environmental and social challenges
This masterclass will explore some of the reasons for the dominance of particular approaches; examples of diverse emerging and existing models along with barriers to their success and scaling; and address the implications for teaching and research.
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The Brutish Museums
Dan Hicks outlines some of the arguments in his recent book, and will consider the significance African cultural restitution for the discipline of Art History in the 2020s
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The present as a dimension of an unknown future: Imagining non-linear futures of LGBTQI+ rights
Queer critiques of linear narratives of ‘progress’ succinctly capture the difficulty of imagining new or more liberatory futures, particularly when these futures are conceived through lenses of the present...
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York Holocaust Memorial Day Civic Event Online
Join us as we commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day with a special online event featuring talks and short films reflecting on the Holocaust and the 2022 national theme, One Day.
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Hope in the time of settler colonialism: Indigenous demands of justice and multicultural political theory.
This event is the second for our 'Hope and Social Change' Symposium Series, as part of the Interdisciplinary York Hope Consortium.
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ReInventing Care
Experts discuss how the ethics of care have (re)emerged at the heart of visions for societal transformation
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Second Chances
Join Adam Phillips, writer and psychoanalyst, as he talks about second chances
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Sentenced to hard (relational) labour: Coping with community connections whilst imprisoned
Cara Jardine discusses the boundary between the prison in the community - and how this might be traversed, permeated or negotiated
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Boundaries Revisited: High crosses as liminal markers and protective monuments in early Medieval Ireland
Dr Caitlin Hutchison discusses various interpretations of the Irish high cross
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Terror and the dynamism of Islamophobia in 21st century Britain
Madeline-Sophie Abbas draws out some key insights from her recent book, Terror and the Dynamism of Islamophobia in 21st Century Britain.
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Psychedelics in psychotherapy
In the talk we will explore what psilocybin is, the thinking behind psychotherapy and how psilocybin is being used in the field to treat and help depression and even cancer related distress.
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Describing the archive: Identifying offensive language
Dr Vic Clarke and Dr Kevin Jones will talk about their work identifying offensive and biased language in archive catalogues
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Moral stress in veterinary teams: International research perspectives
A discussion on moral stress in veterinary teams
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Creating Stars Using High Power Lasers
Join us for our Physics Winter Webinar as we explore how the conditions inside stars can be created in the laboratory using high power lasers.