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
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Old English Come and Sing
Learn to sing the oldest song in English, in a guided historical ‘imagining’
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The role of art in keeping civic space open
Artists and activists will discuss the role art has played in keeping civic spaces open in the pandemic.
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Relocating the Holy Places: Jerusalem in Early Medieval Europe
Discover how small portable objects enabled biblical sites to be relocated in Early Medieval Europe.
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Reimagining business in Yorkshire using the circular economy
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.
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The Tacit Knowledge of Medieval Paper
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.
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Mindfulness and Resilience for Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders
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
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How do the special sciences emerge from physics?
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
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Severe mental ill health and digital inclusion
An expert panel discuss digital exclusion for people with severe mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic
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Minor languages and the question of translation, or, how I learned to love Afrikaans
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.
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Grieving during the COVID-19 pandemic: A national study of experiences of bereavement and the response of bereavement services
Dr Lucy Selman presents findings from current research into grief and bereavement during the pandemic.
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Examining the sustainability of the Circular Economy
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.
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Alhazen’s Optics and the European Medieval and Renaissance Perspectiva Traditions in Science and the Architectural Arts
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).
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On giving up
Adam Phillips is a psychoanalyst as well as one of the most influential essayists and thinkers writing today.
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The limits to Urban Revolution: The Transformation of Ankara, Turkey, under the Justice and Development Party
Experts discuss the limits to urban revolution in Turkey
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Attacks on civil society in Egypt - WHRD perspectives
Internationally renowned human rights defender and lawyer Azza Soliman will discuss the current state of civil society in Egypt.
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Milton's Anglican Hermit
Professor Gordon Campbell draws on the final twenty lines of Milton’s ‘Il Penseroso’ to discuss the 'garden hermit'
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Masterclass Presentation: Talking about top pay - the role of competing interests
Join Professor Stephen Perkins in this Masterclass presentation as he explores the issues surrounding top salaries
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Loneliness in the time of Covid. Have we got a fuller picture?
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.
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Continuing Bonds in Bereavement: Insights from Dennis Klass
An introduction to the Continuing Bonds model of grief.
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POSTPONED - Decentering migration research: The challenges of walking the talk
Due to unforeseen circumstances, this event has been postponed until October 2021.
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York Guildhall refurbishment project
Find out about the history, design, delivery and future of York Guildhall from a client, design team, contractor and future occupier perspective
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From Atoms to Galaxies, the Circus Act of Gravity
Join us on a trip of scientific discovery with an application scientist through the medium of circus!
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Grief, personhood and belongings: The stuff of death - cleaning and life-clearing
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
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Controlling the capital city: Understanding strategies for the pursuit of urban dominance
Tom Goodfellow and David Jackman discuss the crucial rule of capital cities in the production of dominance and the politics of maintaining it.
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Behind the Scenes of news reporting
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.
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Global digital currencies and law
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.
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Continuing Bonds in Bereavement: Insights from Research and Grief Therapy Practice
Dr Edith Steffen presents the latest in the 'Grief: A Study of Human Emotional Experience' series of lectures
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Why digital is so disruptive
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
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The Godless Gospel: Was Jesus a great moral teacher?
Do Jesus's teachings add up to a coherent moral system, still relevant today?
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Human Rights leadership: Local, national and international
This lecture offers living examples from Scotland of combining human rights leadership at local, national and international levels.
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Is Virtual Reality an illusory or hallucinatory experience?
Does virtual reality involve illusory or hallucinatory experience of things that are not present, or does it involve veridical experience of virtual objects?
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Breaking through PTSD with psychedelics
Free and exclusive documentary screening followed by a panel Q&A with director Dan Laughton and Heroic Hearts UK
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How Britain Ends: English Nationalism and the Rebirth of Four Nations
Join Gavin Esler as he discusses his new book; a book about history, but also about the strange, complicated identity of Britishness.
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Shift in attitudes during the Biden-Harris Presidency
Join the York Politics Society as they discuss the continued injustices the BAME community face following the US Presidential election and change in leadership
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Masterclass Presentation: Individual and organisational resilience
Join Tracy Walters in this Masterclass presentation as she explains how we can build both personal and organisational resilience
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The 3,000 year-old Mummy Nesyamun: His life, work and recreating a vowel sound
Find out more about the sounds a 3,000 year-old mummy would have made and compare them to today's sounds
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Compulsory collection of domestic food waste: implications for Anaerobic Digestion
The Resources and Waste Strategy for England will require all English local authorities to collect food waste separately by 2023...
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Labman and the Rapid Sample Reformatter
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