Talks

When we make a video game we can enter any world and be anyone. So why do the issues of the real world follow us into gaming? Dr Steph Rennick and games & tool developer Rami Ismail discuss how we make gaming fairer and more equal for players and developers.

Virtual event | No Option

Join conservationist and award-winning author Nick Acheson as he shares stories from his award-winning book, The Meaning of Geese, and his thrilling encounters with the wild geese that fill Britain’s skies in the thousands each winter and spring. Through stories of the geese and the people who love them, Nick explores why we must protect their future in Britain.

Brockway Room | Virtual event

Nostalgia is a social and political emotion, vulnerable to misuse, and one that reflects the anxieties of the age. Agnes Arnold-Forster’s history of this complex, slippery emotion is a lens through which to consider our collective feelings of regret, dislocation and belonging.

Brockway Room | Virtual event

Boyajian's star, a faint and unprepossessing presence in the constellation of Cygnus, attracted astronomers' attention when it began to flicker alarmingly. Chris Lintott, will discuss explanations for its behaviour, from disintegrating comets to alien megastructures, and consider how modern astronomy hunts for the truly unusual objects in the Universe.

In person | No Option

Join us for a talk to mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT). Hear LGBT perspectives on phobia in the media, past and present, exploring this year’s theme of ‘No One Left Behind’.

Brockway Room | Virtual event

In this free talk, critically acclaimed writer and historian Michael Meyer tells the gripping story of a forgotten pioneer who refused to accept the role the Establishment assigned to her. Instead, she chose to resist.

Library | No Option

In a world in love with data, it is possible to run a cost-benefit analysis on anything – including life itself. Exploring the final frontier in monetisation, Jenny Kleeman asks what we lose and what we gain by leaving the judgments that really matter up to cold, hard logic.

Brockway Room | Virtual event

Misogyny and ‘toxic masculinity’ are increasingly implicated in radicalisation. Through interviews with leaders and their followers, Elizabeth Pearson explores the emergence of extreme misogyny and masculinities. Understanding the men and women involved in extreme movements will better equip us to counter them.

Brockway Room | Virtual event

Sometimes ADHD, autistic and OCD people want to just lose themselves in music, be it at home, at a club or at a sweaty gig. Join DJ Mahnoor and musician and music journalist James McMahon as they share their love of music and how it works with their neurodivergence.

Brockway Room | Virtual event

By 1950, 50,000 people had been deemed ‘defective’ and detained for life under the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act. Through painstaking research, award-winning historian Sarah Wise pieces together the lives irrevocably changed by this devastating legislation and how early twentieth-century attitudes to class, gender and disability resulted in a nationwide scandal.

Brockway Room | Virtual event

Join us and James Ball, Professor Chris French, Professor Karen Douglas, Brent Lee and Jonn Elledge for a deep dive into conspiracy theory and culture. The history, the people and the dangers of a conspiracy mindset.

Brockway Room | Virtual event

When we form meaningful bonds with others, our wounds heal faster, we shake off infections more quickly and our blood pressure drops. Greater connection can fuel creativity, increase our financial stability and enhance our work productivity. As David Robson shows, we can all benefit from the laws of connection.

Brockway Room | Virtual event

Art, magic and folklore cross over and over again making new forms of creativity and lore. Join us at Conway Hall for talks on making new traditions, love magic, lost woman artists, radical Morris Dance and much more.

In person | No Option