Upcoming Talks & Debates
Ethical Matters:
The Empathy Fix
Ethical Matters:
The Empathy Fix
Keetie Roelen provides readers with the tools to relate to poverty, realise why current interventions often don’t work, and to respond to the situation in a way that gives everyone a sense of dignity and agency. Through empathy, we can all contribute to a more equal society.
Brockway Room | Virtual event
Gresham College:
The LGBT+ Showstopper: ‘I Am What I Am’
Gresham College:
The LGBT+ Showstopper: ‘I Am What I Am’
Join Professor Dominic Broomfield-McHugh, Gresham Visiting Professor of Film and Theatre Music, in exploring Jerry Herman's I Am What I Am as a broadway musical piece and its resurgence as a gay anthem during the AIDS crisis.
In person | No Option
Ethical Matters:
(Un)Kind: How ‘Be Kind’ Entrenches Sexism
Ethical Matters:
(Un)Kind: How ‘Be Kind’ Entrenches Sexism
Victoria Smith, author of the bestselling Hags, explores how traditional beliefs about women's 'kind' nature remains dependent on female self-sacrifice. Kindness culture supports the backlash against feminism while claiming to represent feminism's - and women's - true nature. It is, at heart, unkind.
In person | No Option
Ethical Matters:
Inequality and Britain’s Next Generation
Ethical Matters:
Inequality and Britain’s Next Generation
Danny Dorling gets to the heart of post-pandemic Britain’s most pressing issues. What do we miss when we focus on the superrich and the most deprived? Why are most British parents on below-average income? How can we reverse the trends leaving all children worse off than their parents?
Brockway Room | Virtual event
London Fortean Society:
Holy Men of the Electromagnetic Age
London Fortean Society:
Holy Men of the Electromagnetic Age
The interwar period was a golden age of the uncanny. Tahra Bey took 1920s Paris by storm as an ‘Oriental’ missionary. Dr Dahesh harnessed Western science to create a pan-religious faith in Lebanon. Author Raphael Cormack explores how these forgotten two mystics reflected the desires and anxieties of the troubled age.
Brockway Room | Virtual event
Ethical Matters:
Why do We Love True Crime?
Ethical Matters:
Why do We Love True Crime?
Why is real-life crime stories such a successful part of popular culture? Why are women so drawn to histories of violence? Authors Kate Summerscale and Hallie Rubenhold discuss the hold that narratives of crime and murder have over us, their work and views on true crime culture.
Brockway Room | Virtual event
Ethical Matters:
Why We’re Getting Poorer
Ethical Matters:
Why We’re Getting Poorer
Cahal Moran delves into the key topics in economics – money, globalisation, inequality, climate change and growth – showing that what we think we know about these things is wrong, and teaching us what we really need to know.
Brockway Room | Virtual event
Gresham College:
Asteroid Adventures
Gresham College:
Asteroid Adventures
This lecture considers two missions – Lucy, which flies past asteroid DonaldJohanson in April 2025, and OSIRIS-ReX, which recently returned from the threateningly near-Earth asteroid Bennu carrying samples of this unusual world.
In person | No Option
London Fortean Society:
Art / Magic / Lore: Wild Talents
London Fortean Society:
Art / Magic / Lore: Wild Talents
Art / Magic / Lore returns to Conway Hall this summer with an exploration down the lesser-trodden paths of wild folklore and myth. From pagan counterculture to queer folk tales, rebel villains and roadside magic, discover the thread of activism and resistance that runs through occult history.
In person | No Option
Ethical Matters:
The Uncertain Science of Certainty
Ethical Matters:
The Uncertain Science of Certainty
How far would you go in your search for certainty? And once you get there, how do you convince others? Adam Kucharski ranges across science, politics, philosophy and economics to explore how truth emerges - and why it falters.
Brockway Room | Virtual event
Ethical Matters:
Surviving the Manosphere
Ethical Matters:
Surviving the Manosphere
Authors Jess Davies and James Bloodworth discuss misogyny, the manosphere, and a world that is confusing for men and dangerous for women. How has this come about, how can women start to survive this, and how can we work together to make change?
Brockway Room | Virtual event
8th Annual Stuart Hall Public Conversation with Françoise Vergès: There Will Be No Future Without Seizing the Present
8th Annual Stuart Hall Public Conversation with Françoise Vergès: There Will Be No Future Without Seizing the Present
The Stuart Hall Foundation welcomes political theorist, writer, activist, independent curator and political educator, Françoise Vergès to Conway Hall as the keynote speaker for the 8th Annual Stuart Hall Public Conversation.
In person | Virtual event
Ethical Matters:
Catastrophe Ethics
Ethical Matters:
Catastrophe Ethics
Philosopher Travis Rieder outlines a new ethics for the age of humanmade catastrophe. We are all asking, in a hyperglobalised world hurtling towards environmental destruction: how do we determine the right actions?
Brockway Room | Virtual event
Ethical Matters:
No Such Thing as Normal
Ethical Matters:
No Such Thing as Normal
We are diagnosed and treated for mental disorders more than ever, despite increasing evidence that environmental factors play a far greater role than biological ones. Marieke Bigg asks: how can we heal when psychiatry rests on the belief that mental distress is explained by brain structures, chemical imbalances and genetics?
Brockway Room | Virtual event
Ethical Matters:
Uncovering the History of Women’s Bodies
Ethical Matters:
Uncovering the History of Women’s Bodies
Journey into the complex medical and religious history of women's bodies from classical Greece to the modern day. Helen King examines all the ways in which medicine and religion have played a gatekeeping role over women's organs. Was the clitoris ever truly lost?
Brockway Room | Virtual event