A multi-sensory journey to a black hole: Using sound to enhance data exploration, accessibility, and immersive education
Dr Chris Harrison, Newcastle University
Date: 21 November 2024

Jack Jeffery Sustainability Lecture:
What a load of rubbish! Bins, behaviours and the circular economy 
Dr Helen Holmes, University of Manchester
Date: 12 November 2024

The 2024 United States Presidential Election 
Iwan Morgan, Emeritus Professor, University College London
Date: 7 November 2024

Society of Antiquaries Lecture:
The extramural settlements and bathhouse at Birdoswald
Tony Willmott, Historic England and Professor Ian Haynes, Newcastle University
Date: 30 October 2024

Memorial dissonances: Undoing the Valley of Cuelgamuros in contemporary Spain
Francisco Ferrándiz, Spanish National Research Council
Date: 24 October 2024

New voices on arts, humanities and social sciences 
Sophie Ellis, Heather Proctor and Zoe Waters
Date: 22 October 2024

Molds, mushrooms and medicines
Professor Nicholas P Money, Miami University
Date: 15 October 2024

Black History Month Lecture:
From black squares to full circles: Did the 2020 scramble for Black writers make a difference?
Patrice Lawrence, writer and journalist
Date: 10 October 2024

Election 2024: A very British revolution
Peter Kellner, political commentator and former President of YouGov
Date: 8 October 2024

The Russia-Ukraine War: The future of conflict, or the past?
Professor Mark Galeotti, University College London
Date: 16 May 2024

Three tales from the frontier of medical sciences
James Allison, Doyin Alao and Laura Booth
Date: 14 May 2024

Robinson Prize Lecture in Cosmology: Dark matter through the looking glass of Homo Narrans
Dr Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, University of New Hampshire
Date: 9 May 2024

The theatre in the public conversation

Michael Billington, drama critic Country Life
Date: 30 April 2024

British Academy Lecture: The sign language myth
Professor Annelies Kusters, Heriot-Watt University
Date: 25 April 2024

Jacobson Lecture: The NHS of the future and how we get there
Amanda Pritchard, Chief Executive, NHS England
Date: 21 March 2024

In association with Blackwell’s:
Author Event: In conversation with Alice Loxton
Date: 18 March 2024

British Science Week Lecture: Chiral molecular materials and changing the world
Dr Jess Wade, Imperial College London
Date: 12 March 2024

Riddell Lectures 2: From AI to social media: Natural psychological reactions as a guide to tech-prudence
Justin L Barrett, founder and president of Blueprint 1543
Date: 7 March 2024

Riddell Lectures 1: What makes cultural innovations attractive? Lessons from the cognitive science of religion
Justin L Barrett, founder and president of Blueprint 1543
Date: 6 March 2024

Sophia Lecture: General Election 2024: Is change really possible?
Pippa Crerar, political editor, The Guardian
Date: 29 February 2024

LGBTQ+ History Month Lecture: Collecting, archiving and celebrating LGBTQIA+ and alternative sexualities: The adventures of an archivist
Stef Dickers, Bishopsgate Institute
Date: 20 February 2024

Science sans frontiers
Sir Keith Burnett, President, Institute of Physics
Date: 13 February 2024

Darwin Day Lecture: Why your DNA is not your destiny
Professor Jelena Mann, Newcastle University
Date: 8 February 2024

Defence Lecture: Can we manage a very dangerous world?
The Rt Hon Lord Robertson of Port Ellen KT
Date: 1 February 2024

Holmes Lectures for 10- to 14-year-olds (Lecture 2): Evolving video game technology: Humans vs AI
Professor Graham Morgan, Video Game Technology Researcher
Date: 24 January 2024

Holmes Lectures for 10- to 14-year-olds (Lecture 1): Humans: Can you learn to train your brain?
Dr Yuki Kikuchi, Lecturer in Sensory, Perceptual and Cognitive Neuroscience and Ben Slater, Post Graduate Researcher, Biosciences
Date: 17 January 2024

First responder memories of the 1988 Lockerbie Disaster
Dr Andy Clark, Newcastle University and Dr Colin Atkinson, University of the West of Scotland
Date: 7 December 2023

New voices on science, agriculture and engineering
Anna Christy, Asid Ur Rehman and Samuel Ruthven Ward
Date: 5 December 2023

Didn’t you use to be Chris Mullin? Diaries 2010-2022 (In conversation)
Chris Mullin, author and journalist
Date: 28 November 2023

How the end of empire upended the Union
Professor Stuart Ward, University of Copenhagen
Date: 14 November 2023

Everything you need to know about the menopause (but were too afraid to ask)
Kate Muir, menopaise expert, writer and documentary maker
Date: 9 November 2023

We have heard the chimes at midnight: Verdi, Falstaff and time
Dr Martin Pickard, conductor and repetiteur, Opera North
Date: 2 November 2023

Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne Lecture:
The way, the word, and the water: The archaeology of 17th century Newcastle
Dr Pam Graves, Durham University
Date: 25 October 2023

Green energy materials in 3D: Crystal gazing on the atomic scale
Professor Saiful Islam, University of Oxford
Date: 24 October 2023

British Academy Lecture
One is not born, but becomes, a genius: Another Simone de Beauvoir 
Dr Kate Kirkpatrick, University of Oxford
Date: 17 October 2023

Writing with your feet: Women who walk as an exercise
in memory and writing
Dr Andrea Jeftanovic, Universidad de Santiago de Chile
Date: 12 October 2023

The history of the NHS - and its future
Dr Andrew Seaton, University College London
Date: 5 October 2023

Our resilient English language
Professor Kate Burridge, Monash University
Date: 18 May 2023

War in Europe: the invasion of Ukraine one year on
Date: 16 May 2023

AI and data science: Opportunities and threats
Professor Paul Watson, Newcastle University
Date: 4 May 2023

Virtual You: How building your digital twin will revolutionise medicine and change your life
Roger Highfield, writer and science journalist
Date: 27 April 2023

Punching above our weight? How Britain broke the world
Arthur Snell, author and political commentator
Date: 25 April 2023

LGBT+ History Month Lecture:
Variations: Writing trans memoir, fiction and journalism
Juliet Jacques, writer and journalist
Date: 30 March 2023

Can Humanity Survive the Anthropocene? It depends on who we think we are
Professor Graham Parkes, University of Vienna
Date: 23 March 2023

Measuring Mount Everest’s weather
Dr Tom Matthews, King's College London
Date: 15 March 2023

Breaking down the barriers in the treatment of cardiovascular disease
Professor Vijay Kunadian, Newcastle University
Date: 28 February 2023

Defence Lecture:
Are women better leaders than men, does diversity matter in military operations?
Major General Kristin Lund, retired United Nations Force Commander
Date: 07 February 2023

Keeping healthy with sport and food: Run for your life (Holmes Lectures for 10- to 14-year-olds)
Date: 25 January 2023

Keeping healthy with sport and food: An apple a day (Holmes Lectures for 10- to 14-year-olds)
Date: 18 January 2023

Lecture to mark 40 years of cancer research at Newcastle University
Down the rabbit hole: Adventures in children’s cancer research
Professor Steve Clifford, Newcastle University
Date: 1 December 2022

Three tales from the frontier of medical sciences research
Elizaveta Olkhova, Charlotte Currie and Lauren Beck
Date: 15 November 2022

Russia’s War on Ukraine: How history can counter myths and disinformation
Dr Robert Dale, Newcastle University
Date: 10 November 2022

Hadrian’s Wall – what’s the big deal?
Panel Discussion
Date: 8 November 2022

The emerging role of whistle-blowers in democracies
Robert Tibbo, Human Rights Lawyer
Date: 1 November 2022

Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne Lecture
Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard by Dr Martin Goldberg
Dr Martin Goldberg, National Museums Scotland
Date: 26 October 2022

Celebrating 30 years of the Centre for Rural Economy at Newcastle University:
Trade policy and environmental sustainability
Professor Alan Matthews, Trinity College Dublin
Date: 20 October 2022

A lifetime in Spanish fiction
Eduardo Mendoza, novelist
Date: 18 October 2022

Lecture to mark World Anatomy Day: Anatomy anatomised
Professor Susan Standring, King’s College London
Date: 13 October 2022
Please note: Due to Copyright, we are unable to include the presentation slides in this recording.

Jack Jeffery Lecture: People powered: what if people, not technology, are the answer to the climate crisis?
Dr Katy Roelich, University of Leeds
Date: 11 October 2022

The Partition of India 75 years on: An interconnected history
Professor Sarah Ansari, Royal Holloway, University of London
Date: 6 October 2022

The Monarchy and the UK’s evolving constitution
Dr Catherine Haddon, Institute for Government
Date: 19 May 2022

Levelling up – national mission and global challenge
The Rt Hon Justine Greening
Date: 17 May 2022

New voices on science, agriculture and engineering
Jess McCoy, Chloe Grant and the SUGAR Team (Annachiara Scalzone, Koren Murphy, Tom Wareing and Alex Stokes)
Date: 12 May 2022

Edward Heath lecture
What has happened to the world order that Edward Heath helped to create?
Lord Patten of Barnes
Date: 4 May 2022

The state of our Universe
Professor Edmund Copeland, University of Nottingham
Date: 26 April 2022

Who runs your University?
Dr John Hogan, Newcastle University
Date: 24 March 2022

The Joy of Science
Professor Jim Al-Khalili
Date: 14 March 2022

Shakespeare as a sound artist
Bruce R. Smith, Leverhulme Visiting Professor, Newcastle University
Date: 10 March 2022

Sophia Lecture: The role of place in recovering from the crisis: what have universities got to do it with it?
Dame Julia Unwin, Chair of the Independent Inquiry on the Future of Civil Society
Date: 8 March 2022

British Academy Lecture: For a reparatory social science
Professor Gurminder K Bhambra, University of Sussex
Date: 3 March 2022

Neuroblastoma: A master of disguise and a challenge to cure
Professor Deborah Tweddle, Newcastle University
Date: 22 February 2022

Beauty at the beginning of life
Professor Mary Herbert, Newcastle University
Date: 7 December 2021

New Conservatives? The Conservative Party after Brexit
Neil Carmichael, Former Conservative MP
Date: 2 December 2021 

Perspectives and understandings of 'good farming'
Dr Amy Proctor, Newcastle University
Date: 30 November 2021 

New voices on arts, humanities and social sciences
David Johnson, Violeta Tsenova and James Barker
Date: Thursday 25 November 2021

Climate change and global corporations: Five sources of responsibility failure
Dr Cristina Neesham, Newcastle University
Date: Tuesday 23 November 2021

Leading the fight against virus spread: the Integrated Covid Hub North East (Jacobson Lecture)
Dr Akhtar Husain, Clinical Director, Integrated Laboratory Medicine, Newcastle Hospitals
Tuesday 16 November 2021

How to make the world add up
Tim Harford, economist, broadcaster and journalist
Date: Tuesday 9 November 2021

Putting disadvantaged children at the heart of recovery
Anne Longfield OBE, former Children’s Commissioner for England
Date: Thursday 4 November 2021 

Revolting: The political significance of punk around the globe
Professor Kevin C Dunn, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, New York
Date: Tuesday 2 November 2021

Do we need the fossil fuel industry to help in the transition towards net zero?
Date: Thursday 28 October 2021

Rethinking the future of housing worldwide: Favelas as a sustainable model?
Dr Theresa Williamson, Executive Director, Catalytic Communities
Date: Tuesday 26 October 2021 

Black History Month Lecture: Warm words are not enough – repaying the debt to our Black heroes
Marcus Ryder, Birmingham City University and Chair of RADA
Date: Thursday 21 October 2021 

In conversation with Darren Henley, Chief Executive of Arts Council England
Tuesday 19 October 2021

Women, men and money in Britain
Professor Emma Griffin, University of East Anglia and President of the Royal Historical Society
Thursday 14 October 2021

Britain after the Pandemic
John Rentoul, Chief Political Commentator, The Independent
Tuesday 12 October 2021

Accent prejudice: #us and all
Professor Joan Beal, University of Sheffield
Thursday 20 May 2021 

Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate crime - why is it rising and what can be done?
Iman Atta, Director, Tell MAMA
Tuesday 18 May 2021 

Long-Covid: What will be the legacy from the pandemic? (Jacobson Lecture)
Professor Chris Brightling, University of Leicester
Thursday 13 May 2021

From All Writers Matter to Zadie Smith (via Badgers) – a speedy A to Z of being a Black British children’s writer in a publishing industry still working on diversity by Patrice Lawrence
Patrice Lawrence, Writer and Journalist
Tuesday 11 May 2021

Brexit and Agriculture: What's next for British Farmers?
Dr Carmen Hubbard, Newcastle University
Thursday 6 May 2021

Why geographers need to stand up for the planet (Tyneside Geographical Society Lecture)
Zion Lights, Author and Activist
Tuesday 27 April 2021

Tales from the biomedical frontier
Nehal Hassan, Stuart Maitland and Bethany Gollan
Thursday 25 March 2021

Britain and Europe: An unsettled history
Professor Helen Parr, Keele University
Tuesday 23 March 2021

Age of the techno-scene: Why we will need the arts and humanities to tame the tiger of the ‘4th Industrial Revolution’ and artificial intelligence
Professor Andrew Thompson, Nuffield College, University of Oxford
Tuesday 16 March 2021

What's the story? The job of directing character-led action films
Marc Jobst, Writer and Director
Thursday 11 March 2021

What is life? (Fickling Lecture on Developments in Children's Literature)
Sir Paul Nurse, Chief Executive, Francis Crick Institute
Tuesday 9 March 2021

Stuck: How vaccine rumours start and why they don't go away
Professor Heidi J Larson, Authour and Director of The Vaccine Confidence Project
Thursday 4 March 2021

Child poverty in the North East region
Jonthan Bradshaw, Emeritus Professor of Social Policy, University of York
Tuesday 2 March 2021

The Corona crash: How the pandemic will change capitalism by Grace Blakeley
Grace Blakeley, Economist and Author
Thursday 18 February 2021

Why do we fight? Evolutionary neuroscience meets conflict studies (Defence Lecture)
Dr Mike Martin, Visiting War Studies Fellow
Tuesday 16 February 2021

Is the gay novel dead? (LGBT+ History Month Lecture)
Paul Burston, Journalist and Author
Thursday 11 February 2021

President Biden: a clean slate, a correction to the norm, or more of the same?
Sophia Gaston, Director, British Foreign Policy Group
Tuesday 9 February 2021

The first draft human genome at 20: how has genomics altered the way humanity understands itself?
Professor Steve Yearley, University of Edinburgh
Tuesday 1 December 2020

New voices on science, agriculture and engineering
Thursday 26 November 2020

Poetry that ‘will live and do good’. Reimagining Wordsworth
Jeff Cowton, Curator and Head of Learning, The Wordsworth Trust
Tuesday 24 November 2020

‘Now we have your attention’: pandemics, protest, and politics from below 
Jack Shenker, Journalist and Author
Thursday 19 November 2020

Lions of the North – the Percys and Alnwick Castle – 1000 years of history
Ralph Percy, 12th Duke of Northumberland
Tuesday 17 November 2020

Hostile environment: challenging anti-immigration myths
Dr Maya Goodfellow, Writer and Academic
Thursday 12 November 2020

There and back again - a journey through mental illness
Adam Gridley, Expert by Experience
Thursday 5 November 2020

The rise of neoliberal feminism
Professor Catherine Rottenberg, Nottingham University
Tuesday 3 November 2020

After displacement: journeys of the mind and memory communities
Professor Indira Chowdhury, Centre for Public History, Srishti-Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore
Thursday 29 October 2020

The robotic alchemist - digital assembly of drugs and chemical brains
Professor Lee Cronin, University of Glasgow
Tuesday 27 October 2020

Everything from nothing: how our universe was made
Professor Carlos Frenk, Durham University
Thursday 22 October 2020

Black History Month Lecture
A Bitter Sweet Journey: from slavery to freedom and beyond the colour line
Dr Keith Magee, Visiting Professor of Social Justice, Newcastle University
Tuesday 20 October 2020

A global history of sexual violence
Professor Joanna Bourke, Birkbeck College, University of London
Thursday 15 October 2020

Slowdown: the end of the great acceleration
Professor Danny Dorling, University of Oxford
Thursday 8 October 2020

Dressed: how to think about clothes
Professor Shahidha Bari, London College of Fashion
Tuesday 6 October 2020

INSIGHTS Virtual Lectures:
The Victoria Cross – Spoiling a Good Story?
Dr Andrew Marriott, Visiting Researcher, Newcastle University
Thursday 6 August 2020

INSIGHTS Revisited:
Out of the wreckage: a new politics for an age of crisis by George Monbiot
Introduction by Dr Martin Farr, Co-Chair, Public Lectures Committee, Newcastle University
Tuesday 4 August 2020

INSIGHTS Virtual Lectures:
Kurt Schwitters, The Merz Barn, and the ‘Biomorphic 40s'
Lloyd Gibson, Sculptor and Newcastle University Alumnus
Thursday 30 July 2020

INSIGHTS Revisited:
The bountiful sea: prospects for sustainable use of marine bioresources
Peter Olive, Emeritus Professor, Newcastle University
Tuesday 28 July 2020

INSIGHTS Virtual Lectures:
New voices on arts, humanities and social sciences
With Jack Hepworth and Dr Narbi Price, Newcastle University
Thursday 23 July 2020

INSIGHTS Revisited:
Gertrude Bell and the ‘Woman Question’ by Professor Helen Berry
With updated introduction by Professor Helen Berry
Tuesday 21 July 2020

INSIGHTS Virtual Lectures:
The Poetry of Uncertainty
Professor Sinéad Morrissey, Professor of Creative Writing, Newcastle University
Thursday 16 July 2020

INSIGHTS Revisited:
The Bohemian Diaspora: my relationship to the art world by Grayson Perry
Tuesday 14 July 2020

INSIGHTS Virtual Lectures:
Philosophy in times of crisis: thinking about Covid-19 with the help of Emmanuel Levinas
Dr Tina Chanter, Lecturer in Philosophy, Newcastle University
Thursday 9 July 2020

INSIGHTS Revisited:
Everyday Sexism by Laura Bates
Tuesday 7 July 2020

INSIGHTS Revisited:
The Talk of the Toon: a linguistic ‘time capsule’ for the Google generation
Introduction by Professor Karen Corrigan, Director of Research in Linguistics
Thursday 2 July 2020

INSIGHTS Revisited:
British Women in the Liberation of Frederick Douglass by Professor Leigh Fought
Introduction by Dr Martin Farr, Co-Chair, Public Lectures Committee, Newcastle University
Tuesday 30 June 2020

INSIGHTS Virtual Lectures:
Collecting Classical Antiquity: Brian B. Shefton 100 years
Andrew Parkin, Keeper of Archaeology, Great North Museum: Hancock
Thursday 25 June 2020

INSIGHTS Revisited:
Seeing homosexuality in Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw by Dr Emma Parker and Leonie Orton
Introduction by Dr Gareth Longstaff, Deputy Head of Media, Culture, Heritage and Chair of Rainbow@ncl
Tuesday 23 June 2020

INSIGHTS Revisited:
The Great Wall story – the way I have discovered it by William Lindesay
Introduction by Bill Griffiths, Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne and Head of Programs and Collections at Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums
Tuesday 16 June 2020

INSIGHTS Virtual Lectures:
What’s the point of university during a pandemic? Hints from CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien
Professor Nick Megoran, Reader in Political Geography, Newcastle University
Thursday 11 June 2020

INSIGHTS Revisited:
What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets
Professor Michael J Sandel, Harvard University
Tuesday 9 June 2020

INSIGHTS Revisited:
People’s history in historical pageants in Britain, 1905–2016 by Dr Alexander Hutton
Introduction by Rosie Serdiville, Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne
Thursday 4 June 2020

INSIGHTS Virtual Lectures:
Jacobson Lecture
Understanding stem cells
Professor Fiona Watt, King’s College London
Tuesday 2 June 2020

INSIGHTS Virtual Lectures:
Is this the end? Hadrian's Wall and the End of the Roman Empire
Dr Rob Collins, Project Manager to the Hadrian's Wall Community Archaeology Project (WallCAP)
Thursday 28 May 2020

INSIGHTS Virtual Lectures:
Quantifying the impact of Covid-19 on city systems
Professor Phil James, Professor of Urban Data, Newcastle University 
Tuesday 26 May 2020

INSIGHTS Virtual Lectures:
Ageism and age stereotyping during COVID-19
Professor Thomas Scharf, Professor of Social Gerontology, Newcastle University
Thursday 21 May 2020

INSIGHTS Revisited:
Hearts and Minds: the untold story behind votes for women by Jane Robinson
Introduction by Dr Martin Farr, Co-Chair, Public Lectures Committee
Tuesday 19 May 2020

INSIGHTS Virtual Lectures:
Bagpuss: The Central Delight by Sandra Kerr
Sandra Kerr, Senior Music Teacher, Newcastle University
Thursday 14 May 2020

INSIGHTS Revisited:
America in Transition: Barack Obama's legacy and Donald Trump's Prospects by Professor Iwan Morgan
Introduction by Dr Martin Farr, Co-Chair, Public Lectures Committee
Tuesday 12 May 2020

INSIGHTS Virtual Lectures:
More than Food: solidarity and care at the Newcastle West End Foodbank
Dr Alison Atkinson-Phillips, Lecturer in Public History, Newcastle University
Thursday 7 May 2020

INSIGHTS Revisited: 
Art history in motion: art museums and their publics in a 2020 world by Maria Balshaw
Introduction by Professor Vee Pollock, Dean of Culture and the Creative Arts, Newcastle University
Tuesday 5 May 2020

INSIGHTS Virtual Lectures:
Allocating scarce resources in a pandemic: ethical reflections
Reverend Bryan Vernon, Senior Lecturer in Healthcare Ethics, Newcastle University
Thursday 30 April 2020

INSIGHTS Revisited:
Alnwick, Rothley and Kirkharle – the 3 Northumberland landscapes of Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown
Introduction by Marta Alberti, Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne
Tuesday 28 April 2020

INSIGHTS Virtual Lectures:
Shakespeare in the time of lockdown
Professor Julie Sanders, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Newcastle University
Thursday 23 April 2020

INSIGHTS Revisited: ‌
Three Tales from the Biomedical Frontier
Introduction by Stefanie Heydecke, Public Lectures Manager, Newcastle University
Tuesday 21 April 2020

INSIGHTS Revisited:
The Speaker, Parliament and engaging with the modern democracy by John Bercow
Introduction by Dr Martin Farr, Co-Chair, Public Lectures Committee
Thursday 16 April 2020

INSIGHTS Revisited: 
Eliminating war in the twenty-first century by Bruce Kent
Introduction by Dr Martin Farr, Co-Chair, Public Lectures Committee
Tuesday 14 April 2020

Spring 2020

Britain and Europe: Historical perspectives beyond Brexit
Professor Brendan Simms
Thursday 12 March 2020

From test tube to clinic - the story of mitochondrial donation and other tales
Professor Sir Doug Turnbull, Newcastle University
Tuesday 10 March 2020

Albert Latner Memorial Lecture in Clinical Biochemistry:
What is a heart attack? And how do we detect them? 
Professor Paul Collinson, St. George's University of London
Thursday 5 March 2020

Providing dental care in a challenging world 
David Edwards, Newcastle University
Thursday 27 February 2020

People like us: What it takes to make it in Modern Britain 
Hashi Mohamed, Barrister and Broadcaster
Tuesday 18 February 2020

Britain's past, present and future 
William Keegan, Senior Economics Correspondent, The Observer
Thursday 13 February 2020

Social Evolution in Darwin's World 
Professor Robin Dunbar
Tuesday 11 February 2020

Autumn 2019

Seeing inside the body using radioactivity (Holmes Lectures for 10 to 14 year olds)
Wednesday 22 January 2020

Looking at the brain in pain (Holmes Lectures for 10 to 14 year olds)
Wednesday 15 January 2020

Is fixing infrastructure in the London global city-region undermining the rest of the UK? 
Professor Andy Pike
Thursday 5 December 2019

Research Scholarships and Expeditions 
Wednesday 4 December 2019

Finding Ralph Tailor 
Professor Keith Wrightson
Wednesday 27 November 2019

Three tales from the biomedical frontier 
Thursday 21 November 2019

Smart Cities: Fact or Fiction? 
Professor Phil James
Tuesday 19 November 2019

Can meaningful hope spring from revealing the depth of our climate failure? 
Professor Kevin Anderson
Thursday 14 November 2019

"I have come to tell you something about slavery" 
Wednesday 13 November 2019

The Crisis of the Meritocracy: how popular demand (not politicians) made Britain into a mass education society 
Professor Peter Mandler
Thursday 7 November 2019

Art history in motion: art museums and their publics in a 2020 world 
Dr Maria Balshaw
Wednesday 6 November 2019

Incentivising an Ethical Economics 
Professor Simon Szreter
Thursday 31 October 2019

The quality of mercy is strained 
Lucy Winkett
Thursday 24 October 2019

Mercy and truth are met together 
Lucy Winkett
Wednesday 23 October 2019

British Women in the Liberation of Frederick Douglass 
Professor Leigh Fought
Tuesday 15 October 2019

The History of Dirt in West Africa 
Professor Steph Newell
Tuesday 8 October 2019

Autumn 2018

• 'Gender sensitive' cities - why should we care? - Marion Roberts (Thomas Sharp Lecture, 11 October)
• The changing landscape of political violence - Stathis Kalyvas (16 October)
• 'If I survive' Frederick Douglass family's 'struggle for freedom' - Celeste-Marie Bernier (18 October)
• Staring into space with Lauren Child (23 October)
• The Great Wall story - the way I have discovered it - William Lindesay (Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne Lecture, 31 October)
• Brexit and populism: a sociological perspective - Mike Savage (1 November)
• The challenge of creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture - Lonnie G. Bunch (2 November)
• The Royal Air Force - a centennial appraisal - Sir Richard Johns (Defence Lecture, 6 November)
• Health divides: where you live can kill you - Clare Bambra (13 November)
• Celebrating Student Research Scholarships and Expeditions 2018 (21 November)
• In conversation with Antony Gormley (21 November)
• Out of the wreckage: a new politics for an age of crisis - George Monbiot (22 November)
• New voices on arts, humanities and social sciences (27 November)
• The reality of climate change: increasing extreme weather hazards - Professor Hayley Fowler (4 December)

Spring 2019

• Understanding Islamophobia - Peter Hopkins (12 February)
• Seeing homosexuality in Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw & 'I'm from the gutter' - Emma Parker & Leonie Orton (LGBT+ History Month Lecture, 19 February)
• Uranium, the Bogeyman of the periodic table: a case of Dr Jekyll or Mr Hyde? - Steve Liddle (26 February)
• Kurt Schwitters' Merz Barn - from there to here - Fred Brookes (28 February)
• Childhood obesity; they should do something about that - Ashley Adamson (7 March)
• Damsels of Defense: a story of Women, Peace and Security in changing times - Ambassador Clare Hutchinson (Defence Lecture, 21 March)
• Between the living and the dead: what are the limits of remembering through oral histories? - Professor Paula Hamilton (26 March)
• Brain Surgery and other stories - Henry Marsh (Fickling Lecture on Developments in Children's Literature, 30 April)
• New voices on science, agriculture and engineering (2 May)

 

Autumn 2017

• The dismantling of our NHS and why we need an NHS bill to reinstate it - Allyson Pollock (12 October)
• How to launch and run a school network in Africa - an inspiring tale of repeated failure - John Rendel (17 October)
• People's history in historical pageants in Britain, 1905-2016 (Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne Lecture) - Alexander Hutton (25 October)
• Open-air landscape - the secular cathedrals of our time? - Charles Jencks (31 October)
• Whatever happened to our shipbuilding industry? - Paul Stott (7 November)
• People and the land: understanding the family farm - Sally Shortall (16 November)
• Investigative film journalism and the real world - Rob Lemkin (23 November)
• A camp 'full of once and future very important persons': Fred Uhlman and Kurt Schwitters in wartime interment - Charmian Brinson (28 November)
• Celebrating Student Research Scholarships and Expeditions 2017 (29 November)
• New voices on science, agriculture and engineering (30 November)
• The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies: relationships and leadership in economic development (Lord Patten Lecture on Social Renewal) - Michael Storper (5 December)
• In the footsteps of Thomas Tallis - Kerry McCarthy (7 December)

Spring 2018

• Reflecting on a life in progress and the stories of oral history - Alessandro Portelli (10 January)
• The Speaker, Parliament and engaging in modern democracy - John Bercow MP (1 February)
• Hearts and Minds: the untold story behind votes for women - Jane Robinson (8 February)
• Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: a view from the US Civil War's slave refugee camps - Amy Murrell-Taylor (16 February)
• Pride in the North - Mark Nichols (20 February)
• Familial cholesterol: an underdiagnosed and undertreated disease - Anne Tybjaerg-Hansen (17 April)
• The technology of space exploration - Alton Horsfall (19 April)
• Geography's place in the world: past, present, future (Tyneside Geographical Society Lecture) - Rita Gardner (26 April)
• The English origins of modern democracy - Rachel Hammersley (3 May)
• A composer's half-century (Sophia Lecture) - Nicola LeFanu (8 May)
• The urban landscape as a place to flourish - green space, health and quality of life - Catharine Ward Thompson (10 May)
• Pageants and the past - Kynren in context - Mark Freeman (15 May)
• Three tales from the biomedical frontier - Riona Mc Ardle, Clare Willis & Julia Whitehall (17 May)
• Convocation Guest Talk - Karen Ross (23 June)

 

Autumn 2016

• Science, sheep and Amber Ale (Cameron Gifford Lecture), Dianna Bowles, 11 October 
• Black slavery/white freedom: two sides of the same coin in Britain and the Caribbean, Catherine Hall, 13 October
• Commemorating the Jarrow Crusade: why the march remains relevant today, Matt Perry, 20 October
• Alnwick, Rothley and Kirkharle - the three Northumberland landscapes of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, Nick Owen, 26 October
• Stories on the move: suffering, sanctuary, danger (Fickling Lecture on Developments in Children's Literature), Marina Warner, 3 November
• Stalingrad to Syria - how welfare has changed (Defence Lecture), Antony Beevor, 10 November
• Three tales from the biomedical frontier, 17 November
• The geography of poverty - why place really matters (Lord Patten Lecture on Social Renewal), Julia Unwin, 22 November
• Celebrating Student Research Scholarships and Expeditions, 23 November
• Geoengineering climate change: do two wrongs make a right?, Nicholas J P Owens, 6 December
• The dilemmas of ageing, Baroness Greengross, 7 December

Spring 2017

• America in Transition: Barack Obama's Legacy and Donald Trump's Prospects, Iwan Morgan, 31 January 
• Ten years after the Stern Review on the economics of climate change: looking back, looking forward, Lord Stern, 2 February
• Give me sunshine, Professor Bill Fraser, 8 February
• 1967 and LGBT liberation, Peter Tatchell, 14 February
• The courage to listen, Reverend Jeffrey Brown, 21 February
• Lenin on the Train, Professor Catherine Merridale, 28 February
• Vertical: The City From Satellites to Bunkers, Professor Stephen Graham, 2 March
• Citizenship and equality, Vera Baird and Sara Bryson, 9 March
• Race to the top - productivity, investment and industrial strategy in the post-Brexit world (R W Mann Lecture), Chi Onwurah MP, 16 March
• What is the relationship between genetics and social mobility? Implications for policy and social science, Leon Feinstein, 21 March
• Voices and books: a new history of reading, Jenny Richards, 23 March
• New voices on social renewal, PhD students from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, 25 April
• Trump in the age of Captain America/Captain America in the age of Trump, Jason Dittmer, 4 May
• Debate: why history?, Helen Berry, Diarmaid MacCulloch, Amanda Foreman, Sam Willis and Martin Farr, 9 May
• Leading the inclusive city: an international analysis, Robin Hambleton, 11 May
• Dr Martin Luther King Jr: his legacy in 2017 (Convocation Lecture), Tony Badger, 17 June

Autumn 2015

• Postcapitalism: A Guide to our Future (Lord Patten Lecture on Social Renewal), Paul Mason, 6 October
• Sure Start 2020: sure stop?, Naomi Eisenstadt, 8 October
• All changed, changed utterly (Grey Turner Lecture), Clare Marx, 20 October
• Journeys in weatherland, Alex Harris, 29 October
• Defence in the 21st century – the need for change (Defence Lecture), Nick Parker, 3 November
• New voices on social renewal, 5 November
• Mutton dressed as lamb (British Society for 18th-Century Studies Patron’s Lecture), Amanda Vickery, 19 November
• Making the land known: Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, Julie Sanders, 26 November
• Cholesterol, statins and heart attack risks (Albert Latner Memorial Lecture), Naveed Sattar, 1 December
• From abolition to Zephaniah: a brief history of literature for the Black British child, Karen Sands-O'Connor, 3 December

Spring 2016

• Cultural property in conflict and peace, Peter Stone, 4 February
• Do you know what you are eating? Science identifying food fraud, Paul Brerton, 9 February
• Gertrude Bell and the ‘Woman Question’, Helen Berry, 23 February
• Tackling uncertainty in organisations. The future: opportunity or threat? (R W Mann Lecture), Clive Morton, 25 February
• New voices on sustainability, 1 March
• The anatomy of the street (Thomas Sharp Lecture), Michael Hebbert, 3 March
• Unravelling the Middle East, Emma Sky, 8 March
• 50 years since ‘Cathy Come Home’, Suzanne Fitzpatrick, 5 May
• The complexity of language: what we learn and how, David Lightfoot, 10 May
• 1916 memories, commemoration and absences, Mary E Daly, 19 May
• Welcome to the Anthropocene (Jack Jeffery Sustainability Lecture), James Syvitski, 12 July

Autumn 2014

• Pat Barker, in conversation with Anne Whitehead, 7 October
• Social Networks: 60 minutes with Chris Csikszentmihalyi, 9 October
• Renewables, intermittency and low carbon (Joseph Swan Memorial Lecture), Phil Jones, 14 October
• The fall of the Berlin Wall: new perspectives 25 years on, Hester Vaizey, 23 October
• The development of English heraldry, David White, 29 October
• New voices on sustainability, 30 October
• Reversing the irreversible: Type 2 diabetes and you, Roy Taylor, 4 November
• Russia, Crimea, Ukraine: riddle, mystery, enigma? (Defence Lecture), Chris Bellamy, 6 November
• Every child into school and learning: why not now?, Michael Barber, 25 November
• Expanding opportunity in education (Jubilee Development Lecture), Kevin Watkins, 27 November
• A little bit autistic? (Sophia Lecture), Uta Frith, 9 December

Spring 2015

• How did the Islamic State come to exist and what can be done about it?, Patrick Cockburn, 3 February
• Rediscovering the elixir of life, Aidan Halligan, 10 February
• Thinking with Anne Armstrong: witchcraft in the North East during the 17th century, James Sharpe, 12 February
• My life and easy times: getting away with words (Fickling Lecture), Ian McMillan, 17 February
• An NHS baptism of fire: the first 100 days (R W Mann Lecture), Stephen Dunn, 26 February
• The changing face of crop protection in 21st century agriculture (Cameron-Gifford Lecture), Rob Edwards, 3 March
• The Riddle of the Childscape, Jay Griffiths, 5 March
• Art for the people: William Morris and his legacy (Charlton Memorial Lecture), Fiona MacCarthy, 23 April
• Everyday Sexism, Laura Bates, 30 April
• Three tales from the biomedical frontier, 5 May
• Language and thought in children, Jill de Villiers, 12 May
• Britain and the general election of 2015, John Curtice, 14 May

Autumn 2013

• T Dan Smith – hero or villain?, Chris Foote-Wood, 22 October 2013
• Climate change: what's virtue got to do with it? (Tyneside Geographical Society Lecture), Chris Hulme, 28 November 2013
• Richard Burton: the aspirant scholar, Chris Williams, 5 December 2013

Spring 2014

• Getting old in two languages: how bilingualism affects memory and ageing, Ellen Bialystok, 6 February
• The Underground Railroad and the Struggle Against Slavery, Richard Blackett, 11 February
• For ever, for everyone. The National Trust in the 21st century (Cameron-Gifford Lecture), Dame Helen Ghosh, 13 February
• What's in your head? (Fickling Lecture), Frank Cottrell-Boyce, 27 February
• Strategy and the underdog, Lawrence Freedman, 4 March
• 'If only...’ Some soul-searching over the 1984–5 miners’ strike, Nicholas Jones, 11 March
• The bombing war 1939-1945: new perspectives, Richard Overy, 13 March
• Noble Endeavours: England and Germany - in praise of a forgotten friendship, Miranda Seymour, 18 March
• An accidental redesigner (RW Mann Lecture), David Ben-Tovim, 20 March 
• Ageing. Identity and Wellbeing, Helen Yallop, 27 March
• Good cities, better lives (Thomas Sharp Lecture), Sir Peter Hall, 22 May

Autumn 2012

• What is the way towards a better understanding of depression?, Joe Herbert, 9 October
• Will Electricity Market Reform work, and why does it have to be so complicated?, Robert Gross, 11 October
• Molecules that changed the world (Wynne-Jones Memorial Lecture), KC Nicolaou, 16 October
• Ian Nairn: inspired by Newcastle (Thomas Sharp Lecture), Gillian Darley, 18 October
• There are alternatives! Democratic education and the common school, Michael Fielding & Peter Moss, 25 October
• Edward VII: the playboy prince who saved the monarchy, Jane Ridley, 30 October
• Welfare and warfare: how China's past is shaping its present - and future, Rana Mitter, 1 November
• The future of learning, Sugata Mitra, 15 November
• Celebrating student research scholarships and expeditions 2012, 21 November
• Tennyson: a romantic in an un-romantic age, John Batchelor, 4 December
• Cosmic Dramas: interrelationship of technological ikons with female mythology, Liliane Lijn, 6 December

Spring 2013

• MI5 from the Kaiser to Al-Qaeda, Christopher Andrews, 5 February
• Public health: time for social renewal?, Hilary Graham, 7 February
• Sexual rights and wrongs in Southern and Eastern Africa, Oliver Phillips, 14 February
• Why Rousseau was wrong: Christianity and the secular soul, The Very Revd Dr Frances Ward, 21 February
• Eliminating war in the twenty-first century (Tyneside Geographical Lecture), Bruce Kent, 28 February
• Ben Jonson and fame, Ian Donaldson, 12 March
• Gender and the popular memory of the Second World War, Penny Summerfield, 14 March 
• Alexander the Great: cross-dressing conqueror of the world?, Tony Spawforth, 16 April
• Beyond the Millennium Development Goals: charting a course for a fairer world (Jubilee Development Lecture), Baroness Kinnock, 23 April
• Three tales from the biomedical frontier, 14 May

 

August 2011

• Fifty years in the BBC - taking stock of the future, Sir John Tusa, 4 October
• The struggle for black British literature, Prabhu Guptara, 6 October
• The Talk of the Toon: a linguistic 'time capsule' for the Google generation, Karen Corrigan, Adam Mearns & Hermann Moisl, 13 October
• The challenge of sustainability (Wynne-Jones Memorial Lecture), Richard N Zare, 18 October
• The bountiful sea: prospects for sustainable use of marine bioresources, Peter Olive, 1 November
• The King James Bible: the making of a classic translation, Alistair McGrath, 3 November
• Where is the new economy? Prosperity, work and sustainability 'after the crisis' (Jack Jeffery Environment and Sustainability Lecture), Tim Jackson, 8 November
• Lest we forget: Tacitus on history writing under a tyranny, Jakob Wisse, 10 November
• The Bohemian Diaspora: my relationship to the art world, Grayson Perry, 15 November
• Why is the universe bio-friendly? (Robinson Prize Lecture in Cosmology), Paul Davies, 24 November
• Imperial purple porphyry: the archaeology of the emperors' building stone (Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne Lecture), 30 November

Spring 2012 

• The Spirit Level: Why Equality Is Better for Everyone, Richard Wilkinson, 2 February
• Medieval aesthetics and the heroic age of Gothic invention (Charlton Memorial Lecture), Paul Binksi, 7 February
• Managing London's roads and keeping the capital moving at Games time, Garrett Emmerson, 9 February
• Enlisting Dumbledore's Army: children's stories and human rights (Fickling Lecture on Developments in Children's Literature), Shami Chakrabarti, 6 March
• The Queen - art and image, Pool Moorhouse, 19 April