Past Lectures before 2020

Henry Marsh.

Professor Paula Hamilton.

Ambassador Clare Hutchinson.

Professor Ashley Adamson.

Fred Brookes.

Professor Steve Liddle.

Dr Emma Parker and Leonie Orton.

Professor Peter Hopkins.

Professor Hayley Fowler.

George Monbiot.

Professor Paul Readman. Free admission, all seats allocated on a first-come first-served basis.

Professor Clare Bambra.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Johns.

Lonnie G. Bunch.

Professor Mike Savage.

William Lindesay OBE.

William Lindesay OBE.

Lauren Child.

Professor Celeste-Marie Bernier.

Professor Stathis Kalyvas.

Emeritus Professor Marion Roberts.

Professor Karen Ross will deliver a talk on 'NOT Acting Our Age: challenging gender stereotypes in a community-focused action project'

Dr Mark Freeman.

Professor Catharine Ward Thompson.

Nicola LeFanu.

Dr Rachel Hammersley.

Professor Rita Gardner CBE.

Dr Alton Horsfall.

Professor Anne Tybjærg-Hansen.

Mark Nichols.

Dr Amy Murrell Taylor.

Jane Robinson.

Rt Hon John Bercow MP

Professor Alessandro Portelli.

Michael Storper.

Kerry McCarthy.

Charmian Brinson.

Rob Lemkin.

Professor Sally Shortall.

Dr Paul Stott.

Charles Jencks.

Alexander Hutton.

Professor Allyson Pollock.

Professor Tony Badger, Northumbria University.

Professor Robin Hambleton, University of the West of England.

Professor Jason Dittmer, University College London

Professor Jennifer Richards, Newcastle University

Professor Leon Feinstein, Children’s Commissioner for England.

Chi Onwurah MP.

Vera Baird QC and Sara Bryson

Professor Stephen Graham, Newcastle University.

Professor Catherine Merridale FBA.

Reverend Jeffrey L Brown.

Peter Tatchell, human rights campaigner.

Professor Bill Fraser.

Lord Stern

Professor Iwan Morgan. Free admission, all seats allocated on a first-come first-served basis.

Baroness Greengross, President, International Longevity Centre UK

Professor Nicholas J P Owens, Director, The Scottish Association for Marine Science 

Free admission, all seats allocated on a first-come first-served basis. 

Julia Unwin, Chief Executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust.

Winners of the Faculty of Medical Sciences’ postgraduate public-speaking prize. Free admission, all seats allocated on a first-come first-served basis. 

Antony Beevor, military historian. Free admission, all seats allocated on a first-come first-served basis. 

Marina Warner, novelist, historian and mythographer. Free admission, all seats allocated on a first-come first-served basis. 

Nick Owen, historic landscape surveyor. Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne Lecture. Free admission, all seats allocated on a first-come first-served basis. 

Dr Matt Perry, School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Newcastle University. Free admission, all seats allocated on a first-come first-served basis. 

Catherine Hall, Professor of Modern British Social and Cultural History, University College London. 

Professor Dianna Bowles, University of York. Free admission, all seats allocated on a first-come first-served basis.

Free admission, no pre-booking required

Free admission, no pre-booking required.

Free admission, no pre-booking required.

Free admission, no pre-booking required.

Free admission, no pre-booking required.

Free admission, no pre-booking.

Fickling Lecture on Developments in Children's Literature Free admission, no booking needed.

Free admission, no pre-booking required.

Free admission, no pre-booking required.

James Sharpe, Professor of Early Modern History, University of York

Professor Aidan Halligan, Director of Well North

Patrick Cockburn, Iraq Correspondent, The Independent

Professor Mary E Daly, University College Dublin

David Lightfoot, Professor of Linguistics, Georgetown University, USA

Professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick, Heriot-Watt University 

Emma Sky, Director of Yale World Fellows and Senior Fellow, Jackson Institute, Yale University

Michael Hebbert, Professor of Town Planning, University College London, and Editor of Planning Perspectives

Clive Morton OBE, Professor of Corporate Governance and Business Development, Middlesex University Business School

Helen Berry, Professor of British History, Newcastle University

Paul Brereton, Head of Agri-food Research, Fera Science Ltd

Professor Peter Stone, UNESCO Chair in Cultural Property Protection and Peace, Newcastle University

a brief history of how humans are reshaping the planet. James Syvitski, Professor of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder.

This lecture discusses the current searches for gravitational waves from astrophysical sources. These elusive signals – ‘ripples in the curvature of spacetime’ – carry unique information about what is happening deep in the heart of some of the most violent events in the Universe.

Part of the 'Changing Age programme of events

A panel of parliamentarians, in conversation with each other and the audience, reflect on the Election: on the campaign, on the parliament that preceded it, and on the prospects for Britain.

Despite the relief after the signing of the Armistice ending the First World War, Britain remained paralysed by grief. This is the moving story of a nation struggling to regain hope.

Joseph Swan Memorial Lecture Free admission, no pre-booking required  

Free admission, no pre-booking required    

Albert Latner Memorial Lecture in Clinical Biochemistry Free admission, no pre-booking required

Society of Latin American Studies Annual Lecture and School of Modern Languages Centenary EventFree admission, no pre-booking required

Free admission, no pre-booking required

    Part of the Changing Age programme, in collaboration with the Lit and Phil  

Society of Biology Lecture Free admission, no pre-booking required

Free admission, no pre-booking required

The Sixth Fickling Lecture on Developments in Children’s Literature

Society of Antiquaries Lecture Free admission, no pre-booking required   

  Armstrong Circle Lecture   Free admission, no pre-booking required    

Riddell Memorial Lecture Free admission, no pre-booking required

Riddell Memorial Lecture Free admission, no pre-booking required

John H Holmes Memorial Lectures for 10-14 year olds To reserve free places, please contact the Public Lectures office on 0191 208 6136 or e-mail: public.lectures@ncl.ac.uk

British Academy lecture in association with the School of Psychology

Free admission, no pre-booking required

Free admission, no pre-booking required

Free admission, no pre-booking required  

Free admission, no pre-booking required

Defence Lecture Free admission, no pre-booking required

British Academy lecture in association with the School of Psychology

Lecture leading up to Fairtrade Fortnight Free admission, no pre-booking required

Camoes Centre for Portuguese Language Public Lecture Free admission, no pre-booking required

Free admission, no pre-booking required

Diversity Season Lecture

Science Fest 2011 Lecture

Royal Society of Chemistry Lecture

Jacobson Lecture

Sophia Lecture 

Armstrong Circle Lecture Cragside is a grand expression of the English romantic dream. It is also a fusion of art, science, architecture and technology, drawn together by two remarkable Victorian talents. This is the story, often strangely obscure, of how the house came into being.

Free admission - no tickets needed

Brain Awareness Week Lecture As healthy adult humans, we spend most of our time thinking about the past and planning for the future: mental time travel is what we do for a living. However, we are not born with this ability. This lecture will review when we develop these skills, as well as the extent to which we share these abilities with other animals.

Science and Engineering Week Lecture

Part of the Changing Age programme of events

Spectacularly preserved fossils of birds and small dinosaurs from China show that feathers evolved early. These early feathers share fine ultrastructural details with modern feathers, and reveal for the first time the exact colours of some of these ancient creatures.

An overview of the work carried out by astronomers and particle physicists at the North East's Boulby Mine – searching for the missing mass in the Universe. All are welcome (no great particle physics or astronomy expertise needed!).

Cameron-Gifford Lecture Chris Ritson reflects on our growing understanding of consumer food choice; the emergence of quality and safety as the dominant force in UK food policy; and the role of social marketing in public-interest aspects of diet and health.  

The former cabinet minister reflects on a career during which she was the second most prominent woman in British Politics.  

Bonnie Greer discusses the role of abstraction in Black History, and considers the current problems of gang culture as part of an ancient narrative, asking how it is possible to create art, music and literature through the same forces that cause death on the streets.

Earl Grey Lecture University education was always seen as a privilege, opening doors to opportunities and upward social mobility. At the same time, there is strong pressure for wider participation and fairer access. These apparently contradictory positions are explored.

Relating his experience as a screenwriter, playwright, translator and adaptor, Lee Hall gives a very subjective survey of dramatic theory from the Greek to The Simpsons.

John H Holmes Memorial Lectures for 10-14 year olds To register for free tickets please contact the Public Lectures Office on 0191 208 6136 or email public.lectures@ncl.ac.uk

John H Holmes Memorial Lectures for 10-14 year olds To register for free tickets please contact the Public Lectures Office on 0191 208 6136 or email public.lectures@ncl.ac.uk

Jacobson LectureA new theory suggests the cancers contain cells with the same properties as stem cells which are resistant to conventional drug treatment and this explains why treated tumours return.

University Expeditions Committee

A critical discussion of the many ways in which evolution has been used ideologically, from Darwin’s era to Dawkins and the Creationists.

The Fifth Fickling Lecture on Developments in Children’s Literature in association with Seven Stories, The Centre for Children's Books A lot of good writing for teenagers has appeared recently, some of it by Nick Hornby. Here he will argue that all writers have a great deal to learn from young adult fiction, not least the vital knack of holding the reader’s attention.

Society of Antiquaries, Newcastle upon Tyne Note: 6pm start

This lecture explores the role and significance of hospitals in London from c1700–1840 when attitudes towards their purpose and function were considerably transformed.

  Guest of Honour, HE Maria Beatriz Souviron-Crespo, the Bolivian Ambassador;  Speakers, Md Shamsuddoha from Equity Bangladesh; Nick Dearden, Director Jubilee Debt Campaign UK

TWENTY-SEVENTH GREY TURNEER LECTUREOrganised by The Clinical Deanery, Faculty of Medical Sciences and in conjunction with the North of England Surgical Society  

A real-life family saga that illuminates the similar fates of Scotland’s clans and America’s native peoples.

Human anatomy, physiology, behaviour and society have all been strongly shaped by the need for cooked food – a relationship that goes back to our distant past.

PhD talks sponsored by the British Science Association

Thomas Sharp Lecture Any planner who refused to provide a drawing could not be planning in any meaningful way, according to Thomas Sharp.‘Either they have the plans worked out or they’ve got a nonsensical document!’ he thundered. Seventy years later it seems that his message has finally got through. Today, everyone is busy masterplanning, but the output of nonsense is undiminished. Rob Cowan sounds the alarm and offers a solution.

Riddell Memorial Lectures

The Society of Biology A look at how human behaviour varies with the ecological context in which people live, even within the small areas that make up a single city.

Jack Jeffery Environment and Sustainability Lecture

Wynne-Jones Memorial Lecture Professor Hindsgaul discusses his exploration of the development of new, simple chemistry-based methods that will yield information on the identity and quantity of a carbohydrate solute with minimal use of sophisticated instruments.

What happened to Darwin’s early passion for music, poetry, and visual art? Did it simply die away or was it transformed in his later theories?

Lecture in association with the British Science Association An insight into the development of the region’s newest visitor attraction and its purpose-built storage and research facilities.

Joseph Swan Memorial LectureAgainst the background of climate change, and food, environmental and energy security, how are we going to reconcile the competing pressures on land and the countryside?

Margaret Drabble will talk about writing memoir, using the jigsaw puzzle as a metaphor for the puzzles of the past.  

A look at the way in which John Piper, as artist and writer, helped revive awareness of national identity in art, architecture and design during the Second World War.

Lecture marking the retirement of the Chair of Public Lectures

Defence Lecture

THE BRITISH SCIENCE ASSOCIATION, NORTHUMBRIA BRANCH LECTURE (Free entry, no tickets required for this lecture)

Lecture to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the birth of the Digger, Gerrard Winstanley

 - NATIONAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING WEEK 2009 sponsored by THE BRITISH SCIENCE ASSOCIATION Sponsored by THE BRITISH SCIENCE ASSOCIATION Note: admission to this lecture is free but you are asked to apply for tickets (tel: 0191 208 6136)  -  **THERE ARE NO MORE TICKETS AVAILABLE FOR THIS LECTURE**

(Free entry, no tickets required for this lecture)

(Free entry, no tickets required for this lecture)

Tyneside Geographical Lecture(Free entry, no tickets required for this lecture)

(Free entry, no tickets required for this lecture)

Avison Lecture Series Marking the bicentenary of the Newcastle composer, Charles Avison. (Free entry, no tickets required for this lecture)

(Free entry, no tickets required for this lecture)

Albert Latner Memorial Lecture in Clinical Biochemistry (Free entry, no tickets required for this lecture)

Jacobson Lecture (Free entry, no tickets required for this lecture)

A lecture in association with Oxford University Press

A joint lecture with the North East Humanists to commemorate the forthcoming 200th Anniversary of Darwin’s birth

Sophia Lecture

Trevor Saunders Lecture in Ancient Philosophy

A lecture in association with the Northern Regional Group of the Geological Society

Robinson Prize Lecture

Sir Joseph Swan Memorial Lecture

A lecture in association with Seven Stories, The Centre for Children’s Books

A lecture in association with WW Norton & Company

British Association Northumbria Branch Lecture

Cameron-Gifford Lecture

Followed by a last opportunity for a nostalgic visit to the present museum

Note: 6pm Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building

Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building

British Association Northumbria Branch Lecture

Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building

Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building, 5:30pm

Lecture to Mark International Year of Biodiversity