University of Gloucestershire launches ‘The Living Room Lectures’

The University of Gloucestershire will host a series of thought provoking free online short talks, available to everyone from the comfort of their homes. ​

The Living Room Lectures begin next week with a range of subjects on offer. They include the importance of laughter in the face of adversity, how wildlife has been affected by the lockdown, the power of games and play in coaching, using creative photography to document the pandemic, along with how music can map the lives of migrants.

The online public lectures, will replace the University’s annual lecture series, and hope to bring an entertaining and enlightening offer to a wide audience when they are streamed live on the University’s Facebook Page​. The Living Room Lectures will kick off next week on Wednesday 20th May at 1pm with Dr Adeela Shafi, discussing how education can change the lives of young offenders with her talk ‘Don’t Throw Away the Key’.

For a special Living Room Lecture on 3rd June, the University of Gloucestershire has teamed up with Cheltenham Festivals to include Adam Hart’s ‘Wildlife on Lockdown’ lecture within the Cheltenham Science Festival @ Home programme. Instead of being broadcast on the University’s Facebook page, this episode of our Living Room Lecture series will be streamed live from Cheltenham Festival’s YouTube channel as part of the CSF@Home programme. The University is proud to continue to support Cheltenham Festivals throughout 2020 and Adam Hart, Professor of Science Communication at the University will be no stranger to Cheltenham Science Festival audiences.

Marieke Navin, Head of Programming at Cheltenham Science Festival said:
“Cheltenham Science Festival @ Home is going to be an amazing mix of live online events, pre-recorded events with live Q + As with speakers, participatory workshops and some brand-new formats. Although our full line-up is yet to be announced, we are delighted that Adam Hart will appear in our digital Festival and that the University of Gloucestershire’s new Living Room Lecture series can be part of it.”

The series of short half hour lectures will be streamed live on Facebook, including an interactive question and answer session, and will run every other Wednesday at 1pm from 20th May onwards.

The full schedule is as follows:

Wednesday 20 May, 1pm – “Don’t Just Throw Away the Key” Dr Adeela Shafi

Wednesday 3 June, 1pm – “Wildlife Under Lockdown” Professor Adam Hart

This special lecture will be in partnership Cheltenham Science Festival @Home and will be streamed live on Cheltenham Festival’s YouTube channel as part of their CSF@Home programme. For more details here.​

Wednesday 17 June, 1pm – “Why Laughing in the face of Adversity is a Good Idea” Graham Edgar

Wednesday 1 July, 1pm – “Creative Photography in Lockdown” – Trudie Ballantyne

Wednesday 15 July, 1pm – “Coaching and the Power” Will Roberts

Wednesday 29 July, 1pm – “Mapping the Music of Migration” Abi Gardner ​