Events Highlights: February 2021

This term we have an exciting programme of online events which may interest staff. Please see below for a list of our upcoming highlights:

Annual Wolfenden Lecture: Why We Are Not All Equal

Wednesday 3 February 2021, 19.00-20.00

Online

Annual Wolfenden Lecture with special guest, Hafsa Qureshi, Stonewall Bi Role Model of the Year 2019.

As a modern society, we treat the problem of inequality as a thing of the past. This lecture will work to dispel the notion that equality has been achieved. We will look at the ways society has adapted the way we discriminate against one another, and what we can do to oppose this.

This special event is named in memory of Lord Wolfenden, who was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Reading from 1950-64. Lord Wolfenden chaired a committee that wrote the 1957 ‘Wolfenden Report', a key milestone in LGBT+ history in the UK.

Wolfenden Lecture Booking Link

February Public Lecture - Sport and COVID what do we know?

Wednesday 10 February 2021, 19.00-19.45

Online

Sport, like most aspects of our lives, has been heavily disrupted by Covid-19. Even as a vaccine begins to be rolled out, sporting events are being cancelled, rescheduled, or adapted to fit Covid-19. Sport without fans has become normal, yet before March 2020 less than 200 elite football matches had ever taken place without fans in the stadium. Removing all fans has affected sports clubs financially, and arguably also on the field - a number of academic studies have shown that this affects outcomes, especially for the visiting team. Sports events are mass events, and before now scant attention has been paid to their potential public health risk. Yet how much did they contribute to the first wave? Have they contributed at all in the second one?

In this talk Professor James Reade, Head of Department of Economics, will review the evidence that has been accumulated over the last year.

February Public Lecture Booking Link

Annual Chaplaincy Lecture: The Making of Dominion - An Interview with Tom Holland

Tuesday 23 February 2021, 19.00-20.15

Online

Tom Holland is an award-winning historian, author and broadcaster. During this interview, he will be discussing his most recent work, 'Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind'. 'If great books encourage you to look at the world in an entirely new way, then Dominion is a very great book indeed', Sunday Times History Book of the Year. Previous works include Rubicon: The Triumph and the Tragedy of the Roman Republic; Persian Fire; and In the Shadow of the Sword. Holland has adapted Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides and Virgil for the BBC and his translation of Herodotus was published in 2013 by Penguin Classics.

Chaplaincy Lecture Booking Link

Edith Morley Lecture featuring Scarlett Curtis

Monday 1 March 2021, 19.00-20.15

Online

To mark International Women's Day, we were delighted to present this annual event in memory of Edith Morley, believed to be the first woman to be awarded the title of professor in a British University. This year, this special event will feature writer, activist, podcaster and journalist, Scarlett Curtis. Scarlett is the curator of the Sunday Times Bestseller and National Book Award winning "Feminists Don't Wear Pink & other lies" and curator of Sunday Times Bestselling book "It's Not Okay to Feel Blue & other lies".

Edith Morley Lecture Booking Link

If you would like to find out more information, please see our full event listing.