Social Sciences Festival 2025 - Food Politics: Belonging, Identity, and Sustainability

lectures london lectures

Find free to attend lectures from leading universities and institutions around London

Calender Github

Friday

Apr 25

17:30

HOME

Monday

Apr 28

13:00

The Oxford Ministry for the Future presents: ‘Art, Nature and Science: Imagining Other Worlds’ with Brian Eno and Kim Stanley Robinson

16:00

A Guide to Mastering Your Money and Managing Your Finances as a Freelancer by Underpinned (for Freelancers)

Public services in the age of populism: how do we fix the NHS and NHS productivity?

Tuesday

Apr 29

14:00

Anglican and Catholic Synodality

16:00

Does Net Zero Mean the End of Livestock Agriculture?

Professor Sir Aziz Sheikh's Inaugural Lecture: ‘Catalysing the Data-enabled Transformation of Health - Globally’

16:15

Designing Sound: Toward a History of Amplification

16:30

The discovery of ReNU syndrome

17:30

What’s Happening in Serbia?

Wednesday

Apr 30

14:30

Politics and Global Health: The Need for a New, Resilient Architecture

15:00

Scholars' Library: Sara Bronin on 'Key to the City'

16:00

Shanawdithit: A Woman at the End of the World

Natural tilings: from hard rock to soft cells - Gábor Domokos

17:00

Celebrating AA Files

18:00

Professor Sameena Mulla Public Lecture

18:15

What does it mean to be human in the age of AI?

18:30

Traits and Traces: A Leach Family Legacy with Shelley Lockwood

Thursday

May 1

10:00

British History Today: a conference

14:00

Meet the Artist: Kimathi Donkor

Circular Summer: Upcycle Your Wardrobe

14:45

Migration & The Arts

15:00

Crick Lecture | Sadaf Farooqi

16:00

Hacking the Body: How Virtual Reality is Revolutionising our Understanding of Human Vision and Shape

18:00

'British History from the Middle of Nowhere', Julia Laite (Birkbeck, University of London)

Opening reception: Cursed Objects in Museum Shops

17:30

Dirty Old River

From Thin Air: Minimalist and Process Music from Africa to Arvo Pärt

Friday

May 2

14:30

Social Entrepreneurship in Conflict & Post-Conflict Settings

16:00

Who cares about deltas? Growth vs. culture vs. climate change

16:30

Robert Wedderburn: Anti-racist solidarity and the life of Britain’s most radical Black abolitionist

Lecture 1 - The Beating Heart

18:00

Ekphrasis

17:30

The Operatic Showstopper: ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’

Saturday

May 3

14:00

True Cut: Biopsies from the hidden heart of healthcare

Tuesday

May 6

13:00

Meet the Artist: Joy Labinjo

13:30

Strachey Lecture: The Lean Theorem Prover/Will computers prove theorems?

15:00

FoNS Neurodiversity Week: Keynote: Heather Logan – Autism in STEM

16:00

Book Talk: 'Pro-vax: Supporting Vaccines through Activism, Petitions, and Trials' with Samantha Vanderslott

17:30

Echoes on the map: unveiling the auditory history of late Ottoman Istanbul through digital cartography

18:00

On rowing: Jenna Armstrong and Cath Bishop in conversation

Nature's Memory: Behind the Scenes at the World’s Natural History Museums

Simone Natale - Projecting Life Onto Machines

Narrating the Self: from Montaigne to Instagram

A Story is a Deal: A conversation on narrative, identity and status with Will Storr

17:00

The Clarendon Lectures in Management Studies by Tima Bansal - 'Designing the future: Applying systems thinking to corporate practice."

18:30

Crafting Resistance: An Evening with Common Threads Press

Wednesday

May 7

10:00

Never Not None

12:00

Athena Lecture 2025: Overcoming challenges in the pandemic

13:00

Nelder Fellow Lectures: Professor Huyen Pham

13:30

Prof Eric Kemp-Benedict - Classical-evolutionary technological change

16:00

Do Computers Get Sick? How Humans and Computers Fight Viruses

"AI and Peacemaking: Rethinking Conflict Resolution in the Digital Age" Discussion Panel

16:30

Rethinking prostate cancer: my pursuit of the truth through surgical research

16:45

Humans As Ultra-Cooperative Great Apes

18:00

The Man Who Painted his House

17:30

The death and life of the center-left

Thursday

May 8

13:00

FoNS Neurodiversity Week: Neurodiversity in Focus: Listening, Learning, and Designing for Success

14:45

Migration and the arts of co-production: urban mobilities and carceral London

16:00

How to End Wars: Pragmatic Approaches to Peacebuilding

16:15

Hans Keller's 'Group functioning of a string quartet'

16:30

Samira Ahmed in conversation

17:30

The power of data: ethics, politics, and public interest

Friday

May 9

15:00

Conversations with the Past: Writing Workshop

16:30

Professor of Poetry Lecture: ‘Repetition is a Form of Change', An Oblique Strategy in Poetry

18:00

Writing Queer Performance

18:30

Screening and discussion: Jon Jost and Ian Christie

19:00

The Netherhole Martyr

Saturday

May 10

09:30

Hooke Park Open Day

Monday

May 12

13:00

Janet Suzman in conversation with Edith Hall

16:00

Growth and regulation in the age of populism: the Financial Conduct Authority’s challenge in getting regulation right

18:00

Dr. Joanne Gray: Powering Workplace Proactivity Book Launch

17:30

The corporation in the 21st century

Tuesday

May 13

09:00

Nelder Fellow Lectures: Professor Huyen Pham

11:00

AI for Cybersecurity: Joint Seminar with BDSS and Birkbeck

13:00

From reversal of fortune to economic resurgence: a comparative study of industrialization and leadership

14:00

Prayer in a distracted world

16:00

The Troubled Brain: Ageing and Dementia

17:00

After the End of the World: Another Season of War in South Lebanon

16:30

Rhodes Film Fora: 'Daughters of Chibok' & 'The Mothers of Chibok'

18:00

The Ronald Tress Memorial Lecture - "Economic Growth Through Education: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?"

17:00

‘Breaking Ground’ and Beyond: A Century of Women and Geology at OUMNH 1813-1914

17:30

Neoliberalism and social justice? Reconciling Adam Smith and John Rawls

19:30

OLEM: Yolande Lyne-Stephens and the creation of a Cambridge church & AGM

The Einstein Vendetta

Wednesday

May 14

11:00

Expanding Technological Indicators for Biodiversity and Environmental Sustainability (CIMR debates in Public Policy) - Hybrid: Online and In-person

The Co-Production of Health Research ECR Network Reading Group

13:00

Lili Brik and the New Soviet Woman: A Lunchtime Talk with Anastasia Skoybedo

12:00

Nelder Fellow Lectures: Professor Huyen Pham

13:30

Dr Lilit Popoyan - Prevention first vs. cap-and-trade policies in an agent-based integrated assessment model with GHG emissions

16:00

Modern Pagan Witchcraft

16:30

Making things that move us: a gaming lens on design, motivation, and everything else

18:00

Public lecture

The 6th Biennial Dorothy Edgington Lectures and Graduate Workshop

17:00

The corporation in the twenty-first century: Why (almost) everything we are told about business is wrong.

18:30

Developing the Garden for House and Garden Visitors Alike: Climate Resilience and Biodiversity with Anna's Flower Farm

17:30

Apprenticeship and economic growth in early modern England

Thursday

May 15

08:30

'Breakfast with Birkbeck' Environment & Sustainability Webinar #6

09:00

Political Studies Association (PSA) Sport and Politics Conference

14:45

Our Refugee, Your Refugee: A Story across Three Nations

15:00

Crick Lecture | Hao Wu

16:00

Oil, Decolonisation, and the Future of the Climate Emergency

The Role of Fungi in Solving Planetary Crises

19:30

Brewing the past: A journey into history through beer and film

Friday

May 16

16:30

The actual most dangerous speech in the UK

18:00

ANNUAL LAW LECTURE WITH PROFESSOR PATRICIA WILLIAMS

Monday

May 19

17:30

Conscience incorporated: pursuing profits while protecting human rights

Tuesday

May 20

14:45

Documenting the Amazon: Film screening and Q&A with film director Fernando Segtowick

16:00

The Moral Case for Stealing Data

18:00

The Murray Memorial Lecture 2025 with Neil MacGregor, a Fellow of Birkbeck

17:00

The Stegosaurian Dinosaurs

The Stegosaurian Dinosaurs

17:30

Lie theory, deformations and their impact on life sciences and beyond

Teens, sexting and image-based sexual abuse: a child rights approach

19:30

The Man Who Painted His House Film Screening at All Saints Church

Wednesday

May 21

09:00

Teaching and Learning Conference 2025

13:30

Dr Andrew Jackson - Macro-financial dynamics in energy transitions: a stock-flow consistent, input-output approach

16:30

The relentless sun: how do we live with severe space weather?

18:00

Professor Elena Loizidou's Inaugural Lecture: Dreams to a better world

17:30

Stability is overrated: towards a dynamic liberalism

Critique is the critique of power

Thursday

May 22

15:00

Environment and History Reading Group (May 2025)

16:00

Taking the Constitution into the Classroom

16:30

Crohn's & Colitis Open Evening

18:00

Frontiers of Climate Litigation

Friday

May 23

16:30

The Unhinged Presidency: Donald Trump's Attacks on the Constitution

Tuesday

May 27

16:00

Designing Sound, Sculpting Gesture

16:15

'The Greatest American Rock Band'

Wednesday

May 28

17:00

A Maker of Chocolate and Bibles: Francis Fry’s Collecting, Correcting and Cataloguing

16:30

Viruses, vaccines, and the written word

17:00

A New Sky

18:30

The Arts and Crafts movement in Manchester: An Untold Story with Barry Clark

Thursday

May 29

12:00

Beyond Neoliberalism Conference 2025

15:00

Crick Lecture | Ronald D Vale

16:00

From Machiavelli to Nietzsche: How Modern Thinkers Saw Ancient Lawgivers

17:30

Curious Cures: In-Conversation with the Curator

18:00

Keynote Panel: Creating the New Economy

17:30

The Land Remembers

Michael Faraday Prize Lecture 2024

Friday

May 30

09:00

Light: a colourful history

17:00

Curator Tours: Cursed Objects in Museum Shops

16:30

Attacks on Knowledge

Monday

Jun 2

16:00

Blind Spots & Bad Decisions: Why We Fall for Financial Traps

17:30

Mathematicians helping art historians and art conservators

Tuesday

Jun 3

18:00

Social Sciences Festival 2025 - Black Feminist Theory, Intersectionality and Collaboration: The Global Challenge to Decolonising Higher Education

Wednesday

Jun 4

13:30

Prof Benjamin Moll - The trouble with rational expectations in heterogeneous agent models: A challenge for macroeconomics

17:00

Hidden in Plain White: Aztec Articulations of Catholic Lessons

16:00

Sum Stories: Equations and their Origins

18:00

Social Sciences Festival 2025 - How do we Champion Aid, Reparations and Social Justice in a New World?

Thursday

Jun 5

09:00

Revitalising Peace Theologies for Today: A Multi-Faith Peace Conference

15:15

The Spirit that Crosses Borders

15:00

Crick Lecture | Manuel Serrano

15:30

Handle with Care: The Oldest Translations of the Bible in English

16:00

Lawgivers in Modern Revolutions

18:00

Social Sciences Festival 2025 - Food Politics: Belonging, Identity, and Sustainability

Professor Elisa Raffaella Ferrè's Inaugural Lecture - Prisoners of Gravity: How Gravity Shapes Our Brain and Behaviour

Friday

Jun 6

16:30

The right to a liveable planet

Monday

Jun 9

16:00

The 2025 Gray's Inn Reading

16:30

Prosecuting the Powerful: Steve Crawshaw in conversation

18:00

Shadows of her

Social Sciences Festival 2025 - Co-produced Research in the Justice System: Questions, Challenges and Opportunities

Birkbeck Science Week 2025 - "How The Brain Invents Your Reality" with Dr. Daniel Yon

Tuesday

Jun 10

14:00

The ecumenical Feast of Creation

16:00

Do aliens exist and are they trying to find earth? Nobel Prize winner Professor Didier Queloz speaks about his career journey and discovering new planets

15:30

The British Imperial Way of Warfare

16:00

Carbon Takeback: How We Will Stop Fossil Fuels from Causing Global Warming

18:00

Professor Pedro Gomes's Inaugural Lecture: Economics and its "Sins of Omission"

Birkbeck Science Week 2025 - Imaging the invisible: capturing complexity across scales in Natural Science

Wednesday

Jun 11

16:00

The Future of Immunity

First Light: the dawn of stars and galaxies

16:30

Seeing the unseen: the pursuit of personalised cancer treatment

18:00

Birkbeck Science Week 2025 - Machine Commands: Society in the Age of AI

17:00

Digital Fossils: Using X-ray to Uncover Secrets of the Past

Thursday

Jun 12

18:00

Social Sciences Festival 2025 - Carceral Diagonalism: The Punitive Safety Politics Linking Left and Right Anti-gender Mobilisations in Britain

Professor Sanjib Bhakta's Inaugural Lecture - TB or Not TB? The Fight Against Antimicrobial Resistance: Molecules, Machines & Mechanisms

17:30

Illuminating the Dark Side of the Moon

Friday

Jun 13

16:30

Maps of home: Imagining sanctuary now

Monday

Jun 16

16:00

Outsmart the System: How Psychology Hacks Your Money Decisions

17:15

Steering Change - Reflections on the Political Challenges of Advancing Active Transport

Tuesday

Jun 17

10:30

Ridley Hall Theology Conference 2025

14:00

Uses of Scripture

16:00

The Deceived Brain: Coding and Illusion

Thursday

Jun 19

08:30

'Breakfast with Birkbeck' Environment & Sustainability Webinar #7

15:00

Environment and History Reading Group (June 2025)

19:30

Library Late

20:00

Fertility Matters at Work...and here's why

Friday

Jun 20

09:00

London Conference in Critical Thought 2025

10:45

The Gresham Festival of Musical Ideas

Saturday

Jun 21

10:00

Projects Review 2025

14:00

Wesley House - Living Stones Open Day

Monday

Jun 23

17:00

Limitarianism and Capitalism

Wednesday

Jun 25

13:00

Environmental Education Across Disciplines

Thursday

Jun 26

09:00

New Perspectives on Law and Literature, Malet Street Room G16.

19:00

Performance and In Conversation with artist Anne Tallentire

Wednesday

Jul 2

16:30

Sir Ernst Chain Lecture 2025: A tale of two antibodies

Friday

Jul 4

17:00

Nature Needs You!

Tuesday

Jul 8

19:30

William Tudor’s Cambridge Circus

Wednesday

Jul 9

08:30

'Breakfast with Birkbeck' Environment & Sustainability Webinar #8

Thursday

Aug 14

09:00

Does the World Need a Government?

Monday

Oct 6

17:30

Unravelling the molecular basis of Huntington's disease

Friday

Oct 17

16:00

New ways of working (and what that means for us as humans)

end

Social Sciences Festival 2025 - Food Politics: Belonging, Identity, and Sustainability

Birkbeck

June 5

6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Birkbeck Central

Event link calender

This roundtable brings together faculty, alumni and current doctoral students working on food politics in the School of Social Sciences and the College more widely.

We will explore the everyday connections between commensality as a social, cultural and environmental practice. How does the foodscape in a global city like London shape, facilitate and constrain our individual and collective identities? Can food serve as vehicle for 'belonging' and 'citizenship'? And what are the more-than-human politics of food production, processing, eating and disposal?

These are some of the questions which will animate this multi-disciplinary and cross-generational conversation.