Previous Events

Inaugural Lecture: Children of migration as brokers of 'care'

Tuesday, November 30, 2021 - 18:00 to 19:00

Berrill Lecture Theatre, Walton Hall, The Open University, MK6 7AA

In her inaugural lecture, Professor Sarah Crafter will explore what it means for children and young people to be ‘brokers of care’ in the context of migration.

Eco-creativity 2021: Art, Music, Ritual and Global Climate Politics

Friday, November 19, 2021 - 13:00 to 17:00

Virtual Conference, The Open University

This 2021 Conference is hosted by the Religious Studies, Art History, Music and Politics Departments in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at The Open University. Deadline for abstract submission: 30 September 2021

Being a Changemaker, making a difference: an event to launch the Changemakers guide for UK Parliament Week 2021

Wednesday, November 3, 2021 - 18:00 to 19:00

Online, via Microsoft Teams

We’re building on our partnership with UK Parliament Week, and the work undertaken so far by ‘Open Politics’, with the launch of a brand new guide to making political and social change. The guide encourages people to engage with the UK Parliament in particular, as well as politics more generally, giving people the essential knowledge and tools needed to make change.

Economics Seminar: Climate Change, Sovereign Debt, and the Looming Debt Crisis in the Global South

Tuesday, October 19, 2021 - 13:00 to 14:30

Online via Teams

In this seminar, Professor Ulrich Volz, founder of the Centre for Sustainable Finance at University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies and Senior Research Fellow at the German Development Institute, will be setting out the challenges of mobilising finance for a sustainable transition.

Dr. Elva Bova, economist at the European Commission and formerly at the International Monetary Fund, will act as discussant.

Indigenous responses to climate change for COP26 – visit TOTEM LATAMAT as it tours the UK

Thursday, September 30, 2021 - 10:00 to Friday, November 19, 2021 - 17:00

In the lead-up to the 26^th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow this November, OU Professor of Religious Studies Graham Harvey has partnered with Border Crossings to commission Indigenous Mexican artist Jun Tiburcio to design TOTEM LATAMAT. There are dates and locations you can visit the totem on its journey from London to Glasgow for COP26.

Imagination and the Natural World - writers, writing and perception

Tuesday, September 21, 2021 - 17:30 to 18:30

Online via Zoom

This is 1st seminar of Contemporary Cultures of Writing Seminar Series Autumn 2021 - Climate change and creativity.

How do contemporary writers concerned about climate change begin to address this subject? Can imaginative writing create new ways of relating to the natural world? What is the role of metaphor, symbol or experimental strategies in this? And can writing help develop habits of attention which lead to fresh perceptions? This panel will ask whether climate writing itself is intrinsically an act of political dissent at the present moment.

Conference: British Society of Aesthetics Connections: Conceptual Engineering and Aesthetics

Tuesday, August 31, 2021 - 09:00 to Wednesday, September 1, 2021 - 17:00

Cambridge, UK

British Society of Aesthetics Connections: Conceptual Engineering and Aesthetics conference was planned to take place on 7–8 September 2020 in Cambridge, UK, but was POSTPONED until 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Live Panel Session at IF: MK International Festival - Encountering Urban Wildlife

Monday, July 26, 2021 - 19:00 to 20:15

Live streamed online

This live virtual panel reflects on our relationships with wildlife in cities in response to Marco Barotti’s Woodpeckers that are installed in public spaces around Milton Keynes during the IF Festival 2021. The panel opens up conversation between environmentally engaged academics, educators, activists, birders, and the public.