Engaging Minds Lecture Series
The Engaging Minds programme consists of an annual lecture series covering a wide range of cultural, political, sporting, business, current affairs and global issues taking place each Friday afternoon in the school hall.
Students complete preparatory work in their form time in the week prior to each presentation and there are opportunities for small groups of students to have lunch with the speakers. The programme is designed to enable students to broaden their experience and understanding of various aspects of contemporary culture. The talks are intended to pique students’ interest in a range of topics and to inspire them to pursue the issues further through independent learning or tutor group discussion.
In the past the school has attracted some very eminent speakers including David Puttnam, Lord Winston, Will Gombert and Matthew W Barzun (U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom). In the current lecture series we are particularly happy to have David Runciman (Professor of Politics, University of Cambridge). In addition to writing critically acclaimed books on politics Professor Runciman writes regularly about contemporary politics for the London Review of Books and he hosts the popular weekly podcast Talking Politics which the Daily Telegraph described as “a kind of miracle” and “Britain’s brainiest podcast”.
Lectures planned for this term are as follows:
8th November – John Acton
15th November – Alex Popham
22nd November – Billy Perham
6th December – Martin Wooster
17th January – Fraser Mann
24th January – Vera Bernstein
31st January – Ian Blakeman
All lectures are held at Verulam School on Friday afternoons. Lectures begin at 12:20 – 13:20 in the main hall.
Examples of previous lecture series can be found below:
