Public lecture series 2024: Our free cultural research lectures at stage@Leeds
The School of Performance and Cultural Industries is hosting a series of free public lectures in 2024, where academics from the school and beyond will share their latest research and thinking.
The 2024 lectures include timely talks on creative networks and innovation with Stephen Dobson, understanding the cultural commons with Alice Borchi, interculturalism in performance and cultural policy with guest lecturer Rustom Bharucha and the ways mountains have influenced culture with Jonathan Pitches.
The lectures take place at stage@leeds and will be recorded and made available to watch online after the lecture takes place.
Everyone is welcome to attend, and we especially welcome people working in the cultural and creative industries.
Propinquity matters
Stephen Dobson – 12 January 2024, 4pm
Stephen will be exploring propinquity and why it matters for creative communities. Find out how proximity and cultural closeness can foster innovation and entrepreneurship and why we need to move beyond geographical proximity to address inequities.
Sheep, software, wine and theatres: understanding the cultural commons
Alice Borchi – 19 February 2024, 4pm
Alice will examine how people co-create culture and share cultural resources through the lens of the concept of "commons”. She'll share research that looks at why these processes are necessary to create more democratic and creative approaches to culture.
Interculturalism and its Discontents
Rustom Bharucha – 29 April 2024, 4pm (not recorded)
Writer, dramaturg and cultural critic, Professor Rustom Bharucha is our special guest lecturer. Rustom will reflect on his intercultural journey and re-examine some of the key moments that shaped his thinking - the creative possibilities of interculturalism as well as its Eurocentric constraints in relation to equity, inclusion and social justice. His lecture will increase our awareness of how the world of performance can shape attitudes and policies and help us to coexist with a deep respect for differences.
Clocking the view from Arthur’s Seat: some methods to map mountain culture
Jonathan Pitches – 10 June 2024, 4pm
This illustrated lecture will share some of the many and surprising ways in which mountains have influenced poets, playwrights, writers and novelists. It will also offer a taste of how waymarking and mapping can help drive literary analysis and offer surprising insights. It will appeal to researchers, artists, poets and theatre makers with an interest in mountains and the natural world.
