{"id":642,"date":"2021-03-08T14:05:21","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T14:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/publicengagement\/?p=642"},"modified":"2021-03-08T14:06:48","modified_gmt":"2021-03-08T14:06:48","slug":"how-to-create-an-engaged-lecture-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/publicengagement\/2021\/03\/08\/how-to-create-an-engaged-lecture-series\/","title":{"rendered":"How to create an engaged lecture series"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lecture series is a common feature of many UK universities' public-facing programme of events.\u202f Typically, these are dominated by the single academic communicating their research to a large audience in a lecture theatre situated deep within the campus. While there\u2019s nothing inherently wrong with this model, we wanted to play around with it and test some ideas when we assumed responsibility for the University of Bath's\u00a0<\/span>Minerva Lecture Series<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>Over the last 18 months, we've created a programme of events in the series that has fostered a dialogue between researcher and audience and acted as a platform for both researchers and the local community.\u00a0<\/span>Here\u2019s some of what we\u2019ve learned:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A platform for community organisations<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

A lecture series is a platform that is usually given to academics. What if you\u00a0<\/span>also\u00a0<\/span>offered that platform to local communities whilst keeping a focus on research? What would that look like? We tried this out using\u00a0<\/span>two main techniques.\u00a0<\/span>Firstly, we asked our speakers to invite their research collaborators to chair or participate in their lecture. Secondly, we have used a Minerva lecture to set up conversations between researchers and local community groups who are interested in their research<\/span>\u00a0by inviting\u00a0<\/span>members of those community group<\/span>s<\/span>\u00a0to introduce or chair the event<\/span>. For example, our last Minerva lecture, \u2018<\/span>Disease in a Dish: A New Way of Studying Dementia\u2019<\/span><\/a>\u00a0was hosted by Stephen Linsey from the Alzheimer\u2019s charity\u00a0<\/span>BRACE<\/span><\/a>, who said:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m not from the University and I have no connections with the University, but it is through Vasanta\u2019s (the speaker) research that I know about her and why it\u2019s my pleasure to introduce her talk\u2019<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Having a chair from outside the University changes the power balance of a lecture. Instead of being clearly held by the institution, the Minerva Lecture Series has become a platform for research and all those affected by it. The University hosts the lecture series rather than owning it and gives community groups a platform to <\/span>share<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>their work alongside<\/span>\u00a0research from the University.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>The chair\u00a0has the opportunity to\u00a0share their work through both an introduction at the start of the lecture and being an active part of the Q&A section and responding to questions that are more relevant to their work than the\u00a0<\/span>researcher.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Moving the lecture series online has allowed us to invite a greater variety of chairs from organisations across\u00a0<\/span>the\u00a0<\/span>South West<\/span>\u00a0of<\/span> England and opens up the opportunity to invite guests from around the world with travel barriers removed.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A variety of formats<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Another change we made to the Minerva Series was to increase the variety of event formats that make up the programme. The series now consists of panel discussions, film screenings, in-conversations and comedy\u00a0shows, a<\/span>longside<\/span>\u00a0typical lectures.\u00a0<\/span>Having a diverse variety of formats has helped us diversify our audience, our content and the participating speakers and provide a richer experience for repeat audience members.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, an \u2018in-conversation\u2019 event we held back in June\u00a02020 \u202f\u2018,\u00a0<\/span>Climate change, coronavirus and anxiety\u2019<\/span><\/a>\u00a0dedicated more than half the run time to audience questions. While this event attracted a smaller than usual audience, we received more audience questions than we had attendees. The two speakers had enough time to address almost all the questions. In this way, the audience was able to shape the direction and content of the session.\u00a0<\/span>A good example of\u00a0<\/span>how alternate formats can create a rich two-way interaction between the audience and researchers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Topics that are relevant to the local community<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

As lecture series ha<\/span>ve<\/span>\u00a0traditionally been a platform for academics, it\u2019s no surprise that the topics are often\u00a0<\/span>driven by what academics are studying and which academics are willing to come forward.<\/span>\u00a0There\u2019s nothing wrong with\u00a0this, and\u00a0sharing upcoming and breaking research is an important role for the lecture series, but we wanted to go one step beyond and match our research strengths to community interest.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re currently in the planning stages for the 2021\/22 Minerva Series, and we're testing out how best to align the topics communities are interested in and our research strengths. Our working process involves:<\/span><\/p>\n