Events

Sunday 26th  March 6.30pm   Woman, Life, Freedom Maryam Namazie   Iranian-born activist Maryam Namazie talks about the historic uprising in Iran. "You have weapons of war, state machinery of suppression,  executions. Killing and fear are your weapons." Courage & 'Woman, Life, Freedom' are the weapons of the women & men of Iran.   Maryam Namazie was born in Tehran but left with her family in 1980 after the 1979 revolution in Iran. She has subsequently lived in India, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Most of her early work focused on refugee rights, especially in Sudan, Turkey, and Iran, and she has actively campaigned against sharia law. Maryam became well known in the mid-2000s for her pro-secularism positions an...

Buddhika Samarasinghe   This talk is about the tension between the standardisation and individualisation of care. Why are there so many undesired outcomes in NHS”? Buddhika raises a vital question, “despite the enormous efforts of healthcare professionals, researchers and policymakers, plus technological innovations, why are there so many undesired outcomes (i.e., medical errors, prescription errors, surgery cancellations, hospital-acquired infections) in healthcare, even in the developed world”?   Drawing from a wide range of evidence that embraces complexity and “reality” in healthcare systems, Buddhika shares the findings of a six-phase funded study investigating On-The-Day Surgery-Cancellations(OTDSCs) completed using a large amount of literature, qualitative and quantitative data. Based on the findings, he questioned whether the NHS policymakers rely on to...

Sunday 12th  March 6.30pm . Jesus of Nazareth Bill Leigh   Bill will talk about the Secularists’ view of this religious figure and how his bust came to be on the front of the Secular Hall.   Bill Leigh was formerly an academic in Britain, West Africa and the Caribbean, then a secondary school teacher for the European Union in the Netherlands, Italy, Britain and Brussels. Having published research in theoretical physics and fiction for children, after retirement from the British School in Warsaw he took a degree in History, writing a dissertation on Truth in History and High-Energy Physics. All welcome - admission free . Tea & biscuits. Donations welcome.  

Sunday 5th  March 6.30pm   Fascism in Leicester 1934-1939 Ned Newitt   How much support did Fascism have in Leicester during the 1930s? Ned will look at Leicester's Blackshirts and the opposition they met from local anti-Fascists. He will also explore the role of the police and the influence of events in Europe, and the resonance with today’s debates on free speech and ‘cancel culture.   Ned was born in Southend-on-Sea in 1946. He studied at Cardiff College of Art and came to Leicester in 1971. From 1984-2003, he was a Leicester City Councillor. He is a long standing member of the Society and is the current President.   Ned has written several books, most relating to the history of Leicester, including - ...

Film: A Plastic Ocean + discussion In this adventure documentary, Craig Leeson teams up with free diver Tanya Streeter and an international team of scientists and researchers and they travel to twenty locations around the world to explore the fragile state of our oceans. They uncover alarming truths about plastic pollution, and reveal working solutions that can be put into immediate effect.    Chris Desai of UOCEAN® 2050 will lead a discussion after the film. UOCEAN® 2050 works with volunteers, individuals, communities, governments, schools, universities and corporate businesses in over 33 countries. It aims to forge a circular economy of sustainable behaviours with the removal of marine plastics from canals, rivers, beaches and the open ocean. To this end it deploys educational toolkits and  academic institutions to address ...

From Fruit Fly Love Songs to a Nobel Prize Professor Charalambos Kyriacou   How a chance discovery led to a Nobel Prize.   Image by Madboy74 , CC0, via Wikimedia Commons Charalambos (Bambos) Kyriacou was born in Camden, London, in 1953 and was educated in North London, helping out during the week in his father’s restaurant in Finchley and during the summers working in the local graveyard. Bambos went to Birmingham University at 17 and read psychology where one of the lecturers sparked an interest towards behavioural genetics. Graduating in 1973 he started a PhD on Drosophila genetics and behaviour in the Departments of Psychology and Genetics in Sheffield. In 1976 he spent a year as a demonstrator in psychology at the University of Edinburgh before moving to Brandeis University, Bosto...

Darwin Day lecture   Brain training, Brain Blood Flow and Dementia Dr Lucy Beishon   Brain training is a fun and simple intervention to keep minds active in older age. However, there are many unknowns. What benefits does it have on the brain? And can people living with dementia realistically brain train using technology they’re not necessarily familiar with?   Lucy is  an NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in Geriatric medicine with an interest in cognitive disorders at the University of Leicester. She is particularly interested in how brain blood flow is altered or damaged in dementia and how this contributes to the development or progression of different types of dementia. In particular she has studied and investigated the use of cognitive or “brain training “as a treatment f...