Every summer, we welcome hundreds of students to the University of Cambridge International Summer Programme. Alongside a wide variety of courses, our learners attend lectures from our plenary series, at Lady Mitchell Hall.
We're also delighted to invite University members to explore our programme of over 45 lectures, featuring eminent speakers and covering subjects from Shakespeare to the science of sleep. To request your place, just choose your lecture and complete the online form, following the guidance on how to reserve a place at the bottom of this page.
Plenary lecture timetable
| Date, time | Speaker | Lecture title |
| Monday 14 July, 11.00am | Dr James Gazzard | Higher Education under attack! Is there a case for its defence? |
| Monday 14 July, 3.30pm | Professor Bhaskar Vira | The value(s) of Nature |
| Monday 14 July, 7.30pm | Dr Graham McCann | Noises off: English Humour as high heckling |
| Tuesday 15 July, 11.00am | Dr Tristram Riley-Smith | Are you sitting comfortably? Five threats to our security |
| Tuesday 15 July, 3.30pm | Professor Amy Milton | Rewriting the past: the science of memory modification |
| Tuesday 15 July, 7.30pm | Profesor Graham Virgo | Cannibalism and the law of murder: providing a ‘legal cloak for unbridled passion and atrocious crime' |
| Wednesday 16 July, 11.00am | Roger Mosey | Broken News |
| Wednesday 16 July, 3.30pm | Professor Lisa Jardine-Wright | The A-Z of Diffraction - Discovering the structure of DNA |
| Thursday 17 July, 11.00am | Dr John Lawson | The Dark Triad: charting the 'dark side' of human personality |
| Thursday 17 July, 3.30pm | Dr Seb Falk | Science before Science: understanding the medieval Universe |
| Friday 18 July, 11.00am | Dr Elizabeth Rawlinson-Mills | Why we read poetry |
| Friday 18 July, 3.30pm | Dr Hugh Hunt | Boomerangs and other spinning things |
| Date, time | Speaker | Lecture title |
| Monday 21 July, 11.00am | Andrew Hatcher | The Discomfort Zone: why do clever people do stupid things? |
| Monday 21 July, 3.30pm | Professor Ed Turner | Museum specimens and time-travel: what biological collections can tell us about long-term environmental change |
| Monday 21 July, 7.30pm | Dr Séan Lang | The British and the Holocaust |
| Tuesday 22 July, 11.00am | Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu | Using the very small to tackle the very large – our journey from concept to clinic |
| Tuesday 22 July, 3.30pm | Baroness Julie Smith | The changing International Order: a catalyst to Unite Europe? |
| Tuesday 22 July, 7.30pm | Professor David Jacques | Stonehenge: stones and solstices |
| Wednesday 23 July, 11.00am | Professor Debbie Prentice | Pluralistic Ignorance and its consequences for individuals and societies |
| Wednesday 23 July, 7.30pm | Professor Chistopher Lintott | 'Oumuamau and other asteroid stories |
| Thursday 24 July, 11.00am | Sir Tony Brenton | The collapse of the Liberal World Order; is Might right again? |
| Friday 25 July, 11.00am | Dr Yasemin Didem Aktas | Elements of a Catastrophe |
| Friday 25 July, 3.30pm | Dr James Grime | Bits and pieces: secrets of a digital world |
| Date, time | Speaker | Lecture title |
| Monday 28 July, 11.00am | Dr Gareth Williams | The Vikings: conflicts, contacts and change |
| Monday 28 July, 3.30pm | Professor Srinivasan Keshav | Is there hope for the climate? |
| Monday 28 July, 7.30pm | Rupert Wallace | The sea: ungoverned space |
| Tuesday 29 July, 11.00am | Dr Christina Faraday | All that glisters': Gold in Tudor England |
| Tuesday 29 July, 3.30pm | Dr James Underwood | Continuing to learn when no-one is making us: why (and how) we do it? |
| Tuesday 29 July, 7.30pm | Professor Nigel Saul | Desert island medieval buildings |
| Wednesday 30 July, 11.00am | Dr Kamal Munir | Why CEOs need imagination to survive in the 21st century |
| Wednesday 30 July, 3.30pm | Professor Herbert Huppert | Earthquakes and volcanoes: the fundamentals of unpredictability |
| Thursday 31 July, 11.00am | Dr Rebecca Fitzgerald | How science can help turn sickness into prevention – lessons from cancer |
| Thursday 31 July, 3.30pm | Dr Nicholas Bell | Why keep old books? |
| Friday 1 August, 11.00am | Professor Caroline Barron | The Aldermen of London |
| Friday 1 August, 3.30pm | Dr Matthew Bothwell | How far away are the stars? |
| Date, time | Speaker | Lecture title |
| Monday 4 August, 11.00am | Dr Nigel Kettley | The cost of living crisis in the UK: who is suffering and what can be done? |
| Monday 4 August, 3.30pm | Camice Revier | The science of sleep for learning, memory & well-being |
| Monday 4 August, 7.30pm | Vivien Heilbron | Speaking the speech: Shakespeare and the arts of language |
| Tuesday 5 August, 11.00am | Professor Lloyd Peck | The Antarctic seas: home to the most bizarre life on Earth? |
| Tuesday 5 August, 3.30pm | Alison Rose | What does an Ambassador actually do? |
| Tuesday 5 August, 7.30pm | Dr Séan Lang | Giggling into the sunset: British comedy and the end of Empire |
| Wednesday 6 August, 11.00am | Professor Sir Lezek Borysiewicz | Shining a light on history and future drug discovery |
| Wednesday 6 August, 7.30pm | Dr John Lennard | The running reinventions of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice |
| Thursday 7 August, 11.00am | Jo Rhymer | No place like home: Edouard Vuillard’s domestic interior paintings |
| Friday 8 August, 11.00am | Professor Mark Bailey | From bondage or freedom, or not? Serfdom in Europe, 1300-1800 |
| Friday 8 August, 3.30pm | Sarah Ormrod | Revelations and recollections… 38 years of Summer Programmes |
Explore our plenary series
View and reserve a place on one of over 45 plenary lectures this summer
How to reserve a place
- As a member of the University, you can reserve a place on our plenary lecture series organised as part of the University's International Summer Programme. Places are offered on a first-come first-served basis.
- To reserve your place, complete the online form at least 2 days in advance.
- All lectures are held in Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Site. Please arrive 5-10 minutes before the lecture starts, we are unable to admit late-comers.
- Bring your University staff membership card for admission.
- Non-members and guests are not permitted.
- Last-minute changes to the programme may be necessary, in case of illness or unavailability.