TALKS
I give talks to academic and public audiences, across the public and private sectors. I have spoken at festivals and libraries, to trainee psychiatrists and international banking executives, and in galleries and museums.
My TED talk has been watched by more than 4.5 million people around the world, and I am regularly invited to give keynote lectures at international academic conferences.
The History of Human Emotions
UPCOMING TALKS
No upcoming talks for now
RECENT TALKS
2024
20 November 2024
I spoke about the ways sleep might be thought of as a public performance at ‘Conscious Sleep’, a public symposium at the University of Oxford.
https://oxfordculturalprogramme.org.uk/event/conscious-sleep/
5 November 2024
I gave the inaugural HEX Handbook Distinguished Lecture at the Centre for the History of Experience at Tampere University, Finland. The lecture was called ‘Friends Among The Dead: How to Write about Experience in Historical Research’.
1 February 2024
I was invited to speak at the conference ‘A Matter of Feeling?’ At the Einstein Forum, in Potsdam Germany. I spoke about the idea of ethics and historical research, with a paper called ‘Stolen Feelings in an Age of Consent’.
2023
29-30 September 2023
I gave a keynote talk at the conference ‘Fair Design’, Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw, Poland. I how studying the emotions of female factory workers in the 1930s, gave rise to new emotional ‘norms’ and expectations linked to worker efficiency.
28 September 2023
I was the keynote speaker at Wunderman Thompson’s b2b thought leadership conference, ‘Transform’. I spoke about the history of joy and rebelliousness.
15 June 2023
I spoke about making friends with an AI chatbot and the histories of human-computer friendships at ‘Intimacy by Design’, Kings College Digital Futures Institute
14 Mar 2023
I gave the keynote speech at the 2023 London International Eating Disorders Conference, I spoke about the history of emotions connected with food, including comfort, loneliness, abandonment and fullness.
2020
Enigmas
In 2020, I was honoured to give one of the lectures in the 25th Darwin College Cambridge Lecture series, that year on the theme of ‘Enigmas’. I spoke about hard-to-read or opaque emotional states in an age of transparent feelings.
18 January 2020
I was a keynote speaker at the ‘Improvising Emotional Styles’ Conference at the University College Dublin. I spoke about the way we break emotional rules in order to form protective emotional communities, through the example of irony and Schadenfreude in drag performance. You can listen to the recorded lecture here:
https://soundcloud.com/ucd-humanities/sets/the-history-of-emotions
2019
22 November 2019
I was an invited speaker, Intesa Sanpaolo bank senior conference. I spoke about trust and its histories, and my talk was reported in The Independent
22 November 2019
I was an invited speaker, Intesa Sanpaolo bank senior conference. I spoke about trust and its histories, and my talk was reported in The Independent
26 May 2019
I was an invited speaker at The Weekend University’s ‘A Day on Emotional Intelligence’
1 March 2019
I was a keynote speaker at the conference ‘Language Acts and Worldmaking’ Oxford Brookes University, where I spoke about the link between words and feelings in the history of emotions
29 September 2019
I gave a lecture on ‘The Dark Emotions’, Torino Spiritualità 2019, Turin, Italy. You can listen to it here:
14 February 2019
I spoke about Schadenfreude on Valentines Day at Salon London/Tate Modern, ‘Schadenfreude’
2018
7 December 2018,
I spoke about my new research on sleep, in a paper called ‘Performing Sleep’, at the Royal Society, ‘Sleep and Stress, Past and Present’, co-organised by the Royal Society and the University of Oxford. You can listen here:
12 February 2018
I was invited to be on a panel discussing the future of knowledge along with Lisa Feldmann Barrett and David Lammy, at the British Museum.
https://www.knowledgequarter.london/kq-conference-2018/future-of-knowledge-2018/
2017
11 July 2017
I was an invited speaker at the Museum of London’s ‘Emotions Salon’, along with poet Jay Bernard, and writers Megan Nolan and Katherine Angel
https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=10155300608221047
2016
24 November 2016
I spoke about ideas of emotional contagion at Barts Hospital, Museum of the Normal
22 September 2016
I spoke about ‘Nostalgia’ at Salon London at the Hospital Club.
18 August 2016
I gave a talk about The Book of Human Emotions at Edinburgh International Book Festival
22 July 2016
I spoke on the Science of Happiness at Blue Dot Festival
14 July 2016
I spoke on the theme ‘Love Thy Neighbour’ at Latitude Festival
24 November 2016
I spoke about ideas of emotional contagion at Barts Hospital, Museum of the Normal
24 November 2016
I spoke about ideas of emotional contagion at Barts Hospital, Museum of the Normal
16 February 2016
I was invited to speak on emotions at Brighton Science Festival, ‘Inside Out’
5 February 2016
I gave a guest lecture on the theme of emotions at Wellcome Collection Friday Night Late.
2015
12 November 2015
Talk, The School of Life, ‘The Value of Sadness’
29 October 2015
Author event, Wellcome Collection, The Book of Human Emotions
23 October 2015
Invited speaker, Somerset House, Inside/Out Festival
9 October 2015
Author event, Lichfield Literature Festival The Book of Human Emotions
4 October 2015
Author event, Wimbledon Book Festival The Book of Human Emotions
23 September 2015
I spoke about The Book of Human Emotions at, 5 x 15 at The Tabernacle, ‘The Book of Human Emotions’
22 September 2015
Talk, The School of Life, ‘The Secret History of Your Emotions’
13 September 2015
Author Event, Kings Place Festival, The Book of Human Emotions
10 July 2015
Invited talk, Siobhan Davies’ residency at The Barbican, On Flinching
