Negotiating with the Devil: Inside the World of Armed Conflict Mediation

On 16 October 2024, Pierre Hazan shared insights from his recent book Negotiating with the Devil: Inside the World of Armed Conflict Mediation (Hurst, 2024) to provide insider reflections on the political and ethical ‘red lines’ that shape talks with armed interlocutors, be they states or insurgents.

This book draws on Pierre Hazan’s many years in the little-known world of back-channel mediation, helping sworn adversaries to prevent, manage or resolve conflict. The lecture explored in particular the acute practical and ethical dilemmas that affected his work in Bosnia, Ukraine, the Sahel and the Central African Republic.

John Bell Day Lecture 2024

The 2024 John Bell Day Lecture was entitled ‘From Bell non-locality to Quantum Communications & back to Network non-locality' and was delivered by guest speaker Professor Nicolas Gisin, University of Geneva.

Holkeri Lecture 2024

This year’s Annual Harri Holkeri Lecture was given by Mr Pekka Haavisto MP, former Minister of Foreign Affairs in Finland, on Thursday, 6 June 2024.

He addressed the topic of “The New European Security: Lessons learned from Finland's road to NATO”.

Following the address a Q&A was hosted by Professor Richard English, Director of the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen's University Belfast.

Policing and Politics in Divided Societies

This ‘In-Conversation’ event (hosted by Queen's on 15 April 2024) features Dr Barbara J. Stephenson, Vice Provost for Global Affairs, UNC-Chapel Hill, and former U.S. Consul in Belfast (2001-2004) and Sir Hugh Orde, former Chief Constable of the PSNI (2002-2009). Together they bring extensive experience to the theme of ‘Policing and Politics in Divided Societies’.

State-Building in Kosovo: Challenges and Opportunities

The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Mr Albin Kurti, delivered a talk and discussion on State-Building in Kosovo and its Challenges and Opportunities in the Great Hall on Wednesday, 28 February 2024. This was followed by a Q+A session hosted by Professor Joanne Hughes of the Centre for Shared Education in Queen's.

The 22nd Annual Sir Bernard Crossland Lecture

The Chief Executives' Club at Queen's together with Engineers Ireland, in association with the IET, were delighted to host the 22nd Annual Sir Bernard Crossland Lecture on Wednesday 21 February 2024, entitled ‘Igniting Northern Ireland’s Engineering Renaissance’ given by Dr Jayne Brady, Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service.

Queen’s Annual Politics Lecture 2023

Professor Catherine E. De Vries, Bocconi University, Milan - PUBLIC SERVICE DEPRIVATION AND THE RISE OF THE FAR-RIGHT

The Queen’s Annual Politics Lecture was delivered by Professor Catherine E. De Vries on 7 November, 2023. Catherine is Dean for International Affairs and Professor of Political Science at Bocconi University. At Bocconi, she is also a Research Associate at the Dondena Centre for Research on Social Dynamics and Public Policy, the CLEAN Unit for the Economic Analysis of Crime of the BAFFI-CAREFIN research centre and the Bocconi COVID crisis.

Annual Keith Jeffery Lecture in Public History

Heather-Ann Thompson, ‘American Prison Uprisings and Why They Matter Across the World’

Heather Ann Thompson is a historian at the University of Michigan. Her latest book, Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy, won the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, and five other book awards.

Race Equality in Higher Education Conference

Queen's Gender Initiative and Racial Equity Champions Network hosted a one-day conference on Race Equality in Higher Education, the first of its kind at the University, on 20 September 2023.

This, the first in a series of videos drawn from the conference, features a welcome and introduction, and the Keynote Address given by Sheree Acheson, Queen's graduate and multi-award winning leader in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

How Not to Remember the Past

Professor Susan Neiman, Director of the Einstein Forum and author of numerous books including Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil, delivers the keynote lecture of the conference co-organised by the Centre for Public History at Queen's University Belfast and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, 'Conflict, Trauma and Memorialisation: Material Culture, Archives, Public Space'.

The Belfast-Berkeley Conversation Series: Conflicted Europe

Conversation between Prof John Connelly (UCB) and Dr Alex Titov (QUB), moderated by Prof Maruška Svašek (QUB), June 2023.

The McCosh Lecture 2023

The McCosh Lecture for 2023 was given by David Livingstone, emeritus Professor of Professor of Geography and Intellectual History at Queen’s University Belfast, on the subject ‘James McCosh and the Idea of a University’.

The lecture was held on 17 May 2023 in the Council Chamber, Lanyon building. The event was opened by Dr Andrew Holmes, Chair of the Forum, and introduced by Professor Ian Greer, Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast.

In Conversation with Dr Raja Al Gurg

The Chief Executives' Club at Queen's and Women in Business hosted 'In Conversation with Dr Raja Al Gurg' on Monday 13th March.

This lunchtime event was presented by Roseann Kelly MBE of Women in Business and hosted by The Chief Executives' Club at Queen's. The event was held in the Canada Room and Council Chamber. Dr Raja Al Gurg is Chairperson and Managing Director of the Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group. With four decades of experience as a businesswoman in sectors as diverse as education and manufacturing, Raja has had hands-on experience with a wide variety of sectors in the corporate world.

The 21st Annual Sir Bernard Crossland Lecture

“A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache” Security of supply in a low carbon energy system’ given by Professor Keith Bell, University Strathclyde.

This talk addresses some of the main challenges in ensuring security of supply in a renewables-dominated energy system, from ensuring stable responses to faults to filling in gaps in production during ‘Dunkelflaute’.

Annual Keith Jeffery Lecture in Public History

Playing with Mud; or What Happens Where Water Meets Land. Thinking About Archives, Absences, and the Spaces Between

Sonja Boon is a researcher, writer, teacher, and flutist. Professor of Gender Studies at Memorial University, she is the author of four books, most recently Autoethnography and Feminist Theory at the Water’s Edge: Unsettled Islands (co-authored with Lesley Butler and Daze Jefferies, Palgrave, 2018), and What the Oceans Remember: Searching for Belonging and Home (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2019).

John Bell Day Lecture 2022

'Coherent effects in biological processes. A new twist for Bell-type arguments'

Quantum physicist Susana Huelga revises recent work aimed at characterizing the origin and nature of the coherent oscillations observed in the spectral response of pigment protein complexes (PPCs), the building blocks in light-induced reactions underpinning the primary effects of processes ranging from photosynthesis to vision.

Queen's Annual Politics Lecture 2022

Professor Desmond King, University of Oxford, “America’s Racial Orders after Trump: White Protectionism versus Racial Reparations"

The Queen’s Annual Politics Lecture will be delivered by Professor Desmond King. Professor King is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Irish Academy, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the British Academy.

Royal Ulster Constabulary George Cross Foundation Lecture 2022

Global Security Challenges: Terrorism and Violent Extremism in an Evolving Security Landscape, lecture and discussion

For this, the second Annual RUC George Cross Foundation Lecture at Queen's, leading international security and counterterrorism expert Ali Soufan addresses the problem of violent extremism in an evolving security landscape, followed by a Q&A chaired by Professor Richard English.

'Why Gender Diversity Promotes Prosperity and Peace'

Queen's Business School Annual Mary McAleese Diversity Lecture, in association with The Chief Executives' Club at Queen's, welcomed Professor Deirdre McCloskey for her lecture: “I’ve Done My Part: Why Gender Diversity Promotes Prosperity and Peace”.

‘Levelling Up, What, Why, How?’

The Chief Executives’ Club Lecture with Andy Haldane

Published in February 2022, the Levelling Up in the United Kingdom white paper sets out a plan of action to spread opportunities more equally across the UK.

In September 2021, RSA Chief Executive Andy Haldane was appointed by the Prime Minister to define and develop the flagship national levelling up strategy – a decade-long moral, social and economic cross-government, cross society programme to spread opportunity and prosperity to all parts of the UK.

Andy explores how the Levelling Up in the United Kingdom white paper’s ambitious vision and 12 national levelling up missions can now be made a reality in towns and cities in every part of the UK by 2030.

Carbon Farming: A farmer’s perspective of the journey to Net Zero

Hosted in partnership with IGFS and the Irish Farmers Journal. In a lecture entitled ‘Carbon Farming: A farmer’s perspective of the journey towards Net Zero’, Professor Gilliland will lay out the case for an innovative, public private, carbon framework partnership and will suggest what that could look like.

He will address key issues such as delivering positive farmer behavioural change; delivering multiple public goods, including the need for active profitable farmers; a fair carbon price; eliminating double counting while delivering for both the Public and Private Sectors’ need for carbon reduction; how to measure, manage and verify change; and how to incentivise farmers to go beyond Net Zero.

Polls and Political Communication with Dr Frank Luntz

Leading US political analyst Dr Frank Luntz discusses Polls and Political Communication in this Shaping a Better World series video.

Hosted by Ryan Feeney.

Find out more

The R M Jones Lecture, Professor David Armitage, Harvard

1320, 1776 And all That: The Declaration of Arbroath, The Declaration of Independence and the Fate of Document.

This lecture examines the entangled fates of two such documents, the Scots “Declaration of Arbroath” (1320) and the US Declaration of Independence (1776), at a moment between the 700th anniversary of the one and the 250th anniversary of the other.

The Chief Executives’ Club: 'The Importance of Shared Spaces'

Guest Speaker: Hilary McGrady, Director-General of the National Trust

The Chief Executives' Club at Queen's presents 'The Importance of Shared Spaces: Our Common Need for Nature, Beauty and History' which was given by Hilary McGrady, Director-General of the National Trust.

The Chief Executives’ Club: ‘Building a Shared Island’

Guest Speaker: Micheál Martin, Taoiseach

The Chief Executives’ Club at Queen’s were delighted to host their Inaugural Dublin event in the Royal Irish Academy, Dawson Street.

Members of the Chief Executives’ Club were joined by Queen’s University alumni to hear Taoiseach Micheál Martin deliver an impassioned keynote on the opportunities for partnership, cooperation and collaboration in a shared island. The event included contributions from Dr Mary Canning, President of the Royal Irish Academy and Professor Ian Greer, President and Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast.

Assembly Election 2022 Leaders' Lecture Series

Public Engagement at Queen's University Belfast, is hosting a ‘Leaders’ Lecture Series’, featuring each of the eight local political party leaders in the run-up to the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly Election.

The Leaders' Lecture Series provides an opportunity to hear from the leaders of the local parties, and to put questions to them. Each event will each be chaired by a senior Queen's University representative.

The Leaders are; Gerry Carroll, Clare Bailey, Doug Beattie, Michelle O’Neill, Naomi Long, Jim Allister, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and Colum Eastwood.

British Academy Lecture

Queen’s University Belfast, in partnership with the British Academy, hosted the British Academy lecture (Raleigh Lectures on History) on Wednesday 23 February 2022.

Entitled: Towards A History Of Compromise: Comparing Political Unions In The British-Irish Isles And Poland-Lithuania, the lecture was delivered by Professor Robert Frost, FBA, FSRE, Burnett Fletcher Chair of History, University of Aberdeen.

The lecture was delivered from the Great Hall at Queen’s University Belfast and streamed live to an online audience. An interactive question and answer session was chaired by Professor Richard English, FBA, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics.

In Conversation with Professor Andrew Heyn

Professor Richard English, Director of the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security, and Justice at Queen’s University Belfast, hosted Andrew Heyn, UK Diplomat, for a live 'In Conversation' event in 2021.

This event was Andrew's inaugural address as Honorary Professor of Practice at the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen's University. Delivered from Queen's University's Council Chamber, the event was streamed live to an online audience.