Date: Monday 10th June

Time: 1pm – 2.30pm

Venue: The Exchange, Twickenham

St Mary’s are delighted to continue the “Ideas Exchange”, a series of quick-fire lectures from a range of top academics. Each thought-provoking talk is only eight minutes long (or short) and will cover a wealth of topics from media, politics and history to sport, emotions and science!

We are delighted to confirm Professor Karen Sanders who will be talking about respectful communication, what it is, why it matters, communication styles and how to communicate effectively. Karen is Dean of Research at St Mary’s University, Twickenham and a former Professor in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Communication Sciences at CEU San Pablo University in Spain. Prior to academia, Karen began her career working in local newspapers and managing media and parliamentary relations for one of the UK’s principal industry bodies in the City of London.

Dr Jade Salim will tell us that a little bit of gratitude goes a long way.  Gratitude is an emotion we might feel in response to receiving something good. It is also a feeling which can occur in interpersonal exchanges, when one person acknowledges receiving a valuable benefit from another. The practice of gratitude has been found to have positive results on health and well-being, so why do we not do it more? Perhaps the key reason we do not make gratitude a part of our daily lives is that the accelerated pace, and multiple distractions of modern life have simply made it all too easy to forget gratitude’s importance.

Neena Samota and Dr Carole Murphy will be discussing knife crime in their talk “A Criminologist and Sociologist talking about knife crime”. Carole is a Senior lecturer in Criminology and Sociology and Deputy Director of the Centre for the Study of Modern Slavery and is committed to raising public awareness about contemporary forms of slavery and exploitation. Recognised nationally as an expert in the field of modern slavery and human trafficking, she is regularly invited to speak on this subject to a wide range of audiences and media outlets. Neena is the Programme Director for Criminology and Sociology at St. Mary’s University and maintains extensive engagement with the voluntary sector through research, governance and campaigning work. She is Chair of Voice4Change England (V4CE), a national infrastructure body supporting the black and minority ethnic voluntary and community sector. She has been a member of StopWatch since it was formed in 2010 to campaign for effective, accountable and fair policing. Neena is also a steering group member of the Reclaim Justice Network which campaigns to promote alternatives to criminal justice.

Richard Solomon, Director of Finance, St Mary’s University will be discussing the financial crisis and its aftermath. Richard’s previous roles include being Chief Accountant at RBS, Audit Partner with Ernst & Young LLP and Audit Director at Deloitte.

Professor Glenn Richardson will take about Cardinal Wolsey and Hampton Court.  Glenn has published extensively on Tudor England’s political and cultural relations with Continental Europe and on European Renaissance monarchy. His most recent book is The Field of Cloth of Gold (2013) on the meeting between King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France held near Calais in 1520. The talk will show how and why Cardinal Wolsey built Hampton Court Palace as the ‘power house’ of Henry VIII’s England.

Other speakers include:

Dan Ford, Programme Director for the Drama Programmes at St Mary’s University and Lecturer in Acting. He trained as an actor at LAMDA and holds an MA in Writing and Performance from the University of York.

Tickets:

St Mary’s Staff and Students/School/College Entry: Free

General Admission: £5