The SCR Conversations provide an opportunity to learn about, and discuss, the work of invited speakers, prior to a formal dinner. The speakers, many of whom are members of the SCR, will include university staff, working in the humanities, the social sciences, and the sciences, but also people making a distinctive contribution to the cultural, social, and political life of Durham City and the North-East. In these informal, small-scale sessions, a brief interview with the speaker opens out into a wider conversation with all present, which can continue, for those attending the formal, over drinks and dinner. The SCR Conversations, which are open to all members of the SCR, MCR, and JCR interested in the work of the speakers, take place on Tuesdays, two or three times each term,  from 6.15 to 7.00pm, in the SCR – or, if more space is required, in the Williams Library.

Questions about the SCR Conversations can be directed to the SCR Academic Officer (currently Colin Crowder).

Michaelmas 2024 Speakers

This term, the SCR Conversations will feature two speakers:

Tuesday 15th October, 6.15-7.00pm, SCR
Prof. Julian Horton
Julian joined the Department of Music as Professor of Music Theory and Analysis, in 2013. His research focuses on the analysis and reception of nineteenth-century instrumental music, and he has written major studies of Bruckner, Brahms, Schubert, and other composers, and of the instrumental forms with which they worked. In this SCR Conversation, he will be speaking about ‘music literacy’ and musical education, following the launch of the Music Literacy Project which he initiated as President of the Society of Musical Analysis, and the SMA’s First Summit on Music Literacy, held in Cambridge in July 2024.  

Tuesday 3rd December, 6.15-7.00pm, SCR
Dr Stuart Foyle
Stuart teaches Arts, Humanities, and Religious Studies at The Open University, and, at Durham University, Religion and Film – which, for the past ten years, has been the most popular module offered by the Department of Theology and Religion. He will be speaking about the study of religion and film and the development of his Religion and Film module, in which films, film genres, the film-making process, and film as a cultural artefact are explored in dialogue with concepts and perspectives from various disciplines involved in the study of religion.