Brighton pub teams up with university for ‘drink and think’ talks

By Claire Jacobs

A pub is teaming up with Brighton University to host a series of free educational talks by local academics.

The Community University Partnership Programme at Brighton University has organised six talks to take place at the Bevy, in Higher Bevendean, Britain’s first co-operative pub.

The talks cover a range of topics including NHS privatisation, retailing, organ donation, the EU referendum and the Joy of Sex. They will take place on the last Wednesday of the month.

The first talk, at 6pm on Thursday 9 June, is called “No to modern football”. Mark Doidge will talk about the Taylor Report and the Hillsborough tragedy and how many fans have rebelled against some of the commercial changes to the game.

The free talks have been funded by the Sussex Learning Network and will each last for an hour.

Email booking is required and the list of talks, below, can also be found on Brighton University’s website.

• 9 June: Dr Mark Doidge, research fellow, will talk about the more commercial approach football clubs are taking and how many fans are rebelling under the banner No to Modern Football.
• 29 June: Dr Carl Walker, principal lecturer, will give a talk based on his research on what is happening to the NHS and how people can have their say in future health services.
• 27 July: Professor Angie Hart, professor of child, family and community health, will speak on how society dwells on negative aspects of sex including pornography and sexual violence and how we can focus on the “good stuff”.
• 28 September: “Britain and Europe after the referendum” will be discussed by Professor Phil Haynes, professor of public policy, and will look at the evidence to compare Britain and other European countries, post referendum.
• 26 October: Professor Bobbie Farsides, professor of clinical and biomedical ethics at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, will speak on how England has worked hard to match other European countries’ record on organ donation but we’re not there yet. She asks: “What should we do next – if you ever need a replacement organ we can’t guarantee you’ll get one. Why is that and what can we do?”
• 30 November: Harvey Ells, principal lecturer, will talk on his personal observations of retail, commencing in a butcher’s shop at the age of 13 and concluding with his current research investigating food street markets.

Claire Jacobs writes the blog Confessions of a Single Parent Pessimist.