Roscoe Lecture Series returns in our bicentenary year

We are delighted to confirm the return of our ever-popular Roscoe Lecture Series, in this our special bicentenary year.

After a pause of more than three years of the in-person public lectures, owing to the worldwide pandemic, there will be three Roscoe lectures in 2023.

On Wednesday 22 March, relaunching the series will be Professor Andy Newsam, an inspiring astrophysicist who is the Director of the National Schools’ Observatory, who will entertain and educate us with his lecture “A Universe for All”. Reserve your place via Eventbrite now. The event begins at 5pm and will be hosted at St George’s Hall.

On Thursday 25 May we will host a Roscoe event with our Chancellor, Nisha Katona MBE. More details to be revealed as we draw closer to the special event.

On Thursday 5 October we look forward to the return of Professor the Lord Alton of Liverpool, who founded the Roscoe Lecture Series in 1997, and as part of our celebrations he will look back over 25 years of Roscoe lectures and events.

Sign-up to our Roscoe mailing list to receive registration information for events in May and October, in due course. This is usually sent about six weeks prior to the event dates.

Professor Andy Newsam

LJMU is also curating 200 online profiles throughout 2023, that tell the stories of its people from the past, the present and those shaping and changing the future for the better.

As the first of our three bicentenary year Roscoe lecturers, Professor Andy Newsam is included as one of the inspiring profiles. Find out more about Andy’s career.

About the Roscoe Lecture Series

The lecture series is named after William Roscoe (1753 -1831). The son of a publican, Roscoe transformed the cultural life of Liverpool. Described as ‘Liverpool’s greatest citizen’, he was a man of many talents: a champion of freedom for all, a poet, writer, scholar, patron of the Arts, bibliophile and botanist. As MP for Liverpool, Roscoe showed great courage when he campaigned for the abolition of slavery. He also played a key role in ‘Renaissance Liverpool’ during the early 19th century.

Education was also close to his heart and in 1823, he played an instrumental role in the establishment of the Liverpool Mechanics’ and Apprentices’ Library, the precursor of LJMU. Roscoe’s mission to extend the benefits of education to all remains at the heart of LJMU’s operations today and the university is proud to maintain links with its founding father through the Roscoe Lecture Series and our work with schools and colleges across the region.

The Roscoe Lecture Series was launched in November 1997 to provide an open platform for debate on topics of public interest.

The lectures play an important part in the intellectual life of Merseyside, helping to foster informed debate, broaden horizons and perspectives, and uphold the crucial spirit of intellectual inquiry and free speech in which Roscoe passionately believed.

Since 1997, LJMU has delivered more than 120 lectures, featuring a wide range of speakers, including the then HRH Prince of Wales (now King Charles III), Paralympic athlete Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, The Archbishop of Canterbury, journalist and presenter Esther Rantzen, the Presidents of Ireland and Ghana, and our former Chancellors including Sir Brian Leveson and Cherie Booth.

Find out more about previous lectures.

Our bicentenary year - LJMU always ahead of our time.