What is the Centre for Neurodiversity and Development Public Lecture Series?

Since the Centre was established, public engagement via the Centre’s public lecture series has been a really important part of our work. Through our public lecture series we host a range of speakers, from within and beyond academia, on a variety of issues and topics with the aim of disseminating important research on neurodiversity as well as highlighting key issues in the field.

We hold at least one public lecture per year.

We aim to run our public lectures in hybrid format to support accessibility, and access to all lectures is free.

For recordings of previous public lectures, see here:

Professor Mary Hanley - Why are so many autistic learners struggling in mainstream schools? And what can we do about it?

A list of our past public lectures can be found here:

2026 – Professor Mary Hanley ‘Why are so many autistic learners struggling in school? And what can we do about it?’

2025 – Dr Monique Botha “Why autism isn't what you think it is: How dehumanization and objectification shapes our ideas of what it means to be autistic, how researchers are responsible, and why that matters.”

2025 – Dr Robert Chapman “Neurodiversity in the age of late fascism”

2024 – Dr Tony Llyod “Neurodiversity: A new paradigm in our understanding of intelligence, and its implications for education, health, and the economy”

2022 – Professor Sue Leekam “Preference for sameness in changing times: what we've learned about autism and developmental psychopathology over twenty years”

2021 – Professor Helen Dodd “Why do some children become anxious? Insights from longitudinal developmental research.

2020 – Dr Sinead Rhodes “ ADHD: Myths and Evidence”

2019 – Dr Joni Holmes “Why do some children struggle to learn at school?”

2019 – Dr Will Mandy  “The Hidden Face of Autism: Understanding the Characteristics & Needs of Autistic Girls & Women

2017 – Professor Gaia Scerif “From lab to classroom and back again: How the science of developmental disorders translates to impact”

Other Events held by Centre of Neurodiversity and Development

We hold regular / annual ESRC Festival of Social Science events and Impacting Educational Policy events which were in collaboration with Durham County Council and Investing in Children. A list of our past events can be found here:

2025 – Neuroinclusivity through relationship building (ESRC FoSS event)

2024 – Impacting Educational Policy in the Area of Special Educational Needs and Neurodiversity

Nov 2024 – Autism, neurodiversity and school life (ESRC FoSS event)

Sept 2023 – Supporting autistic people to thrive in County Durham event

Nov 2022 – Autism and PE (ESRC FoSS event)

Nov 2021 – Triple-A in the Classroom (ESRC FoSS event)