The Great Debate is a group of like minded people who organise
courses, workshops, seminars and public discussions on a variety of topics.
Our aim is to facilitate lively, open debate on scientific and social issues.
We are committed to public participation and to facilitating topical
discussions through which we hope to encourage critical thinking and a
willingness to challenge current orthodoxies. We engage with the general
public in the broadest sense and aim to develop a deeper shared understanding
of science and society.
We hope that you will find our website to be a useful resource for
information on a range of subjects.
Since its inception in 1998, The Great Debate has
organised more than 160 events including courses, day schools,
public discussions and workshops on topics including
Darwinism, theories of human nature, the human mind, consciousness,
Evolutionary Psychology, internet freedom, biodiversity, development,
sustainability and environmentalism
(see
Previous Events).
We have engaged with over 180 prominent speakers from Europe and the UK
who have
spoken at our events and provided ongoing contributions to the debates on
our website. These speakers have included journalists, best-selling
authors and academics from the Universities of Newcastle, Northumbria,
Durham, Sunderland, Wageningen, Lancaster, Manchester and the
London School of Economics (see
Previous Contributors).
Last year, events hosted by The Great Debate
attracted over 250 attendees. We have a core
subscription mailing list of over 1000 people who attend our events.
We have convened events at a number of venues in the North East including
Newcastle and Gateshead Civic Centres, Newcastle University,
Northumbria University, Discovery Museum,
The International Centre for Life and Newcastle Playhouse.
Hits per months at The Great Debate website currently run at
well over 60,000.
Regularly updated with current research information, articles and
discussions, the site is now widely used as a resource for academics,
students and the general public.
Previous collaborators with The Great Debate have included
The Space of Democracy and the Democracy of Space network,
North East Centre for Transformative Education and Research (NECTER),
RSA,
Institute for Research on Environment and Sustainability,
The International Centre for Life,
Peer Review for European Sustainable Urban Development (PRESUD),
Newcastle Local Agenda 21,
WORLDwrite,
Christian Aid, Northern Stage, Oxfam,
Water Resource Systems Research Laboratory (WRSRL),
Transport Research Group (TRG) and
Institute of Ideas.
Sponsorship has been received from Economic and Social Research Council,
PRESUD, The Well Read Bookshop
(University of Northumbria), Hodder & Stoughton, Polity Press,
Weidenfield & Nicholson and Newcastle Science Festival (see
Sponsors).
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