An audience with...

Vin Arthey on writing his biography of William Fisher

Thursday 19 April 2012

An audience with biographer Vin Arthey

Newcastle-born William Fisher was a Colonel in the KGB when he retired, and during his 40 year career had spied for the Soviet Union in Norway, England and the United States. He was arrested in New York in 1956, and flown back to Moscow in 1963, swapped for the American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers.

Teesside University Visiting Fellow Vin Arthey has written the biography of Fisher. During this talk Vin will outline the problems a biographer faces when researching the life of a spy, which is intended to be secret, and how some of them were solved.

Jeff Stelling on his broadcasting career

Tuesday 31 January 2012

An audience with Jeff Stelling

Teesside University honorary graduate and local lad Jeff Stelling will give a candid account of his extensive career in broadcasting. From his humble roots as a reporter for BBC Radio Tees and the Hartlepool Mail, to his current role as anchor for Sky's Gillette Soccer Saturday.

Jeff's media career began almost 40 years ago and has seen him report from two Olympic Games, before he began a long association with Sky Sports. He is now best known as the anchor on Gillette Soccer Saturday.

An audience with...Jeff Stelling Watch Jeff Stelling's candid talk about his career in broadcasting. (60 mins)

Audience with... Jeff Stelling Hundreds of people turned out at Teesside University to hear Sky’s Jeff Stelling give a candid talk about his career in broadcasting. (3 mins)

Steps to happiness, Tessa Peasgood

Thursday 26 January 2012

An audience with Tessa Peasgood, health economist researcher

Recent research by economists and psychologists has shed new light on the causes of happiness. Money, for example, matters less than we might think. Tessa Peasgood's talk will discuss what can make us happy and why it's important.

Tessa is a health economist researcher working at the University of Sheffield. Her work has looked at issues around measuring well-being and how measures of well-being can contribute to government policy. She has conducted research exploring the determinants of happiness.

The changing nature of corruption in the UK

Thursday 8 December 2011

An audience with Michael Macaulay, Professor in Public Management

There's nothing new about UK corruption in the public or private sector – a fact attested to by a number of scandals from recent decades. But there's something new about the way corruption is perceived and treated. Traditionally it's been overt and illegal practices – bribery, rigging, bid collusion, others.

But recent revelations of the News International scandal have thrown a spotlight onto the concept of influence marketing – a more subtle, frequently legal way of accessing and harnessing political power and public money for private gain. Here Michael charts the growth in how we understand influence marketing. He asks whether recent legislation, particularly the Bribery Act 2010, will effectively deal with this problem?

Captain James Cook RN FRS

Thursday 17 November 2011

An audience with Sir Arnold Wolfendale FRS, 14th Astronomer Royal

James Cook was a North-Easterner who rose from a humble background to become Britain's most distinguished navigator. His three great voyages in the 18th century resulted in discovering new lands and led to the expansion of the British Empire. Sir Arnold Wolfendale looks at his successes and his murder in Hawaii in 1779.

Jackie Kay and Kachi Ozumba in conversation

Thursday 20 October 2011

An audience with Jackie Kay MBE, poet and novelist

Jackie Kay's memoir, Red Dust Road, is full of twists, turns and emotions – from the moment when she realizes that her skin is a different colour from her mum and dad's, to tracing and finding her birth parents, her Highland mother and Nigerian father.

Nigerian writer and Teesside University lecturer, Kachi Ozumba accompanied her for part of the journey to Nigeria to trace her roots – a chance conversation with Kachi, then a PhD student at Newcastle University, had revealed that his uncle in Nigeria had been mentored by Jackie's birth father.

Jackie will read from Red Dust Road – and will be in conversation with Kachi about her turbulent journey to Nigeria and the role of chance in our lives.