University Lecture Series
What are University lecture Courses?
Our University Lecture Course Programme gives participants the opportunity to attend regular lectures in a selection of courses, alongside enrolled students as an observer. Please note that you are not eligible to attend tutorials, take part in assessments, sit exams and will not have access to online course material. This is a no-stress learning opportunity.
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University Lecture Course 2025:
Semester One 2025:
Semester One 2025 courses run from Monday, 3rd March until Friday, 6th June 2025, and include a two-week mid-semester break from Monday, 14 April to Friday, 25 April 2025. There are no classes during the mid-semester break.
Semester Two 2025:
Semester Two 2025 courses run from Monday, 21 July 2025, until Friday, 24 October 2025, and include a two-week mid-semester break from Monday, 1st September to Friday, 12 September 2025. There are no classes during the mid-semester break.
REGISTER HERE for Semester One 2025
* Registrations close Monday, 24th February 2025
PRIVACY NOTICE:
Event Services will collect and process personal information about you for the purposes of managing your registration and event attendance. This information will be managed in accordance with the University of Auckland Privacy Statement, which explains how we collect and process personal information about our “alumni and friends”, which includes providing events services. This statement also explains how you can access or correct your personal information.
Event Services may disclose some personal information about you – such as your name, organisation and contact details – to the organising committee, which may be another organisation. Event Services may also provide your name to other event attendees unless you choose to opt out of this. You can also opt out of receiving any further marketing communications from Event Services or the organising committee.
Course List Semester One 2025:
ANCIENT 255 - The Later Roman Empire
A study of the Roman empire between the third and sixth centuries CE.
Topics covered include the period’s social, economic and political crises, encounters and struggles between Romans and barbarians, the conflict between Paganism and Christianity, and the emergence of the barbarian kingdoms in the West and the Byzantine empire in the East.
Lecturers: Lisa Bailey
Mondays: 3PM – 4PM
Tuesdays: 3PM – 4PM
SOCIOL 205 - Special Topic: Sociology of Subcultures
Through consideration of sociological theory from the Chicago School, British Cultural Studies, and postmodernism, this course investigates marginal, non-normative, and socially deviant group formations considered as ‘subcultural’.
This will include critical consideration of the social, economic, and political dynamics in which specific group practices and identities of subcultures such as ravers, punks, and skaters take shape in capitalist society.
Lecturer: Bruce Cohen
Fridays: 2PM – 4PM
ANTHRO 110 - Culture and Creativity
Explores the connections between culture, creativity, and society through anthropological concepts, Mātauranga Māori, and relevant examples. It covers issues and problems faced by communities locally and globally, using a range of mediums such as whakapapa, material culture, performing arts, media and grassroots movements to illustrate how anthropology can help understand the complexities of creativity and the creation of knowledge.
Lecturers: Sunhee Koo & Callie Vandewiele
Tuesdays: 2PM – 4PM
MUS 144 - Turning-points in Western Music
A study of significant people, major discoveries and inventions, and key factors (artistic, intellectual, social, technical) that were important agents of change in Western music. No previous knowledge of music is assumed.
Lecturer: Allan Badley
Mondays: 2 PM – 4PM
HISTORY 217 - Nazi Germany and Its Legacies
An in-depth look into a period of history that has simultaneously fascinated and horrified generations of people around the world.
Topics include the origins of Nazism, Adolf Hitler and the rise of the NSDAP, life in Nazi Germany in peace and war, Hitler’s foreign policy, the Second World War, the Holocaust and its myriad legacies in history and popular culture.
Lecturer: Maartje Abbenhuis
Tuesdays: 1PM – 3PM
ENV101 - Environmental Challenges
From the climate crisis to biodiversity loss, you will explore the scientific foundations of the environmental challenges we face. The complexity of environmental problems and the role of humans within environmental systems are considered. Emphasis is placed on acquiring the scientific knowledge and skill sets required to create innovative, feasible, and sustainable solutions to these issues.
Lecturer: Sonia Fonua
Tuesdays: 8AM – 9AM
Fridays: 12PM – 1PM
MUS 225 - Music in Society
The study of music and text in society using a wide-angled lens to explore how it can be intertwined with issues of politics, gender, religion, race, psychology and class. Examples will include music and text in diverse genres and from various places.
Lecturer: Nancy November
Mondays: 12PM – 2PM
THEOREL 216 - Early Christianity
Examines the history of Christianity from its origins in Palestinian and diaspora Judaism through to its official endorsement by the Roman Empire at the end of the fourth century. Explores how various traditions about Jesus evolved, how Christians both accommodated and resisted the wider culture, and how norms for “orthodoxy” (correct teaching) gradually took shape.
Lecturers: Nick Thompson
Mondays: 11AM to 12PM
Wednesday: 11AM to 12PM