Academic Conference Days
Inquisitas Academic Conference Days are fully online, interdisciplinary events designed for students aged 16+ who want to explore complex, real-world questions through multiple academic lenses.
Held during the Christmas, Easter, and Summer holidays, each Conference Day is built around a central theme - such as Climate Change, Artificial Intelligence & Technology, or Democracy - and brings together expert academics from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge working across different disciplines. Students are invited to explore how historians, philosophers, political theorists, legal experts, and social scientists approach the same problem in distinct but interconnected ways.
These events offer a rich, university-style learning experience that mirrors how many of today’s most urgent questions are researched, debated, and understood by academic change-makers.
What to Expect
Our Academic Conference Days are immersive, fast-paced, and intellectually stimulating. Each event is carefully curated around a single theme, offering students the chance to engage deeply with ideas that cut across traditional subject boundaries.
Across the day, students will:
Take part in a full programme of lectures, panel discussions, live Q&As, and expert-led ethics and policy tasks.
Hear from Oxford and Cambridge academics working in different disciplines on a shared theme
Explore how the same issue is framed, questioned, and analysed across fields
Hear about the latest developments in tackling some of the most pressing issues facing our world today
Engage in thoughtful discussion with like-minded peers in a supportive academic environment
Conference Days are designed to challenge students’ assumptions, encourage connections between ideas, and develop the habit of thinking critically across disciplines - a key feature of university-level study.
Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Global Challenges
Each Academic Conference Day focuses on a contemporary or enduring theme that benefits from interdisciplinary exploration. Past and upcoming themes include:
Artificial Intelligence & Technology: Ethics, Society, and the Future
Post-Colonial Legacies: Politics, Culture, and Thought
Democracy: Past, Present, and Future
Climate Crisis: Environment, Policy, and Responsibility
Geopolitics: Migration, Borders, and Identities
Faith in the 21st Century: Religion, Belief, and the Modern World
Themes may draw on perspectives from subjects such as History, Philosophy, Politics, Law, Sociology, Human Sciences, Economics, and related disciplines.
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The climate emergency is one of the defining issues of our time, raising urgent questions that cut across science, politics, history, ethics, and economics. This interdisciplinary conference day brings together researchers from across the Humanities and Social Sciences to explore how questions of responsibility, justice, and sustainability are approached in both academic research and public policy.
Keynote Lectures:
Money, Power, and the Planet: Elites and Billionaires in the Age of Carbon Inequality and Climate Crisis
Unstable Coastlines: The Politics of Climate-Related Land Loss
Panel Discussion: Climate policy, international cooperation, and political will
Workshop sessions:
Environmental ethics, global inequality, and intergenerational justice: who bears responsibility?
Can democracies respond effectively to environmental emergency?
Sessions are designed to encourage critical discussion, introduce new perspectives, and model the kind of interdisciplinary thinking students will encounter at university.
Each Inquisitas Academic Conference Day is unique. Themes, sessions, and speakers vary depending on the focus and academic contributors.
How Do Inquisitas Conference Days Support Students?
Inquisitas Conference Days are designed to deepen intellectual curiosity, build academic confidence, and support ambitious students in developing a mature, university-ready way of thinking.
They help students to:
Think Across Disciplines
Understand how complex questions are approached differently - and more powerfully - when multiple disciplines are brought into conversation.
Engage with Big Ideas
Explore cutting-edge research and contemporary debates that extend far beyond the school curriculum, and get inspired for future careers.
Develop Academic Confidence
Take part in live discussion and Q&A, building confidence in asking questions, forming views, and articulating ideas clearly.
Experience University-Style Learning
Gain insight into how academics collaborate, debate, and challenge one another across subject boundaries.
Strengthen Academic Profiles
Demonstrate intellectual curiosity, independence, and an understanding of how your academic studies might contribute to a bigger picture - qualities valued highly in personal statements, interviews, and competitive applications.
Whether students are exploring possible degree choices or simply eager to think more deeply about the world around them, our Conference Days offer a powerful introduction to interdisciplinary academic thinking.
For schools:
We also offer tailored interdisciplinary academic conference days designed to support curriculum extension and enrichment provision.
Be the First to Hear
Our next Academic Conference Days will take place during the Easter and Summer holidays.
Join our mailing list to receive upcoming themes, dates, and early booking access.