For PUBLIC EVENTS at the University please see University Events
To book a place or register interest, email us at exe.u3a.uni.liaison@gmail.com, with names, membership numbers and emails of ALL who wish to attend, including the date of the event in the subject line of your email.
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17 December 2025, 11:00
Lecture Theatre G18, Medical School Building, St Luke’s Campus
Conor Ramsden Consultant Ophthalmologist and Clinical Lecturer
A session describing the anatomy and physiology of the eye, helping to understand what can go wrong. We will cover some of the more common eye conditions (cataract, glaucoma and macula degeneration) and discuss how they are treated. I will also introduce some of the of the research I’ve done over the years and describe future avenues I am pursuing here in Exeter.
To book a place or register interest, email us at exe.u3a.uni.liaison@gmail.com, with names, membership numbers and emails of ALL who wish to attend, including the date of the event in the subject line of your email.
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8th January 2026
What the Sea Remembers: The Films of Midway and the Environmental Impact of World War II
Debra Ramsay is a Lecturer in Film and Television Studies in the Department of English and Film at Exeter. Her research investigates how technologies of media have shaped the history, memory and waging of war and conflict.
World War II in American film has received a great deal of academic attention, as genre (Basinger, 1986), as history (Chambers and Culbert, 1996) and as memory (Burgoyne, 2013). Few (if any) however, have considered how the war film has at best misrepresented, at worst erased, warmaking as environmental disaster. By tracking the representation of a single battle, the Battle of Midway (June 1942), in three American films from the 1940s to the last decade, this paper exposes a long history in American war films of effacing the environmental impact and legacy of industrial warfare. The Battle of Midway was a pivotal moment in the Pacific war. It is the subject of an award-winning documentary by Hollywood director John Ford, and has since been represented in two blockbusters, one directed by Jack Smight (1976), the other by Roland Emmerich (2019). This paper investigates how, from Ford’s film to the 1970’s epic and the digital effects of the 21st century, specific strategies of representation have evolved in the American war film, creating a dangerous visual rhetoric that perpetuates a perceptual binary between human activity and the natural world.
Emmerich’s film ends with the intertitle, “the sea remembers its own”, but the spaces represented in the films do not so much ‘remember’ humans as carry the tangible traces of human violence, with sometimes devastating effects. This article will demonstrate how both the immediate and long-term impact of the war on Midway and the Pacific are erased within all three films. I argue for a new perspective on war films, one that considers not just what they ask us to remember, but what they cause us to forget. It has never been more vital, as conflict and climate change converge, that we identify and interrogate the representational strategies of past conflicts, in order that we might recognise and challenge those of future and current wars.
To book a place or register interest, email us at exe.u3a.uni.liaison@gmail.com, with names, membership numbers and emails of ALL who wish to attend, including the date of the event in the subject line of your email.
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28th January 2026 at 2pm at the Matrix Lecture Theatre in Building One.
Professor Ana Beduschi on Artificial Intelligence and the future of law and regulation
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer science fiction but an integral part of everyday life. A prime example of this rapid progress can be found in healthcare, a field where AI has already achieved significant development. It assists doctors in interpreting scans, supports patients at home, and influences decisions about our health and wellbeing.
However, as these systems become more capable, important questions emerge. Should we trust them? Who is responsible when errors occur? Are current laws and regulations robust enough to keep pace with technological innovations?
In this talk, healthcare will serve as our running example, highlighting both the potential and challenges of AI. We will explore how AI, especially generative AI and new types of AI agents, is transforming healthcare, the opportunities it presents, and the risks we must consider. We will also examine the types of safeguards and oversight needed to ensure AI continues to serve humanity rather than the other way around.
Short bio:
Ana Beduschi is a Professor of Law with a Personal Chair at the University of Exeter, Law School. She is also currently serving as the Strategic Lead on Fair and Inclusive Society at the Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (IDSAI) at the University of Exeter. Her research and teaching concentrate on law and technology, particularly artificial intelligence, with a focus on data protection law, international human rights law, and privacy.
Webpage: Professor Ana Beduschi
To book a place or register interest, email us at exe.u3a.uni.liaison@gmail.com, with names, membership numbers and emails of ALL who wish to attend, including the date of the event in the subject line of your email.
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A VISIT TO THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER’S VSIMULATORS RESEARCH FACILITY
Postponed - new date awaited
University of Exeter Engineering Research Centre, Anning Road, Exeter Science Park, Clyst Honiton, Exeter EX5 2FN
This unique facility combines a range of tools, including eye tracking, biomedical measuring devices, VR headsets etc, all on a moving platform that can then simulate a range of environments and measure how humans react / adapt / move. The facility has supported several significant healthcare projects to help people with conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, stroke, chronic ankle instability, Meniere’s (a vestibular inner ear condition affecting balance) and others. In addition, the team has worked with engineering consultants and other universities to support structural engineering projects around human response to vibration in office floors and pedestrian footbridges.
Members will have the opportunity to try out the motion platform for themselves and find out about the capabilities of our state-of-the-art facilities. Lunch will be provided.
For more information, please see below the link to the facility’s website and to a video about their healthcare research, featured on ITV Westcountry and BBC Spotlight.
https://www.exeter.ac.uk/research/facilities/vsimulators
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy2vfjl7gc0
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