The AKC Course in 2026-27
The AKC programme is comprised of two separate lecture series. This year all of the AKC lectures will first be delivered in-person on the dates listed below on the Strand Campus. However, if you wish to follow the AKC programme online then you can access the course material via our KEATS page.
Each lecture will be released on the KEATS page one week after it is delivered in person. For example, Lecture 1, which will be delivered at 12:00 midday on Monday 5 October on campus, will be released at 12:00 midday (UK time) on Monday 12 October on our KEATS page. The KEATS quizzes will open on the day of the live lecture and will close at 12:00 midday three weeks later. For example, the quiz for Lecture 1 will open at 12:00 midday on Monday 5 October and will close at 12:00 midday (UK time) on Monday 26 October.
Below you can find the outline of the 2026-27 AKC lecture series.
All AKC lectures are delivered from the perspective of the academic delivering them and do not represent an official position of King’s College London. These lectures often explore contentious subjects and viewpoints and we welcome constructive debate at these events.
Semester 1: 2026
A series of eight lectures curated by Dr Nathanael Vette, Lecturer in New Testament, Gender and the Arts.
Suspicious Minds: Trust and Mistrust in the Contemporary World
Across contemporary societies, questions of trust have become increasingly urgent. Public institutions are scrutinised, traditional authorities are contested, and digital media have transformed how information circulates and whom people believe.
This lecture series explores the dynamics of trust and mistrust in the modern world by moving from foundational questions about trust as a human and moral capacity to the ways trust is formed, challenged, and sustained within cultural traditions, social institutions, and public life. By drawing together perspectives from across the humanities and social sciences, the series invites participants to reflect on how trust is cultivated in an age often marked by suspicion.
5 October - When Virtue Turns into Vice: The Problem of Loyalty
Professor Mona Siddiqui and Dr Nathanael Vette, King’s College London
12 October - The Value of Mistrust: Findings From Research With Survivors of Abuse
Professor Linda Woodhead, King’s College London
19 October - Rebuilding the House: Democracy, Disinformation, and the Politics of Trust in Post-Populist Europe
Professor Adam Fagan, King’s College London
26 October - The Trouble with Medicine: Medical Distrust in 1970s Britain
Dr Caitjan Gainty, King’s College London
2 November
Reading week, no lecture
9 November - Trust and Peace
Professor Eka Ikpe, King’s College London
16 November - Whose Side Are You On? The Growing Role of Identity and Polarisation in Trust
Professor Bobby Duffy, King’s College London
23 November - When Trust Gives Way to Suspicion: Refugee Families, Human Rights, and the Lessons of Windrush
Dr Shaila Pal, King’s College London
30 November - What Does It Mean to Trust AI?
Professor Elena Simperl, King’s College London
Semester 2: 2027
A series of eight lectures curated by Dr Edward David, AKC Director and Lecturer in Ethics & Values.
Death and the Afterlife: Investigations in Spirituality and the Health Sciences
Death is a universal human experience, yet the ways in which societies understand and respond to it vary widely across cultures and disciplines. This lecture series brings into conversation perspectives from religious and spiritual traditions alongside insights from the health sciences, exploring both the meaning of mortality and the realities of dying.
Attending to questions of what it means to die well, as well as to the practices and structures of end-of-life care, the series invites participants to reflect on how human beings confront mortality while continuing to search for meaning, hope, and forms of care in the face of loss.
25 January - We Need to Talk About Dying
Professor Katherine Sleeman, King’s College London
1 February - The Final Gift: What Happens to a Body Donor After Death?
Dr Rocky Cheung, King’s College London
8 February - ‘What Do I Know?’ Michel de Montaigne on Living Well and Dying Well
Professor Christopher Hamilton, King’s College London
15 February - To Infinity and Beyond? Poetry and Perceiving the Infinite
Dr Rebekah Wallace, University of Oxford
22 February - The Afterlife in Buddhism and Indian Philosophies
Professor Kate Crosby, University of Oxford
1 March
Reading week, no lecture
8 March - Sufism and Visualising the Soul
Dr Eyad Abuali, King’s College London
15 March - Practitioner Panel
Dr Richard Towers , Royal Marsden NHS Trust and Ruth Mahaffey, King’s College Hospital with Revd Sarah Farrow, King’s College London
22 March - Music and Grief
Dr Joseph Fort, King's College London
See our sample lectures, including previous AKC lectures