Following the success of our Main Conference in February 2016, TEDxUniversityofEdinburgh are excited to announce our first Salon of the year, Compassion and Courage. In collaboration with the Compassion Initiative at the Global Health Academy, University of Edinburgh, we will be curating an informal and informational evening to spark ideas and share experiences around what it means to be human and how we foster connection.

Our speakers will be:

Dr. Gavin Francis is a celebrated author and GP in Edinburgh who will be speaking on virtue, courage and compassion in medicine and nursing, and how these concepts resonate far beyond the clinic walls.

Mark Miller is a PhD student whose research explores cognition and neuroscience. He will be speaking on how recent theories of brain function can help us understand both the methodology and the great importance of cultivating compassion and loving kindness.

Kirsty Lewin is a civil servant and a trustee of the UK charity Sustrans. She is a regular traveler to Latin America and she will tell the story of her recent personal experience as a patient in Colombia.

Professor Alastair McIntosh is a human ecologist, theologian, activist and writer. He holds an honorary fellowship at Edinburgh University’s School of Divinity and a Senior Honorary Research Fellowship in the College of Social Sciences at the University of Glasgow. He guest lectures on nonviolence on senior military training courses at the UK Defence Academy. This talk rests on research undertaken for his book, Poacher’s Pilgrimage: an Island Journey (Birlinn 2016).

Join us at the historic Royal Society of Edinburgh on June 28th in opening a dialogue about compassion and courage. There will be refreshments provided after the talks.