Risk, Disaster Reduction and Humanitarian Taster Sessions 2025

UCL's Department of Risk and Disaster Reduction (RDR) is offering a series of free online taster sessions throughout 2025. These sessions provide direct insights into studying at RDR and the chance to engage with leading academics. Sessions are informal and interactive, featuring presentations followed by Q&A discussions. The presentations will be recorded and available to view afterwards, though Q&A sections will remain unrecorded to encourage open discussion.

By joining these sessions, participants will gain insight into various subject areas, meet our teaching staff and learn about life as a student in the department.

Additional taster sessions will be announced on this page throughout the year. All sessions are free to attend but registration is required.

Event Schedule

16 January

Why Do We Need Humanitarians Anyway?

Speaker: Lisa Guppy

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27 January

Disaster by Choice: How We Turn Natural Hazards Into Catastrophe

Speaker: Ilan Kelman

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6 February

How Do We Understand the 'Human' in Humanitarianism?

Speaker: Aeron O'Connor

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11 March

How Can Better Warning Systems Save Lives?

Speaker: Shipra Jain

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24 March

Who Holds the Power? Control and Leadership in Humanitarian Action

Speaker: Philip Cunliffe

14 April

How Can AI Help to Reduce Disaster Risk?

Speaker: Saman Ghaffarian