Reclaiming Play - Prof Lisa Forbes, PhD, LPC, RPT

Date: Monday 22nd June 2026

Time: 17:30 - 19:30 (GMT/UTC)

Location: Henderson Lecture Theatre

Join us for this public keynote as part of Playposium 2026, where Prof Lisa Forbes will be discussing her forthcoming book.

Her book explores what happens when adulthood slowly trains us to tighten up, constantly perform, and lose touch with what it means to feel fully alive. It challenges the idea that play is merely fun or escape, instead positioning play as something far more vital: a way of resisting the emotional hardening created by cultures obsessed with productivity and efficiency.

Through stories, humour, awkwardness, protest, and everyday human moments, Lisa asks why so many adults long for playfulness yet struggle to access it once life becomes heavy.

At its heart, this is work about remaining human in systems that often ask us to behave like machines.

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