Ask the experts: how can we connect in an era of loneliness?

Loneliness affects one in six people globally, and in the UK, more than a quarter of adults report feeling lonely often.

In a world that is more connected than ever, why do so many of us feel lonely? How can we change this? And what more can policymakers do to help address feelings of isolation and disconnection in society?

Put your questions about loneliness and its impacts on health, wellbeing, and society to our panel of experts. Together, we will unpack the causes and effects of loneliness – and explore innovative ideas and practical solutions for fostering meaningful connections and belonging in our communities.

Speakers

Professor Fay Bound Alberti

Fay Bound Alberti is Professor of Modern History and Director of the Centre for Technology and the Body at King’s College London. She is a cultural historian of medicine, emotion and gender. In 2019 she became one of the first UKRI Future Leaders Fellows, undertaking leading research into the emotions and ethics of face transplants. She is the author of A Biography of Loneliness and The Face: A Cultural History, due to be published in 2026. Her work has featured in many international media outlets, including the New York Times, the New Yorker, The Guardian, CNN and BBC Radio. She is also a TED speaker and consultant on loneliness and mental health.

Dr Timothy Matthews

Timothy Matthews is Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Greenwich. He completed his PhD at King’s College London in 2017, having developed a programme of research into loneliness in young people. In 2019, he was awarded a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship. Tim’s research focuses on loneliness and its impacts on health across the lifespan, with a particular focus on adolescence and emerging adulthood. His work integrates longitudinal, epidemiological and behavioural genetic methods to study the implications of loneliness for mental health, employment, technology use, sleep, inflammation and other markers of health and functioning. Most recently, he is interested in researching how novel technology can be leveraged to advance ways of understanding, measuring and combatting loneliness.

Professor Christina Victor

Christina Victor is Professor of Gerontology and Public Health at Brunel, University of London. Her research interests are focussed around understanding the social context of ageing, more specifically around loneliness and social isolation in later life; care and caring; growing old amongst minority communities; physical activity and later life. She has written over 400 peer reviewed articles and published 8 books in the field of gerontology, and she 3 articles in the list of the 100 most cited articles in the field of loneliness. She has received funding for her research from a range of funders including ESRC, NIHR, Dunhill Medical Trust, Leverhulme and the British Academy. She is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health and an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences. In 2017 Christina was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award of the British Society of Gerontology.

Please note, Professor Andrea Wigfield is no longer able to attend this event for personal reasons.

Chair

Hetan Shah

Hetan Shah is Chief Executive at the British Academy, the UK’s national academy for humanities and social sciences. He is Chair of Our World in Data, which brings together research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems.

Hetan was appointed in 2024 by the UK Parliament to the board of the National Audit Office, the UK’s independent spending watchdog. He is Visiting Professor at the Policy Institute, Kings College London and a Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London. Hetan serves on a number of advisory boards including the UCL Policy Lab and the Resolution Foundation.

Further information

Free event, donations welcome, booking required.

As tickets are free, people sometimes book and don't attend, so we have to issue more tickets than there are seats available to allow for this. Entry into this event is on a first-come, first-served basis and we recommend arriving in good time to avoid any disappointment.

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This event has live subtitles delivered by 121 Captions.

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