Wolfson College Humanities Society

Latest Episodes:

Dr Justin Colson on London Bridge Mar 05, 2015

Show notes

Dr Justin Colson talks about London Bridge which has existed in one form or another since the fourteenth century. He explores the social world of the Bridge in the late fifteenth century, and how the economic activities of its tenants exploited the opportunities of this unique location, providing new insight into the commercial world of the late medieval City of London.

Dr Rowan Williams - Mysticism and politics; some thoughts about St Teresa of Avila Feb 25, 2015

Show notes

This year is the 500th anniversary of the birth of Teresa, one of the foremost ‘mystical’ writers of the Christian tradition. Research in the last fifty years has clarified more and more the nature of her social background in a converted Jewish family and thus the way in which her religious writing is shaped by the issues and politics of 16th century Spain. I hope to sketch this background and offer some more general reflections on the title.

Dr Robert Amundsen - Ibsen's women on and off the stage Feb 23, 2015

Show notes

There were two categories of women in Henrik Ibsen’s life: the women in his dramatic universe and the women in his own life. Ibsen’s attitude to women is highly complex: whereas the many women who inhabit the different settings of these late nineteenth century bourgeois families are as diverse as the plays themselves, they share a few common denominators, that this talk will seek to demonstrate.

Dr Nick Saville - Communications in a Globalised World: English is necessary but not sufficient Nov 06, 2014

Show notes

Cambridge English Language Assessment tests more than 5 million learners of English in over 100 countries every year and this constitutes a major asset in delivering the University’s educational mission around the world. However, a key question for Cambridge English is how to promote the wider use of English while at the same time supporting the learning and uses of many other languages – hence the title of the talk. Dr Saville will discuss this issue of “multilingualism” – a research theme within the University’s interdisciplinary Language Sciences Initiative (LSI) – as well as more generally illustrate the work of Cambridge English Language Assessment.

Dr Patricia Fara - Erasmus Darwin: Poet of Progress Oct 20, 2014

Show notes

rasmus Darwin – Charles’s grandfather – was well-known among his eighteenth- century contemporaries, highly respected by many but reviled by others. Energetic and sociable, this corpulent tee-totaller wrote best-selling poems on plants, technology and evolution. He also ran a successful medical practice, was a Fellow of the Royal Society and promoted industrialization by sponsoring science, innovation and entrepreneurship in the Midlands. In her research, Patricia Fara has explored fresh ways of thinking about this champion of Enlightenment thought. More than fifty years before his famous grandson, Erasmus Darwin dared to publish controversial ideas about evolution that put his medical text on the Vatican’s banned list. Politically radical, he campaigned for the abolition of slavery, supported the French Revolution, promoted education for women, and challenged Christian orthodoxy.

Dr Mary Laven: Wax, wood and narrative: the miraculous culture of Renaissance Italy Jun 10, 2014

Show notes

From the late fifteenth century, the walls of Italian shrines became crowded with tavolette dipinte – small painted wooden boards recording instances of sickness, violence, accidents, natural disasters and demonic possession, and attesting to the miraculous intervention of the Virgin Mary and other saints. Dr Laven shall explore the significance of this new cultural form and contextualize the appeal of pictorial ex votos with reference both to grander trends in Renaissance art and to the simultaneous rise of the printed miracle book. Thus, she will shed new light on neglected forms of religious creativity and to investigate the role of narrative in fuelling devotional renewal before Trent.

Dr Suvi Salmenniemi: Neoliberalism, Socialism, and the Politics of Knowledge Feb 26, 2014

Show notes

This paper argues that neoliberalism offers a highly productive site to excavate the ways in which Cold War power/knowledge formations have shaped, and continue to shape, sociological thinking, and suggest that post-socialism can make similar critical intervention into sociological thought as postcolonial and feminist scholarship, since it challenges us to rethink some key epistemological and ontological issues in sociological knowledge production.

Dr Lauren Arrington: Art, Empire, and Revolution: the Lives of Constance and Casimir Markievicz Mar 14, 2013

Show notes

Constance Markievicz (nee Gore-Booth, 1868-1927), was born to the privileged Protestant upper class in the west of Ireland. She embraced suffrage and then scandal as she left the Slade School of Art in London for a bohemian life in a Parisian atelier. There she met Casimir Dunin Markievicz (1874-1932), becoming part of a local avant-garde, which had the painter and mystic, George Russell (AE) at its centre. The Markievices took a prominent role in anti-imperial debates that not only related to Constance’s home country but also Casimir’s native Poland during World War One and to the post –War Irish republican movement.

Dr Glen Rangwala: The Aftermath of War: Iraq Ten Years On Feb 26, 2013

Show notes

This talk reviews the extent of Iraq’s transformation over the last ten years, looking at what Iraq’s experience shows about the limits of political change in a region marked by deep legacies of violence and oppression, unresolved social divisions and external interference.

Dr Michael C Scott: Best Seat in the House: viewing Greek history through its theatre Feb 19, 2013

Show notes

Theatres today are places of entertainment, dark spaces in which we cut ourselves off from the realities of daily life for a few hours. But theatre for the ancient Greeks was anything but a space of entertainment and escapism. It was a central pillar in the way their society – and particularly democratic society – functioned; a space in which every citizen was expected to be active and play their part. In this talk, I use the theatre as a way in to thinking about the nature of ancient Greek society and as a result Greek history. How were the major issues, events and ideas that governed the lives of the Greeks represented, reflected on, articulated and even created within the space of the theatre? And what can an examination of theatre’s own history of artistic and architectural development as well as geographical spread tell us about the changing nature of Greek society and the course of Greek history?

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