Wolfson College Humanities Society

Latest Episodes:

Professor Julius Lipner - Hinduism: the challenges of a polycentric approach to shaping our world Feb 12, 2015

Show notes

Hinduism is by far the majority culture of India, which is set fair to become a superpower in the next few decades. How then does the polycentric, decentralizing phenomenon of Hinduism influence and guide the gaze of Hindus at the world and help determine their interactions with it, especially in the context of modernity and its counteracting forces? And what can we learn from this encounter?

Professor Nigel Morgan: The Oldest Illustrated Book in Cambridge - a reconsideration of the St. Augustine Gospels Jan 21, 2015

Show notes

Corpus Christi College possesses one of the oldest extant illustrated manuscripts, the St Augustine Gospels from the sixth century. This lecture discusses the origin of illustrated books in Late Antiquity and their earliest appearance in biblical texts. This famous Gospel Book is thought to have been brought from Italy to England by St Augustine of Canterbury on his mission to evangelise the Anglo-Saxons in 597. The evidence for and against this identification will be discussed.

Professor Jerry White - Dickens during the Great War Nov 06, 2014

Show notes

The novels of Charles Dickens reached new heights of popularity during the First World War, symbolising for many the quintessence of Englishness and the values that the war was being fought to defend. Dickensians of every stripe used his name and works to raise funds for the war and to stimulate pro-British feeling in the colonies and America. But Dickens was hugely popular too in Germany, so that his writing could be found in trenches on both sides of No-Man’s Land, sometimes to the consternation of Dickensians at home. Jerry White charts the use and abuse of Dickens and his legacy across the course of the First World War.

Professor Robin Cormack: “The nightingales won’t let you sleep in Platres”. Re-visiting the Greek Past Oct 22, 2014

Show notes

How do artists and poets create dialogues with the past? Prof. Robin Cormack explores the way in which the artists feature in the exhibition 'Myths, Memories and Mysteries', jointly hosted by the Museum of Classical Archaeology and Wolfson College, revisit and remember Greek histories.

Professor David Runciman: Climate Change and Conspiracy Theory May 30, 2014

Show notes

Arguments about climate change are rife with conspiracy theories. There are those who think the whole thing is a giant hoax: a scam cooked up by environmentalists and left-wing scientists to empower governments and rip off consumers. But there are equivalent suspicions on the other side: a belief that the sceptics and denialists are just the front for an oil industry-funded plot to bamboozle voters and keep the fossil fuels flowing. The prevalence of these kinds of conspiracy theories is one reason why the debate has become so fractious and polarised. This talk will explore why the climate debate seems so susceptible to conspiracy theories and what that tells us about the current state of mistrust in democracy: mistrust of experts, mistrusts of corporations, mistrust of government itself. Why on an issue like this – of such enormous importance – do we find it so hard to believe what we are told?

Professor Sir Richard Evans: Gender and Sexuality in Victorian England May 30, 2014

Show notes

This lecture was given in place of the advertised lecture by Professor Sir David Cannadine who was unable to attend.

Professor Tony Lentin: Rogue Judges - Rebels or Reformers? The Case of Sir Henry McCardie Mar 05, 2014

Show notes

The recent forced resignation of Mr Justice Coleridge prompts questions about rogue judges and the boundaries of judicial misconduct. How far may a judge express controversial opinions? How far may his personal convictions influence his decisions? Clashes with the Executive and with his fellow judges characterised the judicial career (1916-1933) of Mr Justice McCardie -`rebel judge who feared nobody’. Did his iconoclasm help or hinder reform of the law? Maverick or hero?

Professor Sir Tony Wrigley: Energy and the industrial revolution: opening Pandora's box Oct 23, 2013

Show notes

The two most fundamental transformations of economic life in human history were the Neolithic food revolution and the industrial revolution. It is no surprise that the latter was unexpected by contemporaries, but it is intriguing and instructive that those who were best informed, such as, for example, Adam Smith and the other classical economists, were explicit that such a transformation was impossible. The paradox can be resolved, however, by considering the role of energy supply in the transformation which was taking place.

Professor Sir Richard Evans: Friedrich Reck-Malleczewen and his "Diary of a Man in Despair": a conservative rebel in Hitler's Germany Mar 13, 2013

Show notes

Friedrich Reck-Malleczewen’s “Diary of a Man in Despair” has long been known as a searing indictment of Hitler and the Nazis, written in secret in a Bavarian hillside retreat. Asked to write a Foreword to a new edition, Richard Evans uncovered a hornet’s nest of allegations and counter-allegations about the author and his work. This talk investigates the book, its writer, and the charges that it was all falsified.

Professor Simon Blackburn: Brains, Science, and Human Nature Feb 19, 2013

Show notes

Although there have been a large number of books busy explaining that advances in neuroscience are due to revolutionise, or at the very least underpin and accelerate, our understanding of human nature, there has been less reflection on just how likely or unlikely that is. In this talk I hope to suggest that the issue is a good deal more complex than some of the more triumphalist, and optimistic, writings in this genre seem to think.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Wolfson College Humanities Society

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected