Gresham College Lectures

Was Covid-19 the ultimate wake-up call about how we live on planet earth? Looking at the effect on the environment of a near-stoppage of the world's economies, the first lecture explores emerging perspectives and some of the guiding principles about surviving and thriving when we have a greater understanding of nature. These experiences are used to throw light on how some of the traditions of...

Pattern and structure are essential to music, from the permutations in a Bach fugue, to the structure of a round. This lecture will explore the mathematics of musical symmetries, such as the "translational symmetry" of the transposition of keys, and the "rotational symmetry" of the duet "Der Spiegel", attributed to Mozart. It will go on to explore the last century&apo...

Eve was the original Evil Woman. She was tempted by Satan, introducing sin into the world. In turn, she seduced Adam, bringing the wrath of the Creator upon humanity for all eternity. From the 2nd century, Eve has been blamed for evil. The innocence of the Virgin Mary simply magnifies Eve's weakness and this continues to resonate in western texts. The fig-leaf covering Eve's genitals is...

Clinical practice is often seen as the acquisition and application of scientific knowledge to diagnose and treat diseases. Yet every patient is different. This lecture draws on a ten-year collaboration with a Savile Row tailor to explore 'bespoke' as a metaphor for clinical practice. Using this approach, the knowledge and skill of a practitioner must intersect with the needs of the patie...

At longer wavelengths than the normal optical wavelengths to which human eyes are normally sensitive, is the radio part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Radio astronomy can tell us about the distribution of magnetic fields in the Universe, and reveal striking structures which have no comparable counterpart at visible wavelengths. A lecture by Katherine Blundell OBE 7 October The transcript and dow...

On the 200th anniversary of the birth of Friedrich Engels, his biographer Tristram Hunt looks at how both Engels and Karl Marx were deeply affected by their time in London in the second half of the 19th century. London, then the heart of the British Empire, transformed the thinking of these two revolutionary philosophers on finance, on working people's lives, on cities, and on women voting. H...

Following the Beagle voyage, Darwin settled down to a quiet married life, relying on correspondence to gather facts. He wrote thousands of letters as he gathered facts to support his still-secret theory. Long before anyone had heard of evolution, Darwin produced four enormous books on barnacles, which helped establish his credentials (even his most committed opponents acknowledged that he couldn&a...

This lecture will focus on human rights and the wrongs of unexpected and/or sudden deaths in which the state is implicated. It will cover the importance of a proper death investigation, the impact on the family and state, how Magna Carta influences death investigations 800 years on, and current trends and statistics in state deaths. How does the state show it cares when deaths occur? Does the stat...

We all need experts for things we can't do ourselves. And we are all on a path to becoming expert ourselves, whatever our areas of interest. But what does it mean to be expert? In his new book Expert: Understanding the Path to Mastery (Viking Penguin, 2020), Roger Kneebone explores these challenges. You can buy the book from Waterstones here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/expert/roger-knee...

2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre and the Dayton Accords resolution of the first two (Croatia and Bosnia) of the three Balkan wars of the 1990s. In examining the legacy of this conflict, Professor Nice will consider documents newly-released by the UK and US governments. Did the UK and US know what was coming and fail to act? Was the massacre the result of cold blooded poli...

This illustrated lecture will cover Newton's life and his mathematical and scientific labours in the context of 17th-century England, and feature his childhood in Lincolnshire, his university career in Cambridge and his later life in London as Master of the Royal Mint and President of the Royal Society. This lecture marks the launch of a Pitkin Guide on Isaac Newton. A lecture by Robin Wilson...

In which years does February have five Sundays? How many right-angled triangles with whole-number sides have a side of length 29? How many shuffles are needed to restore the order of the cards in a pack with two Jokers? Are any of the numbers 11, 111, 1111, 11111, . . . perfect squares? Can one construct a regular polygon with 100 sides if measuring is forbidden? How do prime numbers help to keep...

Musorgsky was a proficient, but not virtuosic pianist: in his youth, he entertained society ladies with popular marches and quadrilles, and in his last years, he toured as an accompanist in song recitals. On the basis of these modest exploits, no one could have predicted his Pictures at an Exhibition. This cycle of piano pieces is a kind of travelogue, following a Russian at home and abroad. We to...

England's Catholic Reformation is the reformation that sixteenth-century England nearly had: a reformed and renewed English Catholic Church, its new schools and revived parishes matched with a firm smack of discipline. It almost happened; its leading prophets - Cardinals Thomas Wolsey and Reginald Pole - both came close to being elected pope. Instead, as these possibilities evaporated, they l...

Mars has changed since it formed 4.6 billion years ago. When life started on Earth ~4 billion years ago, Mars was habitable too, with volcanism, a magnetic field, surface water and a thick atmosphere. Today, Mars is cold and dry, with a thin atmosphere and harsh surface. In this lecture Professor Andrew Coates will discuss the search for life beyond Earth on our closest target, using the Rosalind...

The Efficient Market Hypothesis argues that stock markets are rational - they take into account all relevant information, and incorporate it in an unbiased way. This talk will present evidence that stock prices are instead driven by human psychology. The market overreacts to some types of information yet underreacts to others; it is driven by emotions rather than purely economic fundamentals. The...

From The Merchant of Venice to The Taming of the Shrew, it's easy to see how Shakespeare's plays can cause offence to contemporary audiences. Is it harder to teach Shakespeare today than in the past? Have ideas about what is offensive in Shakespeare changed over time? In this lecture, a team of Shakespeare scholars will look at the challenges and opportunities of teaching, editing and st...

In 1920, Nellie Melba's singing was transmitted to Europe and Newfoundland via the wireless. In 1922 the BBC began broadcasting, and from the outset sponsored new music and relayed outside broadcasts to the nation (and from 1932, to the world). In 1927 the BBC took over The Proms, and in 1946 the Third (alongside the Home and the Light) Programme was instituted. The BBC's mission: '...

A family best known for producing one of England's most famous queen consorts started out owning substantial estates in Norfolk before buying, and inheriting, a series of major houses close to London. These mansions became the stage for the tragedy of Ann's life and death. New research allows us to understand the role of property owning at the heart of the story of the Boleyn family. A l...

The story of the Mayflower is usually presented as a tale of persecuted Pilgrims crossing the Atlantic in circumstances of grave adversity to inhabit a desolate wilderness. There is another perspective. This lecture asks not where did they go to, but where did they come from? Who paid the piper? Who called the tune? Who hosted and protected them for years before the voyage, and who taught them the...

How has lockdown affected the Family Court? Gresham Law Professor Jo Delahunty QC chairs a panel of senior lawyers and journalists discussing the issues faced by family courts and by families during lockdown. How has COVID-19 affected child protection? How have lawyers maintained professional and family links under lockdown? Have vulnerable clients been locked out from Court and their lawyers? Hav...

The COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating. But one silver lining has been the tremendous responses from businesses and individual citizens, as we've realised how even small actions can have a substantial effect on society. A second is that the crisis has caused us to step back, focus on what is truly important rather than merely urgent, and appreciate gifts we normally take for granted. This...

Lord Carlile will discuss the effect of Covid-19 on counter terrorism policy, including suggestions that terrorist organisations have taken advantage of the pandemic to increase their influence. He will discuss whether UK counter-extremism policies and programmes are adequate, and what changes are needed. He is likely to be critical of the design and effect of such programmes in prison. He will ma...

THE 2020 ANNUAL PROVOST'S LECTURE What is the history of populism? Has it ever been a force for good? In this lecture, Sir Richard Evans, Provost of Gresham College, discusses the different varieties of populism, asks why it has become such a prominent feature of contemporary political life, and considers how far it is a threat to liberal democracy. A lecture by Richard Evans 16 June The tran...

Like James I, King William III was fundamentally unhappy with the stuffy formality of England's vast crumbling royal estate. But unlike James, who virtually abandoned Edinburgh, William maintained a second court, and a parallel suite of royal houses, in the Netherlands. Mostly ignored by English historians, these houses are the key to understanding the style that we now know as William and Ma...