Free public lectures at Gresham College in 2022-23: for curriculum, career and university choices, and stretch and challenge
Gresham College is offering free hybrid public lectures starting in September (and you can also watch past years’ lectures online).
The lectures are especially useful for considering career and university course options (and applications), and generally for going beyond the curriculum.
Professors for Gresham College’s free public lectures (running since 1597) include Ronald Hutton (History of Paganism) Chris Whitty (Medicine – focus this year is the heart), Sarah Hart (Maths & Money) Leslie Thomas QC (Reimagining The Law) and Joanna Bourke (a Cultural History of Disease).
Sign up to hear from us
You can sign up for monthly email updates here: gres.hm/schools. We take School and College block bookings for in-person lectures; email enquiries@gresham.ac.uk if you want to book, or to order free paper programmes for your school. You can watch other lectures and films now at gresham.ac.uk/schools.
Oracy Competition for Year 12
We are also launching an Oracy Competition for year 12 in September focusing on the environment that is free and easy to enter – and for individuals rather than teams: gres.hm/competition sign up for updates via the schools email gres.hm/schools
2022-23 Lectures
ASTRONOMY Cosmic Conclusions by Katherine Blundell looks at the end of our sun, stars, & Universe.
BIOLOGY All The World’s A Microbe by Robin May, learn more about how microbes interact with us and our environment making us human, helping bread rise, and building the Great Barrier Reef.
BUSINESS / ECONOMICS The Tech Revolution in Finance by Raghavendra Rau explores the risks and benefits of the way that technology is changing the way markets and organizations work, connecting buyers and sellers directly; The Impact of Technology in Medicine, Education will look at how technology could transform them.
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ENGLISH / ART The Powers of the Novel by John Mullan considers Adultery in the novel, historical fiction and endings (there are more to watch now); In Portraiture & Power experts like Philip Mould look at Louis XIV and Versailles, images of Queen Victoria, and Queen Elizabeth II and portraits of Native American leaders from Pocahontas to Sitting Bull.
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ENGINEERING/ WREN Engineering the Modern World: how engineers are creating our modern world, from Telford to tall buildings today, Wren 300: Sir Christopher Wren is probably the most famous Gresham Professor in history: a polymath, architect, mathematician, astronomer, anatomist and courtier.
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GEOGRAPHY Why Net Zero? What is the science behind Net Zero, how are climate impacts emerging, and when and how do we need to act to turn things around, asks the Physicist behind Net Zero, Myles Allen.
HISTORY Ancient Landscapes of Britain: the latest research on Stonehenge, Roman Landscapes & the Medieval Agricultural Revolution; Black History Month covers the amazing history and heritage in Kenya, Toussaint Louverture and Haiti, and African fashion after independence; Britain’s Empire and the Economy by Martin Daunton asks did Britain drain wealth from India and impoverish its economy? Did Atlantic slavery underpin the industrial revolution? Power, Politics and Nationhood by Richard J Evans, Kavita Puri and examines the history of the ‘Irish problem’, Partition in India, Afghanistan and Ukraine today; Architecture & The Court by Simon Thurley looks at Tudor Court Progresses and Christopher Wren as a courtier.
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IT Humanising Cyberspace by Victoria Baines will ask, Who owns the internet? What might life in the Metaverse be like? Can we expect our private communications to remain private?
LAW/ POLITICS / CITIZENSHIP Reimagining the Law by Professor Leslie Thomas QC will ask, do we need Judges? do we need juries? do we need the police? in a career-relevant series; Medical Law by Imogen Goold will look at whether we should we permit Voluntary Assisted Dying? Make vaccination mandatory? And what are the legal issues with Gene Editing?
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MATHEMATICS Maths and Money by Sarah Hart will explore how you can find out if you’ve been cheated by a goldsmith or use game theory in buying, selling and competitions? What is the probability that you could win the lottery? And Unexpected Mathematical Lives looks at the mathematical achievements of Sir Christopher Wren, Florence Nightingale and Alan Turing.
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MEDICINE Three lectures on Diseases of the Heart by Chris Whitty; A Cultural History of Disease by acclaimed cultural historian Joanna Bourke covering TB, Sickle Cell and more, Environmental Health by Ian Mudway which will look at the changing ways we have understood the impact of the environment on us and on our health using the new idea of the ‘Exposome’; Living With Mental Health will look at how people can live well with mental health conditions, and whether anxiety is growing in children.
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MUSIC Why do certain chords make us feel a certain way? Why do some of them sound celestial and others invoke horror? Lecture-recitals on The Life of Chords by Marina Frolova-Walker.
RELIGION Finding Britain’s Lost Gods by Paganism expert Ronald Hutton looks at Gods from prehistoric times through the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and more; Women in World Religions covers: Reclaiming Women in the Hebrew Bible, Women Leaders in Early Christianity and Women, Islam and Prophecy.