Gresham College Lectures

In contrast to their stark socio-economic and environmental differences, the communities of Harbury, UK and Sekenani, Kenya are building 'collaborative ecosystems' that are helping people and their environment to flourish.

With similar ideas on issues as wide-ranging as energy generation to the creation of well-being, these two communities are actively engaged in delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goal 17, 'to revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development' through a new community twinning approach.

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/globalpartnerships/

A lecture by Professor Jacqueline McGlade, Frank Jackson Foundation Professor of the Environment 15 October 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/building-sustainable-communities

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

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PART OF OUR BLACK HISTORY MONTH SERIES

Using memory scholarship, this talk will examine how the history and memory of enslavement shaped questions of identity and citizenship in Europe.

In Africa, debates about the origins of exclusion in stratified post-slavery societies have been challenging the mechanisms of marginalisation of people of slave descent. In those contexts, the notion of collective memory is a useful tool to understand demands for reparatory justice, and how these can contradict regional or national policies based on the commodification of the colonial past ('dark tourism' in particular).

A lecture by Professor Olivette Otele, Professor of History at Bath Spa University 14 October 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/slavery-memory

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

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This lecture reports on the findings of The Independent Tribunal into Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience in China (June 2019), which examined reports of state-sponsored murder for the harvesting and sale of organs.

The very need for a People’s Tribunal to deal with an issue of this gravity reflects the timidity of governments when asked to deal with the criminal behaviour of another state. The tribunal's conclusions will be set within the ethical standards expected of medical practitioners around the world.

A lecture by Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice QC and Professor Martin Elliott, Barrister and Surgeon 10 October 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:

https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/human-rights-china

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

This lecture reports on the findings of The Independent Tribunal into Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience in China (June 2019), which examined reports of state-sponsored murder for the harvesting and sale of organs.

The very need for a People's Tribunal to deal with an issue of this gravity reflects the timidity of governments when asked to deal with the criminal behaviour of another state. The tribunal's conclusions will be set within the ethical standards expected of medical practitioners around the world.

A lecture by Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice QC and Professor Martin Elliott, Barrister and Surgeon 10 October 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/human-rights-china

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show

2019 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Sir Joseph Bazalgette, and will see the building of the first major addition to the system he created to prevent sewage entering the Thames. The Thames Tideway Tunnel is now finally making its way 16 miles beneath the course of the river from Acton to the Thames Estuary, to intercept storm water which would otherwise enter the Thames.

The illustrated lecture will examine Bazalgette’s achievement and the work involved in building this latest addition to it.

A lecture by Dr Stephen Halliday, Writer and Historian 9 October 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:

https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/bazalgette

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

2019 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Sir Joseph Bazalgette, and will see the building of the first major addition to the system he created to prevent sewage entering the Thames. The Thames Tideway Tunnel is now finally making its way 16 miles beneath the course of the river from Acton to the Thames Estuary, to intercept storm water which would otherwise enter the Thames.

The illustrated lecture will examine Bazalgette's achievement and the work involved in building this latest addition to it.

A lecture by Dr Stephen Halliday, Writer and Historian 9 October 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/bazalgette

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show

When Thomas Sprat’s The History of the Royal-Society of London appeared in 1667, it was less a history than a manifesto for the future, designed to convince Charles II that experimental research was a worthwhile investment.

Focusing on experiment and travel, this lecture describes the aims and activities of the early Royal Society almost two centuries before the word ‘scientist’ was invented. As Sprat made clear, science, imperialism and finance were inextricably linked.

A lecture by Dr Patricia Fara, Clare College Cambridge 8 October 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:

https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/1667-royal-society

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

This lecture examines the mathematics behind computing, starting with the history of the explosive growth of computer technology, from code breaking through to all aspects of modern communication and security, as well as the simulation of physical processes as varied as the evolution of the universe to predicting the weather. It looks at the types of problems computers can solve, as well as the future possibilities of quantum computing.

A lecture by Chris Budd OBE, Gresham Professor of Geometry 8 October 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:

https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-future-computing

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis (1627) imagined a utopian island including an experimental garden, where plants could be made “greater much than their nature”. These new plants were central to Bacon’s dream of a better world, where hunger – and even death itself – might be conquered. Robert Sharrock’s History of the improvement and propagation of vegetables (1660) attempted to apply Bacon’s new learning and improve humanity’s food supply.

This lecture will begin with Bacon’s imagined garden, then consider the long-term promise of the experimental or scientific garden, which would eventually lead to today’s biotechnologies.

A lecture by Jim Endersby, Visiting Professor of the History of Science 7 October 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:

https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/experimental-gardens

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

When Thomas Sprat's The History of the Royal-Society of London appeared in 1667, it was less a history than a manifesto for the future, designed to convince Charles II that experimental research was a worthwhile investment.

Focusing on experiment and travel, this lecture describes the aims and activities of the early Royal Society almost two centuries before the word 'scientist' was invented. As Sprat made clear, science, imperialism and finance were inextricably linked.

A lecture by Dr Patricia Fara, Clare College Cambridge 8 October 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/1667-royal-society

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show