Gresham College Lectures

Why did stories of criminals become irresistible for novelists? Starting with works like Moll Flanders in the eighteenth century, this lecture goes on to examine the role of criminals in Dickens, keen to let his readers and characters experience what Pip in Great Expectations calls ‘the taint of crime’. To what ends?

How does the recent genre fiction of novelists like Patricia Highsmith and Ruth Rendell return us to the transgressive pleasures of Defoe’s criminal autobiographies?

A lecture by John Mullan 24 February

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

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

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

Why did stories of criminals become irresistible for novelists? Starting with works like Moll Flanders in the eighteenth century, this lecture goes on to examine the role of criminals in Dickens, keen to let his readers and characters experience what Pip in Great Expectations calls 'the taint of crime'. To what ends?

How does the recent genre fiction of novelists like Patricia Highsmith and Ruth Rendell return us to the transgressive pleasures of Defoe's criminal autobiographies?

A lecture by John Mullan 24 February

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

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

Clinical practice depends on the acquisition and analysis of evidence - detailed information from each patient’s clinical history, laboratory tests, imaging scans and biopsies. Yet data on its own is not enough, and must always be interpreted in the context of each unique person. Similarly in forensic science, analytical data must be interpreted to make sense of a crime.

This lecture discusses evidence and interpretation with a leading Professor of Crime and Forensic Sciences from UCL, Ruth Morgan.

A lecture by Roger Kneebone and Ruth Morgan 17 February

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

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

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

Transfer of resources between currently existing generations. There is a clear link with the previous time scale, for a collective solution will mean that the cost of those currently drawing benefits is paid by those currently in employment. But there are further ramifications. Should the assets of the older generation pass to the younger generation or not?

One tradition, going back to JS Mill and supported by Bill Gates snr is that the inheritor has done nothing to earn the wealth which might be morally dangerous for the individual, and harmful for society in stultifying enterprise. Gates pointed out that the US Olympics team is not selected from the children or grandchildren of those who won gold medals in Los Angeles – so why should the same apply to wealth and enterprise?

The alternative view is that inheritance taxes should be abolished as theft. Again, different societies have adopted different approaches, with England opting for primogeniture and testamentary discretion, where countries with the Napoleonic code have partible inheritance and no or limited discretion. Why are there such differences, and what impact do they have on social mobility and inequality?

A lecture by Martin Daunton 16 February

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

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

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

Italo-Byzantine art will be considered as background to the early or ‘proto’ Renaissance at a time when Italy was a focus of stylistic cross-currents from different parts of Europe.

The heritage of Rome and the influence of earlier traditions on artists like Cimabue, Duccio, Simone Martini and Giotto will be examined in the context of the ‘rebirth’ of the arts in Renaissance Italy.

A lecture by Valerie Shrimplin 16 February

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

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

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

Clinical practice depends on the acquisition and analysis of evidence - detailed information from each patient's clinical history, laboratory tests, imaging scans and biopsies. Yet data on its own is not enough, and must always be interpreted in the context of each unique person. Similarly in forensic science, analytical data must be interpreted to make sense of a crime.

This lecture discusses evidence and interpretation with a leading Professor of Crime and Forensic Sciences from UCL, Ruth Morgan.

A lecture by Roger Kneebone and Ruth Morgan 17 February

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

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

Canons of taste and value in other media, such as literature, art and music, have been challenged in recent decades by proponents of sexual and ethnic equality. Film’s ‘ten bests’ are open to similar charges, and their dominance may actively hinder efforts to raise awareness of and achievement by filmmakers outside Hollywood and predominantly European art cinema.

This lecture considers what newly assessed canons might look like.

A lecture by Ian Christie 15 February

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

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

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

Transfer of resources between currently existing generations. There is a clear link with the previous time scale, for a collective solution will mean that the cost of those currently drawing benefits is paid by those currently in employment. But there are further ramifications. Should the assets of the older generation pass to the younger generation or not?

One tradition, going back to JS Mill and supported by Bill Gates snr is that the inheritor has done nothing to earn the wealth which might be morally dangerous for the individual, and harmful for society in stultifying enterprise. Gates pointed out that the US Olympics team is not selected from the children or grandchildren of those who won gold medals in Los Angeles - so why should the same apply to wealth and enterprise?

The alternative view is that inheritance taxes should be abolished as theft. Again, different societies have adopted different approaches, with England opting for primogeniture and testamentary discretion, where countries with the Napoleonic code have partible inheritance and no or limited discretion. Why are there such differences, and what impact do they have on social mobility and inequality?

A lecture by Martin Daunton 16 February

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

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

Mata Hari was an erotic dancer who, in 1917, was executed by the French army for treason. She has been portrayed as the ultimate femme fatale, extracting information from hapless men through exploiting her sensual charms.

She was white, beautiful, and heterosexual, yet had to be punished for transgressing the boundaries of femininity.

Similar to many Evil Women, she was believed to be deceitful, rapacious, immoral, and controlling. She was lustful and, like a black widow spider, a threat to men everywhere.

A lecture by Joanna Bourke 11 February

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

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

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

Italo-Byzantine art will be considered as background to the early or 'proto' Renaissance at a time when Italy was a focus of stylistic cross-currents from different parts of Europe.

The heritage of Rome and the influence of earlier traditions on artists like Cimabue, Duccio, Simone Martini and Giotto will be examined in the context of the 'rebirth' of the arts in Renaissance Italy.

A lecture by Valerie Shrimplin 16 February

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

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