The Tanner Lectures

Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, calling for a new approach to politics in response to the climate emergency.

Professor Jean-Marie Guéhenno explores how societal changes, globalisation, technology and power dynamics are shaping the landscape of conflict and peace to a packed Rhodes House auditorium. Professor Jean-Marie Guéhenno is Director of the Kent Global Leadership Program on Conflict Resolution and a Professor of Practice at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

Sir Laurie Bristow KCMG, President of Hughes Hall Cambridge and three times Ambassador for the United Kingdom, delivers the 2023 Tanner lecture

Professor Rosalind W. Picard, Sc.D., FIEEE presents the 2022 Tanner Lecture.

An analysis of the phenomenon of Donald Trump’s presidency against the backdrop and contrast of the European Enlightenment’s influence on the Founders of the United States. This lecture analyses the phenomenon of Donald Trump’s presidency against the backdrop and contrast of the European Enlightenment’s influence on the Founders of the United States. It also explains why his stark antithesis to Enlightenment values was a winning strategy in the 2016 presidential election and how it resonates with a shift from liberalism to populism, nativism, and authoritarianism. It also examines political forces in the U.S. that are opposing Trump as he ramps up his campaign for a second term.

An argument that a deeper understanding of modern economics and its insights is essential for reclaiming that connection. Economics has always been part of a broader humanist project, but that connection is often lost in the oversimplified version that dominates the public discourse. Professor Banerjee and Professor Duflo argue that a deeper understanding of modern economics and its insights is essential for reclaiming that connection. They will illustrate this by drawing on some of the key issues of today, such as immigration, trade, growth, poverty and inequality.

One of the world's leading theorist in Cosmology, Professor Ellis delivers the 2017 Tanner Lecture on Human Values Professor Ellis is the Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Complex Systems in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He is one of the world's leading theorists in cosmology and co-wrote the seminal work on general relativity theory “The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time” with Stephen Hawking. He is a Quaker and in 2004 he won the Templeton Prize for his work on the philosophical aspects of cosmology. He is a past President of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation, and of the International Society for Science and Religion. Ellis was an outspoken opponent of apartheid during the 1970s and 1980s, was awarded the Order of the Star of South Africa by Nelson Mandela, in 1999.

The Right Honourable Shirley Williams gave this, the 2016 Tanner Lecture on Human Values, just before the European Referendum where voters would be deciding whether to remain in the EU or Brexit.

The third in the series of the Tanner Lectures which serve to advance and reflect upon the scholarly and scientific learning relating to human values

Ms Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty and Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University delivers this lecture on Human Rights as part of the Tanner Lecture Series at the University Museum Oxford 15th May 2014 The purpose of the Tanner Lectures is to advance and reflect upon the scholarly and scientific learning relating to human values. This intention embraces the entire range of values pertinent to the human condition, interest, behaviour, and aspiration. Appointment as a Tanner lecturer is a recognition for uncommon achievement and outstanding abilities in the field of human values. The lecturers may be elicited from philosophy, religion, the humanities, the sciences, the creative arts, and learned professions, or from leadership in public or private affairs. The lectureships are international and intercultural and transcend ethnic, national, religious, and ideological distinctions.