Inaugural Lectures

Inaugural Lectures are a landmark in academic life, held on the appointment of new professorships. The College of Arts and Law Inaugural Lectures series showcases the vibrant, challenging and diverse research of our academics.

2024

Highlights from this year's Inaugurals have included Lyndsey Stonebridge, on 'What do we mean when we talk about totalitarianism today? Lessons from Hannah Arendt'Adam Schembri, on 'How is Sign Language?' and Jonathan Boff's ‘Merrie England: Twenty-first Century Military History’.

Our forthcoming talks are listed below - click on the talk title to be taken to the specific Inaugural webpage and register to attend.

We would encourage you to browse our archive of CAL Inaugurals below, including our 2024 talks as detailed above!

Studying Medieval Animals: The Case Of The Panther
From "dualism" towards isolationism? Or why the Government keeps losing cases
'The Dangers of Time Travel'
Shakespeare, The Simpsons and Difficult Sixth Novels: Creative Writing After the Apocalypse
'Understanding crimes across and between events'

'Around the Year's Midnight'

'Habitual Ethics'

‘Plays Inside Out’: Theatre, Marketing and Ballads
I was always not never doing the same thing again…
Bog bodies, wetland archaeology and peatland heritage
Relations of Remembrance
Ways and whys
  • Professor Al Wilson
  • Philosophy
  • February 2022
Of wo/men and machines: an interdisciplinary take on language in use
Christian Theology in the Image of the Pentecost
Wounded Sentimentalism: The Literature of Uplift
The Future of Language Change
What is a 21st century city system for culture?
Baudelaire in Song
The Dead Sea Scrolls: Isolationism, Elites and Austerity
Clash of the Titans: Barth v Hegel
Why do metaphors work?
What I found there: Reading Classical Landscapes
Corpus linguistics and the challenges of close and distant reading
Agency without rationality
Kill John Bull with Art
What the editor learns (and why it might matter)
Taking Time - a composer's reflection on how he works
Shakespeare and the Idea of National Theatre
A funny thing didn't happen on the way to the Forum
Selfish Women and Other Inconvenient Deviants
A World of World Heritage: Seduction, Dis-enchantment and New Intimacies
Freetown! Shakespeare and Social Flourishing
The Life and Afterlife of Early Music