10-Minute Talks: Recent Episodes
The British Academy
The world’s leading professors explain the latest thinking in the humanities and social sciences in just 10 minutes.
In this talk, Ato Quayson shares insights drawn from his book Tragedy and Postcolonial Literature. He argues that disputatiousness is one of the starting points that connects Greek and postcolonial tragedy.
Speaker: Professor Ato Quayson FBA, Professor of English, Stanford University
Image: Tragic mask in hand of greek statue of Melpomene. Via Getty Images
In this talk, Georgina Waylen discusses hypermasculine leadership within the context of the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaker: Professor Georgina Waylen FBA, Professor of Politics, University of Manchester
Image: Donald Trump Holds Rally At Iowa State Fairgrounds. © photo by Scott Olson via Getty Images
The modern history of humiliation is different from the history of public shaming; both share certain features and practices, but differ as to intentions and goals. In this talk, Ute Frevert argues that liberal societies have made some progress in abolishing public shaming. But they have failed to bring about “decency“ in Avishai Margalit’s terms – a general refusal to humiliate others.
She is the author of The Politics of Humiliation. A Modern History.
Speaker: Professor Ute Frevert FBA, Director, Max Planck Institute for Human Development
Image: Daniel Defoe in the Pillory. Credit duncan1890 via Getty Images.
In this talk, Professor Kathleen Coleman FBA highlights certain paradoxes at the root of Roman civilisation, specifically those related to the staging of violent displays in the arena. Virtually everything that fueled Roman society can be implicated: ideology, religion, class structure, environment, economy. The Romans, evidently, tolerated these paradoxes. Can we learn anything from them?
Speaker: Professor Kathleen Coleman FBA, James Loeb Professor of Classics and the Departmental Chair, Harvard University
Image: The Colosseum in Rome. Credit Anna Kurzaeva via Getty Images
In this talk, Professor Julian Hoppit FBA introduces his new book, The Dreadful Monster and its Poor Relations. Taxing, Spending, and the United Kingdom, 1707-2021, which explores the geography of public finances in the United Kingdom over the last three centuries. Why do some places feel they pay too many taxes and get too little public expenditure? Public finances have been at the heart of the making and the unmaking of the United Kingdom, but without much of a clear plan, allowing opposing caricatures of arrangements to become politically powerful.
Speaker: Professor Julian Hoppit FBA, Astor Professor of British History, University College London
Image: The Chancellor Of The Exchequer Delivers The 2021 UK Budget. © photo by Chris J Ratcliffe via Getty Images
Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) is, in terms of sheer achievement, the greatest English commoner of all time and yet remains a deeply controversial figure. He represented himself, apparently compellingly, as an honest, pious, modest, and selfless servant of God and his nation, and yet most of his contemporaries found him ruthless, devious, and self-promoting. In this talk, Ronald Hutton sums up the findings of his latest book, The Making of Oliver Cromwell, which examines his actions and words in full context up until the end of the English Civil War in 1651, and proposes an answer to this apparent paradox.
Speaker: Professor Ronald Hutton FBA, Professor of History, University of Bristol
Image: Statue of Oliver Cromwell in front of the Palace of Westminster, London, UK. Via Getty Images
In this talk, Derek Attridge addresses the question: "What is a poem's mode of existence?" Using a poem by William Wordsworth as an example, he argues that poems are not fixed lines of words but human experiences of language and the power of language.
He is the author of The Experience of Poetry. From Homer's Listeners to Shakespeare's Readers.
Speaker: Professor Derek Attridge FBA, Professor Emeritus of English, University of York
Image: William Wordsworth engraving, 1873. Credit traveler1116 via Getty Images
In this talk, Jane Lightfoot considers what a particular corner of the classical world, astrology, thought about disease – how it classified it, what mental models it built around it, and how it might have coped, or failed to cope, with the situation that is facing us today.
Speaker: Professor Jane Lightfoot FBA, Professor of Greek Literature; Charlton Fellow and Tutor in Classics, New College, University of Oxford
Image: Waning gibbous moon and Mars. © photo by japatino via Getty Images
In this talk, Peter Gatrell discusses the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, signed in Geneva on 28 July 1951. He explains the circumstances leading up to the Refugee Convention and considers what it was designed to achieve: a commitment to recognise and protect refugees who have a well-founded fear of persecution. At present, although many of the world’s refugees live in non-signatory states, the Refugee Convention remains a crucial element of international refugee law.
His latest book is The Unsettling of Europe: the Great Migration, 1945 to the Present (Penguin, 2021). Details of his current collaborative research project, "Reckoning with refugeedom: refugee voices in modern history, 1919-75" are also available.
Speaker: Professor Peter Gatrell FBA, Professor of Economic History, University of Manchester
Image: New Temporary Refugee Camp In Lesbos Island. © Photo by Nicolas Economou / NurPhoto via Getty Images
Syntax is the cognitive system that underlies the patterns found in the grammar of human languages. In this talk, David Adger explains what syntax as an area of study is, why he finds it important and fascinating, and why it is central to what it means to be human.
The paperback edition of his book, Language Unlimited. The Science behind our most creative power was published in July 2021. His British Academy article, What is linguistics? is also available.
Speaker: Professor David Adger FBA, Professor of Linguistics, Queen Mary University of London
This talk introduces research on the sign languages of deaf communities: natural, complex human languages, both similar to and different from spoken languages. It includes discussion of sign language and the evolution of human language; sign language and the brain, and sign language acquisition by young children, as well as the history and future of British Sign Language (BSL).
Speaker: Professor Bencie Woll FBA, Professor of Sign Language and Deaf Studies, University College London
10-Minute Talks are a series of pre-recorded talks from Fellows of the British Academy screened each Wednesday on YouTube and also available on Apple Podcasts. https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast...
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Over the winter of 1610-11, a magnificent telescope was built in London. It was almost two metres long, cast in silver and covered with gold. This was the first telescope ever produced in such an extraordinary way, worthy of a great king or emperor. Why was it made, what was its political significance and who was it going to? In this talk, Timon Screech explores why the East India Company, which became the world's biggest trading organisation until the 20th century, prepared this special gift to court favour with the Shogun of Japan, how the Japanese viewed Europeans during this time and the impact on England’s maritime rivalry with Portugal and Spain.
His most recent books are
The Shogun’s silver Telescope; God, Art, and Money in the English Quest for Japan, 1600-1625 and
Tokyo before Tokyo; Power and Magic in the Shogun’s City of Edo (both published in 2020).
Speaker:
Professor Timon Screech FBA, Professor of the History of Art, SOAS University of London
J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur (1735-1813) was a farmer as well as a complex thinker of the contradictions of American identity as described in his famous Letters from an American Farmer and, more strikingly, in his French texts which develop his description and analysis of the New World and its peoples. Many readers of his English work have focused on his wishful story of the land of the free, a hospitable refuge to the dispossessed of Europe, a glorious melting pot where the American is born: a man who works hard, who can provide for his family, and be treated with respect whatever his origins and whatever his religious beliefs. Yet, as Judith Still discusses in this talk, Crèvecœur reveals in his French work the original sins of British colonization and of the new United States, sins which still haunt us today: genocide of indigenous peoples, enslavement of Africans and environmental devastation.
She is the author of Derrida and Other Animals: The Boundaries of the Human (Edinburgh University Press, 2015) and ‘Slavery in Enlightenment America – Crèvecœur's Bilingual Approach’, Journal of Romance Studies (2018) 18:1, 103-29.
Goods and possessions offer us ways into understanding how late medieval people saw the world and their position in it. In this talk, Christopher Woolgar discusses objects of daily life, their significance and the meaning of material culture (what we might understand as ‘people’s stuff') in late medieval England, to reveal changes in mentality that came with a long-term social revolution, in the quantities and types of goods people had, and the lengths to which elites in particular went to ensure continued possession of prestigious items within their families.
Speaker: Professor Christopher Woolgar FBA, Emeritus Professor of History and Archival Studies, University of Southampton
The British Academy is the UK's national academy for the humanities and social sciences and was founded in 1902. In this talk, Professor Sir David Cannadine discusses undertaking the task of writing the history of the Academy and why it is worth doing so, the importance of engaging with the challenging moments it has faced and how these were navigated, and if the history of the Academy is merely the history of a single institution or if it sheds light on how institutions more widely can enhance public understanding of people, cultures and societies.
Speaker: Professor Sir David Cannadine PBA, President, the British Academy; Dodge Professor of History, Princeton University
In this talk Stuart Elden discusses his new book, The Early Foucault and the research he did on the first period of Michel Foucault’s career. In particular, he highlights what Foucault did before the History of Madness in 1961 and how he came to write that book as well as the way newly available archival materials help to make sense of the period.
His book, The Early Foucault, was published in June 2021.
Speaker: Professor Stuart Elden FBA, Professor of Political Theory and Geography, University of Warwick
George II, King of Great Britain and Ireland and Elector of Hanover from 1727-60, was considered short-tempered and uncultivated, but during his reign presided over a great flourishing in his adoptive country - economic, military, and cultural. In this talk, Norman Davies places George II in the unfamiliar framework of a composite state, stressing the monarch's conviction that his native German possessions were no less important than his British ones, together with the unfamiliar story of how his German Electorate was governed from St. James’s Palace in London. He also discusses his book, George II: Not Just a British Monarch, and its use of unconventional terminology, calling the monarch 'George Augustus' (not just George II), insisting that he was 'King-Elector' not just a mere King, that he belonged to the dynasty of Von Welf (the Guelphs) not to the invented tribe of 'Hanoverians', and that his coat-of-arms, which, inter alia, bore the crown of the Holy Roman Empire, was 'royal and electoral', not just, as the British always say, 'royal'.
Speaker: Professor Norman Davies FBA, Professor Emeritus of History, University of London; Honorary Fellow, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford; Honorary Fellow, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge
Why was there no alliance to block Hitler from launching aggression in Europe? The usual explanation given is that the British led by Neville Chamberlain were so averse to the thought of war that appeasement had no alternative. In this talk, Jonathan Haslam argues that the real reason was that they - as did the Poles and the Czechs - feared communism more than fascism and that an alliance with Stalin's Russia against Germany would bring the Reds into Central Europe. As Moscow supported Communist efforts in France, Spain, China, and beyond, opponents such as the British feared for the stability of their global empire and viewed fascism as the only force standing between them and the Communist overthrow of the existing order.
His book, The Spectre of War: International Communism and the Origins of World War II is published in May 2021.
Speaker: Professor Jonathan Haslam FBA, George F. Kennan Professor, School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study
Image: Photograph of German soldiers advancing on Poland during World War II.
During the COVID-19 pandemic women’s mental health has been a topic of concern as women have disproportionately carried the burden of care. In this talk, Lynn Abrams explores the links between a revolution in feelings amongst women in the 1960s and today’s mental health crisis. She shows how talking about feelings and self-help were alternatives to the ‘little yellow pill’ for many women struggling with loneliness and stress.
Speaker: Professor Lynn Abrams FBA, Professor of Modern History, University of Glasgow
Napoleon had no religion, but he spent much of his career dealing with it. In this talk to mark the bicentenary of his death, William Doyle discusses how Napoleon saw that the upheavals of the French Revolution could never be ended unless its quarrel with the Catholic Church could be settled. This meant negotiating with the pope. Most of Napoleon's henchmen opposed the concordat which he concluded with Rome in 1801, but most French people welcomed it. Later, emperor and pope fell out, but public worship was never threatened again, as the pope always acknowledged with gratitude.
He is the author of The Oxford History of the French Revolution.
Speaker: Professor William Doyle FBA, Professor Emeritus of History and Senior Research Fellow, University of Bristol
By late 1859, when she had almost finished writing her second novel, The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot was still unsure of its final title. Two other possible titles, ‘Sister Maggie’ and ‘The House of Atreus’ were under consideration almost up to the time of printing and in this talk, Rosemary Ashton discusses the case of The Mill on the Floss in the wider context of novel writing and title choosing.
She is the author of several books which include discussion of George Eliot's writings, including the biography of her, George Eliot: A Life .
Speaker: Professor Rosemary Ashton FBA, Emeritus Quain Professor of English Language and Literature and Honorary Fellow, University College London
Research shows that multilingualism in any languages, regardless of prestige or worldwide diffusion, can provide a range of linguistic, cognitive, and social benefits at all ages. It enables communication with international partners and understanding of local cultures as well as enhancing metalinguistic awareness, focusing, seeing both sides of an argument, and flexibly adapting to changing circumstances. However, as Antonella Sorace outlines in this talk, there are still many misconceptions about multilingualism and this contributes to the lack of language skills in countries, like the UK, that rely on ‘privileged monolingualism’ in English, which can undermine social cohesion and economic growth.
Given what is at stake, it is important to bridge the gap between research and communities to enable informed decisions in society regarding the benefits of speaking more than one language.
The British Academy, working with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Association of School and College Leaders, the British Council and Universities UK, published 'Towards a National Languages Strategy: Education and Skills' for the education and skills component of a UK-wide national languages strategy in July 2020.
Speaker: Professor Antonella Sorace FBA, Professor of Developmental Linguistics and Director of Bilingualism Matters, University of Edinburgh
The miners’ strike of 1984-85 can be considered the last great battle of the organised industrial working class in the UK. The defeat of the strike led to deindustrialisation, the rapid closure of pits, the redundancy of the miners and the hollowing out of mining communities which impacts politics to this day.
In this talk, Robert Gildea examines the miners’ strike through the lenses of class, community, and family, how it was both a performance and crisis of masculinity, and how the men and women involved reinvented themselves afterwards.
He is currently writing an oral history of the 1984-85 miners' strike based on the research project, ‘Class, community and family: the 1984-1985 miners’ strike in history and memory’.
Speaker: Professor Robert Gildea FBA, Professor of Modern History, University of Oxford
Image: Demonstrators during the National Miners Strike in 1984 out in force at Sunderland's Wearmouth Colliery, demonstrating their solidarity as an NCB deadline to abandon the pit approached on 11 October 1984. Photo by NCJ Archive / Mirrorpix / Getty Images.
What is it to be friends with someone? Why do we have friends? What do they do for us? In this talk, Robin Dunbar provides evidence that friendships are good for us, the relationship between the number and quality of close friendships and our psychological and physical health, and on what basis we select our friends.
His book, Friends. Understanding the power of our most important relationships was published in March 2021.
Speaker: Professor Robin Dunbar FBA, Professor of Evolutionary Psychology, University of Oxford
Philosophy, as Spinoza understands it, is the art of learning to live as joyfully and securely as we can. But because we can only practice this art collectively, philosophising is always a partly political project - a matter of learning to live together peacefully and harmoniously. What enables us to do this? In this talk Susan James discusses how some of Spinoza’s answers, especially his analysis of natural right, jolt our assumptions and make us reconsider the problem.
Her book, Spinoza on Learning to Live Together was published in 2020.
Speaker: Professor Susan James FBA, Professor of Philosophy, Birkbeck, University of London
Image: Portrait of Benedictus de Spinoza (1632-1677) circa 1665. Gemäldesammlung der Herzog-August-Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, Germany, via Wikimedia Commons.
In this talk, Marianne Elliot reflects on the existence and history of a 'shared space' Belfast identity, focusing particularly on the 1940s and 1950s, but also on post-Good Friday Agreement efforts to restore 'shared' living spaces, so damaged by the Northern Ireland Troubles.
Speaker: Professor Marianne Elliot FBA, Professor Emerita, Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool
This talk was part of the Imagine! Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics.
Image: Children marching for peace. © Leif Skoogfors / Corbis Historical via Getty Images.
As the Good Friday Agreement moves closer and closer to centre stage in Anglo-Irish relations, and potentially to UK-EU relations post-Brexit, how it is interpreted will become even more contentious. In this talk, Christopher McCrudden engages with the differing (and conflicting) historical, legal, and political interpretations as well as considering more broadly, what exactly is the Agreement?
Speaker: Professor Christopher McCrudden FBA, Professor of Human and Equality Law, Queen’s University Belfast
This talk was part of the Imagine! Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics.
Image: British Prime Minister Tony Blair (right) US Senator George Mitchell (centre) and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern (left) shaking hands after they signed the historic Good Friday Agreement for peace in Northern Ireland. © Dan Chung / AFP via Getty Images.
Dealing with the past in relation to the Northern Ireland conflict is a politically sensitive topic often characterised by more heat than light. In this talk, Kieran McEvoy discusses the UK government’s commitment to introduce legislation regarding legacy issues now complicated by the parallel drive to protect British Army veterans from historical allegations arising out of their service in Northern Ireland.
Speaker: Professor Kieran McEvoy FBA, Professor of Law and Transitional Justice, School of Law and Senior Research Fellow, Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, Queen’s University Belfast; Principal Investigator, Dealing with the Past in Northern Ireland project.
This talk was part of the Imagine! Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics.
Image: British soldier on patrol along Falls Road in West Belfast. © Photo by Andrew Holbrooke / Corbis Historical via Getty Images.
Every five years since 1953, the Chinese Communist Party has produced a strategic blueprint setting out the broad framework and specific targets meant to guide policy and performance nationwide, across government, economy, and society. In this talk, Vivienne Shue discusses the preparation, substance and political timing of China's new 14th Five Year Plan and considers whether its bold objectives are attainable.
Speaker: Professor Vivienne Shue FBA, Professor Emeritus of Contemporary China Studies, Fellow of St. Antony's College, and an Associate of the University of Oxford China Centre
Image: Photo of Chinese President Xi Jinping by Lintao Zhang via Getty Images.
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-china-14th-five-year-plan-bold-beautiful/
In this talk, Judith Jesch introduces Astrid, a Swedish princess married to King, later Saint, Olaf of Norway, and her remarkable political intervention to ensure that her stepson succeeded to the throne in 1035 CE. Her actions are immortalised in a contemporary poem, composed in a genre previously reserved for male rulers, which shows how both she and the poet Sigvatr were pioneers in the transformation of the Norwegian monarchy at the end of the Viking Age.
An annotated text and translation of the poem in praise of Astrid is available.
A related article by Judith is also available: ‘In praise of Ástríðr Óláfsdóttir’, Saga-Book 24 (1994), 1-18.
Speaker: Professor Judith Jesch FBA, Professor of Viking Studies, University of Nottingham
Image: Astrid Olofsdotter of Sweden as imagined by artist Christian Krohg in 1899.
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-praise-queen-astrid-norway
With the rise of the internet and social media, the performance of storytelling and the arts of oratory have returned to centre stage. In this talk ahead of World Book Day, Marina Warner argues that in an era of public disinformation, the study of the uses of rhetoric, as deployed in many forms of literature, is urgently needed. Rhetoric used to be a pillar of literary education, and understanding its processes remains vital to sharpening epistemic vigilance and developing countermeasures to the damaging falsehoods and rumours in circulation. Literature and imagination, action and reality interact through narratives and how convincingly they are told matters. Between stories that open minds and stories that close them, rhetoric – the modes and voices of storytelling – plays a crucial role.
Her memoir, Inventory of a Life Mislaid: An Unreliable Memoir is published on 4 March 2021.
Speaker: Professor Dame Marina Warner FBA, FRSL, Professor of English and Creative Writing, Birkbeck, University of London; Distinguished Fellow, All Souls College, University of Oxford; Professorial Research Fellow, SOAS; and President of the Royal Society of Literature
Image: Professor Dame Marina Warner FBA. Photograph by Edward Park
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-power-stories-practice-rhetoric/
In this talk to mark the bicentenary of the Romantic poet John Keats’ death on 23rd February 1821 in Rome, Nicholas Roe takes us back to the hours, days, and weeks immediately afterwards as well as discussing how Keats’ reputation evolved in posthumous years. He is the author of John Keats. A New Life.
Speaker: Professor Nicholas Roe FBA, Bishop Wardlaw Professor of English Literature, University of St Andrews
Image: John Keats by William Hilton, after Joseph Severn. Oil on canvas, based on a work of circa 1822. 30 in. x 25 in. (762 mm x 635 mm) Purchased, 1865. © National Portrait Gallery, London (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)
Where did Stonehenge come from? In this talk Mike Parker Pearson investigates the origins of Stonehenge, its stones and their transportation as well as speculating on the motives behind the creation of this unique prehistoric monument.
Read more about Stonehenge's origins by him on the Academy's blog and in a new article in the Antiquity journal.
Speaker: Professor Mike Parker Pearson FBA, Professor of British Later Prehistory, University College London
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-origins-stonehenge/
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution changed the way we think about our place in the world, although it took some time for its full implications to sink in. In this talk, Peter Bowler argues that at first it was widely assumed that humanity must be the goal of evolutionary progress. But Darwin’s theory of natural selection suggests that the ‘tree of life’ has many diverging branches and hence no predetermined endpoint. Humanity’s position in the world now seemed much less secure, although it took several decades for this unsettling prospect to be recognised.
His book, Progress Unchained: Ideas of Evolution, Human History and the Future will be published by Cambridge University Press in March 2021.
This talk is to mark Darwin Day, a celebration to commemorate the birthday of Charles Darwin on 12th February 1809.
Speaker: Professor Peter Bowler FBA, Emeritus Professor of the History of Science, Queens University Belfast
Image: The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin.
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-charles-darwin-ideas-evolution/
What has been the legacy of the Crusades in Europe and across the Muslim world in modern times? Why is the evolution of the Saladin legend throughout history so remarkable? In this talk, Carole Hillenbrand argues that whilst the word ‘crusade’ is still used today with little heed to the historical context in which it first appeared, it is abundantly clear at both a scholarly and more popular level that there is now a continuing and genuine interest in discovering more about the phenomenon of the Crusades in the Middle Ages and especially Islamic perspectives.
Her article, ‘The evolution of the Saladin legend in the West’ (2006) is available.
Speaker: Professor Carole Hillenbrand FBA, Professor of Islamic History, University of St Andrews; Professor Emerita of Islamic History, University of Edinburgh
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-saladin-crusades-medieval-modern-perspectives
In The Origins of Totalitarianism(1951) the political thinker Hannah Arendt warned of the dangers if the distinction between fact and fiction – and between true and false – is lost. Aware of the fragility of democracy, Arendt argued that democracy depends on populations accepting facts about social life; without such shared facts, democracy can be imperilled. What happens though when facts become matters of opinion?
In this 10-Minute Talk Michael Billig discusses the works of Hannah Arendt and why they may help us understand recent events involving President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Speaker: Professor Michael Billig FBA, Emeritus Professor of Social Sciences, Loughborough University
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-donald-trump-boris-johnson-warnings-hannah-arendt/
Heralded as the exponents of a 'new atheism', critics of religion such as Richard Dawkins are highly visible and vocal today. In this talk, David Fergusson explains the growing interest in the study of atheism and the different forms that this now takes. He suggests that faith communities can benefit from patient engagement with their critics, even while resisting the reductive explanations of the new atheism. Speaker: Professor David Fergusson FBA, Professor of Divinity, University of Edinburgh (From 1 April 2021, he will take up the Regius Chair of Divinity at the University of Cambridge.)
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-atheism-debate/
In this talk, Keith Ward argues that most sophisticated religions are correct in thinking that there exists a spiritual dimension of reality based on wisdom, compassion and bliss as well as addressing how we can understand the phenomena of religion in the light of new scientific and global understanding.
Speaker: Revd Professor Keith Ward FBA, Professor of Philosophy of Religion, Roehampton University
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-religion-theology-and-the-ultimate-nature-of-reality/
The Unites States remains unusually religious as a country, but the issue of American racism is inextricably, and very problematically, related to its theological past. The history of white American Christianity is replete with biblical mandates for a racist system, and this may well have wider explanatory implications for police violence against non-white people and the strange incapacity of white people to 'see' elements of 'systemic racism' in the culture at large.
Join Sarah Coakley as she explores some of the uncomfortable truths about the historic power of Christianity in the US, and the importance of both theological and philosophical analyses of the 'problem of seeing' what is happening in a racist culture.
Speaker: Revd Professor Sarah Coakley FBA, Professorial Fellow, Australian Catholic University; Honorary Professor, University of St Andrews; Honorary Fellow, Oriel College, University of Oxford; Norris-Hulse Professor Emeria, University of Cambridge
Episode Image Credit: Joy Powell / AFP / Stringer via Getty Images.
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-racism-and-religion-in-america-sin-and-the-elusive-problem-of-seeing/
Conspiracy theories are becoming more popular and more widespread in the twenty-first century. Nowhere have they become more obvious than in revisionist accounts of the history of the Third Reich and how Adolf Hitler supposedly didn’t die in 1945 but survived and lived into old age in Argentina.
In this talk, Sir Richard Evans explains how conspiracy theories are constructed, amplified, and justified as well looking more widely at how the most bizarre and irrational theories find their way into the public sphere.
His book, The Hitler Conspiracies. The Third Reich and the Paranoid Imaginationwas published in October 2020. An abridged version of this talk will also feature as an article in the New Statesmanon 4th December 2020.
Speaker: Professor Sir Richard Evans FBA, Provost, Gresham College, London
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-the-hitler-conspiracies-the-third-reich-and-the-paranoid-imagination/
Broadly described, a cynic (in the primary modern sense) is a person given to casting doubt on the motives that drive other people. Often disparaged, cynicism is nevertheless part of the range of ways in which most of us may sometimes choose to engage with others – momentarily tuning up the aggression of our own intelligence.
In this talk, Helen Small considers the characteristic features of cynicism, its origins and development as a philosophical branch, and what role it has played in public moralism from the 19th century onward. Treating a range of literary and philosophical writers, she explores the strengths and limitations of cynicism in our present cultural context, amid what is widely seen as a weakening of the norms of expression for public arguments.
Her book, 'The Function of Cynicism at the Present Time' was published by Oxford University Press in June 2020.
Speaker: Professor Helen Small FBA, Merton Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Oxford
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-transcript-the-function-of-cynicism-at-the-present-time/
In the era of big data, it is easy to imagine that we have all the information we need to make good decisions. But in fact, the data we have is never complete. Just as much of the universe is composed of dark matter, invisible to us but nonetheless present, the universe of information is full of dark data that we overlook at our peril.
In this talk David Hand explores dark data in the context of COVID-19 and the many ways in which we can be blind to missing data and how that can lead us to conclusions and actions that are mistaken, dangerous, or even disastrous. He also outlines how the pandemic has raised awareness of the importance of valid, relevant, timely, and accurate data and even how dark data can be used to our advantage, leading to greater understanding and better decision-making.
His book, 'Dark Data: Why What You Don’t Know Matters' was published by Princeton University Press in January 2020.
Speaker: Professor David Hand FBA, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, Imperial College, London; Senior Research Investigator, Imperial College London
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-transcript-dark-data/
Pandemics throughout history have provided stark reminders of how the vulnerable can be exploited and abused and COVID-19 is no different.
In this talk, Joanna Bourke outlines how the pandemic has exacerbated, not created, the problem of domestic and sexual violence in our society and how perpetrators have also used fear of the virus as a weapon as part of their arsenal of abuse.
Speaker: Professor Joanna Bourke FBA, Professor of History, Birkbeck, University of London; Principal Investigator on the Wellcome Trust-funded project, ‘Sexual Violence, Medicine, and Psychiatry’ (2018-2023)
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-domestic-and-sexual-violence-during-covid-19/
It is often suggested that free will is an illusion and a left-over from an outdated worldview; and that the idea of free will has no place in modern science. In this talk, Christian List argues that far from undermining free will, science actually offers some arguments in its support.
Christian List’s 10-Minute Talk is based on his identically-titled article published in the Boston Review in February 2020. His book, 'Why Free Will is Real' was published in 2019.
Speaker: Professor Christian List FBA, Professor of Philosophy and Political Science, London School of Economics
Transcript: • https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-science-hasnt-refuted-free-will
How did people in early medieval Wales live? And how did their lives change between the departure of the Romans in the early fifth century AD and the coming of the Normans to Wales over 600 years later? In this 10-Minute Talk, Nancy Edwards considers some remarkable archaeological monuments, highlighting what these reveal about aspects of identity during this period.
Speaker: Professor Nancy Edwards FBA, Professor of Medieval Archaeology, Bangor University
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-early-medieval-wales-a-matter-of-identity/
The eighteenth-century writers who tried to mount a principled defence of the slave trade look like monsters to us today - quite rightly. But before we get on our high horses to condemn them, it’s worth hearing how uncomfortably closely their arguments anticipate patterns of thought in which most of us are implicated today.
Speaker: Professor Alec Ryrie FBA, Professor of the History of Christianity, Durham University; Professor of Divinity, Gresham College
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-what-the-defenders-of-the-slave-trade-have-to-teach-us/
In this 10-Minute Talk, cognitive neuroscientist Sophie Scott introduces her pioneering research into laughter. She talks about why we laugh, laughter’s role in social interactions and how laughter can help us to regulate emotions and improve our mood.
Speaker: Professor Sophie Scott FBA, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-why-laughter-matters/
Is Britain a part of Europe? Ahead of the publication of his latest book Britain and Europe in a Troubled World, Vernon Bogdanor untangles the history of Britain’s complex relationship with Europe and discusses how the EU needs to change if it is to avoid losing more member states. Spanning the last 75 years, this 10-Minute Talk provides the essential background to the struggle over Brexit.
His latest book, 'Britain and Europe in a Troubled World' will be published in November 2020. You can get 30% off when you pre-order the book by entering the code YBETW when prompted at checkout on Yale University Press (https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300245615/britain-and-europe-troubled-world). The code is valid until 31 December 2020 and some restrictions apply*.
Speaker: Professor Vernon Bogdanor FBA, Research Professor, Institute of Contemporary British History, King's College London
*Customers from the US and Canada may claim the book discount code by emailing Yale University Press. International orders will be subject to variable international shipping rates and potential customs charges. Unfortunately, the code is not valid for customers in Australia and New Zealand.
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-britain-and-europe-in-a-troubled-world/
Before the Second World War, only about 20% of the population had any secondary education or only a few percent went to university; today secondary education has long been universal and 50% go to higher education. How and why did we get here from there? Peter Mandler talks about his new book The Crisis of the Meritocracy and explains why Britain, like most other modern societies, has needed to educate ever larger proportions of its citizenry to ever high levels.
Speaker: Professor Peter Mandler FBA, Professor of Modern Cultural History, University of Cambridge; Bailey Lecturer in History, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-the-crisis-of-the-meritocracy-why-britain-has-needed-more-and-more-education/
The COVID-19 pandemic has been unequal and complex in its social and economic impact. It has amplified existing inequalities and has created new insecurities some of which threaten to persist into the future. Fiona Williams will unpick the dynamics and indicate what priorities they pose for social policies.
The British Academy’s Shape the Future programme examines the societal, economic and cultural implications of the pandemic.
Speaker: Professor Fiona Williams FBA, Emeritus Professor of Social Policy, University of Leeds; Research Associate, Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, University of Oxford; Honorary Professor, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Australia
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-covid-19-and-inequalities/
In this talk, Rajesh Chandy discusses a topic he has been studying for several years: entrepreneurship. What is entrepreneurship? What are its drivers? And why does it matter to all of us – entrepreneurs, employees, and observers alike?
Speaker: Professor Rajesh Chandy FBA, Professor of Marketing, London Business School; Tony and Maureen Wheeler Chair in Entrepreneurship; Academic Director, Wheeler Institute for Business and Development
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-entrepreneurship/
The pandemic of 2020 has caused untold disruption around the world, and the United Kingdom has suffered particularly seriously. What kind of public accounting will there be for the way in which the virus has played out in Britain? In this talk, Conor Gearty asks whether there will be a public inquiry and if so what shape it will take, and considers also the important role the law has to play in ensuring the success of any such inquiry that is set up.
The British Academy’s Shape the Future programme examines the societal, economic and cultural implications of the pandemic.
Speaker: Professor Conor Gearty FBA, Professor of Human Rights Law, London School of Economics
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-covid-19-public-enquiry-a-case-of-when-not-if/
In this 10-Minute Talk Richard English asks four questions about religion and terrorism: Should religion be seen as a cause for terroristic violence or a restraining influence upon it? Is religious terrorism an existential threat? Is religious terrorism something new? And should religion, in terms of its influence on terrorism, be seen as something that is a detachable part of that mixture?
Speaker: Professor Richard English FBA, Distinguished Professorial Fellow, Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, Queen’s University Belfast
In November 1979, Margaret Thatcher exposed the distinguished art historian Anthony Blunt as a former Soviet spy - part of the infamous Cambridge Spy Ring who traded secrets with Moscow during the Second World War. Blunt’s unmasking provoked a media outcry that turned him into a national hate figure. In this 10-Minute Talk, President of the British Academy David Cannadine discusses the background to this extraordinary story. And he reveals how the British Academy itself got caught up in the public furore, leading to a showdown at its Annual General Meeting forty years ago this month, on the question of whether Blunt should be expelled from its membership.
'A Question of Retribution? The British Academy and the Matter of Anthony Blunt', edited by David Cannadine, was published on 23 July 2020.
Image: Anthony Blunt at a press conference, 20th November 1979 © Central Press / Stringer / Hulton Archive / Getty Images
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-art-historian-professor-writer-spy-the-extraordinary-story-of-anthony-blunt/
The 'Spanish Flu' of 1918-19 remains the most devastating pandemic of modern times, possibly killing up to 100 million people world wide. The loss of life massively exceeded the numbers killed during the First World War. Yet curiously its political, military and social impact was largely unrecognised at the time and is barely considered today. In this talk, Hew Strachan discusses the challenges the flu epidemic presents for the modern historian and provides some context for our own predicament today.
The British Academy's Shape the Future programme examines the societal, economic and cultural implications of the pandemic
Speaker: Professor Sir Hew Strachan FBA, Professor of International Relations, University of St Andrews; Emeritus Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford; Life Fellow, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Image: A typist wearing a flu face mask © PhotoQuest / Archive Photos / Getty Images
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-war-revolution-and-pandemic-1918-19/
How do people manage when their lives are utterly transformed by circumstances beyond their control? Fiona Stafford discusses a diary kept by a woman in 1941, whose new normal involved rationing, restrictions, isolation and air raids.
Speaker: Professor Fiona Stafford FBA, Professor of English Language and Literature; Tutorial Fellow, Somerville College, Oxford
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) was one of the most popular poets of the Victorian period, remembered for her challenging poetry and courage of her views. In this 10-Minute Talk Isobel Armstrong discusses key stages of her life and work, from the courtship letters she wrote to her future husband through to the 19th century social and political issues which fed into her work.
Speaker: Professor Isobel Armstrong FBA Emeritus Professor of English, Birkbeck, University of London; Senior Research Fellow, Institute of English Studies; International Scholar, American Academy
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-the-life-and-work-of-elizabeth-barrett-browning/
The idea that climate change has caused, and will cause, war has been embraced by journalists and politicians, popular science writers and academics alike. However, this concept is not new. In this 10-Minute Talk David Livingstone looks back in history, tracing links between earlier writings about climate and violence and contemporary thinking.
Speaker: Professor David Livingstone FBA, Professor of Geography and Intellectual History, Queen's University Belfast
Image: Demonstrators hold placards © Daniel Leal-Olivas / AFP via Getty Images
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-climate-and-war/
As ongoing protests against racial injustice and police brutality in the United States are met with militarised police action, tear gas, the National Guard, and threats of military intervention from representatives of the Trump administration and U.S. Congress, many observers are asking if this is what American fascism looks like. It is a question the Trump campaign itself raised when it decided to revive a forgotten political slogan, "America First" in 2016. In this 10-Minute Talk, Sarah Churchwell offers a brief history of "America First" and answers the perennial question of American fascism: can it happen here?
Speaker: Professor Sarah Churchwell, Chair of Public Understanding of the Humanities and Professorial Fellow in American Literature, IES, School of Advanced Study University of London and Director, Being Human Festival.
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-america-first-and-american-fascism/
Westminster Abbey has a fascinating history to tell. As well as being a place of worship, it is an architectural masterpiece and treasure house of artefacts; the final resting place for some of the most significant people in Britain’s history; and the setting for every coronation since 1066 and numerous other royal occasions. In this talk, President of the British Academy David Cannadine discusses Westminster Abbey’s unique place in history and its meaning, significance and impact within society both in Britain and beyond.
Speaker: Professor Sir David Cannadine PBA, President, British Academy; Dodge Professor of History, Princeton University
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-westminster-abbey-a-church-in-history/
Why are Shakespeare plays filled with songs – not all of them relevant to the story? In this 10-Minute Talk, Tiffany Stern discusses sales of printed songtexts in Shakespeare’s London. She asks whether songs performed in, about or after plays were ‘product placement’ for theatre sales.
Speaker: Professor Tiffany Stern FBA, Professor of Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama, Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham
Image: Performance at the Globe Theatre © Leon Neal / AFP / Getty Images
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-theatre-marketing-and-ballads-in-the-time-of-shakespeare
Reflecting on years spent talking to parents, teachers and children about the influx of digital technologies in their lives, Sonia Livingstone will dispel some popular myths about screen time along with other techno-hype and fear-mongering, and offer some evidence-based suggestions to help maximise digital opportunities for children and minimise the risks.
Speaker: Professor Sonia Livingstone FBA, Professor of Social Psychology, Department of Media and Communications, LSE
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-parenting-for-a-digital-future/
As a film historian, Ian Christie has become increasingly interested in how audiences respond to films, which we can now view in so many different ways. Having taken part in a large empirical study of film viewing across the UK in 2011, he identifies some of the benefits, including unexpected ones, that we may gain from our viewing - which may well be greater than usual at this time.
Speaker: Professor Ian Christie FBA, Professor of Film and Media History, Birkbeck, University of London
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-can-watching-films-be-good-for-us/
If a society is measured by how it treats its worst off, we have reason to think hard and well about how we manage the lives of those in prison. Philosophy – in particular, the collaborative doing of philosophy – has here a role to play. Join M M McCabe as she explores how introducing philosophical discussion into prisons may matter.
To find out more, visit Philosophy in Prison: https://www.philosophyinprison.com/
Speaker: Professor M M McCabe FBA, Professor of Ancient Philosophy Emerita, King’s College London
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-philosophy-in-prison/
Music can keep us physically, emotionally, and socially strong. But just how does music help? In this talk Tia DeNora considers everyday musical engagement as a way of regulating emotion, holding focus, managing pain and promoting social connection (including the sense of connection). She explores some of the reasons why music is a particularly valuable medium for wellbeing and suggests that this value derives from the interaction between what music offers and people’s resourcefulness as they interact with and care for music.
Speaker: Professor Tia DeNora FBA, Professor of Sociology of Music, University of Exeter
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-music-and-wellbeing/
Tom Shakespeare discusses how people with a range of physical and sensory disabilities in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia have achieved educational, employment and family success. Drawing on the findings of a DFID-funded research project conducted with local academic partners, he highlights some of the stories shared and barriers overcome.
Speaker: Professor Tom Shakespeare FBA, Professor of Disability Research, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Image: © Simon Maina / AFP via Getty Images
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-how-disabled-people-achieve-good-lives-in-three-african-countries/
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, in Asia as well as Europe. Today's China is drawing on its collective memory of the war against Japan to shape its politics at home (including "victory over the virus") and abroad, as it seeks to reshape international order in Asia. This talk explains what happened during World War II in China and why it matters so much for the politics and society of that country today.
Speaker: Professor Rana Mitter FBA, Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China, Director of the University China Centre, University of Oxford
Image: © Feature China / Barcroft Media / Barcroft Media via Getty Images
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-chinas-good-war/
Revd Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch Kt FBA talks about how to understand Thomas Cromwell, even though so many of his own letters have vanished from his vast surviving archive.
Speaker: Revd Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch Kt FBA, Professor of the History of the Church, University of Oxford; Fellow, St Cross College, Oxford
The world’s leading professors explain the latest thinking in the humanities and social sciences in just 10 minutes.
Image: © Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex by Hans Holbein the Younger / CC National Portrait Gallery, London
Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-making-the-real-thomas-cromwell-stand-up/