Retirement symposium for Alan Macfarlane 2009: Recent Episodes

Retirement Symposium, Party, and 'Memory Book'

Alan Macfarlane retired from my University Professorship on September 30th 2009. On July 4th (‘Independence Day’) I celebrated with friends, family and colleagues in the Saltmarsh Rooms at King’s.

Symposium

In the morning there was a symposium arranged by Susan Bayly and James Laidlaw, and filmed by Zilan Wang, with papers by:

Caroline Humphrey: ‘Archives, Traditions and Institutional Memory’

Keith Thomas: ‘Alan Macfarlane and the Middle Ages’

Peter Burke: ‘Historical Anthropology: when, why and how’

Jack Goody (read by James Laidlaw in Jack Goody’s absence): ‘The Europeanist and the Eurasianist’

After the papers I made an informal response.

Party and 'Memory Book'

In the evening I gave a party which was filmed by Zilan Wang. I have edited it with a personal commentary to share with those who were there and those who were not. I apologise in advance for any errors that I may have made in identification or description!

A number of those who came to the party (and others who could not come) wrote some memories of their relationship with me. These are in a ‘Memory Book’, which can be updated if further contributions emerge.