Wolfson College Humanities Society

The description of Esau’s family in Genesis 36 and I Chronicles 1 has the figure of Timna change gender in the span of a few verses. She is a concubine, a sister, and then a male head of a clan. This study uses archaeology to help us understand the function of multiple genders in the Hebrew Bible’s genealogies which originated as oral mental maps of how the various Canaanite tribes related to one another politically and economically.

Professor Robert Koepp examines how Eliot's characters struggle with the profoundly human inclination to trust in luck by worshiping at the altar of 'blessed Chance'- arguing that this tendency is central to the novelist's treatment of various moral dilemmas in her fiction.

The economist John Maynard Keynes’ activities on the stock market are well known. One company in which he bought stocks in the late 1920s was the Hector Whaling Company Ltd. The paper explores how Keynes became involved in this company and the analysis provides new insights to the more general question on the motivations and decisions behind his stock market investments.

A registered trade mark acts an indication of origin for goods but tells us nothing specific about the circumstances under which the goods originated. This limitation was not inevitable. After trade marks became objects of registration in 1875, what information they would embody was a matter of heated contestation between manufacturers, retailers, exporters, trade unions and anti-immigration activists. This lecture will examine this debate and suggest why, in the end, it was the interests of labour which lost out.

Prof Szreter will discuss the costs and benefits of the long-term history of a national social security system in Britain. He will argue that such a perspective is important for evaluating the current political and policy choices being proposed by the major parties in the general election

In this anniversary year – 50 years since the death of Winston Churchill and 70 years since the end of WWII – Warren Dockter will look at Churchill’s long relationship with the Islamic world and his lasting legacy in the Middle East, which continues to be felt in the region and in British policy today.

Dr Justin Colson talks about London Bridge which has existed in one form or another since the fourteenth century. He explores the social world of the Bridge in the late fifteenth century, and how the economic activities of its tenants exploited the opportunities of this unique location, providing new insight into the commercial world of the late medieval City of London.

This year is the 500th anniversary of the birth of Teresa, one of the foremost ‘mystical’ writers of the Christian tradition. Research in the last fifty years has clarified more and more the nature of her social background in a converted Jewish family and thus the way in which her religious writing is shaped by the issues and politics of 16th century Spain. I hope to sketch this background and offer some more general reflections on the title.

There were two categories of women in Henrik Ibsen’s life: the women in his dramatic universe and the women in his own life. Ibsen’s attitude to women is highly complex: whereas the many women who inhabit the different settings of these late nineteenth century bourgeois families are as diverse as the plays themselves, they share a few common denominators, that this talk will seek to demonstrate.

Hinduism is by far the majority culture of India, which is set fair to become a superpower in the next few decades. How then does the polycentric, decentralizing phenomenon of Hinduism influence and guide the gaze of Hindus at the world and help determine their interactions with it, especially in the context of modernity and its counteracting forces? And what can we learn from this encounter?

When does criticism of Israel become antisemitic? This longstanding debate was revived last summer in the context of British and European responses to Israel’s assault on Gaza. David Feldman will analyse last summer’s controversies as well as the question of when, if ever, criticism of Israel is a form of racism.

How does a Lovari extended family enact the sharing of material resources, and of intangible gifts conveyed through gesture, dance, song and speech? How do these practices confer identity and what may they have in common with those of certain communities in Europe, perhaps in the Middle East and Central Asia, and in their country of origin – India? After a brief overview of current knowledge and hypotheses regarding the origin of Romani communities, with some comments on their distribution in Europe today, I will present points of view put forward by Romani and other authors in the ongoing debate about how the ancestors of today’s Romani communities may have fitted into the Hindu caste system. A resolution of this issue will need to be informed by new insights gained from linguistics and genetics, but also by the cultural practices and the actual religious beliefs of Romani communities in Europe and those of – perhaps related – groups in the Middle East, Central Asia, and India itself. To illustrate the culture and beliefs of Romani communities, I will show extracts from the video of a recent wedding celebrated by a Lovari family.

Corpus Christi College possesses one of the oldest extant illustrated manuscripts, the St Augustine Gospels from the sixth century. This lecture discusses the origin of illustrated books in Late Antiquity and their earliest appearance in biblical texts. This famous Gospel Book is thought to have been brought from Italy to England by St Augustine of Canterbury on his mission to evangelise the Anglo-Saxons in 597. The evidence for and against this identification will be discussed.

The economic historian Charles Ryle Fay (1884-1961) was a staunch advocate of workers’ and women’s rights, and also became one of the leading British machine gunners during World War One. As an economist his associates included Alfred Marshall, JM Keynes and Sir Austin Robinson; as a historian he taught at Cambridge University for almost thirty years and in Canada in the 1920s, writing twenty books, including idiosyncratic works defying biographical norms – on his heroes William Huskisson and Adam Smith. What does his life tell us about the differences between making history and writing about it?

Dr Alexi Baker’s research over the past decade has revealed how ‘scientific instruments’ before the rise of modern science included everything from cutting-edge technologies and everyday tools to fashionable accessories and entertainments. She discusses how London dominated the early modern trade in these wares – outfitting science, fashion, and diverse other pastimes and professions across Europe.

Cambridge English Language Assessment tests more than 5 million learners of English in over 100 countries every year and this constitutes a major asset in delivering the University’s educational mission around the world. However, a key question for Cambridge English is how to promote the wider use of English while at the same time supporting the learning and uses of many other languages – hence the title of the talk. Dr Saville will discuss this issue of “multilingualism” – a research theme within the University’s interdisciplinary Language Sciences Initiative (LSI) – as well as more generally illustrate the work of Cambridge English Language Assessment.

The novels of Charles Dickens reached new heights of popularity during the First World War, symbolising for many the quintessence of Englishness and the values that the war was being fought to defend. Dickensians of every stripe used his name and works to raise funds for the war and to stimulate pro-British feeling in the colonies and America. But Dickens was hugely popular too in Germany, so that his writing could be found in trenches on both sides of No-Man’s Land, sometimes to the consternation of Dickensians at home. Jerry White charts the use and abuse of Dickens and his legacy across the course of the First World War.

How do artists and poets create dialogues with the past? Prof. Robin Cormack explores the way in which the artists feature in the exhibition 'Myths, Memories and Mysteries', jointly hosted by the Museum of Classical Archaeology and Wolfson College, revisit and remember Greek histories.

rasmus Darwin – Charles’s grandfather – was well-known among his eighteenth- century contemporaries, highly respected by many but reviled by others. Energetic and sociable, this corpulent tee-totaller wrote best-selling poems on plants, technology and evolution. He also ran a successful medical practice, was a Fellow of the Royal Society and promoted industrialization by sponsoring science, innovation and entrepreneurship in the Midlands. In her research, Patricia Fara has explored fresh ways of thinking about this champion of Enlightenment thought. More than fifty years before his famous grandson, Erasmus Darwin dared to publish controversial ideas about evolution that put his medical text on the Vatican’s banned list. Politically radical, he campaigned for the abolition of slavery, supported the French Revolution, promoted education for women, and challenged Christian orthodoxy.

From the late fifteenth century, the walls of Italian shrines became crowded with tavolette dipinte – small painted wooden boards recording instances of sickness, violence, accidents, natural disasters and demonic possession, and attesting to the miraculous intervention of the Virgin Mary and other saints. Dr Laven shall explore the significance of this new cultural form and contextualize the appeal of pictorial ex votos with reference both to grander trends in Renaissance art and to the simultaneous rise of the printed miracle book. Thus, she will shed new light on neglected forms of religious creativity and to investigate the role of narrative in fuelling devotional renewal before Trent.