Over the past year, we've been settling into our new home at the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities. The Cultural Programme has now launched, with a range of research-based events taking place in the impressive Sohmen Concert Hall and Theatre. Upcoming events include Burning Down the House, which has emerged from the research of Professor Kirsten Shepherd, and Utopia Now!, a series of events exploring the role of the arts in making a better future possible, which has been developed with Professor Peter Boxall.
Our regular public lecture series continue as usual. In April, A.E. Stallings gave her termly Professor of Poetry lecture on Lisping in Numbers: Poems that Count, and our Shakespeare webinars with Professor Emma Smith have been taking place online on the first Monday of each month (with a break in the summer). You can sign up for upcoming webinars and watch recordings of past events on our website. Next up is The Winter's Tale on 7 September at 6pm.
In Trinity Term, we also welcomed Bernardine Evaristo to the English Faculty as our Visiting Professor of Creative Media. She gave a talk at the Sheldonian Theatre on ‘The Girl from Woolwich: A Creative Life’ where she explored how her creativity was shaped by her origins in London of the Sixties and the choices she has made to sustain a lifelong career as a writer. You can see an extract from the talk on the English Faculty website.
We were also delighted to hold Professor Devyani Sharma's Inaugural Lecture at the Schwarzman Centre earlier this year. Professor Sharma spoke on 'Why accent matters: from social interaction to life outcomes'. You can watch a recording of the talk on the English Faculty YouTube channel.
We've recently celebrated the success of several Faculty members who have been elected Fellows of prestigious academies and societies, including the British Academy, Royal Society of Literature, and Royal Historical Society. You can find details on our News page. Professor Elleke Boehmer, who was recently elected a Fellow of the Australian Humanities Academy, and DPhil Candidate Luan Staphorst have also recently been awarded the George Parkin Award for their work on an inscription acknowledging the difficult Rhodes legacy, which has been carved into a stone arch at the back of Rhodes House. You can read an interview with Elleke and Luan to find out more about the project on our website.
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