Events
Past Events
Britain at the Constitutional Crossroads — Prof. Bruce Ackerman (Yale)
Friday 2nd December, 2016
13:00 — 14:00, British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace
In association with the Centre for the Study of the History of Political Thought and the Centre for Law and Society in a Global Context, the Mile End Institute is delighted to welcome Bruce Ackerman, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University to give a lecture Britain at the Constitutional Crossroads – Court, Parliament, and Popular Sovereignty in the Twenty-First Century.
Professor Ackerman’s lecture comes at a critical moment as the Supreme Court deliberates on the role of Parliament in the process of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union and the judiciary has come under fire in the popular press. His talk will consider the interaction of representative democracy and referendums and the role of the courts in mediating the two. There will be an opportunity for audience Q&A after the lecture.
The event will be chaired by Sionaidh Douglas-Scott, Anniversary Chair in Law at QMUL and co-director of the Centre for Law and Society in a Global Context
To register for the event, please click here. Places are limited, and so booking is essential.
Please click here to watch a recording of the event.
Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion book launch
Tuesday 4th October, 2016
18:30 - 20:30, School of History, Queen Mary University of London
To celebrate the publication of the important new biography Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion (Allen Lane) by Professor Gareth Stedman Jones, the School of History, Queen Mary, is hosting a debate between Professor Stedman Jones and Dr Tristram Hunt MP, author of a recent biography of Friedrich Engels. To RSVP for the event, click here.
Update: A video of the event is now available online. Please follow this link to watch it.
5th London Summer School in Intellectual History
Monday 5th September, 2016 – Thursday 8th September, 2016
The programme for the annual London Summer School in Intellectual History has been announced — click here to view the full list of masterclasses, panel discussions and presentations that will be taking place from 5 – 8 September 2016.
Please note that while these sessions are only open to registered participants, the public is welcome to attend the opening keynote lecture by Prof. David Armitage (Harvard) on ‘Cosmopolitanism and Civil War’ and the final keynote lecture by Prof. Quentin Skinner (QMUL) on ‘Why Shylock loses his case: judicial rhetoric in The Merchant of Venice‘. Both keynote lectures will be held at PP1, People’s Palace, QMUL.
Important update: The venue for the final keynote lecture on the 8th of September has changed to Bancroft 2.40 (2nd floor of the Bancroft Building). As there is another building with a similar name on the Mile End campus, please note that the Bancroft Building has blue windows and is located at the end of the Jewish cemetery.
Graduate conference: Imagined Worlds in the History of Political Thought
Thursday 30th June, 2016 – Friday 1st July, 2016
10am, Gavin de Beer Lecture Theatre, Anatomy Building, UCL
The London Graduate Conference in the History of Political Thought will be held on 30th June-1st July, on the theme of 'Imagined Worlds'. The Keynote speaker is Melissa Lane.
Colloquium on The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke, Volume IV
Friday 24th June, 2016
2pm-6pm, Wolfson Room II, Institute of Historical Research, London WC1E 7HU
A half-day colloquium on the New Clarendon Edition of Edmund Burke, edited by P. J. Marshall and Donald C. Bryant.
Speakers: Donald Bromwich, Richard Bourke, J. C. D. Clark, Peter Marshall, Anna Plassart, Brian Young.
Book launch: Popular Sovereignty in Historical Perspective
Thursday 2nd June, 2016
6.30pm-8pm, Queen Mary University of London Arts Two Building, Ground Floor Foyer
Popular Sovereignty in Historical Perspective, edited by Richard Bourke and Quentin Skinner, is published by Cambridge University Press.
Professor Richard Bourke’s inaugural lecture
Tuesday 3rd May, 2016
6.30pm, Arts Two Lecture Theatre, Arts Two Building, QMUL
‘And the Glory of Europe is Extinguished Forever’: What was the Old Regime?
Historians tend to explain the origins of modern Europe in terms of the demise of ‘the old regime’. The Enlightenment, culminating in the Age of Revolutions, is usually described as the transition between the two epochs. In this lecture, Professor Richard Bourke explores the emergence of the idea of the old regime, and asks whether it adequately captures past experience. If the period since 1750 cannot be coherently viewed in terms of progress from an ancien régime to modernity, we are left with a general question that bears on our current self-understanding: how are we to interpret the meaning of our present?
To view the flyer (pdf), click here.
To listen to a recording of the lecture, click here.
Symposium on sovereignty and human rights
Friday 15th January, 2016
9.30 - 17.00 (followed by a reception), Senate House, University of London
This year's Annual Symposium in the Humanities and Social Sciences will be held on on 15 January 2016, on the theme of Sovereignty and Human Rights.
The Symposium will consider two new books: Richard Tuck's The Sleeping Sovereign and Samuel Moyn's Christian Human Rights.
Registration is essential, so please book in advance here.
Roundtable on Empire and Revolution
Wednesday 13th January, 2016
5.15pm, Room SH349, 3rd floor, South block, Senate House
A roundtable discussion of Richard Bourke's Empire & Revolution: The Political Life of Edmund Burke will take place on Wednesday 13 January 2016 at 5:15 p.m.
Empire and Revolution book launch
Friday 9th October, 2015
6.30-8pm, Middle Temple Library
The launch of Prof. Richard Bourke's new book, Empire and Revolution: The political life of Edmund Burke was held on 9th October 2015, with an introduction by Lord Sumption.