The Nicolai Rubinstein Lecture

The Nicolai Rubinstein Lecture in the History of Political Thought and Intellectual History is an annual memorial lecture held in honour of the distinguished Renaissance scholar and former Queen Mary colleague, Nicolai Rubinstein. Having fled Nazi persecution in the 1930s, Rubinstein was appointed to a lectureship at Westfield College, University of London (later merged with Queen Mary) in 1945, and retired as Professor in 1978. He was the leading authority on the government of Florence under the Medici, and a renowned expert in the art, architecture and political thought of Renaissance Italy. This lecture series, inaugurated in 2007, celebrates his contribution to intellectual history.

Past Events

Fifth Nicolai Rubinstein Lecture

Thursday 29th March, 2012

6.30pm, ArtsTwo Lecture Theatre, ArtsTwo Building

The fifth Nicolai Rubinstein Lecture, ‘What’s the Big Idea? Intellectual History and the Longue Duree’, was given by David Armitage (Harvard University).

Download invitation (pdf)

History of European Ideas article (pdf)

Professor Armitage’s article for the Times Literary Supplement can be found here

Fourth Nicolai Rubinstein Lecture

Thursday 10th March, 2011

6.30pm, Arts Lecture Theatre, Arts Building

Professor Lorraine Daston of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin delivered the fourth Nicolai Rubinstein Lecture, entitled ‘Histories of Scientific Experience in Early Modern Europe’.

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Third Nicolai Rubinstein Lecture

Thursday 4th March, 2010

6.30pm, Skeel Lecture Theatre

The third Nicolai Rubinstein lecture, ‘Republics and Revelation: Some Patterns in the Shaping of Western Historiography’, was delivered by Professor John Pocock (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore).

Download 3rd Rubinstein Lecture invitation (pdf)

Second Nicolai Rubinstein Lecture

Wednesday 5th November, 2008

6.30pm, Skeel Lecture Theatre, Queen Mary

Professor Jonathan Israel (Princeton) delivered the second Nicolai Rubinstein lecture, entitled ‘Democratic versus Aristocratic Enlightenment: The Split in European Thought in the Late Eighteenth Century’

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First Nicolai Rubinstein lecture

Wednesday 31st October, 2007

6.30pm, Skeel Lecture Theatre Queen Mary, University of London

Professor Quentin Skinner delivered the first Nicolai Rubinstein lecture, entitled ‘What is the State?’

Download invitation (pdf)