A curated selection of past events in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures. Inaugural Lectures Inaugural Lectures are free public talks by newly-appointed Professors and Chairs at the University of Edinburgh. Speaker Date Venue Theme Professor Tim Milnes (Personal Chair of Romantic Literature and Philosophy) 24 April 2024 50 George Square Ex Nihilo: Romanticism, Creativity, and the Invention of ‘Literature’ Professor Paul Crosthwaite (Professor of Modern and Contemporary Literature) 27 March 2024 50 George Square What are the Economic Humanities? A Short Guide to an Interdisciplinary Field Professor Michelle Keown (Professor of Pacific and Postcolonial Literature) 26 April 2023 50 George Square ‘A Story of a People On Fire’: exploring the legacies of US nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands through literature and visual culture Professor David Farrier (Professor of Literature and the Environment, University of Edinburgh) 29 March 2023 Gordon Aikman Lecture Theatre Nabokov’s Butterfly, Kafka’s Leopards: what nature can teach us about life on a human planet Professor Davide Messina (Chair of Italian and Comparative Studies, University of Edinburgh) 8 March 2023 50 George Square Riveder le stelle: Changing Perspectives in Early Modern Visual Culture Professor Lara Ryazanova-Clarke (Senior Lecturer and Head of Russian at DELC) 25 September 2019 50 George Square Liquid Russian: A story of amazing transformations of the Russian language, its speakers and their communities outside Russia in the post-Soviet period Professor Aaron William Moore (Handa Chair of Japanese-Chinese Relations) 16 October 2019 Playfair Library My World in War and Revolution: A Comparative History of the Modern Diary in the East and West Professor Celeste-Marie Bernier (Personal Chair in United States and Atlantic Studies) 5 October 2018 Playfair Library Suffering, Struggle, Survival: 200 Years of African Atlantic Art and Authorship (1818-2018) Professor Alexis Grohmann (Chair of Contemporary Spanish Literature) 28 May 2018 50 George Square Spanish Literature: The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries Professor Laura Bradley (Chair of German and Theatre) 15 February 2018 50 George Square Brecht and the Art of Spectatorship Professor Rob Dunbar (Chair of Celtic Languages, Literature, History and Antiquities) 18 November 2013 St Cecilia's Hall Canada, the Gaelic Imagination, and the Future of the Celtic Languages’ / ‘Canada, am Mac-meanmna Gàidhlig, agus na Cànanan Ceilteach san Àm ri Teachd Browse more inaugural lectures on the University of Edinburgh website The Susan Manning Memorial Lecture Professor Susan Manning was Grierson Professor of English Literature and Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh until her unexpected death in 2013. This annual lecture commemorates Susan as an internationally renowned academic with wide interests, particularly in Transatlanticism, and as an inspiring influence for an international coterie of scholars in the humanities. Occasionally, the Lecture has been held as part of a wider event, such as Edinburgh Spy Week in 2019 and Muriel Spark 100 in 2018. Speaker Date Venue Theme Professor Yoon Sun Lee (Wellesley College, Massachusetts) 22 March 2024 50 George Square Race, Labor, and Gratitude: Austen, Edgeworth, and the West Indies Professor Anahid Nersessian (University of California) 24 March 2023 50 George Square House on Fire: On the Unfinished Business of Romanticism Professor Caroline Levine (Cornell University) 6 May 2022 50 George Square Plots of Precarity and Sustainable Endings Professor Laura Marcus (New College, University of Oxford) 21 May 2021 Online (Zoom) 'The Noise of Time': Autobiography and History in the 1930s Professor Adam Piette (University of Sheffield) 5 April 2019 50 George Square The Revolutionary Double Agent and Cold War Citizenship Janice Galloway 6 April 2018 50 George Square 'There’s something a bit harsh about you, Fleur’: Muriel Spark and her voices Professor Caryl Phillips (Yale University) 24 March 2017 50 George Square A Sense of Home Professor David Bromwich (Yale University) 18 March 2016 50 George Square ‘The Single State of Man’ and Killing Caesar and Duncan Professor Hermione Lee (University of Oxford) 20 February 2015 50 George Square Character in Biography: “The Most Really Interesting Problem” W.M. Watt Lecture Arabic has been taught at the University of Edinburgh for over 260 years, and today our department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (IMES) is globally recognised as a leading centre in the field. From his appointment as Lecturer in Arabic in 1947, until his retirement as Professor in 1979, William Montgomery Watt made an outstanding contribution both to Islamic scholarship and to the development of IMES. The inaugural Watt Lecture was launched in November 2015 to mark the 50th anniversary of Watt's Inaugural Lecture as the first Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies in Scotland. Speaker Date Venue Theme Professor Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi (École Pratique des Hautes Études/PSL - Sorbonne) 27 May 2024 50 George Square and online Shi'i Islam: Doctrinal Foundations and Historical Developments Emerita Professor Carole Hillenbrand (University of Edinburgh) 1 November 2022 50 George Square and online Mary, the mother of Jesus, in Islam Professor Paul Starkey (Durham University) 30 October 2019 David Hume Tower In Search of Identity: Faris al-Shidyaq and the 19th-Century Arabic Revival Dr Linda Komaroff (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) 28 November 2018 50 George Square Dining with the Sultan: Reflections on the Fine Art of Feasting at the Islamic Courts Professor Nur Masalha 2 November 2017 Playfair Library Powerful Symbols and the British-Zionist Alliance: From Balfour to the Nakba Professor Maribel Fierro (Spanish National Research Council, Spain) 4 November 2016 Old Medical School Charisma and Anti-Charisma in al-Andalus Professor Carole Hillenbrand (University of Edinburgh) Professor Fred M. Donner (University of Chicago) Dr Richard Holloway FRSE 23 October 2015 Playfair Library Montgomery Watt: The Man and The Scholar The Study of Islam’s Origins since W. Montgomery Watt's Publications Committed Openness: a Glance at William Montgomery Watt’s Religious Life The Yun Posun Memorial Symposium The Yun Posun Memorial Symposium was established in March 2013 to foster new partnerships between the UK and Korea, promoting longer-term understanding and the growth of contemporary Korean studies and culture in Scotland. It is jointly organised by the Yun Posun Institute for Democracy and the University of Edinburgh. The symposium is named after Yun Posun, who graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1930 and ultimately became the father of the modern democratic movement in Korea. Dates Venue Theme 26 October 2022 Online (Zoom) Cultural Impact and Hallyu (K-Culture) 2 and 3 November 2021 Online (Zoom; YouTube) A New Agenda for South Korea-UK Cooperation in the COVID19 Era 17 October 2019 Seoul A New Partnership between ROK and UK in the 21st Century 8 and 9 October 2018 Playfair Library, University of Edinburgh Inequality in Global Cities, Seoul in Comparative Perspective Visit past events in Asian Studies for further information The Cunninghame Graham Lecture The Cunninghame Graham Lecture was established in 1996 in honour of Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham - aka ‘Don Roberto’ (London, 1852-Buenos Aires, 1936) - politician, estanciero, and writer, who travelled extensively in Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay and Uruguay and had very strong ties to Argentina. Delivered annually, it is jointly organised by LLC and the Office of Cultural and Scientific Affairs of the Embassy of Spain with the aim of promoting Spanish language and culture in Scotland. Occasionally, the Lecture has been held as part of a wider event, such as the Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival in 2019. Past speakers have included scholars, film makers, politicians, journalists, novelists, and figures bridging the Hispanic world and Scotland, such as the architect Enric Miralles (1955-2000) who designed the Scottish Parliament building. Speaker Date Venue Theme Poli Marichal 22 November 2022 Online (Zoom) La Síntesis Rota – experimentos en el ojo de la tormenta (A Broken Synthesis – Experiments in the Eye of the Storm) Laura Restrepo 10 November 2021 Online (Zoom) Cuando la investigación se vuelve ficción y viceversa Lucía Asué Mbomío Rubio 26 November 2020 Online (Zoom) Racismos cotidianos: desde lo circunstancial a lo sistémico David Trueba 10 October 2019 Old College Music, Cinema & Literature Carlos Zanón 31 October 2017 Appleton Tower Nuevos Horizontes en la Novela Negra del Siglo XXI Visit past events in Spanish for further information This article was published on 2024-08-13
