Flagship Classics Lecture and Prize-Giving to be hosted at Manchester Metropolitan, January 2019
The Manchester and District Branch of the Classical Association is to hold its Fourth Annual Whitehead Lecture and Prize-Giving at Manchester Metropolitan. The CA branch is an independent body supporting the public, schools and students in engaging with the classical world, through public lectures, children’s and family workshops and competitions. It benefits from the support and infrastructure of local universities, in particular the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University, where Senior Lecturer in Ancient History, Dr April Pudsey, has recently been elected the branch Chair.
Dr April Pudsey
“The Annual Whitehead Lecture celebrates recent developments in the discipline of Classics and Ancient History, and its inaugural lecture in 2015 formally celebrated the arrival on the Mancunian landscape of the UK’s first new degree programme in Ancient History for at least two decades.
One aim of all of the public lectures of the CA branch is to challenge the public conception of Classics as a ‘stuffy’ subject with no modern relevance. In fact, the relevance of the classical world to modern life is astonishing: multiculturalism, religious diversity, gender and sexual politics, slavery, warfare and migration are just a few of the topics central to Classics which resonate in modern global contexts.
The Annual Whitehead Lecture takes a theme central to humanity in the modern world and asks how Classics can help us understand it from different perspectives. This year our speaker will be Professor Helen King of the Open University, asking ‘Does the Evidence Really Say That? Doing Ancient History in the Internet Age.’
Book your free ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/manchester-classical-associations-fourth-annual-whitehead-lecture-tickets-50332200968
Our annual Whitehead Prize will also be awarded at this event. The Whitehead Prize was established in 2015 memory of Anthony Whitehead, a great friend of the branch and of Classics. It is awarded to students (sixth-formers, undergraduate or postgraduate) who have successfully endeavoured to promote Classics in the community.
The Whitehead lecture is part of a calendar of the Classical Association branch’s public lecture programme, which this year celebrates the work of women Classicists with an all-female line-up of some of the world-leading Classicists and Ancient Historians from across the UK. The programme is open to all and no booking is required.
Previous Annual Whitehead Lectures:
Monday, 3rd December 2018