EVENTS DIARY AUTUMN 2014 Showcasing our lectures, arts, museum and special events for September–December LIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS AMBITION | LIMITLESS IMPACT WELCOME… We are delighted to present highlights of this season’s events. Showcasing an exciting variety of lectures, arts, museum and special events, there is something for everyone to enjoy over the coming months. We hope that this diary contains all of the information that you need to make the most of our programme of events. CONTENTS 4–9 10–15 Lectures & talks Arts Museums & 16–19 special collections 20–21 Special events 2 | Autumn events diary | 2014 www.reading.ac.uk/events | 3 PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES 2014 The University of Reading’s Public Lecture Series is a showcase of 8.00pm | doors open at 7.15 pm We welcome group and school bookings; Palmer building, Whiteknights campus please contact us in advance of each lecture. research highlights from across the University. Established over forty Admission free, booking advisable. To book a place, Join the debate. Follow the lectures and ask your visit: www.reading.ac.uk/publiclectures or contact years ago, these popular lectures are given by Reading academics questions: @UniofReading #UoRLectures eminent in their field and cover a wide range of topical subjects. [email protected] | 0118 378 4313 Watch the lecture trailers in advance online at www.reading.ac.uk/publiclectures THE IRAQ WARS: PLANET OF THE APES. past, present and yet to come WHAT MAKES US HUMAN? Professor Emma Borg, Department of Philosophy Dr Patrick Porter Department of Politics and International Relations Wednesday 19 November 2014 Wednesday 15 October 2014 Chimpanzees are our closest living evolutionary relatives, sharing some 94% of our DNA. They have many qualities Iraq’s wars never seem to end. From the middle ages to modern day, that can be described as human: they are social creatures, outsiders have presumed to impose their will on the country. Over the communicate with each other and are capable of complex past decade Iraq has suffered three attempts to reinvent the country; by thought, but if they and the other great apes are so similar the US-led coalition in 2003, by the Al-Qaeda terrorist network and the to human beings, can we and should we think of them as ISIS Islamist uprising. America had pledged to liberate Iraq, but instead people? In this lecture, Professor Emma Borg will discuss the invasion brought anarchy and opened a vacuum for other interlopers. philosophical conundrum, ‘what makes us human?’ and will Each time, the Iraqi people have rebelled and refused to submit to the explore whether this really is a planet of the apes. will of the outsider. In this lecture, Dr Porter will examine what he argues to be the flawed ideology behind these invasions, and, ultimately, the determination of Iraqis to make their own history. Part of the UK's first national festival of the humanities: Being Human 2014. www.beinghumanfestival.org | #BeingHuman14 4 | Autumn events diary | 2014 www.reading.ac.uk/events | 5 CAFÉ SCIENTIFIQUE ANNUAL PERCY URE LECTURE: Monroe’s Rib House, 61 St. Mary’s Butts, Suffering Beauty: Reading, RG1 2LG | 7.30 pm The representation The British Science Association Thames Valley Branch and the University of Reading are delighted to present the autumn Café of animals in the Roman hunt Scientifique series. Café Scientifique is a place where, for the price of a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, anyone can come to explore the latest ideas in science and technology. It is a forum for debating scientific issues, and is committed to promoting public engagement with science and to making science accountable. Everyone is welcome to ask a question or make a comment. You don't need to be a scientist to enjoy the evening – just come with an open and enquiring mind. CAFÉ SAMUEL BECKETT Admission is free, all welcome. For more information, contact: THEOLOGIQUE: THROUGH HIS LETTERS [email protected] | 0118 378 4313 | www.reading.ac.uk/cafesci Delightfully punk: Professor Dan Gunn theology, personhood, TRAINING THE WEATHERMEN Friday 3 October | 5.30 pm BRAIN TO BEAT AT WAR and loving rage Minghella building, Whiteknights campus Revd Dr Graeme Fancourt Celebrating the University of Reading’s THE PAIN Monday 10 November internationally renowned collection of manuscripts from the Nobel Prize-winning writer Samuel Beckett Monday 8 September Dr Andrew Charlton-Perez, Monday 6 October | 7.30 pm (1906–1989). Professor Dan Gunn, editor of the Associate Professor of Zero Degrees, 9 Bridge Tim Salomons, Pain Emotion Letters of Samuel Beckett, will give a public talk Meteorology, University Street, Reading, RG1 2LR & Cognition Laboratory, focusing on Samuel Beckett’s letters. of Reading University of Reading The University of Reading Chaplaincy is delighted to present Admission is free, booking essential. EXPLORING this partnership event with the To book a place, please contact: THE HIGH-FLYERS Bishop of Reading, based on the Conor Carville on [email protected] Wednesday 22 October | 5.00 pm AND POLLINATORS: THE INVISIBLE popular Café Scientifique model. Henley Business School, The series will continue on Monday Whiteknights campus Monday 1 December EXHIBITION: Samuel Beckett in tracking the 24 November. The Department of Classics is delighted to Dr Simon Park, Department London – The Murphy notebooks movements of bees Admission is free, all welcome. present this year's Annual Percy Ure lecture, of Microbial Science, For more information about Wednesday 1 – Saturday 4 October to be delivered by Professor Kathleen Coleman and pollinating insects University of Surrey the series, please contact: Museum of English Rural Life, from Harvard University. Professor Coleman, Monday 13 October [email protected] normal Museum opening times* a renowned authority in Latin literature and 0118 378 8797 Roman arena spectacles, will talk about the Jason Lim, Chair of Radar View the working manuscript of Beckett’s first representation of animals in the Roman hunt in Reading.Cafe.Theologique Entomology Unit, major work, Murphy. The exhibition celebrates the various media: poetry, paintings, and mosaics. Rothamsted Research manuscript being available, for the first time, for those who wish to study it. Admission is free but places are limited. To book a place, please contact: Admission free, all welcome. For more information about [email protected] | 0118 378 8420 Beckett events, visit: www.reading.ac.uk/beckett For more information, visit: * For Museum opening times, visit www.reading.ac.uk/classics www.reading.ac.uk/merl 6 | Autumn events diary | 2014 www.reading.ac.uk/events | 7 CHILDREN’S CHRISTMAS LECTURE 2014 COULD EUROPE PUBLIC LECTURES STENTON READING’S WILD PREDATORS: HAVE AVOIDED AT THE INSTITUTE LECTURE 2014: deadly creatures on your doorstep WAR IN 1914? OF EDUCATION: Writing the history Professor Mark Fellowes Professor Margaret School mathematics? of one's own times Head of the School of Biological Sciences MacMillan, University Potential, policy and Professor Peter Hennessy Tuesday 16 December | 4.30 pm of Oxford practice FBA, Baron Hennessy of Palmer building, Whiteknights campus Tuesday 11 November Nympsfield, Attlee Professor Arrivals – from 4.00 pm Professor Dame Celia Hoyles, 4.00 pm | HumSS building, of Contemporary British Lecture starts – 4.30 pm Institute of Education, Whiteknights campus History Approximate end time – 5.30 pm University of London In 1914, Europe walked into a Thursday 27 November We all love learning about the world’s deadliest creatures and most catastrophic conflict that killed Tuesday 11 November 6.30 pm | Henley Business think that we have to travel far to see these awesome predators, but we millions, bled its economies 6.45 pm (doors open 6.15 pm) School, Whiteknights have animals just as deadly to their prey on our doorstep! In this fun and dry and shook empires and Building L22, London Road campus interactive lecture, learn about the predators that live with us in Reading. societies to pieces. It was a war campus that could have been avoided up The Department of History Our annual Children’s Christmas Lecture is for children aged 7–12. to the last moment, so why did The Institute of Education at presents the 2014 Stenton Admission is free but places are limited. Booking is essential for this it happen? In this talk, hosted Reading is delighted to welcome Lecture, to be given by author, popular event. We welcome school groups and recommend that large by the Department of Modern Professor Dame Celia Hoyle, who historian and Reading Honorary groups contact us in advance of the lecture. will deliver the first lecture in their Languages and European Studies, Graduate Professor Peter For more information and to book your tickets, please visit 2014–15 lecture series. award-winning author Professor Hennessy. In his lecture, Peter www.reading.ac.uk/events or contact us: [email protected] will reflect upon his career and Margaret MacMillan will explore Admission is free but places 0118 378 4313 consider the challenges and these questions and more, are limited. Booking is essential opportunities modern historians marking 100 years since the start for this event. For further face when writing the history of of the First World War. information and to book a place, their own times. Admission is free but places are contact: education-events@ limited. To book a place, visit: reading.ac.uk | 0118 378 2612 Admission is free but places are limited. For more information www.reading.ac.uk/events or For more information about the and to book a place, please visit contact: [email protected] series, visit: www.reading.ac.uk/ www.reading.ac.uk/history/ 0118 378 4313 ioe-publiclectures.aspx stentonlecture Supported by the CfBT Education Trust: www.cfbt.com 8 | Autumn events diary | 2014 www.reading.ac.uk/events | 9 MUSIC Throughout the term we organise an exciting variety of music events, featuring talented performers from within the University as well as visiting professionals.