Gresham College Lectures

We increasingly share with online services intimate details of our lives, such as mental health and reproductive data. Far from being a ‘tick box’ legal exercise, data protection is about fair and responsible use of our personal information.It gives us rights which we are entitled to exercise against mega corporations, governments, and anyone who processes our data.It’s time

Governments increasingly use detention as a central component of immigration and asylum policy. The lecture addresses several important questions.What does immigration detention look like? How is it a reflection of those societies that tolerate its use and the policies that support and endorse its expansion? What place does it have in the journeys of those migrating across borders

Demokratia is the power (kratos) of the people (demos). But what kind of power, and who constitutes the people? Although ancient democracy is often stylized as “direct democracy” and so positioned as very different from modern “representative democracy,” in fact, issues of accountability are central to both.Ancient Greek models of holding leaders to account are still releva

In partnership with Novartis Treatments and research in cancer are moving very fast, giving new hope to many.This event will bring together speakers in the series to delve further into new treatments and research in cancer, including immunotherapy, genomics and AI imaging. This lecture was recorded by Parker Moss, Dr Richard Sidebottom, Sanjay Popat and James Larkin on 12th March 2

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a combination of hyperactivity, impulsiveness and inattention which significantly impacts those living with the condition. The medical approach to the ADHD pattern of behaviour has been very successful in childhood but the results have been somewhat less impressive in adulthood. This has led to a reappraisal of both causes and trea

The Nobel Laureate economist Amartya Sen has posed the question, ‘equality of what?’ The value of equality depends on what standard is chosen. As ancient Greek thinkers recognized, equality can be deployed to exclude as well as to liberate, and its relationship to law and freedom needs to be interrogated.If equal social freedom is a product of isonomia—the equal application o

This lecture looks at the role played by nudity in European religion and magic from ancient times to the present, with some reference to a global context.It reveals the unexpected pattern and explains why it has been marginal to religion, except in initiation ceremonies, but very important in magical practices.This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on 6th March 2024 at Barnard&

The impacts of climate change that probably worry people the most are irreversible changes that affect the entire world, such as a collapse of the west Antarctic ice sheet, shutdown of the global thermohaline circulation, loss of the Amazon biome, or a melting of Arctic permafrost.Sudden, unpredictable and irreversible changes can happen in response to a gradual warming. What is kn

We regularly hear of amazing coincidences – people winning the lottery twice, or getting a phone call from a long-lost friend just when you were thinking about them. Is this telepathy? Is there a greater power at work when someone survives seven lightning strikes?There can be terrible consequences from the misunderstanding of coincidence.This lecture was recorded by Sarah Hart on

Today, the UK is a deeply unequal society.This lecture critically evaluates the relationship between English law and capitalism and explores how legal changes over the past 30 years, such as deregulating the housing market and weakening trade unions, have widened wealth inequality.The lecture examines the role of lawyers in addressing these issues.This lecture was recorded by Lesli