Scholarship and the Musical: Reclaiming Jerome Kern

This lecture discusses Jerome Kern, who provides a convenient and important case study for the reclamation of the musical as historical output. It explores how the cross-disciplinary, unruly, and sometimes ephemeral, materials of popular musical theatre can best be first located and safeguarded. These materials are then reconstituted for the detached assessment they now demand, away from the pressures and traditions of showbusiness and popular canons. The lecture touches on four areas: the changing expectations of genre, the workings of nationalism, the nature and scope of the source materials, and the interplay of creative ambition and commercial expediency.

Revenants and Migrants: Hardy, Butler, Woolf and Sebald

This lecture discusses how far during the twentieth-century writers have trusted memory as good. It compares the longing mistrust of Hardy's poem ‘The Voice’ with the serene re-embodiment of Mrs. Ramsey appearing to the artist Lily in To the Lighthouse. The lecture also discusses the concept of revenants and tries to answer the question of what will happen when migration becomes a common experience, without the likelihood of return.

‘The Nation Within’: British India at War 1939–1947

This lecture discusses the remarkable recovery of British India and the Indian army that made the reconquest of Burma and Malaya possible. The Indian army is shown to have displayed a number of strengths during its final years, such as its reorganisation and provision with new equipment. It was also given a higher political profile, and Indian soldiers were given new initiatives by their commanders. The lecture determines that the final campaign of the Indian army helped create the social order of the new nations of the Subcontinent.

The Rule of Law in International Affairs

This lecture discusses the influence of international law on the conduct of states. It focuses on two specific and very fully documented incidents that took place during the Second World War, and which provoked strong protests from the Norwegian government. The lecture attempts to identify the severe problems that are involved in establishing the relationship between international law and state action. It concludes by identifying an area of legal theory that has been neglected by scholars: the nature of legal justification in international affairs.

Charity and Usury: Jewish and Christian Lending in Renaissance and Early Modern Italy

This lecture discusses some of the bitter controversies that arose over the interest levied by many of the Monti. It looks at the efforts that some of them made to avoid any charges at all, and lists the many reasons why Jewish banks survived along with the Monti de Pietà. The author uses the conflict between Shylock and Antonio in The Merchant of Venice to begin the chapter. This conflict may symbolise a rivalry between the Jewish and Christian institutions that was still in progress in Shakespeare's day.

Working Memory and Learning During the School Years

This lecture discusses the concept of working memory, which is the capacity to hold material in mind and to manipulate it for brief periods of time. It reveals that there is enough evidence that working memory plays a very important role in supporting many important aspects of learning during childhood. It is also suggested that impairments in learning result directly from failures to meet the working memory demands of many activities in the classroom.

The Geography of Descent

This lecture discusses and uses Radcliffe-Brown's insights to perform an ethnography of the science and popular culture of descent in the fertile decades of the mid-nineteenth-century. It focuses on Darwin's work with people outside scholarly circles, such as artisans and tradespeople.

Economics for Consumer Policy

This lecture reviews the economic foundations for consumer policy, including rationales for public constraints on freedom of contract. It emphasises parallels and some possible tensions that exist between competition and consumer policies. The overall theme of the lecture is that economics has much more to offer to public policy for consumers.

Michael Drayton’s Brilliant Career

This lecture discusses the career of Michael Drayton, who is generally regarded as a major second-rate poet. A careful examination of his extensive writings has revealed a shrewd and forceful mind at work, and one that has a clear sense of what a poet should do. Drayton's writings cover many subjects and use a variety of styles and forms. The lecture tries to show that Drayton was a poet who saw the possibilities of the medium of print publication, which would enable the poet to reach a wider audience.

Carving Sutras into Stone before the Catastrophe: The Inscription of 1118 at Cloud Dwelling Monastery near Beijing

This lecture discusses the unearthed engraved stones created by the Buddhist monks of the Cloud Dwelling Monastery. It reveals that the rubbings of the inscriptions on these stones can help in analysing the doctrinal predilections of Tongli. The slabs that were excavated even contain two short texts which were written by Tongli himself, further proving the point that he was a leading figure in the Chan Buddhist school, and had close ties to the imperial court of the Liao dynasty.