Northampton Branch Programme 2024-25

Leicester & Northampton Branches Joint Programme of Online Talks & Activities 2024-25

Leicester Chair: Annabelle Larsen leicesterha@gmail.com

Northampton Chair: David Waller david@davidwaller.org.uk

Most talks will be on the second Tuesday of the month, 18.00-19.30.

 

10^th September 2024.  Dr Lubaaba Al-Azami, University of Liverpool. ‘In Conversation: Writing Travellers in the Golden Realm’.

Description: Elizabeth Tingle talks to Lubaaba Al-Azami about writing her new book on the first English travellers to India and how the early interactions with Mughal India connected England to the wider world. The book can be obtained here: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/lubaaba-al-azami/travellers-in-the-golden-realm/9781529371321/

Book a free place: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lubaaba-al-azami-in-conversation-writing-travellers-in-the-golden-realm-tickets-938918980947?aff=oddtdtcreator

 

8^th October 2024. Dr Tim Reinke-Williams. ‘Physical Attractiveness and the Female Life-Cycle in Seventeenth-Century England’.

Description: This talk focuses on how women of the aristocracy, gentry and middling-sorts in seventeenth-century England conceptualised their own physical attractiveness and that of other women. Diaries, letters, autobiographies, and portraits will be used to show how women sought to present themselves, over successive stages of the lifecycle.

Book a free place: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/talk-physical-attractiveness-the-female-life-cycle-in-17th-century-tickets-948223410747?aff=oddtdtcreator

 

12^th November 2024. Philip Hamlyn Williams. Vehicles to Vaccines – what happened to British manufacturing since 1951.

Description: At the time of the Festival of Britain, British manufacturers made and exported more vehicles than any other country, yet our pharmaceutical industry made little more than simple remedies. A lifetime later, the majority of vehicles made in Britain are for foreign companies, but our pharmaceutical companies vie with the best in the world.

Book a free place: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/948247934097?aff=oddtdtcreator

 

**POSTPONED UNTIL JUNE 2025**10^th December 2024. David Waller, University of Northampton. ‘The 2024 U.S. Presidential Election in Historical Perspective’.

Description: This year’s American elections are taking place in a period of exceptional partisanship and geo-political risk, and the outcome is likely to be critical both for the future direction of democratic government in the USA and the resilience of the Western alliance. This talk will present an initial analysis of the results, seeking to explain who won and why, both in terms of the Presidency and the elections to the Congress.

Due to unforeseen circumstances this lecture has been postponed to June 2025, apologies for disappointment. 

 

11^th February 2025. Mike Curtis (Northamptonshire Archaeological Society), ‘The Maritime Archaeology of the Roman Empire’.

Description: The maritime archaeology of the Roman Empire encompasses the study of underwater cultural heritage related to ancient Roman maritime activities, including shipwrecks, port structures, and submerged settlements. This presentation looks at key sites such as the harbours of Ostia and Portus, the shipwrecks of the Mediterranean, and other provincial harbours and coastal settlements that help in providing insight into the economic, technological, and cultural exchanges that shaped the Roman Empire.

Book a free place: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/talk-the-maritime-archaeology-of-the-roman-empire-tickets-948265025217?aff=oddtdtcreator

 

11^th March 2025. Prof Matthew McCormack & Dr Serena Dyer: In Conversation: Shoes and the Georgian Man

Details: Serena Dyer talks with Matthew McCormack about his new book, Shoes and the Georgian Man, published by Bloomsbury in January 2025. The book explores what footwear tells us about men and their bodies in the long eighteenth century.

Book a free place: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/in-conversation-shoes-and-the-georgian-man-tickets-1040061019507?aff=oddtdtcreator

 

We do not normally meet during the Easter break.

 

13^th May 2025. Professor Elizabeth Lambourn (De Montfort University), ‘Medieval Middle East and India’, title TBC.

Details: Professor Elizabeth Lambourn will talk about maritime travel and travellers between the Middle East and India in the Middle Ages.

Book your free place here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/talk-voyaging-in-the-indian-ocean-in-the-middle-ages-tbc-tickets-948276459417?aff=oddtdtcreator

 

Advance notice:

September 2025. Andy Chapman (Northamptonshire Archaeological Society), ‘Excavations at St James’s Abbey Northampton’.