British Academy unveils autumn events programme: including events with Hilary Mantel, Lord Nicholas Stern and Mary Beard

The British Academy has unveiled its autumn programme of over 20 events which highlight fascinating new research and shed light of a range on human and social issues.

Highlights include Thomas Cromwell Re-imagined, featuring author Hilary Mantel, actor Ben Miles and BBC4's Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch. This panel discussion will take place at the Priory Church of the Order of St John, London and will explore and discuss the elusive but important Tudor.

Meanwhile Classics? with Mary Beard will allow one of Britain's best-known classicists the chance to reflect on the study of Classics today. 

The next series of The British Academy Debates will explore one of the most urgent challenges of our time: energy and the environment. Four events – in London, Swansea and Edinburgh – will feature leading speakers considering how we can meet the energy needs of a continually growing world population.

The UK's national festival of the humanities returns in November for 10 days of big questions, searching discussions and engaging activities for all ages.

You can see the full events programme here: http://www.britishacademy.ac.uk/events/ 

Full listings info below: 

Tuesday 8 September 2015, 6-7.30pm
Kanraxel: The Confluence of Agnack
The Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AG
This film screening tells the story of the people of Agnack as they laboriously prepare for a once in a lifetime event. A village and place often portrayed as tribal, isolated and underdeveloped, the village of Agnack Grand in Casamance. This film celebrates the culture and multilingualism of Agnack and Africa as a whole.
Free, please register online: http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2015/Kanraxel.cfm 

Thursday 10 September 2015, 7-8.30pm
Painting in Britain, 1500-1630
National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE
To celebrate the British Academy's publication of a new volume of essays on Tudor and Jacobean art, join the editors at an exclusive event at the National Portrait Gallery to discuss highlights from the 'Making Art in Tudor Britain' project. Bringing together art history and conservation science, they look beneath the surface of some of the most intriguing paintings from the period and uncover the secrets of their creation.
Free, please register online: http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2015/Painting_in_Britain.cfm

Wednesday 16 September 2015, 6pm
Getting ahead of the curve: How to stop playing catch up on Scotland
The British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AH
On 18 September 2014 45% of the Scottish population voted to leave the United Kingdom. In his Inaugural Lecture as Chief Executive of the British Academy, Alun Evans reflects on the result of the Scottish Referendum one year on, and considers how the UK Government and others can build a stronger United Kingdom which manages to reflect the will of the Scottish people.
Free, please register online: https://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2015/How_to_stop_playing_catch_up_on_Scotland.cfm

Thursday 17 September 2015, 6-7.15pm, followed by a reception
Keeping a spotless mind: The neuroscience of 'motivated forgetting'
The British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AH
Neuroscience has increasingly recognized that a healthy memory benefits from the ability to forget, and has established the existence of active mechanisms that foster forgetting of unwanted memories. Join Professor Anderson as he discusses research revealing how the brain accomplishes motivated forgetting, and how these brain mechanisms shape what we remember of life experience, protecting our mental health.
Free, registration not required. For more information please visit:http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2015/Keeping_a_spotless_mind.cfm

Tuesday 22 September 2015, 6.30-8.00pm
Energy and the environment: What's the challenge?
The Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AG
What are the challenges of meeting future demands for energy, particularly from a rapidly growing and urban population? What would it take for you to change your energy consumption behaviour?
Free, please register online: http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2015/energy-and-the-environment.cfm

Thursday 24 September, 7.30pm
Picture in focus: Sir Henry Unton
National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE
National Portrait Gallery curator Charlotte Bolland discusses the findings of new research into the fascinating portrait of Sir Henry Unton.
Free, please register online: http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2015/Painting_in_Britain.cfm#gallery

Wednesday 30 September 2015, 6-7.30pm
Transatlantic Barthes
The British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH
U.S and French experts discuss the two-way traffic in ideas and images that has accompanied Barthes from the heyday of French structuralism to the present. Barthes continues to influence cultural debate on both sides of the Atlantic. But what was Barthes for America and what was America for Barthes? How has he been perceived, and to what extent did he project himself, as a 'French' thinker and writer?
Free, please register online: http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2015/Transatlantic_Barthes.cfm

Thursday 1 October 2015, 6-7.15pm followed by a reception
State, society and economy: Perspectives on African Constitutions
The British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AH
On independence, about 75 years after the start of colonisation, African states acquired new constitutions. Independence constitutions did not last long, replaced by either military rule or one party constitution. The lecture will explore the reciprocal influences of state, society and economy and constitutions and consider whether there are some distinct African features of these constitutions.
Free, registration not required. For more information please visit:http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2015/State_society_and_economy.cfm

Wednesday 7 October 2015, 6-7.15pm followed by a reception
Economic impossibilities for our grandchildren?
The British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH
Prominent economists have recently revived the hypothesis that ‘secular stagnation’ could lead to permanently depressed economies. This lecture will take a historical look at the origins of this hypothesis and its plausibility and speculate about its relevance for policy-makers today.
Free, registration not required. For more information please visit:http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2015/Economic_impossibilities_for_our_grandchildren.cfm

Wednesday 14 October 2015, 6-7.30pm
Energy and ethics: What are the costs to future generations in an unequal world?
ALEX Design Centre, Swansea
How much are you prepared to pay for energy? Not just in terms of money now, but also the cost to other nations and future generations? Would you be prepared to join forces with your community to generate or access energy?
Free, please register online: http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2015/energy-and-ethics.cfm

Thursday 15 October 2015, 6-7.15pm followed by a reception
Water, water everywhere - even at Petra 
The British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AH
Archaeological work has rehydrated this landscape of Petra and now argues we look to the astonishing hydraulic systems of the past for solutions to present (and future) scarcities.
Free, registration not required. For more information please visit:http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2015/Water_water_everywhere.cfm

Wednesday 21 October 2015, 6.30-8pm
In conversation with Richard Leakey
The Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG
Join journalist and presenter Zeinab Badawi in conversation with revered conservationist Richard Leakey as he reflects on his life's work. Professor Leakey's career over the past fifty years has spanned palaeoanthropology, wildlife conservation and campaigning for political justice. This event will explore different aspects of his remarkable life-long journey.
Free, please register online: http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2015/Richard_Leakey.cfm

Wednesday 4 November 2015, 6-7.30pm
More liveable, less polluted - how can we change the rapidly growing cities of the world?
Surgeons' Hall, Nicolson St, Edinburgh, Midlothian, EH8 9DW
How do we design and build energy efficient, affordable communities that are accessible to all? What steps do policy makers need to take to ensure that this happens?
Free, please register online: http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2015/more-liveable-less-polluted.cfm

Wednesday 4 November 2015, 6-7.15pm, followed by a reception
Classics?
The British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AH
Mary Beard is one of Britain’s best-known Classicists. In this lecture, Professor Beard will offer some reflections on the study of Classics today, nationally and internationally, now and in the future – from philology to interdisciplinarity, from nostalgia to impact.
Free, registration not required. For more information please visit:http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2015/Classics.cfm

Thursday 19 November 2015, 9.30am to 6.15pm, followed by a reception
Language in Italy in the 21st Century
The British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AH
The symposium aims to take stock of the conflicting pressures which have influenced language in Italy in recent times, and by so doing to redraw the linguistic map of the modern nation. The list of speakers includes specialists from Italy, the UK and Europe and brings together senior scholars and leading figures among the new generation of researchers.
Free, please register online:http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2015/Language_in_Italy_in_the_21st_Century.cfm

Tuesday 24 November 2015, 6.30-8.00pm
Future energy provision - who has the power?
The Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AG
Join British Academy President Lord Stern to discuss whether we can ever get energy companies, financial institutions and other corporations to change their behaviour and attitudes regarding energy. Who holds the key to change, and what should they be doing?
Free, please register online: http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2015/future-energy-provision.cfm

Wednesday 25 November, 1-2.30pm
At Home with Freud
Freud Museum, 20 Maresfield Gardens, London, NW3 5SX
Join the British Academy and the Freud Museum for a special afternoon exploring Freud in his own home. Listen to the Museum’s curator discuss their collection  and then follow its Director, Carol Seigel, as she leads a tour through the house tracing Freud’s final year spent in London after fleeing from Nazi occupied Vienna.
Free with museum admission, no registration required. For more information please visit:http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2015/Sigmund_Freud.cfm#talk

Wednesday 25 November 2015, 6-7.30
Thinkers for our Time: Sigmund Freud
The British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AH
The work of Freud has shaped ideas, discussion and social discourse since the start of the twentieth century. Join us as we revisit his key ideas and the
influence they have had on society over the past hundred years. This event is the first in a new series re-thinking the life and works of influential historical figures from across the Academy’s disciplines.
Free, please register online: http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2015/Sigmund_Freud.cfm

Tuesday 1 December 2015, 6-7.15pm followed by a reception
Theology and the tragic: a debate revisited 
The British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH
Studies of tragic drama still refer from time to time to the argument that a theological/ religious worldview is inherently anti-tragic.  Recent studies of tragedy have complicated the issue further by questioning essentialist models of tragic drama, while a growing number of theologians have made use of dramatic categories.  This lecture will attempt to see how the discussion has moved on, and how newer accounts of the tragic suggest different theological possibilities.
Free, registration not required. For more information please visit:http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2015/Theology_and_the_tragic.cfm

Thursday 3 December 2015, 6-7.30pm
Thomas Cromwell re-imagined
Priory Church of the Order of St John, St John's Square, London, EC1V 4JL
Thomas Cromwell remains one of the most controversial characters of the Tudor age. Just as in his own time, he makes enthusiastic friends and bitter enemies. Join author Hilary Mantel, actor Ben Miles, and Historian Diarmaid MacCulloch as they come together to explore and discuss this elusive but important Tudor.
Free, please register online: http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2015/Thomas_Cromwell.cfm

Notes to editors
1. For more information please contact the British Academy press office: [email protected] / 02079695227

2. The British Academy for the humanities and social sciences. Established by Royal Charter in 1902. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence and high achievement in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value. For more information, please visit www.britishacademy.ac.uk. Follow the British Academy on Twitter @britac_news