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The Goody Lecture for 2020 will be given by Stephen Levinson at 6.00pm on Tuesday 6th October. What should have been the highlight of the last academic year will now be the curtain-raiser for the new one. Speaker’s Abstract: Jack Goody introduced the notion of ‘technologies of the intellect’ to draw attention to the transformative … Continued

When, late in life, T.H. Huxley returned to the themes of evolution and religion, he did so with a focus on ethics. But his audience was puzzled (and Herbert Spencer dismissive): how could morality be explained in Darwinian terms if man’s destiny was to combat the amoral laws of the “cosmic process”? These issues are … Continued

Abstract In this lecture, I revisit capitalist time from the vantage of a protracted pause in the development of oil resources in São Tomé and Príncipe (STP), a micro-island state in the African Atlantic. Despite more than two decades of petroleum exploration in the country’s maritime territory, STP has yet to see any commercial oil … Continued

Abstract: The current moment is often described as a global energy crisis, as conflicting needs and desires, resources and degradations emerge. Among the professions concerned with seeking a resolution for the crisis are a cadre of engineers and mathematicians who seek to tame multidimensional uncertainties over time. By ‘building’ elaborate and integrated models of energy … Continued

Early Indian Ocean exchange is often characterized as a straightforward precursor to the colonial and post-colonial trade of the modern era. In particular, it is perceived as dominated by urbanized and state-level societies, supporting standard core-periphery models for the emergence of early long-distance trade. This view is a natural outcome of the tendency to privilege … Continued