Editing Romanes Lecture

{{Short description|Annual public lecture}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
The '''Romanes Lecture''' is a prestigious free public lecture given annually at the [[Sheldonian Theatre]], [[Oxford]], England.

The lecture series was founded by, and named after, the biologist [[George Romanes]], and has been running since 1892. Over the years, many notable figures from the Arts and Sciences have been invited to speak. The lecture can be on any subject in science, art or literature, approved by the [[John Hood (university administrator)|Vice-Chancellor]] of the [[University of Oxford|University]].

==List of Romanes lecturers and lecture subjects==

===1890s===
*1892 [[William Ewart Gladstone]] — ''[[s:An Academic Sketch|An Academic Sketch]]''  (<small>A [https://web.archive.org/web/20081204175659/http://www.nationarchive.com/Summaries/v055i1429_06.htm report of the speech] is available in the digital archive of [[The Nation (U.S. periodical)|The Nation]].</small>)
*1893 [[Thomas Henry Huxley]]     — ''[[s:Evolution and Ethics|Evolution and Ethics]]''   (<small>See also [http://aleph0.clarku.edu/huxley/comm/OxfMag/Romanes93.html  a contemporary review of Huxley's lecture]</small>)
*1894 [[August Weismann]]         — ''[[s:The Effect of External Influences upon Development|The Effect of External Influences upon Development]]''
*1895 [[Holman Hunt]] — ''[[s:The Obligations of the Universities Towards Art|The Obligations of the Universities towards Art]]''
*1896 [[Mandell Creighton]] — ''[[s:The English National Character|The English National Character]]''
*1897 [[John Morley]]             — ''[[s:Machiavelli|Machiavelli]]''
*1898 [[Archibald Geikie]]        — ''[[s:Types of Scenery and Their Influence on Literature|Types of Scenery and their Influence on Literature]]''
*1899 [[Richard Claverhouse Jebb]] — ''[[s:Humanism in Education|Humanism in Education]]''

===1900s===

* 1900 [[James Murray (lexicographer)|James Murray]] — ''[[s:The Evolution of English Lexicography|The Evolution of English Lexicography]]'' (<small>Also available at [http://dictionary.oed.com/archive/paper-romanes/ The Oxford English Dictionary site].</small>)
* 1901 [[John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton|Lord Acton]] — ''The German school of history''<ref>Never delivered, due to Acton's illness, but many notes are extant, see [[Herbert Butterfield]], ''Man and His Past'' (1955), p. 63, and p.234 of ''A History of the University of Cambridge: 1870-1990'' by Christopher Brooke, CUP, {{ISBN|0-521-34350-X}}</ref>
* 1902 [[James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce|James Bryce]] — ''[[s:The Relations of the Advanced and the Backward Races of Mankind|The Relations of the Advanced and the Backward Races of Mankind]]''
* 1903 [[Oliver Lodge]] — ''[[s:Modern views on matter|Modern views on matter]]''
* 1904 [[Courtenay Ilbert]] — ''[[s:Montesquieu|Montesquieu]]''
* 1905 [[Ray Lankester]] — ''[[s:Nature and Man|Nature and Man]]''
* 1906 [[William Paton Ker]] — ''[[s:Sturla the Historian|Sturla the Historian]]''
* 1907 [[George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston|Lord Curzon]] — ''[[s:Frontiers|Frontiers]]''
* 1908 [[Henry Scott Holland]] — ''[[s:The optimism of Butler's 'Analogy'|The optimism of Butler's 'Analogy']]''
* 1909 [[Arthur Balfour]] — ''[[s:Criticism and Beauty|Criticism and Beauty]]''

===1910s===

* 1910 [[Theodore Roosevelt]] — ''[[s:Biological Analogies in History|Biological Analogies in History]]''
* 1911 [[J.B. Bury]] — ''[[s:Romances of Chivalry on Greek Soil|Romances of Chivalry on Greek Soil]]''
* 1912 [[Henry Montagu Butler]] — ''[[s:Lord Chatham as an Orator|Lord Chatham as an Orator]]''
* 1913 [[William Mitchell Ramsay]] — ''[[s:The Imperial Peace|The Imperial Peace]]: an ideal in European history''
* 1914 [[J. J. Thomson]] – ''[[s:The Atomic Theory|The Atomic Theory]]''
* 1915 [[Edward Bagnall Poulton|E. B. Poulton]] – ''[[s:Science and the Great War|Science and the Great War]]''
* 1916
* 1917
* 1918 [[Herbert Henry Asquith]] — ''[[s:Some Aspects of The Victorian Age|Some Aspects of The Victorian Age]]''
* 1919

===1920s===

* 1920 [[William Ralph Inge]] — ''[[s:The Idea of Progress|The Idea of Progress]]''
* 1921 [[Joseph Bédier]] — ''Roland à Roncevaux''
* 1922 [[Arthur Stanley Eddington]] — ''[[s:The theory of relativity and its influence on scientific thought|The theory of relativity and its influence on scientific thought]]''
* 1923 [[John Burnet (classicist)|John Burnet]] — ''Ignorance''
* 1924 [[John Masefield]] — ''Shakespeare & spiritual life''
* 1925 [[William Henry Bragg]] — ''The Crystalline State''
* 1926 [[G.M. Trevelyan]] — ''The Two-Party System in English Political History''
* 1927 [[Frederic George Kenyon]] — ''Museums and National Life''
* 1928 [[D. M. S. Watson]] — ''Palaeontology and the Evolution of Man''
* 1929 Sir [[John Fortescue (military historian)|John William Fortescue]] — ''The Vicissitudes of Organized Power''

===1930s===

* 1930 [[Winston Churchill]] — ''Parliamentary Government and the Economic Problem''
* 1931 [[John Galsworthy]] — ''The Creation of Character in Literature''
* 1932 [[Berkeley George Andrew Moynihan, 1st Baron Moynihan|Berkley Moynihan]] — ''The Advance of Medicine''
* 1933 [[Henry Hadow]] — ''The Place of Music among the Arts''
* 1934 [[William Rothenstein]] — ''Form and content in English Painting''
* 1935 [[Gilbert Murray]] — ''Then and Now''
* 1936 [[Donald Francis Tovey]] — ''Normality and Freedom in Music''
* 1937 [[Harley Granville-Barker]] — ''On Poetry in Drama''
* 1938 [[Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood|Lord Robert Cecil]] — ''Peace and Pacifism''
* 1939 [[Laurence Binyon]] — ''Art and freedom''

===1940s===

* 1940 [[Édouard Herriot]], lecture not delivered
* 1941 [[William Malcolm Hailey, 1st Baron Hailey|William Hailey]] — ''The position of colonies in a British commonwealth of nations''
* 1942 [[Norman H. Baynes]] — ''Intellectual liberty and totalitarian claims''
* 1943 [[Julian Huxley]] — ''Evolutionary Ethics'' (<small>50 years after his [[Thomas Henry Huxley|grandfather]] gave the lecture</small>)
* 1944 [[G. M. Young]] — ''Mr Gladstone''
* 1945 [[André Siegfried]] — ''Characteristics and Limits of our Western Civilization''
* 1946 [[John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley|John Anderson]] — ''The machinery of government''
* 1947 [[Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel|Lord Samuel]] — ''Creative Man''
* 1948 [[John Cuthbert Moore-Brabazon, 1st Baron Brabazon of Tara|Lord Brabazon of Tara]] — ''Forty years of flight''
* 1949 [[Claud Schuster, 1st Baron Schuster|Claud Schuster]] — ''Mountaineering''

===1950s===

* 1950 [[John Cockcroft]] — ''The development and future of nuclear energy''
* 1951 [[Maurice Hankey, 1st Baron Hankey|Maurice Hankey]] — ''The science and art of government''
* 1952 [[Lewis Bernstein Namier]] — ''Monarchy and the party system''
* 1953 [[John Simon, 1st Viscount Simon|Viscount Simon]] — ''Crown and Commonwealth''
* 1954 [[Kenneth Clark]] — ''Moments of Vision''
* 1955 [[Albert Richardson (architect)|Albert Richardson]] — ''The significance of the fine arts''
* 1956 [[Thomas Beecham]] — ''John Fletcher''
* 1957 [[Ronald Knox]] — ''On English translation''
* 1958 [[Edward Ettingdene Bridges, 1st Baron Bridges|Edward Bridges]] — ''The State and the Arts''
* 1959 [[Lord Denning]] — ''From Precedent to Precedent''

===1960s===

* 1960 [[Edgar Douglas Adrian]] — ''Factors in mental evolution''
* 1961 [[Vincent Massey]] — ''Canadians and Their Commonwealth''
* 1962 [[Cyril Radcliffe, 1st Viscount Radcliffe|Cyril Radcliffe]] — ''Mountstuart Elphinstone''
* 1963 [[Violet Bonham Carter]] — ''The impact of personality in politics'' (<small>45 years after her [[Herbert Henry Asquith|father]] gave the lecture</small>)
* 1964 [[Harold B. Hartley|Harold Hartley]] — ''Man and Nature''
* 1965 [[Noel Annan]] — ''The Disintegration of an Old Culture''
* 1966 [[Maurice Bowra]] — ''A case for humane learning''
* 1967 [[Rab Butler]] — ''The Difficult Art of Autobiography''
* 1968 [[Peter Medawar]] — ''Science and Literature''
* 1969 [[William Graham Holford, Baron Holford|Lord Holford]] — ''A World of Room''
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===1970s===

* 1970 [[Isaiah Berlin]] — ''Fathers and Children: Turgenev and the Liberal Predicament'' (<small>Broadcast on [[BBC Radio 3]] on 14 February 1971</small>)
* 1971 [[Raymond Aron]] — ''On the Use and Abuse of Futurology''
* 1972 [[Karl Popper]] — ''On the Problem of Body and Mind''
* 1973 [[Ernst Gombrich]] — ''Art History and the Social Sciences''
* 1974 [[Solly Zuckermann]] — ''Advice and Responsibility''
* 1975 [[Iris Murdoch]] — ''The Fire and the Sun: Why Plato banished the artists''
* 1976 [[Edward Heath]] — ''The Future of a Nation''
* 1977 [[Peter Hall (director)|Peter Hall]] — ''Form and Freedom in the Theatre''
* 1978 [[George Porter]] — ''Science and the Human Purpose''
* 1979 [[Hugh Casson]] — ''The arts and the academies''

===1980s===

* 1980 [[Jo Grimond]] — ''Is political philosophy based on a mistake?''
* 1981 [[A.J.P. Taylor]] — ''War in Our Time''
* 1982 [[Andrew Huxley]] — ''Biology, the Physical Sciences and the Mind''
* 1983  [[Owen Chadwick]] — ''Religion and Society''
* 1984
* 1985 [[Miriam Louisa Rothschild]] — ''Animals and Man''
* 1986 [[Nicholas Henderson]] — ''Different Approaches to Foreign Policy''
* 1987 [[Norman St John-Stevas, Baron St John of Fawsley|Norman St. John-Stevas]] — ''The Omnipresence of Walter Bagehot''
* 1988 [[Hugh Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton|Hugh Trevor-Roper]] — ''The Lost Moments of History'' (<small>A [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=4292 revised version] at the [[The New York Review of Books|NYRB]].</small>)
* 1989

===1990s===

* 1990 [[Saul Bellow]] — ''The Distracted Public''
* 1991 [[Gianni Agnelli]] — ''Europe: Many Legacies, One Future''
* 1992 [[Robert Blake, Baron Blake|Robert Blake]] — ''Gladstone, Disraeli and Queen Victoria'' (<small>The Centenary Lecture</small>)
* 1993 [[Henry Harris (scientist)|Henry Harris]] — ''Hippolyte's club foot: the medical roots of realism in modern European literature''
* 1994 [[Lord Slynn of Hadley]] — ''Europe and Human Rights''
* 1995 [[Walter Bodmer]] — ''The Book of Man''
* 1996 [[Roy Jenkins]] — ''The Chancellorship of Oxford: A Contemporary View with a Little History''
* 1997 [[Mary Robinson]]  — [https://www.un.org/rights/50/dpi1938.htm ''Realizing Human Rights:"Take hold of it boldly and duly..."'']
* 1998 [[Amartya Kumar Sen|Amartya Sen]] — ''Reason before identity.''<ref>{{cite book | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = Reason before identity | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford New York | year = 1999 | isbn = 9780199513895 }}</ref>
* 1999 [[Tony Blair]]  — [https://web.archive.org/web/20041218001111/http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page1465.asp ''The Learning Habit'']

===2000s===

* 2000 [[William G. Bowen]]  — [https://web.archive.org/web/20110613205317/http://www.mellon.org/news_publications/publications/romanes.pdf/view ''At a Slight Angle to the Universe: The University in a Digitized, Commercialized Age'']
* 2001 [[Neil MacGregor]] — ''The Perpetual Present. The Ideal of Art for All''
* 2002 [[Tom Bingham]] — [http://www.tombingham.com/speeches.php ''Personal Freedom and the Dilemma of Democracies'']
* 2003 [[Paul Nurse]] — ''The great ideas of biology''
* 2004 [[Rowan Williams]] — [https://web.archive.org/web/20110611161458/http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/1043?q=romanes ''Religious lives'']
* 2005 [[Shirley M. Tilghman]] — [http://www.princeton.edu/president/speeches/20051201/index.xml ''Strange bedfellows: science, politics, and religion'']
* 2006 <small>Lecture was to have been delivered by Gordon Brown, but was postponed</small>
* 2007 Dame [[Gillian Beer]] — ''Darwin and the Consciousness of Others''
* 2008 [[Muhammad Yunus]] — [https://web.archive.org/web/20081224091632/http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2008/081203_3.html ''Poverty Free World: When? How?'']
* 2009 [[Gordon Brown]] — [https://web.archive.org/web/20090302095904/http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2009/090227_1.html ''Science and our Economic Future'']

===2010s===
* 2011 (June) [[Andrew Motion]] — [https://web.archive.org/web/20110724193736/http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2011/110206_1.html ''Bonfire of the Humanities'']
* 2011 (November) [[Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow|Martin Rees]] — [http://www.ox.ac.uk/news-and-events/The-University-Year/romanes-lecture/the-limits-of-science ''The Limits of Science'']
* 2014 [[Steven Chu]] — [http://www.ox.ac.uk/news-and-events/The-University-Year/romanes-lecture/our-energy-and-climate-change-challenges-and-solutions ''Our Energy and Climate Change Challenges and Solutions'']
* 2015 [[Mervyn King, Baron King of Lothbury|Mervyn King]] — [http://www.ox.ac.uk/news-and-events/The-University-Year/romanes-lecture/disequilibrium-in-the-world-economy ''A Disequilibrium in the World Economy'']
* 2016 [[Patricia Scotland, Baroness Scotland of Asthal|Patricia Scotland]] — [http://www.ox.ac.uk/news-and-events/The-University-Year/romanes-lecture/the-commonwealth-of-nations ''The Commonwealth of Nations'']
* 2018 (June) [[Hillary Clinton]] – [http://www.ox.ac.uk/news-and-events/The-University-Year/romanes-lecture/making-case-democracy ''Making the Case for Democracy'']
* 2018 (November) [[Vint Cerf]] – ''[https://www.ox.ac.uk/news-and-events/The-University-Year/romanes-lecture/pacification-of-cyberspace The Pacification of Cyberspace]''
*2019 [[Eliza Manningham-Buller]] - [https://www.ox.ac.uk/news-and-events/The-University-Year/romanes-lecture/the-profession-of-intelligence ''The Profession of Intelligence'']

=== 2020s ===

* 2020 [[Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond|Brenda Hale]] - [https://www.ox.ac.uk/news-and-events/The-University-Year/romanes-lecture ''Law in a Time of Crisis'']
* 2021 [[Kate Bingham|Dame Catherine Elizabeth Bingham, DBE]] - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG_a0P2qybE ''Lessons from the Vaccine Taskforce'']
* 2022 [[Micheál Martin]] - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6AHg2sqX40 The Centre Will Hold: Liberal Democracy and the Populist Threat]
* 2024 [[Geoffrey Hinton]] - Will digital intelligence replace biological intelligence?<ref name=geoff>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1TEjTeQeg0|website=youtube.com|first= Geoffrey |last=Hinton|year=2024|title=Will digital intelligence replace biological intelligence?|publisher=University of Oxford}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ox.ac.uk/news-and-events/The-University-Year/romanes-lecture|website=ox.ac.uk|title=Romanes Lecture|author=Anon|year=2024}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of public lecture series]]
* [[Robert Boyle Lecture]]

==References==
The text of each Romanes Lecture is generally published by [[Oxford University Press]] using the "Clarendon Press" imprint, and where appropriate the citation for an individual lecture is listed in the published works of each author's entry in Wikipedia.

* ''Romanes lectures, University of Oxford, 1986–2002'', Oxford, [[Bodleian Library]]: MSS. Eng. c. 7027, Top. Oxon. c. 827
* ''Oxford lectures on philosophy, 1910–1923'', Oxford, [[The Clarendon Press]], 1908–23.
* ''Oxford lectures on history, 1904–1923'', Oxford, The Clarendon Press 1904–23, which includes "Frontiers", by Lord Curzon, the Romanes lecture for 1907, "Biological analogies in history", by Theodore Roosevelt, the Romanes lecture for 1910, "The imperial peace" by Sir W. M. Ramsay, the Romanes lecture for 1913 and "Montesquieu" by Sir Courtenay Ilbert, the Romanes lecture for 1904.
* J.B. Bury, ''Romances of chivalry on Greek soil, being the Romanes lecture for 1911'', Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1911.
* Sir E. Ray Lankester: Romanes Lecture, ''Nature and Man,'' [[Oxford University Press]], 1905

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.ox.ac.uk/news-and-events/The-University-Year/romanes-lecture Romanes Lectures since 1892] at the University web site.
{{wikisource}}
{{commons category|Romanes Lectures}}

[[Category:Recurring events established in 1892]]
[[Category:Lecture series at the University of Oxford]]
[[Category:Lists of organized events]]
[[Category:1892 establishments in England]]
[[Category:Annual events in England]]