The Corbett Lecture

The Corbett Lecture is an annual lecture by a distinguished scholar on a theme connected with ancient Greece. The list of past Corbett Lectures can be found HERE.

Did you know that we also have a collection of audio recordings of some of the previous Corbett lectures? These can be found HERE. 

The Corbett lectures are open to all members of the University and others who are interested, so please do feel free to come along.

The 2024 Corbett Lecture

Thursday 7 November at 5 pm in room G.19, Faculty of Classics

"Targeting the Good: Archery as an Image of Wisdom in Aristotle and Plato"

Professor Gabriel Richardson Lear (University of Chicago)
 

Recent Corbett lectures

Professor Daniel Kölligan (University of Würzburg) gave the 2023 Corbett lecture.

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Professor Alex Purves, UCLA, gave the 2022 Corbett lecture.

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The J.H. Gray Lectures

The Reverend Joseph Henry Gray, one-time Fellow and Vice-President of Queens', honorary canon of Peterborough, decided to endow a lectureship in Classics and the first set of Grays were given in 1928.

The 2025 J.H. Gray Lectures

The lectures will take place 13 - 15 May and will be delivered by Professor Helen Morales (UCSB).

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Previous J.H. Gray Lectures

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Plato’s Philebus is an oddity: Despite its audience-friendly project—a contest between pleasure and intelligence regarding their contribution to human happiness—it has never been among the dialogues most widely read, nor even popular, not even amongst Plato’s biggest fans. In the past thirty or so years, considerable work has been done to make the dialogue safe for philosophy, inside and outside of classical studies. In taking up the enigma of this work, these lectures will also consider the dialogue’s relation to the classical context more broadly and some aspects of its reception.

2022 Programme

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In 2022, the J. H. Gray Lectures were delivered by Prof. Carlos Norena (UC Berkeley).

17th May

A recording of the lecture on Geographies of Power is available here.

18th May

Seminar: The Calibration of Interests (2pm G.21)

19th May

A recording of the lecture on Acculturation and Authority is available here.

The lectures and seminars will be held in person but a livestream will be available.  If you are interested in the livestream, please register your interest at events@classics.cam.ac.uk.  A link will be sent nearer to the time to those that have registered.

2021 Programme

In 2021 the J. H. Gray Lectures were delivered by Prof. Philomena Probert (Wolfson College, Oxford). Recordings of livestreams can be found below.

Video of lecture given on Tuesday 9th March, 5pm: 

Did the ancient Greeks do historical Linguistics?

A bibliography is available here.

Wednesday 10th March, 2pm: 

κακῶς λέγεις: how did Greek grammarians argue?

The seminar handout is available here

Video of lecture given on Thursday 11th March, 5pm:

Did the Romans do historical linguistics?

The bibliography for the second lecture is available here.