University College London’s free, public, Lunch Hour Lectures

[Chris_Baker]

Received today from Catherine Dean at the University College London.

During June 2014, University College London’s free, public, Lunch Hour Lectures are going ‘on tour’ to the offices of The Guardian newspaper with a short series marking the centenary of the start of the First World War.

Please note that BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL for these events. Please click on the individual lectures below for information on how to book

For more information on the series visit: www.ucl.ac.uk/lhlontour

Wednesday 18 June, 1-2pm

Sex and the Somme

Dr Clare Makepeace, UCL History

Tommies queued in their hundreds to visit brothels in the First World War. Dr Clare Makepeace explores this little-discussed aspect of the war. She uncovers soldiers' reasons for visiting brothels, their reactions to them and the prostitutes, and how they dealt with the potential consequences: venereal disease. The findings give us fresh insight into what it meant to be a British man at war.

Thursday 19 June, 1-2pm

Investigative conservation and the archaeology of the Western Front

Renata Peters, UCL Institute of Archaeology

Staff and students at the UCL Institute of Archaeology have been involved in the investigative conservation of objects excavated from Western Front trenches. Some of these objects were associated with unidentified human remains thought to be of soldiers killed in battles between 1914 and 1918, and provided important information for their identification. Others provided more questions than answers, but also shed light on the reality of life and death in the trenches.

Wednesday 25 June, 1-2pm

Reconstructing Broken Bodies: From Industrial Warfare to Industrial Engineered Tissues

Prof Robert Brown, UCL Surgical Science & Mr Colin Hopper, UCL Eastman Dental Institute

Trench warfare protected combatants from many injuries, but left the head exposed, producing a massive demand for experimental facial reconstructive surgery. WW1 is acknowledged as the first ‘industrial scale’ war, but it has taken a century to stumble upon the concept of industrial scale tissue production. This very 21st century idea can be traced back to WW1 and the clinical pressures produced by industrial scale, non-lethal trauma.

Thursday 26 June, 1-2pm

Science and the First World War

Prof Jon Agar, UCL Science and Technology Studies

This year is the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. By examining the lives of figures such as Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley and Fritz Haber, this talk will show how scientists on all sides were swept up in the tide of patriotism, militarism and nationalism, making contributions, some tragically brief, some devastatingly effective, to the waging of war. And what of the long-lasting effects? While some saw the Great War as an irreparable crisis of modern civilisation, with science as a symbol of inhumanity, others saw science as a internationalist project capable of healing wounds.

The lectures can also be watched live online at www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl/streamed or after the event at our YouTube channel www.youtube.com/UCLLHL

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any queries and we hope to see you in June

Best wishes

Cath