Press release: New Style Online Viewing Lecture Series

Journalists writing in notepads

25 October 2024

It’s the lecture, but not as you know it ... Gresham College looks to the future with new style online viewing series 

For more than 400 years, Gresham College in London has been providing free challenging, thought-provoking and educational lectures for the public.  

Now, for the first time, it is expanding its online offering by creating documentary style versions of some of its recent talks.  

First to receive this special treatment is a lecture by Professor Victoria Baines, looking at some of the earliest computers ever created ... long before electricity was discovered.  

Viewers can enjoy enhanced graphics and other visual effects that add depth and insight to the lecture, without detracting from Professor Baines’ core message.  

Five lectures from the autumn term of this academic year will be the first to be given this treatment, which is in keeping with the College’s remit to bring interesting and challenging topics to the public in an authoritative and accessible way and cover a multitude of topics including science, music, space and health. 

Richard Smith OBE, the Executive Director of Gresham College, is pleased to launch the new style online lectures. 

“I’m excited that we are trying new ways of helping our audience learn and look forward to hearing what people think about our new formats,” he said.  

To create the enhanced lectures, the skilled team at Gresham College carefully select and add in additional elements to the hour-long talks so they look and feel more like a television documentary. 

Professor Martin Elliott, the Provost of Gresham College, recently gave a lecture on the future of public lectures, concluding that they would continue to change, improve and survive regardless of any new technology that comes along. 

"The public lecture has been around for hundreds of years and, at its heart, remains broadly the same: a talented speaker sharing ideas for the benefit of others. 

"At Gresham College, we have always innovated. Our founder, Sir Thomas Gresham, decreed in his will that the College should get lectures in English rather than Latin as was common in the 16th century. 

"Our programme of enhanced lectures is an extension of that, just as we have previously introduced benefits such as offering transcripts and live streaming lectures. 

"This innovation firmly brings Gresham College's lectures into the 21st century, and once again commits us to Sir Thomas Gresham's ethos of offering quality talks for free." 

The first Enhanced Lecture is now available. It will be The Ancient History of Computers and Code, given by Professor Victoria Baines, and can be watched by logging on to the College's website, www.gresham.ac.uk 

Originally given in September, the talk explores some of the earliest devices used long before electricity was discovered. The enhanced footage will add additional context for the viewer.  

Four other lectures have been selected:  

  • Milton Mermikides - Magical Mystery Tour: The Invention of The Beatles 
  • Rob Eastaway - Much Ado About Numbers: Shakespeare’s Mathematical Life and Times 
  • Raghavendra Rau - Is Your Money Safe? Unveiling Hidden Conflicts in Finance 
  • Chris Lintott - Black Holes and Bangs.  

These will be uploaded across the course of the academic year, and there are more than 2,500 recordings of lectures dating back to the 1990s on the website. 

ENDS

Notes to Editors

For more information about this story or to arrange an interview with a Gresham Professor please contact: Phil Creighton press@gresham.ac.uk  

About Gresham College  
Gresham College has been providing free, educational lectures - at the university level - since 1597 when Sir Thomas Gresham founded the college to bring Renaissance Learning to Londoners. Our history includes some of the luminaries of the scientific revolution including Robert Hooke and Sir Christopher Wren and connects us to the founding of the Royal Society.  

Today we carry on Sir Thomas's vision. The College aims to stimulate intellectual curiosity and to champion academic rigour, professional expertise and freedom of expression. www.gresham.ac.uk  

Gresham College is a registered charity number 1039962 and relies on donations to help us encourage people's love of learning for many years to come. For more details or to make a gift, visit our website