Events

Reviews of UCL public lectures, debates, exhibitions, shows, and more…

Last weekend, UCL Gender Studies hosted Gender Online, an interdisciplinary post-graduate symposium which aimed to open a conversation about the relationship between gender, digital communications and the internet.

The event, funded by the Faculty Institute of Graduate Studies, brought academics, graduate students and members of the public together from many different backgrounds to create cutting-edge debate around a diverse selection of papers.

It had been widely promoted by the use of social networking sites such as Twitter and was recorded for podcasting at a later date. Speakers came from UCL Gender, and Digital Anthropology, the Institute of Education (IoE) Social and Educational Research, LSE Social Anthropology and NYU Tisch Interactive Telecommunications Programme.

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In 1825, a group of men that included Whigs, reformers and lawyers came together to found a university in London aimed at those excluded from the two established English universities Oxford and Cambridge – where teachers and students were required to be subscribing Anglicans.

To mark the anniversary of UCL’s foundation on 11 Feb 1826 – when it went by its original name the University of London – this lunch hour lecture by Professor Rosemary Ashton (UCL English Language & Literature) looked at the opposition to the new university among Tory politicians and journalists, especially in the ultra-Tory newspaper John Bull.

The new university was designed to have “all the leading advantages of the two great universities” and “no barrier to the education of any sect”. The intention was to exclude theological teaching from the curriculum and have no form of religious test for entrance.

The media ‘against’

John Bull took against the idea with vitriol and had a longstanding campaign to ridicule those behind it. Sweeping, exaggerated warnings of threat to church and state were driven by a fear of working-class revolution in the vein of the French model.

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The focus of the seventh UCL Laws/Bindmans debate, held on 8 February, would have struggled to be more topical against the backdrop of the ongoing Leveson Inquiry.

The Inquiry was set up to look at the practices and ethics of the press in the wake of Summer 2011’s phone-hacking scandal, which sent shockwaves through the UK media – the full repercussions of which are yet to play out.

The panel convened by UCL Laws and the law firm Bindmans to debate privacy and the media would have struggled to have a greater level of combined insight into the topic.

Media heavyweights

Tessa Jowell, Labour MP and Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, joined Martin Moore, Director of the Media Standards Trust, and Gill Phillips, Director of Editorial Legal Services at the Guardian. The fourth panel member was Max Mosley, former motorsport figure and focus of one of the most famous recent examples of a media-driven sex life exposé.

An audience of lawyers, law students and journalists gathered to hear what the panel had to say about the issues surrounding self or statutory regulation of the press, how the current system might be reformed and whether regulation is possible or desirable.

We’ve been here before

Lord Justice Leveson is not the first to have looked in detail at these issues. In the early 90s, the Calcuttt committee grappled with the topic, with David Mellor saying at the time that the press were “drinking in the last chance saloon.”

Some might say that they’re still there, steadfastly propping up the bar – resistant to any change and knowing that parliament will be unwilling to legislate when they risk association with oppressive regimes – especially when they have themselves been in the pockets of the media barons.

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Miriam Waters, UCL Development and Alumni Relations, writes about an event celebrating the close relationship between UCL and France.

The Entente Cordiale was alive and well at a prestigious UCL reception held at the French Prime Minister’s residence in Paris on 9 February.

One hundred and fifty UCL alumni, staff, students and supporters were invited as guests of Prime Minister M François Fillon and Mme Penelope Fillon (UCL French 1977) for a celebration of UCL and France.

The residence was a magnificent setting for such an occasion. Completed in 1725, the Hôtel de Matignon was presented as a birthday gift to the Duke of Valentinoise by his father the Count of Matignon. Its ownership and purpose have changed several times over the centuries and it is only since 1947 that it has been the residence of the Prime Minister.

The celebration commenced with speeches from Mme Fillon and UCL’s President and Provost, Professor Malcolm Grant. Mme Fillon welcomed guests to Hôtel de Matignon and spoke fondly about her time at UCL and her pleasure in retaining contact with her alma mater.

Mme Fillon said that it was a “an honour to pay homage to the work of the French Department” and joked “even though they are partly to blame for my being in this house making this speech today”.

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