Clare Hall Colloquia – Michaelmas 2026
Clare Hall’s Colloquia, organised by Dr Li Tang, provide members of the College – especially (but not exclusively) Visiting Fellows and Life Members – with an opportunity to present their research, whether in its early stages or already published, in a friendly setting. They are a great way to discuss your ideas, meet fellow members and to contribute to our vibrant community.
The Colloquia typically consist of a 40-minute presentation followed by 30-45 minutes of open discussion. We attract an audience from many different disciplines and post-talk dialogue is often very lively and constructive. Talks are intended to be accessible to a general audience and speakers are requested to avoid unnecessary jargon and obscurantist language. Presentations are intentionally kept ‘in-house’ with no videoconferencing or recording. Sessions take place on Tuesday evenings during term time, 7:15–9:15 pm, in the Clare Hall Meeting Room. Refreshments are provided.
Michaelmas 2026 Programme
13 October: Professor Mar Rubio-Varas (Visiting Fellow, Universidad Publica de Navarra, Spain) – From Fossil Fuels to the First Wind Gigawatt: Energy, Economic Change, and the Making of a Renewable Future
20 October: Dr Esko Yli-Hemminki (Visiting Fellow, University of Helsinki) – Are Psychopaths Responsible? Rethinking Responsibility and Punishment
27 October: Professor David Fike (Visiting Fellow, Washington University, St Louis, MO, USA) – Understanding Earth’s Climate Evolution: New Ways to Reconstruct Past Sea-Level
3 November: Professor Daniel O’Quinn (Visiting Fellow, University of Guelph, Canada) – The Edges of the West: The Timescapes of The Death of General Wolfe
10 November: Professor William Hancock (Visiting Fellow, The Pennsylvania State University, USA) – Life at the Nanoscale: Understanding the Inner Workings of Molecular Motors
17 November: Dr Raphael Schäfer (Visiting Researcher, Max Plank Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg, Germany) – Keeping the Balance: How International Law Remade Europe after Napoleon
24 November: Professor Bing Luo (Visiting Fellow, Duke-Kunshan University, China) – Learning Without Moving the Data: Privacy, Collaboration and Incentives in Distributed Data Analytics
1 December: Dr Anna Knutsson (Research Fellow, Clare Hall) – A Gustatory Journey through Scotland’s History of Illegal Spirits, 1750-1820
