BBC New Generation Thinker to give School's first Distinguished Research Lecture

‘Ain’t it a ripping night’: Alcohol & the Legacies of Empire in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children’ begins the School of History, Archaeology and Religion’s new Distinguished Research Lecture series.

Lecturer in Linguistics at Bournemouth University, Dr Sam Goodman explores the Rushdie classic and the legacy of Empire in this free public lecture on Wednesday 9 March.

By thinking about the kaleidoscopic approach to the life and death of the Raj, the subject of Rushdie’s 25 year-old classic, Dr Goodman argues that the significance of drinking in the Man Booker award-winner suggests how Empire came with a long-lasting hangover, namely an adherence to the tastes, customs and conventions of colonial society: habits that would prove surprisingly hard to shake.

Dr Goodman will end the evening in conversation about his role as a BBC New Generation Thinker, the initiative which aims to develop the next generation of academics to bring the best university research and scholarly ideas to a broad audience.  

Professor of History at Cardiff University Keir Waddington said: ‘We are delighted to welcome Dr Goodman as the first speaker in our new Distinguished Research Lecture series, which seeks to showcase cutting-edge research and the connections between medicine, science and the humanities.’

Supported by the Wellcome Trust, this lecture is run in conjunction with the Collaborative Interdisciplinary Study for Science, Medicine and the Imagination. This group enables experts from the humanities, social sciences, medicine and the biological sciences to explore the history of science collaboratively.

Distinguished Research Lecture ‘Ain’t it a ripping night’: Alcohol & the Legacies of Empire in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children’  takes place on Wednesday 9 March in Cardiff University’s John Percival Building at 5pm.