Neustadt Lecture: How wives helped to shape the foundations for knowledge about society

We are delighted to announce that the next Neustadt Lecture will take place on Wednesday, 18 February 2026, at 5 p.m.

This year's Neustadt Lecture will be opened by Professor Henrietta O'Connor, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leicester. Professor John Goodwin will also provide an introduction to the Neustadt Lecture series and welcome our distinguished speaker, Professor Rosalind Edwards, Professor of Sociology at the University of Southampton.

Sociologists often refer to trends in family structures, gender relations and the status of wives as evidence to support theories about what family life is about. But there is a silence about the implications of gender relations in their own family lives for the development of sociology. The wives of male academics made conceptual, substantive and methodological contributions in a period that saw the flourishing of sociology as essential for understanding our everyday lives. There was the appearance of the male academics producing their foundational sociological insights and achieving academic recognition on their own or with other (usually male) academic colleagues. In reality though, this was propped up by input from wives on so many different fronts: domestic, social, administrative, research, publication, and so on. The wives were co-opted into the academic endeavour, their family lives professionalised as they initiated and undertook knowledge gathering.

Moderated questions from the audience will also be catered for in the final 30 mins of the session. Please email lan11@le.ac.uk to submit any questions for Professor Edwards by the 16 February 2026.

This event will take place online and within the Astley Clarke Lecture Theatre. An e-invite will be sent shortly before the lecture takes place if you have booked a place online.

Accessible information for those attending in person:

Please contact the team for any accessibility requests. We will try our best to accommodate everyone as much as possible.

The lecture will be taking place in the Astley Clarke lecture theatre which is on the ground floor of the Astley Clarke Building. There will be staff around to help direct everyone, there is a lift and accessible toilets.

Information on the accessibility of the space is in the below address:

https://www.accessable.co.uk/university-of-leicester/access-guides/astley-clarke-building

A University of Leicester map of campus can be found at the below address:

https://www.le.ac.uk/maps/

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