Founding Historians Lecture: 'Writing a History of Ignorance' by Professor Peter Burke

Professor Peter Burke is a Londoner. He was a grammar school boy who won a scholarship to St John’s College Oxford and another for postgraduate research at St Antony’s College there.

In his second postgraduate year, he heard Asa Briggs give a talk about plans for the new University of Sussex. When posts were advertised, he immediately applied and was successful, teaching (mainly) in the School of European Studies from 1962 to 78.

Following this, he migrated to Cambridge, where he became Professor of Cultural History and, after retirement in 2004, Life Fellow of Emmanuel College.

Professor Burke is a Fellow of the British Academy and has six honorary PhDs, all from universities on the European mainland.

We are grateful to welcome him back to Sussex, where he will try to answer the following questions:

• Do we live in an age of knowledge or of ignorance?
• Why should anyone write a history of ignorance?
• How can anyone write a history of ignorance, in other words of an absence, the absence of knowledge?
• What form(s) should it take?
• And what are the dangers (or, on occasion, the advantages) of ignorance?

Event Details:

Date: Thursday 21 November

Time: 5.30pm

Venue: Bramber House, Level 3, on campus

Following the discussion, please feel free to stay and join us for a short drinks reception.

Tickets for this event are free, but booking is essential as places are limited.