Connecting Cultures Keynote Lecture 2020
What is cultural comparison? What purpose does it serve? How can we use it to explore the past?
Cultural comparison was the theme of this year’s Connecting Cultures keynote lecture.
In January 2020, Professor Michael Puett, Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology at Harvard University, visited Warwick to discuss cultural comparison.
The event attracted more than 100 delegates – including undergraduate students, senior academics and university leaders.
Professor Puett posited a new vision of how we can engage with the past through cultural comparison, in order to avoid the pitfalls of over-focalised and imbalanced approaches.
He also responded to a series of questions from Professor Michael Scott on key research breakthroughs in his field.
He unveiled details of anticipated future research, plus what he believes no student should leave University without knowing…
The lecture was followed by a drinks reception and dinner with PVC for Research, Professor Pam Thomas.
Visits to the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) and the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL) were also on the agenda during Professor Puett’s time at Warwick.
Left to right: GRP leads Professor Michael Scott, Dr Cath Lambert and Dr Helen Wheatley, with Professor Michael Puett
The keynote lecture attracted students and staff from across the University
An exciting and challenging session
Professor Puett attended the IAS Accolade Lunch, where Dr Jennifer Kitchen (IAS Early Career Fellow) gave a short “elevator pitch” on playful and pro-social approaches to teaching Shakespeare. This was followed by a talk from Professor Peter Scott (Director, IAS), who enlightened delegates on molecular “hand shakes” in the self-assembly of peptide-mimic helices.
Professor Puett then gave a highly engaging - and suitably controversial - introduction to his current areas of thinking. He touched on dichotomies in economic systems, choice in the post-truth era, and offered a taster of his later lecture topic.
Accolade sessions are invariably engaging, yet Professor Puett’s talk proved to be an unusually exciting and challenging session for all.
Intellectual curiosity
Professor Puett also led the IATL ‘Reinventing Education’ Open Seminar, which attracted staff and students from across the University and beyond. His teaching (or, as he calls it, “facilitation”) put into practice the ideas he had explored in the previous evening's lecture. He created a generous, critically engaged space, in which staff and students came together to consider the future of education and the place of interdisciplinarity within it.
Professor Puett explained that his research was often rooted in classroom conversations with students. The pervasive spirit of intellectual curiosity was both palpable and infectious. The seminar was followed by lunch, where attendees spoke of how valuable they had found the session.
Professor Puett talks to Warwick students during a networking session
Professor Puett’s generosity and his encouragement shown towards attendees was unparalleled. His visit to Warwick has ignited some valuable and sanguine conversations about the future of education, as well as acting as a catalyst for potential research collaborations.