Classics and the Classical Tradition in London
21 May 2026, 2.00 – 6.00pm
Warburg Institute,Woburn Square, London WC1H 0AB
2026 is a year of two significant anniversaries: (i) the centenary of the so-called Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek, established in 1926 in Hamburg that would become the Warburg Institute following its relocation to London (in 1933); and (ii) the bicentenary of the foundation of University College London in 1826.
These landmark ‘birthdays’ will be celebrated with an afternoon of lectures and discussion. The event will mark the important contributions of each of these institutions to classical scholarship and the classical tradition and also commemorate the teaching of these disciplines across London over the last two centuries.
Programme:
2.00–2.05pm – Welcome from the Warburg Institute
2.05–2.15pm – Introduction
2.15–3.00pm – Professor Jill Kraye (Warburg Institute): ‘Teaching the Classical Tradition in Woburn Square: The Warburg Institute and the Afterlife of Antiquity’
3.00–3.45pm – Professor Michael Trapp (KCL): ‘Professing Classical Literature at King’s College London: George Warr and others’
3.45-4.15pm – Coffee / tea break
4.15–5.00pm – Professor William Fitzgerald (KCL): ‘Cockney Catullus, Brompton Sappho and Other Hybrids’
5.00-5.45pm – Professor Catharine Edwards (Birkbeck): ‘Cicero in Eighteenth-Century London’
5.45–6.00 pm – Concluding remarks
All welcome! Attendance free; booking required. Details here.