Now in its second year, a lecture series organised by the Graduate Schools of Arts & Humanities and Education at the University of Glasgow, will bring internationally respected academics from the world of arts, humanities and education to the city.

The first lecture, 'Waterhouse, Warhol and Other Victorians: The Classical Body and the Image of Desire', will be given by Professor Simon Goldhill on 17 May. Professor of Greek Literature and Culture at King's College, Cambridge, Goldhill is a major critical voice in the contemporary study of the ancient world and how we engage with it, and a leading figure in the application of cultural and critical theory to Greek classical texts.

The second lecture, on 24 May, will be given by one of the pre-eminent thinkers in the field of adult education, Stephen Brookfield, and will argue for 'Adult Education as Political Detoxification'. Distinguished University Professor at the University of St Thomas Minneapolis, Minnesota, Brookfield has written ten books on adult learning, teaching, critical thinking, discussion methods and critical theory, four of which have won the Cyril O. Houle World Award for Literature in Adult Education. He also won the 1986 Imogene Okes Award for Outstanding Research in Adult Education. Professor Brookfield recently received the Leadership Award from the Association for Continuing Higher Education (ACHE) for "extraordinary contributions to the general field of continuing education on a national and international level."

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak will close the series on 12 June with a lecture entitled 'Thinking about the Humanities'. Currently Avalon Professor of Humanities at Columbia University, Spivak is one of the world's most highly regarded and influential cultural theorists. Her interventions in postcolonial, feminist and Marxist theory have revolutionised the discipline and established original and consistently challenging directions in critical thought.

Director of the Graduate School of Arts and Humanities, Dr Vassiliki Kolocotroni, said: "We are delighted to welcome to Glasgow three scholars of international renown, whose work crosses intellectual boundaries and articulates original and transformative views of the world".

The lectures will take place at the following times and venues:

17 May: Simon Goldhill (Professor of Greek Literature and Culture, King's College, Cambridge)
'Waterhouse, Warhol and Other Victorians: The Classical Body and the Image of Desire'
Time: 5.15pm
Venue: Gannochy Seminar Room, Wolfson Medical Building, University Avenue, Glasgow

24 May: Stephen Brookfield (Distinguished University Professor, University of St. Thomas Minneapolis, Minnesota)
'Adult Education as Political Detoxification'
Time: 5.15pm
Venue: Seminar Room 1, Wolfson Medical Building, University Avenue, Glasgow

12 June: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University)
'Thinking about the Humanities'
Time: 5.30pm
Venue: Lecture Theatre, Sir Charles Wilson Building, University Avenue, Glasgow

The lectures are free and open to the public. For more information contact Dr Vassiliki Kolocotroni at vko@arts.gla.ac.uk

Kate Richarsdon (K.Richardson@admin.gla.ac.uk)

For more information please contact Kate Richardson at the University of Glasgow's Media Relations Office on 0141 330 3683 or email K.Richardson@admin.gla.ac.uk

First published: 14 May 2007