How to give university lectures | Mary Beard:The second [...

How to give university lectures | Mary Beard:

The second [lecturing tip I picked up from colleagues] was from Keith Hopkins, who asked students at his first lectures on the Roman empire: What was the most important thing to happen in the reign of the emperor Augustus? All kinds of answers came in, from the “settlement of 27” to the return of the Roman standards from the Parthians. You could bet anything, he used to say, that no one (not even the committed Christians) would say “the birth of Jesus”. He used this to point out to them how narrow their vision could be, and how rigid the boundary was between the history of Rome and the history of Christianity, even though they were part of the same world.  

This is a fascinating point in itself, but it reminds me that Hopkins was notorious for his frustration with academic lecturing, in all venues. He felt that very few academics took seriously their responsibilities to their audiences — or, really, were even aware that they have such responsibilities. Long ago a British academic told me about listening to a lecturer drone his way through an hour, never looking up from the paper in front of him, basically talking into his chest. As it happens, Hopkins was also in the audience. At the Q&A time, Hopkins stood up and said, “I have three reactions to your talk and the first is boredom.”