Events

Past Events

The Hazlitt Lecture 2005-2025

Tim Milnes, ‘Hazlitt and Coleridge’, IAS, UCL, 14th September 2025

Jon Mee, 'Sticky Hazlitt', IAS, UCL, 16th September 2024

Vidyan Ravinthiran, 'Hazlitt (with Ramunujan) and Opinion', IAS, UCL, 16th September 2023 

Richard Cronin, 'Preposterous Liberalism and The Liberal', Gustave Tuck Theatre, UCL, 17th September 2022

Freya Johnston, 'Hazlitt and Prejudice', Gustave Tuck Theatre, UCL, 18th September 2021

There was no Hazlitt lecture in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic

Alan Rusbridger, 'Hazlitt, Peterloo and the Guardian', Gustave Theatre, UCL, 14th September 2019

Felicity James, 'Hazlitt and Lamb: Spirits of the Age', Chadwick Lecture Theatre, UCL, 22th September 2018

Jonathan Bate, 'Hazlitt and Wordsworth', Gustave Tuck Theatre, UCL, 23rd September 2017 

Jon Cook, 'Hazlitt and Resistance', Gustave Tuck Theatre, UCL, 17th September 2016

Kevin Gilmartin, 'Hazlitt's Political Hatred', Gustave Tuck Theatre, UCL, 10th October 2015

Martin Postle, 'Boswell Redivivus: Hazlitt, Northcote and the British School', Gustave Tuck Theatre, UCL, 20th September 2014

Peter Thompson, 'Hazlitt and Edmund Kean', Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre, UCL, 14th September 2013

Terry Eagleton, 'On William Hazlitt', Conway Hall, 15th September 2012.

Paul Hamilton, 'Hazlitt's Political Essays', and Tariq Ali, 'Is Capitalism a Threat to Democracy?, Conway Hall, 17 September 2011.

Tony Benn, 'What We Owe Hazlitt', Conway Hall, 11th September 2010.

Paul Johnson, 'Hazlitt, Sarah and Napoleon: A Case of Sexual and Political Obsession', Conway Hall, 19th September 2009.

Tom Paulin, 'Hazlitt and Dickens', Conway Hall, Saturday 20th September 2008.

David Bromwich, 'Hazlitt on Shakespeare', Conway Hall, 15th September 2007.

Duncan Wu, 'Hazlitt versus Coleridge', Conway Hall, 9th September 2006. 

A. C. Grayling, 'Hazlitt: the Independent Mind', Conway Hall, Saturday 17th September 2005.

The Hazlitt Day-School 2012-2025

23rd Annual Day School and Open Lecture

This took place on Saturday 14th September 2025 at University College London, and was a bicentenary celebration of The Spirit of the Age. 

Speakers and papers:

·         Introduction to The Spirit of the Age (David Woodhouse)

·         Rosemary Ashton on Hazlitt and Brougham

·          Joshua Abbey on Hazlitt and Sir James Mackintosh

·          James Grande on Hazlitt and Irving

·          Philip Schofield on Hazlitt and Bentham

·          Annual lecture: Tim Milnes, ‘Hazlitt and Coleridge’

22nd Annual Day School and Open Lecture

This took place on Saturday 14th September 2024 at University College London. 

Speakers and Papers:

·       David Russell, 'Hazlitt and the Hatred of Criticism'

·       Freya Johnston, 'Hazlitt and the Novel'

·       Paul Hamilton, 'Hazlitt and Rousseau' 

·       Haowei He, 'Promises of Imagination: Hazlitt and Keats's Negative Aesthetic Spaces'

·       James R. M. Wakefield, '"Amiable Vices and Obnoxious Virtues" in Hazlitt's Moral Psychology' 

·       Annual lecture: Jon Mee, 'Sticky Hazlitt' 

21st Annual Day School and Open Lecture

This took place on Saturday 16th September 2023 at University College London. 

Speakers and Papers:

·       Matthew Ward, 'Hazlitt and the Humorous Imagination'

·       Natasha Bharucha, ''The fashionable belle': critiquing fashion and fashionable critique in William Hazlitt and La Belle Assemblée'

·       Uttara Natarajan, 'Styling the Other: Hazlitt and the Indian Jugglers'.  

·       Matthew Scott, 'Hazlitt and Titian'

·       Marcus Tomalin, 'Hazlit and the Practicalities of Painting'

·       Annual lecture: Vidyan Ravinthiran, 'Hazlitt (with Ramunujan) and Opinion' 

20th Annual Day School and Open Lecture

This took place on Saturday 17th September 2022 at UCL, and was a bicentennary celebration of The Liberal in collaboration with The Byron Society. 

Speakers and papers:

·       The Liberal: an introduction to the journal (David Woodhouse) 

·       Liberal: an introduction to the keyword (John Gardner) 

·       Don Juan and The Liberal (Jane Stabler) 

·       ‘On the Spirit of Monarchy’ (Ian Haywood) 

·       Panel on transnational liberalism in the early 1820s (chaired by Roderick Beaton, featuring Lilla Maria Crisafulli, Maria Schoina and Will Bowers) 

·       A Liberal’s Vision of Judgment? (Bernard Beatty)  

·       The Shelleys and The Liberal (James Grande) 

·       Guiseppe Molini, Leigh Hunt and The Liberal (Tim Webb)

·       ‘My First Acquaintance with Poets’ (Jon Cook) 

·       Annual lecture: ‘Preposterous Liberalism and The Liberal’ (Richard Cronin)  

19th Annual Day School and Open Lecture

This took place on Saturday 18th September 2021 at UCL. 

Speakers and papers:

·       Editing Hazlitt Roundtable (James Grande and Jon Mee in conversation with Gregory Dart)

·       Anna Mercer, ‘Romantic interaction in London: Hazlitt, Keats and the Shelleys’ 

·       Robert-Louis Abrahamson, 'R. L. Stevenson and the Abandoned Biography of Hazlitt’ 

·       Hannah Tran, ‘Habits of Thought in the Familiar Essays’ 

·       James Wakefield, '‘On Whether William Hazlitt was a Philosophical Idealist (and Why it Matters)’ 

·       Annual lecture: Freya Johnston, 'Hazlitt and Prejudice'

There was no event in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

18th Annual Day School and Open Lecture

This took place on Saturday 14th September 2019 at UCL. The (partial) theme was the Peterloo bicentenary.

Speakers and papers:

·       John Gardner, 'Hazlitt's Political Essays and Waterloo'

·       Christopher Butcher, 'Hazlitt and Thomas Noon Talfourd'

·       Maike Orgel, 'Incorrigible Jacobins: Hazlitt's Engagement with German literature'

·       Mary Fairclough, 'Hazlitt and the Dissenting Art of Reading'

·       Emily Rohrbach, 'Forms of Beauty and Old Books: Wordsworth and Hazlitt on the Time of Reading'

·       Uttara Natarajan, Hazlittean Reading 

·       ANNUAL LECTURE: Alan Rusbridger, 'Hazlitt, Peterloo and The Guardian'

17th Annual Day School and Open Lecture

This took place on Saturday 22nd September 2018 at UCL. The theme was 'Hazlitt and his Circle'. 

Speakers and papers:

·       David Woodhouse, 'Hazlitt and Byron: hereditary prejudices and Liberal solidarity'

·       Mario Aquilana, 'Hazlitt's Lover's Discourse: Reading Liber Amoris through Barthes'

·       Hannah Tran, 'Women and the Cockney School'

·       Michael Steier, 'Speaking Disagreeable Truths': Hazlitt and Hunt in Conversation

·       Uttara Natarajan and Gregory Dart, Hazlittean Reading 

·       Annual lecture: Felicity James, 'Hazlitt and Lamb: Spirits of the Age'

16th Annual Day School and Open Lecture

This took place on Saturday 23rd September 2017 at UCL. The theme was 'Hazlitt and Life-Writing'. 

Speakers and papers:

·       John Whale, 'Answering for Myself: Hazlitt and Identity' 

·       James Whitehead, 'Hazlitt's Brief Lives' 

·       Cristina Consiglio, 'Hazlitt's Journey to Italy' 

·       Jon Cook, 'Sitting on Hazlitt's Knee' 

·       Uttara Natarajan and Gregory Dart, Hazlittean Reading 

·       Annual lecture: Jonathan Bate, 'Hazlitt and Wordsworth' 

15th Annual Day School and Open Lecture

This took place on Saturday 17th September 2016 at UCL. The theme was 'Hazlitt and the Mind'. 

Speakers and papers:

·       Gregory Dart, 'Lamb, Hazlitt and Hogarth'

·       Tim Milnes, 'Hazlitt, Empiricism and the Periodical Essay'

·       Philipp Hunnekuhl, 'Thelwall the orator and Hazlitt the thinker'

·       James Whitehead, 'Hazlitt and the mind of the poet'

·       Heather Stone, 'Hazlitt in Conversation'

·       Annual lecture: Jon Cook, 'Hazlitt and Resistance' 

14th Annual Day School and Open Lecture 

This took place on Saturday 10th October 2015 at UCL. The theme was 'Hazlitt and Journalism'. 

Speakers and papers:

·       Ian Haywood, 'Hazlitt and Monarchy'

·       David Higgins, 'Hazlitt and Englishness'

·       Ruth Livesey, 'William Haziltt and the Mail-Coach Nation'

·       Lucasta Miller, 'Liber Amoris, The Literary Gazette and L.E.L.' 

·       Hazlittean Reading: Gregory Dart and Uttara Natarajan: from 'On the Periodical Press' and 'On the Aristocracy of Letters'. 

·       Annual lecture: Kevin Gilmartin, 'Hazlitt's Political Hatred'.

13th Annual Day School and Open Lecture 

This took place on Saturday 20th September 2014 at UCL. The theme was 'Hazlitt and Art'. 

Speakers and papers:

·       Eleanor Relle, 'Was Peggy Hazlitt Right?: The Hazlitt Collection at the Maidstone Art Gallery'

·       Luisa Cale, 'Hazlitt and the Aesthetics of the London Magazine'

·       Daniel Lago Monteiro, 'The Puddles of the Road: Pilgrimages of the Artist as a Young Man'

·       Lisa Milroy, 'On the Pleasure of Painting'

·       Hazlittean Reading: Gregory Dart and Uttara Natarajan: Conversation Eighteen from the Conversations of Northcote (1830)

·       Annual lecture: Martin Postle, 'Boswell Redivivus: Northcote, Hazlitt and the British School'

12th Annual Day School and Open Lecture 

This event took place on Saturday 14th September 2013 at University College London. The theme was 'Hazlitt and Theatre'. 

Speakers and papers:

·       Tom Lockwood 'Reading and Performance in Hazlitt's Lectures on the Age of Elizabeth'

·       Claire Sheridan, 'Hazlitt, Francis Place and the Last Man'

·       Plenary: John Stokes, 'Embodying Shadows: Wilde and Hazlitt as theatrical critics', introduced by James Whitehead. 

·       Marcus Risdell, 'Charles Mathews's Gallery of Theatrical Portraits'

·       Annual lecture: Peter Thomson, 'Hazlitt and Edmund Kean', introduced by Philipp Hunnekuhl.

11th Hazlitt Day School 

"I like the country very well if I want to enjoy my own company; but London is the only place for equal society, or where a man can say a good thing or express an honest opinion without subjecting himself to being insulted."

After a year's hiatus, the eleventh Hazlitt Day School, organized by Gregory Dart and Uttara Natarajan, returned at a new and very Hazlittean venue, University College, London, on the 9th June 2012.

·       Welcome by Gregory Dart & Uttara Natarajan

·       Fiona Robertson, 'On Depth and Superficiality'

·       David Stewart, 'Hazlitt, Print and Ephemerality'

·       John Strachan, 'Hazlitt, Reynolds and the Rhetoric of Violence'

·       James Grande, 'Dissenting Legacies: Hazlitt and Godwin after 1828'

·       Philipp Hunnekuhl, 'The "good hater" and a "Hazlitt-Hater"?; Hazlitt, Crabb Robinson, and the Truth of Sentiment'

·       Marcus Tomalin, 'Hazlittean Horology'

The event was held in earlier years at St Catherine's College, Oxford.