Professor Brian Matthews will deliver the Brian Medlin Memorial Lecture ‘The Preciousness of Everything’ on 12 June in the Flinders Central Library.  The Memorial Lecture honours Professor Medlin who was Foundation Professor of Philosophy at Flinders.

Professor Matthews joined the staff of Flinders University in 1969. He founded Australian Literature courses and in 1994 was appointed to a Personal Chair – the first to be awarded in English at Flinders University.  A multi-award winning writer, journalist and scholar, he is well known for his broadcasts, informal addresses and keynote speeches.

Brian Medlin was appointed Foundation Professor of Philosophy at Flinders in 1966 and was a major identity in Flinders’ history.  During his tenure he became a public figure as a champion of left-wing politics and a leader of the anti-Vietnam movement.  He is fondly remembered by many students and staff from Flinders’ early days, up to his retirement in the late 1980s.

Details

Date: Thursday 12 June 2014

Time: 5:30pm for a 6pm start

Location: Noel Stockdale Room, Central Library, Flinders University, Bedford Park

Parking: Car park 5, Humanities Road

RSVP: By 9 June to joy.tennant@flinders.edu.au or 8201 5841

The Memorial Lecture will coincide with the launch of Never Mind about the Bourgeoisie, a book outlining correspondence between radical philosopher Brian Medlin and English novelist Iris Murdoch.  They enjoyed a long and lively correspondence over a period of nearly 20 years, from 1976 to 1995, and the book sheds life on their unique association.

Dr Gillian Dooley, Special Collections Librarian at Flinders University, and Graham Nerlich, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Adelaide, have co-edited the book.

More about the association between Medlin and Murdoch