Public Anthropology Lecture: Dan Hicks (University of Oxford)

"Militarist Realism": rethinking monumentality, museums, and memory culture

Join us for our annual Public Anthropology Lecture, dedicated to showcasing anthropological work that makes impactful interventions across and beyond academia. This year's lecture will be delivered by Professor Dan Hicks, anthropologist/archaeologist, whose internationally-recognised work is shaping public debates on museums, monuments, colonialism and cultural violence.

Dan Hicks is Professor of Contemporary Archaeology at Oxford University, Curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum, and a Fellow of St Cross College. He has written widely on art, heritage, museums, colonialism, and the material culture of the recent past and the near-present. Dan's books include The Brutish Museums: the Benin Bronzes, colonial violence and cultural restitution (Pluto 2020) and Every Monument Will Fall: a story of remembering and forgetting (Hutchinson Heinemann 2025). Bluesky/Instagram: @ProfDanHicks

Please note that there is a drinks reception in the venue at 3.00-3.45, to which everyone is welcome! The lecture will take place immediately after at 3.45-5.00pm.

Attendance is free but registration is required.