The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will expire in 2015, with mixed results. This conference takes a social and political perspective on why development fails, and how local knowledge might inform a post-MDG environment more sensitive to those structurally disadvantaged by the global economy.

Humans have a long association with alcohol in both social and ritual contexts that invariably gets overlooked in discussions of the medical effects of overconsumption. This conference offers a broad multidisciplinary exploration of the rich history of alcohol use by humans and our closest relatives.

This conference takes a multidisciplinary approach to the presence and treatment of foreigners in England across the medieval millennium.

Immigration is a contentious topic with implications both for individual migrants and for donor and host communities. After World War II, political debate on the subject in the UK focused on migration from the former colonies of the Empire. More recently, the debate has shifted to the right of free movement within the European Union. But none of this is a new. Discussion of immigration is as old as the movement of people itself. And that phenomenon is a perpetual and persistent part of a very long history.

April 2016 marks the fifth centenary of the publication of the first edition of Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso. To celebrate this landmark centenary a team of international scholars will discuss Ariosto’s poem through a consideration of editions and translations; critical reception; rewritings and adaptations in different media, in particular opera.

Understanding the Qur’an’s intimate engagement with Biblical and Biblically based traditions has re-emerged as a pivotal scholarly challenge. The conference will gather an interdisciplinary group of specialists in order to create a comprehensive image of the current state of our knowledge about the Qur’an’s appropriation of Biblical traditions.

Held over two days, meetings that have been formally adopted as British Academy Conferences provide an opportunity for leading and emerging scholars to examine innovative themes in the humanities and social sciences, delivering events of lasting academic significance.

A meeting of minds – help shape the future of your field with the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences. Call for proposals for British Academy Conferences to be held in 2019.