Laughter and civil conversation: from Castiglione to Hobbes

Professor Quentin Skinner FBA, Barber Beaumont Professor of the Humanities, Queen Mary, University of London.

Quentin Skinner joined Queen Mary as Barber Beaumont Professor of the Humanities in 2008.  He began his career at the University of Cambridge, where he was appointed a Fellow of Christ’s College in 1962 and a Lecturer in the Faculty of History in 1965.  He was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton between 1974 and 1979, after which he returned to Cambridge, where he was Professor of Political Science between 1979 and 1996, and Regius Professor of History between 1996 and 2008.  He has also held visiting appointments in Australia, Belgium, France, Germany and the United States.  In 1999 he served as Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, and in 2001 he was awarded the University’s teaching prize.