"Alcohol Regulation, Historical Change and the Contemporaneity of the Non-Contemporaneous": A Faculty Inaugural Lecture by Prof. Henry Yeomans

Join us at the second lecture in the Faculty of Social Sciences Inaugural Lecture Series!

We are delighted to announce that the second lecture in the 2024-25 Faculty Inaugural Lecture Series will be given by Professor Henry Yeomans from the School of Law.

Professor Yeomans is a historical criminologist who specialises in the study of alcohol regulation. His research concentrates on understandings of drinking, the regulation of drinking, and the relationship between the two. His research is interdisciplinary and operates at the interface between criminology, history, sociology and law, as well as borrowing concepts and insights from political science and economics.

The Lecture

Alcohol Regulation, Historical Change and the Contemporaneity of the Non-Contemporaneous

Abstract

Alcohol regulation in England and Wales – which involves licensing, policing, taxation, public health and more – is often said to be messy or complex, and sometimes appears flatly contradictory in its aims and effects. This inaugural professorial lecture explores how much of this messiness can be understood as an instance of the ‘contemporaneity of the non-contemporaneous’ (see: Koselleck, 2018: 91). Pivoting away from social science’s well-documented tendency to describe historical change as occurring in rapid, radical bursts followed by periods of stability (Hutchinson, 2006; Savage, 2009; Rubin, 2016; Churchill, 2017), it takes inspiration from the emerging use of historical institutionalist and Koselleckian approaches within historical criminology, both of which, in different ways, emphasises the plurality of historical time. It shows that much of the messiness of how drinking is governed in England and Wales is the result of the simultaneous co-existence of multiple forms of regulation that have non-contemporaneous origins and discrete trajectories of historical development. It thus offers a fresh perspective on the historical development and contemporary character of alcohol regulation as well as a loose conceptual framework that could be used more widely within criminology and other social sciences.

We would like to welcome everyone – be they colleagues, postgraduate researchers, students, alumni or visitors – to this lecture celebrating the achievement and research contributions of Professor Yeomans.

The lecture will take place on Wednesday 23 October 2024 at 16:00 on the Western Campus at the University of Leeds in the Liberty Building (Moot Court) LT (1.28). The lecture will take place from 16:00-17:00 including introductions and a Q&A session, after which there will be a drinks reception. 

To register your attendance at this lecture, please complete this short registration form.

If you have any queries about this lecture, or about the series, please direct them via email to Izzy Jenkinson (Faculty Events Coordinator) at I.K.S.Jenkinson@leeds.ac.uk.