Harriet and Helen Memorial Lectures

The Harriet and Helen Memorial Lecture is an annual lecture held by the UCL Philosophy Department on topics relating to underrepresented groups in the discipline.

The lecture is named in honor of John Stuart Mill's wife and step-daughter, who contributed to John Stuart Mill's work both by conducting the domestic labour required to sustain his work, and by significantly influencing the content of Mill's thought.

In its various chapters around the world, including at UCL, MAP aims to examine and address issues of minority participation in academic philosophy. The name of this lecture is a reminder that there have always been invisible minority philosophers; people contributing to philosophical inquiry and debate, even when their names and contributions are obscured.

Whoever, either now if hereafter, may think of me and my work I have done, must never forget that it is the product not of one intellect and conscience but of three, the least considerable of whom, and above all the least original, is the one whose name is attached to it. (John Stuart Mill, 1873)

Here is a list of previous Harriet & Helen lectures:

2025: Dr. Matilda Carter 'Mental Disability and the Politics of Difference'
2021: Professor Robin Dembroff, 'Putting Real Men On Top'
2020: Professor Amia Srinivasan, 'Talking to my Students about Pornography'
2019: Dr Nina Power, 'Philosophy as Self-Defence: how knowing your own mind protects yourself and others'
2018: Dr Sabina Lovibond, '"The Sickness of a Time": Social Pathology and Therapeutic Philosophy'