On Monday 25th April, Third and Fourth form and LVI scholars and exhibitioners alongside a group of Wellington Academy students, attended the Wellington Scholars’ Conference. Organised by the LVI Scholars Conference committee, students attended lectures by university professors and engaged in interdisciplinary debate and discussion on the question ‘What does it mean to be human?’
Speakers included foremost historian Professor Joanna Bourke (University of London) who has written extensively on the human condition, including among other titles: What it Means to be Human: Reflections from 1791 to the present (2011); The Story of Pain: from Prayer to Painkillers (2014); Wounding the World: How Military Violence and Warplay Invade our Lives (2015); and Deep Violence: Military Violence, Warplay and the Social Life of Weapons (2015).
Also speaking was scientist and ordained Anglican priest, Professor Michael Reiss, author of, among others, Improving Nature? The Science and Ethics of Genetic Engineering (2010) and Darwin-Inspired Learning (2014) and psychologist Dr Amanda Clark, who during her varied career as a psychologist, has worked at Broadmoor.
Working together in groups, students found that the question as to what it means to be human became increasingly complex as the day wore on! Whereas at the start of the day, students were concerned with emotion and differences between humans and animals, by the end of the day it was harder to distinguish humans from animals or indeed robots!
Photograph: Professor Joanna Bourke