St Mary’s Hosts Lecture Exploring Clothing within the Law

Following the successful launch of the Centre for Law and Culture at St Mary’s University, Twickenham in June, the first in a series of free public lectures is being held at the Strawberry Hill campus on Thursday 2^nd October. The Centre will welcome Prof Gary Watt (Professor of Law, University of Warwick) who will deliver his lecture, ‘Naked and Veiled: Law’s Culture of Confrontation’. During the talk, Prof Watt will discuss the issues clothing and how civil authorities respond to this within the law, such as the French authorities ruling to request Muslim women to remove their veil to give evidence in a trial. The relationship between dress and political life dates back to the earliest founding of myths and civil society. Using the cultural causes of confrontation, the lecture will reveal that the law demonstrates anxiety when individuals attempt to perform their own identity through personal modes of dress and undress. The free lecture is open to the public without prior registration. It starts at 6pm on Thursday 2^nd October at St Mary’s Strawberry Hill campus. For more information please contact Dr Thomas Giddens on thomas.giddens@stmarys.ac.uk.