Talk of the Week: Isabel Mares on The Historical Origins of Tolerance

The Oxford Blue’s Talk of the Week is here to cure your fifth week blues. Our top recommendation is Isabel Mares on The Historical Origin of Tolerance. Mares, a Professor of Political Science at Yale, will be giving the talk on Monday 23rd May at 14:30 at Christ Church’s Dummett lecture theatre (booking recommended but not compulsory).

Professor Mares will analyse religious conflict and its long-term consequences between 1555 and 1648, looking at over 2000 localities of the Holy Roman Empire. She will use this evidence to demonstrate that people today living in areas which were previously hotspots for the Catholic Counter-Reformation are now more tolerant of migrants and more trusting of their political institutions. Hence, her thesis is that past religious conflict has produced a more tolerant society. Her book, ‘Conditionality and Coercion’, won the 2019 William Riker book award and the 2020 best book award of the European Politics section of the American Political Science Association.

Other talks and events going on in Oxford this week include: