Slade Lecture 2026: Urban Change and Representation - Lecture 1

Nineteenth-Century Paris: Memories and Counter-Memories

Esther da Costa Meyer

5pm Wednesday 21 January

Auditorium, St John's College, University of Oxford

(Free Admission)

The radical urban transformation of Paris under Napoleon III left a swath of destruction to make way for new boulevards and upscale buildings. Demolitions also uncovered archaeological ruins and other disquieting finds that challenged the city’s views of itself and of its history.