Curated by Dr Jacqueline Riding, Basic Instincts explores Georgian attitudes to love, desire and female respectability through the radical paintings of Joseph Highmore. A highly successful artist and Governor of London’s Foundling Hospital, Joseph Highmore (1692-1780) is best known as a portrait painter of the Georgian middle class.

The Foundling Museum displays a series of five previously unseen sculptures by acclaimed artist Rachel Kneebone, providing a resonant counterpoint to their exhibition Basic Instincts. Rachel Kneebone is a British artist whose intricate works address and question the human condition.

During the German occupation of the Channel Islands 1940-1945, many thousands of people were persecuted, including slave labourers, political prisoners and Jews. Their story has been largely omitted from a British narrative of ‘standing alone’ against Nazism and celebrations of British victory over Germany.

This November Springer Nature is proud to partner with the Economic and Social Research Council to invite you to their launch of the 15th annual ESRC Festival of Social Science. Looking at the important role of research beyond academia, the speakers will be discussing how research can address real-world challenges including climate change, economics, race, migration, social health and interdisciplinarity.