The Department of Continuing Education has set up the Oxford Discovery Programme to supply guest lecturers on the £550m ship's maiden voyage to the Madeiras, Canaries, Caribbean and Fort Lauderdale - which will set sail from Southampton on Monday.
Director Caroline Scallan said: "We were approached by Cunard to provide lecturers for passengers." Oxford academics who will give talks include Barry Cunliffe, professor of archaeology, who will speak on Tales of the Atlantis; former director of the Natural History Museum, Keith Thomson, on Fossils, Fakes, and Forgeries, and current affairs don Angus Hawkins on Cool Britannia.
The Oxford Discovery Programme has also recruited well-known people from outside the university to entertain and inform well-heeled passengers. Ms Scallan, who will be aboard the 150,000-tonne QM2 on her maiden voyage to coordinate and organise the lecture programme, added: "Kate Adie, presenter of BBC Radio 4's From Our Own Correspondent and, of course, for many years herself a war correspondent will give a lecture called From Corsets to Camouflage. And Dr Valerie Steel of the Institute of Fashion in New York will also lecture, as will Colin White of the Greenwich Maritime Museum. He will speak about Lord Nelson since this year is the bicentenary of his death."
The Oxford Discovery Programme will also be responsible for supplying on-board lecturers throughout the year - not only for the maiden voyage. The ship was officially named by the Queen on Thursday. It was the first time she had named a Cunard ship since the launch in 1967 of the Queen Elizabeth II, whose Southampton to New York service will be taken over by the 2,620-passenger QM2 in April.
chris.koenig@nqo.com