Contributor(s): Dr. Laura Bear, David Lan, Tim Parks | A reading from Tim Parks' latest novel Dreams of Rivers and Seas followed by a discussion on the anthropological themes explored within it.
Contributor(s): Jane Duran, John Mole, Robert Minhinnick, Jo Shapcott | A high profile poetry event reflecting on the choices that we all make in our lives, whether social, economic, moral or spiritual, featuring a great line-up of some of the UK's finest poets.
Contributor(s): Kapka Kassabova, Mustafa Kör, Naema Tahir | The migrant intellectual, writes Edward Said, has 'double perspective'. He or she is in a constant dialogue with his or her old and new home. Their writings often convey both a sense of loss and yearning but also display a richness wrought by the integration of multiple cultural identities, unique experiences and diverse modes of expression. These authors will explore what is it like to be migrant writers in their respective societies: ...
Contributor(s): Professor Lord Anthony Giddens | Political action and intervention, on local, national and international levels, is going to have a decisive effect on whether or not we can limit global warming, as well as how we adapt to that already occurring. At the moment, however, Anthony Giddens argues controversially, we do not have a systematic politics of climate change.
Contributor(s): Alistair Beaton, Martin Rowson | Alistair Beaton is Britain's leading writer of political satire. Martin Rowson is an award-winning political cartoonist whose work appears regularly in The Guardian, The Times, The Independent on Sunday, the Daily Mirror, the Scotsman, Tribune, Index on Censorship and Granta.
Contributor(s): Iain Sinclair, Jerry White, Patrick Wright | Iain Sinclair is a writer, poet and film-maker and widely regarded as one of London's greatest chroniclers. Jerry White has been writing about London for thirty years. His London in the Twentieth Century: A City and Its People won the Wolfson History Prize 2001. Patrick Wright is a writer with an interest in the cultural and political dimensions of modern history. He is the author of a number of highly acclaimed and sometimes also revi...
Contributor(s): Ben Okri | Poet in the City and LSE are honoured to be holding a special showcase event with the world famous poet and writer Ben Okri. Born in 1959 in Minna, northern Nigeria, he became world famous as a writer in 1991 when he won the Booker prize for his novel The Famished Road. Set in a Nigerian village, this was the first in a trilogy of successful novels about Azaro, a spirit child. In all he has published eight novels, and won countless awards and honours for his writing. H...
Contributor(s): Antony Gormley, Professor Richard Sennett, Neven Sidor | By exploring the experiential and social impacts of creating spaces for public engagement, contemplation and education - including the Fourth Plinth at Trafalgar Square and the LSE's New Academic Building - an artist, an architect and a sociologist discuss the intellectual practice of 'designing spaces for thought'.
Contributor(s): Hans Ulrich Obrist, Adrian Searle | Hans Ulrich Obrist was born in Zurich in May 1968. He joined the Serpentine Gallery as Co-director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects in April 2006. Prior to this he was Curator of the Musie d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris since 2000, as well as curator of museum in progress, Vienna, from 1993-2000.
Contributor(s): Mohsin Hamid, David Hare, Boyd Tonkin | This event marks the launch of the LSE Space for Thought Literary Weekend, the LSE's first ever Literary Festival, celebrating the completion of the New Academic Building. A discussion about not only the links between the social sciences and the arts, but the role of the arts in the LSE's past, present and future. Is literature relevant today?
Contributor(s): Morris Gleitzman, Elizabeth Laird, Anthony McGowan, Patrick Ness, Meg Rosoff | The culmination of a creative-writing competition for London state schools, this panel discussion looks at how authors find inspiration in contemporary social issues- from gang culture and knife crime, to the more timeless problems of being a teenager. The panel of popular and award-winning teen authors have dealt with topics as wide ranging as Ethiopian street children and Nazi Germany, with a mixture...
Contributor(s): Karl Otto Pöhl | How has the euro performed over its first ten years, and how will it cope with the strains caused by the current financial and economic crisis? Karl Otto Pvhl was president of the German Bundesbank from 1980-91, and played a leading role in the preparation of the European single currency.
Contributor(s): Hazel Blears MP | The tragic events of 7/7 illustrated the threat to our society posed by violent extremism. Preventing it is one of the defining challenges of our age. Hazel Blears will explore the tough choices government has to make - how to empower new voices to join the debate, how to support people standing up for shared values and how to equip communities with the skills, confidence, and resilience they need to be part of the solution. In June 2007, Hazel Blears became the...
Contributor(s): Pauline Tiffen, Rajah Banerjee, Kate Sebag, Katie Stafford, Dyborn Chinonga | The idea of fair trade has become increasingly popular amongst consumers and some producers. But who does fair-trade really benefit? The producers? The consumers? The Farmers? These are some of the issues that the panel will debate.
Contributor(s): Professor Peter Onuf | Professor Onuf explores the development of the elusive and controversial ideal of democracy from Thomas Jefferson's revolutionary writings to Abraham Lincoln's great effort to vindicate republican principles in the American Civil War. Peter Onuf is Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor of History at the University of Virginia and Harmsworth Professor of American History at the University of Oxford.
Contributor(s): Joschka Fischer | Joschka Fischer was Germany's foreign minister and vice-chancellor from 1998 to 2005.
Contributor(s): Professor Fred Halliday | Thirty years after the fall of the Shah of Iran and the advent of Ayatollah Khomeini to power, the Iranian revolution continues to exert a dynamic ideological and political influence across the Middle East. In a retrospective analysis of the revolutionary period itself, some of whose decisive moments he witnessed at first hand, and of the subsequent development of the Islamic Republic Professor Fred Halliday will attempt to set these dramatic events in c...
Contributor(s): Alex Brummer, Vince Cable MP, Evan Davis, Gillian Tett, Professor Willem Buiter | This event will discuss the reporting leading up to the global credit crash of 2008. Alex Brummer has been City Editor for the Daily Mail since 2000. He has over thirty years' experience in the media. Vincent Cable is the Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer and speaks for his party on issues of Finance, European Economic and Monetary Union and the City. Evan Davis is a presenter of B...
Contributor(s): Dr Gezim Alpion | Having identified some of the reasons which made Sister Teresa leave the Loreto Order in 1948, Alpion approaches this painful but momentous departure from a sociological perspective through biographical and historical contextualization and in the light of the work of Marx, Freud, Durkheim on the sociology of religion and career.
Contributor(s): Professor Marco Sassòli | Professor Sassoli will explore the relationship between International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law during non-international armed conflict, by applying the lex specialis principle. Marco Sassrli is professor of international law at the University of Geneva and associate professor at the Universities of Quebec and Laval.
Contributor(s): Professor Jean Tirole | This is the third annual Coase-Phillips lecture, hosted jointly by Economica and the Department of Economics. Jean Tirole is one of the world's most eminent economists working in the fields of industrial organisation, finance and game theory.
Contributor(s): Sir John Gieve | The past 18 months have been a tumultuous time for the financial sector and the global economy more generally. In this speech, his last as Deputy Governor at the Bank of England, Sir John Gieve will discuss some of the key lessons for public policy and outline some potential improvements that could be made to the framework and tools available to policy makers. Sir John Gieve was appointed Deputy Governor in January 2006. In addition to his membership of the Monet...
Contributor(s): Judge Sir Christopher Greenwood | While each system of national law seeks to regulate affairs within only one society, international law concerns the entire world. Yet it has almost none of the methods of enforcement available to national legal systems. So, can it change the world? Christopher Greenwood was elected a judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in November 2008. He is an authority in international law who taught at LSE for 12 years, and was a practising barr...
Contributor(s): Ambassador Muhamet Hamiti | Dr Muhamet Hamiti is the current and the first ambassador of the Republic of Kosova to the UK. Born in Podujeva in Kosovo in 1964, Ambassador Hamiti earned his BA in English Language and Literature at the University of Pristina in 1987; earned his MA in English Literature at the University of Zagreb (Croatia) in 1990, and his PhD in English literature at the University of Pristina in 2006 with a thesis on the prose fiction of James Joyce and Joseph Con...
Contributor(s): Professor Nicholas Barr | In this lunchtime series lectures, a selection of LSE's academics from across the spectrum of the social sciences explain the latest thinking on how social scientists work to address the critical problems of the day. They survey the leading ideas and contributions made by their discipline, explain the types of problems that are addressed and the tools that are used, and explore the kinds of solutions proposed. Nicholas Barr is professor of public economi...
Contributor(s): Professor Tim Besley, Professor Francesco Caselli, Professor Chris, Professor Danny Quah | A panel discussion on the current global economic crisis: its origins, transmission, and possible impact and resolution. Tim Besley, Francesco Caselli, Chris Pissarides and Danny Quah are all economics professors at LSE.
Contributor(s): Harriet Lamb, Adam Brett, Dr Teddy Brett | Only 14 years ago you couldn't buy a Fairtrade product in Britain. Today almost £500m worth of goods bearing the Fairtrade mark are sold annually, including tea, coffee, bananas, cotton, flowers and even footballs. At the heart of this revolution in our shops is the Fairtrade Foundation, which was established in 1992 by CAFOD, Christian Aid, New Consumer, Oxfam, Traidcraft Exchange and the World Development Movement. Starting small but w...
Contributor(s): Vladimir Yakunin | Vladimir I. Yakunin, president of "Russian Railways" will deliver a speech covering three main topics in the context of his company: economic science, market awareness and development.
Contributor(s): Abdullah Bishara | Significant political reform processes are underway in all six member-states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). In this lecture the first secretary-general of the GCC will reflect on their progress and future prospects. Abdullah Bishara was secretary-general of the GCC from 1981-93.
Contributor(s): Professor Philippe Van Parijs | Is democracy sustainable in a multilingual polity? Or should appropriate institutions make democracy compatible with multilingualism? Which of these views does the experience of the European Union support? Or is the EU irrelevant to this dispute as English fast becomes Europe's lingua franca? Philippe Van Parijs directs the Hoover Chair in Economic and Social Ethics at the University of Louvain and is visiting professor at the Philosophy Department...
