Contributor(s): Professor Diane Elson, Professor Ruth Lister | With the arrival of The Women’s Library at LSE, the Gender Institute will be running a series of 'Conversations' for which audience participation is invited. Money and material resources are unequally distributed throughout the world. This conversation discusses the part that gender plays in this universal pattern and the ways in which gendered financial inequality can be challenged. Diane Elson is professor of sociology at the Unive...
Mar 03, 2014•1 hr 27 min
Contributor(s): Christine Whitehead, Kath Scanlon | LSE London's 2014 Lent term seminar series begins on the 20th of January. Speakers from within and beyond LSE will focus on London's current economic and political environment London, covering relevant issues such as the private rented sector, the distribution of poverty and the densification effects of international migrants. Presenters include academics and practitioners from relevant fields. Each seminar is chaired by one of the members of L...
Mar 03, 2014•1 hr 13 min
Contributor(s): Tobias Hill, Michael Longley, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Louisa Young | One hundred years after the outbreak of the Great War, Sebastian Faulks, whose novel Birdsong has sold over 2.5 million copies, introduces four writers, and the pieces of First World War literature that mean most to them. The poet and fiction writer Tobias Hill, described by A.S. Byatt as one of the ‘most original and interesting’ novelists writing in Britain today, looks at Alain Fournier’s Le Grand Meaulnes. T...
Mar 01, 2014•1 hr 30 min
Contributor(s): Professor Josh Cohen, Dr Ellen Helsper, Professor Andrew Murray | This panel will discuss where our modern understanding of privacy has come from, what our rights to privacy are in a digital age, and what effect this is having on younger generations, who seem to live their lives in the public domain. Josh Cohen is professor of modern literary theory at Goldsmiths, University of London and a psychoanalyst in private practice. He is the author of books and articles on modern litera...
Mar 01, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Contributor(s): Professor Trevor Cox, Caroline Devine, Aleksander Kolkowski | In a world dominated by the visual, we can all benefit from opening our ears to the glorious cacophony around us, which can enrich our understanding of ourselves and our environment. Trevor Cox (@trevor_cox) is professor of acoustic engineering at the University of Salford and president of the Institute of Acoustics. He has presented numerous science radio documentaries and has written for the New Scientist. He is an a...
Mar 01, 2014•1 hr 27 min
Contributor(s): Polly Courtney, Isabelle de Cat, Jonathan Gibbs | Fiction publishing has long held that an eye catching cover is key to successful sales. But academic publishing struggles to reflect complex contents through one stand-out image on a book cover. The growth of e-books and online publishing in many ways makes the cover design of a book more important, and sharing a cover on social media may give it more prominence than it has ever had. So this panel asks how crucial is how a book co...
Mar 01, 2014•1 hr 22 min
Contributor(s): Michael Rosen | How on Earth did we fix upon our letters, what do they really mean, and how did we come to write them down in the first place? In Alphabetical Michael Rosen takes you on an unforgettable adventure through the history of the alphabet in twenty-six vivid chapters, fizzing with personal anecdotes and fascinating facts. Starting with the mysterious Phoenicians and how sounds first came to be written down, he races on to show how nonsense poems work, pins down the stra...
Mar 01, 2014•1 hr 32 min
Contributor(s): Giovanni Frazzetto | Is neuroscience better than philosophy to cope with anxiety in the face of the world’s economic crisis? What can a brain scan or a Caravaggio painting reveal about the deep seat of guilt? Can ancient remedies fight sadness more effectively than anti-depressants? What do poetry and joy have in common? And how can experiments in mice teach us how to find a partner? We live at a time when neuroscience is unlocking the secrets of our emotions. But can the neural ...
Mar 01, 2014•1 hr 16 min
Contributor(s): Adrian Searle | At a time when criticism fragments into a mosaic of the theoretical and the anaemic, into promotion, obscurantism and flim-flam, the extinction of the broadsheet critic looms ever closer. Yet there has never been more writing about art, and more of a readership for it. Nor has art ever had such a large audience. As mega-galleries rise, and auctions and art fairs parade a vulgar carnival of wealth and consumption, Searle asks who needs critics, who listens, why loo...
Mar 01, 2014•1 hr 31 min
Contributor(s): James Owen | In this session, historian and journalist James Owen will look at ways of approaching different types of non-fiction writing. Do you want to research or write your family’s story? Or your own? Are you a budding biographer or diarist? Find out how to begin and how to get the most out of the new resources available to would-be writers. James Owen is an author and journalist. His first book, A Serpent in Eden (Little, Brown, 2005), told the story of a famous unsolved mu...
Mar 01, 2014•1 hr 21 min
Contributor(s): AS Byatt, Professor Mary Evans, Alex Preston | Does this year’s awarding of the Nobel prize for literature to a short-story writer mark a revival of the short story’s reputation, long undervalued in this country? This panel will celebrate the unique qualities of the short story form and ask why historically it has been seen as a predominantly female genre. AS Byatt is renowned internationally for her novels and short stories. Her novels include the Booker Prize-Winning Possession...
Mar 01, 2014•1 hr 29 min
Contributor(s): Dr Arthur Bradley, Kenan Malik | Sensationalist accounts of the relationship between religion and secularism tend to depict the two as locked in combat, profoundly incompatible in their worldviews. By addressing the concept of ‘Christian Europe’, this discussion will explore the connections between the Christian legacy and the Enlightenment values which underpin secularism. In so doing, it will aim to provide both a more nuanced account of the relationship between religion and se...
Mar 01, 2014•1 hr 26 min
Contributor(s): Jonathan Gibbs | Where does life end and fiction begin? It is a never-ending debate, but there has been much discussion recently of the strange, delicate and sometimes confusing relationship between the writer and their novel. Where once the semi-autobiographical novel was a staple of the form, now people talk of the novelised memoir, or (as in Sheila Heti) the 'novel from life'. At the same time, the centenary of the First World War throws into relief the effects that our ever-m...
Mar 01, 2014•25 min
Contributor(s): Mary Midgley, Jonathan Rée, Professor Raymond Tallis | What is the self? Should we turn to philosophy, psychology or science in order to better understand it? Does the self even exist? In this panel, three thinkers respond to scientific claims that the self is an illusion, exposing the philosophical problems which such claims conceal. Returning us instead to the experience of selfhood, the speakers will discuss alternatives both to reductive scientific accounts and to traditional...
Feb 28, 2014•1 hr 26 min
Contributor(s): Professor Judith Rees, Richard Hermer QC, Alice Stapleton, Richard Gordon QC, Zahra Al-Rikabi, Professor Oriana Bandiera, Shiv Malik, Emma Soames, Bob Ward | The post-war generation stands accused of wrecking the world for the generations that follow them. It is those younger people - the victims of this excess - who are the prosecuting authorities in this unique legal proceedings. The charge sheet is long. The Baby Boomers may have signed the Universal Declaration of Human Right...
Feb 28, 2014•2 hr 22 min
Contributor(s): Bridget Minamore, Chimene Suleyman | Join LSE Students' Union and LSESU Literature Society in hosting Bridget Minamore and Chimene Suleyman, two members of London's leading spoken word poetry collective Point Blank Poets. In an evening of poetry, Bridget and Chimene will be performing their work and inspiring the audience to engage with social issues through the power of words. The audience is warmly invited to participate, as we explore the power of poetry in our complex politic...
Feb 28, 2014•1 hr 24 min
Contributor(s): Dr Alex Gillespie, Professor Philip Horne | Following on from last years’ dialogue, this event will draw on readings from the work of William and Henry James to explore the links between psychology and fiction. From insights into self-reflection in the stream of consciousness to questions of religiosity, ghosts and the supernatural, Henry and William produced a combined body of work that continues to inspire. Including readings from the work of William and Henry, this event will ...
Feb 27, 2014•1 hr 24 min
Contributor(s): Andrew Davies, Penny Woolcock | Gangs are a familiar subject for films, books and news media. The panel will explore why gangs are a favoured subject of film and print, how they are portrayed, and how far these representations can be considered accurate or 'realistic', and how these presentations in turn affect public perceptions of young peoples' lives. Andrew Davies (@AD1878) teaches modern social history at the University of Liverpool. His books include The Gangs of Manchester...
Feb 27, 2014•1 hr 29 min
Contributor(s): Professor Marianna Fotaki, Professor Steve Fuller, Professor Yiannis Gabriel, David Morgan | This session will look at how we can understand the apparent growth in narcissism and withdrawals from intimacy in a digital age. From the impact of Facebook and online porn on sex to how whether we’re losing the capacity to be close to the people we work with. Join us to explore whether we’re all turning into narcissists or can we do something to salvage intimacy with other people? Maria...
Feb 27, 2014•1 hr 22 min
Contributor(s): Professor Michael Cox, Dr John Hutchinson, Professor Margaret MacMillan | This multi-disciplinary panel discussion will reflect on the consequences of the First World War and the value of remembrance, including the impact on international relations, the effect on nationalism and the home front, and what photography and narration of the war can tell us about our society. Michael Cox is founding co-director of LSE IDEAS and professor of international relations at LSE. John Hutchins...
Feb 26, 2014•1 hr 28 min
Contributor(s): Richard Bronk, Professor Roger Kneebone, Dr Felicity Mellor | This panel discussion will examine the role of metaphors in scientific thinking and in the presentation of science. It will ask whether the use of metaphors leads to unnecessary distortions in analysis or is instead an essential part of scientific thinking. Do we need to deconstruct the hidden metaphors in scientific analysis in order to uncover hidden frames? Or should we see metaphorical thinking as a major tool in s...
Feb 26, 2014•1 hr 28 min
Contributor(s): Dr Ethan Ilzetzki | This talk discusses what is known about the effects of austerity and fiscal stimulus on economic activity. Ethan Ilzetzki is an economics lecturer at LSE. His research focuses on the effects of fiscal policy and the role of politics in shaping fiscal policy.
Feb 26, 2014•1 hr 5 min
Contributor(s): Professor Mabel Berezin | This lecture will explore the effect on the crisis and EU institutional action on public opinion, in particular the dynamics between the former and the growth of illiberal nationalism. Mabel Berezin is department chair and associate professor at Cornell University.
Feb 26, 2014•1 hr 28 min
Contributor(s): Vernal Scott | Vernal Scott, author of the new autobiography, God’s Other Children - A London Memoir, will look back at the impact of HIV and AIDS during the height of the challenge in the 80s and 90s. Vernal Scott is an out Christian gay dad, diversity and human rights consultant and HIV/AIDS activist with over twenty-five years of experience working on the full range of equality/diversity characteristics. Carolyn Solomon-Pryce is equality and diversity manager at LSE. This even...
Feb 26, 2014•1 hr 9 min
Contributor(s): Dr Lina Khatib | Qatar has established a reputation for adopting a foreign policy based on pragmatism. However, the geopolitical landscape in the Middle East has recently witnessed a number of key changes that are recalibrating the distribution of power in the region. Are those changes testing Qatar's pragmatism? Is the Middle East witnessing the birth of a new political order?
Feb 26, 2014•39 min
Contributor(s): Richard Ormond, Rachel Wagstaff | The First World War is arguably the first major conflict to have been waged after the advent of mass levels of literacy with the Education Act of 1870. While literature produced by combatants in the Napoleonic, Crimean and Boer wars is relatively modest in volume, there is a veritable plethora, especially of poetry, from 1914-1918. By contrast dramatic and prose responses to the Great War largely came somewhat later, and, with the exception of Fo...
Feb 26, 2014•1 hr 23 min
Contributor(s): Alice Arnold, Charlie Condou, Evan Davis, Stella Duffy, Claire Harvey, QBoy | For many lesbian, gay and bisexual people, coming out to family and friends can be a frightening moment in their lives. Our panel of well-known figures will add their own coming out stories to a collective narrative which hopes to make the coming out experience a positive one for future generations. These stories and others are featured in Alison Stokes’ edited collection It’s OK to be Gay. Alice Arnold...
Feb 26, 2014•1 hr 24 min
Contributor(s): Professor Gilles Kepel | Far from the misconceptions of the "Arab Spring" or the "Islamist Autumn", the upheavals of the Arab world over the last three years unfolded along a number of lines of understanding - some local, others regional or global - that were intricately mixed. Professor Gilles Kepel, who has extensively travelled the Middle East since Spring 2011 and met with many of the conflicting actors of the crisis, from Tunisia to Syria and the Arabian peninsula, introduce...
Feb 25, 2014•1 hr 32 min
Contributor(s): Melvyn Bragg, Dr Andrea Capstick, Professor Justine Schneider | Dementia “continues to be surrounded by fear and stigma … Nearly half of UK adults acknowledge that public understanding of dementia is limited, and 73 percent of them do not believe society is geared up to deal with the condition” according to the Department of Health, who also say a key step involves “raising public understanding and challenging attitudes which may inhibit people with dementia living life to the fu...
Feb 25, 2014•1 hr 36 min
Contributor(s): Rohan Silva | To mark the completion of the Saw Swee Hock Student Centre, the first brand new building on campus for more than 40 years, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the LSE Students’ Union have organised a series of ‘in conversation’ events with some of the School's distinguished alumni. These events will take place in the Saw Swee Hock Student Centre and will be open to LSE students, alumni and staff. This event will see Rohan Silva in conversa...
Feb 25, 2014•1 hr 9 min
