Birkbeck Politics

Conservative politician and former Universities Minister with a reputation as a big thinker David Willetts joins Tony Wright for an evening in conversation at Birkbeck Politics.

As a Conservative MP from 1992–2015 David Willetts served in the Treasury, held several key Shadow Cabinet roles across a number of portfolios and, from 2010–2014, he was Universities Minister – the man responsible for changes to tuition fees and other reforms in the higher education sector. He is also a significant thinker and policy analyst, the theorist of 'civic Conservatism' and the author of a much-discussed controversial book on inter-generational inequality (The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took Their Children’s Future – and Why They Should Give It Back).

Image credit: The Open University

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Professor Anne Phillips delivers the annual Paul Hirst Memorial Lecture at Birkbeck College, 10 February 2016.

In ‘On Humanity in Dark Times’, Hannah Arendt questions the limitations of a humanism that pretends to a commonality while evading the reality of a ‘world become inhuman’. Anne Phillips takes this as a starting point for an exploration of the notion of the human. Though the assertion of our common humanity remains a powerful ethical and political ideal, it too often involves either a substantive account of what it is to be human that then becomes the basis for gradations, or else a stripped down contentless account that denies important differences. Professor Phillips argues that we need to think of the human, rather, as an enactment of and commitment to equality.

Anne Phillips is Graham Wallas Professor of Political Science and Professor of Political and Gender Theory at the London School of Economics. Her work has been influential in questioning liberal positions in contemporary political thought, and provides important insights into feminist theory and politics, democracy, equality, multiculturalism, and difference. She is the author of Engendering Democracy (Polity, 1991), The Politics of Presence (Clarendon Press, 1995), Which Equalities Matter (Polity, 1999), Multiculturalism without Culture (Princeton University Press, 2007), and Our Bodies, Whose Property? (Princeton University Press). Her latest book is The Politics of the Human (Cambridge University Press, 2015).

For more events and updates from the Birkbeck Department of Politics and the Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life, see below.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics

Centre website: www.csbppl.com

Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/

Professor Anne Phillips delivers the annual Paul Hirst Memorial Lecture at Birkbeck College, 10 February 2016.

In ‘On Humanity in Dark Times’, Hannah Arendt questions the limitations of a humanism that pretends to a commonality while evading the reality of a ‘world become inhuman’. Anne Phillips takes this as a starting point for an exploration of the notion of the human. Though the assertion of our common humanity remains a powerful ethical and political ideal, it too often involves either a substantive account of what it is to be human that then becomes the basis for gradations, or else a stripped down contentless account that denies important differences. Professor Phillips argues that we need to think of the human, rather, as an enactment of and commitment to equality.

Anne Phillips is Graham Wallas Professor of Political Science and Professor of Political and Gender Theory at the London School of Economics. Her work has been influential in questioning liberal positions in contemporary political thought, and provides important insights into feminist theory and politics, democracy, equality, multiculturalism, and difference. She is the author of Engendering Democracy (Polity, 1991), The Politics of Presence (Clarendon Press, 1995), Which Equalities Matter (Polity, 1999), Multiculturalism without Culture (Princeton University Press, 2007), and Our Bodies, Whose Property? (Princeton University Press). Her latest book is The Politics of the Human (Cambridge University Press, 2015).

For more events and updates from the Birkbeck Department of Politics and the Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life, see below.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics

Centre website: www.csbppl.com

Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/

Description: Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 12, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr David Styan discuss the Labour Party’s policy on Trident and Parliament’s debate on Donald Trump as an instance of e-democracy in action.

Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 11, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss the postmortem over election polling in 2015 and the governance of Britain’s ailing steel industry.

Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 10, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss George Osborne’s downbeat speech on the economy and David Bowie's political legacy.

Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 9, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss divisions among Labour and the Conservative MPs and the politics of ratifying the Paris Agreement on climate change.

From 2013, Dr Alex Colas presents a roundtable debate on the subject of politics, profits and power, the first in a series titled the Bloomsbury Debates.

Panellists: Fabrice Weissman (Coordinator and Research Director of MSF CRASH); Sarah Collinson (Humanitarian Policy Group ODI London; Stephen Hopgood (Reader in International Relations, SOAS).

Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular.

In episode 8, recorded on 4 December 2015, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss Hilary Benn’s speech in the House of Commons over Syria and John McDonnell’s controversial response to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement.

Subscribe to the Birkbeck Poltics podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/department-politics-birkbeck/id1066955188

Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics

Centre website: www.csbppl.com

Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/

Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular.

In episode 7, recorded on 20 November 2015, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss the risk of mutiny within the Labour Party and among members of the British military over Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Subscribe to the Birkbeck Poltics podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/department-politics-birkbeck/id1066955188

Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics

Centre website: www.csbppl.com

Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/