Spring 2011 | Public lectures and events | Video

Contributor(s): Omar Nashabe | The indictment of the STL in the Hariri assassination case is expected to be filed soon. However there are suspicions that the judicial process has been politically manipulated. This lecture will attempt to show that there have been serious flaws in the STL as an international mechanism for achieving justice. Omar Nashabe received a PhD in Criminal Justice; he serves as editor of the justice section of al-Akhbar newspaper and advisor on human rights and prisons to the Lebanese government. In 2007 he published The Roumieh Prison, if it could speak [in Arabic] with Dar as-Saqi, Beirut/London.

Contributor(s): Dr René Castro | René Castro is the Minister for Foreign Affairs for Costa Rica. He obtained his Masters and PhD from Harvard University. His research focused on the design and development of an environmentally sustainable economy and management of natural resources. He had previously obtained a BSc in civil engineering from Universidad de Costa Rica. Dr Castro has also been Minister of Energy and the Environment, Vice Minister of the Interior, Director of the National Transport Institute, President of the Municipal Council for San Jose. Dr Castro led the Costa Rican delegations to the Biodiversity, Ozone and Climate Change Conventions, negotiated Costa Rica’s debt-for-nature swaps with Spain and Canada, and has served as advisor to other countries in their own negotiations. He was in charge of the first carbon trading transaction done in the world. Dr Castro is a professor at INCAE, and has lectured at Harvard, Columbia, Yale, MIT in the USA and at EHT in Switzerland and other universities around the world. He is the author of various books and articles, both in Spanish and English, on the relationship between the environment, politics and infrastructure.

Contributor(s): Professor Mary Evans | This lecture explores changing vocabularies of feminism and the possibilities of a new political language and new forms of politics. Mary Evans is LSE centennial professor attached to the Gender Institute from 2010 to 2013.

Contributor(s): Professor Sharon Zukin | Renowned sociologist Sharon Zukin will discuss her latest book, The Naked City: the death and life of authentic urban places, which explores the gentrification of cities. Sharon Zukin is professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and City University Graduate Center.

Contributor(s): Professor Danny Quah | Does economic strength determine global power? How long can under-performing economies continue to claim world political leadership? Danny Quah presents the arguments and evaluates the evidence. Danny Quah is professor of economics at LSE and co-director of LSE Global Governance.

Contributor(s): Pierre Calame, Judy El-Bushra, Dr Hakan Seckinelgin | The 2011 Yearbook provides a critical examination of the ways global civil society promotes and delivers social justice. How does the 'global' make a difference to traditional concepts of social justice? Pierre Calame is director of the Fondation Charles Léopold Mayer for the Progress of Humankind. Judy El-Bushra is Programme Manager of Africa Great Lakes Region and Researcher at International Alert. Hakan Seckinelgin is a lecturer in international social policy in the department of social policy at LSE.

Contributor(s): Professor Hugh Beale | A European Commission consultation paper suggests a single 'European' law of contract for businesses and consumers across Europe, which might supplant English law. Why? Hugh Beale is professor of law at the University of Warwick. He was appointed Honorary QC in 2002.

Contributor(s): Dr John Chalcraft, Professor Daniel Hochhauser | This is a joint event hosted by the LSESU Palestine Society and LSESU Israel Society, this debate will be centred around the following motion: "This house believes in an academic boycott of Israel". John Chalcraft graduated with a starred first in history (M.A. Hons) from Gonville and Caius college Cambridge in 1992. He then did post-graduate work at Harvard, Oxford and New York University, from where he received his doctorate with distinction in the modern history of the Middle East in January 2001. He held a Research Fellowship at Caius college (1999-2000) and was a Lecturer in Modern Middle Eastern History in the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at Edinburgh University from 2000-05. He is currently reader in the History and Politics of Empire/Imperialism in the Department of Government at the LSE. He is interested in the popular history of the Middle East and the global South, migration, uneven capitalism, imperialism, political contention, and counterhegemony. Daniel Hochhauser is Kathleen Ferrier Professor of Medical Oncology at UCL. He is a consultant medical oncologist at UCLH specialising in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancer.

Contributor(s): Jeremy Hunt MP | At a time when there are major media policy decisions being made in government, the secretary of state will outline his vision of the creative industry landscape in conversation with leading media commentator Raymond Snoddy. Jeremy Hunt is UK Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport. He was elected as MP for South West Surrey in May 2005. He was formerly Shadow Culture Secretary (2007-2010) and Shadow Minister for Disabled People (2005 - 2007). Before his election as an MP, Mr Hunt ran his own educational publishing business, Hotcourses. He also set up a charity to help AIDS orphans in Africa in which he continues to play an active role.

Contributor(s): Professor Steven Shapin | A survey and interpretation of historically changing ideas about food, knowledge, and the self. Steven Shapin is Franklin L Ford Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University.