Spring 2011 | Public lectures and events | Video

Contributor(s): Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Paul McAuley, Ken McLeod | The study of popular culture has always been a feature of the social sciences as well as of the humanities – indeed, the social sciences have often been in advance of the humanities in this area, more willing to recognise the importance of genres that are frowned upon by the arts establishment. This event will bring together a number of writers of imaginative fiction and academics who have written in this field. Jon Courtney Grimwood is an award-winning author, recently novels include Felaheen|, which won the BSFA Award for Best Novel, End of the World Blues, which also won the BSFA award and The Fallen Blade, the first of three novels set in an alternate 15th-century Venice. Ken MacLeod is a Scottish science fiction writer, whose award-winning books include the Engines of Light trilogy and most recently The Restoration Game. Paul McAuley won the Philip K. Dick Award for his first novel and has gone on to win the Arthur C. Clarke, British Fantasy, Sidewise and John W. Campbell Awards. He gave up his position as a research biologist to write full-time. His novels include Fairyland, The Quiet War and Gardens of the Sun. He lives in London. You can find his blog at: http://www.unlikelyworlds.blogspot.com

Contributor(s): David Davis MP, Professor Conor Gearty | For the past twenty weeks Conor Gearty has been writing a collaborative book online, at www.therightsfuture.com, with an essay appearing weekly alongside regular longer items and occasional brief remarks on current affairs, with each post being open for comment from the general public. Many have replied with dedication and commitment. The result is a series of essays, discussions and critical engagements addressing such issues as the meaning of human rights, the relationship between human rights and political action, and the role of religion in human rights. Essays have included 'Do trees have rights?' and 'Up with the Unions!'. The project started with a manifesto and it will end with will end with this debate about what the right or best future for human rights might be. David Davis is Conservative MP for Haltemprice and Howden and is a noted defender of civil liberties. Conor Gearty is professor of human rights law at LSE and was for seven years the director of LSE's centre for the study of human rights. He has written many books on civil liberties and human rights, the next one being (with Virginia Mantouvalou) Debating Social Rights, published by Hart. He is also a Barrister at Matrix Chambers.

Contributor(s): Professor Bjørn Lomborg, Dimitri Zenghelis | Global warming is real, but it is often presented one-sided and in exaggerated form. This leads to bad policies that will do little to tackle the warming at extremely high cost, as evidenced by the Kyoto protocol and the new EU promises. The breakdown at Copenhagen shows that we need smarter solutions focused on getting long-term solutions like renewables that are cheaper than fossil fuels. And finally, we should remember, that if we really want to help the world, there are many other and better things we could focus on first, like malnutrition, free trade, vaccines, education, agricultural technology, education etc. Bjørn Lomborg is adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School. He is the organiser of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, which brings together some of the world's top economists, including 5 Nobel laureates, to set priorities for the world. Time magazine named Lomborg one of the world's 100 most influential people in 2004. In 2008 he was named "one of the 50 people who could save the planet" by the UK Guardian; "one of the top 100 public intellectuals" by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazine; and "one of the world's 75 most influential people of the 21st century" by Esquire. Dimitri Zenghelis is a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute at the LSE and an Associate Fellow at Chatham House. He is also a Senior Economic Advisor to Cisco's long term innovation group. Previously, he headed the Stern Review Team at the Office of Climate Change, London, and was one of the authors of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, commissioned by the then Chancellor Gordon Brown. Before working on climate change, Dimitri was Head of Economic Forecasting at HM Treasury.

Contributor(s): Various speakers and artists - see the event listing on the LSE website for details | Celebrating Rabindranath Tagore's 150th anniversary, this production marks his seminal contribution to Indian fiction with his short stories. The presentation includes a reading of four short stories in English translations, live music and dance, and film clips. This project celebrates the art of storytelling and live reading, the beauty of Tagore’s little gems. The readings are punctuated with appropriate music and songs and film excerpts illustrate the visual potential of these stories. The audience engages with the connections made between the spoken word, song and visual image -a stimulating and sensory experience as offered by the best short stories.

Contributor(s): Professor Lilie Chouliaraki, Professor Stjepan Mestrovic, Dr Irene Bruna Seu | Humanitarian campaigns create a 'politics of pity' that transforms the way we think about our moral responsibility for distant suffering. What is the impact on the relationship between knowing and acting? Lilie Chouliaraki is professor of media and communications at LSE. Stjepan Mestrovic is professor of sociology at Texas A&M University. Irene Bruna Seu is senior lecturer in the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck, University of London.

Contributor(s): Professor Jan Pronk | The lectures honour the name of Kapuscinski, a Polish journalist and writer known as the Voice of the Poor, who died in 2007. The project is a joint initiative of the European Commission and the United Nations Development Programme. Present challenges (such as climate change and economic dualism) are structural. They are larger than before. They last longer, not only because they are mutually related and reinforce each other, but also because they are not addressed coherently. However, we should be more concerned about the fact that we have dismantled our capacity to deal with those challenges, rather than by the challenges themselves. Capacity innovation should serve the interest of in particular two categories of people. First, the poorest of the poor. In the production systems of today, which are primarily based on capital and technology, rather than people and nature, the poor are more exploited and excluded than in earlier phases of world capitalism. Second: the yet unborn, the future generations, our grand children and great-grand children. People in the underbelly of the world's economy and people that will come out of the shadows of the future have one thing in common: they do not have a voice. But they have a claim. Jan Pronkis Professor Emeritus at the International Institute of Social Studies of the Erasmus University, The Hague. Tim Allen is Professor in Development Anthropology at the Department of International Developmen at LSE.

Contributor(s): Carlos Mesa | Having worked for the government from 2000, Carlos Mesa Gisbert was President of Bolivia from 2003 to 2005. His presidency focussed on constitutional reform to increase political representation and participation of citizen groups and indigenous people; Bolivian decentralization; and strengthening relations with other Latin American countries. As an academic and journalist Carlos Mesa has published extensively on the political process in Bolivia and Latin America more broadly, and is responsible for having establishing several of Bolivia’s most wide-reaching and respected media channels. Accolades reflecting his achievements include an honorary doctorate awarded by Bolivia’s Universidad Autónoma del Beni.

Contributor(s): Professor Nicholas Humphrey | How is consciousness possible? What biological purpose does it serve? Nicholas Humphrey has a radical new theory. Consciousness, he argues, is nothing less than a magical-mystery show that we stage inside our own heads – paving the way for spirituality, and allowing us to reap the rewards, and anxieties, of living in the 'soul niche'. Nicholas Humphrey is emeritus professor of psychology at LSE. His many books include A History of the Mind, Leaps of Faith and, most recently, Soul Dust. This lecture is supported by the LSE Annual Fund.

Contributor(s): Professor Christopher Pissarides | Christopher Pissarides was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Sciences in 2010 (jointly with Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen) for their work on the economics of unemployment, especially job flows and the effect of being out of work. Christopher Pissarides is professor of economics at LSE and holder of the Norman Sosnow Chair in Economics.

Contributor(s): Sergey Lavrov | Sergey Lavrov is Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. Prior to this he served from 1994-2004 as Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation at the United Nations. He graduated from the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Moscow State Institute of International Relations, beginning his diplomatic career at the Soviet Embassy in Sri Lanka. This event is the opening lecture in Russian Business Week organised by the LSESU Russian Business Society which runs from 15-18 February.