Spring 2013 | Public lectures and events | Video

Contributor(s): Professor Russell Goulbourne, Dr Tim Hochstrasser, Dr Paul Keenan | This discussion will explore the work and influence of the French Enlightenment philosopher, art critic and writer Denis Diderot, a key figure for the Festival in the 300th anniversary of the year of his birth. Probably best known for co-founding and editing the Encyclopedie, our panel of experts will discuss this and other less well-known areas of his life, including his association with Catherine the Great and his writings about Pacific discoveries. Russell Goulbourne is professor of early modern French literature at the University of Leeds and his books include a translation of Diderot’s The Nun. Tim Hochstrasser is senior lecturer in International History at LSE. Dr Hochstrasser's research focuses on the two-way relationship between intellectual life and political action in the history of early modern Europe, and above all on the use made of contemporary historical and philosophical writing to legitimate and defend changing concepts of sovereignty and political structure. Paul Keenan is lecturer in international history at LSE. Dr Keenan's research deals with Russia during the eighteenth century and, in particular, the role of St Petersburg in the relationship between Russia and other contemporary European states. Paul Stock is lecturer in early modern international history at LSE. This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Contributor(s): Jenny Uglow | Jenny Uglow celebrates National Women’s History Month and its theme ‘women inspiring innovation through imagination’ with this talk about Sarah Losh, who built an extraordinary church in a village near Carlisle in the 1840s. As a woman innovator she broke all conventions in designing, supervising the building, and even carving the alabaster - sixty years before women architects were accepted into RIBA. She has been called ‘a Charlotte Bronte of wood and stone’, defying the gothic vogue, and creating a Romantic language of symbols, from the pinecone and lotus to fossils from local mines, incorporating new ideas from geology and science, and celebrating the buried past and resurrection of the earth. Jenny Uglow’s books include Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories, The Lunar Men: The Friends who Made the Future and, most recently, The Pinecone. Hermione Lee is well known as a writer, reviewer and broadcaster. Her books include biographies of Virginia Woolf and Edith Wharton. This event is organised in association with the Royal Society of Literature. Forthcoming RSL speakers include: Emma Donoghue, Jung Chang, Hermione Lee, Richard Mabey, Alice Oswald and Robin Robertson. Please visit www.rslit.org to book or for more information. Membership of the Royal Society of Literature is open to all. This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Contributor(s): Professor David Abulafia | One great sea, a multitude of cultures and an embarrassment of riches: David Abulafia shares his intellectual odyssey from Alicante to Alexandria, from Salerno to Smyrna. David Abulafia is professor of Mediterranean History at Cambridge University and author of The Great Sea: a human history of the Mediterranean. Helen Moore is fellow and tutor at Corpus Christi College, Oxford and University lecturer in the Faculty of English. This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Contributor(s): Professor John Gray | John Gray draws on an extraordinary array of memoirs, poems, fiction and philosophy to make us re-imagine our place in the world. Writers as varied as Ballard, Borges, Freud and Conrad are mesmerised by forms of human extremity - experiences on the outer edge of the possible, or which tip into fantasy and myth. What happens to us when we starve, when we fight, when we are imprisoned? And how do our imaginations leap into worlds way beyond our real experience? In this lecture, John Gray will explore the conundrum of our existence - an existence which we decorate with countless myths and ideas, where we twist and turn to avoid acknowledging that we too are animals, separated from the others perhaps only by our self-conceit. In the Babel we have created for ourselves, it is the silence of animals that both reproaches and bewitches us. John Gray is emeritus professor of European thought at LSE, and author of Straw Dogs, The Immortalization Commission and The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths. This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Contributor(s): Leandro Carrera, Professor Patrick Dunleavy, Joe Grice, Edwin Lau, Barry Quirk | For many decades there has been little effective analysis and guidance on how to improve the organizational productivity of government bodies consistently over time. Yet unless this can be achieved, the relative price of public services is doomed to rise ineluctably (the 'Baumol disease' problem). Leandro Carrera and Patrick Dunleavy's new book Growing the Productivity of Government Services (published by Edward Elgar) provides the first in-depth empirical treatment of the organizational productivity of unique national government agencies, focusing on UK taxation, social security and regulatory agencies. In addition, they also show how productivity analysis for decentralized services can include salient and managerially useful variables, looking at how IT and management modernization help shape the productivity of NHS hospitals. The first rule of productivity growth in public services is to focus hard on consistently measuring and improving productivity performance. The second rule is to embrace IT modernization carried out in tandem with genuinely effective and well-considered business process reorganization. This lecture will discuss ideas for the improvement of public sector productivity from a local, national and international government perspective. Leandro Carrera is a senior researcher at the Pensions Policy Institute. Patrick Dunleavy is professor of political science and public policy at LSE. Joe Grice is chief economist at the Office for National Statistics. Edwin Lau is head of the Reform of the Public Sector Division in the OECD Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate. Barry Quirk is chief executive at the London Borough of Lewisham. Diane Coyle OBE is a freelance economist, and is a member of the UK Competition Commission and Vice Chairman of the BBC Trust. Previously she was an advisor to the UK Treasury and the Economics Editor of the Independent. LSE Public Policy Group (PPG) is an independent consultancy and research organisation. PPG provides thorough analysis and recommendations for a variety of clients; providing an interface between academia, the private, public and 'third' sector. LSE Works is a series of public lectures, that will showcase some of the latest research by LSE's Research Centres. In each session, LSE academics will present key research findings, demonstrating where appropriate the implications of their studies for public policy. A list of all the LSE Works lectures can be viewed online.

Contributor(s): Professor Jerry Brotton, Mike Parker | Throughout history maps have been fundamental in shaping our view of the world and our place in it. Our panel will discuss how maps both influence and reflect contemporary events and how, by reading them, we can better understand the worlds that produced them. Jerry Brotton is professor of renaissance studies at Queen Mary University of London, and a leading expert in the history of maps and Renaissance cartography. His last book, The Sale of the Late King's Goods: Charles I and his Art Collection (2006), was short-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize as well as the Hessell-Tiltman History Prize. In 2010, he was the presenter of the BBC4 series Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession. His latest book is A History of the World in Twelve Maps. Mike Parker is the author of the best-selling Map Addict and writer and presenter of BBC Radio 4’s On the Map. He is currently working on a book, The Story of Britain in Road Maps, to be published in autumn 2013. This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Contributor(s): Ken Livingstone | Ken Livingstone has for almost 40 years been a controversial but highly effective politician who has dominated London politics. He championed low fares for public transport, fought the abolition of the GLC, defeated Labour to become mayor of London in 2000, re-joined Labour and then presided over eight years of pro-development, market-led policy in the capital. He has brought a distinctive point of view to many issues, always dividing opinion. He has continued his life in politics, having been elected to Labour’s NEC and maintaining a commentary on public policy. Ken Livingstone is author of You Can’t Say That: Memoirs, published by Faber. This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Contributor(s): Professor Miriam Bernard, Dr Kip Jones, Dr Gareth Morris | Academic communication is changing. New emphasis on impact and public engagement, combined with new technologies that allow high quality and easy to use production methods are increasing the possible range of outputs from academic research. This session will hear from three researchers that have used alternative forms for their research dissemination. We will ask what strengths these forms had in comparison to traditional books and articles, their value to research users and their credibility with funders and academic assessors. Miriam Bernard is professor at Keele and looks at representation of aging in drama through a partnership with the New Vic Theatre. Kip Jones is a reader in performative social sciences at Bournemouth University, and film-maker. Gareth Morris of Salford University has used graphic novels to disseminate research findings on homelessness. Amy Mollett is managing editor of LSE Review of Books, a blog providing daily academic book reviews from the social sciences. This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Contributor(s): Greg Artus, Richard Bronk, Aifric Campbell, Professor Roger Kneebone | Is truth a casualty in the stories we tell about science? Is there a conflict between narrative truth and historical truth? Can fiction illuminate scientific themes? What are the challenges of presenting scientific topics in the media? How do scientists tell stories to raise capital? Greg Artus lectures in politics, philosophy and business ethics at Imperial College. His research interests include the nature of human action and perception, and the work of Wittgenstein and Heidegger. Richard Bronk is Visiting Fellow in LSE's European Institute. Richard is a writer and part-time academic, with particular expertise in the history of ideas, philosophy of economics, comparative corporate governance and European political economy. His books include The Romantic Economist - Imagination in Economics (Cambridge University Press, 2009). Aifric Campbell is a writer and former investment banker at Morgan Stanley. Her latest novel On the Floor was long listed for the 2012 Orange Prize. She teaches at Imperial College. Roger Kneebone is professor of surgical education at Imperial College. He is a clinician and educationalist who leads a multidisciplinary research group at Imperial College. Roger has an international profile as an academic and innovator and is a 2011 National Teaching Fellow. In 2013 Roger will take up a prestigious Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellowship. Nick Russell was a college science lecturer, freelance journalist, and vocational science curriculum developer before organizing and teaching postgraduate science communication programmes at Birkbeck College and Imperial College. He was head of Department of Humanities at Imperial College before he retired and is now emeritus reader in Science Communication at Imperial College. This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Contributor(s): Tan Sri Dato' Azman bin Hj. Mokhtar, Dr Frank Vogel | Organised in conjunction with the Harvard Islamic Finance Project, a distinguished authority shall speak on Islamic finance in the Western world. Tan Sri Dato' Azman bin Hj. Mokhtar is managing director of Khazanah Nasional. Frank Vogel is the founder and former director of Harvard Law School’s Islamic Legal Studies Program.