Spring 2016 | Public lectures and events | Video

Contributor(s): The Hon. Mr Justice Jay, Gráinne Mellon, Professor Gerry Simpson, Paul Clark, Natalie Samarasinghe, Dr Nazila Ghanea, Professor Francoise Hampson, Antony Loewenstein, Carne Ross | The Charter of the United Nations, drafted in 1945, pledged in the name of the peoples of the United Nations to save us from the scourge of war; to reaffirm faith in human rights and the dignity and worth of all; to promote social progress and better standards of life in conditions of freedom. One does not have to take a very long look at the world around us to realise that this utopia of cosmopolitan peace and prosperity has not been achieved. Wars still wage, new and old global political divisions still run deep, the disparities in the global distribution of wealth are staggering. Is this conclusive proof that the UN has failed? Is it politically toothless and manipulated by the world’s most powerful states, as some believe? Has it become a bureaucratic, inflexible, cumbersome mega- structure prone to inertia and even corruption? Might it even be the case that the UN has in fact actively contributed to disasters, which it should have prevented according to its remit? A little over 70 years since the Charter was signed by the founding 51 members states, we will be putting the United Nations on trial. It will be a tough call for the prosecution. How does one bring charges against an institution, which many criticise but in which so many people around the world have placed so much faith? Nevertheless, this is not to say that it will be a walk in the park for the defence. The United Nations set the bar very high and they must be able to prove that there are good reasons for having disappointed the expectations that they created. Sir Robert Maurice Jay started practice at the Bar in 1983 after completion of pupillage. His practice was based mainly on public law, general common law, group litigation and public inquiries. Paul Clark (@_Paul_Clark) is a barrister for Garden Court Chambers. Paul provides representation and advice in public, civil, and international law. Gráinne Mellon (@GrainneMellon) is a barrister for Garden Court Chambers and Guest Lecturer on the LLM in Employment Law and in International Human Rights Law at LSE Law. Natalie Samarasinghe (@Natalie_UNA) is Executive Director of the United Nations Association – UK (UNA-UK), where she has worked since 2006. She is the first woman to hold this role. Gerry Simpson holds the Kenneth Bailey Chair of Law at the University of Melbourne and is currently a Soros Fellow (based at the Tbilisi State University, Georgia). Nazila Ghanea is Associate Professor of International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford and serves is a member of the OSCE Advisory Panel of Experts on Freedom of Religion or Belief. Francoise Hampson taught at the University of Dundee from 1975 to 1983 and has been at the University of Essex since then. Antony Loewenstein (@antloewenstein) is an Australian independent freelance journalist, author, documentarian and blogger. He is a columnist for The Guardian. Carne Ross (@carneross) is a former British diplomat who resigned in 2004 after giving then-secret evidence to a British inquiry into the war. After he quit, he founded the world's first non-profit diplomatic advisory group, Independent Diplomat (@IDiplomat), which advises marginalised countries and groups around the world. Emmanuel Melissaris is Associate Professor of Law in LSE Law with research interests in Legal Pluralism and in Social Justice and Criminal Law.

Contributor(s): Toby Litt, Patrick Parrinder, Samantha Shannon | Our panel of authors and experts discuss the history of the utopian genre in literature and its present state. Toby Litt (@tobylitt) is a bestselling and prize-winning writer, whose ten novels to date include Finding Myself and the science fiction Journey into Space, an innovative contribution to the utopian genre. His most recent book is Life-Like, which has been shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2015 and long listed for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. He is also Lecturer in Creative Writing at Birkbeck College. Patrick Parrinder is Emeritus Professor at Reading University and a leading authority on the work of H G Wells, one of the historical founders of the utopian novel. He co-edited The Reception of H G Wells in Europe and was overall editor of the Penguin multi-volume series of H G Wells’s fiction. His most recent publication is Utopian Literature and Science: From the Scientific Revolution to Brave New World and Beyond. Samantha Shannon (@say_shannon) is author of The Bone Season, the internationally bestselling first instalment in a seven-book series of fantasy novels which is now to be filmed. Its first sequel, The Mime Order, was published in 2015, and she's currently working on edits for the third book in the series, The Song Rising. Her books represent examples of distopian fiction acclaimed for their originality. The LSE Language Centre (@lselangcentre) reflects the specialist nature of the School itself, namely, a world class institution where the quality of teaching and research is paramount. LSE is not just a multi-national university but also a multi-lingual one.

Contributor(s): Professor Robin Burgess, Professor Naila Kabeer, Lewis Temple | Tackling extreme poverty has proven to be one of the most intractable challenges facing policymakers today. This event will explore the impact of an innovative and proven approach for poverty alleviation, developed in Bangladesh by the international NGO BRAC, targeted at individuals defined as being extreme or ‘Ultra-Poor’. Speakers will discuss the impact of the original BRAC programme implemented in Bangladesh, based on a rigorous seven-year evaluation undertaken by IGC researchers. The term ‘extreme poor’ describes the subset of households living below the $1.25 a day poverty line. The ultra-poor represent the very bottom strata of the extreme poor and are perpetually on the brink of deprivation. Even relative to other poor households, the ultra-poor typically earn the least and endure a myriad of exclusions and vulnerabilities that trap them into extreme poverty. The majority of ultra-poor are women who lack both the skills and capital necessary to lift themselves out of poverty. Robin Burgess is a Professor of Economics at LSE, Director of the IGC, and Director of the Economic Organisation and Public Policy Programme at the LSE. He received a B.Sc. in Biological Sciences from Edinburgh University, a M.Sc. in Economics from the LSE and a D.Phil. in Economics from Oxford University. His areas of research interest include development economics, public economics, political economy, labor economics and environmental economics. He has published on a variety of topics – natural disasters, mass media, rural banks, land reform, labor regulation, industrial policy, taxation, poverty and growth. Naila Kabeer (@N_Kabeer) is Professor of Gender and Development at the Gender Institute, LSE. Her research interests include gender, poverty, social exclusion, labour markets and livelihoods, social protection and citizenship and much of her research is focused on South and South East Asia. Lewis Temple (@LewisETemple) is Chief Executive and Secretary to the Board of BRAC UK. Upaasna Kaul (@UpaasnaK) is Managing Editor of IGC. The International Growth Centre (@The_IGC) aims to promote sustainable growth in developing countries by providing demand-led policy advice based on frontier research. Based at LSE and in partnership with Oxford University, the IGC is initiated and funded by DFID.

Contributor(s): Professor Michael Cox, Professor Chandran Kukathas | A discussion of the competing utopian ideas of prominent LSE figures set in the context of the history of 20th century thought and literature, as well as in contemporary debates about politics across Europe. Friedrich Hayek, Karl Popper and Michael Oakeshott versus Harold Laski, RH Tawney and the founders of the School: the Webbs. What impact did their alternative visions have on British politics? Why did this debate have global significance? And who 'won' in the end? Michael Cox is Director of LSE IDEAS. Chandran Kukathas is Head of the Department of Government at LSE. Simon Glendinning (@lonanglo) is Professor of European Philosophy at LSE and Director of the Forum for European Philosophy. The Department of Government (@LSEGovernment) at LSE, is one of the largest political science departments in the UK. The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) was established in 1991 as a dedicated centre for the interdisciplinary study of processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector. LSE IDEAS (@LSEIDEAS) is a foreign policy think-tank within LSE's Institute for Global Affairs.

Contributor(s): Professor Jerry Brotton, Dr Peter Frankopan | In this event we explore the rich interaction between east and west with Jerry Brotton, whose forthcoming book This Orient Isle: Elizabethan England and the Islamic World explores Elizabethan England's relations with the Muslim world, and Peter Frankopan, whose recent bookThe Silk Roads: A New History of the World looks at world history from the perspective of this trading route of culture and ideas. 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 books include The Sale of the Late King’s Goods (2006) shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, The Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction (2006), Great Maps (2014) and the bestselling A History of the World in Twelve Maps (2012), translated into eleven languages which won book of the year in Austria and was shortlisted for the Hessel Tiltman Prize. He is a regular broadcaster, critic and feature writer, presenting BBC4’s Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession (2010) and BBC Radio 3’s Courting the East (2007). He is Associate Director of the Queen Mary/Warwick University project Global Shakespeare and an Associate of the People’s Palace Projects. Peter Frankopan (@peterfrankopan) is Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford, and Director of the Centre for Byzantine Research at Oxford University. He works on the history of the Mediterranean, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Russia and on relations between Christianity and Islam. He also specializes in medieval Greek literature, and translated The Alexiad for Penguin Classics (2009). Peter often writes for the international press, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, MoneyWeek and has contributed to many TV and Radio documentaries. His first book The First Crusade: The Call from the East, was published to wide acclaim in 2012. Gagan Sood is Assistant Professor in the Department of International History at LSE.

Contributor(s): Professor Ruth Levitas | Five hundred years ago Thomas More’s Utopia was published in Latin, thereby introducing the word Utopia into the English language. But what is its relevance today? There are elements of More’s text which still resonate, notably his critique of enclosures, which can be given a contemporary twist in relation to the social cleansing of central London. There are elements of his postulated alternative, such as the abolition of property, which have ongoing power. On the other hand his gender politics, his reliance on patriarchy, his use of slavery and his attitude to colonialism are less attractive. In this lecture, Ruth Levitas argues that what is important about More’s text is less the substance than the method of utopian speculation. Utopia should be regarded not as a plan, but as a provisional and reflexive method of exploring potential futures. In this sense, Utopia is an essential element in social transformation and a tool for the creation of a more equitable and sustainable society. Ruth Levitas is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Bristol, Co-Founder of the Utopian Studies Society- Europe and author of The Concept of Utopia and Utopia as Method. Mike Savage (@MikeSav47032563) is Martin White Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the LSE International Inequalities Institute. The new International Inequalities Institute at LSE (@LSEInequalities) brings together experts from many LSE departments and centres to lead critical and cutting edge research to understand why inequalities are escalating in numerous arenas across the world, and to develop critical tools to address these challenges.

Contributor(s): Professor AC Grayling | What happened to the European mind between 1605, when an audience watching Macbeth at the Globe might believe that regicide was such an aberration of the natural order that ghosts could burst from the ground, and 1649, when a large crowd, perhaps including some who had seen Macbeth forty-four years earlier, could stand and watch the execution of a king? Or consider the difference between a magus casting a star chart and the day in 1639, when Jonathan Horrock and William Crabtree watched the transit of Venus across the face of the sun from their attic, successfully testing its course against Kepler's Tables of Planetary Motion, in a classic case of confirming a scientific theory by empirical testing. In this turbulent period, science moved from the alchemy and astrology of John Dee to the painstaking observation and astronomy of Galileo, from the classicism of Aristotle, still favoured by the Church, to the evidence-based, collegiate investigation of Francis Bacon. And if the old ways still lingered and affected the new mind set – Descartes's dualism an attempt to square the new philosophy with religious belief; Newton, the man who understood gravity and the laws of motion, still fascinated to the end of his life by alchemy – by the end of that tumultuous century 'the greatest ever change in the mental outlook of humanity' had irrevocably taken place. AC Grayling explains how and why this period became the crucible of modernity. AC Grayling (@acgrayling) is Master of the New College of the Humanities, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. Until 2011 he was Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London. He has written and edited over thirty books on philosophy and other subjects, including The Good Book, Ideas That Matter, Liberty in the Age of Terror, The God Argument and the forthcoming The Age of Genius: The Seventeenth Century and the Birth of the Modern Mind. He has been a columnist for the Guardian and the Times, and is a frequent contributor to the national press and radio. He is the Editor of Online Review London, and a Contributing Editor of Prospect magazine. In addition Anthony Grayling sits on the editorial boards of several academic journals, and for nearly ten years was the Honorary Secretary of the principal British philosophical association, the Aristotelian Society. He is a past chairman of June Fourth, a human rights group concerned with China, and is a representative to the UN Human Rights Council for the International Humanist and Ethical Union. He is a Vice President of the British Humanist Association, the Patron of the United Kingdom Armed Forces Humanist Association, a patron of Dignity in Dying, and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society. He was a Fellow of the World Economic Forum for several years, and a member of its C-100 group on relations between the West and the Islamic world. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Danielle Sands is Lecturer in Comparative Literature and Culture at Royal Holloway and Forum for European Philosophy Fellow. The Forum for European Philosophy (@ForumPhilosophy) is an educational charity that organises a full and varied programme of philosophy and interdisciplinary events in the UK. This event forms part of the LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival 2016, taking place from Monday 22 - Saturday 27 February 2016, with the theme 'Utopias'.

Contributor(s): Professor Helen Graham, Eduardo Mendoza, Professor Paul Preston | Marking the 80th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War, our panel of prominent historians as well as one of Spain's most important novelists will explore the effect of the war on the literary imagination from George Orwell to the present day and reflect on the challenges of incorporating real events into fiction. Helen Graham is Professor of Spanish History at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her books include The Spanish Republic at War, The Spanish Civil War. A Very Short Introduction and The War and its Shadow. Spain’s Civil War in Europe’s Long Twentieth Century. She is currently completing Lives at the Limit, a set of innovative, interlocking biographies of five lives from Europe’s dark mid-twentieth century, all of which were involved in the defence of the Spanish Republic and its defeat in 1939. Eduardo Mendoza is a Spanish novelist, whose acclaimed works include The City of Marvels, No Word from Gurb, The Mystery of the Enchanted Crypt, The Olive Labyrinth and An Englishman in Madrid. He studied Law and worked as an U.N. interpreter in the United States for nine years. Widely considered to be one of Spain's leading contemporary novelists, he has won many literary prizes internationally. Paul Preston is Professor of Contemporary Spanish Studies and Director of Cañada Blanch Centre at LSE. His many books include Juan Carlos, The Spanish Civil War and The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-Century Spain, which was selected as the Sunday Times History Book of the Year for 2012. In 2006 he was awarded the International Ramon Llull Prize by the Catalan Government. He was decorated by Spanish King Juan Carlos a ‘Comendador de la Orden de Mérito Civil’ and in 2007, the ‘Gran Cruz de la Orden de Isabel la Católica’. In 2000 he was awarded a CBE. The Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies is part of the European Institute at LSE and is the focus of a flourishing interest in contemporary Spain in Britain.

Contributor(s): Leye Adenle, Jennifer Makumbi, Chibundu Onuzo | Western media reports that ‘Africa is Rising’ and a new middle class is emerging on the continent to transform political and economic systems. More sober stories from Mali, Northern Nigeria and Kenya reinforce earlier gloomy impressions and claim that Africa is not rising for all. Both optimistic and pessimistic accounts remain stubbornly dominated by outside voices. What do African writers and thinkers really think about the future? Leye Adenle (@LeyeAdenle) is an actor and writer. He has written a number of short stories and flash fiction pieces, including The Assassination. His forthcoming novel, The Easy Motion Tourist, will be published by Cassava Republic. Jennifer Makumbi’s first novel, Kintu won the Kwani Manuscript Prize in 2013. She is a lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Lancaster, where she also completed a PhD in Creative Writing. Chibundu Onuzo (@ChibunduOnuzo) was born in Nigeria in 1991 and is the youngest of four children. She is currently studying History at Kings College, London. Rebecca Jones is a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham as well as one of the Editors of Africa in Words, a blog which focuses on cultural production and Africa.

Contributor(s): Professor Lawrence Jacobs | The most polarizing and anti-establishment candidates in modern US politics are dominating the battles for nomination as the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates in 2016. The long slog to choose each party’s nominees starts with Iowa and New Hampshire in early February, picks up speed with the numerous primaries on March 1 and continues with nearly weekly contests through the first week in June. Who will win the Democratic and Republican nominations and why, and what will this mean for the presidential election which follows? Lawrence R. Jacobs (@larryrjacobs) is the Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance in the Hubert H. Humphrey School and the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. Peter Trubowitz is Professor of International Relations and Director of the US Centre at LSE. The United States Centre at LSE (@LSE_US) is a hub for global expertise, analysis and commentary on America. Its mission is to promote policy-relevant and internationally-oriented scholarship to meet the growing demand for fresh analysis and critical debate on the United States.