London School of Economics: Public lectures and events

Speaker(s): Ping Fu | We’ve spent the past 20 years capturing physical objects in the digital world. But in the coming decade, as the physical and digital worlds collide, their boundaries will blur in spectacular fashion. Ping will describe how the evolution of robots, sensors, 3D printers and other IT is making it possible to see, feel and make everything digital in a new (human) computer industry. This lecture is rich in lessons for entrepreneurs, creators, and innovators to instigate rather than follow, and to challenge the status quo. Ping will also talk about her personal story of resilience, a journey from the dogmatic anticapitalism of Mao’s China to the high-stakes, take-no-prisoners world of technology start-ups in the US. Her new book Bend, Not Break will be published in January by Portfolio Penguin. Ping Fu is the founder and CEO of Geomagic, a global company providing 3D technology for digital reality. Previously she worked at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, where she initiated and managed the NCSA Mosaic software project that led to Netscape and Internet Explorer. Fu is one of the few women CEOs in technology and was named the 2005 "Entrepreneur of the Year" by Inc. Magazine. She is a member of President Obama's National Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship and sits on the board of the Long Now Foundation.

Speaker(s): Chrystia Freeland | There has always been some gap between rich and poor but it has never been wider - and now the rich are getting wealthier at such breakneck speed that the middle classes are being squeezed out. Acclaimed business journalist and global editor-at-large of Reuters, Chrystia Freeland has unprecedented access to the richest and most successful people on the planet, from Davos to Dubai. She offers a timely insight into the current state of capitalism and its most wealthy players. Forget the 1% - it's time to get to grips with the 0.1%. This event marks the publication of her latest book Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super Rich. Chrystia Freeland is Editor of Thomson Reuters Digital, following years of service at the Financial Times both in New York and London. She was the deputy editor of Canada's Globe and Mail and has reported for the Financial Times, Economist, and Washington Post. Freeland's last book was Sale of a Century: The Inside Story of the Second Russian Revolution. She lives in New York City.

Speaker(s): Richard Brown | LSE London's 2013 Lent term seminar series begins on the 14th of January. Speakers from within and beyond academia will focus on many of the implications of the current economic and political environment for London, covering relevant issues such as the road pricing, UK trends in higher education, census data and localism. Presenters include academics and practitioners from relevant fields.

Speaker(s): Sanjeev Sanyal | The history of any country begins with its geography. Marking the launch of his new book, Sanjeev Sanyal looks at how India’s history was shaped by its rivers, mountains and cities. Sanjeev Sanyal is Deutsche Bank’s Global Strategist and was named “Young Global Leader 2010” by the World Economic Forum. This event is co-hosted by LSE Cities, the Asia Research Centre and the India Observatory.

Speaker(s): Professor Henry G. Overman, Alexandra Jones, Adam Marshall | Britain’s cities are facing profound challenges – both in the short run as a result of the recession and in the long run as a result of underlying structural change. In this lecture Henry Overman considers the nature of these challenges and considers what urban policy should do to help cities effectively respond to them. Henry Overman is Professor of Economic Geography at the LSE and Director of the Spatial Economics Research Centre. Alexandra Jones has been Chief Executive of the Centre for Cities since 2010. Prior to this, Alexandra led Ideopolis, the Cities team at The Work Foundation and worked in the former Department for Education and Employment. Adam Marshall was named Director of Policy and External Affairs at the British Chambers of Commerce in July 2009. In this role, he represents the accredited UK Chamber network - with 104,000 companies employing over 5 million people - in Whitehall, Westminster, Brussels and the media. He holds degrees from Yale University (BA) and the University of Cambridge (MPhil, PhD). The Spatial Economics Research Centre is based at the LSE and aims to provide high quality independent research to further understand why some regions, cities and communities prosper, whilst others do not. Research will focus on why there are disparities in economic prosperity at all spatial levels including regional, city-region, local and neighbourhood. 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.

Speaker(s): Dr Joseph Mazor | In defending circumcision the speaker will consider bodily integrity, autonomy, reduction of sexual pleasure, the likelihood of the child choosing circumcision, and the possibility of religious alienation. Joseph Mazor is a fellow in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at LSE.

Speaker(s): Len McCluskey | Editor's note: We apologise that the first few moments of the introduction to this lecture are missing from the recording of this session. The Labour movement has started to put itself once more at the heart of British politics but it also needs to link up with social protest to develop a new working-class politics. Len McCluskey is the general secretary of Unite.

Speaker(s): John Elkington | Drawing from his recent book The Zeronauts: Breaking the Sustainability Barrier, John Elkington will provide an account of his personal journey over 40 years on “the sustainability frontier” and his proposals on how to meet global challenges. John Elkington is co-founder and executive chairman of Volans. He is also the co-founder of SustainAbility, where he remains today as a a non-executive member of the board. Dr Mason is a senior lecturer in the department of Geography and Environment and an associate of the Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change and the Environment.

Speaker(s): Professor Elizabeth A. Povinelli | Are all progressive politics inevitably acts of absolute extinguishment and emancipation, of the production and repression of life? If so why has a progressive imaginary been loathe to confront its own politics of extinguishment. Povinelli examines one strand of progressive political thought--the conversation among critical sexuality studies, immanent critique, and the biopolits--in order to open the problem of ethics and extinguishment beyond the safety of liberal adjudication and justification. Elizabeth A. Povinelli is Professor of Anthropology & Gender Studies at Columbia University. She has directed the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, co-directed the Center for the Study of Law and Culture, and currently Chair of the Department of Anthropology. Povinell’s research seeks to produce a critical theory of late liberalism. She is the author of four books (Labor’s Lot, Chicago, 1994; The Cunning of Recognition, Duke, 2002; The Empire of Love, Duke 2006; Economies of Abandonment, Duke, 2011). The Cunning of Recognition receiving a Bookforum Best Book of the Year. Karrabing-Low Tide Turning, a film she co-directed with Liza Johnson, was selected for the Berlinale Shorts Competition in 2012. She was the German Transatlantic Program Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin, Fall 2011; a Wyse Visiting Professorship at Cambridge University Spring 2012; and a Hallsworth Visiting Professorship at Manchester, Spring 2013.

Speaker(s): Tony Travers | Editor's note: Unfortunately the last few minutes of the lecture are missing from the recording. LSE London's 2013 Lent term seminar series begins on the 14th of January. Speakers from within and beyond academia will focus on many of the implications of the current economic and political environment for London, covering relevant issues such as the road pricing, UK trends in higher education, census data and localism. Presenters include academics and practitioners from relevant fields.

Speaker(s): Professor Justin Lin | As a result of the miraculous growth since the market-oriented reform in 1979, China’s status in the global economy has dramatically changed. This speech will reflect on China’s unprecedented growth in the past 32 years, examine the reasons of that growth, and discuss prospects and challenges for China to maintain an eight-percent annual growth rate in the coming decades. Justin Yifu Lin is the former World Bank chief economist and senior vice president, development economics. Lin is the founder and first director of the China Center for Economic Research and a former professor of economics at Peking University and at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Justin Lin is to receive an Honorary Degree from LSE – Doctor of Science (Economics).

Speaker(s): Lina Khatib | Marking the publication of Lina Khatib's latest book Image Politics in the Middle East: The Role of the Visual in Political Struggle, this lecture focuses on the evolution of political expression and activism in the Middle East over the past decade, highlighting the visual dimension of power struggles between citizens and leaders in Arab countries undergoing transition.Lina Khatib is the co-founding head of the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, a multidisciplinary policy-oriented research program established in 2010 to study democratic change in the Arab world. She is an expert on Middle East politics and its intersection with social, cultural and media issues. At Stanford, she leads research projects on political and economic reform, as well as on political activism in the Arab world, and the political participation of minorities. She is the author of Filming the Modern Middle East: Politics in the Cinemas of Hollywood and the Arab World, (2006), and Lebanese Cinema: Imagining the Civil War and Beyond (2008), and a founding co-editor of the Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication. Her book Image Politics in the Middle East: The Role of the Visual in Political Struggle (IB Tauris, 2012) examines the visual dimension of power struggles between states, political leaders, political parties, and citizens in Egypt, Syria, Libya, Iran, and Lebanon. She is also a consultant and frequent commentator on the Middle East in the media with appearances on CNN, BBC, Al-Jazeera, and several media outlets around the globe.Dr Aitemad Muhanna is a research fellow at the LSE's Middle East Center pursuing post-doctoral research on gender, religion and sustainable human development in Gaza.

Speaker(s): Professor Chris Bertram | What can Rousseau’s recently reconstructed fragment Principles of the Right of War tell us about war and “humanitarian intervention” today? Are the principles of just war theory simply a fig leaf for power? Chris Bertram is professor of social and political philosophy at the University of Bristol.

Speaker(s): Andrew Marr | Andrew Marr is a journalist, broadcaster and author. He hosts the Sunday morning BBC1 programme The Andrew Marr Show as well as BBC Radio 4's Start the Week every Monday. He wrote and presented his own History of Modern Britain and The Making of Modern Britain for BBC2, which were hugely popular with viewers and won prestigious awards from the Royal Television Society, the Broadcasting Press Guild and BAFTA. More recent offerings include the Diamond Queen documentary and his most recent show, History of the World is being broadcast on BBC1. A book accompanies the series, A History of the World. Born in Glasgow, Andrew went to school in Scotland and gained a first-class degree in English from Cambridge University. He began his career in journalism on The Scotsman newspaper in 1981, later moving to London to become its political correspondent. He was part of the team which launched The Independent in 1986 and returned as its editor, after a stint at The Economist magazine. He was then a columnist for The Express and The Observer before making the move into television, as the BBC's Political Editor, in May 2000.

Speaker(s): Dr Julian Baggini, Canon Dr Angus Ritchie, Dr Mark Vernon | Religious and secular philosophers have long debated whether ethics have an objective basis (moral realism) or a relative basis (moral relativism). But does theism or atheism offer a better basis for ‘moral realism’? A theist, an atheist, and an agnostic discuss. Julian Baggini is a writer, journalist and co-founder of The Philosophers’ Magazine. Angus Ritchie is director of the Contextual Theology Centre. Mark Vernon is a writer and journalist.