London School of Economics: Public lectures and events

Speaker(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 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 longlisted 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'.

Speaker(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.

Speaker(s): Professor Christopher Andrew, Professor Lord Hennessy, Alan Judd | Although the cliché of the novelist as a typically bohemian, solitary, garret-inhabiting individual persists, in reality today, as in the past, the majority of novelists writing lead double-lives, holding down at least a part-time and very often a full-time job as well. Trollope did a full-time job as a director of the General Post office while simultaneously turning out some of the major novels of the nineteenth century. Kafka worked in an insurance office. Author of the bestseller The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame worked at the Bank of England for thirty years.This panel will discuss the question of combining official work with the writing of fiction in the context of the Cold War and after.Professor Christopher Andrew is author of Defence of The Realm, the official history of MI5.Peter Hennessy is Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary, University of London. He has written several books on contemporary British history including Never Again and Having It So Good. Distilling the Frenzy is his latest book.Alan Judd represents a case in point, having published nine novels, most recently Uncommon Enemy (2012), while simultaneously working in the army, in the Foreign Office and in other Whitehall departments. He has also written, while pursuing these day jobs, The Quest For C , the biography of Mansfield Cumming, founder of MI5.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'.

Speaker(s): Lisa Appignanesi, Professor Anne Applebaum, Dr Charles Fernyhough | Our ability to remember forms the basis of who we are, and is a psychological trick that has fascinated scientists and authors alike. But are our memories reliable, or are the stories we tell about our past just a fiction of the mind? This panel brings together psychology, history and literature in its exploration of memory.Lisa Appignanesi OBE is a prize-winning writer, novelist, broadcaster and cultural commentator. A visiting professor at King’s College London, she is former president of the campaigning writers association, English PEN, and chair of London’s Freud Museum. . Her latest books are All About Love: Anatomy of an Unruly Emotion, and Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors.Anne Applebaum is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2012-13. Her books include Gulag: A History and Iron Curtain:The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-56.Dr Charles Fernyhough is a writer and psychologist. His previous book, The Baby in the Mirror, was critically acclaimed in the UK and has been translated into seven languages. Pieces of Light:The new science of memory was published in July 2012. He is a reader in Psychology at Durham University and has written for the Guardian, Financial Times and Sunday Telegraph.Sandra Jovchelovitch is professor in the Institute of Social Psychology, LSE. She is a social and cultural psychologist interested in the development and social context of knowledge, social representations, community and the social psychology of public spheres. Her current research focuses on how different socio-cultural contexts shape the development and transformation of knowledge, and in particular, on how different systems of knowing meet and relate in contemporary public spheres.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'.

Speaker(s): Molly Crabapple, Professor Mary Evans, Vicky Featherstone, Kate Mosse | In celebration of LSE’s acquisition of the Women’s Library, our distinguished panel will discuss the role of women in literature, the arts and academia today. This event will include readings from the Women's Library archives, and from works that have inspired our panel. Molly Crabapple is a New York artist. Her most recent projects are Week in Hell, in which she locked herself in a hotel room, covered the walls in paper, and filled 270 square feet of wall with art and Shell Game, a series of large-scale paintings about the revolutions of 2011 that will be shown together publicly in Spring 2013. Her work is in the permanent collection of the New York Historical Society, the Rubin Museum of Art, and the Groucho Club (London). She writes for CNN and Vice. Molly's published books include Discordia (with Laurie Penny; Random House UK, 2012), Devil in the Details (IDW, 2012), Saints and Sinners (IDW, 2012), Week in Hell (2012), Puppet Makers (DC Comics, 2011), and the forthcoming Straw House (First Second Books, 2014). Mary Evans is a LSE Centennial Professor and attached to the Gender Institute from 2010 to 2013. Prior to coming to the LSE as a visiting fellow she taught Women's Studies and Sociology at the University of Kent. Vicky Featherstonehas been artistic director of the National Theatre of Scotland since its foundation in 2006, touring work to venues large and small all around Scotland. One of her first commissions was the hit production Black Watch by Gregory Burke, directed by John Tiffany, which attracted international acclaim, winning multiple awards and touring all over the world. Prior to this Vicky Featherstone was artistic director of new writing company Paines Plough Theatre Company from 1997-2005. In April 2013 she will join the Royal Court Theatre as artistic director. Kate Mosse is the author of three non-fiction books, three plays and five novels, including the multi-million selling international No 1 bestseller, Labyrinth. The first of her Languedoc Trilogy, it was translated into 37 languages and published in 40 countries. The second in the series, Sepulchre, was also a # 1 bestseller. The third and final novel in the series, Citadel, was published in October 2012. She is the co-founder & honorary director of the Orange Prize for Fiction, now called the Women's Prize for Fiction. 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'.

Speaker(s): David Edmonds, Nigel Warburton | In the 5th century BC Socrates brought philosophy to the marketplace. Can this ancient branch of learning be rejuvenated by the technology of the 21st century?Philosophy Bites Back is the second book from the team that brings you Philosophy Bites, the hugely successful podcast that has now had 16 million downloads. Philosophy Bites Back is a collection of conversations with leading scholars on major figures in the history of philosophy.David Edmonds is a senior research associate at Oxford’s Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics.Nigel Warburton is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and author of A LIttle History of Philosophy.

Speaker(s): Professor Damian Chalmers | As part of the EU, can Britain disobey EU law and when would it be democratic to do so? If Britain left the Union how easy would it be to ignore EU law and when would it be democratic to do so? Damian Chalmers is professor of European Union law at LSE.

Speaker(s): Lord Alderdice, Dr Deirdre MacManus | Editor's note: We apologise for the poor audio quality of this recording. How much do we know about the psychology of those engaged in the violence of insurgency and counterinsurgency? What are the predispositions and motivations for violence, and what are the psychological consequences of their experiences? From 1987 to 1998 John Alderdice was the leader of Northern Ireland’s cross-community Alliance Party. He has previously served as the consultant–in-charge of the Centre for Psychotherapy, Belfast.Deirdre MacManus is a forensic psychiatrist and clinical lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London.

Speaker(s): Andrew Simms | Is the sleeping architecture of a new economic approach already with us? Andrew Simms argues that while we might be dancing on the edge of systemic threats to the economy, society and environment, we have the tools and resources necessary to build a bridge across them.Andrew Simms is the author of several books including the bestselling Tescopoly. He is a Fellow of nef (the new economics foundation) where he was policy director for many years, trained at the London School of Economics and Political Science and was described by New Scientist magazine as, ‘a master at joined-up progressive thinking.’ He is also one of the UK’s leading campaigners who coined the term ‘Clone Towns,’ co-authored the groundbreaking Green New Deal, was one of the original organisers of the campaign to cancel poor country debt, and devised how to mark the day in the year when the world enters ‘ecological debt.’ This event marks the publication of his new book Cancel the Apocalypse: The New Path to Prosperity.

Speaker(s): Professor Andy Clark | We are entering an age of widespread human enhancement. This raises a fundamental question: where does the mind stop, and the rest of the world begin? Andy Clark is professor of logic and metaphysics at the University of Edinburgh.

Speaker(s): Professor Alan Evans | 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): Jim Hagemann Snabe | While the digital age has reached the individual through global social networks and redefined social interaction some years ago, the digital revolution for the business world has just started. Innovation in technology is opening up a whole new area of business opportunities that go beyond our established way of doing business. We can reach the individual consumer instantly anytime anywhere. We can get new business insights and analyze unlimited amounts of data in real time. We can solve problems that weren’t solvable before. And we can redefine value chains and integrate them in global business networks where everyone can participate – big or small – with unlimited possibilities to sell, buy and collaborate. The digital revolution in business is driven by three mega technology trends: in-memory computing for unlimited real-timeness, cloud-based social collaboration and business networks and individual access to mission critical insight for better decisions anytime anywhere from any mobile device. SAP is a leading global innovator that drives the convergence of these mega trends to create the next wave of innovation and growth for businesses. The world is changing rapidly: hyper-connected, shorter product cycles, more unpredictability, and even more limited resources. Businesses need to adjust and innovate much faster to meet future business challenges while constantly sensing and responding to customer demand. Technology, and in particular smart software solutions are game changing – not only for the IT industry but for the entire enterprise. As the global market leader in enterprise software SAP is at the forefront of these developments. An estimated 63% of all world transactions run through SAP. SAP has more than 230.000 customers and achieved total revenues of more than 16 billion Euros in 2012. Jim Hagemann Snabe is SAP co-CEO and will offer unique insights on how the digital revolution creates opportunities across many industries and how the power of innovative software solutions can bring productivity and innovation to a new level that we require to propel sustainable growth for our economies in Europe and across the globe.

Speaker(s): Dr Phil Hutchinson, Professor Vasudevi Reddy, Dr Jonathan Webber | Shame is often depicted as playing a socially negative role. But might it also play an important positive role in our moral psychology, and for a flourishing political community? Is shame a source of self-knowledge, and a spur to transformative action, as Sartre and Beauvoir suggest? How important are other people to one’s feeling of shame? And how should we think about the developmental origins of shame? Phil Hutchinson is senior lecturer in philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University. Vasudevi Reddy is professor of developmental and cultural psychology at the University of Portsmouth. Jonathan Webber is reader in philosophy at Cardiff University.

Speaker(s): Professor Fawaz Gerges, Professor Charles Tripp | What drives large-scale, popular mobilizations in the Middle East and North Africa? And what are the challenges and prospects for democratic transformation and consolidation in the region? This lecture, ahead of the release of the LSE Middle East Centre’s new book, The New Middle East: Protest and Revolution in the Arab World (CUP, 2013), looks to explore these questions and more. Fawaz Gerges is director of the Middle East Centre at LSE. Charles Tripp is professor of politics at SOAS. Kristian Coates Ulrichsen is the co-director of the Kuwait Programme at LSE. The LSE Middle East Centre opened in October 2010. It builds on LSE's long engagement with the Middle East and provides a central hub for the wide range of research on the region carried out at LSE. 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): Professor Simon Hix | A look at how the emerging structure of macro-economic governance in Europe has an impact on traditional modes of democratic politics, at both the national and European levels. Simon Hix is professor of European and comparative politics at LSE and fellow of the British Academy.