LSE: Public lectures and events

Speaker(s): Mike Coupe | With more people working more hours, many are finding themselves increasingly "time-poor". Sainsbury's CEO Mike Coupe argues that there is a need for big business to take an active leadership role on well being issues. Drawing on the Sainsbury's Living Well index he will answer questions put to him by Richard Layard on how we can lead happier, healthier lives. Mike Coupe is CEO of Sainsbury's. He has served as an Executive Director since 1 August 2007 and as Chief Executive Officer since 9 July 2014. Mike has also been a member of the Operating Board since October 2004. Mike has vast retail industry experience in trading, strategy, marketing, digital and online as well as multi-site store experience. He joined Sainsbury’s from Big Food Group where he was a board director of Big Food Group plc and Managing Director of Iceland Food Stores. He previously worked for both ASDA and Tesco, where he served in a variety of senior management roles. Mike is a Non-Executive Director of Greene King plc. Richard Layard is co-Director of the CEP's Wellbeing programme and co-founder and Chair of Action for Happiness. CEP (@CEP_LSE) is an interdisciplinary research centre at the LSE. Established by the ESRC in 1990, is now one of the leading economic research groups in Europe. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEWorkplace

Speaker(s): Kristin Casper, Roberto Eugenio T Cadiz, Dr Luke Harrington, Dr Annalisa Savaresi, Dr Joana Setzer | An expert panel will discuss the links between human rights and climate change, and whether rights-based climate change claims are one future path to spurring climate action. Kristin Casper is Litigation Counsel for Greenpeace's Global Climate Justice and Liability Project at Greenpeace Canada. Roberto Eugenio T Cadiz is a focal commissioner for Business and Human Rights, Environment and Sustainable Development Goals at the Commission on Human Rights of the Republic of the Philippines. Luke Harrington is a Researcher and College Lecturer at the University of Oxford. Annalisa Savaresi is a lecturer in Law at the University of Stirling. Joana Setzer (@JoanaSetzer) is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. Stephen Humphreys is an Associate Professor of International Law. The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (@GRI_LSE)was established by the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2008 to create a world-leading centre for policy-relevant research and training on climate change and the environment, bringing together international expertise on economics, finance, geography, the environment, international development and political economy. LSE Law (@LSELaw) is one of the world's top law schools with an international reputation for the quality of its teaching and legal research. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEClimateChange This event forms part of the “New World (Dis)Orders” series, held in the run up to the LSE Festival, a week-long series of events taking place from 25 February to 2 March 2019, free to attend and open to all, exploring how social science can tackle global issues. How did we get here? What are the challenges? And, importantly, how can we address them? Full programme available online from January 2019.

Speaker(s): Gideon Rachman, Dr David Smith, Dr Leslie Vinjamuri, Dr Linda Yueh | Join us for an evening of conversation as we discuss the midterm election results and what they mean for Donald Trump’s presidency and the US. Gideon Rachman (@gideonrachman) is Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator, Financial Times. David Smith (@dtsmith_sydney) is Senior Lecturer in American Politics and Foreign Policy, University of Sydney and a British Academy Visiting Fellow. Leslie Vinjamuri (@londonvinjamuri) is Head, US and the Americas Programme at Chatham House and Reader in International Relations, SOAS, University of London. Linda Yueh (@lindayueh) is Visiting Senior Fellow, LSE IDEAS and member of the Policy Committee, Centre for Economic Performance. She is Fellow in Economics, St Edmund Hall, Oxford University and Adjunct Professor of Economics, London Business School. Her latest book is The Great Economists: How Their Ideas Can Help Us Today. Peter Trubowitz (@ptrubowitz) is Department Head of International Relations and Director of the US Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Associate Fellow at Chatham House, Royal Institute of International Affairs. The LSE's United States Centre (@LSE_US) is a hub for global expertise, analysis and commentary on America. Our 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. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEUSMidterms

Speaker(s): Professor Rob Reich | Is philanthropy, by its very nature, a threat to today’s democracy? Though we may laud wealthy individuals who give away their money for society’s benefit, Robert Reich shows how such generosity not only isn’t the unassailable good we think it to be but might also undermine democratic values and set back aspirations of justice. Big philanthropy is often an exercise of power, the conversion of private assets into public influence. And it is a form of power that is largely unaccountable, often perpetual, and lavishly tax-advantaged. The affluent—and their foundations—reap vast benefits even as they influence policy without accountability. And small philanthropy, or ordinary charitable giving, can be problematic as well. Charity, it turns out, does surprisingly little to provide for those in need and sometimes worsens inequality. This event marks the launch of Rob's new book, Just Giving: Why Philanthropy Is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better. Rob Reich (@robreich) is professor of political science and faculty codirector for the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at Stanford University. His recent books include Education, Justice, and Democracy. Stephan Chambers is the inaugural director of the Marshall Institute at LSE. He is also Professor in Practice at the Department of Management at LSE and Course Director for the new Executive Masters in Social Business and Entrepreneurship. The Marshall Institute (@LSEMarshall) works to improve the impact and effectiveness of private action for public benefit through research, teaching and convening. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEJustGiving

Speaker(s): Jamie Susskind | Jamie Susskind will discuss the publication of his latest book, Future Politics: Living Together in a World Transformed by Tech. At this event, Jamie will discuss how digital technology, from AI to virtual reality, will transform politics and society. He will mention how digital technology will be used to exert control by the state and by big tech firms. This talk will challenge the audience to rethink the meaning of democracy and justice, freedom and equality, power, and property. The great political debate of the last century was about how much of our collective life should be determined by the state and what should be left to the market and civil society. In the future, the question will be how far our lives should be directed and controlled by powerful digital systems - and on what terms? Jamie Susskind (@jamiesusskind) is an author, speaker, and practising barrister. A past Fellow of Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, he studied history and politics at Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating first in his year before turning to the law. Tony Travers is the Associate Dean of LSE’s School of Public Policy and a Professor in the Department of Government. The School of Public Policy (@LSEPublicPolicy) equips you with the skills and ideas to transform people and societies. We are an international community where ideas and practice meet. Our approach creates professionals with the ability to analyse, understand and resolve the challenges of contemporary governance. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSETech

Speaker(s): Neel Mukherjee, Dr Alpa Shah | In her latest book, Nightmarch, which she will talk about at this event, Alpa Shah offers a profound understanding of why some of India’s poor have shunned the world’s largest democracy and taken up arms to fight for a fairer society in one of the most intractable and under-reported rebellions. Nightmarch refers to a seven-night trek that Shah happened to undertake with these communist guerrillas while living as an anthropologist in their tribal strongholds in eastern India for several years. In this event Shah discusses revolution and freedom with Neel Mukherjee, author of A State of Freedom and the Man Booker Prize shortlisted The Lives of Others. Neel Mukherjee is the critically acclaimed author of three novels: A State of Freedom (2017), The Lives of Others (2014), and A Life Apart (2010). Alpa Shah (@alpashah001) is Associate Professor (Reader) of Anthropology at London School of Economics and leads the Programme of Research on Inequality and Poverty. She is the author of the just published Nightmarch: Among India’s Revolutionary Guerrillas, author of In the Shadows of the State, co-author of Ground Down by Growth and presented India’s Red Belt for BBC Radio 4’s ‘Crossing Continents’. Beverley Skeggs (@bevskeggs) is a feminist sociologist and the Academic Director of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity based in the International Inequalities Institute. Anthropology ( @LSEAnthropology) is the comparative study of culture and society. We ask big questions about what we have in common, and what makes us different. The International Inequalities Institute (@LSEInequalities) at LSE 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. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSENightmarch

Speaker(s): Professor Jens Beckert, Richard Bronk, Dr Waltraud Schelkle, Dr Ekaterina Svetlova, Lord Turner | Our panel discusses the new book Uncertain Futures, exploring how economic actors visualise the future and decide how to act in conditions of radical uncertainty. Jens Beckert is Director, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies. Richard Bronk is Visiting Fellow, European Institute, LSE. Waltraud Schelkle is Associate Professor of Political Economy, LSE. Ekaterina Svetlova (@EkaterinaSvet19) is Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance, University of Leicester. Adair Turner (@AdairTurnerUK) is Chair, Institute of New Economic Thinking and the Energy Transitions Commission. George Gaskell is Professor of Social Psychology and Research Methodology, LSE. The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) is a centre for research and graduate teaching on the 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. The Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne (@MPIfG_Cologne) conducts basic research on the governance of modern societies. It aims to develop an empirically based theory of the social and political foundations of modern economies by investigating the interrelation between economic, social and political action. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEEconomics Podcast A podcast of this event is available to download from Uncertain Futures: imaginaries, narratives, and calculation in the economy. Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.

Speaker(s): Professor Lilie Chouliaraki, Professor Robin Wagner-Pacifici, Professor Barbie Zelizer | What do #MeToo, refugee selfies and oil paintings have in common? They are all part of a mixed and changing culture of witnessing. This interdisciplinary panel explores the different media platforms and practices of spectatorship that today enable our moral and political engagement with human vulnerability. It asks not only how the digital has shifted the terms of our visual encounters with bodies-in-pain but also shows how our testimonial cultures remain the same. This is not only because contemporary witnessing mixes media, old and new, but crucially also because it is still traversed by historical power relations and social hierarchies. Lilie Chouliaraki (@chouliaraki_l) is a Professor of Media and Communications in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. Robin Wagner-Pacifici is the University in Exile Professor of Sociology at the New School for Social Research. Barbie Zelizer (@bzelizer) is the Raymond Williams Professor of Communication and Director of the Scholars Program in Culture and Communication at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. Sarah Banet-Weiser (@sbanetweiser) is Professor of Communication and Head of the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. The Department of Media and Communications (@MediaLSE) is a world-leading centre for education and research in communication and media studies at the heart of LSE’s academic community in central London. We are ranked #1 in the UK and #3 globally in our field (2018 QS World University Rankings). Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEWitnessing

Speaker(s): Professor Chris Rapley | This visually engaging presentation by Chris Rapley will present the limitations of evidence in informing and motivating action on climate change. Before joining University College London as Professor of Climate Science in the Department of Earth Sciences, Chris Rapley (@ChrisRapley3131) was the Director of the British Antarctic Survey from 1998 to 2007. He was also appointed Director of the Science Museum between 2007, stepping down in 2010. In 2008 he was awarded the Edinburgh Science Medal – “For professional achievements judged to have made a significant contribution to the understanding and well-being of humanity” and, since 2014, has served as the Chair of European Space Agency (ESA), Director General's High Level Science Policy Advisory Committee. In 2014 Chris Rapley and Duncan Macmillan were commissioned by the Royal Court Theatre to write a play. The play was entitled '2071', is a dramatised lecture which aims to explain climate change and the controversies surrounding it. Tim Dyson is Professor of Population Studies in the Department of International Development at LSE. The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (@GRI_LSE)was established by the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2008 to create a world-leading centre for policy-relevant research and training on climate change and the environment, bringing together international expertise on economics, finance, geography, the environment, international development and political economy. The Department of International Development (@LSE_ID) was established in 1990 as the Development Studies Institute (DESTIN) to promote interdisciplinary postgraduate teaching and research on processes of social, political and economic development and change.

Speaker(s): Professor Matthew Festenstein, Clara Fischer, Dr Paniel Reyes Cardenas | What if instead of worrying about truth as a fundamental, objective notion, we just focused on what works? What if we just believed in what is practical or beneficial to us to believe? Pragmatism is the great American contribution to philosophy, and it has serious implications for politics, philosophy, and science. Join us at the Forum to discuss the history of this idea, and what might be entailed by ‘doing what works’. Matthew Festenstein is Professor of Politics, University of York. Clara Fischer is an EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Centre for Gender, Feminisms, and Sexualities, and Co-director of the Dewey Studies Research Project, University College Dublin. Paniel Reyes Cardenas is Assistant Professor of Philosophy, People’s Autonomous University of Puebla State, Mexico. Clare Moriarty (@quiteclare) is Fellow, The Forum and a doctoral researcher at King’s College London. 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.

Speaker(s): Professor Michèle Lamont | This lecture will diagnose the challenges of neoliberal American society: the pitfalls of the American dream across classes, hardened group boundaries, and the need to invent new narratives of hope. Michèle Lamont (@mlamont6) is Professor of Sociology and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University. Rebecca Elliott is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, LSE. Established in 1904, the Department of Sociology @LSEsociology at LSE is committed to empirically rich, conceptually sophisticated, and socially and politically relevant research and scholarship. Building upon the traditions of the discipline, we play a key role in the development of the social sciences into the new intellectual areas, social problems, and ethical dilemmas that face our society today. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEBJSAL This event forms part of the “New World (Dis)Orders” series, held in the run up to the LSE Festival, a week-long series of events taking place from 25 February to 2 March 2019, free to attend and open to all, exploring how social science can tackle global issues. How did we get here? What are the challenges? And, importantly, how can we address them? Full programme available online from January 2019.

Speaker(s): Ellen Barry, Khalid Janahi, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Professor Lord Stern, Professor Andres Velasco | Global challenges discussions around the Hard Truths exhibition (democracy, disinformation, migration, drug trafficking, climate change, global extremism). What global leadership and governance reforms are needed? Ellen Barry (@EllenBarryNYT) is a London-based international correspondent for The New York Times, covering immigration, security, demographics and culture across Europe. Khalid Janahi is the former Chair of Ihtmaar Bank, a Bahrain-based investment bank with a global portfolio. He was the co-founder of the Arab Business Forum at the World Economic Forum. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (@NOIweala) was Nigeria's Minister of Finance from 2003 to 2006 and from 2011 to 2015, and Foreign Minister in 2006. She was Managing Director of the World Bank from 2007 to 2011, overseeing South Asia, Europe, Central Asia, and Africa, and is currently Senior Adviser at Lazard and Board Chair of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. She is the author of Reforming the Unreformable: Lessons from Nigeria. Her lastest book is Fighting Corruption Is Dangerous: The Story Behind the Headlines. Nicholas Stern (@lordstern1) is the IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government and Chairman of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. Andrés Velasco (@AndresVelasco) is the inaugural Dean of the new School of Public Policy at LSE. He was the Minister of Finance in Chile between 2006 and 2010 and held professorial roles at the Harvard Kennedy School and Columbia University´s School of International and Public Affairs. Erik Berglof (@ErikBerglof) is the inaugural Director of the Institute of Global Affairs (IGA) on 1 February 2015 and Professor in Practice in the Department of Economics. This event is one of a series of public events linked to the Hard Truths exhibition which will be on display at LSE from 1-26 October. The Institute of Global Affairs (@LSEIGA) aims to maximise the impact of LSE's leading expertise across the social sciences by shaping inclusive and locally-rooted responses to the most important and pressing global challenges.

Speaker(s): Professor Sumantra Bose | This lecture marks the publication of Sumantra Bose's new book, Secular States, Religious Politics: India, Turkey, and the Future of Secularism. Sumantra Bose is Professor of International and Comparative Politics at LSE. Chandran Kukathas is Chair in Political Theory and Head of LSE Department of Government. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSESecularism This event forms part of the “New World (Dis)Orders” series, held in the run up to the LSE Festival, a week-long series of events taking place from 25 February to 2 March 2019, free to attend and open to all, exploring how social science can tackle global issues. How did we get here? What are the challenges? And, importantly, how can we address them? Full programme available online from January 2019.

Speaker(s): Professor Chris Minns | Migration has always been part of the human experience. But can the study of past population movements help us to understand present-day markets and societies? This lecture draws on a range of historical evidence to explore the possibilities. Chris Minns (@Chris__Minns) is Professor of Economic History at LSE. Joan Roses is Professor of Economic History at LSE. The Department of Economic History (@LSEEcHist) is home to a huge breadth and depth of knowledge and expertise ranging from the medieval period to the current century and covering every major world economy. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEMigration

Speaker(s): Professor Matthew Goodwin | Matthew Goodwin will present his new guide to one of the most urgent political phenomena of our time: the rise of national populism. Matthew J Goodwin (@GoodwinMJ) is Professor of Politics, University of Kent and Senior Visiting Fellow, Chatham House. Francisco Panizza is Professor in Latin American and Comparative Politics in the LSE Department of Government. The Department of Government (@LSEGovernment) is home to some of the most internationally respected experts in politics and government; producing influential research that has a global impact on policy, and delivering world-class teaching to our students. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEDemocracy This event forms part of the “New World (Dis)Orders” series, held in the run up to the LSE Festival, a week-long series of events taking place from 25 February to 2 March 2019, free to attend and open to all, exploring how social science can tackle global issues. How did we get here? What are the challenges? And, importantly, how can we address them? Full programme available online from January 2019.