LSE: Public lectures and events

Speaker(s): Professor John Worrall | Statements can be significant despite being “statements of the bleedin’ obvious”. The philosopher David Hume’s remark that ‘The rational man adjusts his beliefs to the evidence’ falls exactly into this category. It is surely “bleedin’ obvious” that our views (and hence our policies) ought to be based on evidence, but Hume’s claim is important exactly because it is so often ignored in practice. In these Trumpish times of disinformation and fake news, people’s views seem more and more to be based on what they would like to be true rather than on any evidence that they are in fact true. But agreeing that our views should be evidence-based is only the first step. When it comes to the details of what is involved in basing views (and policies) on evidence, things are by no means as straightforward as might be thought. This lecture investigates some of the difficulties using Evidence-Based Medicine as a test-case (though the lessons generalise to other areas such as the social sciences). John Worrall is Professor of Philosophy, LSE. He specialises in the philosophical issues raised by major theory-change in science; and is especially known for his work on structural realism. J. McKenzie Alexander is Professor of Philosophy and Head of LSE's Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method. The Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method (@LSEPhilosophy) at LSE was founded by Professor Sir Karl Popper in 1946, and remains internationally renowned for a type of philosophy that is both continuous with the sciences and socially relevant.

Speaker(s): Alan Cowell, Professor Richard Evans, Bianca Jagger, Andres Velasco | Authoritarian leaders are taking control in more and more countries. What can we learn from the Venezuelan experience? After a long career as a foreign correspondent for The New York Times based in Africa, the Middle East and Europe, Alan Cowell (@cowellcnd) became a freelance contributor in 2015, based in London. Richard Evans is Provost of Gresham College in the City of London and Visiting Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London. He is the author of The Coming of the Third Reich, The Third Reich in Power, The Third Reich at War, The Third Reich in History and Memory, and, most recently, The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914. He is currently completing a biography of the historian Eric Hobsbawm, to be published next year. Bianca Jagger has dedicated her life to campaigning for human rights, civil liberties, peace, social justice and environmental protection throughout the world. She was born in Managua, Nicaragua. She left her native country to study political science in Paris with a scholarship from the French Government. In 2005 she founded the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation (BJHRF). She is Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador, a member of the Executive Director’s Leadership Council for Amnesty International USA and IUCN Bonn Challenge Ambassador. Bianca Jagger is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards. 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 Director of the Institute of Global Affairs (IGA). He joined the School as a 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. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSENYT and #TimesEvents

Speaker(s): Professor Tomila Lankina | Three decades after the collapse of communism in Europe, a number of post-communist states experienced democratic back-sliding or embraced authoritarianism. In her inaugural lecture, Tomila Lankina discusses how her research into the durability of social structure of pre-communist Russia— elements of which she argues survived the revolutionary experiment to engineer a new society—helps explain democratic resilience and backsliding in Russia and other contexts. Tomila Lankina is Professor of Politics and International Relations at the LSE’s International Relations Department; her current research focuses on comparative democracy and authoritarianism, mass protests and historical patterns of human capital and democratic reproduction in Russia and other states. 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 Department of International Relations (@LSEIRDept) is now in its 90th year, making it one of the oldest as well as largest in the world. They are ranked 5th in the QS World University Ranking by Subject 2018 tables for Politics and International Studies. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSELankina

Speaker(s): Professor Charles Bean, Lord O’Donnell, Professor Catherine Schenk, Minouche Shafik | This event explores the causes of the 2008 global financial crash and the responses of the major advanced economies, which drew on the lessons of the 1930s. A decade on from the crisis, the global financial system has yet to return to ‘normal’, with prolonged low interest rates posing a risk to its stability. It is time to reflect on previous financial crises and the policy lessons we have learned – and failed to learn – from them. Charles Bean is Professor of Economics, LSE and a former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. Gus O’Donnell (@Gus_ODonnell) was Cabinet Secretary and Head of Civil Service 2005-11. Catherine Schenk is Professor of Economic and Social History, St Hilda’s College Oxford. Minouche Shafik is Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to this she was Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. Nicholas Stern @lordstern1 is the IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government, Chairman of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and President of the Royal Economic Society. LSE IDEAS (@lseideas) is LSE's foreign policy think tank. We connect academic knowledge of diplomacy and strategy with the people who use it. LSE's Department of International History (@lsehistory) teaches and conducts research on the international history of Britain, Europe and the world from the early modern era up to the present day. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEfinance 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): Beatrice Fihn | Are we closer than ever to ending the nuclear weapon threat? In this tumultuous moment, Beatrice Fihn sets out plenty of reasons to hope. Beatrice Fihn (@BeaFihn) is Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. Robin Archer is Director of the Ralph Miliband Programme at LSE. The Ralph Miliband Programme (@RMilibandLSE) is one of LSE's most prestigious lecture series and seeks to advance Ralph Miliband's spirit of free social inquiry.

Speaker(s): Baroness Ashton, Razia Iqbal, Alissa Johannsen Rubin, Tim Phillips, Mark Muller | This event will look at peace-making in the 21st century and the lessons learnt from attempts to stabilise Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. It will map out the new conflict environment and the rise of non-state actors and proxy forces through a prism of Syrian and Yemen conflicts including looking at the role of Iran. It will also consider the role played by the UN Security Council in preventing conflict. Catherine Ashton is former High Representative for Foreign Affairs & Security Policy for the EU. Razia Iqbal (@raziaiqbal) is a special correspondent for the BBC and main presenter on Newshour. Alissa Johannsen Rubin (@Alissanyt) is the Paris bureau chief for The New York Times. Tim Phillips is founder of Beyond Conflict. Mark Muller is Senior Mediation Advisor to the UN Department of Political Affairs and IGA Visiting Professor in Practice. 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. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSENYT and #TimesEvents

Speaker(s): Professor David Graeber | The proliferation of useless forms of employment in the professional-managerial sector has placed enormous pressure on the caring professions, leading to a major social conflagration. David Graeber (@davidgraeber) is Professor of Anthropology at the LSE and author of Bullshit Jobs: a Theory. Deborah James is Professor of Anthropology at the LSE. LSE Anthropology @LSEAnthropology is world famous and world leading. We are ranked top Anthropology department in the Guardian League Tables 2018. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEGraeber 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): Marina Benjamin, Professor Russell Foster, Professor Simon Morgan Wortham | Philosophers have diligently examined consciousness, but what do they have to say about our nightly loss of consciousness? In an age of mindfulness, is there something to be said for sleepfulness too? And for those of us still rubbing our eyes at 4am, what is it that keeps us awake in the wee small hours? With apparently two-thirds of Britons suffering from sleep problems, this Forum event promises to be your wake-up call, exploring the science, philosophy and literature of sleep. Marina Benjamin (@marinab52) is an author and Senior Editor at Aeon. Russell Foster is Professor of Circadian Neuroscience, Director, Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Head of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute. Simon Morgan Wortham is Professor in Humanities, Kingston University London. Shahidha Bari (@ShahidhaBari) is a Fellow at The Forum and Senior Lecturer in Romanticism in the Department of English, Queen Mary, University of 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 Sir Paul Collier | Following the publication of his latest book, The Future of Capitalism, Paul Collier will discuss this book and his wider work. Paul Collier is Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and a Professorial Fellow of St Antony’s College. From 1998–2003 he took a five-year Public Service leave during which he was Director of the Research Development Department of the World Bank. He is currently a Professeur invité at Sciences Po and a Director of the International Growth Centre. He has written for the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. His research covers the causes and consequences of civil war; the effects of aid and the problems of democracy in low-income and natural resources rich societies; urbanisation in low-income countries; private investment in African infrastructure and changing organisational cultures. Tim Besley is School Professor of Economics of Political Science and W. Arthur Lewis Professor of Development Economics in the Department of Economics at LSE. STICERD (@STICERD_LSE) brings together world-class academics to put economics and related disciplines at the forefront of research and policy. Founded in 1978 by the renowned Japanese economist Michio Morishima, with donations from Suntory and Toyota, we are a thriving research community within the LSE.

Speaker(s): Professor Susan Halford | It is now well-established that digital devices, techniques and new forms of data are deeply implicated in the re-working of social life, and this has only just begun. At the same time, these devices, techniques and data are shaping what we know about social life, fuelling stark questions about the value of the established academic disciplines. Most famously, it has been claimed that only mathematics and computer science will be necessary in this Brave New World. Such disciplinary troubles are not new. Tracing their roots undermines both the imperialist tendencies of data evangelists and any temptation to insist on stabilising the recognised academic disciplines of the pre-digital era. Instead, this talk argues that we must stay with the disciplinary troubles that have been provoked by the digital era. Moving beyond any simple call for interdisciplinary collaboration, the talk explores computational thinking to reveal surprising similarities as well as differences from sociological thinking. Taken together, both similarities and differences offer possibilities for making something new. This line of thinking not only explains the current positioning of sociologists as guardians of ‘ethical, legal and social implications’ in digital research and innovation but shows where this should be radically extended. Far from marginal, sociology is central if we are craft shared, meaningful and effective response-abilities in the digital era. Susan Halford (@susanjhalford) is President, British Sociological Association, and Professor of Sociology and Director, Web Science Institute, University of Southampton. Mike Savage (@MikeSav47032563) is Professor of Sociology and Director of the International Inequalities Institute, 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.

Speaker(s): Dr Steffen Hertog, Dr Elisabeth Kendall, Azadeh Moaveni, Professor Peter Neumann | Exploring new data showing why someone joins ISIS. A discussion of the sources of extremism and how to make societies more resilient. Steffen Hertog is Associate Professor in Comparative Politics, LSE. His book about Saudi state-building, Princes, Brokers and Bureaucrats: Oil and State in Saudi Arabia was published in 2011. He is the co-author, with Diego Gambetta, of Engineers of Jihad: the Curious Connection between Violent Extremism and Education. Elisabeth Kendall (@Dr_E_Kendall) is Senior Research Fellow in Arabic & Islamic Studies, University of Oxford. She is the author or (co-) editor of several books, including ReClaiming Islamic Tradition, Twenty-First Century Jihad and Literature, Journalism and the Avant-Garde: Intersection in Egypt. She also conceived of and edits the Modern Middle Eastern Vocabularies series, which includes the titles Security Arabic, Intelligence Arabic and Media Arabic. Azadeh Moaveni(@AzadehMoaveni) is Senior Gender Analyst at the International Crisis Group. She is the author of Lipstick Jihad and other books, and has reported on women and ISIS for The New York Times. She was Middle East correspondent for a decade for Time magazine and the Los Angeles Times, and is lecturer in journalism at New York University, London. Her book-length work on gender and militancy, ISIS Brides, will be published next autumn. Peter Neumann (@PeterRNeumann) is Professor of Security Studies, War Studies Department and Director, International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, King’s College London. Peter has authored or co-authored five books, including Old and New Terrorism, and The Strategy of Terrorism (with MLR Smith). He is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles, dealing with different aspects of terrorism and radicalization, especially ‘homegrown’ radicalization in Western countries. Shorter articles and opinion pieces have appeared in, among others, the New York Times, Der Spiegel, and the International Herald Tribune Jawad Iqbal is a Visiting Senior Fellow in the Institute of Global Affairs at LSE. He is a member of the Governing Council of Chatham House. Jawad has produced and edited a wide range of BBC News programmes. Since leaving the BBC, Jawad has become a contributor to The Times and Financial Times. 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.

Speaker(s): Vassilios Skouris | Based on his experience as Judge in the Court of the European Union, Vassilios Skouris will explore the differences between how judgements are made in the common law and civil law legal systems. The common law legal system allows judges to give personal opinion on a case. Alternatively, in civil law legal systems, such as those in continental Europe, judgments normally take the form of a “collective contribution”, meaning, a group of judges involved in the specific case make one judgement, based on their individual efforts. Interestingly, in the world of international courts, dissenting opinions (being an opinion written by a judge expressing disagreement with the majority opinion of the judges) are permitted to be made by judges in the European Court of Human Rights; but not in the Court of the European Union. With this in mind, Vassilios Skouris seeks to address to what extent is the individual contribution of a judge visible in their judgments in the civil law legal system? Vassilios Skouris is Chair of FIFA’s Ethics Committee and former President of the European Court of Justice. Neil Duxbury is Professor of English Law at 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. 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.

Speaker(s): Professor Dominic Lieven, Professor Janet Hartley, Professor Alexander Semyonov | This event launches the Paulsen Programme at LSE International History Department, which has been set up to allow historians in Russia to realise their full potential in their research and to enable them to make a powerful impact within the worldwide community of historians. The core of the Programme are fellowships and grants to enable Russian historians to work in archives and attend conferences outside Russia. The Programme also includes two seminars, a final conference and publication aimed at bringing together outstanding historians of Imperial Russia, both Russian and foreign. The imperial period deserves a larger place in European, imperial and global history than it currently occupies. Nor is it possible to understand contemporary Russian politics and identity without some grasp of pre-1917 Russian history. The discussion during the launch will explain why this is the case. It will also provide insights into the history of Imperial Russia, how knowledge of this history can help Western policy-makers, and what is the current state of pre-revolutionary history in today's Russia. Dominic Lieven is Senior Research Fellow, Trinity College, Cambridge and Fellow of the British Academy and Chair of the Board of the Paulsen Programme. Janet Hartley is Professor of International History at LSE. She is a historian of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Russia with particular interests in Anglo-Russian relations, the social and administrative history of the Russian empire, and the relationship between warfare, state and society during Russia’s rise to great-power status. She is on the board of the Paulsen Programme. Alexander Semyonov is Director of the Center for Historical Research, National Research University-Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg. He is a historian of modern Russian history, his research interests include political and intellectual history, history of empire and nationalism. Matthew Jones is Professor of International History at LSE and Head of Department. The Department of International History (@lsehistory) teaches and conducts research on the international history of Britain, Europe and the world from the early modern era up to the present day. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEPaulsen

Speaker(s): Baroness Corston | The overwhelming majority of women in our prisons are serving very short sentences for non-violent offences frequently associated with mental ill health, abuse, addiction and poverty. Every year, about 17,000 children are affected by their mothers’ imprisonment, and, far too often, the family link is broken forever. Jean Corston will re-visit her groundbreaking 2007 report on vulnerable women in prison, and discuss subsequent developments. Baroness Corston is an LSE alumna, member of the House of Lords and former MP. 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: #LSEwomeninprison

Speaker(s): Professor Quinetta Roberson | Scholars and practitioners have highlighted how diversity of identities, cultures and experiences within workforces can be of benefit to organisations. Yet, the meaning and design of inclusive organisations remains elusory. Drawing upon her research and experiences working with organisations, Quinetta Roberson will offer a new lens through which to view diversity. She will challenge us to define, ideate and create environments that value differences and offer open systems of opportunity and access to all workers. Quinetta Roberson (@QuinettaPhD) is the Fred J. Springer Endowed Chair in Business Leadership at Villanova University, prior to which she was an Associate Professor at Cornell University. Dr. Roberson’s research, teaching, and consulting work focuses on developing organisational capability and enhancing performance through the strategic management of people – particularly diverse work teams. Jacqueline Coyle-Shapiro is Professor of Organisational Behaviour at LSE’s Department of Management and the incoming President of the Academy of Management. The Department of Management (@LSEManagement) is a world class centre for education and research in business and management. At the heart of LSE’s academic community in central London, we are ranked #2 in the world for business and management studies.