LSE: Public lectures and events

Speaker(s): John Kay, Professor Lord King | Two leading economists discuss decision making in conditions of radical uncertainty, where we can neither imagine all possible outcomes nor assign probabilities to future events. Uncertainty surrounds all the big decisions we make in our lives. How much should we pay into our pensions each month? Should we take regular exercise? Expand the business? Change our strategy? Enter a trade agreement? Take an expensive holiday? We do not know what the future will hold. But we must make decisions anyway. So we crave certainties which cannot exist and invent knowledge we cannot have. But humans are successful because they have adapted to an environment that they understand only imperfectly. Throughout history we have developed a variety of ways of coping with the radical uncertainty that defines our lives. Mervyn King and John Kay, authors of a new book on decision making in conditions of radical uncertainty, will draw on biography, history, mathematics, economics and philosophy to highlight the most successful - and most short-sighted - methods of dealing with an unknowable future. They will argue that contemporary approaches to dealing with uncertainty rely on a false understanding of our power to make predictions, leading to many of the problems we experience today. This event marks the publication of Radical Uncertainty: Decision-making for an unknowable future by Mervyn King and John Kay. To pre-order a copy of this book, which can be collected from independent bookshop Pages of Hackney at the event, please go to Radical Uncertainty: Decision-making for an unknowable future. John Kay is a Fellow of St John's College, Oxford and has held professorial appointments at the University of Oxford, London Business School and LSE. Mervyn King was Governor of the Bank of England from 2003 to 2013 and is currently Professor of Economics and Law at New York University and School Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science. 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. LSE IDEAS (@lseideas) is LSE's foreign policy think tank. We connect academic knowledge of diplomacy and strategy with the people who use it.

Speaker(s): Dr Chandrika Kaul, Professor Sue Mendus, Peter Oborne | A free press is a fundamental pillar of a healthy democracy. It is a vehicle for free expression, informs public debate, and holds government to account. Is there a right to a free press and is this distinct from the freedom of speech of citizens in a democracy? Given the press is often accused of overstepping the mark, invading people’s privacy or publishing material that is harmful to the national interest, where might the limits of press freedom lie? We explore the nature, importance, limitations, and challenges of maintaining a free press in our digital age. Chandrika Kaul is Reader in Modern History, University of St Andrews. Sue Mendus is Morrell Professor Emerita in Political Philosophy, University of York. Peter Oborne (@OborneTweets) is a journalist, author, and commentator. Sarah Fine is Fellow, Forum for Philosophy and Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, KCL. Founded in 1996, the Forum for Philosophy (@forumphilosophy) is a non-profit organization that has gained widespread recognition for its work as initiator and sponsor of engaging and thoughtful events that facilitate wider participation in academic philosophy. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEForum

Speaker(s): Dr Simidele Dosekun, Dr Florian Foos, Dr Sam Friedman, Dr Ria Ivandic, Dr Kasia Paprocki | If you could do one thing to change the world, what would that be? What do LSE academics think we should start, stop and continue doing? Join us as we explore how people can shape the world with their actions. Simidele Dosekun is Assistant Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. Her research centres African women to explore questions of gender, race, subjectivity, and power in a global context. Her work has appeared in Feminist Media Studies, Feminism and Psychology, Qualitative Inquiry, and Feminist Africa, among others. Florian Foos (@FlorianFoos) is Assistant Professor in Political Behaviour in the Department of Government, LSE. He studies political campaigns using randomized field experiments that he conducts with partner organisations, such as political parties and other campaign organisations. His research aim is to identify the causal effects of formal and informal interactions between citizens, politicians and campaign workers on electoral mobilization, opinion change and political activism. Sam Friedman (@SamFriedmanSoc) is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, LSE. He is a sociologist of class and inequality, and his research focuses in particular on the cultural dimensions of contemporary class division. He has recently completed a book entitled The Class Ceiling: Why it Pays to be Privileged (with Daniel Laurison), which examines social mobility into Britain’s higher professional and managerial occupations. Ria Ivandic (@RiaIvandic) is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. She has a Master’s degree in Economics from Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona Graduate School of Economics). Her primary research interests are the economic analysis of electoral politics, media economics and applied microeconometrics. Kasia Paprocki (@KasiaPaprocki) is Assistant Professor in Environment in the Department of Geography and Environment, LSE. Her work addresses issues within and between the study of the political economy of development, political ecology, social movements, and agrarian change. Her research is regionally focused in South Asia, particularly Bangladesh. Simon Hix (@simonjhix) is Pro-Director (Research) and Harold Laski Professor of Political Science at LSE. He is one of the leading researchers, teachers, and commentators on European and comparative politics in the UK. He has published over 100 books and articles and has won several prestigious prizes and fellowships for his research, including from the US-UK Fulbright Commission, the American Political Science Association, and the UK Economic and Social Research Council. Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival #ShapetheWorld

Speaker(s): Dr Daniel Susskind | How can we all thrive in a world with less work? Technological progress could bring about unprecedented prosperity, solving one of mankind's oldest problems: making sure that everyone has enough to live on. Daniel Susskind (@danielsusskind) is Fellow in Economics at Balliol College, Oxford, where he teaches and researches. He is co-author with Richard Susskind of The Future of the Professions and author of A World Without Work. and his research explores the impact of technology, particularly artificial intelligence, on work and society. Richard Davies (@RD_Economist) is an economist and writer. Currently a fellow at the LSE's Centre for Economic Performance, he is the author of Extreme Economies published by Penguin (2019) and Macmillan (2020) and The Economist's guide to economics, published by Profile (2015). Previously Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors at HM Treasury and a senior adviser at The Bank of England, he has written for The Economist, The Guardian, The Times and The Sunday Times. Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival #ShapetheWorld

Speaker(s): Lola Fayokun, Daniel Lawes, Noga Levy-Rapoport | Youth organisers share their experiences on how to start a campaign whilst testing the audience’s ideas in an interactive workshop that brings together key elements of direct action, political engagement and campaigning. Young people have always driven social justice movements, and have always been on the frontlines of grassroots and nationwide organising. The surge of youth strikers has been a wake-up call for many of today’s youth; that being the digital generation is not a hindrance but can actually help us get involved in organising and changing our world for the better. So how do you start a campaign? Who can help you get organising, and how do you set up your own group? What about when the going gets tough – what keeps you going and how? With Noga Levy-Rapoport, Dan Lawes, Lola Fayokun, and other young activists, this panel will draw together the experiences of current youth organisers whilst testing the audience’s ideas and experiences in an interactive workshop that brings together key elements of direct action and political engagement and campaigning. Lola Fayokun (@femlxla) is an 18-year-old environmental activist and Politics student at LSE. She is heavily involved in the UK Student Climate Network, the grassroots organisation which hosts the youth climate strikes in the UK. Her work here is focused on the decolonisation of the environmental movement and promotion of the Green New Deal. She is a Labour Party volunteer, organising as a Havering & Dagenham Young Labour's Campaigns and Membership officer and as LSESU Labour Society's BAME officer. Daniel Lawes (@LawesDan) is the 18-year-old Founder & CEO of YouthPolitics UK, a national organisation dedicated to encouraging political engagement among young people. The organisation provides free and non-partisan campaigning sessions to help youth in deprived areas develop the skills to enact positive change. He has led the organisation to reach over 14,000 young people by embarking on grassroots initiatives like campaign workshops, talks in school assemblies and collaborations with youth centres with over 55 volunteers working with the organisation. He is also an ambassador of HRH #iWill Campaign and an active campaigner for increased funding to youth mental health services. Noga Levy-Rapoport (@Noga_LR) is a 17-year-old climate activist, public speaker, and organiser of the UK climate strikes at the UK Student Climate Network. On 15 February 2019, she led London's first climate strike march, before joining the UK Student Climate Network as a volunteer, and began organising around the Green New Deal with GND UK. Since February, the 17-year-old has spoken at numerous panels, events, strikes and protests around the UK and across Europe, with key speeches at the Children’s Media Conference and the UN’s International Maritime Organisation. In October 2019, she was selected by the Evening Standard as one of London's most influential people of 2019 as part of their annual Progress 1000 list. Dr Thomas Smith (@DrTELS) is Assistant Professor in Environmental Geography in the department of Geography & Envirnonment at the LSE. He teaches a number of climate and environmental change courses; his research is concerned with the causes and impacts of wildfires. Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival #ShapetheWorld This event is part of the LSE Festival: Shape the World running from Monday 2 to Saturday 7 March 2020, with a series of events exploring how social science can make the world a better place.

Speaker(s): Eugenie Dugoua, Ria Sen, Carolyn Steel | Can emerging technologies save the planet? Join us as experts assess the transformational potential of tools like AI to tackle critical environmental challenges such as climate change and food security. Eugenie Dugoua (@EugenieDugoua) is Assistant Professor of Environmental Economics in the Department of Geography & Environment, LSE. Her interests lie primarily in understanding how institutions and policies influence science, innovation, and technological change so that economic development can be sustainable for the environment and societies. Eugenie recently graduated with a Ph.D. from Columbia University. She is also a Fellow at the Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy at Johns Hopkins University and a Beijer Young Scholar with the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Ria Sen is an LSE alumna and Preparedness Officer with the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster, led by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Rome, Italy. Her functions centre on enhancing readiness and capacity of national governments to respond to disasters. Most recently, she served with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, evaluating regional progress in Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. Her tenure with the United Nations Development Programme Pacific Office included acting as the team's innovation focal point for driving forward the Pacific’s only South-South cooperation initiative on e-governance. Ria was also formerly engaged with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific to deliver training and develop technical materials on disaster risk reduction in the Asia-Pacific context. Carolyn Steel (@carolynsteel) is a leading thinker on food and cities. Her first book, Hungry City, received international acclaim, establishing her as an influential voice in a wide variety of fields across academia, industry and the arts. It won the Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award for Non-Fiction and was chosen as a BBC Food Programme book of the year. A London-based architect, academic and writer, Carolyn has lectured at the University of Cambridge, London Metropolitan University, Wageningen University and the London School of Economics and is in international demand as a speaker. Her 2009 TED talk has received more than one million views. Jessica Templeton is a political scientist and the Director of LSE100, LSE’s flagship interdisciplinary course taken by all undergraduates. Jessica’s research focuses on global environmental politics, and particularly on sustainability, global governance of chemicals, and the interface between science and policy. Jessica also writes for the Earth Negotiations Bulletin, a nonpartisan publication of the International Institute for Sustainable Development that analyses multilateral environmental negotiations conducted under the auspices of the United Nations. Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival #ShapetheWorld

Speaker(s): Margaret Busby, Sarah Ladipo Manyika | African literature is increasingly esteemed around the world, but the true extent of its global historic influence remains largely overlooked. Negotiating the common obstacles of race, class and gender, African women writers have long-confronted crucial matters of independence, freedom and oppression. Margaret Busby, the editor of New Daughters of Africa—a major international collection showcasing the work of more than 200 women writers of African descent—is joined by the highly acclaimed writer Sarah Ladipo Manyika, and Angela Wachuka – leading publisher of some of Africa’s leading voices, to reflect on the impact of women writers on shaping the ways we understand today’s social and political upheavals. Addressing African literature’s rich cultural history across centuries and continents, the event will explore sisterhood, feminist movements, political and academic thought and the ways African women have taken ownership of these spaces through memory and storytelling. By putting writers in conversation with social scientists, the event will demonstrate the importance of fiction and non-fiction alike in understanding the African female experience, and the enduring legacy of African women’s thought. Margaret Busby OBE, Hon. FRSL is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, and writer. She was Britain’s youngest and first black woman book publisher when in the 1960s she co-founded the publishing house Allison and Busby. To pre-order a copy of New Daughters of Africa, which can be collected from independent bookshop Pages of Hackney at the event, please go to New Daughters of Africa. Sarah Ladipo Manyika is a writer, academic and overall lover of stories. She was raised in Nigeria and has lived in Kenya, France, Zimbabwe and England. Sarah is a novelist, short story writer and essayist. Her debut novel, In Dependence, is an international bestseller while her second novel, Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun, has been translated into a number of languages. Sarah was Founding Books Editor of Ozy Books and a long-time lecturer at San Francisco State University. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the women’s writers residency, Hedgebrook. To pre-order a copy of In Dependence, which can be collected from independent bookshop Pages of Hackney at the event, please go to In Dependence. To pre-order a copy of Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun, which can be collected from independent bookshop Pages of Hackney at the event, please go to Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun. Karin Barber is an Africanist anthropologist whose work has focused on the anthropology of texts, oral performance, popular culture and religion. Her core regional specialism is Yoruba (Western Nigeria). The Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa (FLCA) strengthens LSE’s long-term commitment to placing Africa at the heart of understandings and debates on global issues. Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival #ShapetheWorld

Speaker(s): Professor Tom Dickins, Professor Eva Jablonka, Professor Sophie von Stumm | Scientists agree that nature and nurture are essential ingredients in human development. But if both the blank slate and genetic determinism have been rejected, why do researchers still disagree and what is it that they disagree about? Join us as we’ll explore the issues at stake, taking a wide variety of perspectives, from the philosophy of science to epigenetics, and behavioural science to developmental psychology. Tom Dickins, Professor of Behavioural Science, Middlesex University & Research Associate, CPNSS, LSE. Eva Jablonka, Professor of Evolutionary Biology, Tel Aviv University & Visiting Fellow, CPNSS, LSE. Sophie von Stumm (@HungryMindLab), Professor of Psychology in Education, University of York. Jonathan Birch (@BirchLSE), Fellow, Forum for Philosophy & Associate Professor of Philosophy, LSE. Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival #ShapetheWorld

Speaker(s): Joe Cerrell, Clare Wenham | With 10 years to go, will the world meet Sustainable Development Goal 3: ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages? Joe Cerrell, Managing Director, Global Policy and Advocacy, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in conversation with Claire Wenham, Assistant Professor at the LSE, will discuss the progress made and challenges that lie ahead on targets such as ending the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and achieving universal health coverage. Discussion will focus on recent successes, lessons learned and how governments and the private sector could—and should—step up in the new decade. Joe Cerrell (@CerrJ) is based in the Gates Foundation’s European Office in London. In this role, Joe oversees the foundation's relationships with donor governments in Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East. His team seeks to expand the foundation’s partnerships with these governments, but also corporations, foundations and other non-governmental organizations, to support increased global engagement and progress on global health and agriculture. Since joining the foundation in 2001, Joe has held a number of positions, including director for Europe and Middle East and director of Global Health Policy and Advocacy. Prior to his time at the foundation, he served in a variety of senior roles in government and strategy consulting practices, including positions in the Clinton White House under former Vice President Al Gore and at APCO Worldwide. Joe currently serves on the board of directors for the ONE Campaign and Comic Relief. He received a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Southern California. Clare Wenham (@clarewenham) is Assistant Professor of Global Health Policy in the Department of Health Policy, LSE. She is the Director of the MSc in Global Health Policy and sits on the steering committee of the LSE Global Health Initiative. Her work mostly falls in the cross-over between global health and international relations focusing on global health security and global health governance. In particular, her recent research has concentrated on Zika, Ebola, and more broadly, on the governance structures of the global health landscape and global disease control. She previously worked at the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, delivering a series of projects relating to surveillance and transmission of infectious disease. Beth Kreling is a Senior Policy Fellow in the Department of Health Policy, LSE and has spent a number of years at LSE working across the Department’s Global Health portfolio. She helped to establish and manage the Global Health Initiative, an inter-departmental research unit set up to increase the coherence and visibility of Global Health research activity across the School. Amongst other varied projects, she has led a multi-partner, EU funded, public-private initiative - Big Data for Better Outcomes - facilitating the use of “big data” to enable the transition towards value-based, outcomes-focused health care systems in Europe. Beth has a background in international development and consultancy, with a particular focus on Africa and India. Prior to joining LSE, Beth worked for the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Health and Education Unit, engaging with stakeholders across Commonwealth governments, inter-governmental organisations and NGOs on education policy priorities. This built on previous experience as Chief Operating Officer of education NGO Link Community Development International, where she oversaw operations and programme development in the UK and across five sub-Saharan African offices. Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival #ShapetheWorld

Speaker(s): Professor Laura Bear, Ekta Mittal | Stories of ghosts, love and labour as narrated by workers who built the Metro Rail in Bangalore are told in this screening and Q&A of two films by filmmaker Ekta M. These films are a part of Behind the Tin Sheets project and were co-directed by Yashaswini. R. In_transience is a film about workers' fantastical stories through labour and leisure set against shifting landscapes of a city. With residues of romance and realism, the film attempts to meander through the disparate metamorphosis of a city. A far away village set amidst a growing metropolis where workers narrate stories of love and longing. Laura Bear is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at LSE and is the author of Lines of the Nation: Indian Railway Workers, Bureaucracy and the Intimate Historical Self. Ekta Mittal co-founded Maraa, a media and arts collective in Bangalore in 2008. She works there as a practitioner, researcher, curator and facilitator around issues of gender, labour & caste in rural and urban contexts. She also works with creative practices in public space, through independent production and collaborations with other artists. She has been making films around labour, migration and cities since 2009. Her recent film birha is about separation and longing in the context of migration. Sunil Kumar (@urban_sk) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Policy at LSE. He recently completed a project on the urbanisation-construction-migration - Kumar, S and M. Fernandez (2016) 'The Urbanisation-Construction-Migration Nexus in Five Cities in South Asia: Kabul, Dhaka, Chennai, Kathmandu and Lahore. Research commissioned by the UK Department for International Development’s (DFID) South Asia Research Hub (SARH), New Delhi, India. Briefing note (six pages) The full report is available at http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/65861/ (30MB) The Department of Geography and Environment (@LSEGeography) is a centre of international academic excellence in economic, urban and development geography, environmental social science and climate change. Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival #ShapetheWorld

Speaker(s): Dr Julia Corwin, Carina Hirsch, Yamini Mishra, Professor Wendy Sigle | The headlines remind us daily that we are hurtling towards a planetary emergency. The dire warnings of catastrophic and irreversible environmental disaster suggest the shape of our world will change fundamentally. Calls to action often draw simplistically on fears of overpopulation, misrepresenting the complex relationship between demographic trends and climate change. Julia Corwin (@JulesCorwin) is Assistant Professor in Environment at the Department of Geography and Environment, LSE. Her work focuses on the politics of global environmental governance and its relationship to the informal economy and global trade. Her research has focused on global flows of electronic ‘waste’ and their revaluation through economies of repair and maintenance in India, conducted through a patchwork ethnography of local markets understood as significant sites in global capital networks. Carina Hirsch is an Advocacy & Projects Manager at the Margaret Pyke Trust. Carina has been committed to improving the status of women and girls for over 10 years within UN agencies, International NGOs and at the Margaret Pyke Trust since joining in 2015. She has solid field experience implementing projects to improve the lives of rural women in Niger, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso and India. Yamini Mishra (@Yamini___Mishra) is the Director of Gender, Sexuality and Identity at Amnesty International, providing leadership and vision to the world’s largest human rights movement on gender and discrimination. Prior to this she was the Regional Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) Specialist for the Regional Office for Asia Pacific for UN Women. Before joining UN Women, Yamini was the Executive Director, Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA), Delhi, an organisation which does cutting edge work on governance issues using budget analysis as the entry point. Wendy Sigle is Professor of Gender and Family Studies at the Department of Gender Studies. She has worked on a variety of issues related to families and family policy in historical and contemporary societies. Her research is is quantitative and applies both econometric and demographic methods to the analysis of secondary survey data or data drawn from official government records. Additionanly, her research critiques how quantitative methods are applied and how quantitative evidence is used and interpreted, particular in a policy context. Laura J Brown (@Lolabear88) is an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow based at the Department of International Development at LSE. Her research focuses on links between the environment and women’s health, with a particular focus on maternal and reproductive health and behaviour. Laura holds a first class BSc in Biological Anthropology from the University of Kent as well as an MSc in Reproductive & Sexual Health Research and a PhD in Epidemiology & Population Health (Demography), both from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Speaker(s): Professor Michael Cox, Sue Donnelly, | Since its foundation in 1895 LSE people and ideas have helped to shape the world. We will explore the lives and influence of six LSE people whose work and ideas have shaped our world – do their experiences hold any lessons for today as the 21st century progresses. A tour of the Atrium Exhibition will take place straight after the discussion. Michael Cox is Director of LSE IDEAS and Emeritus Professor of International Relations at LSE. Sue Donnelly is the LSE Archivist responsible for the development of LSE’s institutional archive. David Stevenson is Professor of International History at LSE. His main fields of interests lie in international relations in Europe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; origins, course, and impact of the First World War. Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival #ShapetheWorld

Speaker(s): Professor Oriana Bandiera, Tonusree Basu, Twivwe Siwale | The innovative use of data has contributed to the women’s movement fighting for equal pay, but there is still a large gap in the availability of quality data measuring the well-being and contributions of women to society, especially in developing countries. Without sufficient high-quality and disaggregated statistics, many women will remain at risk of being invisible and persistent gender inequalities will not be bridged. The UN’s 2030 Agenda calls for a data revolution for sustainable development which would lead to enhanced understanding and advocacy, more informed planning, and better decision-making. Ahead of International Women’s Day 2020, this high-level discussion will explore the important roles of data quality and availability in generating evidence to inform policies promoting gender equality. We will showcase perspectives from developing and developed country policymakers and researchers on the challenges and opportunities for collecting and sharing gender data. Oriana Bandiera (@orianabandiera) is a Professor of Economics at the LSE and the Director of STICERD. She is also a Research Programme Director for the IGC State research programme and Member of the IGC Steering Group.She is a member of IZA, CEPR, BREAD, EUDN and JPAL-Europe. Her primary research interests are in labour economics, development economics, and the economics of organisations. Tonusree Basu is Lead, Policy Priorities at Open Government Partnership (OGP). She is responsible for strategy and partnerships to support reforms, on areas like anti-corruption, gender, digital governance across OGP member countries. Tonu has consulted on international open government projects, including with UN Women and the World Bank. Tonu started her career working with grassroots organizations in India, and serves on the Board of the Society for Citizens Vigilance Initiative', India, that supports citizen empowerment among underserved communities. Her previous roles have included leading projects related to parliamentary engagement with citizens at PRS Legislative Research, India, and managing a San Francisco-based global policy network on impact investing, established with the UK Cabinet Office and World Economic Forum. She holds an MSc in Politics and Communication from the London School of Economics and an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School, where she was a Public Service Fellow. Tonu has a diploma in conflict management and is trained in the classical Indian dance form - Odissi. Twivwe Siwale (@TwivweSiwale) is a Country Economist for the IGC in Zambia. She is a Commonwealth Scholar who holds an MSc in Public Economics from the University of York. She has over six years of experience in the field of public finance and management with an emphasis in taxation. Prior to joining the IGC, Twivwe worked at the Zambia Revenue Authority as a Policy and Legislation Officer where she worked on policy implementation in the Domestic Taxes Division. Sandra Sequeira is an Associate Professor of Development Economics in the Department of International Development, a research affiliate at STICERD, CEPR, Novafrica and the International Growth Centre. Her research interests are in development economics, trade and consumer behaviour. She holds a PhD from Harvard University, an MA from the Fletcher School and a BA from Universidade Nova in Lisbon, Portugal. Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival #ShapetheWorld This event is part of the LSE Festival: Shape the World running from Monday 2 to Saturday 7 March 2020, with a series of events exploring how social science can make the world a better place. The full programme will be online in January 2020.

Speaker(s): David Lammy MP | In 2007, inspired by the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act and looking to explore his own African roots, David Lammy took a DNA test. Part memoir, part call-to-arms Tribes explores how David Lammy felt reading his DNA results, and how they led him to rethink what it meant to need to belong to a tribe, and the results of being part of one. How this need – genetically programmed and socially acquired – can manifest itself in positive ways, collaboratively achieving great things that individuals alone cannot. And yet how, in recent years, globalisation and digitisation have led to new, more pernicious kinds of tribalism. David Lammy (@DavidLammy), MP for Tottenham, is most renowned for leading the fight for a referendum on the final negotiated Brexit deal. However, when David Lammy was named Politician of the Year by both GQ and the Political Studies Association, he dedicated both awards to his parents, the Windrush Generation and his friend Khadija Saye who lost her life in Grenfell Tower. David was the first to call for independent inquiry into the Grenfell Tower Fire. He has also secured a Compensation Fund for the victims of the Windrush scandal, placing pressure on the government to treat their plight as an injustice to be rectified. Armine Ishkanian is Interim Executive Director of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme in the International Inequalities Institute and Associate Professor in the Department of Social Policy. Her research focuses on the relationship between civil society, democracy, development, and social transformation. She has examined how civil society organisations and social movements engage in policy processes and transformative politics in a number of countries including Armenia, Egypt, Greece, and the UK. The International Inequalities Institute (@LSEInequalities) at LSE brings together experts from many LSE departments and centres to lead cutting-edge research focused on understanding why inequalities are escalating in numerous arenas across the world, and to develop critical tools to address these challenges. Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival #ShapetheWorld This event is part of the LSE Festival: Shape the World running from Monday 2 to Saturday 7 March 2020, with a series of events exploring how social science can make the world a better place.

Speaker(s): Dr Grace Lordan, Karina Robinson, Brenda Trenowden, Irshaad Ahmad, Richard Nesbitt, Teresa Parker | An inclusive workforce offers companies a distinct competitive advantage. Enhanced profits, innovation, growth, and employee wellbeing. Companies with a diverse and inclusive workforce respond better to the needs and demands of global clients and corporations. Yet creating an environment which is inclusive of all talent is not straightforward. This will be a panel discussion on ‘Inclusion in the City’, a report that gives practical insights from behavioural science research to the problems and solutions posed by people who understand the financial and services industry the best: its own talent. This event will also announce The Inclusion Initiative (@LSE_TII) at LSE. A new research programme that will create new partnerships between world-class academics, the finance and professional services sector and visionary business leaders. Leveraging insights from behavioural science TII aims to move participating firms towards an environment which is inclusive of all talent, to the benefit of bottom line. Grace Lordan (@GraceLordan_) is Associate Professor in Behavioural Science at LSE and the founding director of The Inclusion Initiative. An economist by background, Grace’s research is focused on understanding why some individuals succeed over others in work because of factors beyond their control. Grace’s research and consultancy draws on the cutting- edge methodological techniques of behavioural science and economics to design and analyse interventions that help understand and change employment outcomes, conduct at work, diversity and inclusion within occupations, occupational sorting and worker wellbeing. Karina Robinson (@_KarinaRobinson) is a founding co-director of The Inclusion Initiative: Financial and Professional Service Focus. Karina is also the Founder and CEO of Robinson Hambro. The firm specialises in Board search and Chairman advisory; including advising companies with a global outlook by drawing on the experience of a multilingual and multidisciplinary team. Karina sits on the Court of Governors at LSE and is a member of the LSE Finance Committee. Irshaad Ahmad is Head of Institutional Europe and a member of the European Executive Committee of Allianz Global Investors. He has business development and client coverage responsibilities for institutional clients in Europe and chairs the European Institutional Executive Committee. Irshaad joined AllianzGI in January 2016 from AXA Investment Managers where he was Head of UK and Nordics and had been CEO UK since 2011. Richard Nesbitt is Professor at the Rotman School of Management, Retired COO of CIBC and Retired CEO of Toronto Stock Exchange. Teresa Parker is president for EMEA, responsible for Northern Trust’s business and regulatory affairs in the region. Teresa also sits on Northern Trust Corporation’s Management Group. Prior to her appointment to lead the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, Teresa spent three years as the chief operating officer for Asset Servicing with global responsibility for Northern Trust’s business capabilities, technology and operating model. Brenda Trenowden is a Partner in PwC UK and Global co-chair of the 30% Club. Prior to joining PwC Brenda led the Financial Institutions Group in Europe for ANZ Bank, was a member of their UK Management Board. She has also worked for a number of global financial institutions including BNY Mellon, Lloyds Banking Group, BNP Paribas, Peregrine and Citi. 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.