LSE: Public lectures and events

Speaker(s): Professor Helen Graham, Eduardo Mendoza, Professor Paul Preston | Marking the 80th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War, our panel of prominent historians as well as one of Spain's most important novelists will explore the effect of the war on the literary imagination from George Orwell to the present day and reflect on the challenges of incorporating real events into fiction. Helen Graham is Professor of Spanish History at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her books include The Spanish Republic at War, The Spanish Civil War. A Very Short Introduction and The War and its Shadow. Spain’s Civil War in Europe’s Long Twentieth Century. She is currently completing Lives at the Limit, a set of innovative, interlocking biographies of five lives from Europe’s dark mid-twentieth century, all of which were involved in the defence of the Spanish Republic and its defeat in 1939. Eduardo Mendoza is a Spanish novelist, whose acclaimed works include The City of Marvels, No Word from Gurb, The Mystery of the Enchanted Crypt, The Olive Labyrinth and An Englishman in Madrid. He studied Law and worked as an U.N. interpreter in the United States for nine years. Widely considered to be one of Spain's leading contemporary novelists, he has won many literary prizes internationally. Paul Preston is Professor of Contemporary Spanish Studies and Director of Cañada Blanch Centre at LSE. His many books include Juan Carlos, The Spanish Civil War and The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-Century Spain, which was selected as the Sunday Times History Book of the Year for 2012. In 2006 he was awarded the International Ramon Llull Prize by the Catalan Government. He was decorated by Spanish King Juan Carlos a ‘Comendador de la Orden de Mérito Civil’ and in 2007, the ‘Gran Cruz de la Orden de Isabel la Católica’. In 2000 he was awarded a CBE. The Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies is part of the European Institute at LSE and is the focus of a flourishing interest in contemporary Spain in Britain.

Speaker(s): Leye Adenle, Jennifer Makumbi, Chibundu Onuzo | Western media reports that ‘Africa is Rising’ and a new middle class is emerging on the continent to transform political and economic systems. More sober stories from Mali, Northern Nigeria and Kenya reinforce earlier gloomy impressions and claim that Africa is not rising for all. Both optimistic and pessimistic accounts remain stubbornly dominated by outside voices. What do African writers and thinkers really think about the future? Leye Adenle (@LeyeAdenle) is an actor and writer. He has written a number of short stories and flash fiction pieces, including The Assassination. His forthcoming novel, The Easy Motion Tourist, will be published by Cassava Republic. Jennifer Makumbi’s first novel, Kintu won the Kwani Manuscript Prize in 2013. She is a lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Lancaster, where she also completed a PhD in Creative Writing. Chibundu Onuzo (@ChibunduOnuzo) was born in Nigeria in 1991 and is the youngest of four children. She is currently studying History at Kings College, London. Rebecca Jones is a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham as well as one of the Editors of Africa in Words, a blog which focuses on cultural production and Africa.

Speaker(s): Professor Lawrence Jacobs | The most polarizing and anti-establishment candidates in modern US politics are dominating the battles for nomination as the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates in 2016. The long slog to choose each party’s nominees starts with Iowa and New Hampshire in early February, picks up speed with the numerous primaries on March 1 and continues with nearly weekly contests through the first week in June. Who will win the Democratic and Republican nominations and why, and what will this mean for the presidential election which follows? Lawrence R. Jacobs (@larryrjacobs) is the Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance in the Hubert H. Humphrey School and the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. Peter Trubowitz is Professor of International Relations and Director of the US Centre at LSE. The United States Centre at LSE (@LSE_US) is a hub for global expertise, analysis and commentary on America. Its 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.

Speaker(s): Dr Brenna Bhandar, Dr Marsha Henry, Antony Loewenstein | Editor's note: We apologise for the poor audio quality of this podcast. LSE Law is delighted to host a conversation with Antony Loewenstein on his latest book, Disaster Capitalism: Making a Killing Out Of Catastrophe (Verso, 2015). Best-selling journalist Antony Loewenstein travelled across Afghanistan, Pakistan, Haiti, Papua New Guinea, the United States, Britain, Greece, and Australia to witness the reality of disaster capitalism. He discovered how companies such as G4S, Serco, and Halliburton cash in on organised misery in a hidden world of privatised detention centres, militarised private security, aid profiteering, and destructive mining. Dr Brenna Bhandar is Senior Lecturer in Law at the School of Law, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Her areas of research and teaching include property law, equity and trusts, indigenous land rights, post-colonial and feminist legal theory, multiculturalism and pluralism, critical legal theory, and critical race theory. Dr Marsha Henry (@mghacademic) is Associate Professor at the London School of Economics and Deputy Director of the LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security. Her research interests focus on three main areas: gender and development; gender, security and militarisation; and qualitative methodologies. Over the past 10 years, her research has been concentrating on documenting the social experiences of living and working in peacekeeping missions. Her recent research focuses on peacekeepers from the Global South. Antony Loewenstein (@antloewenstein) is an Australian independent freelance journalist, author, documentarian and blogger. Dr Devika Hovell (@DCHovell) is Assistant Professor of Law at LSE Law. Her research interests focus on the United Nations; the use of force and international humanitarian law; international courts and tribunals; the interface between public law and public international law, the relationship between international law and domestic law. She is the author of The Power of Process: The Value of Due Process in Security Council Sanctions Decision-Making (OUP 2016). Antony Loewenstein will also be appearing as an expert witness at The United Nations on Trial on Friday 26 February 2016. The 2016 LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival 'Utopias' will be taking place from Monday 22 - Saturday 27 February. LSE’s 8th Literary Festival will explore the power of dreams and the imagination and the importance of idealism, dissidence, escapism and nostalgia, as well as the benefits of looking at the world in different ways with speakers including David Aaronovitch, AC Grayling, Robert Harris, Tom Holland, Margaret Macmillan, Anna Pavord and Zoe Williams. LSE Law (@lselaw) is an integral part of the School's mission, plays a major role in policy debates & in the education of lawyers and law teachers from around the world.

Speaker(s): Dr Ruben Andersson, Professor Lilie Chouliaraki, Dr Myria Georgiou, Dr Pierluigi Musarò | This panel reflects upon the dramatic recent increase of deaths in the Mediterranean and discusses the pressures that these deaths are exerting upon the concept and practice of collective responsibility in Europe. Crucial to the continent's own liberal self-description, the ethics of responsibility is today suspended between European democracies' moral imperative to save the lives of vulnerable others and an economy of indifference that, through denial and inaction in the sea, allows for the deaths of certain populations to take place without sanctions or repercussions. What does responsibility become, in the light of this ethical failure? What should it have become instead? How is it possible to imagine alternative conceptions of responsibility, in the midst of these new hierarchies of life and humanity? Ruben Andersson is an anthropologist at LSE working on migration, borders and security. He is a postdoctoral research fellow at LSE’s Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, Department of International Development, and an associated researcher at Stockholm University’s Department of Anthropology. He is author of Illegality, Inc.: Clandestine migration and the business of bordering Europe. Lilie Chouliaraki (@chouliaraki_l) is a Professor of Media and Communications at LSE and author of The Ironic Spectator: solidarity in the age of post-humanitarianism. Myria Georgiou is Associate Professor and Deputy Head of the Dept of Media and Communications at LSE. Her research focuses on migration, identity, media, and the city. She is the author of Media and the City: Cosmopolitanism and Difference (Polity Press, 2013). Pierluigi Musarò is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Business Law at the University of Bologna. He is President of refugee-related NGO YODA and Founder and Director of the Festival ITACA: Migrants and Travellers. The Department of Media and Communications (@MediaLSE) undertakes outstanding and innovative research and provides excellent research-based graduate programmes for the study of media and communications. The Department was established in 2003 and in 2014 our research was ranked number 1 in the most recent UK research evaluation, with 91% of research outputs ranked world-leading or internationally excellent.

Speaker(s): Dr Tim Hochstrasser, Dr Padraic Scanlan | Editor's note: This podcast ends at 36.23. Utopias come in many shapes and sizes - theological, ideological, or pure fantastical and visionary projections that are intended to inspire or create enthusiasm for the creation of alternative ways of living. They can also be attempts to make those ideas real in practice, with a variety of outcomes, positive and negative. Tim Hochstrasser will discuss "Utopias and Dystopias in 18th century Political Economy: Mandeville, Voltaire and Smith". Padraic Scanlan will discuss "Freedom and Slavery in West African Colonial Utopias". Tim Hochstrasser is Associate Professor in the Department of International History at LSE. Padraic Scanlan is Assistant Professor in the Department of International History at LSE. David Stevenson is Stevenson Professor of International History at LSE.

Speaker(s): Robert Harris | Growing up on a Nottingham council estate, Robert Harris's burning ambition to write was matched only by his deep fascination with politics. Aged 30, he became political editor of The Observer; aged 35 he published Fatherland, in which he imagines a world in which the Nazis have won the war. It sold over 3 million copies. Harris was an early and enthusiastic backer of Tony Blair, but they fell out over the Iraq war, in the wake of which he wrote The Ghost, about a man murdered in the middle of ghost-writing the autobiography of a recently unseated Prime Minister. Last autumn, he published Dictator, the final book in a trilogy about Cicero. In conversation with Peter Kemp, Chief Fiction Reviewer of the Sunday Times, he explores his belief that politics is “the essence of life”, discusses which other writers have influenced him, and questions whether he was ever tempted to turn to parliament rather than the pen. Robert Harris (@Robert___Harris) is the author of eight bestselling novels including The Ghost, The Fear Index and most recentlyDictator, the conclusion to his Cicero trilogy. Several of his books have been filmed, including The Ghost, which was directed by Roman Polanski. Peter Kemp is Chief Fiction Reviewer of the Sunday Times, a position he has held since 1991. He was also Fiction Editor of the Sunday Times from 1994 to 2010 and theatre reviewer for the Independent from its launch in 1987 to 1991. He is Visiting Fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford. This event is organised in association with the Royal Society of Literature (@RSLiterature). Membership of the Royal Society of Literature is open to all. For just £50 per annum, it offers free entry to over 20 events each year. Speakers for 2016 include Simon Armitage, Gillian Clarke, Claire Harman, Alan Hollinghurst, Mimi Khalvati, Paul Muldoon, Don Paterson, Jo Shapcott, Michael Symmons Roberts and Rowan Williams.

Speaker(s): Michael Caines, Benjamin Markovits, Jacqueline Yallop | Why are utopian communities so appealing and are they always doomed to failure? The panel discuss utopian experiments in British history and consider whether utopian living would be possible today. Michael Caines (@michaelscaines) is an Assistant Editor of the Times Literary Supplement. Benjamin Markovits is the author of six previous novels: The Syme Papers, Either Side of Winter, Imposture, A Quiet Adjustment, Playing Days and Childish Loves. He has published essays, stories, poetry and reviews in the Guardian, Granta, The Paris Review and The New York Times, among other publications. In 2013 Granta selected him as one of their Best of Young British Novelists and in 2015 he won the Eccles British Library Writer in Residence Award. He teaches creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. His latest novel You Don’t Have to Live Like This explores a utopian plan to regenerate a Detroit neighbourhood. Jacqueline Yallop (@jacqyallop) is author of Dreamstreets: A Journey through Britain’s Village Utopias, as well as three novels and a history of Victorian collecting. She has a PhD in nineteenth-century literature and culture, and has worked as a museum curator in Manchester and Sheffield. She currently teaches creative writing at the University of Aberystwyth. Robin Archer is Chair of the Ralph Miliband Programme. 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): Lizz Brady, James Leadbitter, David McDaid, Vivienne Parry | “Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life” (Picasso) but how far can the arts improve health and wellbeing? Alongside advances in medicine and care, there is an increasing evidence base that the arts can significantly improve health and wellbeing as well as preventing illness. In addition to benefits to individuals, the arts can also improve the environments in which care is provided and the wellbeing of staff and unpaid carers providing that care. This event will explore our current understanding on how engagement with the arts can increase wellbeing, with individual talks from those involved in science, art and health research and open discussion. Lizz Brady, a visual artist and curator based in Manchester, is the founder of Broken Grey Wires, a contemporary art organisation responding to and exploring mental health, philosophy, and psychology. James Leadbitter is the vacuum cleaner (@vacuumcleaner), an art and activism collective of one. Working across form: including performance,installation and film, the vacuum cleaner addresses challenging and taboo issues such as consumerism and mental health. David McDaid (@dmcdaid) is an Associate Professorial Research Fellow in Health Policy and Health Economics at the Personal Social Services Research Unit at LSE. He is involved in a wide range of work on mental health and public health in the UK, Europe and at the global level. A scientist by training, Vivienne Parry (@vivienneparry) hosts medical programmes for Radio 4, writes widely on health, presents films, facilitates many high level conferences and debates and trains young researchers. Martin Knapp is Director of PSSRU and Professor of Social Policy at LSE, and Director of the NIHR School for Social Care Research. The Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) (@PSSRU_LSE) is part of LSE Health and Social Care, which is located within the Department of Social Policy. LSE has established a reputation for depth, breadth and excellence in British social science, with a long history of policy impact.

Speaker(s): Dr Rory Brooks, Rebecca Eastmond, Dr William MacAskill, Caroline Mason | Editor's note: We apologise for the poor audio quality of this podcast. Does philanthropy create utopia, and if so for whom? Those receiving, or those giving? Our panel discuss the motivations of philanthropy and its impact, and ask what it really means to make the world a better place. Rory Brooks is co-founder of the international private equity group MML Capital Partners. Rebecca Eastmond is a Philanthropy Advisor at J.P. Morgan. William MacAskill (@willmacaskill) is an Associate Professor in Philosophy at Lincoln College, Oxford and author of Doing Good Better. Caroline Mason is Chief Executive of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation (@esmeefairbairn). Thomas Hughes-Hallett is Founder and Chair of the Marshall Institute Philanthropy and Social Entrepreneurship. Marshall Institute for Philanthropy and Social Entrepreneurship at LSE's core aim is to improve the impact and effectiveness of private contributions to the public good.

Speaker(s): Dr Molly Crockett, Professor Paul Dolan, Sinéad Moriarty | Why do we like the escapism of "happily ever after"? Can a sad ending ever be enjoyed in the same way? And how can works of fiction have such a powerful hold on our emotions? Molly Crockett (@mollycrockett) is Associate Professor of Experimental Psychology, Fellow of Jesus College, and Distinguished Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics, University of Oxford. Paul Dolan (@profpauldolan) is an internationally renowned expert on happiness, behaviour and public policy and has over 100 peer-reviewed publications. Sinéad Moriarty (@sinead_moriarty) is a best-selling Irish novelist. Her first novel, The Baby Trail, a bitter-sweet story of a couple struggling to have a baby (inspired by her own early difficulties conceiving) was published in 2004 and has been translated into twenty languages. Jonathan Gibbs (@Tiny_Camels) is a writer and journalist, author of Randall, or The Painted Grape. His award-winning short fiction has been widely published. This event forms part of the LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival 2016, taking place from Monday 22 - Saturday 27 February 2016, with the theme 'Utopias'.

Speaker(s): Professor Michael Berkowitz, Professor David De Vries, Dr Sharman Kadish | Editor's note: We apologise for the poor audio quality of this podcast. A discussion in honour and memory of historian Professor David Cesarani begins with reflections about his life. In the spirit of David's utopian ideals juxtaposed to relations among Jews, and between non-Jews and Jews in modern times, we introduce new books by our panel. Michael Berkowitz is Professor of Modern Jewish History at University College London and author of Jews and Photography in Britain. David De Vries is a professor at Tel Aviv University and author most recently of Strike Action and Nation-building. Sharman Kadish is Director of Jewish Heritage UK. She has nearly 30 years experience of working in the Heritage Sector, both in the voluntary sector and in private practice. Joanna Newman is Vice Principal of Kings College London.