Explore every episode of the podcast Spring 2016 | Public lectures and events | Audio and pdf

Contributor(s): Pierre Vimont | The Ukraine crisis marked the return of geopolitics in Europe. Can the EU, which has been originally designed to prevent geopolitics inside its borders, act as decisive foreign policy actor outside of them? How to cope in particular with the severe and manifold crisis in its neighbourhoods? Pierre Vimont is Senior Associate at Carnegie Europe. Robert Falkner (@robert_falkner) is Associate Professor in International Relations at LSE. LSE IDEAS (@LSEIDEAS) is a foreign policy think-tank within LSE's Institute for Global Affairs.

Contributor(s): Dr Helen Pearson | On 5th March 1946 a survey began that is, today, the longest-running study of human development in the world, and has grown to encompass six generations of children and over 70,000 people. They have become some of the best-studied people on the planet. The simple act of observing human life has changed the way we are born, schooled, parent and die, and irrevocably altered our understanding of inequality and health. In this lecture Helen Pearson will talk about her new book, The Life Project: The Extraordinary Story of 70,000 Ordinary Lives, which is the tale of these studies, the scientists who created and sustain them, the discoveries that have come from them. The envy of scientists around the world, they are one of Britain's best-kept secrets. Helen Pearson (@hcpearson) is a science journalist and editor for the international science journal Nature. She has been writing for Nature since 2001 and her stories have won accolades including the 2010 Wistar Institute Science Journalism Award and two Best Feature awards from the Association of British Science Writers. Mike Savage (@MikeSav47032563) is Martin White Professor of Sociology, head of the department of Sociology and Co-Director of the LSE International Inequalities Institute. The Department of Sociology at LSE (@LSEsociology) was established in 1904 and remains committed to top quality teaching and leading research and scholarship today.

Contributor(s): Javier Marías | Distinguished Spanish novelist Javier Marías discusses his latest work with the historian Paul Preston. Javier Marías is the author of sixteen works in Spanish, which have been translated into forty-two languages. His latest novel, Thus Bad Begins, explores the cruel, tender punishments we exact on those we love. Paul Preston is Professor of Contemporary Spanish Studies and Director of the Cañada Blanch Centre at LSE. He is author of The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-Century Spain. The Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies is part of the European Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science and is the focus of a flourishing interest in contemporary Spain in Britain.

Contributor(s): Professor José van Dijck, Professor Sonia Livingstone | Online platforms are penetrating the organisation of societies, disrupting private and public sectors. What is their impact on the governance of public life and social order? José van Dijck is Professor of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam and President of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Sonia Livingstone (@Livingstone_S) is Professor of Social Psychology in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. Andrew Murray (@AndrewDMurray) is Professor of Law with particular reference to New Media and Technology Law at LSE. 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. 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.

Contributor(s): Caroline Lucas | Caroline Lucas will explore the role of the EU as a force for progress; the likely impact of the EU referendum campaign and what green progress means in the EU context. Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) is MP for Brighton Pavilion and former Leader of the Green Party. 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.

Contributor(s): Dr Wolfgang Schäuble | Wolfgang Schäuble is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has served as Germany’s Federal Minister of Finance in the second and third Merkel cabinets since 2009. Involved at the centre of the crisis management efforts to save the euro, the Wall Street Journal called Schäuble “Germany’s second most powerful person after Chancellor Merkel”. Between 1998 to 2000 he was CDU party chairman, and served again as Federal Minister of the Interior in the first Merkel cabinet from 2005 to 2009. Kevin Featherstone is Head of the European Institute, Eleftherios Venizelos Professor of Contemporary Greek Studies and Director of the Hellenic Observatory at LSE. This event is part of the LSESU German Society’s (@SuSocGerman) Annual German Symposium which takes place from 29 February to 4 March. Details about all of the events which make up this year’s Symposium can be found at German Symposium 2016. The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) is celebrating its Twenty Fifth Anniversary in 2016. It 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.

Contributor(s): Professor Jonathan Fisher, Dr Eva Micheler, Professor Niamh Moloney, Dr Joseph Spooner | The law plays a crucial part in the creation, proliferation, and distribution of wealth. Through private law institutions such as contract and property, but also through the criminal law (consider the numerous offences pertaining to wealth, such theft, fraud, money laundering) the law creates and regulates the categories making possible the exclusive relations between us and the world. In doing so the law also, at least indirectly, shapes social relations. Questions of wealth creation and distribution have become particularly urgent since the beginning of the ongoing financial crisis. This also puts to the question the way in which law regulates wealth. Are corporations and financial markets sufficiently regulated? Is it even possible to regulate them by law? What protection does the law offer to the worse-off and especially those who financially depend on creditors? What role can the criminal law play in hindering aggressive corporate conduct especially in conditions of globalisation? LSE Law academics conduct cutting edge research on such questions. At this event, four of our experts will share and discuss their work with the audience and offer answers to such pressing questions and offer their insights as to how the law can be employed fairly and effectively to regulate wealth. Jonathan Fisher (@JFisherQC) is a Visiting Professor in Practice at LSE. Eva Micheler is Associate Professor in Law at LSE. Niamh Moloney is Professor of Law at LSE. Joseph Spooner (@jtspooner) is Assistant Professor of Insolvency Law at LSE. Emmanuel Melissaris (@EMelissaris) is Associate Professor of Law at LSE. 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.

Contributor(s): Kate Andrews, Steve Erlanger, Gideon Rachman, Stephanie Rickard, Peter Trubowitz | On the 1st of March millions of American voters in 12 states will go to the polls in the 2016 US presidential election's 'Super Tuesday’ primary. The race so far has been unlike any in recent memory with the rise of outsider candidates from both the Republican and Democratic parties which has led to the most open-ended election in decades. Super Tuesday will make the direction of the race much clearer on both sides, paving the way for the party conventions in the early summer. Join us for a lively evening of discussion and debate with six experts on US politics. Kate Andrews (@KateAndrs) is News Editor at the Institute for Economic Affairs. Kate was former Head of Communications and a Research Fellow at the Adam Smith Institute. Kate has previously worked for the Institute of Economic Affairs, Townhall.com, the Open Currency Standard think tank and on Mitt Romney’s and Linda McMahon’s campaigns. Steve Erlanger (@StevenErlanger) is London bureau chief for the New York Times, having moved here in August 2013 after more than five years as the paper's bureau chief in Paris. Erlanger joined the NYT in September 1987. Gideon Rachman (@gideonrachman) became chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times in July 2006. He joined the FT after a 15-year career at The Economist, which included spells as a foreign correspondent in Brussels, Washington and Bangkok. He also edited The Economist’s business and Asia sections. His particular interests include American foreign policy, the European Union and globalisation. Stephanie J. Rickard (@SJRickard) is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics in the Department of Government. She earned her PhD at the University of California, San Diego and her BA at the University of Rochester. Her research examines the effects of political institutions on economic policies. Peter Trubowitz (@ptrubowitz) is Professor of International Relations and Director of the US Centre at LSE. His most recent book is Politics and Strategy: Partisan Ambition and American Statecraft (Princeton University Press). Michael Cox is Director of LSE Ideas and Emeritus Professor of International Relations 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.

Contributor(s): Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado | Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado, Vice-President and Foreign Minister of Panama, will discuss her nation’s role as a geo-strategic gateway in the Americas. Her talk will focus primarily on Panama’s transformation into a world-class services economy, and the new responsibilities derived from this evolution as the country asserts its place in tackling international corruption and financial criminality, mitigating the effects of climate change, and channelling foreign aid and humanitarian assistance. Panama's Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado (@IsabelStMalo), has over 20 years of experience in consulting, development and implementation of public policies in Latin America. Following her election as Vice-President and her appointment as foreign minister, she became the first woman to hold both positions in the history of her country. She was the Alternate Ambassador from Panama to the United Nations in New York for 15 years and worked with the United Nations Development Program, as Country Manager for Panama. Alvaro Mendez is the co-founder of the LSE Global South Unit. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the LSE; Senior Lecturer in International Relations, Regent’s University London; Research Associate, University of Bristol; and a former editor of Millennium-Journal of International Studies at the LSE. The Global South Unit (@LSE_Globalsouth) is a research and teaching initiative based in the International Relations Department of the LSE. It is a decentralised ideas hub aimed at investigating the changing role of the South in shaping the global order. The event is organised in co-operation with the LSE Students' Union Latin American Student Society (@latamlse).

Contributor(s): Professor Leif Wenar | Natural resources empower the world's most coercive men. Autocrats like Putin and the Saudis spend oil money on weapons and repression. ISIS and Congo's militias spend resource money on atrocities and ammunition. For decades resource-fueled authoritarians and extremists have forced endless crises on the West - and the ultimate source of their resource money is us, paying at the petrol station and the mall. In this lecture, Leif Wenar will talk about his new book, Blood Oil, which goes behind the headlines in search of the hidden global rule that puts shoppers into business with the men of blood - and discovers an ancient law that once licensed the slave trade, apartheid and genocide. The abolition of this rule marked some of humanity's greatest triumphs - yet the rule zombies on in today's multi-trillion dollar resource trade, enriching tyrants, warlords and terrorists worldwide. By our own deepest principles, over half of the world's traded oil is stolen. Blood Oil shows how the West can lead a peaceful global revolution by finally ending its dependence on authoritarian oil, conflict minerals and other stolen resources. Upgrading world trade will make us more secure at home, more trusted abroad, and better able to solve urgent problems like climate change. Blood Oil shows how citizens, consumers and leaders can act today to avert tomorrow's crises - and to create a more united human future. Leif Wenar (@LeifWenar) is Chair of Philosophy and Law at King's College London. He has been a Visiting Professor at Princeton and Stanford and a Fellow of the Carnegie Council Program in Justice and the World Economy. Margot Salomon is an Associate Professor in the Law Department and the Centre for the Study of Human Rights where she directs the multidisciplinary Laboratory for Advanced Research on the Global Economy (Lab). The Centre for the Study of Human Rights at LSE (@LSEHumanRights) is a trans-disciplinary centre of excellence for international academic research, teaching and critical scholarship on human rights.

Contributor(s): Professor Tim Lewens, Dr Alex Mesoudi, Professor Christina Toren | A growing number of researchers are applying Darwinian ideas to explain aspects of human society, but this work has long been controversial. Is a Darwinian theory of culture possible? If so, what should such a theory look like? In what ways should it differ from a theory of biological evolution? Does the “meme” concept have any value? How should we think about cultural inheritance, if not in terms of memes? In this interdisciplinary discussion, philosopher Tim Lewens, social anthropologist Christina Toren and cultural evolution theorist Alex Mesoudi debate these and other questions concerning Darwinism and the social sciences. Tim Lewens is Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. Alex Mesoudi (@amesoudi) is Associate Professor in Cultural Evolution at the University of Exeter. Christina Toren is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of St. Andrews. Andrew Buskell (@AndrewBuskell) is a Fellow in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, LSE. 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.

Contributor(s): Ned Beauman, Dr Kate Devlin, Professor Nicholas Humphrey | While social psychologists and cognitive scientists affirm that minds do not exist separated from biological and social systems, our human utopias have always dreamt of a disembodied, free-floating consciousness. William Gibson invented cyberspace in 1984 and blew our minds away in Neuromancer: for the young rustlers, digitally enhanced cowboys ‘jacked into a custom cyberspace desk that projected disembodied consciousness into the consensual hallucination that was the matrix…the elite stance involved a certain relaxed contempt for the flesh. The body was meat.” Falling into the prison of flesh was the Fall and disembodying cognition the picture of our human future. From Neuromancer to The Peripheral, Gibson tells the story of multiple interfaces between bodies-machines-environments-consciousness. Can consciousness exist independently of our human social selves? Will machines ever possess it? Does consciousness require a material base of any kind at all? Could it genuinely fly free of physical matter? Ned Beauman's debut novel, Boxer, Beetle, won the Writers' Guild Award for Best Fiction Book and the Goldberg Prize for Outstanding Debut Fiction. Kate Devlin (@drkatedevlin) is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computing at Goldsmiths, University of London. Nicholas Humphrey is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at LSE, Visiting Professor of Philosophy at New College of the Humanities and Senior Member, Darwin College, Cambridge. Sandra Jovchelovitch is a Professor in the Department of Social Psychology at LSE. The Department of Social Psychology (@PsychologyLSE) is a leading international centre dedicated to consolidating and expanding the contribution of social psychology to the understanding and knowledge of key social, economic, political and cultural issues. NERRI (Neuro-Enhancement: Responsible Research and Innovation) (@NERRI_eu) is a three-year project supported by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme which aims to contribute to the introduction of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in neuro-enhancement (NE) in the European Area and to shape a normative framework underpinning the governance of neuro-enhancement technologies.

Contributor(s): Hilary Benn | Hilary Benn (@hilarybennmp) is the Labour Member of Parliament for Leeds Central and the Shadow Foreign Secretary. Previously, he served as International Development Secretary, as a Minister in the Home Office, as Secretary of State at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, as the Shadow Leader of the House of Commons and the Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. Tony Travers is Director of LSE London, a research centre at the London School of Economics. British Government @ LSE (@lsegovernment) is an initiative currently based in the Government Department to promote and develop research on British Government being conducted at the LSE. So far world class speakers have attended our events, talking on a range of topics.

Contributor(s): Ben Crystal, Andrew Dickson, Dr Varsha Panjwani | Shakespeare has been translated into virtually all the world’s most commonly spoken languages. His plays are performed in a rich variety of theatrical traditions. How did he become the global phenomenon he is today? And how is his work received and interpreted across the world? Ben Crystal (@bencrystal) is an actor, writer and producer. He is the artistic director of Passion in Practice and its Shakespeare Ensemble. Andrew Dickson (@andydickson) is a writer and critic. He has a double first in English literature and an MPhil in Renaissance literature from Cambridge, and has contributed to The New Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare. Varsha Panjwani (@EarlyModernDoc) is a lecturer at Boston University (London) and is an honorary Research Associate at the University of York. Sheila T Cavanagh is serving as the Fulbright/Global Shakespeare Distinguished Chair in London and Warwick in 2015-2016.

Contributor(s): Tom Holland, Margaret MacMillan | This discussion explores the ways in which history has been re-written to serve the purposes of political leaders or regimes, from Ancient Greece to Communist Russia. Tom Holland (@holland_tom) is the award-winning and bestselling author of Rubicon, Persian Fire, Millennium, In the Shadow of the Sword and most recentlyDynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar. Margaret MacMillan is the Warden of St Antony’s College and a Professor of International History at the University of Oxford. Her books include Nixon in China, The War that Ended Peace and most recently History’s People: Personalities and the Past. Peter Stothard is Editor of the Times Literary Supplement (@TheTLS) and author of three volumes of diaries, Thirty Days, On the Spartacus Road andAlexandria, which won the 2014 Criticos Prize for literature on a theme from ancient Greece. 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'.

Contributor(s): Darran Anderson, Dr Matthew Beaumont, Professor Rachel Cooper | The Future City, as an idea that often relies upon Utopian thinking to sustain itself, can be as cruel as it is consoling. Even as it makes possible investment into urban space as a site of future fulfilment, it regularly fails to deliver upon this promise. This panel asks what futures such Utopian thinking makes available for the city and what present realities it denies? It will query more specifically the Utopias that have come to structure London’s own particular futures. What Utopian thinking is operative, for instance, in a city so firmly structured around the logic of speculation intrinsic to finance capital? And what futures might present citizens be imagining for themselves? Darran Anderson is author of Imaginary Cities (@Oniropolis). He has written on speculative urban themes for publications such as Dezeen, Citylab and Aeon, on cities directly from Paris to Phnom Penh, and has given talks on the intersection of architecture with video games, science fiction, literature, politics and futurology at the likes of the V&A, the London Festival of Architecture and the Bristol Festival of Ideas. Matthew Beaumont is is a Senior Lecturer in the English Department at UCL and a Co-Director of UCL's Urban Laboratory. He is the author of two books on nineteenth-century utopianism and, more recently, of Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London, Chaucer to Dickens. He is also the editor of Restless Cities, among other essay collections. Rachel Cooper OBE is Distinguished Professor of Design Management and Policy at Lancaster University. She is Director of ImaginationLancaster (@ImaginationLanc). Her publications include Designing Sustainable Cities, Constructing Futures and Handbook of Wellbeing and the Environment. She is a non-executive Director of the Future Cities Catapult, and a Lead Expert for the UK Government Foresight programme on the Future of Cities, and is on the Academy of Medical Sciences Working group addressing ‘the health of the public 2040’. Richard Sennett (@richardsennett) is Director of Theatrum Mundi, University Professor of the Humanities at New York University and Professor of Sociology at LSE. His research entails ethnography, history, and social theory. LSE Cities (@LSECities) is an international centre at LSE that carries out research, education and outreach activities in London and abroad. Its mission is to study how people and cities interact in a rapidly urbanising world, focussing on how the design of cities impacts on society, culture and the environment.

Contributor(s): Dr Elena Barabantseva, Anna Chen, Andy Lawrence, Dr Véronique Pin-Fat | British Born Chinese engages the everyday struggles of two boys, Dan (aged between 11-13) and Kevin (aged between 12-14), reconciling their Britishness with Chineseness through their experiences at school, as volunteers at a community centre, and at home. Filmed over the course of two years in an innovative participatory and reflexive style, this film is an example of how artistic practices of filmmaking can work as a primary research tool. Driven by dialogue and close involvement with the film’s subjects, the film challenges the dominant popular representations of British Chinese as a ‘model minority’, and argues for a different understanding of community based on a shared sense of vulnerability. Elena Barabantseva is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Manchester and Co-Producer of British Born Chinese. She is a member of the Critical Global Politics research cluster, and British Inter-University China Centre (BICC) and author of Overseas Chinese, Ethnic Minorities and Nationalism: De-Centering China. Andy Lawrence is filmmaker in residence and lecturer in Visual Anthropology at the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology, University of Manchester. He is the founder of AllRitesReversed, a documentary film production company. He is Co-Producer of British Born Chinese. Anna Chen (@MadamMiaow) writes and presents programmes for BBC Radio 4 as a freelance, and writes, produces and presents her arts show, Madam Miaow’s Culture Lounge, at Resonance 104.4FM. Her blog, Madam Miaow Says, was shortlisted in the 2010 Orwell Prize for blogs, and long listed in 2012. Véronique Pin-Fat publishes on ethics in global politics and is Senior Lecturer in International Politics at the University of Manchester. William Callahan is Professor of International Relations at LSE. His toilet adventures (2015) film was shortlisted for a major award by the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council. The International Relations Department (@LSEIRDept) at LSE is now in its 87th year, making it one of the oldest as well as largest in the world.

Contributor(s): Anna Pavord, Dan Pearson, Margaret Willes | This panel explores our fascination with landscapes, gardening and the control of nature throughout history - their prominence in the artistic and literary imagination, and their place in the hopes and dreams of the ordinary person. Anna Pavord is gardening columnist in the Independent. She writes and presents programmes for BBC Radio 3 and 4 and served for ten years on the Gardens Panel of the National Trust, the last five as Chairman. Her books include the bestseller, The Tulip, The Naming of Names, The Curious Gardener and most recently Landskipping: painters, ploughmen and places. Dan Pearson (@thedanpearson) is an award-winning garden designer and gardening columnist. Dan has designed five award-winning Chelsea Flower Show gardens, the most recent of which was awarded a Gold Medal and the award for Best In Show in 2015. His books include Spirit: Garden Inspiration and Home Ground: Sanctuary in the City. He is currently working on the planting of the proposed Garden Bridge over the Thames. Margaret Willes is an enthusiastic gardener and the former publisher at the National Trust. Her books include The Making of the English Gardener and The Gardens of the British Working Class. Richard Bronk is a Visiting Fellow at LSE and author of The Romantic Economist.

Contributor(s): Professor John Gray, Ros Schwartz, John Simenon | Georges Simenon is one of the 20th century’s most prolific authors. His prestigious output included 75 novels starring his most famous creation, Inspector Maigret, and his novels define post-WW1 France with themes that still resonate today. Professor John Gray is the author of a number of highly regarded books including False Dawn, Straw Dogs, The Silence of the Animals and The Soul of the Marionette. Ros Schwartz (@RosSchwartz) has been a translator from French since 1981, translating over 70 titles, including a number of Penguin Classics' new translations of Simenon. John Simenon (@johnsimenon) is Georges’ son and manages his father’s literary estate. Martin Conway is a Fellow and Tutor in History at Balliol College, University of Oxford.

Contributor(s): Miriam Halahmy, Philip Womack, M M Vaughan | In this discussion aimed at young adults (or adults who are young at heart), our panel of critically acclaimed YA authors will discuss how they recreate historical events or invent future ones in their writing. Where will your imagination take you? Miriam Halahmy (@MiriamHalahmy) is an author and a poet. She has published four novels and three collections of poetry, as well as short stories and education resources. Her young-adult novel, Hidden, was a Sunday Times Children's Book of the Week and nominated for the Carnegie Medal. It has recently been staged in a small Paris theatre. Her latest book The Emergency Zoo, inspired by real events during the Second World War, will be published in 2016. Philip Womack (@WomackPhilip) is the author of four critically acclaimed novels for children; his fifth, The Double Axe, a reimagining of the Minotaur myth, will be published by Alma books in February 2016. After a life-long passion for Classics, he teaches Latin and Greek, and has lectured on mythology for the How: To Academy. He is a Fellow of First Story, being writer in residence at St Augustine’s Kilburn. Monica Vaughan (@NoSleepNeeded) has spent the last eight years working in special needs, mostly with children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. She is the author of The Ability, Mindscape about telekinetic preteens and the forthcoming Six. Kirsty Wadsley is Head of Widening Participation at LSE. LSE Widening Participation work with over 2400 students in London schools and colleges each year with the aim of raising their aspirations and awareness of university study. These schemes are not just aimed at increasing the number of applications to LSE, but are aimed at encouraging students to apply to fulfil their potential at the best university for them.

Contributor(s): Professor Sophie-Grace Chappell, Professor Heidi Mirza, Professor Jacqueline Rose, Zoe Williams | What is the future for feminism? How does feminism interact with concerns about other forms of oppression, such as those based on race and class? Is there one feminist movement or many? If there are many, how should they relate to one another? In this panel, our speakers will discuss these questions and ask what the future holds for feminism(s). Sophie-Grace Chappell is Professor of Philosophy at the Open University. Her recent book Intuition, Theory, and Anti-Theory in Ethics was published by OUP. Her current work focuses on the relation between theory and experience in ethics, and in particular about the transformative power of ‘epiphanies’, and their central role in the generation of our reasons and other motivations. Heidi Mirza (@HeidiMirza) is Professor of Race, Faith and Culture at Goldsmiths College, University of London. She is known for her pioneering research on race, gender and identity in education and has an international reputation for championing equality and human rights for women and young people through educational reform. As one of the first female professors of colour in UK she was awarded the prestigious # Eight Women of Colour Awards in 2014. She is author of several best-selling books including, Young Female and Black, which was voted in the BERA top 40 most influential educational studies in Britain. Her other publications include Black British Feminism, and Race, Gender, and Educational Desire: Why black women succeed and fail and most recently, Respecting Difference: Race, Faith, and Culture for Teacher Educators. Jacqueline Rose is Professor of Humanities, Birkbeck, University of London. Her recent book Women in Dark Times has just been published by Bloomsbury. She has also authored Sexuality in the Field of Vision, The Haunting of Sylvia Plath, States of Fantasy, The Question of Zion, The Last Resistance, Proust Among the Nations – from Dreyfus to the Middle East and the novel Albertine. She is a regular writer for The London Review of Books and is a Fellow of the British Academy. Zoe Williams (@zoesqwilliams) is a writer and journalist, author of Get it Together: Why We Deserve Better Politics. She is best known as a Guardian columnist, but her work has also appeared in the Spectator, NOW magazine, the New Statesman and the Evening Standard. Danielle Sands is Lecturer in Comparative Literature and Culture at Royal Holloway and Forum for European Philosophy Fellow. 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.

Contributor(s): David Aaronovitch | David Aaronovitch talks to Charlie Beckett about his new book Party Animals: My Family and Other Communists. A memoir of early life among communists, Party Animals first took David Aaronovitch back through his own memories of belief and action. But there was much more to it. He found himself studying the old secret service files, uncovering the unspoken shame and fears that provided the unconscious background to his own existence as a party animal. Only then did he begin to understand what had come before – both the obstinate heroism and the monstrous cowardice. And the elements that shape our fondest beliefs. David Aaronovitch (@DAaronovitch) is an award-winning journalist, who has worked in radio, television and newspapers in the United Kingdom since the early 1980s. His first book, Paddling to Jerusalem, won the Madoc prize for travel literature in 2001 and his second, Voodoo Histories, was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller. Charlie Beckett (@CharlieBeckett) is Director of Polis. Polis (@PolisLSE) is the LSE's journalism and society think-tank, a part of the Department of Media and Communications aimed at working journalists, media practitioners, people in public life and students in the UK and around the world.

Contributor(s): Professor Michèle Barrett, Duncan Barrett, Professor Barry Buzan, Professor Steven French | Celebrating Star Trek’s 50th anniversary, our panel will explore what this enduring science fiction series can tell us about attitudes to international relations, science and society. Michèle Barrett is Professor of Modern Literary and Cultural Theory at Queen Mary University, London and author, with her son Duncan Barrett of Star Trek: the Human Frontier. Her recent work has focused on the literature and art of the First World War period. Duncan Barrett (@WW1Stories) is a best-selling author. In 2010 he edited the First World War memoirs of pacifist saboteur Ronald Skirth, published as The Reluctant Tommy, and in 2014 his book Men of Letters: The Post Office Heroes Who Fought the Great War was nominated for the People’s Book Prize. His is author (with Nuala Calvi) of The Sugar Girls, G. I. Brides and The Girls Who Went to War. Barry Buzan is Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the LSE (formerly Montague Burton Professor), Honorary Professor at Copenhagen Jilin, and China Foreign Affairs Universities, a Senior Fellow at LSE Ideas, and a Fellow of the British Academy. He has written, co-authored or edited over twenty-five books. He is author of an article America in Space: The International Relations of Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica and his most recent book, with George Lawson, is The Global Transformation: History, Modernity and the Making of International Relations. Steven French is Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds. Steven is Co-Editor-in-Chief (with Michela Massimi of the University of Edinburgh) of The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, one of the most highly regarded journals in the field. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Palgrave-Macmillan series, New Directions in Philosophy of Science. His books include The Structure of the World: Metaphysics and Representation. Bryan Roberts (@SoulPhysics) is Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at LSE.

Contributor(s): Johan Ahlback, Dr Joseph Hanlon, Dr Jouni Kuha | In every Mozambican election, the ruling party (Frelimo) won, and the opposition cried fraud. Can we tell who really won? Teams of up to 150 journalists, organized by Joe Hanlon, covered the elections across the country and reported that fraud and misconduct did occur. But did it change the outcome? Mozambique reports results from each polling station (each with fewer than 1000 voters) which allows statistical analysis for ballot box stuffing, invalidating opposition votes, and other misconduct. This is a first report on a unique project to put the journalists and statisticians together - and test the official outcome of five presidential elections. Johan Ahlback is a PhD student in the Department of Government at LSE. Joseph Hanlon is a Visiting Fellow in International Development at LSE. Jouni Kuha is an Associate Professor of Statistics and Research Methodology in the Department of Statistics at LSE. Wendy Willems is an Associate Professor in the Media & Communications Department at LSE. A blog post entitled Mozambique returns to war, as opposition claims electoral ‘fraud’ by Johan Ahlback and Dr Joseph Hanlon is available to read at the LSE Department of International Development Blog. The Department of International Development (@LSE_ID) promotes interdisciplinary post-graduate teaching and research on processes of social, political and economic development and change. The Department of Statistics (@StatsDeptLSE) enjoys a vibrant research environment and offers a comprehensive programme of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Statistics.

Contributor(s): The Hon. Mr Justice Jay, Gráinne Mellon, Professor Gerry Simpson, Paul Clark, Natalie Samarasinghe, Dr Nazila Ghanea, Professor Francoise Hampson, Antony Loewenstein, Carne Ross | The Charter of the United Nations, drafted in 1945, pledged in the name of the peoples of the United Nations to save us from the scourge of war; to reaffirm faith in human rights and the dignity and worth of all; to promote social progress and better standards of life in conditions of freedom. One does not have to take a very long look at the world around us to realise that this utopia of cosmopolitan peace and prosperity has not been achieved. Wars still wage, new and old global political divisions still run deep, the disparities in the global distribution of wealth are staggering. Is this conclusive proof that the UN has failed? Is it politically toothless and manipulated by the world’s most powerful states, as some believe? Has it become a bureaucratic, inflexible, cumbersome mega- structure prone to inertia and even corruption? Might it even be the case that the UN has in fact actively contributed to disasters, which it should have prevented according to its remit? A little over 70 years since the Charter was signed by the founding 51 members states, we will be putting the United Nations on trial. It will be a tough call for the prosecution. How does one bring charges against an institution, which many criticise but in which so many people around the world have placed so much faith? Nevertheless, this is not to say that it will be a walk in the park for the defence. The United Nations set the bar very high and they must be able to prove that there are good reasons for having disappointed the expectations that they created. Sir Robert Maurice Jay started practice at the Bar in 1983 after completion of pupillage. His practice was based mainly on public law, general common law, group litigation and public inquiries. Paul Clark (@_Paul_Clark) is a barrister for Garden Court Chambers. Paul provides representation and advice in public, civil, and international law. Gráinne Mellon (@GrainneMellon) is a barrister for Garden Court Chambers and Guest Lecturer on the LLM in Employment Law and in International Human Rights Law at LSE Law. Natalie Samarasinghe (@Natalie_UNA) is Executive Director of the United Nations Association – UK (UNA-UK), where she has worked since 2006. She is the first woman to hold this role. Gerry Simpson holds the Kenneth Bailey Chair of Law at the University of Melbourne and is currently a Soros Fellow (based at the Tbilisi State University, Georgia). Nazila Ghanea is Associate Professor of International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford and serves is a member of the OSCE Advisory Panel of Experts on Freedom of Religion or Belief. Francoise Hampson taught at the University of Dundee from 1975 to 1983 and has been at the University of Essex since then. Antony Loewenstein (@antloewenstein) is an Australian independent freelance journalist, author, documentarian and blogger. He is a columnist for The Guardian. Carne Ross (@carneross) is a former British diplomat who resigned in 2004 after giving then-secret evidence to a British inquiry into the war. After he quit, he founded the world's first non-profit diplomatic advisory group, Independent Diplomat (@IDiplomat), which advises marginalised countries and groups around the world. Emmanuel Melissaris is Associate Professor of Law in LSE Law with research interests in Legal Pluralism and in Social Justice and Criminal Law.

Contributor(s): Toby Litt, Patrick Parrinder, Samantha Shannon | Our panel of authors and experts discuss the history of the utopian genre in literature and its present state. Toby Litt (@tobylitt) is a bestselling and prize-winning writer, whose ten novels to date include Finding Myself and the science fiction Journey into Space, an innovative contribution to the utopian genre. His most recent book is Life-Like, which has been shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2015 and long listed for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. He is also Lecturer in Creative Writing at Birkbeck College. Patrick Parrinder is Emeritus Professor at Reading University and a leading authority on the work of H G Wells, one of the historical founders of the utopian novel. He co-edited The Reception of H G Wells in Europe and was overall editor of the Penguin multi-volume series of H G Wells’s fiction. His most recent publication is Utopian Literature and Science: From the Scientific Revolution to Brave New World and Beyond. Samantha Shannon (@say_shannon) is author of The Bone Season, the internationally bestselling first instalment in a seven-book series of fantasy novels which is now to be filmed. Its first sequel, The Mime Order, was published in 2015, and she's currently working on edits for the third book in the series, The Song Rising. Her books represent examples of distopian fiction acclaimed for their originality. The LSE Language Centre (@lselangcentre) reflects the specialist nature of the School itself, namely, a world class institution where the quality of teaching and research is paramount. LSE is not just a multi-national university but also a multi-lingual one.

Contributor(s): Professor Robin Burgess, Professor Naila Kabeer, Lewis Temple | Tackling extreme poverty has proven to be one of the most intractable challenges facing policymakers today. This event will explore the impact of an innovative and proven approach for poverty alleviation, developed in Bangladesh by the international NGO BRAC, targeted at individuals defined as being extreme or ‘Ultra-Poor’. Speakers will discuss the impact of the original BRAC programme implemented in Bangladesh, based on a rigorous seven-year evaluation undertaken by IGC researchers. The term ‘extreme poor’ describes the subset of households living below the $1.25 a day poverty line. The ultra-poor represent the very bottom strata of the extreme poor and are perpetually on the brink of deprivation. Even relative to other poor households, the ultra-poor typically earn the least and endure a myriad of exclusions and vulnerabilities that trap them into extreme poverty. The majority of ultra-poor are women who lack both the skills and capital necessary to lift themselves out of poverty. Robin Burgess is a Professor of Economics at LSE, Director of the IGC, and Director of the Economic Organisation and Public Policy Programme at the LSE. He received a B.Sc. in Biological Sciences from Edinburgh University, a M.Sc. in Economics from the LSE and a D.Phil. in Economics from Oxford University. His areas of research interest include development economics, public economics, political economy, labor economics and environmental economics. He has published on a variety of topics – natural disasters, mass media, rural banks, land reform, labor regulation, industrial policy, taxation, poverty and growth. Naila Kabeer (@N_Kabeer) is Professor of Gender and Development at the Gender Institute, LSE. Her research interests include gender, poverty, social exclusion, labour markets and livelihoods, social protection and citizenship and much of her research is focused on South and South East Asia. Lewis Temple (@LewisETemple) is Chief Executive and Secretary to the Board of BRAC UK. Upaasna Kaul (@UpaasnaK) is Managing Editor of IGC. The International Growth Centre (@The_IGC) aims to promote sustainable growth in developing countries by providing demand-led policy advice based on frontier research. Based at LSE and in partnership with Oxford University, the IGC is initiated and funded by DFID.

Contributor(s): Professor Michael Cox, Professor Chandran Kukathas | A discussion of the competing utopian ideas of prominent LSE figures set in the context of the history of 20th century thought and literature, as well as in contemporary debates about politics across Europe. Friedrich Hayek, Karl Popper and Michael Oakeshott versus Harold Laski, RH Tawney and the founders of the School: the Webbs. What impact did their alternative visions have on British politics? Why did this debate have global significance? And who 'won' in the end? Michael Cox is Director of LSE IDEAS. Chandran Kukathas is Head of the Department of Government at LSE. Simon Glendinning (@lonanglo) is Professor of European Philosophy at LSE and Director of the Forum for European Philosophy. The Department of Government (@LSEGovernment) at LSE, is one of the largest political science departments in the UK. The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) was established in 1991 as a dedicated centre for the interdisciplinary study of 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 IDEAS (@LSEIDEAS) is a foreign policy think-tank within LSE's Institute for Global Affairs.

Contributor(s): Professor Jerry Brotton, Dr Peter Frankopan | In this event we explore the rich interaction between east and west with Jerry Brotton, whose forthcoming book This Orient Isle: Elizabethan England and the Islamic World explores Elizabethan England's relations with the Muslim world, and Peter Frankopan, whose recent bookThe Silk Roads: A New History of the World looks at world history from the perspective of this trading route of culture and ideas. Jerry Brotton is Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London and a leading expert in the history of maps and Renaissance cartography. His books include The Sale of the Late King’s Goods (2006) shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, The Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction (2006), Great Maps (2014) and the bestselling A History of the World in Twelve Maps (2012), translated into eleven languages which won book of the year in Austria and was shortlisted for the Hessel Tiltman Prize. He is a regular broadcaster, critic and feature writer, presenting BBC4’s Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession (2010) and BBC Radio 3’s Courting the East (2007). He is Associate Director of the Queen Mary/Warwick University project Global Shakespeare and an Associate of the People’s Palace Projects. Peter Frankopan (@peterfrankopan) is Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford, and Director of the Centre for Byzantine Research at Oxford University. He works on the history of the Mediterranean, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Russia and on relations between Christianity and Islam. He also specializes in medieval Greek literature, and translated The Alexiad for Penguin Classics (2009). Peter often writes for the international press, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, MoneyWeek and has contributed to many TV and Radio documentaries. His first book The First Crusade: The Call from the East, was published to wide acclaim in 2012. Gagan Sood is Assistant Professor in the Department of International History at LSE.

Contributor(s): Professor Ruth Levitas | Five hundred years ago Thomas More’s Utopia was published in Latin, thereby introducing the word Utopia into the English language. But what is its relevance today? There are elements of More’s text which still resonate, notably his critique of enclosures, which can be given a contemporary twist in relation to the social cleansing of central London. There are elements of his postulated alternative, such as the abolition of property, which have ongoing power. On the other hand his gender politics, his reliance on patriarchy, his use of slavery and his attitude to colonialism are less attractive. In this lecture, Ruth Levitas argues that what is important about More’s text is less the substance than the method of utopian speculation. Utopia should be regarded not as a plan, but as a provisional and reflexive method of exploring potential futures. In this sense, Utopia is an essential element in social transformation and a tool for the creation of a more equitable and sustainable society. Ruth Levitas is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Bristol, Co-Founder of the Utopian Studies Society- Europe and author of The Concept of Utopia and Utopia as Method. Mike Savage (@MikeSav47032563) is Martin White Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the LSE International Inequalities Institute. The new International Inequalities Institute at LSE (@LSEInequalities) 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.

Contributor(s): Professor AC Grayling | What happened to the European mind between 1605, when an audience watching Macbeth at the Globe might believe that regicide was such an aberration of the natural order that ghosts could burst from the ground, and 1649, when a large crowd, perhaps including some who had seen Macbeth forty-four years earlier, could stand and watch the execution of a king? Or consider the difference between a magus casting a star chart and the day in 1639, when Jonathan Horrock and William Crabtree watched the transit of Venus across the face of the sun from their attic, successfully testing its course against Kepler's Tables of Planetary Motion, in a classic case of confirming a scientific theory by empirical testing. In this turbulent period, science moved from the alchemy and astrology of John Dee to the painstaking observation and astronomy of Galileo, from the classicism of Aristotle, still favoured by the Church, to the evidence-based, collegiate investigation of Francis Bacon. And if the old ways still lingered and affected the new mind set – Descartes's dualism an attempt to square the new philosophy with religious belief; Newton, the man who understood gravity and the laws of motion, still fascinated to the end of his life by alchemy – by the end of that tumultuous century 'the greatest ever change in the mental outlook of humanity' had irrevocably taken place. AC Grayling explains how and why this period became the crucible of modernity. AC Grayling (@acgrayling) is Master of the New College of the Humanities, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. Until 2011 he was Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London. He has written and edited over thirty books on philosophy and other subjects, including The Good Book, Ideas That Matter, Liberty in the Age of Terror, The God Argument and the forthcoming The Age of Genius: The Seventeenth Century and the Birth of the Modern Mind. He has been a columnist for the Guardian and the Times, and is a frequent contributor to the national press and radio. He is the Editor of Online Review London, and a Contributing Editor of Prospect magazine. In addition Anthony Grayling sits on the editorial boards of several academic journals, and for nearly ten years was the Honorary Secretary of the principal British philosophical association, the Aristotelian Society. He is a past chairman of June Fourth, a human rights group concerned with China, and is a representative to the UN Human Rights Council for the International Humanist and Ethical Union. He is a Vice President of the British Humanist Association, the Patron of the United Kingdom Armed Forces Humanist Association, a patron of Dignity in Dying, and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society. He was a Fellow of the World Economic Forum for several years, and a member of its C-100 group on relations between the West and the Islamic world. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Danielle Sands is Lecturer in Comparative Literature and Culture at Royal Holloway and Forum for European Philosophy Fellow. 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. 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'.

Contributor(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.

Contributor(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.

Contributor(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.

Contributor(s): Professor Ian Morris | Changes in how we capture energy from the environment have determined the degree of inequality in society – but what does this mean for the future? Ian Morris is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2015-16. LSE IDEAS (@LSEIDEAS) is a foreign policy think-tank within LSE's Institute for Global Affairs.

Contributor(s): Dr Brenna Bhandar, Dr Marsha Henry, Antony Loewenstein | 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.

Contributor(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.

Contributor(s): Dr Tim Hochstrasser, Dr Padraic Scanlan | 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.

Contributor(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.

Contributor(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.

Contributor(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.

Contributor(s): Dr Rory Brooks, Rebecca Eastmond, Dr William MacAskill, Caroline Mason | 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.

Contributor(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'.

Contributor(s): Professor Michael Berkowitz, Professor David De Vries, Dr Sharman Kadish | 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.

Contributor(s): Alec Ross | While Alec Ross was working as Senior Advisor for Innovation to the Secretary of State, he travelled to forty-one countries, exploring the latest advances coming out of every continent. From startup hubs in Kenya to R&D labs in South Korea, Ross has seen what the future holds. In this lecture he reveals the innovations that will shape our world for the better between today and 2025. Alec Ross (@AlecJRoss) is one of America’s leading experts on innovation. He served for four years as Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He is currently a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Johns Hopkins University and serves as an advisor to investors, corporations, and government leaders. He is author of The Industries of the Future. George Gaskell is Special Advisor to the Director. The Department of Management (@LSEManagement) is a globally diverse academic community at the heart of the LSE, taking a unique interdisciplinary, academically in-depth approach to the study of management and organisations.

Contributor(s): Professor Stuart Green | The work discussed in this lecture is part of a much larger, book-length project titled Criminalizing Sex: A Unified Theory. Although the incidence of voyeurism and indecent exposure is relatively low compared to other sexual offences, both crimes raise important questions about the proper scope of the criminal law in a liberal society, the resolution of competing rights to sexual autonomy, and the nature of privacy rights in our digital age. This lecture will consider four basic points: First, the wrongs entailed by voyeurism and indecent exposure are in some sense reciprocal. The former involves a violation of the victim’s right to exclude others from her private sexual domain; the latter involves a violation of the victim’s right not to be included in the private sexual domain of others. Second, the harms entailed by both voyeurism and indecent exposure are often elusive. While the exhibitionist typically intends to cause shock or dismay in his victim through his exposure, the voyeur normally intends that his victim will be unaware of his act. Any harm that results from either offence is at most psychological and, in the case of voyeurism, often lacking entirely. Third, while the “offence” caused by voyeurism is relatively straightforward, the offense caused by indecent exposure is more contested, more sensitive to cultural variation and individual tolerances, and more likely to vary depending on the specific purposes for which such conduct is performed. Finally, the means by which a potential victim of voyeurism or indecent exposure loses her right not to be exposed to such conduct are quite different from the means by which a potential victim loses her right not to be raped or sexually assaulted. There is no requirement that the potential victim must give her voluntary consent; it is normally sufficient that she assume the risk of exposure. Stuart Green is Distinguished Professor of Law at Rutgers University and Visiting Leverhulme Professor at LSE Law for 2016-17. Jeremy Horder is Professor of Criminal Law and Head of LSE Law. 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.

Contributor(s): Professor Craig Calhoun | The world is given its contours, reality and limits partly by how it is imagined. Creativity, unrealistically ‘utopian’ thought and even the celebration of illusory ‘golden ages’ perform important roles alongside critical analysis of material conditions and practical possibilities. Art, religion, and social movements each play a vital part, though the power of imagination – and failures of imagination - extends even more widely. This lecture is given ahead of this year's LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival, which will be taking place from Monday 22 - Saturday 27 February 2016 with the theme "Utopias". Craig Calhoun (@craigjcalhoun) is Director and President of LSE. He is a world-renowned social scientist whose work connects sociology to culture, communication, politics, philosophy and economics. He took up his post as LSE Director on 1 September 2012, having left the United States where he was University Professor at New York University and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge and President of the Social Science Research Council. Emran Mian (@emranmian) is the Director of the Social Market Foundation, and author of Send In The Idiots and The Banker’s Daughter.

Contributor(s): Professor Justin Champion, Dr John Guy, Kwasi Kwarteng, Gisela Stuart | Is politics about building a better world, or simply the art of the possible? Ahead of this year's LSE Literary Festival which marks the anniversary of Thomas More's Utopia, in a special debate for BBC Radio 3’s flagship programme Free Thinking (@BBCFreeThinking), politicians and historians debate the balance between idealism and realism in politics, international relations and political history. Justin Champion is Professor of the History of Early Modern Ideas at Royal Holloway, University of London and President of the Historical Association. He works on political thought of the early modern period, with a particular emphasis on the relationship between politics and religion in the period between the Reformation and the Enlightenment. He is a regular broadcaster on the BBC and elsewhere. John Guy is Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge. He has written extensively about the politics of the Tudor Court, including several books on Sir Thomas More and his political career. He is a regular broadcaster on the BBC and elsewhere. Kwasi Kwarteng has been Conservative MP for Spelthorne since 2010. He has served on the Transport Select Committee, and is currently a member of the Work & Pensions Select Committee. He is an historian whose books include Ghosts of Empire: Britain’s Legacies in the Modern World, and Thatcher’s Trial: Six Months That Defined A Leader. Gisela Stuart (@GiselaStuart) has been Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston since 1997. She has served on the Social Security Select Committee, in the Government as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health, and as a UK Parliamentary Representative at the European Convention, a body established to draw up a constitution for the European Union. Gisela is the current editor of The House, Parliament’s in-house magazine. Anne McElvoy (@annemcelvoy) is Senior Editor at The Economist, a presenter of BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking and BBC Radio 4 Moral Maze, and a London Evening Standard columnist.

Contributor(s): John McDonnell | John McDonnell (@johnmcdonnellMP) has been the MP for Hayes and Harlington since 1997 and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer since September 2015. He was born in Liverpool and stood as a candidate for Leader of the Labour party against Gordon Brown in 2007 and again in 2010. In 1981, he was elected to the Greater London Council as a member for Hayes and Harlington. He became the Chair of Finance, responsible for the GLC’s budget, and was Ken Livingstone's deputy leader until 1985. From 1985-87, he was Head of the Policy Unit at Camden Borough Council, then Chief Executive of the Association of London Authorities from 1987 to 1995 and the Association of London Government from 1995-97. Tony Travers is Director of LSE London, a research centre at the London School of Economics. British Government @ LSE (@lsegovernment) is an initiative currently based in the Government Department to promote and develop research on British Government being conducted at the LSE. So far world class speakers have attended our events, talking on a range of topics.

Contributor(s): Mark Lawson, Jonathan Moore | As part of this year’s LSE Literary Festival Fringe, Mark Lawson will be interviewing Jonathan Moore about his much admired play INIGO, which vividly brings Ignatius of Loyola and the founding Jesuits of the sixteenth century to life for a contemporary audience. Moore’s bold depiction of Loyola as a counter cultural radical explores timely questions about the role of art and faith, the world of the imagination and creativity, in the fight for change. Mark Lawson is a journalist, broadcaster and author. He is a Guardian columnist and feature writer and theatre critic for the Tablet. He has presented Mark Lawson Talks To... on BBC Four since 2005. He presented BBC2's weekly arts round up from 1993 to 2005. His novels include Idlewild, Going Out Live and Enough is Enough. He was voted Cultural Commentator of the Year in 2010. Jonathan Moore is an award winning actor, writer and director. A published playwright and librettist, his work has been performed at leading theatres including Donmar, Royal Exchange, Gate, BBC TV, radio and internationally. His latest play INIGO, about Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuits, had a successful off West End run and transferred to the Main House of the Pleasance and has recently been published. He is due to direct a large scale site specific immersive project for Ludovico Einaudi in Italy and a new opera project with Stewart Copeland.