Democracy in America: Jefferson, Tocqueville, and Lincoln [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Peter Onuf | Professor Onuf explores the development of the elusive and controversial ideal of democracy from Thomas Jefferson's revolutionary writings to Abraham Lincoln's great effort to vindicate republican principles in the American Civil War. Peter Onuf is Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor of History at the University of Virginia and Harmsworth Professor of American History at the University of Oxford.
Asia and Russia in the Age of Globalisation: the impact for Europe's future [Audio]
Speaker(s): Joschka Fischer | Joschka Fischer was Germany's foreign minister and vice-chancellor from 1998 to 2005.
Many Voices: understanding the debate about preventing violent extremism [Audio]
Speaker(s): Hazel Blears MP | The tragic events of 7/7 illustrated the threat to our society posed by violent extremism. Preventing it is one of the defining challenges of our age. Hazel Blears will explore the tough choices government has to make - how to empower new voices to join the debate, how to support people standing up for shared values and how to equip communities with the skills, confidence, and resilience they need to be part of the solution. In June 2007, Hazel Blears became the Sec
LSE Literary Weekend - ReaLITy: creative responses to social realities [Audio]
Speaker(s): Morris Gleitzman, Elizabeth Laird; Anthony McGowan; Patrick Ness; Meg Rosoff | The culmination of a creative-writing competition for London state schools, this panel discussion looks at how authors find inspiration in contemporary social issues- from gang culture and knife crime, to the more timeless problems of being a teenager. The panel of popular and award-winning teen authors have dealt with topics as wide ranging as Ethiopian street children and Nazi Germany, with a mixture of
LSE Literary Weekend - The Founders' Tradition: literature as social commentary [Audio]
Speaker(s): Mohsin Hamid, David Hare; Boyd Tonkin | This event marks the launch of the LSE Space for Thought Literary Weekend, the LSE's first ever Literary Festival, celebrating the completion of the New Academic Building. A discussion about not only the links between the social sciences and the arts, but the role of the arts in the LSE's past, present and future. Is literature relevant today?
LSE Literary Weekend - In Conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist [Audio]
Speaker(s): Hans Ulrich Obrist, Adrian Searle | Editor's note: Unfortunately, owing to technical difficulties, the last few minutes of this event are missing from the audio podcast. Hans Ulrich Obrist was born in Zurich in May 1968. He joined the Serpentine Gallery as Co-director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects in April 2006. Prior to this he was Curator of the Musie d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris since 2000, as well as curator of museum in progress, Vien
LSE Literary Weekend - Ben Okri 'showcase' [Audio]
Speaker(s): Ben Okri | Poet in the City and LSE are honoured to be holding a special showcase event with the world famous poet and writer Ben Okri. Born in 1959 in Minna, northern Nigeria, he became world famous as a writer in 1991 when he won the Booker prize for his novel The Famished Road. Set in a Nigerian village, this was the first in a trilogy of successful novels about Azaro, a spirit child. In all he has published eight novels, and won countless awards and honours for his writing. His l
LSE Literary Weekend - Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire [Audio]
Speaker(s): Iain Sinclair, Jerry White; Patrick Wright | Editor's note: Unfortunately, owing to technical difficulties, the last few minutes of this event are missing from the audio podcast. Iain Sinclair is a writer, poet and film-maker and widely regarded as one of London's greatest chroniclers. Jerry White has been writing about London for thirty years. His London in the Twentieth Century: A City and Its People won the Wolfson History Prize 2001. Patrick Wright is a writer with an interest i
LSE Literary Weekend - Political Satire [Audio]
Speaker(s): Alistair Beaton, Martin Rowson | Alistair Beaton is Britain's leading writer of political satire. Martin Rowson is an award-winning political cartoonist whose work appears regularly in The Guardian, The Times, The Independent on Sunday, the Daily Mirror, the Scotsman, Tribune, Index on Censorship and Granta.
LSE Literary Weekend - The Financial Crisis, Climate Change and Energy [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Lord Anthony Giddens | Political action and intervention, on local, national and international levels, is going to have a decisive effect on whether or not we can limit global warming, as well as how we adapt to that already occurring. At the moment, however, Anthony Giddens argues controversially, we do not have a systematic politics of climate change.
LSE Literary Weekend - Roundtable on Migrant Literature [Audio]
Speaker(s): Kapka Kassabova, Mustafa Kör, Naema Tahir | The migrant intellectual, writes Edward Said, has 'double perspective'. He or she is in a constant dialogue with his or her old and new home. Their writings often convey both a sense of loss and yearning but also display a richness wrought by the integration of multiple cultural identities, unique experiences and diverse modes of expression. These authors will explore what is it like to be migrant writers in their respective societies: wha
LSE Literary Weekend - Poetry and Choices [Audio]
Speaker(s): Jane Duran, John Mole; Robert Minhinnick; Jo Shapcott | A high profile poetry event reflecting on the choices that we all make in our lives, whether social, economic, moral or spiritual, featuring a great line-up of some of the UK's finest poets.
LSE Literary Weekend - I Shall Die by Inches: Contemporary Approaches to Death and Dying [Audio]
Speaker(s): Will Self | "All but death" wrote Emily Dickinson "can be adjusted", and yet, the cold fact that bodies must eventually die only serves to hide the reality of death as a contested cultural domain, where competing notions of public and private, tradition and innovation, individual and collective, are played out, and discourses within literature, art, jurisprudence, medicine, religion, and politics all stake their claim to knowledge of the great unknown. This talk will illuminate the
Britain and the Palestine Mandate [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Norman Rose | A review of British policies in Palestine in particular and the Middle East in general with special emphasis on the inter-war and post-war periods. For the Jews, this critical period led to the establishment of the state of Israel, for the Palestinians, to their 'Nakba' (Catastrophe), and for the British, a humiliating retreat from their imperial standing. Norman Rose is a graduate of the LSE and now holds the Chair of International Relations at the Hebrew Uni
Europe's Growth and Decline [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Vytautas Landsbergis | Professor Vytautas Landsbergis will in his lecture be giving his perspective on the today's pressing events in the western world. His lecture will be an examination of consequences of doubtful mentality, as growth in population figures and average living standards have not resulted in increased happiness. Growing frustration and the crumbling myth of welfare state point to a crucial need to consider a new philosophy for life. The lecture will be follo
Will the Rich Man's Crisis Crush the Emerging Economies? [Audio]
Speaker(s): Thomas Mirow | The crisis originated in the main western financial centres, but emerging markets will pay the price. How steep a price? And what is the responsibility of the rich countries now?
Thinking Like a Social Scientist: a lecture by Professor Gilat Levy [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Gilat Levy | In this lunchtime series lectures, a selection of LSE's academics from across the spectrum of the social sciences explain the latest thinking on how social scientists work to address the critical problems of the day. They survey the leading ideas and contributions made by their discipline, explain the types of problems that are addressed and the tools that are used, and explore the kinds of solutions proposed.
Hecklers to Power? The Waning Tools of Liberal Rights and Challenges to Feminist Activism in South A
Speaker(s): Professor Ratna Kapur | rofessor Kapur examines the specific challenges that have faced feminist activism in South Asia, and discusses how it might forge a new political direction.
Flexible Employment, Stable Society? [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Wolfgang Streeck | How does the de-regulation of employment relate to the evolution of other social structures, in particular the family? And what are the consequences for the role of the state in society?
Howard Davies in Conversation with Lord Goldsmith QC [Audio]
Speaker(s): Lord Goldsmith QC, Howard Davies | The separation of powers idea is at the heart of all legal democracies. Yet within those democracies there will often be positions of high office which require their holders to perform functions which are both legal and political. In this series of events senior figures who hold or have held positions of this type talk about their lives in the law, the nature of their office, the institutions which they serve, their roles and responsibilities within
