Lse: Public Lectures And Events

Contributor(s): Kate Aronoff, Stephen Castle, Professor Inderjeet Parmar, Richard Seymour | What does the outcome of the US presidential election mean for democrats and progressives? What is its significance both in the United States and around the world?

Contributor(s): Dr Helen Sharman, Dr Jill Stuart, Dr Dimitrios Stroikos | What kind of possibilities does this new space age bring—and what dangers should we be worried about? Can any nation seize possession of the moon? Could it be mined? Is there junk in space? And whatever happened to that flag that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin planted on the moon fifty five years ago? To find out more, Maayan Arad speaks to Dr Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut in space who flew aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz TM-12 in 1991. He also talks to Dr Jill Stuart, an expert in the politics, ethics and law of outer space exploration and exploitation and Visiting Fellow in LSE’s Department of Government, and Dr Dimitrios Stroikos, LSE Fellow in the Department of International Relations and Head of the Space Policy Programme at LSE IDEAS.   Contributors Dr Helen Sharman, first British astronaut Dr Jill Stuart, Visiting Fellow at LSE’s Department of Government Dr Dimitrios Stroikos, LSE Fellow in the Department of Inter

Contributor(s): Ellie Benton, Meghan Roach, Alicia Walker | An estimated 20,000 young people in London were experiencing homelessness, or were at risk of homelessness, in 2022/23. This represents a 10% increase compared to 2021/22, with a similar trend seen nationally. Crucially, estimates suggest that 48% of all young people experiencing homelessness do not contact their local authority, or face barriers in doing so. The event will explore why youth homelessness in London has increased; the special needs of young people experiencing homelessness; the challenges for London’s local authorities and voluntary organisations in addressing these issues; and proposals for helping solve the problem of youth homelessness.

Contributor(s): Professor Mukulika Banerjee, Keith Magee, Joseph C Sternberg | Will the 2024 election mark a turning point in American democracy and in the country’s role in the world? Leading experts discuss the 2024 US election and its domestic and international implications.

Contributor(s): Professor Helen Margetts, Professor Andrew Murray, Dr Dorottya Sallai, Chloe Smith | In a world increasingly shaped by digital transformation, AI and data science present new opportunities to change policymaking in nearly all areas of policy. Yet the capabilities of these emerging technologies are still unfolding and need to be better understood, both in terms of their benefits and their limitations. This event marks the publication of the most recent issue of the LSE Public Policy Review, which brings together contributions from a range of disciplines - from philosophy to statistics, government and law - to reflect together on future directions, applications, and consequences of the use of AI in public policies. Join our panellists as they discuss how emerging technologies can transform evidence-based policy development through their analytical capabilities, predictive powers, and real-time monitoring, while also bringing questions around regulation, transparency, accountability and ethics to

Contributor(s): Professor Miguel de Beistegui, Dr Demetra Kasimis, Professor Jonathan White | Crises abound: our economies, democracies, social relations, cultural identities, and the very planet that we live on are subjected to repeated and increasingly severe shocks. Have we entered an age of chronic crisis? From diverse disciplinary perspectives, the event will explore conceptual and theoretical approaches that might help us better to understand, engage with, and respond to our time as a time ‘out of joint’.

Contributor(s): Jim Muir | This event will be the inaugural memorial lecture for the late Ian Black, former visiting fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre and Middle East editor for The Guardian. In this first lecture, Jim Muir, Ian’s colleague at the LSE Middle East Centre and fellow seasoned journalist of the Middle East, will explore how reporting on the Middle East has been challenged and had to adapt in the extraordinary conditions prevailing since October 7, 2023.

Contributor(s): Professor Rachel Aldred, Professor Marco te Brömmelstroet, Dr Will Norman, Julie Plichon | Cycling and other forms of active travel have significant benefits for wellbeing, local economies, air pollution and the environment. Indeed, a substantial increase in active travel is needed to achieve London’s 2030 target for net zero carbon emissions. Yet, while London’s roads are increasingly popular and safe, more must be done to make them safer. London universities have repeatedly experienced the human cost of unsafe streets, with LSE losing three members of its community in less than a year. In response, staff and students initiated a cross-university letter to the London Mayoral candidates. The letter asked candidates to commit to putting a stop to cyclist and pedestrian deaths caused by motor vehicles in London by 2028, and to bring forward the deadline for London’s ‘Vision Zero’, its strategy to eradicate deaths from London’s roads, from 2041 to 2032.

Contributor(s): Professor Elliott Green | The late LSE Professor Ernest Gellner famously proposed that industrialization generated modern national identities. Yet there has been very little empirical attention to examining the validity of Gellner’s theory using cross-national data, especially within the developing world. In this inaugural lecture Elliott Green will examine the effects of industrialization on national identification in contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa and show that industrialization and economic development more broadly have a surprisingly strong positive impact on the development of nationalism in the African context. The lecture will conclude with wider thoughts on how and why industrialization continues to transform national identities in the contemporary world.

Contributor(s): Dr Valentina Contreras, Professor Julián Messina, Dr Sebastián Nieto Parra, Professor Andrés Velasco | Latin America is exceptionally unequal, with data widely suggesting it is one of the world’s two most unequal regions. Inequality has persisted at exceptionally high levels despite clear social pressures for its reduction and the widely shared conviction that excessive inequality is detrimental to economic progress. The Latin America and Caribbean Review (LACIR), committed to addressing these challenges, convenes high-level scholars to provide a coherent and comprehensive overview of the inequality problem in Latin America. Through a meticulous blend of in-depth critical reviews of the literature, pioneering research, and novel analyses, LACIR endeavours to deepen our understanding of this complex issue. This public event will present the scale of the problem of inequality in Latin America and point to some of the possible ways out of this ‘inequality trap’. Bringing together scholars and pol

Contributor(s): Eline Kuipers, Dr King-Ho Leung, Dr Georgie Mills, Dr Catherine M Robb | Taylor Swift's music connects with philosophy in many places: What is love? What is the value of negative emotions like anger, heartbreak and grief? Is there a moral obligation to speak out against injustice? What does it take to count as a "philosopher"? A new edited book, Taylor Swift and Philosophy, offers a fun and accessible discussion of the ideas and questions that arise from Taylor Swift's life and work. Combining top-tier philosophical research and a passion for Taylor's music, a team of scholars investigate the wisdom that can come from Taylor's songs, bringing new perspectives to important contemporary issues. This panel event will launch the book with a discussion of its main themes.

Contributor(s): Fran Heathcote, Joe Ryle, Professor Kirsten Sehnbruch | n the UK, we work some of the longest hours in Europe while having one of the least productive economies. We invented the weekend a century ago and are long overdue an update to working hours. Rising numbers of employers worldwide are switching to a four-day week, making workers happier and organisations stronger. A four-day week with no loss of pay gives workers the time to live happier and more fulfilled lives, allowing for the parts of life that are often neglected, such as rest, parenting and leisure. It has significant benefits for businesses, as real-world examples show that employers who move to a four-day week improve productivity and cut costs. Research also shows that introducing a 4 day week could reduce the UK's carbon footprint by 127 million tonnes per year. This event will discuss how businesses, charities, and councils can reap the benefits of introducing smarter working. Our panel will present the academic evidence for th

Contributor(s): Dr Guru Madhavan | Our world is filled with pernicious problems. How, for example, did novice pilots learn to fly without taking to the air and risking their lives? How should cities process mountains of waste without polluting the environment? Challenges that tangle personal, public, and planetary aspects―often occurring in health care, infrastructure, business, and policy―are known as wicked problems, and they are not going away anytime soon.

Contributor(s): Professor Bingchun Meng, Professor Jeff Pooley, Professor Terhi Rantanen, Dr Marsha Siefert, Dr Wendy Willems | Who were the key pioneers in the formation of comparative communications between the 1920s – 1950s, and how do their legacies of scholarship and practice inform the contemporary global landscapes of news reporting on war and the dissemination of propaganda? Exploring Terhi Rantanen’s new book, Dead Men’s Propaganda: Ideology and Utopia in Comparative Communications Studies, this panel will examine how comparative communications research, from its very beginning, can be understood as governed by the Mannheimian concepts of ideology and utopia and the power play between them. The close relationship between these two concepts resulted in a bias in knowledge production in comparative communications research, contributed to dominant narratives of generational conflicts, and to the demarcation of Insiders and Outsiders. By focusing on a generation at the forefront of comparative communicat

Contributor(s): Professor Lawrence Lessig | In this lecture, Lawrence Lessig will discuss the impact of artificial intelligence on the 2024 American election, and the implications that this will have for democracy in the future.

Contributor(s): Professor Larry Kramer | Join us for the inaugural lecture of LSE President and Vice Chancellor of LSE Larry Kramer in which he will talk about his vision for LSE, the role of the social sciences in a changing world and our place in the 21st Century. Larry Kramer has been President and Vice Chancellor of LSE since April 2024. A constitutional scholar, university administrator, and philanthropic leader, he was previously the President of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Dean of Stanford Law School. Conor Gearty is Professor of Human Rights Law in the LSE Law School. He was Director of LSE’s Centre for the Study of Human Rights (2002-2009) and has been Professor of human rights law at the Law School since 2002. In 2012 he became Director of LSE’s Institute of Public Affairs. He has published widely on terrorism, civil liberties and human rights. Conor is also a barrister and was a founder member of Matrix chambers from where he continues to practise.

Contributor(s): Professor Rebecca Katz | This public event will describe the state of global health security, global governance of disease and the policy epidemiology framework used in the Analysis and Mapping of Policies for Emerging Infectious Diseases project. We will describe the importance of evidence-based decision making for responding to epidemic and pandemic threats and how to translate researcher findings for decision makers.

Contributor(s): Alexandra Chesterfield, Elisabeth Costa, Professor Oliver Hauser, Dr Dario Krpan, Professor Susan Michie, Professor Robert West | Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming various aspects of behavioural science. For example, AI-driven models are being used to predict human behaviour and decision-making, and to design personalized behavioural interventions. AI can also be used to generate artificial research participants on whom behavioural interventions can be tested instead of on humans. AI is creating many new opportunities and challenges in behavioural science, disrupting the discipline to the degree that researchers, practitioners, and any behavioural science enthusiasts are trying to keep up with the new developments and understand how to best navigate the rapidly changing landscape. In this public event, speakers who are associated with pioneering work on AI in relation to behavioural science, as part of their own research or organisational initiatives, will discuss their views on how

Contributor(s): Professor Sir John Curtice, Professor Anand Menon, Professor Paula Surridge | Has Labour’s election marked a real turning point?This is a thought-provoking event as we provide an early assessment of the new Labour government’s actions and goals.

Contributor(s): Professor Eric Maskin, Professor Amartya Sen, Dr Suzanne Bloks, Professor Richard Bradley, Rudolf Fara | As authoritarianism and political violence threaten democracies throughout the world at levels not seen since the 1930s, attacks on free and fair elections are rife. Democracy is about choice, and achieving a legitimate democratic system of government relies on making representative social choices. Join us to find out about VoteDemocracy, which is a new global education initiative featuring a comprehensive course on the central role of voting in democracy. In support of the new project, Nobel Laureates Amartya Sen and Eric Maskin address core democratic principles. Professor Sen revisits the foundational ‘rule by the people’ with his talk, Democracy—Why, and Why Not? Professor Maskin offers an electoral prescription in response to his topic, How Should Members of Parliament (and Congress) be Elected?