Lse: Public Lectures And Events

Contributor(s): Professor David Sumpter | What is the best way to think about the world? How often do we consider how our own thinking might impact the way we approach our daily decisions? Could it help or hinder our relationships, our careers, or even our health? Acclaimed mathematician David Sumpter shows how we can deal with the chaos and complexity of our lives with four easily applied approaches to our problems: statistical, interactive, chaotic and complex. Combining engaging personal experience with practical advice and inspiring tales of ground-breaking scientific pioneers (with a tiny bit of number crunching along the way), Sumpter explains how these tried and tested methods can help us with every conundrum, from how to bicker less with our partners to pitching to a tough crowd - and in doing so change our lives.

Contributor(s): Professor Oriana Bandiera, Chipokota Mwanawasa, Asif Saleh, Ali Sarfraz | The conversation will centre around the pressing needs of adaptation and social protection, both integral for survival and resilience in these regions. The speakers will discuss the need for research and innovative strategies promoting sustainable livelihoods and diversification of jobs, highlighting policy interventions that fortify the most vulnerable against escalating climate shocks.

Contributor(s): Professor Michael Greenstone, Professor Namrata Kala, Omar Masud, Liu Xin | This event raises the profile of this important determinant of human well-being and explore innovative ways to reduce it. To do this we will pair prominent academics and policy makers working on the frontline of the war on air pollution to help map a path forward for the world.

Contributor(s): Alison McGovern MP, Professor Henrik J Kleven, Professor Linda Scott | In this event, expert and best-selling author Linda Scott, in a conversation with academic and political leaders, discusses how the unequal division of the burden of parenthood fuels women’s systematic exclusion from economic participation.

Contributor(s): Professor Sir Christopher Pissarides, Professor Charlie Beckett, Dr Giulia Gentile | We’ll hear about the introduction of Artificial Intelligence in the courtroom, and what might happen if robots take over the roles of judges. Experts will explore how journalism and other professional fields could be affected by the AI revolution. They will discuss what individuals can do to prepare, and the role of governments and businesses in addressing practical and ethical concerns about the technology. Maayan Arad talks to: Professor Sir Christopher Pissarides, LSE professor of economics and Nobel Prize winner; Professor Charlie Beckett, LSE media professor and director of Polis, LSE’s journalism think-tank; and Dr Giulia Gentile, Lecturer in Law at the University of Essex Law School and former a Fellow at LSE Law School.   Contributors Professor Sir Christopher Pissarides Professor Charlie Beckett Dr Giulia Gentile Chat GPT Research LawGPT? How AI is Reshaping the Legal Profession by Giulia Ge

Contributor(s): James Ball | The Other Pandemic: How QAnon Contaminated the World, takes us into the depths of the internet to trace the origins and rapid ascent of QAnon – the world's first digital pandemic – and how we can build immunity. Imagine a deadly pathogen that, once created, could infect any person in any part of the globe within seconds. No need to wait for travellers, trains, or air traffic to spread it, all you need is an internet connection. In his new book, James Ball decodes the cryptic language of the online right and with a surgeon's precision tracks the spread of QAnon, the world's first digital pandemic. QAnon began in 2017 as an internet community dedicated to supporting President Trump and intent on outing a global cabal of human traffickers. What started as a macabre game of virtual make believe quickly spiralled into the spread of virulently hateful, dangerous messaging – which turned into tragic, violent actions. From a standoff at the Hoover Dam, to the storming of the U.S. Capitol

Contributor(s): Dr Joana Setzer, Catherine Higham, Dr Maria Antonia Tigre, Professor Lauge Poulson, Dr Birsha Ohdedar, Sophie Marjanac, Laura Ford | This influential report presents an overview of climate litigation, highlighting recent developments and future trends. The report is widely read and cited by civil society organisations, policymakers, the legal community, judges, financiers, scholars and media all around the world. Over the past year, the climate litigation field has seen novel case strategies deployed against a broad array of government and corporate actors. Notable examples in the private sector include a world-first case brought against Shell's Board of Directors, as well as against a commercial bank. Three new cases have also been brought against Russia, Finland and Sweden, to challenge the inadequacy of their national climate plans more Increasingly a broad range of actors is compelled to understand how the litigation landscape is evolving and what risks litigation poses to their activities

Contributor(s): Professor Gary Younge, Gary Stevenson, Dr Faiza Shaheen, Kimberly McIntosh | Part memoir, part polemic, this is a personal and statistical look at how society is built, the people it leaves behind, and what we can do about it. Our panel of speakers discuss the prospects for social mobility in Britain today, and how we can create opportunities for all.

Contributor(s): Tomiwa Owolade | Debate abounds around racism, identity, diversity, immigration and colonial history, and, in the rush to address injustice, Britain has followed the lead of the world's dominant power: America. We judge ourselves by America's standards, absorb its arguments and follow its agenda. But what if we're looking in the wrong place?In This is Not America, Tomiwa Owolade argues that too much of the conversation around race in Britain is viewed through the prism of American ideas that don't reflect the history, challenges and achievements of increasingly diverse black populations at home. If we want to build a long-lasting and more effective anti-racist agenda - one that truly values black British communities - we must acknowledge that crucial differences exist between Britain and America; that we are talking about distinct communities and cultures, distinguished by language, history, class, religion and national origin.

Contributor(s): Professor Michael Wooldridge, Dr Giulia Gentile, Dr Thomas Ferretti, Dr Christine Chow | The sudden rise of ChatGPT has confirmed that artificial intelligence is no longer a technology of the future, but is already shaping our everyday lives – from work and education to policing, transport and even sport. 

Contributor(s): Lord Willetts, Swatee Deepak, Dr Ayça Çubukçu, Daniel Chandler | Whilst many are dissatisfied with the status quo, it is surprisingly hard to find a coherent vision of what a better and fairer world would look like. In the Festival’s closing event, leading thinkers put forward their suggestions.

Contributor(s): Dr Angela Spatharou, Dr Alexandra Gomes, James Fransham | We are rightly concerned about the misuse of our personal data, but data science and the tracking of data reveal crucial information about the impacts of change on people, as the COVID-19 pandemic uncovered. Health and well-being must also be seen beyond the medical point of view - the space we live in has a strong impact on us, as shown in our Festival exhibition Mapping People and Change. 

Contributor(s): Professor Vladislav Zubok, Professor Tomila Lankina, Adam Curtis, Grigor Atanesian | Adam Curtis’s BAFTA-nominated BBC series, Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone, documents what it felt like to live through the collapse of communism and democracy, based on preserved and digitised footage from BBC archives and forgotten or never shown scenes from Soviet life and life in post-Soviet states. Adam Curtis and Traumazone producer Grigor Atanesian, in conversation with Professor Vladislav Zubok and Professor Tomila Lankina, will reflect on what went wrong thirty-something years ago.

Contributor(s): | These include reported mass rape, torture, and abductions of children, as well as the destruction of civil infrastructure like schools, hospitals, and residential homes. Efforts are under way by inter-state and non-state organisations, governments, and civil society to document the crimes and the material consequences and costs of the invasion. The panel, including prominent Ukraine policy practitioners and leading academic experts on Ukraine and Russia, discuss whether there is a legal case to be made that Russia is committing crimes of aggression and/or genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes; and what the prospects are for prosecuting the crimes in international tribunals. They will also ask what the perpetrators’ responsibility is for post-war reconstruction of Ukraine, whether through paying for damages or tackling legal issues (such as the possibility of using Russia’s frozen assets).

Contributor(s): Ros Taylor, Professor Gwyn Bevan | So what is wrong with the design of British government, and how has it resulted in catastrophic failures of governance in recent years? To mark the publication of his new book with LSE Press, Professor Gwyn Bevan and political podcaster and author Ros Taylor will reflect on a century of systemic failures of governance and explore what an innovative state might look like in the future.

Contributor(s): | More and more individuals and groups are taking action and using their voices to tackle the growing social and economic inequalities. Social movements and activists engage with, challenge, and seek to shape policy processes and wider political transformations to tackle inequalities through forms of mobilisation as well as everyday forms of action and resistance. From racial justice to climate emergency and women’s rights, they are imagining and building more equal, just, and sustainable societies all across the world. Looking beyond just forms of resistance, this panel will discuss the role of activists and social movements in today’s world and examine their agency in imagining utopian futures and creating change. How are social movements providing creative spaces for not only challenging inequalities but also coming up with alternative ideas for solutions to address the problems they are fighting against? And how and to what extent are these ideas informing policy changes?

Contributor(s): Lucia Osborne-Crowley, Winnie M Li, Dr Kathryn Claire Higgins, Rowena Chiu | More than five years after the first Weinstein allegations appeared in news headlines, #MeToo continues to impact our media landscape, but we should not ignore the impact this movement has had on the individual people caught in the glare of the media spotlight. Which survivors are seen as believable in the media? What is the emotional labour required of survivors whose experiences of trauma are made so very public? Our unique panel looks at at these mediated struggles for visibility, authenticity, and recognition around #MeToo, drawn from their own lived experience, media practice, and academic research. Rowena Chiu’s story became public during the Harvey Weinstein investigation and later a Hollywood film adaptation. Winnie M Li’s experience with news media reports of her rape prompted her subsequent writing, activism, and PhD research. Lucia Osborne-Crowley’s personal trauma informed her own study of the law, and the

Contributor(s): Erin K. Wilson, Georgette Bennett, John Casson, Dr Mukulika Banerjee | But this has distracted us from asking how religion itself is changing and, in turn, changing understandings of identity, political participation and citizenship for millions of people around the world. In many countries religion is being fused with populist politics and becoming an important component in new nationalisms such as in Russia and India where Orthodox Christian and Hindu Nationalists discourse have taken on new importance. In other places it is being mobilised as a source of resistance to state oppression or corporate exploitation. Are these more political expressions of religion less grounded in personal piety and community practice, reflecting a different kind of secularisation – the loss of transcendence? Is religion in today’s world more politicised, more tribal, and less spiritual? Or are we in fact in a post-secular era where spiritual impulses are changing our understanding of ‘secular’ politics?

Contributor(s): Professor Sam Friedman, Professor Lee Elliot Major | A society with high social mobility creates opportunities for people from all backgrounds to excel. The UK is becoming less socially mobile, meaning that, compared to previous generations, the chances of young people starting out today are more tightly tied to their background. Leading experts in this field discuss not only what can be done to level the playing field - but why it’s not being done already and what is needed to turn ideas into action.

Contributor(s): Dr Katerina Glyniadaki | Drawing examples from her research on migration management, Dr Glyniadaki discusses some steps that organisations for migrants take to prevent crises, as well as some strategies individual migrants employ to tackle transition and overcome relevant challenges.