LSE: Public lectures and events

Speaker(s): Duncan Green | In his latest book How Change Happens Duncan Green explores how political and social change takes place, and the role of individuals and organizations in influencing that change. Duncan will discuss the challenges that 'systems thinking' creates for traditional aid practices, and how a 'power and systems approach' requires activists, whether in campaigns, companies or governments, to fundamentally rethink the way they understand the world and try to influence it. Duncan Green (@fp2p) is Senior Strategic Adviser at Oxfam GB and author of From Poverty to Power: How Active Citizens and Effective States can Change the World. Naila Kabeer (@N_Kabeer) is Professor of Gender and Development at the Gender Institute, LSE. Hugh Cole (@HughDCole) is IGC Country Programme Director. The International Growth Centre (IGC) (@The_IGC) aims to promote sustainable growth in developing countries by providing demand-led policy advice based on frontier research. The IGC directs a global network of world-leading researchers and in-country teams in Africa and South Asia and works closely with partner governments to generate high quality research and policy advice on key growth challenges. The Department of International Development (@LSE_ID) promotes interdisciplinary post-graduate teaching and research on processes of social, political and economic development and change.

Speaker(s): Richard Reed | Editor's note: This podcast contains explicit language. Richard Reed built Innocent Drinks from a smoothie stall on a street corner to one of the biggest brands in Britain. He credits his success to four brilliant pieces of advice. Ever since, it has been Richard's habit, whenever he meets somebody he admires, to ask them for their best piece of advice. If they could tell him just one thing, what would it be? In this public lecture, Richard Reed shares the wisdom of some of the most remarkable individuals of our time, from Richard Branson to Andy Murray, from the president of Google to President Clinton. The right piece of advice has the potential to change lives, and Richard draws on the experience of the world’s most successful people to give a lesson in how to live, how to create and how to succeed. Richard Reed (@richardreedinno) started Innocent Drinks from a market stall in his 20s; it now produces over a million smoothies daily, sold in 17 countries. He a Co-Founder of the Innocent Foundation, and Co-Founder and Partner of Jam Jar Investments, the venture capital firm behind businesses such as Deliveroo, Graze and Popchips. He is the author of If I Could Tell You Just One Thing.... Rebecca Newton (@DrRebeccaNewton) is a Senior Visiting Fellow in the Department of Management at LSE and an organisational psychologist, specialising in leadership, organisational culture and change. Dr Newton has been an advisor, coach and consultant in leadership development, change management and culture transformation for various firms. She has worked with thousands of leaders and teams globally, including Barclays, Bank of America Corporation, Coca-Cola Enterprises and Vodafone. 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.

Speaker(s): Dr Katherine Angel, Dr Kate Devlin, Dr Rebecca Reilly-Cooper | In a year of heated discussions about campus rape culture and street harassment, the merits of sex positivism, and the implications of trans-identity for feminism, we ask what is the future of sex and sexuality? Have the rules of sexual engagement changed in the twenty-first century and has the discipline of philosophy managed to keep up? How do we start to think afresh about desire, after Freud and into the future? And what is the future for sex as our conceptions of the body are reframed by culture, bionics, and even the law? Katherine Angel (@KayEngels) is an author and Lecturer in Creative Writing, Kingston University London. Kate Devlin (@drkatedevlin) is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computing at Goldsmiths, University of London. Rebecca Reilly-Cooper is a Teaching Fellow in Political Theory, Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. Shahidha Bari (@ShahidhaBari) is Lecturer in Romanticism in the Department of English at Queen Mary, University of London and a 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.

Speaker(s): Professor Lord Giddens, Axelle Lemaire, Professor Margaret MacMillan | With the UK heading for Brexit, the European Union faces a historic challenge but also an opportunity to rethink its own future. Join diplomats, politicians and academics from across the continent to debate the future of Europe. Tony Giddens is a member of the House of Lords and former LSE Director. Axelle Lemaire (@axellelemaire) is the French Minister of State for the Digital Sector and Innovation. Margaret MacMillan is a professor of History and Warden of St Antony’s College, Oxford. Robert Falkner (@robert_falkner) is the Co-Director of the Dahrendorf Forum, LSE. LSE IDEAS (@LSEIDEAS) is a foreign policy think-tank within LSE's Institute for Global Affairs.

Speaker(s): Professor Lord Stern | What do we know about innovation, investment, cities and the global agenda, a decade after publication of The Stern Review? Nicholas Stern (@lordstern1) is the Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the LSE and is currently the President of the British Academy. Simon Dietz is Co-Director of the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (@GRI_LSE) was established by the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2008 to create a world-leading centre for policy-relevant research and training on climate change and the environment, bringing together international expertise on economics, finance, geography, the environment, international development and political economy.

Speaker(s): Professor Raj Chetty | Professor Raj Chetty will give three lectures over three consecutive days in the 2016 Lionel Robbins Memorial Lecture series under the overarching theme of "Improving Equality of Opportunity: new lessons from big data" asking the question "How Can We Improve Economic Opportunities for Low-Income Children?" Raj Chetty will discuss findings from the Equality of Opportunity Project, which uses big data to develop new answers to this important and timely policy question. The presentation will show how children's opportunities to climb the income ladder vary substantially depending upon where they grow up. It will then identify factors that contribute to this geographic variation in opportunities for upward mobility. The talks will conclude by offering policy lessons for how social mobility and economic opportunity can be increased in the next generation. TRaj Chetty is a Professor of Economics at Stanford University. His research combines empirical evidence and economic theory to help design more effective government policies. His work on tax policy, unemployment insurance, and education has been widely cited in media outlets and Congressional testimony. THenrik Kleven is Professor of Economics at LSE. TThe CEP (@CEP_LSE) is an interdisciplinary research centre at the LSE Research Laboratory. It was established by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in 1990 and is now one of the leading economic research groups in Europe. The two other lectures that are part of this series are Monday 24 and Tuesday 25 October.

Speaker(s): Professor Sarah Childs, Professor Emma Crewe, Dr Mona Morgan-Collins, Sam Smethers | Has the emergence of a woman as Prime Minister in the UK and a possible President of the US indicated a new relationship between women and formal politics? Or is it just business as usual? Sarah Childs (@profsarahchilds) is Professor of Politics and Gender at the University of Bristol. Emma Crewe (@_Emma_Crewe) specialises in the study and management of organisations and is Chair of Health Poverty Action. Mona Morgan-Collins is a Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, previously obtaining her PhD at LSE. Sam Smethers (@Samsmethers) is the Chief Executive of The Fawcett Society and a voluntary sector specialist. Mary Evans is LSE Centennial Professor at the Gender Institute. The British Library of Political and Economic Science (@LSELibrary) was founded in 1896, a year after the London School of Economics and Political Science. It has been based in the Lionel Robbins Building since 1978 and houses many world class collection, including The Women's Library. LSE’s Gender Institute (@LSEGenderTweet) is the largest gender studies centre in Europe. With a global perspective, the Gender Institute’s research and teaching intersects with other categories of analysis such as race, ethnicity, class and sexuality; because gender relations work in all spheres of life, interdisciplinarity is key to our approach.

Speaker(s): Professor Raj Chetty | Professor Raj Chetty will give three lectures over three consecutive days in the 2016 Lionel Robbins Memorial Lecture series under the overarching theme of "Improving Equality of Opportunity: new lessons from big data" asking the question "How Can We Improve Economic Opportunities for Low-Income Children?" Raj Chetty will discuss findings from the Equality of Opportunity Project, which uses big data to develop new answers to this important and timely policy question. The presentation will show how children's opportunities to climb the income ladder vary substantially depending upon where they grow up. It will then identify factors that contribute to this geographic variation in opportunities for upward mobility. The talks will conclude by offering policy lessons for how social mobility and economic opportunity can be increased in the next generation. Raj Chetty is a Professor of Economics at Stanford University. His research combines empirical evidence and economic theory to help design more effective government policies. His work on tax policy, unemployment insurance, and education has been widely cited in media outlets and Congressional testimony. Robin Burgess is Professor of Economics at LSE and Director of the International Growth Centre. The CEP (@CEP_LSE) is an interdisciplinary research centre at the LSE Research Laboratory. It was established by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in 1990 and is now one of the leading economic research groups in Europe. The two other lectures that are part of this series are Monday 24 and Wednesday 26 October.

Speaker(s): Caroline Freund | Like the robber barons of the 19th century Gilded Age, a new and proliferating crop of billionaires is driving rapid development and industrialization in poor countries. The accelerated industrial growth spurs economic prosperity for some, but it also widens the gap between the super rich and the rest of the population, especially the very poor. In her book, Rich People Poor Countries: The Rise of Emerging-Market Tycoons and Their Mega Firms, Caroline Freund has identified and analyzed nearly 700 emerging-market billionaires whose net worth adds up to more than $2 trillion. Freund finds that these titans of industry are propelling poor countries out of their small scale production and agricultural past and into a future of multinational industry and service-based mega firms. And more often than not, the new billionaires are using their newfound acumen to navigate the globalized economy, without necessarily relying on political connections, inheritance, or privileged access to resources. This story of emerging-market billionaires and the global businesses they create dramatically illuminates the process of industrialization in the modern world economy. Caroline Freund (@CarolineFreund) is the former Chief Economist for the Middle East and North Africa at the World Bank. Erik Berglof (@ErikBerglof) is the Director of the Institute of Global Affairs at LSE. The Institute of Global Affairs (IGA) (@LSEIGA) at LSE creates a dedicated space for research, policy engagement and teaching across multiple disciplines to pioneer locally-rooted responses to global challenges.

Speaker(s): Professor Raj Chetty | Professor Raj Chetty will give three lectures over three consecutive days in the 2016 Lionel Robbins Memorial Lecture series under the overarching theme of "Improving Equality of Opportunity: new lessons from big data" asking the question "How Can We Improve Economic Opportunities for Low-Income Children?" Raj Chetty will discuss findings from the Equality of Opportunity Project, which uses big data to develop new answers to this important and timely policy question. The presentation will show how children's opportunities to climb the income ladder vary substantially depending upon where they grow up. It will then identify factors that contribute to this geographic variation in opportunities for upward mobility. The talks will conclude by offering policy lessons for how social mobility and economic opportunity can be increased in the next generation. Raj Chetty is a Professor of Economics at Stanford University. His research combines empirical evidence and economic theory to help design more effective government policies. His work on tax policy, unemployment insurance, and education has been widely cited in media outlets and Congressional testimony. Steve Machin is Director of the Centre for Economic Performance. The CEP (@CEP_LSE) is an interdisciplinary research centre at the LSE Research Laboratory. It was established by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in 1990 and is now one of the leading economic research groups in Europe. The two other lectures that are part of this series are on Tuesday 25 and Wednesday 26 October.

Speaker(s): Peter Jones, Bandi Mbubi, JD Stier | #StandWithCongo presents the London premiere of When Elephants Fight, a documentary on how multinational corporations and corrupt politicians in Democratic Republic of the Congo threaten human rights narrated by Robin Wright, House of Cards, with LSE alumnus, Kwame Marfo as International Executive Producer. Peter Jones works for Global Witness (@GW_DRC) researching corruption in DRC’s mining and oil sectors and was previously the Reuters DRC correspondent. Bandi Mbubi (@BandiMbubi) is Director of Congo Calling (@CongoCalling) working for the ethical management of natural resources in the DRC. JD Stier (@jdstier) is an award-winning producer and campaign director, and is President of Stier Forward based in New York City. Armine Ishkanian is Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The Department of Social Policy (@LSESocialPolicy) is the longest established in the UK. The Department prides itself in being able to offer teaching based on the highest quality empirical research in the field.

Speaker(s): Professor Markus K. Brunnermeier, Professor Harold James | Why is the Euro in trouble? A string of economic difficulties in Greece, Ireland, Spain, Italy, and other Eurozone nations has left observers wondering whether the currency union can survive. Markus Brunnermeier and Harold James argue that the core problem with the Euro lies in the philosophical differences between the founding countries of the Eurozone, and how these seemingly incompatible differences can be reconciled to ensure Europe's survival. Markus K. Brunnermeier (@MarkusEconomist) is the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Economics at Princeton University and Director of Princeton's Bendheim Center of Finance. Harold James is Professor of History and International Affairs at Princeton University. Ricardo Reis is Professor of Economics at Columbia University, Senior George Fellow at the Bank of England and A W Phillips Professor of Economics at LSE. The Centre For Macroeconomics (@CFMUK) brings together world-class experts to carry out pioneering research on the global economic crisis and to help design policies that alleviate it.

Speaker(s): Martha Spurrier | Over the last decade hostile political rhetoric has been mirrored by the entrenchment of discrimination in our laws and our policies and a sustained threat to our Human Rights Act. In 2016 politicians entered a race to the bottom on human rights and migration issues. Recent polling has found that more people think there are more tensions between communities than there were six months ago. Hate crime has spiked. Now more than ever human rights must be our unifying values. As the UK looks to its new future, this talk will reflect on how human rights – and human rights activists - can offer a national identity of tolerance, diversity and equality, and where the battle lines will be drawn in the months to come. Martha Spurrier (@marthaspurrier) joined Liberty as Director in May 2016 having practiced law at Doughty Street Chambers. Conor Gearty (@conorgearty) is Director of the Institute of Public Affairs and Professor of Human Rights 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. Keep up to date with what Brexit means for the UK and the wider world at LSE Brexit blog (@lsebrexitvote).

Speaker(s): Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi | In his lecture, UAE based writer and art collector Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi will be discussing the political undertones of iconic artworks of the 20th century in the Arab world. From the Baathist regimes of Syria and Iraq to Egypt’s pan-Arabism under Gamal Abdel Nasser, paintings and sculptures in addition to film and performance have been employed by various governments as a tool of soft power to propagate their policies to the public not only in their respective states but throughout the region and beyond. Despite this government patronage of the arts, many artists have chosen to challenge their authorities through their art practices. This talk is an attempt to shed light on an often neglected dimension in the modern history of the Arab world. Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi (@SultanAlQassemi) is a United Arab Emirates-based columnist whose articles have appeared in The Financial Times, The Independent, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, The New York Times Room for Debate, Foreign Policy, Open Democracy, and The Globe and Mail, as well as other notable publications. Al Qassemi is also a prominent commentator on Arab affairs on Twitter. Rising in prominence during the Arab Spring, his tweets became a major news source, rivalling the major news networks at the time, until TIME magazine listed him in the “140 Best Twitter Feeds of 2011.” Al Qassemi is an MIT Media Labs Director’s Fellow, and in 2014, Arabian Business placed Al Qassemi in its list of World’s 100 Most Powerful Arabs under the Thinkers category. He continues both to write and tweet about the Arab world both from his home in Sharjah, as well as while giving lectures internationally. Al Qassemi is also the founder of the Barjeel Art Foundation, an independent initiative established to contribute to the intellectual development of the art scene in the Arab region by building a prominent and publicly accessible art collection in the United Arab Emirates. Barjeel Art Foundation currently has exhibitions at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, and the Whitechapel Gallery in London. Professor Toby Dodge is Director of the LSE Middle East Centre, a Professor in the International Relations Department at LSE, and a Senior Consulting Fellow for the Middle East, International Institute for Strategic Studies, London. The Kuwait Programme on Development, Governance and Globalisation in the Gulf States is a ten year multidisciplinary global research programme.

Speaker(s): Tom Fletcher | With Britain plunged into uncertainty by the EU referendum, what does this mean for European and global diplomacy? Is citizen empowerment making it easier or harder to govern? And how can we ensure that diplomacy is part of the answer to the challenges of the 21st century, and not part of the problem? Tom Fletcher CMG (@TFletcher) is a Visiting Professor of International Relations at New York University, and Senior Advisor to the Director General at the Emirates Diplomatic Academy. He was British Ambassador to Lebanon (2011-15), and the Downing Street foreign policy adviser to three Prime Ministers, (2007-11). He is an Honorary Fellow of Oxford University, and the Global Strategy Director for the Global Business Coalition for Education, which seeks to harness private sector efforts to get 59 million children into school. He blogs as the Naked Diplomat, and chairs the International Advisory Council of the Creative Industries Federation, promoting Britain's most dynamic and magnetic sector overseas. Tom has recently led a review of British diplomacy for the UK Foreign Office, and is currently working on a report on the future of the United Nations for the next UN Secretary General. His book entitled Naked Diplomacy: Power and Statecraft in the Digital Age was published in June 2016. Nicholas Kitchen (@NickKitchen1) is Assistant Professorial Research Fellow in the United States Centre at LSE, and was the Executive Director of the LSE Diplomacy Commission. Keep up to date with what Brexit means for the UK and the wider world at LSE Brexit blog (@lsebrexitvote).