LSE: Public lectures and events

Speaker(s): Professor Chang-Tai Hsieh, Professor John Sutton | This panel of experts will explore the strengths and pitfalls of China’s growth model and the lessons for African industrial development. The event will be opened the Rt Hon Desmond Swayne (@DesmondSwayne), Minister of State for International Development. Chang-Tai Hsieh is Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth (@ChicagoBooth). John Sutton is the Sir John Hicks Professor of Economics at LSE. Dr John Page is Senior Fellow of the Brookings Institution (@BrookingsGlobal), IGC Country Director (Tanzania) and former Chief Economist for Africa, World Bank. 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.

Speaker(s): Professor Richard H Thaler | Richard Thaler, described by The Spectator as ‘the godfather of behavioural economics’, will be in conversation with LSE Director Craig Calhoun about his book Misbehaving, an authoritative and entertaining history of behavioural economics. Richard Thaler has spent his career studying the radical notion that the central agents in the economy are humans—predictable, error-prone individuals. Traditional economics assumes rational actors. Early in his research, Thaler realized these Spock-like automatons were nothing like real people. Whether buying an alarm clock, selling football tickets, or applying for a mortgage, we all succumb to biases and make decisions that deviate from the standards of rationality assumed by economists. In other words, we misbehave. Dismissed at first by economists as an amusing sideshow, the study of human miscalculations and their effects on markets now drives efforts to make better decisions in our lives, our businesses, and our governments. Coupling recent discoveries in human psychology with a practical understanding of incentives and market behaviour, Thaler enlightens readers about how to make smarter decisions in an increasingly mystifying world, revealing how behavioural economic analysis opens up new ways to look at everything. Laced with antic stories of Thaler’s spirited battles with the bastions of traditional economic thinking, Misbehaving is a singular look into profound human foibles. When economics meets psychology, the implications for individuals, managers, and policy makers are both profound and entertaining. Richard H. Thaler (@R_Thaler) is the Ralph and Dorothy Keller Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioural Science and Economics and the director of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is co-the author of Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness and has worked in the US with Barack Obama and with David Cameron's 'Nudge Unit' in the UK. 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. The Behavioural Research Lab (@LSEBehavioural) is a purpose-built facility set up by the Department of Management (@LSEManagement) for the use of researchers examining organisational behaviour and decision making. The BRL’s state-of-the-art facilities include 20 workstations for individual computer-mediated studies and four bespoke discussion rooms with built-in audio-visual equipment for studies in social dynamics. Since its opening in 2011, over 18000 participants have taken part in more than 120 studies. The BRL caters to researchers across LSE, including Management, Economics, Geography/Grantham Institute, Philosophy, Social Policy, Social Psychology and Government, and offers a large diverse participant pool to its researchers.

Speaker(s): Vickie Hawkins, Dr Stuart Gordon | MSF has witnessed first-hand the impact that violations have on the civilian population and infrastructure including their own facilities. Following the Agenda for Humanity, proposed at the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit, Vickie Hawkins, General Director of MSF UK, will explore the changes that have been proposed to strengthen the laws of war and the challenges that humanitarians face to ensure that hospitals, medical centres and medical staff are protected in times of war. Vickie Hawkins (@VickieHawkins) is the General Director of Medecins Sans Frontieres UK. Stuart Gordon is an Assistant Professor in Managing Humanitarianism within the Department of International Development. Mary Kaldor is Professor of Global Governance in the Department of International Development at LSE as well as Programme Director for Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit. 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): Giles Merritt | Slippery Slope is far from the usual run of uncritical EU-related studies. Its aim is to set alarm bells ringing across Europe with its revealing insights into our increasingly troubled future. In his book which he will discuss in this lecture Giles Merritt argues that the steepness and suddenness of Europe's decline in the 'Asian century' will depend on the actions we Europeans undertake. And there are two key lessons that we need to face from the beginning. Firstly, the 'good times' aren't coming back without a massive effort on our part. And secondly, in a fast-developing world of 9-10 billion people, no single European country can survive and prosper on its own. Giles Merritt was named by the Financial Times in 2010 as one of 30 'Eurostars' who most influence thinking on Europe's future, along with the European Commission's president and the secretary-general of NATO. For 15 years a Financial Times foreign correspondent, Merritt has reported and commented on European affairs since the early 1970s. He went on to found 'Friends of Europe', one of the leading think tanks in Brussels, and the policy journal Europe's World, of which he is the Editor-in-Chief. His Op-Ed columns in the International Herald Tribune from 1985-2010, and since then in the hundreds of newspapers around the world that subscribe to Project Syndicate, have ranged widely across political and economic issues in Europe. His previous books include World Out of Work, an award-winning analysis of unemployment issues, and The Challenge of Freedom, on the difficulties facing post-communist Eastern Europe. Kevin Featherstone is Head of the European Institute, Eleftherios Venizelos Professor of Contemporary Greek Studies and Professor of European Politics at LSE. 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.

Speaker(s): Isabel Hilton, Dr Leigh Jenco, Professor Jeffrey Wasserstrom | In China, history isn't just about the past - it shapes the future. With the rise of China over the past four decades, people increasingly look to China's turbulent modern history for clues about what the world will be like in the 21st century. The panelists will discuss how the newly published book, The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern China, addresses such questions through an examination of the broad sweep of modern Chinese history, from the origins of modern China right up through the dramatic events of the past few years (the Beijing Games, the financial crisis, and China's rise to global economic pre-eminence) that have so fundamentally altered Western views of China and China's place in the world. Isabel Hilton (@isabelhilton) is a writer/broadcaster who is founding editor of Chinadialogue, and has worked with the BBC, the New Yorker, the Guardian, Granta, the Independent, among others. Her books include Eating Mud Crabs in Kandahar andThe Search for the Panchen Lama. In 2009 she was awarded an OBE. Leigh Jenco is Associate Professor of Political Theory at LSE. Jeffrey Wasserstrom (@jwassers) is Chancellor's Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine, where he also edits the Journal of Asian Studies. William A. Callahan is Professor of International Relations at LSE. The Department of International Relations (@LSEIRDept) is now in its 88th year making it one of the oldest and largest in the world.

Speaker(s): Shami Chakrabarti, Duncan Green, Phumeza Mlungwana | This panel will debate different approaches to addressing key inequalities. Shami Chakrabarti is the Former Director of Liberty (The National Council for Civil Liberties), appointed in September 2003. She was born in London and studied Law at LSE. She is Chancellor of Essex University and a Master of the Bench of Middle Temple. She is the author of On Liberty, published in 2014. 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. He also authors the From Poverty to Power blog. Phumeza Mlungwana (@Mlungwana_P) is General Secretary of the Social Justice Coalition, South Africa. Professor Craig Calhoun (@craigjcalhoun) is Director and President of the London School of Economics and Political Science. The 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.

Speaker(s): Professor Bruce Katz, Professor Anne Power | Cities for a Small Continent is an international handbook, drawing together 10 years of ground-level research into the causes and consequences of Europe's biggest urban challenges. This event explores the potential for former industrial cities to offer a more sustainable future for a crowded European continent. Bruce Katz (@bruce_katz) is the Centennial Scholar at the Brookings Institution, where he focuses on the challenges and opportunities of global urbanisation. Anne Power is a Professor of Social Policy and Director of LSE Housing and Communities. Donal Durkan is Head of Regeneration at Belfast City Council. Mathieu Goetzke is the Director of Planning at the City of Lille. LSE Housing and Communities (@LSEHousing) is a research and consultancy group within the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE). They have over twenty years of research experience in low-income areas, covering housing, regeneration, family life, communities and sustainable retrofit, for over 15 years. La Fabrique de la Cité (@FabriquelaCite) is a Paris-based think tank promoting discussion and leadership on urban transitions, set up by VINCI in 2010. Its interdisciplinary approach brings together thought leaders and international players to uncover good urban development practices and put forward new ways of building and rebuilding cities.

Speaker(s): Stephen A Schwarzman | This event will be a wide ranging discussion and interview with Mr Schwarzman about his life and career. Mr Schwarzman will be welcomed by LSE Director Craig Calhoun and interviewed by the first LSE cohort of Schwarzman Scholars commencing their studies in Beijing in October 2016. Stephen A Schwarzman is Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Blackstone (@blackstone). Mr Schwarzman has been involved in all phases of the firm’s development since its founding in 1985. The firm is a leading global asset manager with $344 billion Assets Under Management (as of 31 March 2016). In 2013, he founded the international scholarship program “Schwarzman Scholars" (@SchwarzmanOrg) at Tsinghua University in Beijing to educate future leaders about China. At $450 million, the program is modeled on the Rhodes Scholarship and is the single largest philanthropic effort in China’s history coming largely from international donors. Mr Schwarzman holds a BA from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has served as an adjunct professor at the Yale School of Management and on the Harvard Business School Board of Dean’s Advisors. 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. The Department of Finance (@LSEfinance) is devoted to excellence in teaching and research in the full range of the subfields of finance including corporate finance, asset pricing theory, risk management, empirical analysis of capital markets, behavioural finance, portfolio analysis, derivatives pricing, microstructure and financial econometrics.

Speaker(s): Jonathan Hill | The development of a single capital market in Europe is one of the major undertakings of the Juncker Commission. Several important initiatives are already underway, for example new prospectus legislation. When complete, the single capital market will enhance Europe's innovation and high-tech industries. Jonathan Hill (@JHillEU) is the current European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union. Charles Goodhart is Emeritus Professor of Banking and Finance with the Financial Markets Group at the London School of Economics, having previously, 1987-2005, been its Deputy Director. Until his retirement in 2002, he had been the Norman Sosnow Professor of Banking and Finance at LSE since 1985. 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. The Financial Markets Group Research Centre (@FMG_LSE) at LSE is one of the leading centres in Europe for academic research into financial markets. The Systemic Risk Centre (SRC) (@LSE_SRC) was set up to study the risks that may trigger the next financial crisis and to develop tools to help policymakers and financial institutions become better prepared.

Speaker(s): Dr Abdusalam H Omer | In this lecture the Foreign Minister will present Somalia's newly adopted foreign policy. He will also discuss the Somali Government's vision and the current challenges and future opportunities for a new era of peace, progress and prosperity in Somalia, the region and the world. Abdusalam H Omer (@MinisterMOFA) is the Minister of the Foreign Affairs and Investment Promotion of the Federal Republic of Somalia. He has over 30 years international experience in finance, development and institutional leadership. Dr Omer has also served as the Governor of the Central Bank of Somalia. Brian Klaas is a Fellow in Comparative Politics in LSE’s Department of Government. Dr Klaas is author of the forthcoming book, The Despot's Accomplice: How the West is Aiding & Abetting the Decline of Democracy (September 2016). The LSE Africa Centre (@AfricaAtLSE) strengthens LSE’s long-term and ongoing commitment to placing Africa at the heart of understandings and debates about global issues. 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): Oscar H Gandy Jr, Professor Louise Amoore | The increasingly precise segmentation and targeting of commercial messages has been enabled in large part through the analysis of massive amounts of transaction-generated-information. Although some attention has been paid to the use of these privacy invasive strategies within the public sphere, the use of personal data with regard to the formation, implementation and evaluation of public policies at the local, national and regional levels has largely been ignored. After discussing threats of political profiling to the future of public participation in the democratic process, Oscar Gandy will explore some possibilities for managing the nature, extent and distribution of these and associated societal harms. Oscar H Gandy Jr is a media scholar and Emeritus Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. Louise Amoore (@AmooreLouise) researches and teaches in the areas of global geopolitics and security. She has particular interests in how contemporary forms of data, analytics and risk management are changing the techniques of border control and security. Louise has been awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship (2016-18) for work on the Ethics of Algorithm. Seeta Peña Gangadharan is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. The goal of LSE's Media Policy Project (@LSEmediapolicy) is to start conversations between policy makers, civil society actors, and media professionals about the latest media research.

Speaker(s): Dr Sian Lazar | Taking inspiration from how Malinowski approached exchange, magic and law, Dr Lazar explores some of the realms of politics that lie beyond self-interest (enlightened or not). Sian Lazar (@sianml) is a Senior Lecturer in the Division of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. Katy Gardner trained at Cambridge and the LSE. After spending much of her career at the University of Sussex she has recently returned to the LSE. Her work focuses on issues of globalisation, migration and economic change in Bangladesh and its transnational communities in the UK. LSE's Anthropology Department (@LSEAnthropology), with a long and distinguished history, remains a leading centre for innovative research and teaching. We are committed to both maintaining and renewing the core of the discipline, and our undergraduate teaching and training of PhD students is recognised as outstanding.

Speaker(s): Jeremy Corbyn | Trust and belief in politicians is low, while the crash has broken the idea that each generation will be better off. How can we rebuild hope? Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) is Leader of the Labour Party and MP for Islington North. 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.

Speaker(s): Professor Robert Pindyck | In the Economica-Coase Lecture 2016, Professor Pindyck, one of the world’s leading micro-economists will discuss his recent work, which focuses on economic policies relating to rare disasters, such as low probability catastrophic outcomes from climate change or nuclear terrorism. Robert Pindyck is the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Professor in Finance and Economics at the Sloan School of Management, MIT. He 
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 University. Ian Martin is a Professor of Finance at the LSE. He received his PhD in Economics from Harvard University. Before moving to LSE, he was an Associate Professor of Finance at Stanford GSB. His research interests include cross-country contagion in financial markets; the valuation of long-dated assets; catastrophes; derivative pricing; and forecasting in financial markets. Professor Martin is the Programme Director of the LSE's MSc in Finance and Economics, and is an editor of Economica. The Department of Economics at LSE (@LSEEcon) is one of the largest economics departments in the world. Its size ensures that all areas of economics are strongly represented in both research and teaching.

Speaker(s): Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw | Heightening tensions in the US over police killings of black people have undermined confidence that the election of Barack Obama signaled a new era on race relations in the US. The more lasting legacy may be the one championed by late Justice Scalia whose legal philosophy currently underwrites the central tensions in equality law in the United States. Through a Critical Race Theory prism, Professor Crenshaw will discuss Black Lives Matter and Say Her Name as challenges to contemporary jurisprudence on race, and assess the new openings presented by current events. Kimberlé Crenshaw (@sandylocks) is Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California Los Angeles and the Columbia School of Law, and LSE Centennial Professor at the Gender Institute. 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. 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.