Past Events

2010-11

Gender Institute and Department of Sociology Discussion

'Budgeting for Gender Equality: is government economic policy fair to women?'

Speakers: Dr Claire Annesley, Beatrix Campbell, Professor Diane Elson, Professor Susan Himmelweit
Chair: Professor Judy Wajcman

Wednesday 11 May 2011, 6.30-8pm
Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building, LSE 

This panel considered how far women, especially low income women, are bearing an unfair share of the burden of the budget deficit reduction.  Claire Annesley is senior lecturer in politics at the University of Manchester.  Beatrix Campbell is a journalist, author, playwright and broadcaster.  Diane Elson is professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex.  Susan Himmelweit is professor of economics at the Open University.

Budgeting for Gender Equality podcast|

 

BSA Annual Conference 2011 

Over one thousand sociologists descended on LSE from 6th-8th April to take part in the British Sociological Association's 60th Anniversary conference.  Titled '60 years of Sociology', the conference involved eminent sociologists from around the world...

For more details and pictures from the event please see
BSA Conference at LSE.|

 

Department of Sociology and Centre for the Study of Human Rights Inaugural Lecture

Chetan Bhatt: 'The Virtues of Violence and the Arts of Terror'
Chair: Professor Janet Hartley

Wednesday 23 March 2011, 6.30pm
Sheikh Zayed Lecture Theatre, New Academic Building, LSE

The human bomber has come to symbolize a new kind of political violence, one that is aimed at civilians, is intended to cause fear and terror and is claimed to be linked to cosmic religion. This lecture explores what the ideologies and activities of Al Qaeda and related transnational militia might tell us about new forms of political violence in many contemporary societies. Using examples from South Asia, the Middle East, the UK and the USA, the lecture elaborates the aesthetic and cultural universe created by these armed groups and shows how aesthetic elements, as well as ideology, have appeal for some young people. Central to the political ideologies of Al Qaeda and its affiliates are new ideas about how virtue, law and sovereignty should inform politics, including violent political activity. The lecture also considers how novel visions about nature and technology (including, for example, the design of instruments of violence) have been mobilized. The links made by transnational militia between virtue and violence lead to a mixing up of the worlds of the living with the worlds of the dead. This area is explored and its challenging implications for international human rights are drawn out.

UPDATE: What has been the response of Al Qaeda and related militia to the momentous revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa? What might these events in the Middle East and the continuing violence in South Asia mean for Al Qaeda's future ideas and strategies?

Chetan Bhatt is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights at the LSE.

Martin White Professorship Inaugural Lecture

Nikolas Rose: 'The Human Sciences in 'the Century of Biology' - Revitalising Sociology'

Chair: Professor Judy Wajcman
Tuesday 8th March 2011, 6.30-8pm
Sheikh Zayed theatre, New Academic Building, LSE

We live, it is said, in the century of biology where we now understand ourselves in radically new ways, as the insights of genomics and neuroscience have opened up the workings of our bodies and our minds to new kinds of knowledge and intervention. Is a new figure of the human, and of the social, taking shape in the twenty first century? With what consequences for the politics of life today? And with what implications, if any, for the social, cultural and human sciences?  See lecture poster| (pdf) and listing in LSE Public Events|.

Nikolas Rose is Martin White Professor of Sociology, Director of the LSE's BIOS Centre for the Study of Bioscience, Biomedicine, Biotechnology and Society, and Co‐Editor of BioSocieties.

The Human Sciences video and podcast|

Sociology Department Public Lecture

Ulrich Beck: 'The Global Chaos of Love'

Respondent: Professor Lynn Jamieson
Chair: Professor Judy Wajcman
Wednesday 23rd February 2011, 6.30-8pm
Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building, LSE

 In the global age there are increasing numbers of long-distance relationships, bi-national couples, marriage migrants, foreign domestic workers, fertility tourists etc. What are their common characteristics? Are 'global families' cosmopolitan?
Ulrich Beck is British Journal of Sociology LSE Centennial Professor.

The Global Chaos of Love video and podcast|

LSE Cities and Sociology Department Public Lecture

Sharon Zukin: 'The Naked City'

Chair: Dr Fran Tonkiss
Monday 17th January 2011, 6.30-8pm
Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building, LSE

Renowned sociologist Sharon Zukin discussed her latest book, The Naked City: the death and life of authentic urban places, which explores the gentrification of cities.  Sharon Zukin is Professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College and City University Graduate Center, New York.

Sociology Forum Seminar

17th January 2011, 5-7pm, S202

Shamus Rahman Khan, Department of Sociology, Columbia University spoke about his new book: Privilege: Educating an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School.
Chair: Professor Richard Sennett.
More about the book: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9294.html|
 

Hobhouse Memorial Lecture

Steven Shapin: 'The Long History of Dietetics: Thinking Sociologically about Food, the Self, and Knowledge'

Chair: Professor Judy Wajcman
Wednesday 12th January 2011, 6.30-8pm
Old Theatre, Old Building, LSE

A survey and interpretation of historically changing ideas about food, knowledge and the self.  Steven Shapin is Franklin L. Ford Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University. 

The Long History of Dietetics video and podcast  |

 

David Glass Memorial Lecture

David Scott: 'The Theory of Haiti: The Black Jacobins and the Ethos of Universal History'

Thursday 2nd December 2010, 6-8pm
Thai Theatre, LGF, New Academic Building (NAB). LSE
David Scott is Professor of Anthropology and Research Fellow in African-American Studies at Columbia University, New York, and editor of Small Axe journal.  

Sociology Department and Media and Communications Department Joint Public Lecture

Pheng Cheah: 'The Physico-Material Bases of Cosmopolitanism'

Wednesday 1st December 2010, 6.30-8pm
Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building (NAB), LSE

The challenge of cosmopolitanism is often framed in terms of deficiencies of perception and imagination. While we can imagine the bounded community of the nation, it is more difficult to imagine common humanity, and this impedes the implementation of human rights legislation. This lecture argues for a biopolitical conception of human rights which radically challenges conventional approaches.

Pheng Cheah is Professor in the Department of Rhetoric, University of California at Berkeley. 

Sociology Department Conference: The New Conservatism

Friday 26th November 2010, 9.30am-5pm
Morishima Conference Room, 5th floor, Lionel Robbins Building, LSE

Speakers:
Andrew Gamble (Cambridge) on The Conservative Tradition
Paul Kelly (LSE) on Conservatism and Liberalism
Robin Archer (LSE) on Conservatism and the Left
Sarah Childs (Bristol) on Conservatism and Feminism
Tim Bale (Sussex) on Conservatism and the Big Society

The Conservatives are now back in power and newly reinvigorated. But what do they stand for? Some argue that they are really still wedded to Thatcherism, while others see Prime Minister Cameron as a new Disraeli. Still others see his stance as modelled on Tony Blair and New Labour.

What exactly is this new conservatism? What is its relationship to the conservative tradition? And how are its ideas related to those of other political traditions? Is it really possible to be a liberal conservative or a Red Tory?

Conservatism is one of the oldest and most electorally successful political traditions in Britain. The emergence of the new Conservative-led coalition government makes this an excellent time to re-examine this tradition.

See full-size Conference poster |(pdf) and Conference schedule |(pdf).

Sociology Department Public Debate

Roger Scruton and Daniel Finkelstein: 'Are the New Conservatives Conservative?'

Chair: Dr Robin Archer
Friday 26th November 2010, 6.30-8pm
Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building (NAB), LSE

 The newly reinvigorated Tories describe themselves as liberal, progressive, and even radical. But these ideas have long been anathema to conservative thinkers. So what is conservatism? And are the new Conservatives really conservative?

Roger Scruton is one of, if not the, leading defender of a traditional version of conservative political philosophy. His works include The Meaning of Conservatism (1980, 3rd ed 2000), Arguments for Conservatism (2006), and The Uses of Pessimism: And the Dangers of False Hope (2010). He is a resident researcher at the American Enterprise Institute and Visiting Professor in Philosophy, Oxford University.  Daniel Finkelstein is executive editor and chief leader writer of The Times, where he also has a regular column. He has been active in the Tory party for twenty years, working in the Conservative Research Department and representing them on Newsnight's regular political panel.  Robin Archer is Reader in Political Sociology at LSE.

To listen to the podcast of the lecture go to Podcast|.

Department of Sociology and Runnymede Jim Rose Memorial Lecture

Revisiting the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain:
the Parekh Report 10 years on

Speaker: Professor Lord Bhikhu Parekh
Tuesday 23rd November 2010, 6.30-8pm
Old Theatre, Old Building, LSE                                   (Photo courtesy of Vijay Jethwa)

A decade after the groundbreaking Runnymede Trust 'Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain' report, its chair, Lord Parekh, revisits the issues of race equality and multiculturalism in Britain.

Bhikhu Parekh is emeritus fellow of political theory at the University of Hull and a fellow of the British Academy.

To see the video of the lecture go to Videos of Public Lectures|.

To listen to the podcast of the lecture go to Podcast|.
 

British Journal of Sociology Public Lecture 2010

John Hagan: 'The Displaced and Dispossessed of Darfur' 

Chair: Richard Wright
Wednesday 20th October 2010, 6.30-8pm
Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building (NAB), LSE

In addition to 300,000 deaths, the Darfur Genocide has forced the displacement of about three million people. Hagan examines the temporal processes of this displacement to demonstrate how state-led attacks on food and water dislodged Black Africans in Darfur from February 2003 to August 2004.

John Hagan is John D. MacArthur Professor of Sociology and Law at Northwestern University and Co-Director of the Center on Law & Globalization at the American Bar Foundation in Chicago. He received the Stockholm Prize in Criminology in 2009. Hagan is the Editor of the Annual Review of Law & Social Science. His research with a network of scholars spans topics from war crimes and human rights to the legal profession. He is co-author with Wenona Rymond-Richmond of Darfur and the Crime of Genocide (Cambridge University Press 2009), which received the American Sociological Association Crime, Law and Deviance Section's Albert J. Reiss Distinguished Publication Award and the American Society of Criminology's Michael J. Hindelang Book Award.   Richard Wright (University of Missouri - St Louis) is Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Sociology.

Click on the image below to view the videocast of Richard Wright interviewing John Hagan about the 2010 BJS public lecture:

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Monday 13th September 2010, 9am-7.30pm
Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building (NAB), LSE

It seems that we have learned more about the brain in the last decade than over the previous millennia of human history. But to what extent are developments in the 'new brain sciences' leading to a mutation in our understanding of selfhood? Are we in the midst of a move from 'soul to brain', a radical restructuring of our understanding of human 'psychology' and the rise of a 'neuronal self'? If so, in what ways, and with what consequences, for individuals and for society, and for our ways of governing ourselves and others?   Please follow the link to BIOS Events| for more information. 
 

2009-10 

Conference

Richard Sennett: The Sociology of Public Life

Friday 14th May 2010, 2-6pm
Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building

In this exciting half-day conference in honour of Richard Sennett, who has retired as Professor of Sociology at LSE, two panels explored the themes Richard Sennett has written on and their implications today.  The first panel on 'Public Life and Public Policy' was chaired by Professor Lord Giddens, with speakers Professor Craig Calhoun, Professor Bruno Latour, Professor Judy Wajcman and Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger.  The second panel 'Cities and the Public Realm' was chaired by Professor Ricky Burdett with architects David Adjaye and Lord Richard Rogers, Geoff Mulgan (Director of the Young Foundaton) and Professor Sennett , who stepped up to the platform as a last minute replacement for The Guardian's Polly Toynbee.  See Conference Programme| (PDF) and Conference Programme| (PDF). 

To see the video of the conference go to Videos of Public Lectures|.

To listen to the podcast of the conference go to Podcast|.

To view a PowerPoint slide show of the conference go to Slide Show|.

LSE Public Lecture

Professor Richard Sennett and Dr Rowan Williams: 'On Narrative and Ritual'
Chair: Howard Davies

Friday 14th May 2010, 6.30-8pm
Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building

A dialogue between Professor Sennett and the Archbishop of Canterbury.  

To see the video of the lecture go to Videos of Public Lectures|.

To listen to the podcast of the lecture go to Podcast.|

For more information about Richard Sennett, see Staff Page| or go to www.richardsennett.com|

Workshop: The IMPACT of IMPACT?

30 April 2010, 1.30 – 5 pm
Clement House D302
A workshop organised by the Department of Sociology, the BIOS Centre, and the Gender Institute addressing the introduction of impact as a measure of quality assessment in the next REF.  A panel of speakers and respondents included Professor Valerie Hey (Sussex), Professor Donald Gillies (UCL), Professor Mike Power (LSE), Dr Don Slater (LSE), Dr Fran Tonkiss (LSE). Chairs: Professor Sarah Franklin, Dr Clare Hemmings & Professor Mary Evans.

Public Lecture
Ulrich Beck: 'Remapping Social Inequalities in the Age of Climate Change'

24th February 2010, 6.30-8pm
Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building
Chair: Professor Judy Wajcman

Ulrich Beck is British Journal of Sociology LSE Centennial Professor.  Two global forces - climate change and human expectations for equal rights - undercut nation-state control and radicalize social inequalities.  For more information on Ulrich Beck see Staff page|.

LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival
LSE hosted its second literary festival in February 2010, with two events involving LSE Sociologists:

LSE Cities Programme discussion: 'Reading London'
Saturday 13 February, Sheikh Zayed Theatre
Speakers: Will Alsop (replacing Dan Cruickshank), Professor Rosemary Ashton,  Leo Hollis, Hans Ulrich Obrist
Chair: Dr Fran Tonkiss
How do we attempt to understand the sprawling 'modern Babylon' that is London, with its layers of social, political and cultural history? Can art, architecture and literature help us to 'read' this complex city?

Rosemary Ashton is Quain Professor of English Language and Literature at UCL. Her most recent book is 142 Strand: A Radical Address in Victorian London. Leo Hollis has written on both the history of London and Paris. His latest book was The Phoenix: the Men Who Made Modern London (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2008) and he is currently working on The Stones of London: the History of a World City for 2011. Hans Ulrich Obrist became Co-director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects at the Serpentine Gallery in April 2006.

Richard Sennett: 'Sociology as Literature'
Saturday 13 February, Sheikh Zayed Theatre
Richard Sennett explored the role of narrative in social research and in writing sociology.

Both these events can be heard as a podcast by following this link to LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts|

Public Lecture
Paul Gilroy: 'From Double-Consciousness to Public Diplomacy: the changing value of African American culture'

8th February 2010, Sheikh Zayed Theatre
Chair: Dr Suki Ali

Paul Gilroy is Anthony Giddens Professor in Social Theory at LSE.  In this lecture Professor Gilroy considered the gradual transformation of a freedom culture rooted in slavery into something like an anodyne soundtrack to negative globalisation. How did the pursuit of human and civil rights come to be annexed by corporate multiculturalism?

Professor Gilroy's latest book Darker Than Blue: On the Moral Economies of Black Atlantic Culture was published by Harvard University Press in the UK in January 2010.

For more information on Paul Gilroy see Staff page| and for information on Darker Than Blue see Books|.

Previous Years

2008-09

Public Lecture
Professor Judy Wajcman, Department of Sociology London School of Economics
'Organizational time: ICTs and the multiple rhythms of work' - Video available here|
15th - 16h June 2009, LSE
Developing Theoretical Innovation: A Workshop on the Issues Surrounding Sociomateriality

Understanding Freedom - a series of talks organised by Patrick Joyce, Visiting Professor at the LSE and Professor Emeritus at University of Manchester
April - July 2009
What is freedom? Freedom is a term as central to contemporary discourse as it is nebulous in meaning. This series of talks and discussions aimed at identifying contemporary and historical usage and at clarifying the terms through which freedom is intellectually analysed.

April 1: Professor Richard Sennett - 'Charisma, politics and freedom'
May 6: Professor Paul Gilroy - 'Get free or die tryin' '
June 3: Professor Nikolas Rose - 'Freedom in an age of insecurity'
July 1: Professor Patrick Joyce - 'Freedom and the British'

Public Lecture
Professor Ulrich Beck, British Journal of Sociology LSE Centennial Professor
'Climate for Change: global warming as political opportunity'
25th February 2009, Old Theatre
How did the global construction of the 'undisputable fact' of man-made climate change become possible? Does climate change radicalise inequalities? Is climate change a 'global opportunity' for a cosmopolitical revival of politics?

BJS 2008 Public Lecture and Responses - Read the issue and watch the podcast! |

2007-08

Professor Nasser Hussain:
'Global Warfare and Legality: from colonialism to the "war on terror"'
Hobhouse Memorial Lecture Series
11 March 2008, Clement House
Professor Hussain discussd 'hyperlegality': a particular kind of legal administration that operates by sub-dividing and classifying people into legal categories, and by creating special commissions and tribunals that fracture the criminal justice system.
Professor Hussain teaches at the Department of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought at Amherst College. He is the author of The Jurisprudence of Emergency: Colonialism and the Rule of Law (Michigan Press 2003) and of the edited collection Forgiveness, Mercy and Clemency (Stanford 2006).

Professor Ulrich Beck, British Journal of Sociology LSE Centennial Professor
'A God of One's Own: individualisation and cosmopolitanisation of religion'
13th February 2008, Old Theatre
Religious movements seen from the angle of societies that have adopted the autonomy of individuals, thereby creating a god of their own.

British Journal of Sociology Public Lecture 2007
Professor Judith Butler
Sexual politics, debates on secularism and the problem of this time: Sexual Politics: the limits of Secularism, the Time of Coalition
Repondent: Professor Chetan Bhatt
30th October 2007, Old Theatre
Judith Butler is Maxine Elliot Professor in the Departments of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. She writes on cultural and literary theory, philosophy, psychoanalysis, feminism, and sexual politics.

2006-07

Professor Robert Tavernor, Director of the Cities Programme
Inaugural Lecture - 'Smoot's Ear: The Measure of Humanity'
2 May 2007, Old Theatre
Robert Tavernor focused on the various measuring systems human beings have devised over two millennia. Looking beyond the notion that measuring is strictly a scientific activity, divorced from human concerns, he set measures and measuring in cultural context to show how deeply they are connected to human experience and history. His book, bearing the same title, was published by Yale University Press in the spring of 2007.

Professor Mahmood Mamdani
'The Politics of Culture Talk in the Contemporary War on Terror'.
Hobhouse Memorial Lecture Series
8th March 2007, Hong Kong Theatre
Mahmood Mamdani is Herbert Lehman Professor of Government in the Departments of Anthropology and Political Science at Columbia University, New York. He is also the current President of the Council for Development of Social Research in Africa (CODESRIA) Dakar, Senegal. For a transcript of the lecture click here|| (PDF).

Professor Ulrich Beck, LSE Centennial Professor
'A Cosmopolitan Perspective on the Sociology of Generations'
14th February 2007, Old Theatre
The space of experience of the younger generation is no longer fixed to the nation-state. Therefore, sociology needs to overcome 'methodological nationalism'.

2005-06

Professor Paul Gilroy, Anthony Giddens Professor in Social Theory
Inaugural Lecture - Multi-culture in Times of War|| (PDF)
10 May 2006
Britain's 'multi-culturalism' was officially pronounced dead in July 2005, and Professor Gilroy explored elements of its afterlife in this lecture, discussing some ways of approaching the social and cultural life of Britain's diverse polity which do not derive from the currently influential idea that civilisations are in conflict. Arguments on the one hand for the revival of empire and, on the other, for a new mode of assimilation, formed the framework of Professor Gilroy's observations.

Professor Sarah Franklin, Professor of the Social Study of Biomedicine
Inaugural Lecture - 'The Reproductive Revolution: how far have we come?'
24th November 2005, Old Theatre
Professor Franklin was appointed to a chair in the social study of biomedicine at the School in September 2004, and is one of the founders of this field. Her work has received international acclaim for its originality and breadth, and she is one of the leading figures in the social and cultural analysis of new reproductive and genetic technologies.

LSE Sociology's One-Hundredth Anniversary Celebration

On 13 May, 2005, the Department hosted a very successful all-day Centenary Event| |(PDF) in the Old Theatre, introduced by Howard Davies, Director of LSE and Professor Nikolas Rose.  You can download a copy of the programme|| (PDF) for information on topics and speakers.