Power and storytelling | LSE Festival

How can an author bring out the stories and voices buried in their research to deliver the impact they are hoping for?

And how should writers communicate experiences of power and oppression that are not their own?

Whether embarking on a creative novel or an academic monograph, an author is faced with choices about the ways in which they tell their stories.

LSE Press author Naila Kabeer and Philip Hensher will explore the purpose and value of different narrative forms, as well as considering the impact of literature on global communities.

Meet our speakers and chair

Monica Ali is a bestselling writer and the author of five books, Brick Lane, Alentejo Blue, In the Kitchen and most recently, Love Marriage. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Honorary Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, and the Patron of Hopscotch Women’s Centre which is empowers marginalised women and girls to achieve their full potential. Monica is the Chair of Judges for the 2024 Women’s Prize for Literature.

Phillip Hensher (@PhilipHensher) is the author of several novels and a collection of short stories, including Other Lulus (1994), Kitchen Venom (1996), and Pleasured (1998). In 2003, he was nominated by Granta magazine as one of 20 “Best of Young British Novelists”. His latest novels are The Northern Clemency (2008), shortlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize for Fiction and the 2009 Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia Region, Best Book), King of the Badgers (2011), Scenes from Early Life: A novel (2012) and The Emperor Waltz (2014). Philip is a regular broadcaster and contributes reviews and articles to various newspapers and journals including The Spectator, the Mail on Sunday and The Independent. He is a member of the Council of the Royal Society of Literature.

Naila Kabeer (@N_Kabeer) is Professor of Gender and Development at the Department of International Development. Naila is also a Faculty Associate at LSE’s International Inequalities Institute and on the governing board of the Atlantic Fellowship for Social and Economic Equity.  Her new book, Renegotiating Patriarchy: Gender, Agency and the ‘Bangladesh Paradox, will be published by LSE Press in late Summer 2024, and will be free to read and download from their website via Open Access.

Sarah Worthington is Chair of the Editorial Board for LSE Press and a professor of law at LSE. She returned to the LSE in 2022 following 11 years in Cambridge as the Downing Professor of the Laws of England, a Fellow of Trinity College and Director of the Cambridge Private Law Centre, a centre she established jointly on her arrival in Cambridge. She has combined research and teaching with a keen interest in governance and strategy generally, spending five years as a Pro-Director at the LSE (2005-2010). She was Treasurer of the British Academy from 2015-20 and President of the Society of Legal Scholars in 2007-2008. She is a Barrister and Bencher of Middle Temple and an Academic Member of South Square Chambers, Gray’s Inn. She was made QC(Hon) in 2010 and awarded a DBE for services to private law in 2020.

More about this event

This event is part of the LSE Festival: Power and Politics running from Monday 10 to Saturday 15 June 2024, with a series of events exploring how power and politics shape our world. Booking for all Festival events will open on Monday 13 May.

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