LSE’s 8th Literary Festival, inspired by the anniversary of Thomas More’s Utopia, explored the power of dreams and the imagination and the importance of idealism, dissidence, escapism and nostalgia, as well as the benefits of looking at the world in different ways.

Missed any of the events? Check out podcasts and videos of these exciting talks!

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Polis LSE Lit Fest Conversation: Party Animals: Growing Up Communist

Speaker: David Aaronovitch

 

 

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Forum for European Philosophy LSE Lit Fest discussion: Ideals of Equality: Feminisms in the Twenty-First Century

Speakers: Professor Sophie-Grace Chappell, Professor Heidi Mirza, Professor Jacqueline Rose, Zoe Williams

 

 

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Department of Management: The Innovations of the Future

Speaker: Alec Ross

 

 

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LSE Lit Fest Discussion: Creating and Challenging Utopia: New Perspectives in Jewish History

Speakers: Professor Michael Berkowitz, Professor David De Vries and Dr Sharman Kadish

 

 

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LSE Lit Fest Discussion: The Allure of Happy Endings

Speakers: Dr Molly Crockett, Professor Paul Dolan and Sinéad Moriarty

 

 

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LSE Marshall Institute Lit Fest Discussion: Idealistic, Ostentatious or Indispensable? Examining the Utopian Aims of Philanthropy

Speakers: Dr Rory Brooks, Rebecca Eastmond, Dr William MacAskill and Caroline Mason

 

 

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Ralph Miliband LSE Lit Fest Discussion: We Don’t Have to Live Like This: Experiments in Utopian Living

Speakers: Michael Caines, Benjamin Markovits and Jacqueline Yallop

 

 

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Royal Society of Literature LSE Lit Fest Conversation: The Political Novel

Speaker: Robert Harris

 

 

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LSE Department of Media & Communications Lit Fest Discussion: Uninvited Arrivals: Refugees and the Challenge of Responsibility

Speakers: Dr Ruben Andersson, Professor Lilie Chouliaraki, Dr Myria Georgiou and Dr Pierluigi Musarò

 

 

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LSE Africa Talks Lit Fest Discussion: Imagining African Futures

Speakers: Leye Adenle, Jennifer Makumbi and Chibundu Onuzo

 

 

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LSE Cañada Blanch Centre Lit Fest Discussion: Fact versus Fiction? The Spanish Civil War in the Literary Imagination

Speakers: Professor Helen Graham, Eduardo Mendoza and Professor Paul Preston

 

 

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LSE International Inequalities Institute Lit Fest Lecture: Utopia in the Twenty-first Century

Speakers: Professor Ruth Levitas and Professor Mike Savage

 

 

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LSE Lit Fest Discussion: Looking Eastwards: Cultural Exchange with the Islamic World

Speakers: Professor Jerry Brotton and Dr Peter Frankopan

 

 

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LSE Government Department, European Institute and LSE IDEAS Lit Fest Discussion: One School, Two Visions

Speakers: Professor Michael Cox and Professor Chandran Kukathas

 

 

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International Growth Centre LSE Lit Fest Film Screening & Discussion: How Can We Transform the Economic Lives of the Ultra Poor? 

Speakers: Professor Robin Burgess, Professor Naila Kabeer and Lewis Temple

 

 

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LSE Language Centre Lit Fest Discussion: Utopia: Getting Somewhere or Going Nowhere?

Speakers: Toby Litt, Patrick Parrinder and Samantha Shannon

 

 

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LSE Law Lit Fest Event: United Nations on Trial

Speakers: The Hon. Mr Justice Jay, Gráinne Mellon, Professor Gerry Simpson, Paul Clark, Natalie Samarasinghe, Dr Nazila Ghanea, Professor Francoise Hampson, Antony Loewenstein and Carne Ross

 

 

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LSE Lit Fest Discussion: To Boldly Go: What Star Trek Tells Us about the World

Speakers: Professor Michèle Barrett, Duncan Barrett, Professor Barry Buzan and Professor Steven French

 

 

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LSE Cities Lit Fest Discussion: The Future City: Cruel or Consoling Utopia?

Speakers: Darran Anderson, Dr Matthew Beaumont, Professor Rachel Cooper

 

 

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LSE Department of International Relations Lit Fest Film Screening and Discussion: BBC: British Born Chinese

Speakers: Dr Elena Barabantseva, Anna Chen, Andy Lawrence and Dr Véronique Pin-Fat

 

 

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LSE Lit Fest Discussion: Utopian Gardening, Landscapes and the Imagination

Speakers: Anna Pavord, Dan Pearson and Margaret Willes

 

 

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LSE Lit Fest Discussion: My Friend Maigret: Escapism, Dreams and the Imagination in Simenon

Speakers: Professor John Gray, Ros Schwartz, John Simenon

 

 

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LSE Widening Participation Lit Fest Discussion: Re-Writing the Past vs Imagining the Future

Speakers: Miriam Halahmy, Philip Womack, M M Vaughan

 

 

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LSE Department of Social Psychology and NERRI Lit Fest Discussion: Out of our Bodies: Can We Ever Free Consciousness?

Speakers: Ned Beauman, Dr Kate Devlin, Professor Nicholas Humphrey and Professor Sandra Jovchelovitch

 

 

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LSE Lit Fest Discussion: Worlds Elsewhere: Global Shakespeare

Speakers: Ben Crystal, Andrew Dickson, Dr Varsha Panjwani