Backdoor Broadcasting Company

Event Dates: 17 – 21 June 2013
B 34
Birkbeck Main Building
Birkbeck, University of London
Malet Street
London WC1E 7HX

The Birkbeck School of Law presents:

Law on Trial 2013: Legal Utopias: The Future of Law and Legal Education

Against a background of profound changes in higher education policy, and in the year in which the Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) will report its findings to its sponsoring regulators in May 2013, the School of Law at Birkbeck places legal education on trial in this week of free lectures and workshops.

With roundtable discussions featuring distinguished legal academics, novelists, journalists and political activists, who explore the influence of legal education and legal educators on the wider cultural and social landscape, this is a trial not to be missed!

Take part as we debate the future of the School of Law, positioned in a climate where both publicly funded and privately sourced legal education providers battle with high fees and an ever expanding competitive market. Have your say over access to legal education as our panels explore whether legal academics should confront challenges of widening participation by developing a culture of pro bono – offering legal education freely outside their universities/colleges.

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Tuesday 18 June 2013

Legal Education: Socialist Survivors

Birkbeck Law School works closely with the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers. Ever since its foundation in 1930, Haldane has been a legal thorn in the side of every government, fighting for law reforms, civil liberties and access to justice for all; waging war on racism and discrimination; and engaging in practical solidarity in Europe and internationally.

Now, Haldane, which has over 400 members, barristers, solicitors, trade unionists and activists, is fighting against legal aid cuts. See http://www.haldane.org/news/category/legal-aid. Haldane’s strength is its young members: most of its executive are in their 20s.

How did they become socialists? What has been their experience of legal education?

Tonight’s panel enables you to engage with two recently qualified young lawyers.
Natalie Csengeri: caseworker at Lloyds PR Solicitors, 2012 KCL LLM Labour Law, 2011 BPTC City University, 2010 GDL at BPP, 2009 University of California Santa Barbara.

Stephen Knight: currently doing a pupillage, 2012 UCL LLM Jurisprudence and Legal Theory, 2011 BPTC City University London, 2010 University of Sheffield

Natalie and Stephen are committed political activists, and members of Haldane’s Executive

Introduction by Professor Bill Bowring (Birkbeck).

Stephen Knight:

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Natalie Csengeri:

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Discussion and audience questions:

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Event Dates: 17 – 21 June 2013
Various Venues
Birkbeck Main Building
Birkbeck, University of London
Malet Street
London WC1E 7HX

The Birkbeck School of Law presents:

Law on Trial 2013: Legal Utopias: The Future of Law and Legal Education

Against a background of profound changes in higher education policy, and in the year in which the Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) will report its findings to its sponsoring regulators in May 2013, the School of Law at Birkbeck places legal education on trial in this week of free lectures and workshops.

With roundtable discussions featuring distinguished legal academics, novelists, journalists and political activists, who explore the influence of legal education and legal educators on the wider cultural and social landscape, this is a trial not to be missed!

Take part as we debate the future of the School of Law, positioned in a climate where both publicly funded and privately sourced legal education providers battle with high fees and an ever expanding competitive market. Have your say over access to legal education as our panels explore whether legal academics should confront challenges of widening participation by developing a culture of pro bono – offering legal education freely outside their universities/colleges.

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Monday 17 June 2013

The Utopian Law School and the Fate of the University

Chair: Professor Adam Gearey (Birkbeck)

Is there an alternative to debt and privatised education? Does a law school do any more than produce skilled operatives to grease the wheels of capital? This first panel of 2013’s Law on Trial intends to ask some critical questions about the perilous state of British Universities and the possibility of imagining alternatives. To what extent can a Law School address the wider community and its legal needs? Is a university simply a business turning a profit from its human capital? How can thinking about law be made part of an education in politics or ‘critical’ humanities? Equally important is the history of thinking differently about education- from the Anti-University of London, to the student protests of the 1960s and the Occupied spaces of present day. If the task of the utopian or critical law school is more than its own survival – how can these traditions of hope and dissent make any sense to us now?

Speakers for this session include:

Dr. Maia Pal, Department of International Relations, University of Sussex

Professor Jane Holder, Faculty of Laws, UCL

Professor Thomas Docherty, Professor of English and of Comparative Literature, University of Warwick

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Dr Maia Pal’s images:

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Event Date: 8 May 2013
Attlee Suite,
Portcullis House,
House of Commons,
London SW1A 2LW

The Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, Birkbeck, University of London and the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, University of Oxford in partnership with the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism present:

Symposium on Integration, Disadvantage and Extremism

The Symposium will reflect on the government’s integration strategy and to do so in the light of both contemporary developments and recent scholarship. It will bring the most current evidence-based research to bear on urgent issues of policy for an invited audience of academic experts, policy makers and parliamentarians.

PROGRAMME

Welcome and Introduction by Professor David Feldman (Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism, Birkbeck, University of London) and  John Mann MP (Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism)

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Session 1: Integration and Disadvantage Today

Introduction: Andrew Stunell OBE MP – Integration and Disadvantage Today

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Dr Rob Berkeley (Runnymede Trust) – If Integration is the Answer, What Was the Question?

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Professor Anthony Heath (University of Oxford) – Muslim Integration and Disadvantage

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Dr Ben Rogaly (University of Sussex) and Becky Taylor (Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, Birkbeck, University of London) – The Struggle Against Disadvantage: Challenging the Ethnicization of Class

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Session 2: Integration and Extremism

Introduction and Chair: Baroness Sayeda Warsi – Integration and Extremism

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Vidhya Ramalingam (Institute for Strategic Dialogue) - Far-Right Extremism in Britain: What Drives and Sustains Commitment?

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Dr Nasar Meer (Northumbria University) – Thinking Through Muslim Integration & Extremism

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Dave Rich (Community Security Trust) – Antisemitism and Extremism

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Session 3:  Is Localism Sufficient?

Introduction and Chair: Gavin Barwell MP – Is Localism Sufficient?

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Professor Maleiha Malik (Kings College London) – The Role of the Law

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Dr Ben Gidley (COMPAS, University of Oxford) – Is Localism Enough?

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David Feldman (Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, Birkbeck, University of London) – Concluding Remarks

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Event Date: 12 June 2013
Room 532, Main Building
Birkbeck, University of London
Malet Street
London WC1E 7HX

The Birkbeck Institute for Social Research presents:

The Persistence of Segregation in the 21st Century American Metropolis

Speaker: Professor John Logan (Brown)

Segregation is increasingly central to British and European discussions about ethnicity, integration and place. What can we learn from America, which has a longer history of immigration and residential segregation? Professor John Logan, one of America’s foremost experts on historical and contemporary patterns of American segregation, references a current American debate in which some claim we are at the “end” of a century of segregation. Professor Logan explains why he believes this is erroneous. He also places this debate in the context of the experience of European immigrant groups in American cities a century earlier. Professor Logan contrasts these European immigrants’ eventual spatial assimilation with contemporary America, where relatively strong and enduring ethnic boundaries divide the major ethno-racial groups.

John Logan is Professor of Sociology at Brown University. He is Principal Investigator for US2010, a project supported by the Russell Sage Foundation to analyze trends in American society that are revealed by the most recent data sources, including Census 2010 (www.facebook.com/pages/US-2010-Census-Project/174107215941839). He has also undertaken studies of neighborhood change and individual mobility in U.S. cities in the period 1880-1920, and today. Before coming to Brown he was Director of the Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research. Professor Logan is co-author, along with Harvey Molotch, of Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place (University of California, 2007).

Introduction by Professor Eric Kaufman (Birkbeck).

Talk:

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Event Date: 11 June 2013

Room B33

Birkbeck Main Building

Birkbeck, University of London

Malet St

London WC1E 7HX

Department of Media and Cultural Studies presents:

 Itinerancy, Dislocation, Nomadic Subjects: Vagabond (Agnes Varda,1985)

In this series we will watch three films in which the main protagonist is an itinerant or a wanderer.  Whilst there is a great deal of journeying in cinema, this series distinguishes itself from the main stream genre of the road movie -whose forward propulsion mimics or can be seen as a metaphor for both the film itself rushing through the projector,and for narrative itself as linear journey rushing toward resolution and/or death. In the classical Hollywood journey/odyssey genre film the protagonist is often theactive (often male) agent who mobilises the (often) linear trajectory of the films’ structure.

In this series we are interested in films that wander, meander, loop and weave -films that explore aimlessness, waiting, ‘dead time’, margins and associative oblique trajectories, films whose movement follows a different pattern, structure and logic creating a disorganised mobility that allows us to ask the question: can the cinematic produce nomadic subjectivitiesand what can that mean politically,  psychically, formally, affectively, aesthetically?

Screening two:  Agnes Varda’s 1985 film Vagabond, with a roundtable discussion.

Panel: Professor James Williams (Royal Holloway) Dr Libby Saxton (Queen Mary College) Chair: Dr Amber Jacobs (Birkbeck)

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Event Date: 23 May 2013

Room B01
Clore Management Centre
Birkbeck, University of London
Torrington Square
London WC1E 7HX

The London International Development Centre (LIDC) presents:

The 2013 LIDC Bi-Annual Conference

‘Five years of interdisciplinary research in development – looking back and looking forward’
In May 2013 LIDC will organise its first Bi-Annual Conference bringing together LIDC membership: staff, students and alumni from Bloomsbury Colleges. The conference, held every two years, will offer its members a platform to showcase successful interdisciplinary research projects in development, engage with one another and the Centre, and generate new interdisciplinary project ideas.

PROGRAMME

Welcome and introduction

•    Introduction: Prof. Jeff Waage (Director, LIDC)

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•    Welcome: Prof. Chris Husbands (Director, IOE; Chair, The Bloomsbury Colleges)

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•    International development research at Birkbeck: Dr. Karen Wells (Associate Dean, Department of Geography, Environment and Development Studies, Birkbeck)

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Keynote address

•    Prof. Sir John Beddington (UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser 2008-2013)

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Session 1: LIDC’s interdisciplinary initiatives – progress so far

This session offers an overview of interdisciplinary initiatives across Bloomsbury Colleges on the examples of three projects supported by LIDC in the past few years. Project leaders will talk about how the collaboration came about, what it achieved, and how an interdisciplinary approach added value.

•    Agri-Health: Prof. Bhavani Shankar (SOAS) and Dr. Alan Dangour (LSHTM)

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•    One Health: Prof. Richard Kock (RVC) and Dr. Jo Lines (LSHTM)

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•    Students as Global Citizens: Dr. Nicole Blum (IOE) and  Nick Short (RVC)

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Award Ceremony for the LIDC Fellowship Scheme

This year LIDC launched the first LIDC Fellowship Scheme, offering seed grants to fund innovative interdisciplinary research projects across Bloomsbury Colleges. In this session the first LIDC Fellows will receive their awards.
Chair: Prof. Jonathan Elliott (RVC,  Chair, Bloomsbury Research Committee)

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Session 2: New interdisciplinary frontiers

In this session we will focus on two topical areas, conflict and gender, as interdisciplinary frontiers with potential for new cross-Bloomsbury research. We will ask experts in each area to suggest interdisciplinary research questions and how to address potential challenges to future collaborative work.

•    Conflict:

Prof. Chris Cramer (SOAS) and Dr Jennifer Palmer (LSHTM)

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•    Gender:

Dr. Jenny Parkes (IOE), Dr. Karen Devries (LSHTM) and Dr. Elizabeth Hull (SOAS)

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Session 3: Interdisciplinarity – What should Bloomsbury Colleges be doing?

The session will bring together international development experts from Bloomsbury Colleges for a discussion on what LIDC Colleges are doing and what they ought to be doing in interdisciplinary research and teaching.

•    Dr. Doug Bourn (IOE)
•    Prof. Richard Kock (RVC)
•    Prof. Sharon Huttly (LSHTM)
•    Dr. Jasmine Gideon (Birkbeck)

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Beyond Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – a new development agenda?

In 2010 LIDC brought together an interdisciplinary team of experts from Bloomsbury Colleges to produce a report published by the Lancet: ‘The Millennium Development Goals: a cross-sectoral analysis and principles for goal setting  after 2015’. In this session we will bring together MDG experts to revisit the findings of the Lancet-LIDC Commission and examine progress on the MDGs since the report’s publication. Secondly, we look beyond 2015: What should be the shape of future goals?

•    Prof. Elaine Unterhalter (IOE)
•    Dr. Colin Poulton (SOAS)
•    Prof. Andy Haines (LSHTM)
•    Prof. Emerita Angela Little (IOE)
•    Hugh Waddington (3ie)

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Closing

•    Prof. Jeff Waage (Director, LIDC)

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Event Date: 7 December2012

Room 532
Birkbeck Main Building
Birkbeck, University of London
Malet St Bloomsbury
London WC1E 7HX

The Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities presents:

Simon Critchley – Masterclass II:

Hamlet, Nietzsche, Joyce – tragedy, lethargy and disgust

Talk:

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Questions:

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Event Date:6 December2012

Room 532
Birkbeck Main Building
Birkbeck, University of London
Malet St Bloomsbury
London WC1E 7HX

The Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities presents:

Simon Critchley – Masterclass I:

Hamlet, Schmitt, Benjamin – politics, sovereignty and espionage

Introduction by Professor Costas Douzinas (Birkbeck).

Talk:

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Event Date: 7 June 2013

Room B34, Main Building
Birkbeck, University of London
Malet Street
London WC1E 7HX

The Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities presents:

Professor TJ Clark  (Berkeley) – Was Picasso a Woman?: Reflections on Nude, Green Leaves and Bust

Chair: Professor Lynda Nead (Birkbeck)

Picasso once claimed that, artistically speaking, “I am a woman”. He went on to argue that any genuine (male) artist sought to depict the (female) object of desire as a woman might desire it. This line of thought seems linked to Picasso’s favourite quote from Rimbaud: “I is someone else”. How seriously should we take this sketched-out theory of sameness and difference in representation? How does it apply to Picasso’s actual work? Can it be reconciled with Picasso’s further remark: “Au fond, il n’y a que l’amour”?

This lecture will launch TJ Clark’s new book Picasso and Truth: From Cubism to Guernica (pub Princeton University Press) and will be followed by a drinks reception.

T. J. Clark was born in Bristol, England in 1943, took a B.A. in Modern History at Cambridge, and a Ph.D. in Art History at the Courtauld Institute, University of London.  He has taught at various places in England and the USA, and from1988 on at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is George C. and Helen N. Pardee Chair Emeritus.  Clark is the author of a series of books on the social character and formal dynamics of modern art, The Absolute Bourgeois: Artists and Politics in France 1848-1851 (1973), Image of the People: Gustave Courbet and the 1848 Revolution (1973), The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and his Followers (1984), and Farewell to an Idea: Episodes from a History of Modernism (1999); as well as Afflicted Powers: Capital and Spectacle in a New Age of War (written with “Retort”, 2005), and The Sight of Death: An Experiment in Art Writing (2006).  His Picasso and Truth:  From Cubism to Guernica (Princeton University Press) is published in June 2013, along with a book accompanying an exhibition at Tate Britain, Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life (Tate Publishing).  Book and exhibition are co-authored with Anne M. Wagner.

Introduction by Professor Lynda Nead (Birkbeck).

Talk:

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Event Date: 6 June 2013
Room B34, Main Building
Birkbeck, University of London
Malet Street
London WC1E 7HX

The Birkbeck Institute for Social Research presents:

The Future of Feminism

A discussion with Nancy Fraser, Lynne Segal and Nina Power
Chaired by Sasha Roseneil

Nancy Fraser’s major new book Fortunes of Feminism traces the feminist movement’s evolution since the1970s and anticipates a new – radical and revitalized – phase of feminist thought and action.

Join Nancy Fraser, Lynne Segal and Nina Power as they discuss the future of feminism – what has already been and gone, the challenges that we face going forward, as well as the need for a reinvigorated feminist radicalism able to take us into the next phase and, in particular, address the current global economic crisis.

Nancy Fraser is Loeb Professor of Philosophy and Politics at the New School for Social Research, Einstein Fellow of the city of Berlin, and holder of the “Global Justice” Chair at the Collège d’études mondiales in Paris. Her books include Redistribution or Recognition; Adding Insult to Injury; Scales of Justice; Justice Interruptus; and Unruly Practices.

Lynne Segal is Anniversary Professor of Psychology and Gender Studies in the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck College. Her books include Is the Future Female? Troubled Thoughts on Contemporary Feminism; Slow Motion: Changing Masculinities, Changing Men; and Straight Sex: Rethinking the Politics of Pleasure. She co-wrote Beyond the Fragments: Feminism and the Making of Socialism with Sheila Rowbotham and Hilary Wainwright.

Nina Power is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Roehampton University and the author of One-Dimensional Woman.

Sasha Roseneil is Director of the Birkbeck Institute for Social Research, and Professor of Sociology and Social Theory in the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. She is also Professor II in the Centre for Gender Research at the University of Oslo. Her recent books include Beyond Citizenship? Feminism and the Transformation of Belonging, and Social Research after the Cultural Turn (edited with Stephen Frosh) and Remaking Citizenship in Multicultural Europe: women’s movements, gender and diversity (edited with Beatrice Halsaa and Sevil Sumer).

Introduction by Sasha Roseneil (Birkbeck).

Nancy Fraser:

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Lynne Segal:

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Nina Power:

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Discussion:

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