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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240206T180000
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DTSTAMP:20260410T163019
CREATED:20240108T155831Z
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SUMMARY:What can we learn from... Hannah Arendt?
DESCRIPTION:THIS EVENT IS FREE OF CHARGE BUT PLEASE REGISTER VIA EVENTBRITE. \nLiving Freedom ‘University Salons’ are for all students keen to explore and debate ideas on the past\, present and future of freedom. \nOur ‘What can we learn from…?’ events explore important thinkers and the emergence of key ideas. A short\, accessible talk is followed by plenty of time for questions and discussion. Together we will interrogate thinkers and their ideas and assess their relevance for freedom today. Everyone is welcome to come along. \nHannah Arendt and Totalitarianism\nWhether prompted by concerns over draconian lockdowns\, new authoritarian political leaders\, policing of speech or outlawing demonstrations\, there’s been a revival of interest in Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism. And today\, in the wake of seemingly resurgent anti-Semitism in Europe\, her analysis of the connection between anti-Semitism\, totalitarianism\, and Europe’s dark history bear re-reading. What’s more\, whether attacking the contemporary concern for ‘safety’\, her unflinching defence of the Western canon of literature and philosophy\, her complex views on Israel\, or the role of ‘facts’ in politics\, Arendt was never shy of challenging orthodoxies and addressing profound moral questions. Scholars today routinely dismiss her as a closet racist or typical ‘white liberal’. But what did she really say\, and what can Arendt tell us about the challenges to freedom today? \nSPEAKER: \nJACOB REYNOLDS\, head of policy\, MCC Brussels; associate fellow\, Academy of Ideas; convenor\, Hannah Arendt Study Group \nJacob is head of policy for the think tank MCC Brussels\, an organisation founded to shake up the ‘Brussels bubble’ through in-depth exploration of the major challenges facing Europe. He is associate fellow at Academy of Ideas and a volunteer convenor of The Academy\, a weekend residential summer school for free thinkers. Jacob has a BPhil from St Cross College\, Oxford where he specialised in the work of Hannah Arendt\, and is a writer and commentator on issues related to the Culture War\, literature\, and geopolitics. He has an academic background in philosophy. \nSUPPORTED BY\nLiving Freedom University Salons are supported by the Ian Mactaggart Programme\, established to foster a culture of open debate\, independent thinking and free expression among young people in the UK\, especially students. It is administered by the Free Speech Union.
URL:https://livingfreedom.org.uk/event/what-can-we-learn-from-hannah-arendt-feb-24
LOCATION:Harris Lecture Theatre\, Oriel College\, Oriel Square\, Oxford\, OX1 4EW\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:University Salon
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240207T183000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240207T193000
DTSTAMP:20260410T163019
CREATED:20240123T171645Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240131T084013Z
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SUMMARY:More or Less? Utopia Today
DESCRIPTION:THIS SALON IS THE OPENING SESSION AT CRITICAL SUBJECTS: SPRING ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN SCHOOL 2024. IT IS OPEN TO ATTENDEES ONLY \nSince the publication of Thomas More’s Utopia marked the dawn of modernity\, utopian thinking has been a means to imagine how society might\, in the future\, be radically\, wholly different. Successive revolutionary moments in history were accompanied by reimagined worlds to come. By the turn of the twentieth century\, Oscar Wilde could confidently assert that ‘a map of the world that does not include utopia is not worth even glancing at’. ‘Progress’\, he declared\, ‘is the realisation of utopias’. \nYet in recent decades utopia has found itself on trial\, tarnished by association with totalitarian ideologies and a casualty of the ‘end of history’ and with it the demise of the possibility of imagining a different future. But while many condemn as dangerous the aspiration for transforming the world\, others regret the demise of genuinely transformative ideals. In our times of paralysing malaise and disenchantment with the future whether through the environmental emergency or artificial intelligence apocalypse\, should we seek a revival of utopian thinking? \nSPEAKER\nAlastair Donald is convenor of Living Freedom organised by Ideas Matter and associate director of the Academy of Ideas where he is co-convenor for the Battle of Ideas Festival. Alastair has worked in the UK and internationally to develop festivals\, exhibitions and curated programmes. He is author of The Scottish Question\, published as part of the series Letters on Liberty and co-editor of two books\, The Lure of the City: from slums to suburbs (2011) and The Future of Community: reports of a death greatly exaggerated (2008). He was a founding member of mantownhuman which published Manifesto: towards a new humanism in architecture (2008)\, as featured in Penguin Classics 100 Artists’ Manifestos. \nCHAIR\nAustin Williams\ndirector\, Future Cities Project; honorary research fellow\, XJTLU\, Suzhou\, China; author\, China’s Urban Revolution; convenor\, Critical Subjects Architecture School
URL:https://livingfreedom.org.uk/event/more-or-less-utopia-today
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://livingfreedom.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/More-or-less-utopia-today.jpg
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240215T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240215T190000
DTSTAMP:20260410T163019
CREATED:20240131T141540Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240209T164417Z
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SUMMARY:From culture wars to misinformation: why social media is not the problem
DESCRIPTION:Quarry Whitehouse Auditorium\, Selwyn College\, University of Cambridge \nThe event is free but please register via Eventbrite. \nLiving Freedom ‘University Salons’ are for all students keen to explore and debate ideas on the past\, present and future of freedom. A short\, accessible talk is followed by plenty of time for questions and discussion.  Everyone is welcome to come along. \nTOPIC\nFrom Culture Wars to Misinformation: Why Social Media is Not The Problem \nWith digital culture and myriad forms of social media\, each of us can now share more information and opinions more widely than ever before. Unlike the era of mass media\, today every individual has a personalised news channel\, edited by their own choices\, social network and algorithms that shape what they want to see next. \nBut many worry that while our facility to communicate has improved\, productive exchanges of ideas have diminished\, as has the potential to develop a shared worldview or even shared reality. What’s more\, new identity-driven forms of polarisation\, online harms and fake news have fuelled fears that the very technologies that transformed communications are in fact responsible for our descent into echo chambers\, toxic filter-bubbles or attention traps. \nBut to what extent is new technology really the problem? After all\, just over a decade ago\, social media was celebrated for the power to share ideas and drive political change in the Arab Spring. \nIn this talk followed by open discussion\, Timandra Harkness explores both the new digital technologies and the new identity-driven forms of culture and politics\, and asks: how did we get here\, why does it matter and where do we go from here? She concludes that instead of pointing the finger at the smartphone and new technologies\, we instead need to understand our own our shrinking sense of who we are and obsession with how others see us. \n—————— \nSPEAKER: TIMANDRA HARKNESS\nJournalist\, writer and broadcaster; author\, Technology is Not the Problem (2024) \nTimandra Harkness is author of Technology is Not the Problem (forthcoming\, Harper Collins). She is also author of Big Data: does size matter? \nTimandra is a regular on BBC Radio\, writing and presenting BBC Radio 4’s FutureProofing and other series including How To Disagree\, Steelmanning and Political School. BBC documentaries include Data\, Data Everywhere\, Divided Nation\, What Has Sat-Nav Done To Our Brains\, and Five Knots. She was also resident reporter on all eight seasons of social psychology series The Human Zoo. Timandra is a graduate fellow of the Royal Statistical Society\, and a founder member of their Data Ethics and Governance Section. She has written for publications including the Telegraph\, Guardian\, The Sunday Times\, Men’s Health and Significance (the journal of the Royal Statistical Society). \nCHAIR: ROGER MOSEY\nMaster of Selwyn College and a Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.
URL:https://livingfreedom.org.uk/event/from-culture-wars-to-misinformation-why-social-media-is-not-the-problem
LOCATION:Quarry Whitehouse Auditorium\, Selwyn College\, University of Cambridge\, Grange Road\, Cambridge\, CB3 9DQ\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:University Salon
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://livingfreedom.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/culture_wars_lf_cambridge_feb24.png
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240216T160000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240216T173000
DTSTAMP:20260410T163019
CREATED:20240105T153352Z
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SUMMARY:What can we learn from… Frederick Douglass?
DESCRIPTION:Pitcairn Building\, South College\, University of Durham \nThe event is free but please register via Eventbrite. \nLiving Freedom ‘University Salons’ are for all students keen to explore and debate ideas on the past\, present and future of freedom. \nOur ‘What can we learn from…?’ events explore important thinkers and the emergence of key ideas. A short\, accessible talk is followed by plenty of time for questions and discussion. Together we will interrogate thinkers and their ideas and assess their relevance for freedom today.  Everyone is welcome to come along. \nTOPIC\nFrederick Douglass and Emancipation\nFrederick Douglass is the renowned ‘prophet of freedom’: the most important African American of the 19th century\, who escaped slavery to become a leading abolitionist\, the greatest orator of his day and a leading writer of the era. \nBut Douglass was a complex figure who confounds many contemporary expectations. A fierce defender of freedom dedicated to the cause of Black civil and political rights\, Douglass was also a radical patriot\, committed to the Republican Party\, and often politically at odds with younger African Americans. \nWhere today’s decolonisation movement derides ‘Western culture’ and ‘Eurocentrism’ and instead values ‘indigenous knowledge and ways of learning’\, Douglass honed his literary and oratorial skills through by studying Cicero\, Milton\, Socrates\, Cato and others. Is he right to emphasise a universalist outlook that celebrates our shared common humanity? What can Douglass tell us about the challenges to freedom today? \nSPEAKER\nDR ALKA SEHGAL CUTHBERT\, director\, Don’t Divide Us\nAlka Sehgal Cuthbert is an educator\, academic\, author and campaigner. She is director of Don’t Divide Us (DDU)\, the UK’s ‘common-sense voice on race’. DDU make the case for colourblind anti-racism based on freedom and tolerance and believe that everyone should be treated as an individual worthy of respect regardless of race\, religion or the colour of their skin.  Alka is author of the Letter on Liberty series pamphlet The Dangers of the new anti-racism. She has written widely on education issues\, including What Should Schools Teach? Disciplines\, Subjects and the Pursuit of Truth published in 2017. \nORGANISERS\n\n \nSUPPORTED BY\nLiving Freedom University Salons are supported by the Ian Mactaggart Programme\, established to foster a culture of open debate\, independent thinking and free expression among young people in the UK\, especially students. It is administered by the Free Speech Union.
URL:https://livingfreedom.org.uk/event/what-can-we-learn-from-frederick-douglass
LOCATION:Pitcairn Building\, South College\, Mount Oswald\, The Approach\, Durham\, DH1 3LD\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:University Salon
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://livingfreedom.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/frederick-douglass.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240220T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240220T193000
DTSTAMP:20260410T163019
CREATED:20240129T121932Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240213T165809Z
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SUMMARY:What can we learn from...? JS Mill: freedom and the harm principle
DESCRIPTION:Room NK14\, King’s College\, University of Aberdeen \nTHIS EVENT IS FREE OF CHARGE BUT PLEASE REGISTER VIA EVENTBRITE. \nIn his famous On Liberty\, John Stuart Mill argued: ‘The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community\, against his will\, is to prevent harm to others. His own good\, either physical or moral\, is not a sufficient warrant.’ \nThis ‘harm principle’ became the quintessential defence of personal autonomy\, acting as a defence against interference in our private choices. But in recent years\, a growing sense that all individuals are vulnerable and ‘at risk’ has led to increased worries over a vast array of actions from hate speech to vaping that are now said to threaten individual safety\, wellbeing and mental health. One consequence is that an expanded notion of harm is used to argue against freedom and is used to limit our personal choices. \nWhat is Mill’s harm principle and how should we reassess it in an age where harms abound? How do we live together in a society\, when one person’s freedom is another person’s nightmare? From smoking bans to anti-social-behaviour orders\, have we given up on the principle of tolerance? If we want to enjoy freedom\, do we need to demand the right to offend the sensibilities of those who want to deny us that freedom? \nSPEAKER\nRob Lyons is science and technology director at the Academy of Ideas. He writes on a wide range of issues\, but takes a particular interest in issues around the economy\, environment\, food\, energy and risk. He is the author of Letter on Liberty Beyond the Harm Principle and Panic on a Plate: how society developed an eating disorder. Rob is convenor of the AoI Economy Forum. \nCHAIR\nAlastair Donald is convenor of Living Freedom and author of Letter on Liberty: The Scottish Question \nORGANISED BY\n \nThis event is organised by Living Freedom and Aberdeen University Freedom of Speech Society. \nSUPPORTED BY\nLiving Freedom University Salons are supported by the Ian Mactaggart Programme\, established to foster a culture of open debate\, independent thinking and free expression among young people in the UK\, especially students. It is administered by the Free Speech Union.
URL:https://livingfreedom.org.uk/event/what-can-we-learn-from-js-mill-freedom-and-the-harm-principle
LOCATION:University of Aberdeen\, Room NK14\, King's College\, Aberdeen\, AB24 3FX\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:University Salon
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://livingfreedom.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Aberdeen-What-can-we-learn-from-JS-MILL.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240222T183000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240222T200000
DTSTAMP:20260410T163019
CREATED:20240108T171124Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240212T121451Z
UID:709-1708626600-1708632000@livingfreedom.org.uk
SUMMARY:What can we learn from… Frederick Douglass?
DESCRIPTION:Room OC1.04\, The Oculus\, University of Warwick \nThe event is free but please register via Eventbrite. \nLiving Freedom ‘University Salons’ are for all students keen to explore and debate ideas on the past\, present and future of freedom. \nOur ‘What can we learn from…?’ events explore important thinkers and the emergence of key ideas. A short\, accessible talk is followed by plenty of time for questions and discussion. Together we will interrogate thinkers and their ideas and assess their relevance for freedom today.  Everyone is welcome to come along. \nTOPIC\nFrederick Douglass and Emancipation\nFrederick Douglass is the renowned ‘prophet of freedom’: the most important African American of the 19th century\, who escaped slavery to become a leading abolitionist\, the greatest orator of his day and a leading writer of the era. \nBut Douglass was a complex figure who confounds many contemporary expectations. A fierce defender of freedom dedicated to the cause of Black civil and political rights\, Douglass was also a radical patriot\, committed to the Republican Party\, and often politically at odds with younger African Americans. \nWhere today’s decolonisation movement derides ‘Western culture’ and ‘Eurocentrism’ and instead values ‘indigenous knowledge and ways of learning’\, Douglass honed his literary and oratorial skills through studying Cicero\, Milton\, Socrates\, Cato and others. Is he right to emphasise a universalist outlook that celebrates our shared common humanity? What can Douglass tell us about the challenges to freedom today? \nSPEAKER\nDR ALKA SEHGAL CUTHBERT\, director\, Don’t Divide Us\nAlka Sehgal Cuthbert is an educator\, academic\, author and campaigner. She is director of Don’t Divide Us (DDU)\, the UK’s ‘common-sense voice on race’. DDU make the case for colourblind anti-racism based on freedom and tolerance and believe that everyone should be treated as an individual worthy of respect regardless of race\, religion or the colour of their skin.  Alka is author of the Letter on Liberty series pamphlet The Dangers of the new anti-racism. She has written widely on education issues\, including What Should Schools Teach? Disciplines\, Subjects and the Pursuit of Truth published in 2017. \nORGANISERS\n\n \nMAP\nClick on image below for interactive map. \n \nSUPPORTED BY\nLiving Freedom University Salons are supported by the Ian Mactaggart Programme\, established to foster a culture of open debate\, independent thinking and free expression among young people in the UK\, especially students. It is administered by the Free Speech Union.
URL:https://livingfreedom.org.uk/event/what-can-we-learn-from-frederick-douglass-warwick-2024
LOCATION:Room OC1.04\, The Oculus\, University of Warwick\, University Road\, Warwick\, CV4 7AL\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:University Salon
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