SUMMER SCHOOL OVERVIEW
Our three-day residential school takes place in central London on 9-11 July and is open to anyone aged 18 to 30, based in the UK or beyond.
Successful applicants will be receive a Living Freedom Scholarship award that covers 90 per cent of fees. (The scholarship cost is £50, reduced from the full cost of £500.) The deadline for applications is 26 May 2026. A review panel will award 50 scholarships.
LIVING FREEDOM SUMMER SCHOOL 2026
‘We have it in our power to begin the world over again.’ Published 250 years ago, Common Sense by Thomas Paine was more than a rabble-rousing pamphlet designed to stiffen American spines and hasten a revolutionary break with Britain. In lucid, often incendiary prose, Paine distilled his demand for sovereignty and equality into a popular, democratic call to arms. Many arguments unleashed then – over liberty, authority and rights – still reverberate today.
Anniversaries force us not merely to revisit history but to take stock of our own febrile age, where liberty is again up for grabs. Living Freedom summer school carves out space for serious argument on the defining questions of our time – a forum to think boldly, debate openly and test ideas.
250 years on from independence, much has changed, but some fault-lines look strangely familiar. The cry ‘All men are created equal’ once ignited a revolution. Today, critics argue that EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion) orthodoxies and equality law chill speech and corrode equal treatment. Juries once protected dissenters from politicised charges of seditious libel. Yet, when juries acquit activists from groups such as Palestine Action, they are denounced as going rogue, even as governments curtail jury trials in the name of improving justice. What is the principled response?
Free speech remains the frontline. The printing press and pamphlet wars have given way to smartphones and social media – a new public square that elites itch to regulate. How should defenders of liberty respond to initiatives aimed at ‘controlling the narrative’ such as the so-called European Democracy Shield? Is Washington truly a champion of digital freedom when its state agencies regularly lean on companies like Google, Meta and Discord?
Perhaps the biggest challenge is getting to grips with a shifting political landscape of freedom. The decline of ideologically motivated parties means that culture and the pre-political realm are where politics plays out and where many arguments around freedom arise – debates over community, traditions and identity, flag, family and faith. In an era of culture wars, sectarianism and insurgent populism, how do we restate the case for freedom – clearly, confidently and without apology?
SCHOLARSHIPS
The cost of providing a place at the summer school is £500. This includes accommodation in central London and attending the annual Living Freedom dinner.
However, attendees will pay just £50, a massive reduction of £450.
This is because Living Freedom uses a targeted scholarships programme funded by our donors and partners, which will ensure that we can select attendees on merit, irrespective of their financial circumstances.
If you would like to make a donation to support a scholar, find out more here.
PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME
PLENARY LECTURES
- Island of strangers: what is a citizen?
- Women’s freedom: safety versus liberation
- Populism: threat to liberty or demand for freedom?
- Generation Fragile? Growing up in the Culture Wars
- Expert-led parenting to fertility support: should the state intervene in family life?
- Controlling the narrative: European Democracy Shield case study
- America: great bulwark of liberty?
TALKS, DEBATES AND WORKSHOPS
- Should social media be banned for under 16s?
- Woke galleries to diversity casting: disentangling art and politics
- Antisemitism to anti-Zionism: new challenges to free speech on campus
- Restricting jury trials: an assault on liberty?
- Activist staff to office speech police: EDI in the workplace
- Should we scrap the Equality Act?
- Nation, national community, national interests
- What the papers say – reviews workshops
LITERATURE AND LIBERTY: TALKS AND SEMINARS
- Aristotle: The Politics
- David Szalay: Flesh
SPEAKERS INCLUDE
Dolan Cummings writer and novelist; co-director, Campaign for Freedom in Everyday Life
Frank Furedi sociologist and social commentator
Timandra Harkness author, Technology is Not the Problem
Ellie Lee co-author, Growing up in the Culture Wars
Phil Mullan author, Beyond Confrontation: globalists, nationalists and their discontents
Ella Nixon curator, writer and art historian
Jacob Reynolds head of policy, MCC Brussels
Zoe Strimpel author, Good Slut: how money, sex and power set women free
Maren Thom co-host, Performance Anxiety podcast
Maya Thomas legal and policy officer, Big Brother Watch
Ella Whelan journalist; co-convenor, Battle of Ideas festival
HOW TO APPLY
Please complete our application form. There is a different form depending on whether this will be your first time attending the summer school or if you are a Living Freedom alumnus who has attended before.
First-time attendees
Living Freedom alumnus
SUPPORTED BY
ENQUIRIES
Should you need further information, please email the Living Freedom convenor, Alastair Donald, at alastair@ideasmatter.org.uk or call +44 (0)20 7269 9234.