The Future of the Labour Party

Date: Tuesday 4 October 2016

Time: 6.30-8pm

Venue: Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building

Speakers:  Andy Beckett, Professor Matthew Goodwin, Faiza Shaheen

Chair: Dr Robin Archer  

After a summer dominated by a bruising leadership contest, what is the future for the Labour party in Brexit Britain? Can it recover from the turmoil that followed the referendum result, or is it doomed to split? A panel of leading political historians and social scientists will place the turmoil in historical context, consider the threats to Labour’s electoral support exposed by the Brexit referendum, and examine the relationship between party members and MPs.

Andy Beckett is a Guardian writer and historian.

Matthew Goodwin (@GoodwinMJ) is Professor of  Politics at the University of Kent and Senior Visiting Fellow at Chatham House.

Faiza Shaheen (@faizashaheen) is Director of the Centre for Labour and Social Studies.

Karl Marx: greatness and illusion

Date: Thursday 10 November 2016

Time:   6.30-8pm

Venue: Old Theatre, Old Building

Speaker: Professor  Gareth Stedman Jones

Chair: Dr Robin Archer

Gareth Stedman Jones will discuss Marx, history and nature; challenge ideas of Marx's ‘materialist conception of history’; and explore his debt to Hegel and German idealism.

Gareth Stedman Jones is Professor of the History of Ideas at Queen Mary, University of London. He is a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge and taught at the university for many years, becoming Professor of Political Science in 1997. He is the author of Outcast London, Languages of Class and An End to Poverty? and most recently Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion, as well as being the editor of the Penguin Classics edition of The Communist Manifesto

The American Election and the Left

Date: Wednesday 16 November 2016

Time:   6.30-8pm

Venue: Old Theatre, Old Building

Speakers:   Steven Erlanger, Gary Gerstle, Bonnie Greer

Chair:   Dr Robin Archer

The US election has seen a wave of authoritarian populism and xenophobia, the first real chance for a woman to win presidential office, and an earlier unprecedented surge in support for an American socialist. Following a campaign marked by intense hostility and polarised appeals, what does the outcome of the election tell us about the prospects for progressives in America and beyond? A panel of leading scholars and commentators will debate the meaning of the campaign and its result.

Steven Erlanger (@StevenErlanger) is the London Bureau chief for the New York Times.

Gary Gerstle (@glgerstle) is the Paul Mellon Professor of American History at Cambridge University. He is the author of American Crucible and Liberty and Coercion.

Bonnie Greer OBE (@Bonn1eGreer) is a playwright, novelist and critic. She is Chancellor of Kingston University. Her novels include Obama Music, a reflection on her formative years in Chicago, and a biography of the civil rights campaigner Langston Hughes.

Rethinking Capitalism

Date: Wednesday 30 November 2016           

Time:   6.30-8pm

Venue: Old Theatre, Old Building

Speakers: Michael Jacobs, Professor Mariana Mazzucato

Chair: Dr Robin Archer

Western capitalism is in trouble. For decades investment has been falling, living standards have stagnated or declined, and inequality has risen dramatically. Economic policy has neither reformed the financial system nor restored stable growth. Climate change meanwhile poses increasing risks to future prosperity. 

In this joint lecture, Mariana Mazzucato and Michael Jacobs will propose new ways of thinking about capitalism. Drawing on their new book, Rethinking Capitalism: Economics and Policy for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth they will show how today’s deep economic problems reflect the inadequacies of orthodox economic theory and the failure of economic policies informed by it.  They will show how alternative economic approaches can better explain how capitalism works, why it often doesn’t, and how it can be made more innovative, inclusive and sustainable. 

Michael Jacobs (@michaelujacobs) is Visiting Professor in the School of Public Policy and Department of Political Science at University College London and Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research. An environmental economist and political theorist, his work has focused on the political economy of environmental change. He was formerly General Secretary of the Fabian Society, Co-Editor of the The Political Quarterly, and Senior Adviser to the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, which he helped to found.

Mariana Mazzucato (@MazzucatoM) holds the RM Phillips chair in the Economics of Innovation at SPRU in the University of Sussex. Her book The Entrepreneurial State: debunking public vs. private sector myths was on the 2013 Books of the Year list of the Financial Times. Professor Mazzucato is winner of the 2014 New Statesman SPERI Prize in Political Economy, the 2015 Hans-Matthöfer-Preis and in 2013 the New Republic called her one of the '3 most important thinkers about innovation'. Professor Mazzucato advises policy makers around the world on innovation-led growth. 

 Red Rosa: a revolutionary life

Date: Wednesday 7 December 2016

Time: 6.30-8pm

Venue: Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House

Speaker: Kate Evans

Chair: Dr Robin Archer

What can we learn from the extraordinary life of Dr Rosa Luxemburg? The indomitable Luxemburg forged a unique career as an economist, journalist and critical thinker. Kate Evans’ beautifully drawn biography re-examines the story of a great revolutionary thinker and activist. 

Kate Evans (@cartoonkate) is a cartoonist, artist, and activist. She is the author of Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg. Her work has redrawn the conventions of the historically-referenced graphic biography.