Institute of Public Affairs: media player

Contributor(s): Professor Eileen Barker, Dr Matthew Engelke, Revd Dr James Walters, and Professor Conor Gearty

Released on 26 November 2013

Forget traditional lecture halls and think, instead, an intellectual form of a flash mob. That’s the concept of guerrilla lectures, the first of which happened on 24 October in the crypt of Westminster Cathedral. Keen to experience a unique, engaging, thought-provoking evening, queues of undergraduates, postgraduates and non-academic LSE staff began forming an hour in advance without knowing where they were going or the subject of the lecture.

The event, which was eventually revealed to be a discussion about “Hell” led to, as Professor Gearty later attested, “an interplay of background, personality and intellect” with those in attendance forced to wrestle “with questions personal and philosophical thrown up by others”.