Book your tickets for the 2015 Literary Festival

This year's festival explores the foundations of knowledge, society, identity and literature, as well as those of LSE itself.

Re-Imagining your Library

What are your expectations of the Library? Have they been met? This discussion is your chance to tell the Library what changes you would like to see.

Asha Chadeesingh

"We are taking this opportunity to express our feelings through dance" - find out what you can expect from this year's dance show 'Dance for Change'.

Comics, Human Rights and Representation

Until Sunday 8 February, the student-led LSE Human Rights blog is running a series of articles exploring the importance of representation in popular culture.

The Comics, Human Rights and Representation series is highlighting how, although representation is not a recognised human right, it is fundamental. Using comic books as a case study the series aims to demonstrate how invisibility, on the basis of gender, sexuality, race and perceived ability, can be both challenged and reinforced in popular culture.

The LSE Human Rights blog is a place for critical engagement with the idea of human rights, for studying the evolution of the concept, and for celebrating the work of people committed to realising human rights. The editorial team welcomes thought-provoking and accessible articles. See notes for contributors.
 

The climate outcomes of different lifestyle and energy choices can now be explored by anyone, thanks to an online tool. Dr Erica Thompson of LSE’s Centre for the Analysis of Time Series (CATS) was the lead climate scientist for the project, which draws on the latest scientific results from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to highlight the range of possible impacts resulting from different energy choices.

The Global Calculator is an interactive tool for businesses and individuals, NGOs and governments. It allows anyone to consider the various options for cutting carbon emissions and the trade-offs for energy and land use to 2050. It suggests that the world can eat well, travel more and live in more comfortable homes while meeting international carbon reduction commitments.

New Gearty Grilling online

A new Gearty Grilling video, part of the series of short video debates between Conor Gearty, director of the IPA and professor of human rights law, and leading researchers at LSE, is now online.

This week Nigel Dodd (pictured), Professor of Sociology, discusses different money systems and how they reflect on society. More
 

In 1970 LSE student Bob Mellor founded one of the most influential civil rights groups in the UK - the Gay Liberation Front.

The Library will be hosting a LSESU Re-Imagining session on Monday 9 February from 12-2pm in room 102 on the first floor of the Library.

Come along to this interactive session, hosted by LSESU Education Officer Tom Maksymiw, and discuss how you would re-imagine your Library at LSE.

What are your expectations of the Library? Have they been met? What could the Library do to further support your studies? This discussion is your chance to tell the Library what changes you would like to see.

Application deadline extended - Hellenic Observatory PhD Symposium

The deadline for applications for the seventh Biennial Hellenic Observatory PhD Symposium on Contemporary Greece and Cyprus has been extended.

The aim of the Symposium, which takes place on 4-5 June, is to promote the research of PhD students who have an interest in Greece and Cyprus by presenting their work in front of experienced scholars and academics, allowing them to share and exchange ideas and to gain valuable feedback.

For more information and to apply, click here.
 

Even the most efficient computer user may be unaware of simple steps that can save time and effort. Do you know about these Word features?

1. Keep photos, charts and other images together with the text they illustrate by ‘anchoring’ them.
2. Use Full Screen Viewing to read long documents. In the lower right corner of the Word screen, click the second icon (which looks like an open book). The ribbon at the top of the page disappears, and two pages of the document are shown side by side. Customise this view using View Options in the upper right corner of the screen, or click Close to return to the previous view.
3. Use the Office Clipboard to collect and paste material from one or more files or webpages into others. For example, paste text from a Word document, an Excel chart and a Creative Commons (open licence) image from the internet into a PowerPoint show. Or add text, such as long names, to the Clipboard for frequent use while writing a long document. Find out how here.

The February edition of Perspectives is now online.

Each month 12 photos taken by the LSE community are chosen to appear in LSE Arts online gallery. Check out February’s edition here.

Get your copy of The London Globalist magazine

LSESU’s International Journalism Society, The London Globalist, have launched their annual Magazine issue, under the theme of 'The Power of the Protest'.

This issue features segments on Ferguson, Hong Kong, and even a riotous year of protest at LSE. Visit www.thelondonglobalist.org to view an online copy.
 

Security officer and former boxer Daniel Beckley is running skip fit lessons for all staff and students at LSE. Build up your fitness, burn calories and increase your stamina, all within an hour.

The next lessons will take place from 1-2pm at the Badminton Court, Old Building, on Tuesday 10 February, Tuesday 24 February, Tuesday 3 March, Tuesday 17 March, and Tuesday 24 March. Just turn up on any of these dates with your own skipping rope. All lessons are free.

LSE Literary Festival 2015

Tickets now available to book online for the LSE Literary Festival 2015.

A series of events, free to attend and open to all, exploring the foundations of knowledge, society, identity and literature, as well as those of LSE itself.

Speakers include Lisa Appignanesi, Ian Bostridge, Anne Fine, John Gray, Andrew O'Hagan, Elif Shafak, Raja Shehadeh, Will Self and Ali Smith.

On: Wednesday 11 February from 6.30-8pm in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building
Speaker: Professor Sonia Livingstone OBE (pictured), Professor of Social Psychology in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE and Project Director of EU Kids Online.
Respondents: Jasmina Byrne, Child Protection Specialist at UNICEF, and Professor Robin Mansell, Professor of New Media and the Internet at LSE.

Are children’s rights enhanced or undermined by access to the internet? Charters and manifestos for the digital age are proliferating, but where do children fit in?

On Informed Consent
On: Monday 9 February at 6.30pm in the New Theatre, East Building
Speakers: Professor Baroness O'Neill (pictured) and Professor Jonathan Wolff

Hong Kong: the struggle at the end of history
On: Tuesday 10 February at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speakers: Professor Conor Gearty, Raymond Li, Professor Danny Quah, and Isabella Steger

How Good We Can Be: ending the mercenary society and building a great country
On: Wednesday 11 February at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Will Hutton

Tuition Fees Assist Access: discuss
On: Wednesday 11 February at 6.30pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speakers: Professor Nicholas Barr and Martin Lewis (pictured)

Philip Pilkington (piano)
On: Thursday 12 February at 1pm in the Shaw Library, Old Building

LSE Works

The fourth LSE Works lecture takes place on Thursday 5 February and will be given by LSE Health and Social Care’s Professor Gwyn Bevan (pictured) and Dr Mara Airoldi (formerly LSE) on ‘STAR: using visual economic models to engage stakeholders to increase value in the NHS’.

The respondent will be Siân Williams, Programme Manager for IMPRESS, and the event will be chaired by Sir Muir Gray, consultant in public health in the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust and Director of Better Value Healthcare.

LSE Works is a series public lectures that will showcase some of the latest research by LSE's academic departments and research centres. In each session, LSE academics will present key research findings, demonstrating where appropriate the implications of their studies for public policy.

A list of all the LSE Works lectures can be viewed at LSE Works.
 

Discover Islam Week 2015

Don't miss the following two lectures which are part of Discover Islam Week 2015:

Who was Muhammad? (peace be upon him)
On: Monday 9 February from 7-9pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speakers: Professor Gareth Fowden, Professor of Abrahamic Faiths at Cambridge University, Professor Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Islamic Studies at Oxford University, and Dr Fuad Nahdi, Director of the Radical Middle Way

2015 LSESU China Development Forum - Paths to Modernisation

On: Saturday 7 February in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building

The LSESU China Development Forum 2015 will reflect on events of the past year and address China’s pressing issues including the economy, foreign relations, social policy, soft power and urbanisation.

With individual speeches by world-class China experts, followed by in-depth discussions and interactive Q&A sessions, the Forum will offer the ultimate intellectual experience. Speakers include Professor Danny Quah, LSE, and Spencer Lake, Global Head of Capital Financing at HSBC.

For more information, visit lsecds.org. Student tickets cost £49. To book your ticket, visit the LSE e-shop.
 

On: Wednesday 11 February from 6.30-8pm in room 9.04, Tower Two
Speakers: Dr Rui Lopes (pictured), Researcher at the Institute for Contemporary History at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and Dr Kristina Sphor, Associate Professor at Department of International History.

Led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Willy Brandt, the West German governments of the late 1960s and early 1970s left a well-remembered mark on the history of social-democracy, European integration, and Cold War détente. By contrast, in the years leading up to the Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974, Portugal remained Europe’s oldest authoritarian regime and, despite international condemnation, continued to wage war against liberation movements in Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau.

The awkward relationship between Bonn and Lisbon during this period, rooted in the intersection between European geopolitics and resistance to African decolonisation, is at the core of Dr. Rui Lopes’ book, West Germany and the Portuguese Dictatorship, 1968-1974: Between Cold War and Colonialism, which will be launched at this event.