A new ‘populism’ is evident in a variety of countries. Experts and expertise are attacked as standing in the way of the popular will. Universities are under new pressures from populist politicians. How should these pressures be resisted?
Born in Canada, educated at the University of Toronto and Harvard, Michael Ignatieff (@M_Ignatieff) is a university professor, writer and former politician. His major publications are The Needs of Strangers (1984), Scar Tissue (1992), Isaiah Berlin (1998), The Rights Revolution (2000), Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry (2001), The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror (2004), Fire and Ashes: Success and Failure in Politics (2013) and The Ordinary Virtues: Moral Order in a Divided World (2017).
Between 2006 and 2011, he served as an MP in the Parliament of Canada and then as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition. He is a member of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and holds eleven honorary degrees. Between 2012 and 2015 he served as Centennial Chair at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in New York. Between 2014 and 2016 he was Edward R. Murrow Professor of the Practice of the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.
He is currently the Rector and President of Central European University in Budapest.
Simon Glendinning (@lonanglo) is Professor of European Philosophy at the European Institute and the Director of the Forum for European Philosophy.
The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) is a centre for research and graduate teaching on the processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector.
Photo credit: Daniel Vegel
Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEIgnatieff
Podcast
A podcast of this event is available to download from Academic Freedom and the New Populism.
Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.